Monday, August 30, 2010

Robot with frog egg smell sensor

See original at PhysOrg.com

Microphones and webcams aren't the only ways for robots to get sensory input.
"Researchers from the University of Tokyo have invented a novel means of improving a robot's sense of smell, by using inexpensive olfactory sensors containing frog eggs."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Robots learning from experience

See original at ICT Results

Great example of "bottom-up" approaches to AI, which rely on statistical learning techniques to acquire knowledge, rather than attempting to hand-code it all explicitly.
"Software that enables robots to move objects about a room, building up ever-more knowledge about their environment, is an important step forward in artificial intelligence.

Some objects can be moved, while others cannot. Balls can be placed on top of boxes, but boxes cannot be stably stacked on top of balls. A typical one-year-old child can discover this kind of information about its environment very quickly. But it is a massive challenge for a robot – a machine – to learn concepts such as ‘movability’ and ‘stability’, according to Björn Kahl, a researcher at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University and a member of the Xpero robotics research project team.

The aim of the Xpero project was to develop a cognitive system for a robot that would enable it to explore the world around it and learn through physical experimentation."

20:20 Vision - the future for IT workers

See original at Computerworld

Especially interesting to me is the quote "combining a technology degree with business knowledge will lead them to the higher-paying areas of IT." Double major anyone? In any field?
"Computerworld - Information technology has always been a fast-changing field. But nothing compares to the expected sea changes in the next decade that will impact the career plans of every generation of IT worker.

'The rate of change has accelerated dramatically,' says Alain Chesnais, president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and founder of Visual Transitions, which specializes in computer graphics and social networks. Consider, he says, that graphics chips are doubling in capacity every six months. That translates into a thousandfold increase in capacity over a five-year period -- the average shelf life of most game platforms. 'We've never seen anything like it in any industry,' he says."

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

“P vs NP” Finally Solved?

See original at Discover Magazine


The repercussions of proving P/=NP are interesting enough; but perhaps even more interesting is the way mathematics is being conducted in a public online forum.
"P is not equal to NP. Seems simple enough. But if it’s true, it could be the answer to a problem computer scientists have wrestled for decades.
Vinay Deolalikar, who is with Hewlett-Packard Labs, has sent to peers copies of a proof he did stating that P is not equal to NP. Mathematicians are reviewing his work now—a task that could go on for a long time. If he’s correct, Deolalikar will have figured out one of the Clay Mathematics Institute’s seven Millennium Prize Problems, for which they give $1 million prizes"

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Grand unified theory of AI: Combining top-down with bottom-up

See original at Science Daily
In the 1950s and '60s, artificial-intelligence researchers saw themselves as trying to uncover the rules of thought. But those rules turned out to be way more complicated than anyone had imagined. Since then, artificial-intelligence (AI) research has come to rely, instead, on probabilities -- statistical patterns that computers can learn from large sets of training data.
The most well-known example of the top-down approach to AI is the Cyc project. I wonder how it could be combined with bottom-up approaches?

At The Extreme Edge Of Artificial Intelligence - Forbes.com

See original at Forbes.com
Think sentient computers are the stuff of science fiction? We have news for you.
The last couple of posts were a bit pessimistic; here's someone writing from the other side. Make sure to check out the link to 11 Leaders in Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Robot?

See original at Duke University news

That's Dr. "Robot," not Dr. "Rohrbot" :-)
As physician-guided robots routinely operate on patients at most major hospitals, the next generation robot could eliminate a surprising element from that scenario -- the doctor.

Feasibility studies conducted by Duke University bioengineers have demonstrated that a robot -- without any human assistance -- can locate a man-made, or phantom, lesion in simulated human organs, guide a device to the lesion and take multiple samples during a single session. The researchers believe that as the technology is further developed, autonomous robots could some day perform many more simple surgical tasks.

Computers: Will They Ever Learn?

See original at Forbes.com

Have we plateaued in our progress on AI?
A computer that translates as well as a human, which is as good a definition as any of genuine artificial intelligence, is nowhere in sight.

This isn't just an issue for computer translation; it exists for just about all of the tough problems computers are working in: language, vision, robotics--even search, which is at the heart of the Web. Computers have become remarkably useful but are still a far cry from the dream of early computer pioneers of a machine so smart it would be indistinguishable from a human.

Your Brain on Computers

See original at NYTimes.com

I've noticed an interesting trend in recent years -- I've met more and more students who seem tired of technology. Is it time to back off?
"The quest to understand the impact on the brain of heavy technology use — at a time when such use is exploding — is still in its early stages. To Mr. Strayer, it is no less significant than when scientists investigated the effects of consuming too much meat or alcohol."

The First Church of Robotics

See original at NYTimes.com

Not everyone is enamored with the search for Artificial Intelligence. Does AI devalue humans?
"THE news of the day often includes an item about some development in artificial intelligence: a machine that smiles, a program that can predict human tastes in mates or music, a robot that teaches foreign languages to children. This constant stream of stories suggests that machines are becoming smart and autonomous, a new form of life, and that we should think of them as fellow creatures instead of as tools. But such conclusions aren’t just changing how we think about computers — they are reshaping the basic assumptions of our lives in misguided and ultimately damaging ways."

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

GPUs Threaten Password Security

See original at Georgia Tech Research Institute

Earlier this year I saw a story about how the US Air Force used PlayStation 3 consoles to build a supercomputer "100,000 times faster than high-end computer processors sold today." The power comes from the PlayStations' graphics processing units.
"It's been called revolutionary - technology that lends supercomputer-level power to any desktop. What's more, this new capability comes in the form of a readily available piece of hardware, a graphics processing unit (GPU) costing only a few hundred dollars.

Georgia Tech researchers are investigating whether this new calculating power might change the security landscape worldwide. They're concerned that these desktop marvels might soon compromise a critical part of the world's cyber-security infrastructure - password protection."

Monday, August 9, 2010

First robot able to develop and show emotions is unveiled

See original at The Guardian

We've all gotten mad at our computer, but what if your computer could get mad at you?
"When Nao is sad, he hunches his shoulders forward and looks down. When he's happy, he raises his arms, angling for a hug. When frightened, Naohe cowers, and he stays like that until he is soothed with some gentle strokes on his head.

Nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps, except that Nao is a robot — the world's first that can develop and display emotions. He can form bonds with the people he meets depending on how he is treated. The more he interacts with someone, the more Nao learns a person's moods and the stronger the bonds become."

Friday, August 6, 2010

Phone Calls Not Efficient

See original article on Techdirt

Is texting better than voice communication?
"The telephone, in other words, doesn't provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. (Plus, we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say.) For all the hue and cry about becoming an 'always on' society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately."

Gaming for a cure

See original article at University of Washington News and Information

A nice example of a GWAP ("Game with a Purpose").
"Biochemists and computer scientists at the University of Washington two years ago launched an ambitious project harnessing the brainpower of computer gamers to solve medical problems.

The game, Foldit, turns one of the hardest problems in molecular biology into a game a bit reminiscent of Tetris. Thousands of people have now played a game that asks them to fold a protein rather than stack colored blocks or rescue a princess."

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

First Human Testing of Mind-Controlled Artificial Arm

See original at Singularity Hub

A next step in the integration of human with technology.
"The world’s first human testing of a mind-controlled artificial limb is ready to begin. A joint project between the Pentagon and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Modular Prosthetic Limb will be fully controlled by sensors implanted in the brain, and will even restore the sense of touch by sending electrical impulses from the limb back to the sensory cortex. Last week APL announced it was awarded a $34.5 million contract with DARPA, which will allow researchers to test the neural prosthetic in five individuals over the next two years."

Monday, August 2, 2010

The Fantastic Voyage?

Robot Pills: Scientific American

I remember seeing The Fantastic Voyage as a kid on TV -- scientists shrink a submarine and its crew and inject it into a person. Coming soon! :-)
  • "Active pill-size robotic capsules are being developed for use in screening, diagnosis and therapeutic procedures.

  • "Miniaturizing robotic components to perform tasks inside the body poses novel engineering challenges. Those challenges are giving rise to creative solutions that will influence robotics and other medical technologies in general."