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<< Headlines are listed according to date posted <-> Articles are organized by date published >>
June 30, 2003: Anti
spammers fight harder, smarter. Ottawa Business Journal. "The
statistics are grim. International Data Corp. research suggests 4.1 billion
of the 11 billion e-mail messages sent each day are spam. ... Both Nemx
and AmikaNow are developing software that has elements of artificial intelligence.
Rather than creating a product that filters out keywords or phrases in
a message's title, both firms are creating software meant to look at the
character and substance of an e-mail." June 30, 2003: Field
of vision. By Bill Lubinger. Plain Dealer. "Starting Wednesday
and through July 11, teams from 31 countries with about 3,500 participants
meet in Padua, Italy, for the RoboCup competition. ... Among the entries
this year is the RobobCats, a team designed and built by faculty and students
from Ohio University - the only Ohio representative. 'Our goal this year
is to make the playoffs,' said professor David Chelburg, the project's
leader. Winning is sweet, but RoboCup is merely using soccer for the science.
The broader picture is to someday use robotics and artificial intelligence
to help mankind. Perhaps a fleet of robots could rescue disaster victims
from places too dangerous for humans. Or robots could clean up nuclear
waste. Or serve as security guards in high-risk places. That technology
is already here, in fact. After Sept. 11, robots searched the World Trade
Center rubble. They didn't work too well, but the robotic designs continue
to improve. ... The robots use what scientists call artificial intelligence
to figure out their moves. To their creators, they seem almost human." June 30, 2003: A
Push From Homeland Security. By Steve Lohr. The New York Times (no
fee reg. req'd.). "The computer executives at the gathering in Washington
were suitably amused, nodding and smiling -- wistfully no doubt. Nothing,
of course, will bring back the dot-com heyday. But to much of Silicon
Valley, the government's mandate to improve homeland security looks as
if it could be the next-best thing -- a technology push, stimulated by
government, that is expected to create a lucrative market in computer
hardware and software for surveillance, data collection, data analysis
and cybersecurity. ... Dependence on the private sector was the mantra
of the Bush administration officials who spoke at the conference, 'Information
Technology Leadership in a Security-Focused World.' The gathering was
sponsored by the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade organization,
and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group.
... One concern, Mr. [Lance] Hoffman said, is that the national effort
to improve homeland security will mean that all the investment and research
goes into computer security, while the privacy implications are given
short shrift. ... At the conference, industry executives spoke highly
of the raft of technologies that can and are being deployed in the quest
for homeland security -- data-sifting software, artificial intelligence,
probability theory, iris recognition and digital-video surveillance gear." June 30, 2003: Data
Mining - The Xbox Files. By Brad Grimes. PC Magazine. "Effective
data mining is all about connecting the dots. In the days after two men
were arrested for going on a shooting spree in the Washington D.C. area,
word got out that witnesses had spotted the snipers' car. What's more,
police had previously run the car's license plates through their system
several times. But authorities never made the connection, and the men
were eventually arrested based on other information. And if the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, have taught law enforcement anything, it's
that authorities know more than they think they know about potential criminals
-- but they don't always know how to put the pieces together." June 29, 2003: You
humans have outlandish fears. By Theoden K. James. NorthJersey.com.
"Science-fiction writers of the past predicted that by the 21st century,
robots would be everywhere, assuming control of most daily tasks. But
we're now halfway through 2003, and the only thing machines have taken
over so far are the multiplexes. ... 'If ASIMO tried to take over the
world, I mean, we could just send a 10-year-old with a baseball bat, and
he would take care of the problem,' said Josh Calder, who works for a
futurist consulting firm in Washington, D.C., and is the creator of FuturistMovies.com.
But is it possible that artificially intelligent machines could one day
become self-aware and wage war on humanity - as they do in the 'Terminator'
series? Not until we find a way to produce a machine that has intentions,
a machine that actually could desire to destroy us. This type of human-level
artificial intelligence is at least a century down the line, according
to Andy Clark, who is director of the cognitive science program at Indiana
University and author of 'Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and
the Future of Human Intelligence.' And in 100 years, the world will be
very different - so different, he said, that we'll likely then realize
most of our fears about homicidal robots and parasitic machines that use
software programs to pacify us were totally unfounded. ... Of course,
it's easy to forget that machines have the capability to destroy us right
now. Today. This very minute. All they'd have to do is stop working properly.
... Modern, real-life anomalies include the partial meltdown at Three
Mile Island Nuclear Station in 1979 and the NASA space shuttle disasters
of 1986 and 2003. 'I'm more worried about machines not taking over,' said
Daniel Levi, an associate professor of psychology at California Polytechnic
State University who studies the human impact of technology. 'I'm more
worried about the breakdown of the technology we have than technology
gaining more and more power.'" June 29, 2003: The
Future Is Here! By Prerana Trehan. The Sunday Tribune (India). "If
this were the year, say, 2030, you wouldn't be holding a newspaper in
your hand right now, or at least it wouldn't be paper. Instead you'd be
reading this article on a flexible, paper-thin display screen while your
robotic pet dog would be rubbing itself against your legs. Elsewhere in
your home, a robotic vacuum cleaner would be doing the cleaning, navigating
around the rooms all by itself, while your washing machine would be washing
your clothes after having received verbal instructions from you. Earlier
in the morning, your alarm clock would have chosen the best time to wake
you up. ... Science fiction? Not really. ... Asking whether machines will
be as smart as humans is not really relevant since machines will not compete
directly with humans but instead develop a parallel system of intelligence
that will build on their strengths of speed and accuracy as opposed to
the human attribute of creativity. ... Another interesting aspect of technology
entering the workplace is working with artificially intelligent, thinking
machines, which (or should it be 'who'? See the problem has already begun!)
might even be educated. Will we have to treat them as colleagues or as
computers?" June 29, 2003: Program
could make flying safer. By Eric Tegler. The Capital. "A research
project that could change the way small planes are flown is being conducted
at BWI and Tipton airports and other Maryland facilities. The Small Aircraft
Transportation System program is a joint initiative from NASA that would
use some electronic wizardry to make flying in rural and congested areas
safer and easier. Partners in the project include University Research
Foundation in College Park, ARINC in Parole, BWI-based Hinson Aviation
and the Maryland Aviation Administration. ... Though the research foundation
is in College Park, it bases two of its SATS research aircraft at Tipton
and one at Baltimore Washington International. This places the aircraft
outside of the restricted flight zone around Washington D.C., but lets
researchers see how their systems work in a high traffic environment.
One of these is an artificial intelligence system called 'cockpit associate.'
It analyzes datalink, aircraft sensor and aircraft function information
and makes recommendations to the pilot." June 27, 2003: Seoul
promises support for venture firms. By Koh Byung-joon. The Korea Herald.
"Minister of Information and Communication Chin Dae-je unveiled several
initiatives to support venture firms, emphasizing the important role they
play in the national economy. ... In order to help the venture companies
do their part in this grand plan, Chin said that the government will concentrate
its investment in digital, artificial intelligence, computer and precision
machinery sectors, which are regarded as new growth engines." June 26, 2003: First
Virtual Stuntmen Ready for Hollywood. By Jennifer Viegas. Discovery
Channel News. "Special effects experts believe the software behind
the stuntmen, called endorphin, could revolutionize filmmaking and video
and computer games. Endorphin's virtual actors learn how to move and react
independently, unlike most computerized characters now that depend on
fixed databases containing animated clips. Torsten Reil, who developed
the program at Oxford and is now CEO of NaturalMotion, explained that
endorphin's technology relies upon models of the human brain, body and
nervous system. The virtual stuntmen learn how to move and react using
neural networks and artificial evolution, which is like an extended form
of artificial intelligence whereby characters build their knowledge base
over time. ... The process behind the artificial stuntmen's ability to
move and think, called active character technology, is controlled by an
artificial intelligence simulation of the human nervous system. ... Because
the characters react on their own once programmed, Reil believes they
will add a live interactive component to video games that has never been
seen before." June 26, 2003: Finally,
a Public Resting Place for History's Motherboards. By Tom McNichol.
The New York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "At the new headquarters
of the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, the ghosts of technologies
past still roam the grounds. ... The museum traces its roots to the Computer
Museum in Boston, which was founded in 1979 by Gordon Bell, a longtime
engineer and executive at the Digital Equipment Corporation, and his wife,
Gwen. A spinoff history center in Silicon Valley was established in 1996;
four years later, half of the Boston collection moved west. Since 2000,
the artifacts have been stored at Moffett Field, also the home of the
NASA Ames Research Center, about a mile from the museum's new headquarters.
The Computer History Museum is still a work in progress." June 26, 2003: Young
scientists use animal behaviour to design robots for competition.
By Dominique Loh. Channelnewsasia. "Budding scientists are taking
a cue from Mother Nature and wiring some of her secrets into robots. Seven
teams from the local polytechnics and universities pitted their robots
against one another on Wednesday to see which could perform the best in
a game of hide-and-seek at the Singapore Science Centre. ... One strategy
the students used - strength in numbers - having seen how bees behave
in nature. ... The competition was organised by DSO National Laboratories
as part of its Defence Science Matters exhibition." June 25, 2003: Openness
makes software better sooner - Sharing code for computer software
is best way to rid it of bugs. By Philip Ball. Nature. " June 18/25, 2003: Software
referees group calls. By Kimberly Patch. Technology Research News.
"Researchers from Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (PARC), Stanford
University, and Carnegie Mellon University have devised a scheme that
gives a group of wireless phone or handheld computer users a more natural
teleconferencing environment by keeping track of who is talking when.
The scheme uses the moment-by-moment dynamics of talk to determine which
members of a group are actively conversing with each other, and adjusts
the audio accordingly, said Paul Aoki, a researcher at Palo Alto Research
Center. ... The researchers tapped a sociological discipline -- conversation
analysis -- to find ways to automatically tell who is talking to whom.
... Conversation analysts review examples of human interaction in order
to understand how these practices work. The researchers quantified speech
patterns gleaned by conversation analysts that generally show whether
or not people are in conversation, and built software that determines
what grouping of people is supported by the best evidence." June 25, 2003: Toys
Aiding Research. KXAN-TV. "You've probably seen them -- robotic
dogs. They're expensive toys. Researchers in Austin are using them to
learn. ... 'They are fully autonomous so there's nobody remote controlling
them. There's nobody telling them where the ball is -- they're doing the
whole thing by themselves,' [Peter] Stone said. It's part of a University
of Texas program developing artificial intelligence. ... 'We're now really
focusing on the teamwork aspects. How do you put together a team of four
robots that are all being controlled completely independently?'" June 25, 2003: The
Road to Oceania. Op-Ed by William Gibson. The New York Times (no fee
reg. req'd.). "Had [George] Orwell known that computers were coming
(out of Bletchley Park, oddly, a dilapidated English country house, home
to the pioneering efforts of Alan Turing and other wartime code-breakers)
he might have imagined a Ministry of Truth empowered by punch cards and
vacuum tubes to better wring the last vestiges of freedom from the population
of Oceania. But I doubt his story would have been very different. ...
Orwell's projections come from the era of information broadcasting, and
are not applicable to our own. Had Orwell been able to equip Big Brother
with all the tools of artificial intelligence, he would still have been
writing from an older paradigm, and the result could never have described
our situation today, nor suggested where we might be heading. That our
own biggish brothers, in the name of national security, draw from ever
wider and increasingly transparent fields of data may disturb us, but
this is something that corporations, nongovernmental organizations and
individuals do as well, with greater and greater frequency. The collection
and management of information, at every level, is exponentially empowered
by the global nature of the system itself, a system unfettered by national
boundaries or, increasingly, government control." June 25, 2003: Mammography
returning to HCMC. Hillsboro Free Press. "Forty-thousand American
women die from breast cancer every year, but this number may change thanks
to a new technology. The device, called an R2 Image Checker, gives physicians
a second method for examining mammograms. ... 'Early detection is critical
and the Image Checker greatly improves our odds,' [Hilary] Zarnow said.
Image Checker analyzes a digital image of the regular mammogram to data
associated with tumorous cells, using a sophisticated artificial neural
network. 'This is artificial intelligence,' Zarnow said, 'and it finds
potential problem areas that can't be seen by the naked eye. It functions
like a very sophisticated 'spell check', if you will, for medical images.'" June 24, 2003: Letting
your computer know how you feel. By Cliff Saran. ComputerWeekly. "Kate
Hone, a lecturer in the department of information systems and computing
at Brunel University, is the principal investigator in a project that
aims to evaluate the potential for emotion-recognition technology to improve
the quality of human-computer interaction. Her study is part of a larger
area of computer science called affective computing, which examines how
computers affect and can influence human emotion. Hone described her research
at Brunel as a human factor investigation. She said, 'We are trying to
build a system that recognises emotion to support human-computer recognition.'
The project, called Eric (Emotional Recognition for Interaction with Computers)
has three main goals. ... 'Many of the approaches used in speech recognition
can be applied to recognising emotion through facial recognition,' Hone
said. ... Affective computing can be defined as 'computing that relates
to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion'. A number of different
types of research are encompassed within this term. For instance, some
artificial intelligence researchers in the field of affective computing
are interested in how emotion contributes to human and, by analogy, computer
problem solving or decision making..." June 24, 2003: Building
Robot Soldiers - Researchers are rushing to create battlefield robots
that can assist humans in combat. Michael Roger's Practical Futurist column
in Newsweek / available from MSNBC. "After years of on-again, off-again
funding of advanced robotics, the U.S. defense research establishment
is finally putting big, long-term money into military robots. ... During
this decade, military robots will probably save lives not by fighting,
but by performing some of the more mundane but still hazardous support
activities. That will cut casualties right away -- only about a third
of the servicemen killed in Iraq since May 1 have died in actual fighting.
But someday, in some army, robots will bear and fire arms on their own.
Science fiction fans may recall that the first of Isaac Asimov's Three
Rules of Robotics in his 1950 classic book 'I, Robot' was: 'A robot must
never harm a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.' In the book, that rule was ascribed to 'Handbook of Robotics,
56th Edition, 2058 A.D.'" June 24, 2003: Toys
bridge tech divide for children - Toys could play an important role
in helping children interact with computers a study has found. BBC. "Speech
recognition software needs to improve significantly before the perfect
PC toy can be designed thinks Dr [Lydia] Plowman. But signs that children
were comfortable using toys in conjunction with computers were encouraging.
'We found that children can co-ordinate the multiple links between toy
and screen and don't appear to get confused,' said Dr Plowman. 'Having
a toy also seemed to increase the social interaction at the computer with
the children talking to each other and helping each other more,' she added." June 23, 2003: Some
view spam as an opportunity. Capital Focus by Ted Bunker. The Boston
Herald. "Increasingly sophisticated spammers are beginning to overwhelm
e-mail, threatening to make it far less useful as a way to communicate.
Even direct marketers - those companies that send us junk e-mail and 'snail
mai'' - agree that spam is out of hand. ... Sources in the venture community
say that some entrepreneurs see the opportunity this crisis in the online
world has created, and they're working to capitalize on it. What they
need to do is harness artificial intelligence techniques such as 'fuzzy
logic' and build that into better e-mail filters." June 23, 2003: Students
make robot. The Tribune (India). "Students of Engineering College
and Polytechnic College, Chhapianwali (Muktsar), have made a robot, which
they claim can replace human beings working in hazardous industries and
can be used for detecting landmines, if it is developed and manufactured
on a commercial scale. Nine students from the colleges took three months
to make the smaller version of the robot. They claim that the robot can
be used at places where the working for human being is dangerous, if it
is upgraded and made on a larger scale. The robot can pick and put the
objects from one place to another with accuracy. The robot, which can
lift a weight of 300 gm, can move in left and right directions and can
be programmed to work either manually or automatically. In the manual
mode, the robot can be commanded through a remote control, while in the
automatic mode, it is programmed to do a specific work, which it keeps
on doing without any outside help." June 23, 2003: Computing
is key force in war on terror. (Part of the series: Technology
overturns five major businesses.) By Robert Lemos. CNET News. "The
[Department of Homeland Security] has allocated $3.75 billion for information
technology in fiscal 2004, and is expected to spend more than $11 billion
through 2005, according to data from research company FSI. Among civilian
agencies, only the Department of Health & Human Services has a larger
budget. Initial projects will include systems for mining data from collections
of unsorted electronic documents and databases, biometric identity cards
and checkpoints for critical workers, and systems for regulating passage
over national borders." June 23, 2003: Computer
Scientist Julia Hirschberg Explores Frontiers of Computational Linguistics.
By Joseph Kennedy. Columbia News. "While artificial intelligence
researchers have managed thus far to avoid creating monsters like HAL,
the idea of humans and computers speaking to each other is no longer the
stuff of science fiction. It is instead the driving force behind the growing
discipline of computational linguistics, which studies the computational
aspects of human language. 'Basic speech recognition systems have now
become commonplace,' says Julia Hirschberg, who joined the Department
of Computer Science in Fall 2002. 'Researchers today are moving into some
very interesting and complex areas. We're looking at how to enable computers
to recognize speech errors, perform audio browsing and retrieval of email,
and recognize and produce emotional speech.' June 23, 2003: NOAA
Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Navigational Safety Data.
NOAA News. "The NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products
and Services (CO-OPS) is now using artificial intelligence to extend and
improve its existing real-time quality control monitoring system. This
system, called CORMS (Continuous Operational Real-time Monitoring System)
operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week ensuring the availability and
accuracy of the real-time water levels, currents and meteorological data
provided by CO-OPS for navigational safety. CO-OPS is part of the NOAA
Ocean Service. ... The benefits of using artificial intelligence are four-fold:
1) the ability to monitor more sites; 2) provide more information to CORMS
managers to assist them in decision-making; 3) ensure consistency in monitoring
performance; and 4) significantly reduce reaction time to any instrument
failures." June 23, 2003: Investment
Newsletter Insights - Bonding with the Fed; Stock picker's plight;
A.I. By CBS.MarketWatch.com. "A.I. Stock Forecast may not be the
sequel to Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but it could very
well be the prequel. While editor Michael Henry won't have a robot boy
to help him retool his investment newsletter, formerly the Top-Down Market
Forecast, he does plan several new features over the next two months that
include the use of 'artificial intelligence' techniques to aid in his
stock selection." June 23, 2003: Spy
planes steal the Paris show. By Chelsea Emery. Reuters / available
from The Economic Times. "The success of US unmanned spy planes during
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had prospective foreign buyers packing
the conference rooms at this year's Paris air show. ... 'In the discussions
we've had with international governments, it would appear that there's
a much more serious interest and a better understanding of what Global
Hawk could do,' said Carl Johnson, vice president of the Global Hawk programme
at Northrop Grumman. Unmanned technology 'is the most exciting place to
be in aerospace right now.' ... Some defence industry executives attending
the Paris air show even suggested that Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter, which is still being developed, may be the last manned
fighter plane needed for battle. But others were adamant that artificial
intelligence will never totally replace humans, especially in combat." June 22, 2003: Inspired
by Ants - A boyhood fascination led to Baldwin native's robotic breakthrough.
By Martin C. Evans. Newsday. "'The connection between the playful mind
and the serious mind is very strong,' [James McLurkin] said later. 'Sometimes
to understand a concept, you've got to put a girl in a box.' McLurkin's
own whimsical approach to science hit pay dirt earlier this year, when
he netted the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. The prestigious annual
award goes to an MIT student whose work demonstrates remarkable inventiveness.
'The only difference between an engineer and an artist is mathematics,'
said McLurkin, who is working on a doctorate in computer science. 'I'm
a big believer that art and engineering ought to intersect.' McLurkin
won the prize for his work on artificial intelligence. He developed a
fleet of tiny, sensor-crammed, wheeled robots that zip about while communicating
among themselves by using infrared- light beams. The 'microbots' are capable
of working together on solving problems. Researchers look forward to the
day when teams of robots may be deployed to tackle tasks considered too
dangerous or too intricate for humans, such as searching collapsed buildings
for survivors or locating explosives in a minefield. Already, miniature
robots like the ones McLurkin designed have mastered such complex interactions
as playing soccer. They reposition themselves as other robot-players move,
cut to the goal and pass or shoot, depending on whether they are open.
McLurkin's impulse to probe the world of robotics was born on Long Island.
... But interest in the ants he observed on a Long Island soccer field
began pulling him into the research he pursues today. ... How, he wondered,
could such independent actors coordinate their behavior to adapt to complex
problems that often change in mid-task? And could this kind of adaptive
logic be programmed into robots?" June 21, 2003:
The semantic web - A touch of intelligence for the internet? By Ben
Williamson and Libby Miller. EducationGuardian.co.uk. "When discussing
the semantic web, it is important to get one thing clear from the start:
this is not a new version of the internet. Casual web users will probably
not even notice semantic web technologies running behind their browsers.
But they might notice a vast improvement in the relevance of the data
returned to them through search engines. ... Semantics is perhaps a misleading
term, Mr [Paul] Shabajee admits. 'We need a term that is somewhere in
between semantics and artificial intelligence.' Semantics is concerned
with meanings, which some argue exist only through human interpretation,
and AI is the pursuit of machine replication of biological behaviours.
Semantic web research seeks to produce machine-readable languages such
as RDF (Resource Description Framework) - a consistent, standardised way
of describing and querying internet resources, from text pages and graphics
to audio files and video clips - that allow web content to be indexed
and retrieved more intelligently." June 21, 2003: Interview
- Biometric systems are a favoured new anti-terrorist method, but James
L. Wayman has grave reservations. Interview by Wendy M. Grossman.
New Scientist (p.48). "People are the problem for the new biometrics
that governments are under pressure to use as global security systems
get tougher. James L. Wayman of San Jose State University, California,
worries about this. He's a key biometrics adviser to the UK and the US
- a far cry from his dream to play with the Beach Boys. ... How is
face recognition doing? Face recognition still seems to be the holy
grail. Perhaps it's more acceptable to people than being fingerprinted
or iris-scanned. And often if we have any information at all on terrorists,
the face may be the only thing we have. But there are many problems. Take
the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, and his idea that you can point a camera
at a car and do facial recognition of the occupants. We did that at a
Mexico border crossing in Otay Mesa. The immigration service tried to
automate the crossing by installing facial recognition cameras in a system
called SENTRI, but the driver had to stop and look into the camera. That
was highly problematic because the height of the cars varied, and window
frames obscured the faces. The state of this technology is we are still
trying to teach the cameras that the two people in each scene are the
same person." June 2003: Fast
Forward -25 Trends That Will Change the Way You Do Business. From
e-mail to health care, and from artificial intelligence to the end of
HR as we know it, here are forecasts of how different the world of workforce
management will be 10 years from now. Workforce (pages 43-56). "#6
- Artificial Intelligence: Making computers think more like people is
an idea that persists. In the workplace, software already predicts customer
behavior and machine failures on the factory floor. These capabilities
will continue to evolve. As the Web and data warehouses grow, artificial
intelligence will solve problems that are beyond the reach of the human
brain. ... 'AI will bring advances but also usher in ethical concerns,'
[Owen P.] Hall says. ... #22 - Security vs Privacy: ..." June 20, 2003: Summer
fun gets scientific. By Karen Harrell. The Pensacola News Journal.
"For an hour each week, a dozen or so children from rotating age
groups gather in a small classroom-like setting at the Boys and Girls
Clubs of Escambia County on H Street to interact with some of Pensacola's
brightest scientists. The summer partnership is the first of its kind
for the University of West Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition,
a program that has gained national and world recognition for its breakthrough
research. The program, one component of the Boys and Girls Clubs' regular
summer day camp, introduces science concepts through balloon cars, lemon-powered
batteries, straw bridges, robotics, artificial intelligence and other
projects illustrated only through the use of simple household materials
that can be purchased inexpensively at area discount and hardware stores." June 20, 2003: The
shape of things to come. By Peter Griffin. New Zealand Herald. "There
have been many futurists over the years - Arthur C. Clarke and Alvin Toffler
among them. Time has proved some more accurate than others. That's the
problem with talking about the future, anything can happen. No one knows
that better than, Jeff Wacker, a computer science graduate with 30 years'
experience applying new technologies to big business. ... Increasingly,
the complexity will be held within the gadgets we buy, which will serve
to simplify rather than complicate our lives. Even Wacker is reluctant
to take any serious shots at what we can expect beyond five years. But
he points to the obvious hotspots - nanotechnology, wireless connectivity
and 'expert systems' or the precursor to true artificial intelligence.
... 'The dotcom debacle swept away a lot of good technologies. People's
good ideas have been lying fallow.' Now those ideas are being resurrected.
... Wacker calls it the 'fear factor', the worry that the microscopic
robots will 'replicate out of control and turn the world into a great
mass of grey goo'. It's the stuff of a hundred sci-fi movies, but there
are more subtle pitfalls to our greater use of technology." June 20, 2003: Robots
gear up for European football championship. By Matthew Broersma. ZDNet
UK. "More than 50,000 visitors are expected at next month's RoboCup,
to be held in Italy More than 200 organisations are preparing to bring
their teams of robots to RoboCup 2003 next month in Padua, Italy, an event
where researchers test out the latest artificial intelligence techniques
in games of football or rescue simulations. Event organisers said last
week that 183 teams from around the world, mostly from universities, have
registered for rescue simulation competitions and various leagues of football,
while another 80 groups are to show off robots aimed at children. The
event is expecting more than 50,000 visitors. While RoboCup has its lighter
side, it is one of the most prominent events in the world for both artificial-intelligence
researchers and for companies such as Honda and Sony wishing to show off
their latest robotics technology." June 19, 2003: The
sentient office is coming. The Economist Technology Quarterly. "As
computing plays an increasing part in people's lives, much research is
being focused on making computers genuinely friendlier and more useful.
This is why 'sentient computing' has begun to capture people's attention.
... Sentient computing systems are always on, ubiquitously available,
and can adapt to their users. ... According to Emile Aarts at Philips
Research in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, these convivial technologies will
emerge in a number of ways. User interfaces, for example, will move from
'cognitive' to 'intuitive'. So, instead of having to turn the television
on, the TV will know what you want by combining an understanding of what
you say, your expression, your gestures and even how you walk. ... With
such usefulness in mind, research on sentient computing has become increasingly
active in information technology (IT ) laboratories in Europe and America.
Projects under way at the University of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT ), Philips and elsewhere are attempting to stake out
the territory by delving into such topics as 'ambient intelligence', 'ubiquitous
computing', 'aware environments' and the 'intelligent home'." June 19, 2003: Spare
parts for the brain. The Economist Technology Quarterly. "For
decades, artificial-intelligence buffs have been trying to create a synthetic
mind, an artificial consciousness. Achieving that goal would answer many
interesting philosophical questions about what it means to be human. That
is well into the future. Meanwhile, a quiet revolution has got under way
in the world of neuroscience and bioengineering. These disciplines have
made significant progress in understanding how brains work, starting with
top-level functions such as thinking, reasoning, remembering and seeing,
and breaking them down into underlying components. To do this, researcher
have been studying individual regions of the brain and developing 'brain
prostheses' and 'neural interfaces'. The aim is not to develop an artificial
consciousness (although that may yet prove to be a by-product). Instead,
the goal is more pragmatic: to find a cure for such illnesses as Parkinson's
disease, Alzheimer's disease, Tourette's syndrome, epilepsy, paralysis
and a host of other brain-related disorders." June 18, 2003: An
ovarian cancer screening test being developed in Detroit promises new
hope for Jewish women and general population. By Ruthan Brodsky. Detroit
Jewish News. "A new screening test for early detection of ovarian
cancer is being refined and expanded at the Detroit-based Karmanos Cancer
Institute in preparation for government approval. Michael A. Tainsky,
Ph.D., professor and director of molecular biology and genetics at Wayne
State University School of Medicine, developed the project. The research
concept is novel. It doesn't follow the traditional template of screening
for single markers. In Dr. Tainsky's screening, there are multiple markers
reflecting the varying behaviors of proteins in a heterogeneous population.
Secondly, the test would have been impossible to create without enlisting
cutting-edge technology in robotics and artificial intelligence. The need
for the new test is compelling. More than 80 percent of ovarian cancer
patients are diagnosed at a late clinical stage and have a 20 percent
or less chance of surviving at five years. In contrast, the 20 percent
of women diagnosed with early-stage disease have a 95 percent prognosis
at five years." June 18, 2003: McCarthy,
'great man' of computer science, wins major award. By Dawn Levy. Stanford
Report. "John McCarthy, professor emeritus of computer science and
pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI), received the Benjamin Franklin
Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science on April 24. The Franklin Institute
in Philadelphia bestowed the award, lauding McCarthy for 'multiple contributions
to the foundations of artificial intelligence and computer science including
the development of the LISP language, the invention of time-sharing interactive
programming, and key developments in the application of formal logic to
commonsense reasoning.' ... One big remaining challenge, McCarthy says,
is getting machines to act in a spatial, or 3-D, world. 'Nobody has a
computer that could describe the mess on this desk,' McCarthy tells a
visitor to his office. 'If you asked a robot to find a stapler amidst
the clutter and then have a robot arm pick it up, that's a bit beyond
the current state of the art.' Computers can recognize patterns and conclude
'this is a stapler,' but humans can one-up computers because they are
not limited to the sense of sight to understand the 3-D world." June 17, 2003: I,
robot. Can we create machines in our own image and likeness? By Chip
Walter. The Boston Globe (page C1). "When Asimo, Honda's latest humanoid
robot, recently walked on stage waving to the crowd as part of its North
American educational tour, the audience cheered and waved back as if it
were a live celebrity rather than a piece of machinery. But then, why
not? Machines that look and act like us have been part of our imaginary
landscape since 1927 when Futura, the sultry robot in Fritz Lang's film
classic, 'Metropolis,' first stepped into the public eye. ... In the end,
the underlying argument for creating humanoid robots is that if they are
to become truly useful, they have to be capable of operating independently
in a human world. 'Our environment has been created around the physiology
of humans,' said Keeney of Honda. 'It's full of stairs and doorknobs,
light switches, counter tops, and cupboards. . . . It's got to work in
our world.'" Also see the side-bar: Robot Roll Call - From cuddly
friend-to-all-humans to the stuff of nightmares, robots have played a
huge part in our visions of the future. June 17, 2003: Surely,
a little insider trading can't hurt? Think again. Opinion by Howard
Kalt. The Mercury News. "The stock exchanges won't discuss their
monitoring of transactions and trading patterns, but they examine thousands
of transactions and bring several hundred suspicious trades to the SEC's
attention each year. ... Computer databases containing public information
identify any links between investors and possible information sources
from within the company. For example, NASDAQ's SONAR text mining and artificial
intelligence system examines internal regulatory data, public records,
up to 10,000 news stories a day and even Internet message boards."
June 17, 2003: Living
in 'The Matrix.' By Kim Seong-kon. The Korea Herald. "In [Gregory]
Peck's time, the reality he and his contemporaries perceived was rather
simple and stable. The distinction between good and evil was crystal-clear,
and human prejudice, too, was far less complex. Today, however, reality
seems ever more inscrutable and illusive, and all distinctions between
good and evil, between truth and untruth, between the real and the imaginary
seem rapidly disintegrating. That is why contemporary moviegoers are crazy
about 'The Matrix' (1999) and its sequel 'The Matrix Reloaded' (2003)
which vividly delineate the nightmare landscape of the so-called 'post-human
era.' Watching 'The Matrix,' we come to realize that what we perceive
as reality may be a simulation, that is, a virtual reality computer program
designed by some supernatural beings or A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)
to keep the humankind under control. And that realization, even though
it is only a hypothesis, has fundamentally altered our consciousness and
lives for the past few decades." June 17, 2003: Phone
butler organises your life. BBC. "Imagine your very own mobile
butler, able to travel with you and organise every aspect of your life
from the meetings you have to the restaurants you eat in. Software, developed
by scientists at the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at
the University of Southampton, promises to do just this. The artificial
intelligence program works through mobile phones and is able to determine
users' preferences and use the web to plan business and social events."
June 17, 2003: Robots
without a cause - Thanks to the newest wonders of technology we can
get robots to do our vacuuming, transmit pictures on our mobile phones
and unlock our cars (and adjust their seats) merely by touching them.
In the face of this wizardry, Stuart Jeffries has only one question: why?
The Guardian. June 17, 2003: Defence
tightens security. By Chris Jenkins and Kelly Mills. Australian IT.
"The Australian Defence Force is upgrading its restricted network
to deal with the threat of hacking. ... 'We are looking at evolving technologies
to protect our communications networks and systems. The Defence Science
and Technology Organisation is doing some work in that area as well,'
Mr [David] Marshall said. A DSTO project known as Shapes Vector is developing
artificial intelligence and three-dimensional visualisation techniques
'to patrol and report on wide-area anomalies. That is still in its early
days,' Mr Marshall said. 'We are looking at commercial products and how
to use those on our networks.'" June 16, 2003: AI
software gives virtual guitars a lifelike sound. By R. Colin Johnson
EE Times. "Sibelius Software Ltd. has successfully applied the principles
of artificial intelligence to give the performances of its music software
a more humanlike sound. By crafting a rule system that simulates a human
virtuoso, Sibelius and its new 'guitar-only' version, called G7, perform
music convincingly enough to turn heads. Sibelius began its AI quest with
'expressivo' - an expert system embedded into Sibelius 1.0 for varying
the dynamics (amplitude) of individual notes as they play, but Sibelius
2.0 and G7 also add 'rubato,' which slightly changes the tempo (speed)
for emphasis and dramatic effect. It also contains an autoarrange feature
that extends its AI rule set for music into the realm of orchestration." June 16, 2003: Robot
Vacs Are in the House. By Leander Kahney. Wired News. "After
years of fits and starts, the market for robot housemaids finally seems
to be taking off. New models of robot vacuum cleaners -- and the promise
of more in the near future -- are the first signs that a nascent commercial
robot industry finally is taking hold. ... Ask the manufacturers, and
they all say robot vacuums soon will be as common as microwave ovens.
For a roboticist like Hans Moravec, it means the robot revolution is finally
here. 'I've been waiting for decades for the pieces to come together so
that we have a real robot industry,' Moravec said. 'After decades of false
starts, the industry is finally taking off. I see all the signs of a vigorous,
competitive industry. I really feel this time for sure we'll have an exponentially
growing robot industry.' ... According to Moravec, the second-generation
robots likely will navigate with the help of electronic beacons placed
around the house, possibly in wall sockets. The third-generation bot would
use vision. A built-in camera, perhaps pointed upward at the ceiling,
would guide the robot by visual landmarks. June 16, 2003: The
New Pet Craze: Robovacs. By Leander Kahney. Wired News. "Just
as owners of robot pets like Sony's Aibo develop emotional attachments
to their mechanical companions, people are acquiring similar feelings
for their robot vacuum cleaners. The two leading robovac manufacturers
-- iRobot and Electrolux -- report that owners treat their robovacs somewhat
like pets. ... Scientists believe that robot pets trigger a hard-wired
nurturing response in humans. It appears robot vacuums tap into the same
instincts. MIT anthropologist Sherry Turkle, one of the leading researchers
in the field, is conducting studies on how children perceive smart toys
like the Aibo, Furby, Tamagotchi and My Real Baby. She says humans are
programmed to respond in a caring way to creatures, even brand-new artificial
ones." June 16, 2003: Captchas
- Computer Tests Can Defeat Spam. Ingenious computer tests may also
advance machine vision and AI. By Jaikumar Vijayan. Computerworld. " June 16, 2003: Washington
fertile ground for brain research - How science and society can build
brighter babies. By Marietta Nelson. The Sun. "At the heart of this
effort is the Center for Mind, Brain & Learning at the University of Washington
in Seattle. Led by Patricia Kuhl, a professor of speech and hearing sciences,
and her husband, Andrew Meltzoff, a psychology professor, the center is
becoming a place for innovative scientific research on learning and the
brain. ... Other research includes: . Using human learning to design machines
that learn more efficiently, and using artificial intelligence to improve
human learning. ..." June 15, 2003: Dinner
with Simon - Featherless Bipeds. Astrobiology Magazine. "This
featured 'Dinner with...' series builds on the classic thought experiment:
'Which 5 historical figures would you invite to dinner, and how would
you seat them?' While the field of astrobiology historically rests on
many 'shoulders of giants' -- too many for one dinner party, the Astrobiology
Magazine has selected some initial candidates for our dinner party, and
then asks them to introduce their area of expertise in a brief question
and answer format. The answers are their own, as gleaned from some of
their most famous, controversial, or seminal contributions to science
and technology. ... Tonight's dinner introduces Nobel Laureate, Herbert
Simon, widely considered the father of artificial intelligence. As Ronald
Marks, a senior analyst with the SAIC Strategies Group, wrote about Simon:
'Speaking as the economic 'everyman', I believe our new Internet Age will
continue to make Herb Simon look like the genius he was.' Today also commemorates
Simon's birthday, June 15 [1916]." June 15, 2003: My
Son, the Cyborg. By Margaret Talbot. The New York Times Magazine (no
fee reg. req'd.; pages 11 - 12). "Why, exactly, was it front-page
news (and Starbucks -line conversational fodder) that playing 'first-person
shooter' video games enhances visual skills? Maybe it had that tang of
the counterintuitive that makes certain stories from academia attractive
far beyond it: Hey, violent video games can be good for you! Maybe it
was a consolation prize for parents whose kids can't get enough of games
like 'Grand Theft Auto 3' 'Rogue Spear' and 'Medal of Honor,' where the
object is to terminate with extreme prejudice as many enemies as you can.
... It might seem odd to say that neurological studies on how technology
might be changing the way we use our hands or take in visual information
have anything to do with that cyborgian dream, but it's not really such
a stretch. ... But there's probably another reason that the article about
violent video games and visual attention got good play: it took us away,
for a moment, from the eternal debate about whether violent video games
cause children who play them to become more aggressive. The truth is that
while partisans on both sides are always declaring the matter resolved
by social science, it hasn't been. ... In its own way, the quest for a
definitive scientific answer to the question of whether violent media
cause violence is as persistent and as elusive as the dream of mechanical
life." June 15, 2003: Insider
trading inside out. By Kathleen Pender. San Francisco Chronicle. "Even
when they have time to consider the consequences, some people trade on
inside information anyway. Like criminals everywhere, they gamble on not
getting caught. 'Maybe 10 years ago, it was pretty easy to get away with,'
says Peter Romeo, an attorney with Hogan & Hartson. Today, it's not. 'The
surveillance techniques have been improved, and the companies themselves
are exerting a lot of oversight,' says Romeo. The stock and options exchanges
monitor price and volume in individual securities, using artificial intelligence
to flag trades that fall outside certain parameters. When trading looks
suspicious, the exchanges may refer the case to the Securities and Exchange
Commission or U.S. attorneys." June 14, 2003: Smart
cellphone would spend your money. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. New Scientist
(page 17). "A consortium of the world's top consumer electronics
firms, mobile networks and broadcasters are funding the development of
cellphones that will spend money on your behalf. The consortium, called
Mobile VCE, includes Nokia, Sony, Vodafone and the BBC. It might sound
like a bankruptcy waiting to happen, but software engineer Nick Jennings
is supremely confident the phones will not mess up anybody's life. Jennings's
team at the University of Southampton in the UK are developing programs
known as software agents for the consortium. 'I see the artificial agent
as more like a butler-type character,' he says. The agents, which will
run on the new generation of 3G phones, will watch how you use your mobile
and learn to anticipate your next move. 'They start off monitoring what
you do and gradually look for ways to increase their role. Over time they
get to know your preferences,' says Jennings." June 14, 2003: TSA
Modifies Screening Plan - Computerized Analysis Changed in Response
to Criticism That It's Intrusive. By Robert O'Harrow Jr. The Washington
Post (Page E01). "Under the new approach, the system known as CAPPS
II ["second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System"].
would draw less personal information about passengers into the government
computers, the documents show. ... An earlier version of the system would
have used a more intensive mix of government computers and artificial
intelligence to analyze passenger records. Previous plans also suggested
that officials wanted far wider latitude in how they used records about
passengers' lives. The government and business officials behind those
efforts are no longer involved in the project. New details about the system
are expected to be included in a Privacy Act notice to be published in
the Federal Register next week. ... According to a draft of the document,
the notice will sharply narrow how officials intend to collect and share
personal information about passengers. It also probably will describe
plans for a 'passenger advocate' for handling complaints about inaccurate
scores or other problems. The new notice is intended as a signal that
officials are committed to finding the right balance between security
and privacy. 'We care about those issues, and we're addressing them,'
one senior government official said." June 14, 2003: Allen
claims success in work on computers that can reason - Project Halo
aims to develop a 'Digital Aristotle.' By Dan Richman. Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
"In the 1980s, the words 'artificial intelligence' carried the expectation
that computers would soon actually think and reason -- even feel. It turned
out such hopes were hugely exaggerated, so much so that AI became an embarrassing
phrase to use. But not everyone has given up on the idea, at least in
a more modest form. Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp. with Bill
Gates, claimed preliminary success in a hitherto secret project to enable
computers to answer questions they've never seen before, and to state
their reasoning. ... University of Washington computer science professor
Henry Kautz yesterday called Project Halo exciting, saying that the idea
of starting with a core knowledge base and giving computers the ability
to parse text and extract information from it 'is a very hot area.' Just
as they did with AI, the market and public embarrassed themselves over
the Internet. Now AI looks good again, Kautz said. About 40 percent of
the students coming into his department say AI is one of their main interests,
he said." June 13, 2003: Security
habits. By Julia Pierce. The Engineer. "Both the UK and US governments
are pushing the use of biometrics as a means of increasing security at
airports and cracking down on crime, but many critics claim the technology
remains unproven on a large scale, and may not be up to the job. ... The
Intelligent Agents for Multi-modal Biometric Identification and Control
(Iambic) system, developed by Southampton-based neural network and algorithm
specialists Neusciences in collaboration with the University of Kent,
relies on authentication using more than one biometric measurement coupled
with a password for initial access. ... Software built into the network
server then takes data on the user's working habits in the form of algorithms
and compares it to warnings and rules placed in the system by its administrator,
such as the threat of an imminent attack on data, before adding it to
the sign-on score. The computer then decides what level of access to sensitive
data the user should be permitted." June 13, 2003: The
clean mean machine. By Astrid Wendlandt. Financial Times. "According
to Electrolux, the household appliance manufacturer, it's here. Meet the
first robotic vacuum cleaner in the UK: the Trilobite. Resembling nothing
so much as a large ladybird, the Trilobite can theoretically vacuum your
house on its own, navigating its way around tables and small objects as
if it had eyes. Named after the extinct primitive marine arthropod that
crawled the seabed feeding on plankton, the Trilobite uses artificial
intelligence (AI) to make random decisions about where to vacuum next,
or when to stop and return to base to recharge. ... 'When a robot is in
a room, it needs to make a plan,' explains John Gordon, director of the
Applied Knowledge Institute, attached to Blackburn College in Lancashire,
UK, and a member of the judging panel for the British Computer Society's
annual prize for progress towards machine intelligence. 'Sometimes it
is better to have a robot that knows roughly where it wants to go and
deals with things as they crop up,' says Mr Gordon. 'But one difficulty
with that approach is that environments are often complex. This is very
much the subject of debate in the AI research community.'" June 13, 2003: Craig
grad 'one in a million.' By Frank Schultz. The Janesville Gazette.
"Christina Riggs graduated Thursday night with about 390 other members
of the Craig High School Class of 2003. In a recent conversation in the
living room of her parents' northeast side home, Riggs talked about her
hopes for the future. She plans to be a computer engineer and to work
in robotics and artificial intelligence. 'I want to do something that
no one's ever done before, that somehow will make a dent in history,'
Riggs said. ... Riggs remembers reading about artificial intelligence
for a class project in fifth grade. She remembers how her grandmother,
a strong woman, was disabled by cancer and Alzheimer's at the end of her
life. ... Riggs noted that colleges are trying to reverse the male domination
of engineering, and employers are feeling pressure to do the same." June 13, 2003: People
Genie spearheads the European launch of artificial intelligence technology.
Online Recruitment. "Technology to understand and analyse CV's just
as a human would has been launched in Europe by recruitment software innovator
People Genie. ... This cutting edge technology uses artificial intelligence
to understand each CV to the extent that it can spot the difference between
a skill studied on a course and hands on experience. ... 'Smart Genie
will pioneer the way forward by enabling recruiters to spend more time
with a true shortlist of candidates and less time processing irrelevant
CV's.' ... Smart Genie requires no manual data entry or human intervention
as it is powered by machine learning technology. Using highly advanced
pattern matching and predictive techniques it trains itself to search
for patterns of career progression rather than solely relying on matching
job titles and skills to a job specification." June 13, 2003: IT
technology to form backbone in future navy activities. newindpress.com.
"Vice-Admiral and flag officer Commanding-In-Chief, eastern naval
command, Raman Puri has said the Indian navy will deploy convergence and
intelligent internet working technologies to support critical and enterprise-wise
applications in the coming years. ... He said the technological breakthrough
in expert systems and artificial intelligence would be suitable to enhance
the Indian defence framework for integrating data from unmanned sources
such as aerial vehicles, electronic warfare receptors and distributed
information systems. ... Stating that the benefits of information technology
had not reached the common man in the country primarily due to language
barrier, the vice-admiral said the inability to understand the operating
systems or software applications in regional languages had slowed down
the process of it benefits percolating to all sections of the society."
June 12, 2003: Artificial
intelligence identifies effective drugs for HIV patients whose treatment
is failing. Press Release from the HIV Resistance Response Database
Initiative. "New data presented for the first time today at the 12th
International Workshop on HIV Drug Resistance demonstrated that artificial
intelligence (AI) could find effective treatments for patients whose drug
therapy is failing. The system identified potentially effective drug combinations
for patients who were continuing to fail on therapy, despite having their
combinations of HIV drugs changed by their physicians according to current
clinical practice. 'These patients had high viral loads and were failing
because of drug resistance, despite multiple changes to their treatment
and the use of current resistance tests', commented Professor Julio Montaner
MD, Professor of Medicine and Chair in AIDS Research, at the BC Centre,
University of British Columbia, Canada. 'Today's results hold out the
possibility of being able to reverse the process of treatment failure
for such patients, using artificial intelligence to help us identify the
best possible drug combination for the individual.'" June 12, 2003: Poker
playing computer will take on the best. By Ryan Cormier. The Edmonton
Journal. "There's a new poker player that never sweats, never gets
tired, never tips a hand and can still bluff with the best of them. University
of Alberta artificial intelligence researchers bet their new poker computer
program will be the best player in the world, perhaps within a year. 'We've
made some really fantastic progress over the last year and a half,' says
Jonathan Schaeffer, who heads up the university's Games Research Group.
PsOpti -- the pseudo-optimal poker program -- is the latest version in
the team's decade-long attempt to create the ultimate poker player. The
program has some crucial tools, including the ability to bluff. ... 'A
lot of the original research in games involved games with perfect information.
Like in chess, you always know where the pieces are, there's nothing hidden,'
Schaeffer says. 'Games with imperfect information, like poker, are actually
much more important in the real world than games of perfect information.'
Figuring out how to reason with imperfect information has many benefits:
in international negotiations, in poker, or in buying a car." June 12, 2003: College
Courses Foreshadow A Tech Comeback. By Ellen McCarthy. The Washington
Post (Page E01). "But many forecasts say the demand for technical
skills will return. After a downturn in enrollments in 2001, college-level
computer science programs have rebounded a little, the Computing Research
Association says. Several local schools have launched new programs, degrees
and initiatives." June 12, 2003: NeuralWare
announces Strategic Alliance with DuPont Canada and CIMTEK. Pittsburgh
Technology Council. "NeuralWare, a leading provider of neural network
software for developing and deploying innovative and intelligent business
and scientific analytics solutions, has announced a strategic alliance
with DuPont Canada and CIMTEK Automation Systems. ... With its roots in
research conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists, the
Acurum System relies on neural network-based artificial intelligence to
assess the quality of grain, barley, and other seeds and commodities.
Acurum provides rapid, repeatable, accurate and consistent analysis of
grain quality. This innovative tool utilizes digital imaging to evaluate
various seed characteristics including diseases, handling and environmental
conditions, seed classification and determination of admixtures of seeds.
By imitating the human eye, it performs the analysis objectively through
artificial intelligence software." June 12, 2003: Technology
Tomorrow - War Games: Timonium firm makes software for military. By
Reed Hellman. The Jeffersonian. "Games are not always for entertainment.
Throughout history and across cultures, games also served to teach lessons,
pass on traditions and simulate combat. Parlaying its expertise in strategy,
sports, and historical simulations, BreakAway Games of Timonium has created
software used in war-gaming by all branches of the armed forces. ... Most
of BreakAway's 43 programmers, artists, and designers are veterans of
the interactive entertainment industry. They have helped bring 140 titles
to market and transition to the new genre, content, and working conditions
was relatively smooth, company officials said. 'The underlying technology
is designed to be fairly agnostic,' said Tillett. That technology is helping
BreakAway tap into the $12 billion military budget as well as the $10
billion entertainment industry. ... BreakAway's programmers use artificial
intelligence tools to build their software. 'It's all standard stuff,
C++ programming,' said Tillett. 'We create some tools internally.'" June 12, 2003: Robo-thespians
Help Mothers Of Kids With Cancer. ScienceDaily ("adapted from
a news release issued by University Of Southern California"). "Cartoon
figures animated by robotic artificial intelligence can help mothers cope
with the stresses associated with caring for a child who has cancer. In
the first clinical trial, 26 mothers of children being treated for malignancies
gave 'uniformly positive reviews' of the system, called 'Carmen's Bright
IDEAS,' (CBI) developed by the University of Southern California, according
to a paper that will be presented at International Conference on Artificial
Intelligence in Education, Sydney, Australia, July 21-24. ... CBI 'is
an interactive animated health intervention designed to improve the social
problem-solving skills of mothers of pediatric cancer patients' who must
balance the needs of their sick child, their well children, their spouses,
and their work, according to the paper. ... Complex and sophisticated
software is used to orchestrate drama from the mother's choices. It is
not a simple matter of creating canned incidents illustrating various
outcomes. Instead, explained [Lewis] Johnson, the AI characters actually
create their actions and dialog 'on the fly,' acting much as humans do,
from goals and desires evoked by what occurs." | |||