Simulated brain closer to thought

BBC News Simulated brain closer to thought: "A detailed simulation of a small region of a brain built molecule by molecule has been constructed and has recreated experimental results from real brains.
The 'Blue Brain' has been put in a virtual body, and observing it gives the first indications of the molecular and neural basis of thought and memory."

Just think to tweet!

Researchers use brain interface to post to Twitter (April 20, 2009): "In early April, Adam Wilson posted a status update on the social networking Web site Twitter — just by thinking about it.

Just 23 characters long, his message, 'using EEG to send tweet,' demonstrates a natural, manageable way in which 'locked-in' patients can couple brain-computer interface technologies with modern communication tools."

Robots are narrowing the gap with humans

Robots are narrowing the gap with humans | McClatchy: "Thanks to exponential increases in computer power — which is roughly doubling every two years — robots are getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-blood people.

"Matching human skills and intelligence, however, is an enormously difficult — perhaps impossible — challenge.

"Nevertheless, robots guided by their own computer 'brains'' now can pick up and peel bananas, land jumbo jets, steer cars through city traffic, search human DNA for cancer genes, play soccer or the violin, find earthquake victims or explore craters on Mars."

"A Japanese housekeeping robot can move chairs, sweep the floor, load a tray of dirty dishes in a dishwasher and put dirty clothes in a washing machine.

"Intel, the worldwide computer-chip maker, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., has developed a self-controlled mobile robot called Herb, the Home Exploring Robotic Butler. Herb can recognize faces and carry out generalized commands such as "please clean this mess," according to Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer.

Making a Better Eye

The Eye | h Magazine: "Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a contact lens that creates a virtual display superimposed over the normal field of vision. By using a transparent part of the eye to place instrumentation, the contact will be safe for human wear. The lenses will be imprinted with an assortment of electronic circuits and lights to make superimposition possible. A future version of the product might include the addition of wireless communication via the lens. The team has already demonstrated that rabbits can wear the lens for 20 minutes safely without any adverse effects, and are looking into a feasible production method for the contacts. There are still some major wrinkles to be ironed out in the manufacturing process, given that the materials need to be both safe for the body and incredibly small."

GR: This technology works by modifying input to one's existing eye(s). Others are working on *replacing* the human eye -- patching an electronic device directly into the visual cortex. Sound far out? Consider the Cochlear Implant.

Brain On a Chip

Brain On a Chip | h Magazine: "Today's most powerful supercomputers are all massively parallel processing systems with names like Earth Simulator, Blue Gene, ASCI White, ASCI Red, ASCI Purple, and ASCI Thor's Hammer. Through Moore's Law – which states that the number of transistors on a chip double every eighteen months – single chips that function as parallel processor arrays are becoming cost effective. Examples include chips from Ambric, picoChip, and Tilera.

The brain is also massively parallel, but currently on a different scale than the most powerful supercomputers. The human cortex has about 22 billion neurons and 220 trillion synapses. A supercomputer capable of running a software simulation of the human brain doesn’t yet exist. Researchers estimate that it would require at least a machine with a computational capacity of 36.8 petaflops (a petaflop is a thousand trillion floating point operations per second) and a memory capacity of 3.2 petabytes – a scale that supercomputer technology isn't expected to hit for at least three years."

Wolfram|Alpha: Searching for Truth

Wolfram|Alpha: Searching for Truth | h Magazine: "Kicking off our conversation, Stephen remarks that, “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t really a search engine, because we compute the answers, and we discover new truths.� If anything, you might call it a platonic search engine, unearthing eternal truths that may never have been written down before.”

Despite his disclaimer, Wolfram|Alpha looks like a search engine, in that there’s a one-line box where you type in a question.� The output appears a second or two later, as a page of text and graphics below the box.� What's happening behind the scenes? Rather than looking up the answer to your question, Wolfram|Alpha figures out what your question means, looks up the necessary data to answer your question, computes an answer, designs a page to present the answer in a pleasing way, and sends the page back to your computer."

The Future of Machine Intelligence

AGI versus AI: "Just to drive home the “AGI versus narrow AI” distinction, it’s worth contrasting Franklin’s characterization of AGI with the definition of Artificial Intelligence given on the website of the AAAI: “advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines.“ This is indeed a noble goal – but it’s also a very broad goal, covering all sorts of narrowly specialized software programs or hardware devices implementing particular mechanisms of mind but not attempting any sort of human-level generalization, reflection, innovation or insight. The mission of AGI researchers, and of the AGI conference series, is to focus more directly on the original, more ambitious goal of the AI field."

What's next in robotics?

Knowledge@Wharton Smart Robots: What's Next?: "The answer is more than merely academic. In the United States, the Pentagon is spending billions -- as much as $100 billion over a number of years, according to some technology analysts -- to develop robots that can aid or replace human soldiers. The U.S. Department of Defense's Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization initiative is funding research to develop that technology. Among its recipients are Lee and others on a Penn team that was awarded $22 million by the Army Research Lab to create robots that can operate in combat zones with little supervision."

More on robotic scientists

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) News - Maybe Robots Dream of Electric Sheep, But Can They Do Science?: "Using the digital mind that guides their self-repairing robot, researchers at Cornell University have created a computer program that uses raw observational data to tease out fundamental physical laws. The breakthrough may aid the discovery of new scientific truths, particularly for biological systems, that have until now eluded detection.

"Reporting in the April 3, 2009, issue of Science, Cornell University Mechanical Engineering professor Hod Lipson and his doctoral student Michael Schmidt report that their algorithm can distill fundamental natural laws from mere observations of a swinging double pendulum and other simple systems."

"Without any prior instruction about the laws of physics, geometry or kinematics, the algorithm driving the computer's number crunching was able to determine that the swinging, bouncing and oscillating of the devices arose from specific fundamental processes.

"The algorithm deciphered in hours the same Laws of Motion and other properties that took Isaac Newton and his successors centuries to realize.

IT Employment Holding Steady

Top 10 technology skills
- Network World: "Amid the worst job market in 25 years, IT is holding steady. Most CIOs are maintaining their current staffing levels; while a few are hiring specialists who have in-demand IT skills."

"Overall, companies are so dependent on IT that they can't lay off the people who keep their data center operations humming, and they're loath to let go of the developers who are working on next-generation Internet applications.

"IT remains a real [sic] safe and interesting and high-paying place to be," says David Foote, CEO of Foote Partners, which conducts quarterly assessments of IT pay trends in the United States. "The world has embraced IT…because it enables companies to deliver cheaper and better products. I'm pretty bullish on IT."

Probabilistic Logic Allows Computer Chip to Run Faster

Probabilistic Logic Allows Computer Chip to Run Faster: "Leaving your mobile phone charger at home when you go for a two week long vacation may just be the norm one day as scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Rice University, United States, have successfully created a microchip that uses 30 times less electricity while running seven times faster than today's best technology."

"The technology, dubbed PCMOS (probabilistic complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) was invented by Professor Krishna Palem of Rice University and Director of NTU's Institute for Sustainable Nanoelectronics (ISNE). The U.S.-Singapore team making the announcement is led by Professor Palem and NTU's Associate Professor Yeo Kiat Seng, Head of Division of Circuits and Systems, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), College of Engineering.

"The team's goal is green computing. They are looking for applications where PCMOS can deliver as well as or better than existing technology but with a fraction of the energy required.

"Probabilistic design methodology, if used for consumer devices, would result in energy efficient devices," says Professor Palem who conceived probabilistic design. "For example, for consumers, it could mean the difference between charging a cell phone every few weeks instead of every few days. In addition to the encryption application that we have demonstrated, among other applications, it is equally well-suited for computer graphics."

"Professor Palem explains that in streaming video application on a cell phone for example, it is unnecessary to conduct precise calculations. The small screen, combined with the human brain's ability to process less-than-perfect pictures, results in a case where the picture looks just as good with a calculation that is only approximately correct.

Kevin Warwick -- human cyborg?

In class today, a student asked about Kevin Warwick, a british roboticist who integrated electronics with the nerves in his arm.

New Exoskeleton Gives Soldiers Super-Strength

Discovery News New Exoskeleton Gives Soldiers Super-Strength: "Stronger, faster and harder is the promise of a new exoskeleton developed by Lockheed Martin for U.S. soldiers. Dubbed the Human Universal Load Carrier, or HULC, the device helps a soldier carry up to 200 pounds at a top speed of 10 mph.

"'The soldier has the feeling of maybe an extra five to 10 pounds,' said Doug Medcalf, Business Development Manager at Lockheed Martin. Today some soldiers are carrying loads of up to 130 pounds into combat."

"The HULC is easy to put on, its makers report. It arrives folded into a small package. The soldier stretches a leg out and steps into foot beds underneath the boot. Straps wrap around the thighs, waist and shoulders."

"The foot pads ensure that the weight from the soldier's load rests directly on the ground, not on the soldier's body. Inside the foot pads are pressure sensors that relay information about the speed and walking style of the soldier to an onboard computer. The computer's artificial intelligence moves the hydraulic system to amplify and enhance that movement."

Computer derives natural laws

Cornell Chronicle: Computer derives natural laws: "If Isaac Newton had had access to a supercomputer, he'd have had it watch apples fall and let it figure out what that meant. But the computer would have needed to run an algorithm developed by Cornell researchers that can derive natural laws from observed data."

"The researchers have taught a computer to find regularities in the natural world that represent natural laws -- without any prior scientific knowledge on the part of the computer. They have tested their method, or algorithm, on simple mechanical systems and believe it could be applied to more complex systems ranging from biology to cosmology and be useful in analyzing the mountains of data generated by modern experiments that use electronic data collection.

Independent Robot Scientist Makes Discovery

April 2, 2009 - Discovery News Independent Robot Scientist Makes Discovery: "The discovery of 12 new functions for genes in one of the most studied organisms in the world wouldn't be news, except that scientists didn't discover them. A robot named Adam designed, carried out and discovered the new gene functions.
'Our goal is to make science more efficient,' said Ross King, a professor of biology and computer science at the University of Wales and author of a new paper in this week's issue of Science detailing Adam's work."