PA Congressman Mike Doyle announces formation of Congressional Caucus on Robotics

News Releases: "Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Doyle and Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp today announced the formation of a bi-partisan Congressional Caucus on Robotics. The caucus will focus on key issues facing the nation’s traditional industrial robotics industry as well as issues critical to growing companies, markets, and industries based on recent technological advances that enable robots to perform functions beyond traditional assembly line tasks and to operate in environments beyond the factory floor."

Dealing With The Data Deluge

From Molecules To The Milky Way: Dealing With The Data Deluge: "Most people have a few gigabytes of files on their PC. In the next decade, astronomers expect to be processing 10 million gigabytes of data every hour from the Square Kilometre Array telescope."

A New Kind of Science

Author Pays Brainy Undergrad $25,000 for Identifying Simplest Computer: Scientific American: "Wolfram Research, the company founded by A New Kind of Science author Stephen Wolfram, has awarded $25,000 to an undergraduate for proving that a simple model called a 2,3 Turing machine, visualized in action here, can perform any conceivable computation. The machine scans the boxes in each row and applies one of six rules to generate the row underneath."

Robot dogs race to be soldier's best friend

New Scientist Tech Robot dogs race to be soldier's best friend: "A timid-looking four-legged robot about the size of a Chihuahua might seem like an unlikely companion for soldiers of the future. Yet the robot, called LittleDog, could ultimately help researchers create more sophisticated robotic assistants for military personnel, including automated 'pack-mules' capable of hauling heavy loads over tough terrain. This is because LittleDog is remarkably agile for a robot when faced with treacherous, uneven terrain. Researchers are also fine-tuning its movement to be even faster and more animal-like over rough terrain."

NASA Tests Robot Surgeon for Missions to Moon, Mars

Scientific American NASA Tests Robot Surgeon for Missions to Moon, Mars: "As NASA sets its sites on manned missions back to the moon and as far away as Mars, the space agency is participating a series of tests this week to determine if robotic technology is the key to providing adequate medical care for its astronauts during such extended spaceflights."

Scientists Use the "Dark Web" to Snag Extremists and Terrorists Online

US National Science Foundation (NSF) Scientists Use the "Dark Web" to Snag Extremists and Terrorists Online: "Terrorists and extremists have set up shop on the Internet, using it to recruit new members, spread propaganda and plan attacks across the world. The size and scope of these dark corners of the Web are vast and disturbing. But in a non-descript building in Tucson, a team of computational scientists are using the cutting-edge technology and novel new approaches to track their moves online, providing an invaluable tool in the global war on terror. Funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies, Hsinchun Chen and his Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona have created the Dark Web project, which aims to systematically collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web."

'Speech to Sign Language' Translation System

IBM Research demonstrates 'Speech to Sign Language' Translation System: "IBM (NYSE: IBM) has developed an ingenious system called SiSi (Say It Sign It) that automatically converts the spoken word into British Sign Language (BSL) which is then signed by an animated digital character or avatar. SiSi brings together a number of computer technologies. A speech recognition module converts the spoken word into text, which SiSi then interprets into gestures, that are used to animate an avatar which signs in BSL."

Online worlds to be AI incubators

BBC NEWS | Technology Online worlds to be AI incubators: "Online worlds such as Second Life will soon become training grounds for artificial intelligences. Researchers at US firm Novamente have created software that learns by controlling avatars in virtual worlds. Initially the AIs will be embodied in pets that will get smarter by interacting with the avatars controlled by their human owners."

Thinking of words can guide your wheelchair

New Scientist Tech Thinking of words can guide your wheelchair: "A motorised wheelchair that moves when the operator thinks of particular words has been demonstrated by a US company (see video, right). The wheelchair works by intercepting signals sent from their brain to their voice box, even when no sound is actually produced."

AI: It's OK Again!

Dr. Dobb's AI: It's OK Again!: "Over the last half century, AI has had its ups and down. But for now, it's on the rise again."

"Right now, the balance in AI work seems to be tipped toward applied over theoretical, and toward the connectionist over the symbolist. But if history is a guide, things could shift back."

The trouble with computers

Economist.comThe trouble with computers: "Many futurists and computer experts believe that the logical conclusion of all of these new input devices, sensors and smarter software to anticipate users' needs, will be for computing to blend into the background. In this “ubiquitous computing” model, computers will no longer be things people use explicitly, any more than they “use” electricity when turning on a light or a radio. Mr Greenfield says a digital “dream world” that provides “one seamless experience of being immersed in information” hinges on one big if: computers and their interfaces must become so good that, like electricity, they rarely require concentrated attention. The trouble with computers in their current form is that they are still all too conspicuous."

An interesting article on the importance of HCI -- processing power alone won't take us far, without good user interfaces.

EU project builds artificial brain for robots

CORDIS News EU project builds artificial brain for robots: "Scientists in Spain have achieved a giant leap for robotkind by building the first artificial cerebellum to help them interact with humans. The cerebellum is the portion of the brain that controls motor functions. "

"The project will now implant the man-made cerebellum into a robot so as to make its movements and interaction with humans more natural. The overall goal is to incorporate the cerebellum into a robot designed by the German Aerospace Centre in two year's time. The researchers hope that their work will also result in clues on how to treat cognitive diseases such as Parkinson's"

"The four-year project, dubbed Sensopac (SENSOrimotor structuring of perception and action for emerging cognition) is funded by the EU under its Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) and brings together physicists, neuroscientists and electronic engineers from leading universities in Europe."

Teaching Computer to Read Minds

Technology Review Teaching Computers to Read Minds: "Ultimately, Tan hopes to develop a mass-market EEG system consisting of a small number of electrodes that, affixed to a person's head, communicate wirelessly with software on a PC. The software could keep e-mail at bay if the user is concentrating, or select background music to suit different moods."

Powerset: The natural language search mashup platform

ZDNet.com » Powerset: The natural language search mashup platform: "Powerset is using natural language technology from Xerox Parc and focusing its efforts on the indexing. It’s building a search destination site and a platform that leverages the wisdom of the crowds for development."

IBM measures single-atom memory, molecular switch

EETimes.com IBM measures single-atom memory, molecular switch: "Even the highest density hard-disk drives use approximately 1 million magnetic atoms to store a single bit of information. IBM's Almaden Research Center (San Jose, Calif.) has measured the ability to store a bit on a single atom, portending hard drives with ultra-high storage capacity."

"Simultaneously, IBM's Zurich Research Lab has demonstrated a molecular switch that could replace current silicon-based chip technology with processors so small that a supercomputer could fit on a chip the size of a speck of dust."

Making Cars Smarter Than You

ScienceDaily Making Cars Smarter Than You: "The augmented cognition research team at Sandia National Laboratories is designing cars capable of analyzing human behavior. The car of the future they are developing may, for example, deduce from your driving that you’re become tired, or during critical situations, tell your cell phone to hold an incoming call so you won’t be distracted."

DARPA throws down the challenge on cognitive computing

DARPA throws down the challenge on cognitive computing: "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s research in the field of cognitive computing could progress to the point of a Grand Challenge that would pit alternate methods of building brainlike systems against one another. The agency’s Biologically-Inspired Cognitive Architecture program is pushing artificial intelligence in the direction of building software that mimics human brain functions. BICA relies on recent advances in cognitive psychology and the science of the human brain’s biological structure to build software that comes much closer to human abilities than previous AI. The research agency’s Information Processing Technology Office is leading the BICA research process by funding research teams based mainly at universities."

Artificial Intelligence Is Lost in the Woods

David Gelernter seems to argue that even simulated intelligence would have to exhibit a broad range of cognitive abilites. "Unfortunately, AI, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind are nowhere near knowing how to build [even a simulated intelligence]. They are missing the most important fact about thought: the 'cognitive continuum' that connects the seemingly unconnected puzzle pieces of thinking (for example analytical thought, common sense, analogical thought, free association, creativity, hallucination). The cognitive continuum explains how all these reflect different values of one quantity or parameter that I will call 'mental focus' or 'concentration'--which changes over the course of a day and a lifetime."

C.f. argument from disability -- a common argument against the feasibility of strong AI.

Higher Games

Technology Review Higher Games: "The verdict that computers are the equal of human beings in chess could hardly be more official, which makes the caviling all the more pathetic. The excuses sometimes take this form: 'Yes, but machines don't play chess the way human beings play chess!' Or sometimes this: 'What the machines do isn't really playing chess at all.' Well, then, what would be really playing chess?"

Toward a General Logicist Methodology for Engineering Ethically Correct Robots

A bit of light reading: Toward a General Logicist Methodology for Engineering Ethically Correct Robots: "It's hard to deny that robots will become increasingly capable and that humans will increasingly exploit these capabilities by deploying them in ethically sensitive environments, such as hospitals, where ethically incorrect robot behavior could have dire consequences for humans. How can we ensure that such robots will always behave in an ethically correct manner? How can we know ahead of time, via rationales expressed clearly in natural language, that their behavior will be constrained specifically by the ethical codes selected by human overseers?"

Save us from the robots!

Economist.com Trust me, I'm a robot: "IN 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot."

Eric Horvitz forecasts the future

New Scientist Eric Horvitz forecasts the future: "Within 50 years, lives will be significantly enhanced by automated reasoning systems that people will perceive as 'intelligent'. Although many of these systems will be deployed behind the scenes, others will be in the foreground, serving in an elegant, often collaborative manner to help people do their jobs, to learn and teach, to reflect and remember, to plan and decide, and to create. Translation and interpretation systems will catalyse unprecedented understanding and cooperation between people. At death, people will often leave behind rich computational artefacts that include memories, reflections and life histories, accessible for all time."

Computer discovers more accurate medical test

The Register Brains, cancer and computers: "The race is on to apply machine learning to biology. The starting gun was fired in 2002 when research company Correlogic stunned the medical world with the announcement of a vastly improved test for detecting ovarian cancer. The new test was simple - a few drops of blood are all that's required - yet reliable. What made it truly remarkable was that the test was discovered by machine."

Translation Tools: New Approaches to an Old Discipline

Translation Tools: New Approaches to an Old Discipline: "Language translation software isn’t likely to allow you to lay off your bilingual staffers — at least not right away. But applied with discrimination and lots of preparation, translation tools can be fantastic productivity aids. And researchers say new approaches to this old discipline are greatly improving the performance of the tools."

"Ford Motor Co. began using “machine translation” software in 1998 and has so far translated 5 million automobile assembly instructions into Spanish, German, Portuguese and Mexican Spanish. Assembly manuals are updated in English every day, and their translations — some 5,000 pages a day — are beamed overnight to plants around the world. “It wouldn’t be feasible to do this all manually,” says Nestor Rychtyckyj, a technical specialist in artificial intelligence (AI) at Ford."

LawnBott: a Roomba for your backyard?

csmonitor.com LawnBott: a Roomba for your backyard?: "Don't like to mow during the dog days? The electric LawnBott – a device from Paradise Robotics that looks like the child of R2D2 and a tiny Ferrari – can roam a yard solo, its mulching blades whirring quietly, then dock and recharge until its timer awakens it."

Computers to Reassemble Shredded East German Secret Police Files

FOXNews.com Computers to Reassemble Shredded East German Secret Police Files: "German researchers said Wednesday that they were launching an attempt to reassemble millions of shredded East German secret police files using complicated computerized algorithms."

"Some 16,250 sacks containing pieces of 45 million shredded documents were found and confiscated after the reunification of Germany in 1990. Reconstruction work began 12 years ago but 24 people have been able to reassemble the contents of only 323 sacks."

"Using algorithms developed 15 years ago to help decipher barely legible lists of Nazi concentration camp victims, each individual strip of the shredded Stasi files will be scanned on both sides.

"The data then will be fed into the computer for interpretation using color recognition; texture analysis; shape and pattern recognition; machine and handwriting analysis and the recognition of forged official stamps..."

Vernor Vinge explored a similar idea in his novel Rainbow's End -- see excerpt at technovelgy.

New devices promise touchy-feely computing

New Scientist Tech New devices promise touchy-feely computing: "Is it possible to 'feel' an object while being in another location? This is a question addressed by several technologies on show at the SIGGRAPH 2007 computer conference in San Diego, California, US, earlier this month. Haptic technology, which exploits the sense of touch, could have a range of applications, researchers say, from telesurgery and robotic remote control to more immersive computer games."

Scientists Train Nano-'Building Blocks' to Self Assemble

Medgadget Scientists Train Nano-'Building Blocks' to Self Assemble: "Researchers from the University of Delaware and Washington University in St. Louis have figured out how to train synthetic polymer molecules to behave--to literally 'self-assemble' --and form into long, multicompartment cylinders 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, with potential uses in radiology, signal communication and the delivery of therapeutic drugs in the human body."

Software Identifies Users By Typing Style

ScienceDaily Hey ... You're Not My User! Software Identifies Computer Users By Typing Style: "Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed software that is able to identify computer users with high accuracy by their individual, distinct typing styles. This 'behaviometric' technology may one day be part of security systems to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to computers and sensitive data."

Falling Prey To Machines?

ScienceDaily Falling Prey To Machines?: "It's coming, but when? From Garry Kasparov to Michael Crichton, both fact and fiction are converging on a showdown between man and machine. But what does a leading artificial intelligence expert--the world's first computer science PhD--think about the future of machine intelligence? Will computers ever gain consciousness and take over the world?"

"Comparisons between the brain and electronic hardware are also difficult to draw. For example, the issue of 'fanout' demonstrates the complexity of the brain over even today's most sophisticated computers. Fanout refers to the number of connections an element in a network can have to another element of a network. Today's most complicated computers have a fanout factor of about 10. The human brain, however, has a fanout of 10,000.

'We don't have the faintest idea of what machines with that kind of fanout would be like, so inference from the capabilities of present machines to such machines is feeble at best,' notes Holland. 'As Nobel Laureate physicist Murray Gell-Mann says, three orders of magnitude is a new science.'"

Miniature Implanted Devices Could Treat Epilepsy, Glaucoma

ScienceDaily Miniature Implanted Devices Could Treat Epilepsy, Glaucoma: "Purdue University researchers have developed new miniature devices designed to be implanted in the brain to predict and prevent epileptic seizures and a nanotech sensor for implantation in the eye to treat glaucoma."

"The transmitter consumes 8.8 milliwatts, or about one-third as much power as other implantable transmitters while transmitting 10 times more data. Another key advantage is that the transmitter has the capacity to collect data specifically related to epileptic seizures from 1,000 channels, or locations in the brain"

Also reported on MedGadget

Microsoft Coffee Table

Popular Mechanics Microsoft Surface Video - Touchscreen, Multi Touch Coffee Table: "The software giant has built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world. Go inside its top-secret development with PopularMechanics.com, then forget the keyboard and mouse: The next generation of computer interfaces will be hands-on."

Way cool.

African Bushmen Track Wildlife with PDAs

Discovery Channel :: News - Technology African Bushmen Track Wildlife with PDAs: "In Africa, one might expect to see a lion with a fresh kill, a baboon with a toothy grin, or an elephant with its herd. But a Bushman with a PalmPilot? It's possible.

Expert hunters and gatherers such as the Bushmen, the indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert, are being equipped with smart phones with special software for tracking plants and animals. Called CyberTracker, the free program combines a database of icons of animals and plants with GPS software to allow people who cannot read or write to record complex information."

Checkers Solved: It's a Draw

Checkers Solved: With 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible play positions, checkers has been solved for every possible smart move.

Faculty Summit 2007: Bright Future for Computing

Faculty Summit 2007: Bright Future for Computing: "On July 15-17, Microsoft Research Redmond’s External Research & Programs (ER&P) group will host the eighth annual Faculty Summit, for which more than 350 academic leaders, representing 175 institutions, will gather at the Microsoft Conference Center to discuss how computing is being used in virtually every educational discipline."

Programming with Pictures

Programming with Pictures: "many computer science departments are a quarter century behind on adapting their instructional methods for the purpose of attracting and retaining students, continuing to teach the gateway course to the field — introductory programming — just as they did 25 years ago."

We can fix this!

'Smart' Cars as Efficient as Hybrids

Discovery Channel News Technology The future of traffic control & fuel savings: "So-called 'intelligent' cars fitted with sensors to predict traffic flows can deliver the same fuel efficiency as vaunted hybrid vehicles, according to a study published on Wednesday.

"... 'Intelligent' cars are conventional vehicles... fitted with telematics.

These are sensors and receivers that work in a network, swapping information about the traffic ahead in order to speed up the car or slow it down so that the ride is smooth and avoids the stop-start phenomenon that so drains fuel."

'Guessing' robots navigate faster

New Scientist Tech 'Guessing' robots navigate faster: "Robots that use educated guesswork to build maps of their surroundings are being tested by US researchers. The approach could let them navigate more easily through complex environments such as unfamiliar buildings, the researchers claim."

"Robot Internet Mashup"

Open Source Robotics Makes Debut

"In collaboration with Rich Legrand, president of Austin-based robotics parts manufacturer Charmed Labs, Nourbakhsh wants to take DIY robotics to the next level, by offering the public an entire suite of tools to build their own droids from parts readily available at a hardware store—no soldering or programming required."

"The heart of Nourbakhsh's project, dubbed the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK), is the Qwerk, a box just over five inches square and an inch thick. Into this tiny, Linux-powered frame Legrand and his team of engineers have packed a 200 megahertz ARM processor—the same chip that runs Nokia N-Series Smartphones and the Nintendo DS—32 megabytes of SDRAM and eight megabytes of flash memory. It can connect to the outside world via WiFi, USB 2.0, 16 servo controllers and a host of other inputs and outputs."

Can Animals and Robots Be Self-Aware?

Newsweek Can Animals and Robots Be Self-Aware?: "It's called metacognition—the ability to think about your thoughts, to engage in self-reflection, to introspect. It was long thought to be not just something that we have more of or do better than machines or animals, but that we have and they lack. To know what you know is not only the mark of a skilled game-show contestant who is quick (but not too quick) on the buzzer, but also of consciousness, the last stand for human exceptionalism. Now, however, this claim is on the rocks as both animals and machines show signs that they can engage in self-reflection."

Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold

New York Times Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold: "Like others in the field, Dr. Cuny speaks almost lyrically about the intellectual challenge of applying the study of cognition and the tools of computation to medicine, ecology, law, chemistry — virtually any kind of human endeavor.

“The use of computers in modern life is totally ubiquitous,” said Barbara G. Ryder, a professor of computer science at Rutgers University. “So there are niches all over for people who understand what the technology can do and also for people who want to advance the technology."

"Faulty software" or "human error"?

Note an interesting contrast in reporting. Both stories report on the failure in 2006 of the Mars Global Surveyor, but the first (SPACE.com) says that faulty software doomed Mars spacecraft; while the second (CNN.com) reports that "...human error triggered a cascade of events" leading to its loss.

Center for Computational Thinking

Microsoft Press Release: Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon Establish Center for Computational Thinking: "The Microsoft Carnegie Mellon Center for Computational Thinking... represents a long-term collaboration between Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department and will support research in emerging areas of computer science, particularly those that can influence the thinking of other disciplines.

“Increasingly, scientists and researchers rely on computer science to enable them to sift through massive amounts of data and find breakthroughs that could provide new insights into the human body, the earth we live on and even the universe,” said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research. “We are eager to explore this exciting new area of research with Carnegie Mellon.”

"The Microsoft Carnegie Mellon Center for Computational Thinking will support research in core computer science areas using an approach called problem-oriented explorations, pioneered by Carnegie Mellon’s ALADDIN Center. Researchers from a variety of fields will address specific, real-world problems; initial topics include privacy, e-commerce, multicore computing and embedded medical devices. In addition, the center will develop and disseminate courses and curricula suitable for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as K–12 classes.

“Computer technology has rapidly transformed education, commerce and entertainment, but — more profoundly — computational thinking is transforming how new science is discovered in fields as varied as biology, astronomy, statistics and economics,” said Wing.

Source: Microsoft Press Release on Center for Computational Thinking

Computer Scientists hold keys to future research in every field

Computing center connects CMU and Microsoft: "Jeannette Wing got angry with a friend recently when he advised his child to major in physics in college instead of computer science.

Physics is exciting, he suggested, while computer science is mostly 'clerical' computer programming.

Nothing could be further from the truth, said the impassioned Dr. Wing, head of Carnegie Mellon University's world-class computer science department.

The chance to correct that misimpression is one reason she is happy that Microsoft announced yesterday that it is giving Carnegie Mellon $1.5 million over the next three years to establish the Microsoft Carnegie Mellon Center for Computational Thinking."

IBM to demonstrate high-speed chip

IBM researchers demonstrate world's fastest optical chipset: "At the 2007 Optical Fiber Conference, IBM scientists will reveal a prototype optical transceiver chipset capable of reaching speeds at least eight times faster than optical components available today.
The breakthrough could transform how data is accessed, shared and used across the Web for corporate and consumer networks. The transceiver is fast enough to reduce the download time for a typical high definition feature-length film to a single second compared to 30 minutes or more.

The ability to move information at blazing speeds of 160 Gigabits -- or 160 billion bits of information in a single second -- provides a glimpse of a new era of high-speed connectivity that will transform communications, computing and entertainment. Optical networking offers the potential to dramatically improve data transfer rates by speeding the flow of data using light pulses, instead of sending electrons over wires.
A sign of enabling technologies to come...

23 March 2007 - New Scientist

Autonomous driving systems aim to drive dirty: "Autonomous model cars will race against one another in a contest designed to test different software approaches.

The contest is being organised by researchers at the University of Essex in the UK, who are creating an affordable and standardised autonomous vehicle kit to encourage others to get involved.

The kit will include a high-end commercial model car, a laptop, a GPS receiver, a USB controller and a camera. The aim is to encourage different research teams to develop autonomous racers using the same equipment, which will then race against one another at the 2008 World Congress on Computational Intelligence in Hong Kong."

Technology is among fastest growing fields

The US Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics gives a list of the Fastest growing jobs. Healthcare and technology professions dominate the list.

Technology occupations listed by degree level:

Bachelor's degree: Network systems and data communications analysts, applications and systems software engineers, network and computer systems administrators.

Bachelor's plus experience: CIS managers

Doctoral degree: Computer and information scientists, research

10 fast-growing jobs

Technology jobs poised for strong growth: "If you're looking for a job that's here to stay, here's a counterintuitive piece of advice: Look into tech. It's one of several sectors on our list that is slated to see the sharpest job growth between now and 2014.

You may have heard the bad news about outsourcing, but not every tech job lends itself to the practice. And the most creative and difficult technical work is likely to remain here. Most importantly, retiring baby boomers will deplete the ranks of experienced tech workers, leaving openings for up-and-comers."

"Software engineer" ranked best job in America

Software engineer ranked Best job in America!: "Jobs in technology are ranking high on a listing of the 'Best jobs in America'--compiled by Money Magazine and Salary.com--that's been quickly circulating around the blogosphere today.

Software engineers ranked number one in the listing, which is based on stress levels, flexibility in hours and working environment, creativity, and how easy it is to enter and advance in the field,"

Amazing -- note the criteria for the ranking include stress levels, flexibility, and CREATIVITY... Not what most people imagine when they hear "Software Engineer"

The Top Five Technologies You Need to Know About in '07

Ruby on Rails: "Ruby on Rails (also known as RoR and Rails) is a Web application framework written in Ruby, an object-oriented programming language known for its clean syntax."

Tech Innovations Fuel Low-Cost Laptop

PC World Story: "How do you make a laptop that can tolerate sandstorms and monsoons, run on a car battery, and cost just $150? That was the challenge facing One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit group founded by MIT Media Lab veterans to get youngsters in developing nations online.

OLPC's XO notebook PC attains its ultralow price through a combination of innovative technology (such as its dual-mode LCD) and old-fashioned streamlining (it doesn't have a hard drive, and it uses a Linux-based operating system)."

An interesting challenge for CS students -- develop software for OLPC!

Making Computer Systems Reveal Biological Secrets

Making Computer Systems Reveal Biological Secrets: "Two of the hottest areas of scientific discussion these days are computational science, the intersection between computer science and other sciences, and systems biology, the effort to decipher the code of the human genome.

Andrew Phillips gets to work in both.

Phillips, a scientist who works for Microsoft Research Cambridge, is working with stochastic pi-calculus, a programming language particularly applicable to biological systems.

“There’s been a lot of research in computer science on programming-language theory,” Phillips says, “and a lot of that can be applied to biological modeling.”

The stakes are large. The products of that modeling could provide insights into how biological systems work, and those insights could help in understanding and curing diseases."

Mathematicians Team Up with Supercomputer to Crack 248-Dimensional Object

Scientific American: "A monstrous computer-based calculation has rekindled researchers' hopes of solving a longstanding problem in mathematics. In a style of collaboration more commonly associated with sequencing genomes, a team of 18 mathematicians and computer scientists has mapped an extremely complex object known as the E8 group.

The calculation is only a stepping stone, but an important one, researchers say, in a larger project to uncover subtle ways in which different equations or geometric shapes can be seen as facets of the same underlying thing—an insight that has led to some of the century's biggest discoveries in particle physics and may play a role in future theories. The result also highlights the growing trend of using computers to crack tough math problems."

"This is the latest case in which mathematicians have relied on computers to solve thorny problems. In 2005 the Annals of Mathematics published a computer-aided proof of Kepler's conjecture (about the most efficient way to stack spheres) after reviewers spent four years checking the code fed into the computer but finally gave up without completing the task."

Colorado Woman Sues To Hold Web Crawlers To Contracts

Information Week Colorado Woman Sues To Hold Web Crawlers To Contracts: "Computers can enter into contracts on behalf of people. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) says that a 'contract may be formed by the interaction of electronic agents of the parties, even if no individual was aware of or reviewed the electronic agents' actions or the resulting terms and agreements.'"

Quite an interesting result -- not the first example of computational agents being accorded a status on par with human agents.

Where are the programmers?

EETimes.com: "'We are at a low point of interest in computer science,' said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, who pointed to a sharp decline since 2001 in college undergraduates choosing com- puter science as a major. 'Jobs will go begging in the next few years because we don't have the people willing to take on the field.'"

Sociology at Microsoft

Technology Review: "Marc Smith, the senior research sociologist at Microsoft Research, believes that now is a good time to practice his trade. Thanks to the Internet, there is unprecedented access to sociological data. And thanks to computers, sociologists are better able to sift through that data, find trends, and test models."

Walking robot steps up the pace

BBC NEWS "A humanoid robot is teaching itself to walk and eventually run around a California research lab.

Dexter took its first tentative steps only a few days after it first discovered how to stand upright.

Dexter's designers say their robot differs from commercially available predecessors because it can learn from its mistakes."

Robot swarms 'evolve' effective communication

New Scientist Tech: "Robots that artificially evolve ways to communicate with one another have been demonstrated by Swiss researchers. The experiments suggest that simulated evolution could be a useful tool for those designing of swarms of robots.

Roboticists Dario Floreano, Sara Mitri, and Stéphane Magnenat at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne collaborated with biologist Laurent Keller from the University of Lausanne.

They first evolved colonies of robots in software then tested different strategies on real bots. Both simulated and real robots were set loose in an arena containing two types of objects – one classified as 'food' and another designated 'poison' – both lit up red.

In each experiment, five hundred generations were evolved this way, under different selective pressures. "Under some conditions, sophisticated communication evolved," says Keller. "We saw colonies that used their lights to signal when they found food and others that used signals to communicate they had found poison."

World's tiniest RFID tag unveiled

BBC NEWS: "The world's smallest radio frequency identification tags have been unveiled by Japanese electronics firm Hitachi. The minute devices measure just 0.05mm by 0.05mm (0.002x0.002in) and to the naked eye look like spots of powder. They are thin enough to be embedded in a sheet of paper, Hitachi spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi says."

See some potential for ubiquitous computing?

Women Scientists And Engineers Tackle Isolation On Campus

ScienceDaily — Integrating new location-aware computer networks with old-fashioned human networks, researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have developed an innovative solution to the problem of isolation that women face in the academic science and engineering workforce. The project, 'NJIT Advance,' is funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)."

Computer Model Mimicks How Brain Recognizes Street Scenes

ScienceDaily — "At last, neuroscience is having an impact on computer science and artificial intelligence (AI). For the first time, scientists in Tomaso Poggio's laboratory at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT applied a computational model of how the brain processes visual information to a complex, real world task: recognizing the objects in a busy street scene. The researchers were pleasantly surprised at the power of this new approach."

Teaching Your Cell Phone Where It Is And How To Act

ScienceDaily — "Future cellular telephones and other wireless communication devices are expected to be much more versatile as consumers gain the ability to program them in a variety of ways. Scientists and engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have teamed up with a variety of computing and telecommunications companies to develop both the test methods and the standard protocols needed to make this possible."

"Programmable networks will include location aware services that will allow users to choose a variety of 'context aware' call processing options depending on where they are and who they are with. For example, a cell phone that 'knows' your location could be programmed to invoke an answering message service automatically whenever you are in a conference room or in your supervisor's presence. Context aware, programmable cell phone or PDA networks also may help users with functional tasks like finding the nearest bank or restaurant. Within organizations, these capabilities might be used to contact people by their role and location (e.g., call the cardiologist nearest to the emergency room)."

More simply -- recognize when I walk into church and turn off the ringer automatically.

Open Communication Among Operating Room Equipment

ScienceDaily — "New research at the University of New Hampshire aims to make hospital operating rooms safer by opening the lines of communication between computerized hospital beds and blood pressure monitors."

"We’re trying to get pieces of equipment that don’t normally talk to each other to do so," says John LaCourse, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNH. "We’re doing something that we feel is going to save peoples’ lives."

"In modern operating rooms, major pieces of equipment like beds and monitors are computerized, yet they lack the ability to share information with each other. When a bed is raised or lowered, for instance, a patient’s blood pressure fluctuates but the monitor, which is static, may give a faulty reading."

Computers Read Your Intentions

FOXNews.com: "New experiments show it is possible for computers to detect, at a higher level of sophistication than ever before, people's intentions for the future, neuroscientists reported yesterday.

The findings could yield a big improvement in brain-computer interfaces, could help the disabled control robotics with their minds and could make it so a computer could read our minds far better than is currently possible."

Brain Implant to Explore Consciousness

Technology Review : "Bill Newsome, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, has spent the last twenty years studying how neurons encode information and how they use it to make decisions about the world. In the 1990s, he and collaborators were able to change the way a monkey responded to its environment by sending electric jolts to certain parts of its brain. The findings gave neuroscientists enormous insight into the inner workings of the brain.

But Newsome is obsessed with a lingering question: How does consciousness arise from brain function? He feels the best way to answer that question is by implanting an electrode into his own brain -- and seeing how the electric current changes his perception of the world."

One step beyond what Kevin Warwick is doing, into the emerging field of "cognotechnology."

Kevin Warwick

Home Page: "Kevin has carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. He has been successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans."

Kevin's research obviously has great potential for restoring sensation and mobility in patients with damage to the nervous system; equally obvious are the ethical and social issues that arise. "Kevin is currently working closely with Dr Daniela Cerqui, a social and cultural anthropologist to address the main social, ethical, philosophical and anthropological issues related to his research into robotics and cyborgs."

A Wheelchair that Reads Your Mind

Wired News: "Patients who suffer from disease or injury that leave them unable to move have little hope of independent mobility. But that may be about to change. Researchers are developing a thought-controlled robotic wheelchair.

Spanish scientists have begun work on a new brain-computer interface, or BCI, capable of converting thought into commands that a wheelchair can execute."

Skinning Reality

Most people are familiar with the idea of virtual reality -- any technology which allows people to perceive and interact with a computer-simulated environment. Real world examples range from flight simulators to virtual roller coasters; while fictional examples include The Matrix and Star Trek's Holodeck.

A related concept (and to me more interesting) is augmented reality, which combines elements of the real world with computer-generated overlays. Again there are real-world examples -- my favorite is the Cadillac Night Vision system, which uses thermal imaging to supplement what the driver sees on the road ahead. And there's no shortage of fictional uses of AR -- remember the scene in Minority report where Tom Cruise is subjected to interactive ads at the Gap ("Good afternoon, Mr. Yakamoto; How did you like that three-pack of tank tops you bought last time you were in?")

Working at Cycorp many years ago, I remember hearing Doug Lenat speculate about the day when we would each select what version of reality we'd like to see. If you really like the Flintstones, why not see the other cars on the road as if they were Flintstones cars? As long as you can see where the other cars are and how fast they're going, why does it matter what they look like to you? Kind of like a skinned software MP3 player -- as long as you see controls for 'play,' 'stop,' 'next song,' 'previous,' etc., who cares what they look like? (Actually, you care, which is the whole point of skinning!)

Vernor Vinge does a great job of fleshing out the idea, calling it consensual imaging. It plays an important role in his most recent novel Rainbow's End, and he referred to it in a recent address at the Austin Game Conference. Lord of the Rings fan? Why not superimpose LOTR images over the buildings, people, and animals that you see? Add faces and legs to the trees; houses can look like the Shire; people of short stature can be further squished into hobbits, while pointy ears turn lithe folks into elves. With a flip of a virtual switch, the annoying guy at work becomes Gollum -- you can even skin his voice! And best of all, you can share the fantasy with other LOTR fans.

Too geeky for you? It doesn't have to be LOTR -- that's the beauty of skins. You get to choose. Put a beach outside your city window, with swaying palm trees instead of icy cell-phone towers. Turn the sterile cubicles in your office into the huts in an Irish hamlet. A flower box here... a mossy rock there... the break room becomes O'Finnegan's pub. Make your coworkers more attractive (or less attractive!) Come home to a Frank Lloyd Wright home perched over a mountain stream, rather than a rusty old van down by the river. The possibilities are endless!

And you don't have to limit it to visual input. Take something like the Bose noise-canceling headphones, and selectively cancel just those noises you don't want. Replace them with something else. A hundred taxis with honking horns become cows gently mooing. Silence everyone else's cell phones and crying children, while still hearing your own.

And smells? Make cow manure smell like lilacs if you choose. It is a bit harder, but there are people working on it.

How about proprioception? Make your morning commute feel like a roller coaster ride. That's hard too -- maybe nano-devices to manipulate the cilia and kinocilia directly?

Ahh, the possibilities seem endless. I'll have to come back to this theme.

'Sputnik moment' needed for Computer Science

Bill Gates: "'When I think about different areas of activity, really to me other than some neat stuff in biology, it's hard to think of a domain that's going to change the world one-hundredth as much as advanced software will in the decades ahead.'"

I'm convinced that one of the reasons that CS programs have seen declining enrollment in recent years is because students aren't properly seeing how computing technology will continue to transform almost every aspect of our lives. Medicine, Economics, Politics, Entertainment, Education, Manufacturing, and even Construction are all undergoing radical changes because of developing technologies.

Declining CS enrollment might also be linked to the perception that CS majors develop technical expertise at the expense of 'soft skills.' Employers increasingly look for candidates with a broad education: effective writing skills, leadership, public communication all contribute to job success. The solution then isn't to avoid technical majors, but rather to transform their curricula to develop a broad set of skills. "Humane Computing" might be an apt term.

The perfect place to develop these new models for CS education is at colleges and universities that have a strong foundation in liberal arts and general education. The computer scientists who will lead in the future should not only have the technical skills to design and implement new technologies; they should have a solid foundation in history, sociology and ethics, so they can evaluate the impact of such technologies on individuals and societies. They should be well grounded in sociology, art, and psychology, to design humane interfaces that are accessible and pleasant to the people who use them. And they should be broadly educated in a variety of disciplines, so that they can find applications for technology that they are both knowledgeable and passionate about.