Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Robots evolve to learn cooperation, hunting
In a series of experiments described in the journal PLoS Biology, Dario Floreano of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and Laurent Keller of the University of Lausanne reported that simple, small-wheeled Khepera and Alice robots can evolve behaviors such as collision-free movement and homing techniques in only several hundred 'generations.'"
Friday, January 22, 2010
Walking Robot Maid
"Mahru-Z has a human-like body including a rotating head, arms, legs and six fingers plus three-dimensional vision to recognise chores that need to be tackled, media reports said Monday.
'The most distinctive strength of Mahru-Z is its visual ability to observe objects, recognise the tasks needed to be completed, and execute them,' You Bum-Jae, head of the cognitive robot centre at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, told the Korea Times."
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Giving Computers the Gift of Gab
"This is a glaring digital deficiency that Nicholas Cassimatis, assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is looking to solve. He is leading a multi-university team of researchers to develop unified theories of language and cognition that aim to allow more meaningful linguistic interaction between humans and computers. Only by better understanding the nature of human language, Cassimatis said, can we develop computational systems with human-level language abilities."
Loyola Uses Robots To Treat Lung Cancer
Robots Treat Lung Cancer: from medicalnewstoday.com Another application of the Da Vinci™ surgical system to improve surgical outcomes. "Unlike a traditional lobectomy, which requires a large incision and division of the muscles of the chest and spreading the ribs, the robotic procedure using the Da Vinci™ Surgical System allows surgeons to perform the same surgical procedure through four small incisions, resulting in less pain and reduced loss of blood.
"Robotic surgery for lung cancer is done thoracoscopically, in which a tiny camera is inserted through a small incision in order to give surgeons a three-dimensional view of the inside of the chest, which is very rigid and harder to operate on using traditional surgery. Working through three additional, small incisions, the surgeon controls every move of the robotic arms from a computer console at the patient's bedside. The robot's arms are fully articulated, allowing it to turn and grasp with more agility and precision than the human hand."
"Robotic surgery for lung cancer is done thoracoscopically, in which a tiny camera is inserted through a small incision in order to give surgeons a three-dimensional view of the inside of the chest, which is very rigid and harder to operate on using traditional surgery. Working through three additional, small incisions, the surgeon controls every move of the robotic arms from a computer console at the patient's bedside. The robot's arms are fully articulated, allowing it to turn and grasp with more agility and precision than the human hand."
Robotic Nurses in Your Future?
Toyota Sees Robotic Nurses in Your Lonely Final Years from Wired.com Toyota is developing "partner robots" to serve in hospitals and homes, with expectations to start selling this year. In part spurred by the shifting demographics (towards a higher percentage of elderly), Toyota envisions a variety of roles these robots could play.
Toyota isn't a maverick in this -- Japan’s Machine Industry Memorial Foundation projects the country could save $21 billion annually by using robots to care for the elderly. The government is also drafting safety regulations for all kinds of personal service robots . A new agency, the Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, has launched a five-year project to improve safety standards for the machines.
Toyota isn't a maverick in this -- Japan’s Machine Industry Memorial Foundation projects the country could save $21 billion annually by using robots to care for the elderly. The government is also drafting safety regulations for all kinds of personal service robots . A new agency, the Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, has launched a five-year project to improve safety standards for the machines.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Nanoscale Robot Places Atoms With 100% Accuracy
Robot Arm Places Atoms and Molecules With 100% Accuracy hPlusMagazine "Until the mid-1990s, the term "nanotechnology" referred to the goal of creating vast arrays of nanoscale assemblers to fabricate useful human-scale products from scratch in an entirely automated process and with atomic precision. Since then, the word has come to mean anything from stain-resistant pants to branches of conventional chemistry — generally anything involving nanoscale objects. But the dream of a new Industrial Revolution based on nanoscale manufacturing has not died, as demonstrated most vividly by the work of NYU professor of chemistry Dr. Nadrian Seeman.
"In a 2009 article in Nature Nanotechnology, Dr. Seeman shared the results of experiments performed by his lab, along with collaborators at Nanjing University in China, in which scientists built a two-armed nanorobotic device with the ability to place specific atoms and molecules where scientists want them. The device was approximately 150 x 50 x 8 nanometers in size — over a million could fit in a single red blood cell. Using robust error-correction mechanisms, the device can place DNA molecules with 100% accuracy. Earlier trials had yielded only 60-80% accuracy."
"In a 2009 article in Nature Nanotechnology, Dr. Seeman shared the results of experiments performed by his lab, along with collaborators at Nanjing University in China, in which scientists built a two-armed nanorobotic device with the ability to place specific atoms and molecules where scientists want them. The device was approximately 150 x 50 x 8 nanometers in size — over a million could fit in a single red blood cell. Using robust error-correction mechanisms, the device can place DNA molecules with 100% accuracy. Earlier trials had yielded only 60-80% accuracy."
Friday, January 15, 2010
AI Report
The AI Report - Forbes.com
"Can machines think? In 1950, Alan Turing, considered by some to be the father of modern computing, published a paper in which he proposed that, "If, during text-based conversation, a machine is indistinguishable from a human, then it could be said to be 'thinking' and, therefore, could be attributed with intelligence." He predicted that a computer would pass this "Turing Test" by the end of the century. That hasn't happened--yet. But the question continues to provoke and inspire. AI might be just around the corner, or it might be centuries away"
GR: check out this Forbes special report, with essays by cyberneticist Kevin Warwick, philosopher Nick Bostrom, Singularity Institute president Michael Vassar, and Google Research Director Peter Norvig.
"Can machines think? In 1950, Alan Turing, considered by some to be the father of modern computing, published a paper in which he proposed that, "If, during text-based conversation, a machine is indistinguishable from a human, then it could be said to be 'thinking' and, therefore, could be attributed with intelligence." He predicted that a computer would pass this "Turing Test" by the end of the century. That hasn't happened--yet. But the question continues to provoke and inspire. AI might be just around the corner, or it might be centuries away"
GR: check out this Forbes special report, with essays by cyberneticist Kevin Warwick, philosopher Nick Bostrom, Singularity Institute president Michael Vassar, and Google Research Director Peter Norvig.
Proven Kernel delivers safer computing
"Professor Gernot Heiser, the John Lions Chair in Computer Science in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and a senior principal researcher with NICTA, said for the first time a team had been able to prove with mathematical rigour that an operating-system kernel – the code at the heart of any computer or microprocessor – was 100 per cent bug-free and therefore immune to crashes and failures.
"The breakthrough has major implications for improving the reliability of critical systems such as medical machinery, military systems and aircraft, where failure due to a software error could have disastrous results."
Computer science majors still in demand
Computer science majors still in demand "The nation's leading computer science programs say graduating seniors are still sought after by technology vendors and corporate shops, despite the global economic slowdown and high-profile layoffs across the tech industry."
"Professor Peter Lee, head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, says demand for the program's 130 graduating seniors has not wavered during the last few months. "Our graduates continue even in this downturn to have near 100% employment," Lee says. "It is still the case that companies are coming to recruit new computer science graduates, and very often they go away happy with the recruits they find here."
"Professor Peter Lee, head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, says demand for the program's 130 graduating seniors has not wavered during the last few months. "Our graduates continue even in this downturn to have near 100% employment," Lee says. "It is still the case that companies are coming to recruit new computer science graduates, and very often they go away happy with the recruits they find here."
Mobile Apps Give Students Instant Access to Information
Columbus State University Mobile Apps "In what may be a nationwide first, new cell phone and PDA applications developed by Columbus University will allow students to have instant access to academic and financial aid information, as well as events around campus.
"Programmers in CSU's University Information and Technology Services have been working for months to interface Google Apps for mobile devices with the university’s online, password-protected Student Information System. With the new Columbus State Mobile Apps, students can now use any Web-enabled cell phone to securely view information about:
• Academic status, such as GPA, adviser contact and grades
• Schedule of classes
• Required admissions documents, such as financial aid and immunization
• Student account information, such as amount owed, refunds available or account holds
• Student activities
• Athletic events
• Campus shuttle bus schedule
• Campus map"
Mental telepathy... over the internet?
"Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) can be used for capturing brain signals and translating them into commands that allow humans to control (just by thinking) devices such as computers, robots, rehabilitation technology and virtual reality environments.
"This experiment goes a step further and was conducted by Dr Christopher James from the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. The aim was to expand the current limits of this technology and show that brain-to-brain (B2B) communication is possible."
By 2040 you will be able to upload your brain...
"In Kurzweil's estimation, we will be able to upload the human brain to a computer, capturing "a person's entire personality, memory, skills and history", by the end of the 2030s; humans and non-biological machines will then merge so effectively that the differences between them will no longer matter; and, after that, human intelligence, transformed for the better, will start to expand outward into the universe, around about 2045. With this last prediction, Kurzweil is referring not to any recognisable type of space travel, but to a kind of space infusion. "Intelligence," he writes, "will begin to saturate the matter and energy in its midst [and] spread out from its origin on Earth."
Intelligent vehicles tested across European roads
Intelligent vehicles tested... "In the context of euroFOT, a European-wide research project, 28 organisations have committed to scientifically test and assess the impact of eight advanced driver assistance systems on safety, efficiency and driver comfort. This collaborative research project is supported by European funds from the DG Information Society and Media.
"Both lateral and longitudinal control systems will be tested: systems that give warnings to the driver on potential side- and front-end collisions. Also, other advanced in-vehicle systems such as Curve Speed Warning, Fuel Efficiency Adviser and the Human machine interaction with navigation systems will be tested.
"Beginning in 2010, no less than 1000 vehicles from various European vehicle brands equipped with various intelligent in-vehicle systems will drive around Europe for approximately one year. These intelligent vehicles will collect data that should deliver answers with regards to the impacts that these systems have on safety, efficiency and driver comfort."
Going plasmonic in search of faster computing, communications
The pioneering devices, which are expected to lead to commercial applications within the next decade, make use of electron plasma oscillation to transmit optical and electronic signals along the same metal circuitry via waves of surface plasmon polaritons. In contrast, signals in electronic circuits are transmitted by electrons, while photons are used to carry data in optical systems."
"As an emerging nano-scale technology that is often referred to as “light on a wire,” plasmonics, as the field of research is known, shares the advantages of fibre optics, including ultra-high-speed data transfer, with the benefits of electronic components, particularly their small size. The technology holds the promise of all-optical computer chips operating at ultra-fast speeds, faster communications and a vast new range of sensing devices.
“For the last five years or so it has been possible to build an optical computer chip, but with all-optical components it would have to measure something like half a metre by half a metre and would consume enormous power. With plasmonics, we can make the circuitry small enough to fit in a normal PC while maintaining optical speeds,” explains Anatoly Zayats, a researcher at The Queen's University of Belfast in the United Kingdom.
Supercomputers with 100 million cores by 2018
Supercomputers with 100 million cores... "There is a race to make supercomputers as powerful as possible to solve some of the world's most important problems, including climate change, the need for ultra-long-life batteries for cars, operating fusion reactors with plasma that reaches 150 million degrees Celsius and creating bio-fuels from weeds and not corn.
"Supercomputers allow researchers to create three-dimensional visualizations, not unlike a video game, to run endless 'what-if' scenarios with increasingly finer detail. But as big as they are today, supercomputers aren't big enough -- and a key topic for some of the estimated 11,000 people now gathering in Portland, Ore. for the 22nd annual supercomputing conference, SC09, will be the next performance goal: an exascale system."
"Supercomputers allow researchers to create three-dimensional visualizations, not unlike a video game, to run endless 'what-if' scenarios with increasingly finer detail. But as big as they are today, supercomputers aren't big enough -- and a key topic for some of the estimated 11,000 people now gathering in Portland, Ore. for the 22nd annual supercomputing conference, SC09, will be the next performance goal: an exascale system."
Contact lenses as heads-up displays
"Realising that display size is increasingly a constraint in mobile devices, Babak Parviz at the University of Washington, in Seattle, hit on the idea of projecting images into the eye from a contact lens.
"One of the limitations of current head-up displays is their limited field of view. A contact lens display can have a much wider field of view. 'Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50 cm to 1 m away,' says Parviz."
Teachers obsolete?
"Carnegie Mellon is not about to replace all its professors with computer programs. But with $4 million in private grants and perhaps more to come from the federal government, the university is currently exploring how the open-learning software could be used in conjunction with classroom education to speed up the teaching and learning process -- a prospect that some involved think could help solve overcrowding in America's community colleges and realize the Obama administration's goal of boosting graduation rates.
Japanese researcher unveils 'hummingbird robot'
"The robot, a similar size to a real hummingbird, is equipped with a micro motor and four wings that can flap 30 times per second, said Hiroshi Liu, the researcher at Chiba University east of Tokyo."
"The robot, whose development cost has topped 200 million yen (2.1 million dollars), may be used to help rescue people trapped in destroyed buildings, search for criminals or even operate as a probe vehicle on Mars, he said.
History of Darpa - 'The Department of Mad Scientists'
Book Review by Michael Belfiore NYTimes "Two years ago, in his book “Rocketeers,” Michael Belfiore celebrated the pioneers of the budding private space industry. Now he has returned to explore a frontier closer to home. The heroes of his new book, “The Department of Mad Scientists,” work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as Darpa, a secretive arm of the United States government. And the revolution they’re leading is a merger of humans with machines."
"The revolution is happening before our eyes, but we don’t recognize it, because it’s incremental. It starts with driving. Cruise control transfers regulation of your car’s speed to a computer. In some models, you can upgrade to adaptive cruise control, which monitors the surrounding traffic by radar and adjusts your speed accordingly. If you drift out of your lane, an option called lane keeping assistance gently steers you back. For extra safety, you can get extended brake assistance, which monitors traffic ahead of you, alerts you to collision threats and applies as much braking pressure as necessary."
"With each delegation of power, we become more comfortable with computers driving our cars. Soon we’ll want more... Why put down your cellphone when you can let go of the wheel instead? Reading, texting, talking and eating in the car aren’t distractions. Driving is the distraction. Let the car do it.
"The revolution is happening before our eyes, but we don’t recognize it, because it’s incremental. It starts with driving. Cruise control transfers regulation of your car’s speed to a computer. In some models, you can upgrade to adaptive cruise control, which monitors the surrounding traffic by radar and adjusts your speed accordingly. If you drift out of your lane, an option called lane keeping assistance gently steers you back. For extra safety, you can get extended brake assistance, which monitors traffic ahead of you, alerts you to collision threats and applies as much braking pressure as necessary."
"With each delegation of power, we become more comfortable with computers driving our cars. Soon we’ll want more... Why put down your cellphone when you can let go of the wheel instead? Reading, texting, talking and eating in the car aren’t distractions. Driving is the distraction. Let the car do it.
Cancer Drug Delays Aging in Mice
“Though the drug is an immune system suppressant that almost certainly won’t have the same effect in humans, the study provides compelling evidence that pharmacologically slowing the process of aging itself may be possible.
“It’s unlikely that the life extension came from merely postponing a few specific diseases,” said Jackson Laboratory gerontologist David Harrison, a leader of one of three research teams who conducted the experiment separately. “And the treatment didn’t start until the mice were the equivalent of a 60-year-old human. No other intervention has been so effective starting late in life.”
The real Frankenstein experiment
"Professor Henry Markram, a doctor-turned-computer engineer, announced that his team would create the world's first artificial conscious and intelligent mind by 2018. And that is exactly what he is doing.
"On the shore of Lake Geneva, this brilliant, eccentric scientist is building an artificial mind. A Swiss - it could only be Swiss - precision- engineered mind, made of silicon, gold and copper."
What Markram's project amounts to is an audacious attempt to build a computerised copy of a brain - starting with a rat's brain, then progressing to a human brain - inside one of the world's most powerful computers.
"This, it is hoped, will bring into being a sentient mind that will be able to think, reason, express will, lay down memories and perhaps even experience love, anger, sadness, pain and joy.
'We will do it by 2018,' says the professor confidently. 'We need a lot of money, but I am getting it. There are few scientists in the world with the resources I have at my disposal.
Computer and Mathematical occupations among fastest growing
Reading Your Mind to Tag Images
Development of real-life Avatars
During its regular assembly held on Friday, the Robot Convergence Forum expected that the avatar robots would hit the market in a few years. The forum involves both the private and public sectors.
"Already, domestic robot makers are working on prototypes of avatar robots and the consensus is that the commercial versions will come to town by late 2013,'' a Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) director said."
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Social science meets computer science at Yahoo
Social science meets computer science at Yahoo: "Shortly after Carol Bartz took over as chief executive of Yahoo Inc. early last year, she met with Prabhakar Raghavan for an overview of the Sunnyvale Web giant's research division. As the head of Yahoo Labs ran through the catalog of computer scientists on staff, Bartz turned to him and asked: 'Where are your psychologists?'"
"Raghavan was stunned the newly installed CEO had so quickly gotten to a question he'd been asking for years. His answer was they didn't have enough.
That's changing. In the last year, Yahoo Labs has bolstered its ranks of social scientists, adding highly credentialed cognitive psychologists, economists and ethnographers from top universities around the world. At approximately 25 people, it's still the smallest group within the research division, but one of the fastest growing.
"Raghavan was stunned the newly installed CEO had so quickly gotten to a question he'd been asking for years. His answer was they didn't have enough.
That's changing. In the last year, Yahoo Labs has bolstered its ranks of social scientists, adding highly credentialed cognitive psychologists, economists and ethnographers from top universities around the world. At approximately 25 people, it's still the smallest group within the research division, but one of the fastest growing.
Computer contest hopes to inspire young animators
"Youngsters aged between seven and 19 are being challenged to create an animated film, of one minute or less, using any of the Alice, Scratch Adobe Flash, Greenfoot or Serif software packages.
"Animation10 is supported by Google and Electronic Arts, and is being run in association with BBC 21st Century Classroom. For full details visit www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/Animation10
Aussie quantum experiment challenges computer science
“If the Church Turing Thesis is wrong, that’s really big news; or it means that quantum computing will turn out to be impossible for a fundamental reason, or that a fast classical factoring algorithm exists,” White said, referring to a theory by MIT assistant professor Scott Aaronson that the only way to prove the probability of quantum mechanics is to build a quantum computer.
"A quantum computer with hundreds of qubits would be more powerful than every traditional computer on Earth, amounting to billions of bits. “A classical computer with 300 bits of can store 300 bits of information, whereas a 300 qubit register can store more information than the number of particles in the universe,” White said.
Google threatens to leave China
"Google said Tuesday that it might pull out of China because of a sophisticated computer network attack originating there and targeting its e-mail service and corporate infrastructure, a threat that could rattle U.S.-China relations, as well as China's business community."
GR: Is Google's act here an attempt at coercion, or one of self-preservation?
Chemical computer that mimics neurons to be created
The team's approach mimics some of the actions of neurons in the brain."
GR: it's easy to hold a narrow view of computers as electronic devices; this is a cool example of how computing can go beyond that.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
New mathematical model aids simulations of early universe
New mathematical model... SMU Research "Together the scientists built a computer model of events during the 'Dark Ages' when the first stars emitted radiation that altered the surrounding matter, enabling light to pass through. The team tested its model on two of the largest existing NSF supercomputers, 'Ranger' at the University of Texas at Austin and 'Kraken' at the University of Tennessee."
"By forcing the computational methods to tightly bind these processes together, our new model allows us to generate simulations that are highly accurate, numerically stable and computationally scalable to the largest supercomputers available," Reynolds says."
GR: Computers don't just make certain kinds of work easier -- in some cases they make it possible.
"By forcing the computational methods to tightly bind these processes together, our new model allows us to generate simulations that are highly accurate, numerically stable and computationally scalable to the largest supercomputers available," Reynolds says."
GR: Computers don't just make certain kinds of work easier -- in some cases they make it possible.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
6 hottest skills for 2010
6 hottest skills for 2010: "For IT professionals who are either looking to get back into the workforce or mulling moves to greener pastures, here are the six types of skills most in demand among survey respondents who said they expect to hire IT workers in 2010."
Heading up the list is Programming/ Application Development "...Among companies that plan to hire, the top reason for doing so is to meet demand for new systems and projects. That could be why programming/ application development is the skill set that's most in demand, by far"
Heading up the list is Programming/ Application Development "...Among companies that plan to hire, the top reason for doing so is to meet demand for new systems and projects. That could be why programming/ application development is the skill set that's most in demand, by far"
Monday, January 4, 2010
Thought-to-Speech Machine Could Be the Beginning of Something Huge - Neuralynx system - Gizmodo
According to the research paper, they inserted the electrodes into the patient's brain, installing signal amplifiers and transmitters under the scalp. The circuitry—powered by an induction electric supply—transmits the signals to a laptop via FM radio. The software then converts the analog signal to digital data that the neural decoder interprets these into speech commands, which are then sent to the synthesizer."
GR: Wow. We can already bypass the external mechanics of auditory processing by directly stimulating the cochlea; if we can bypass the mechanics of speech, we really could have direct brain-to-brain communication. Volunteers?
10 fool-proof predictions for the Internet in 2020
10 fool-proof predictions... "Forty years after it was invented, the Internet is straining under the weight of cyber attacks, multimedia content and new mobile applications. In response, U.S. computer scientists are re-thinking every aspect of the Internet's architecture, from IP addresses to routing tables (see main story: 2020 Vision: Why you won't recognize the 'Net in 10 years) to overall Internet security. There are many views about how to fix the Internet's architecture, but there's widespread agreement about many aspects of the future Internet. Here's our list of 11 surefire bets for what the Internet will look like in a decade."
GR: I'm wary of "surefire bets" when it comes to technology, but the article certainly points to some interesting trends.
GR: I'm wary of "surefire bets" when it comes to technology, but the article certainly points to some interesting trends.
Intelligent Wheelchairs Will Navigate on Their Own
Intelligent Wheelchairs... "Lehigh University researchers are working on a 'smart wheelchair' with artificial intelligence which can navigate on its own using lasers, sensors and mapping software without the need for human guidance or remote control. The technology has the potential to serve as a person's feet, hands and eyes and thus restore his/her ability to interact with environment.
Using a five-year, 480,000-dollar National Science Foundation grant received in June, lead author John Spletzer, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, and his colleagues have developed a prototype chair designed specifically for negotiating sidewalks, parking lots and other outdoor areas."
GR: some students will recognize John Spletzer as the speaker that a group of us heard last year at Millersville University.
Using a five-year, 480,000-dollar National Science Foundation grant received in June, lead author John Spletzer, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, and his colleagues have developed a prototype chair designed specifically for negotiating sidewalks, parking lots and other outdoor areas."
Saturday, January 2, 2010
First Programmable Quantum Computer Created
Earlier versions of quantum computers have been largely restricted to a narrow window of specific tasks. To be more generally useful, a quantum computer should be programmable, in the same way that a classical computer must be able to run many different programs on a single piece of machinery."
GR: with only 79% reliability, it doesn't sound terribly impressive, but given the pace of technological advancement, the first step is the most important.
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