Year 2007 Archive of AI in the news articles
 -- October --
(a subtopic of AI in the news)


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<< HEADLINES are listed in order of date posted here <-> ARTICLES are organized by date published >>

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Articles

October 31, 2007: Cellphones team up to become smart CCTV swarm. By Tom Simonite. NewScientist.com news. "Software that turns groups of ordinary camera cellphones into a 'smart' surveillance network has been developed by Swiss researchers. The team says it will release the [Facet] software for programmers and users to experiment with. The software employs Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology included in many modern phones, to automatically share information and let the phones collectively analyse events that they record. This provides a platform for a group of phones to act as smart network capable of, for example, spotting intruders or identifying wildlife. Other researchers are developing similar intelligent camera networks."
>>> Telecommunications, Multi-Agent Systems, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 31, 2007: Robot Boats Hunt High-Tech Pirates on the High-Speed Seas - As maritime crime heats up, will the U.S. Navy follow Israel and Singapore’s lead to stock up on new unmanned surface vessels? And could they stop Al Qaeda? By Erik Sofge. Popular Mechanics. "For years now, law enforcement agencies across the high seas have proposed robotic boats, or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), as a way to help deal with 21st-Century techno Black Beards. ... This past summer, Florida-based Marine Robotic Vessels International (MRVI) unveiled a USV that emphasizes reconnaissance over firepower. The 21-ft.-long Interceptor can travel at up to 55 mph, and is designed to be piloted both remotely and autonomously. For a patrol boat, autonomous control would be a huge advantage, allowing it to traverse huge stretches of open sea, instead of having to remain within radio range of a given vessel. While the Interceptor could be fitted with a water cannon or other non-lethal offensive system, its primary mission is to serve as a sentry."
>>> Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, Military, Law Enforcement, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 31, 2007: Newsmaker - Takeo Kanade. By Mike Wereschagin. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (pittsburghlive.com). "He is the U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the university's Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center. Noteworthy: He is the 2007 recipient of the Okawa Prize."
>>> AAAI Fellows
-> back to headlines

October 31, 2007: Researcher - Humans will love, marry robots by 2050. By Sharon Gaudin. Computerworld. "An artificial intelligence researcher predicts that robotics will make such dramatic advances in the coming years that humans will be marrying robots by the year 2050. Robots will become so human-like -- having intelligent conversations, displaying emotions and responding to human emotions -- that they'll be very much like a new race of people, said David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher whose book, 'Love and Sex with Robots,' will be released on Nov. 6. Gone, he says, will be the jerky movements and artificial-sounding voices generally associated with robots. These will be highly human-like machines that people fall in love with, becoming aides, friends and even spouses. It may sound like science fiction, but Levy, who turned his book into an academic Ph.D. dissertation at Maastricht University in The Netherlands this fall, said it's something we've been moving toward for decades now."
>>> Robots, Ethical & Social Implications, The Future; also see these related articles
-> back to headlines

October 30, 2007: Next wave of robots cheaper, smarter [video]. Associated Press. "For decades robots have been the stuff of science fiction. But the bots unveiled at the RoboDevelopment Expo in SanJose, California show how they are now becoming essential to manufacturing, technology and entertainment."
>>> Robots, Toys, Manufacturing, Applications, Events (@ Resources for Students)
-> back to headlines

October 30, 2007: iRobot winner offers simple home help [with video]. Tech News Blog post by Candace Lombardi. CNET News.com. "The winner of iRobot's amateur robot-building contest is a multi-functional home robot designed by Danh Trinh of Towson, Md., the company announced Tuesday. Trinh's winning robot, called simply 'Personal Home Robot,' is a teleoperational robot controlled from a laptop using Microsoft NetMeeting. It's capable of doing things like watering plants, controlling appliances, giving out reminders, dancing, and acting as a media center."
>>> Robots, Household Appliances; also see these related articles
-> back to headlines

October 30, 2007: CajunBot survives problems. 2theadvocate.com. "The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Team CajunBot finished its third day of qualifying Monday for the 2007 Urban Challenge, which pits robotic vehicles against each other in a city street setting. ... On Sunday, officials with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced additional qualifying rounds. Each team will once again run through the three testing areas. Today, CajunBot II must react to oncoming traffic in intersections. Finalists for the 2007 Urban Challenge are expected to be announced Thursday. The top 20 teams will compete against one another Saturday. ... For more information, or to watch Saturday’s event live, visit http://www.grandchallenge.org."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Applications; also see these related articles
-> back to headlines

October 30, 2007: New generation of robots makes its debut. People's Daily Online (China). "When the computer entered the public eye more than 20 years ago, no one would have believed how quickly the PC and internet have developed. Today, many robots such as the US's 'ROOMBA,' Japan's 'ASIMO,' France's 'NAO,' and South Korea's 'IROBI' have made their debut. Is the era of the robot approaching? ... At present, there are about 900 million robots working in factories, hospitals, mines and institutes worldwide. A new generation of robots will gradually enter the family home and quietly change people's lives. Scientists generally believe that computer technology had the most significant influence on human life in the 20th Century and robots will continue to affect human life in the 21st Century. They are no longer simply mechanical hands; the new generation of robots essentially represents an intelligent manipulation system. ... A major problem now is the way humans evaluate intelligent robots. ... French scientists pointed out that the flourishing of robot development does not only foreshadow a technological revolution; but also sends out an irrefutable invitation to mankind. As a result, humans have to reconsider their future; and move in the direction of artificial intelligence research."
>>> The Future, Robots, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications, Industry Statistics
-> back to headlines

October 29, 2007: Robotics - Indian schools look at fun way of teaching. The Economic Times. "As select Indian school children prepare to participate in the World Robot Olympiad to be held in Taiwan, next month, schools across the country are displaying interest in introducing to students the fascinating and engaging field of robotics. Sixty teams competed in the recently-held Indian Robotic Olympiad in the capital, which saw participation from 180 schools, a big leap from last year's figure of 18 schools in a competition that required contestants to build and program robots from a specially designed robotics kit. ... The Indian Robotics Organisation, the Indian chapter of the World Robotics Organisation, of which 23 countries are a member, conducts competitions for children annually. Last year it held the competition for the first time and took the winners to Naning in China. ... Though there is no available official figures the robotic industry is the country is estimated to be around Rs 500 crore. ... 'Right now the physics curriculum that we have is very boring and very conceptual. So these robotics courses if they are integrated into the syllabus can sustain the interest of the children and make learning more exciting,' says Bindu Balakrishnan."
>>> Robots, Competitions (@ Resources for Students), Resources for Educators, Industry Statistics
-> back to headlines

October 29, 2007: Is Zeno the future of home entertainment? [video]. Reported by Michael Kanellos. CNET News.com. "Low-priced humanoid robot coming in 2009. Zeno, a humanoid robot with a $300 price tag, is set to be released in 2009. CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos takes a look at a prototype and asks why this one may be different than others that have come before it."

  • Also see: Vision for the robotic future [video]: "Robot development takes center stage From the RoboDevelopment Conference and Exposition in San Jose, Calif., CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos takes a look at the show's most impressive robotic developments, including a robotic hand for the disabled." (October 29, 2007).

>>> Robots, Toys, Assisitive Technologies, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 29, 2007: Riding With Robots 2.0. John Markoff's post to Bits, The New York Times' Technology Blog. "How smart can cars become? Quite a bit smarter. That was my conclusion after a test ride in Junior, a Volkswagen Passat filled with computers and navigation gear that will compete Saturday in the third autonomous vehicle grand challenge, held by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. ... The autonomous vehicle grand challenge, which will be held in Victorville, Calif., promises to be the most exciting yet. During the first two races the robots were basically very smart crumb followers. ... But in the Urban Grand Challenge the cars will be given a set of missions to complete in a simulated urban setting (a military training city.) They will have to figure out how to get from point A to B and then C, etc. Better still, other robot competitors will be busily attending to their own competing missions at the same time. ... Several days ago I took my second drive, this time in Junior, also designed by the group led by Mr. Thrun and Mr. Montemerlo. ... Whereas Stanley [my first test drive] was only able to follow its route, Junior actually 'thinks' about the route and can choose alternatives. ... At one point, for example, when both lanes of our course were blocked by cars, Junior made a three-point turn and got to its destination by a secondary route."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 29, 2007: Are created men created equal? Editorial by Stephanie McPherson. The Massachusetts Daily Collegian Online Edition. "There's no denying that artificial intelligence is a growing trend, and will eventually have to be accepted into mainstream society in some form. But to make A.I. so human-like seems too strange. It is too reminiscent of a science fiction movie. First, a robot husband or wife, then robot teachers. How long until a robot is running the country? Maybe that's the way nature is heading, though."
>>> The Future, Robots, Science Fiction
-> back to headlines

October 29, 2007: The Semantic Web Goes Mainstream - Radar Networks is unveiling a new tool that provides a smarter way to find information and increase productivity. By Kate Greene. Technology Review. "Radar Networks, based in San Francisco, is releasing a free Web-based tool, called Twine, that it hopes will change the way people organize their information. Twine is a website where people can dump information that's important to them, from strings of e-mails to YouTube videos. Or, if a user prefers, Twine can automatically collect all the Web pages she visited, e-mails she sent and received, and so on. Once Twine has some information, it starts to analyze it and automatically sort it into categories that include the people involved, concepts discussed, and places, organizations, and companies. This way, when a user is searching for something, she can have quick access to related information about it. ... The idea underlying Twine's function and technologies is known as the Semantic Web, a concept, long discussed in research circles, that can be described as a sort of smart network of information in which data is tagged, sorted, and searchable. ... In addition to employing the Semantic Web standards, Twine is also using extremely advanced machine learning and natural-language processing algorithms that give it capabilities beyond anything that relies on manual tagging. ... Twine will open up to invited users starting today."
>>> Interfaces, Representation, Web-Searching Agents, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Applications; also see these related articles
-> back to headlines

October 29, 2007: Robot Sweeps Through Tokyo Apartment to Increase Productivity. By Toru Fujioka. Bloomberg.com. "Starting a part-time job at 65 wasn't easy for Yasuo Fukamachi. It got harder when a yellow cylinder on wheels trundled past on his first day in a Tokyo apartment building and began vacuuming the floor. Fukamachi, who wipes windows and railings for 800 yen ($6.90) an hour in the high rise, had stumbled across the winner of Japan's first Robot of the Year award. Developed by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the machine is at the forefront of a government drive to offset a dwindling workforce with technology. 'I got scared after seeing the robot,' Fukamachi said. 'I got this cleaning job because my family-owned company couldn't pay much, even to me. Now I think robots might overtake me.' Japan, the first developed country to register more annual deaths than births, is promoting robots to help increase productivity by 50 percent in the next five years. ... Set up by Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry in 2006, the robot competition attracted 152 entries. Other contestants honored by the judges included a machine to catch squid and My Spoon, a feeding device for the elderly and disabled."
>>> Robots, Ethical & Social Implications, Household Appliances, Assisitive Technologies, Agriculture, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 28, 2007: Bridging document search language barriers. The Sunday Times, Malta. "The Department of Artificial Intelligence within the University of Malta's new ICT Faculty is a one of 10 European partners involved in an EU-funded Framework Programme 6 (FP6) project that is using concept-based, as opposed to word-based profiles, to facilitate cross-lingual document searches, where the language used for the query is not necessarily the same as the language of retrieved documents. The Language Technologies for eLearning (LT4eL) project that uses language technology to automatically analyse linguistic data to improve access to learning materials within an eLearning context by automatically creating concept-based semantic profiles."
>>> Natural Language Processing, Representation, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 28, 2007: The buzz. The Erie Times (GoErie.com). "Zabaware, an Erie-based company that specializes in artificial intelligence technology, recently won first place for the 'most human' computer at the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence in New York City."

  • Also see this press release from Zabaware, Inc.: Zabaware Wins Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence. PR.com (October 24, 2007). "Today Zabaware’s Ultra Hal software won the “most human” computer of the year in the 17th annual Loebner Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The contest was held in New York City hosted by philanthropist Hugh Loebner. The Loebner Prize is an annual competition where software programs attempt to convince human judges that they are actually people. The format of the competition is called a Turing Test."

>>> Turing Test, Chatbots (@ Natural Language Processing), Applications
-> back to headlines

October 28, 2007: Making Fast Food Even Faster. By Michael Fitzgerald. The New York Times. "Fast food is a slow sell for new technologies. It took four years, for instance, for HyperActive Technologies, which makes a system that uses artificial intelligence to predict customer order flow, to have a restaurant chain buy the product. And it took three years for Exit 41, a developer of call-center software, to make its first significant corporate sale. ... But not until January this year did it land a corporate customer, when Zaxby’s Franchising, a chain of 400 restaurants based in Athens, Ga., approved the system for use in all its franchises. ... R. Coulter, co-founder and chief scientist at HyperActive, based in Pittsburgh, says he decided to use his Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University on fast food rather than, say, space exploration because 'it’s the last $100 billion industry that still makes all its products by hand.'"
>>> Business, Applications; also see these related articles
-> back to headlines

October 27, 2007: What puts the creepy into robot crawlies? By Jim Giles. New Scientist (Issue 2627; subscription req'd). "[T]he brain mechanisms responsible for our horror at such human-like creatures, and why this response evolved, are being revealed. Understanding this effect could help robot designers predict how people will react to their creations. The Gollum effect is an example of a phenomenon known as the 'uncanny valley'. If a robot is clearly a robot - with metal limbs, say - people are rarely troubled by it. But pass a certain threshold in realism, such as giving it skin or a human-like voice, and it starts to seem eerie."
>>> Robots, Cognitive Science, Science Fiction
-> back to headlines

October 26, 2007: N.H. firm delivers robots with attitude - Security, domestic service are the main markets for MobileRobots' new tech. By Efrain Viscarolasaga. Mass High Tech. "Unlike certain well-known, relatively low-priced robotic vacuum cleaners, an Amherst, N.H., robotic systems maker has gone upscale -- releasing a line of three high-priced home robots that executives say represent the next step in domestic human-robot interaction. MobileRobots Inc.'s three robots -- named 'Jeeves,' 'BrewskiBot' and 'Agent 007' -- perform household tasks with a personal touch: Jeeves and BrewskiBot are electronic entertainers, able to greet guests at the door or deliver drinks and hors de oeuvres all around the house. Agent 007, on the other hand, patrols the grounds with a security camera and can notify a command center when something is not right, such as an open door. But beyond the menial tasks, the robots were designed to be, well, less robotic, said CEO Jeanne Dietsch."
>>> Robots, Household Appliances, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 26, 2007: Artificial intelligence - Transforming the world we live in. By Kate Hilpern. Independent Online Edition of Careers Adviser Magazine. "The study of artificial intelligence (AI) - even at undergraduate level - has never been so advanced, particularly in the UK, Japan and USA. 'We have a current student on our BSc in AI who is looking at putting emotions on a robot so that if it could show if it was curious or angry,' says Will Browne, lecturer in cybernetics at the University of Reading. ... Most people don't realise the extent to which AI is already used in our everyday lives, believes Brown - making a degree in it an increasingly relevant qualification. ... Little wonder that a growing number of universities across the UK are running degrees in AI. The kinds of people best suited to them, says Dr Browne, are people with a basic interest in engineering and computer science, combined with a curiosity of how animals, including humans, function and how intelligent behaviours are created - and, of course, more than a passing interest in robots. 'We are not looking for geeks,' insists Judith Masthofs, lecturer in computing science at the University of Aberdeen, which also offers an AI degree. 'We need good communicators and problem solvers. But there's no need for students to know where they want to work when they graduate because the opportunities are expanding all the time. We have a lot of students who go onto work in banks, predicting what the money market will do next, while others go on to work for intelligence organisations right through to oil companies.' ... The existence of such degrees are a good reason for people interested in AI to do some homework into the course best suited to them and not look exclusively for 'AI' to appear in the title. As Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner, lecturer in computer science at the University of Southampton, points out, 'All students who study computer science here do some work around AI.' ... Sethu Vijayakumar, reader at Edinburgh University - which offers separate degrees in computer science, AI and informatics - believes there has never been a more exciting time to study AI. 'It's used in everything from automatic speech recognition and speech translation systems right through to rehabilitation systems for stroke patients and disaster recovery systems. What could be more stimulating than the opportunity to contribute to such inventions?'"
>>> AI Courses & Academic Departments -and- Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Computer Science, Robots, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 26, 2007: Mecha-morals - The ethics of artificial intelligence. By Trevor Melanson. The Ubyssey Online. "The thought that robots could be so humanlike raises important moral questions, the least of which is not how to treat them. 'It used to be that animal rights, for example, according to Immanuel Kant, were really indirect in the sense that we owed an animal a duty more because it reflected on how we as humans were,' David Calverley, a former attorney now researching bioethics, told Phoenix radio station KJZZ. 'In the last thirty years, the argument has been made that animals should be given certain rights because of their status,' Calverley explained. 'They are living beings however you want to define that it’s a very complex task. And then the question becomes if you can create a machine that emulates some of those same characteristics that we’re willing to ascribe rights to animals for, why is there a principle distinction, or should their be a distinction.' ... It seems to me that there are two ways to look at the issue of ethics and robots. On the one hand, there is the ethical, which asks us if we have a moral obligation to intelligent machines. And on the other hand, there is the practical, where we must consider if our treatment of robots will be reflected in how they treat us."
>>> Ethical & Social Implications, Robots, Science Fiction
-> back to headlines

October 26, 2007: Intel, scholars explore tech's future. By Daniel Lovering. The Associated Press / available from USATODAY.com. "On university campuses in three states, teams funded by Intel are exploring the future of computing -- and of the market for Intel's industry-driving microprocessors. Research teams at universities in Pennsylvania [Carnegie Mellon University], California [University of California at Berkeley] and Washington state [University of Washington in Seattle] have for six years been seeking ways to further integrate computers into daily life. ... Among the projects: a 'robotic bartender,' a small, wheeled table that carries cups to another device that grasps them and places them in a dishwasher using cameras and lasers as guides. 'The goal of this project is to free robots from the factory floor and bring them to your homes,' said Siddhartha Srinivasa, a [Carnegie Mellon University] scientist working on the project. ... Rahul Sukthankar, a researcher with Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel and an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon, said computers could sort through thousands of mammogram images to help doctors identify similar cases and decide whether to recommend biopsies. 'So really what you've done is enriched the doctor's decision-making potential at that moment by giving them access to all this data which otherwise would have taken a lot of effort to search through,' Sukthankar said."
>>> Applications, Robots, AI Academic Departments (@ Resources for Students)
-> back to headlines

October 26, 2007: Video search makes phone a 'second pair of eyes'. By Will Knight. NewScientist.com news. "Soon, however, it may be easier to simply record a video clip of an item of interest and have your phone tell you about it instead. Researchers at Accenture Technology Labs in France have developed technology that makes this possible using any ordinary 3G cellphone equipped with a video camera. ... If a user records a video clip of, say, a foreign food item, the system can automatically identify ingredients that might cause an allergic reaction. Similarly, when shown a book, it can quickly perform an online price comparison, or find a review (see video...). Live video footage is fed from the handset to a central server, which rapidly matches on-screen objects to images previously entered into a database. The server then sends find relevant information and sends it back to user. The central server uses an algorithm called the Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) to match objects. ... Microsoft has a system called Lincoln, that lets users to take snapshots and send them off for identification. Another system developed by Evolution Robotics of Pasadena, California, called ViPR, also uses video footage to identify objects, and is already available in Japan."

  • Be sure to watch the embedded video demo (or access the video demo directly from YouTube): "The system enables a 3G video cellphone to record an object and find out about it in an online database."

>>> Image Understanding, Information Retrieval, Machine Learning, Vision, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 26, 2007: Photo Gallery - Robots for all occasions. By Corinne Schulze. CNET News.com. "Looking for a hiking partner, someone to entertain your kids, or a gambling buddy guaranteed not to cheat? Look no further than the RoboDevelopment Conference and Expo in San Jose, Calif., organized by Robotic Trends. The two-day event, which kicked off on Thursday, is meant to give people developing robots for sale a place to gather and showcase their work."

  • Also see:
    • The Future Of Robotics Comes To Silicon Valley - Could Change Our Lives. By David Louie. abc7news.com (October 25, 2007). "The cartoon 'The Jetsons' gave us a make believe look at how well robots could work to simplify our lives. Now that futuristic vision may be close to reality. The challenge for these computer scientists and engineers is to take robotics to the next level. They're taking the pulse of what's being developed at a robot development conference. ... So the new frontier is artificial intelligence -- getting a robot to think and respond on its own. Robots will need to know how to interact with people and even animals to operate safely around our homes."
    • A one-eyed robot can do pushups on command. By Tom Abate. San Francisco Chronicle (October 24, 2007). "'We're coming into a time when robotics is being incorporated into school curriculums throughout the United States,' said Dan Kara, president of Massachusetts' Robotics Trends, which on Thursday opens a two-day conference, Robo Development Conference and Expo 2007, in San Jose."

>>> Robots, Applications, Events (@ Resources for Students), Resources for Educators
-> back to headlines

October 25, 2007: Peacebots Picket Robotic Violence. By Claudia Ginanni., Bryn Mawr Now. "What do robots do in the real world? They vacuum floors, work on assembly lines, assist with laparoscopic surgery and, as of last Saturday, march for peace. ... Robot Conflict, organized by the Northeast Robotics Club (NERC), was part of Robot Day, an exhibition designed to foster local kids' interest in robotics technology. Robot Day was hosted by the Institute's Partnerships for Achieving Careers in Technology and Science (PACTS) program, which works with local middle- and high-school students. [Associate Professor of Computer Science Doug] Blank and his students organized the robotic picket line, which carried signs bearing mottos like 'Make code not war,' 'Thou shalt not press others' kill switch,' and 'Extendable arms are for hugging,' partly to give those attending the event a chuckle. But their tongue-in-cheek protest was also designed to call attention to some serious issues. As a computer scientist at Bryn Mawr and the director of the Institute for Personal Robotics in Education, Blank is deeply committed to making the academic culture of computer science more welcoming to women and other groups who are underrepresented in the field. He questions the ability of a combat model to do that."
>>> Robots, Diversity -and- Events (@ Resources for Students), Resources for Educators
-> back to headlines

October 25, 2007: Can a Robot Find a Rock? Interview with David Wettergreen (Part IV). Astrobiology Magazine. "In the final segment of our four-part interview with David Wettergreen, an associate research professor at the Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center, he explains why it’s not so easy for a robot to find a rock.  ... David Wettergreen: Yeah, distinguishing a rock from a soil is a surprisingly hard problem for a robot. AM: What’s hard about it? It seems pretty obvious to me. ... AM: Over time, the trend has clearly been toward robots that can operate more and more autonomously, that can 'reason' more and more like humans. As plans to return to the moon and possibly to send humans to Mars have developed, there’s been a renewed debate about what can be done with robots and what has to be done by people. What’s your view on this? ..."

>>> Space Exploration, Robots, Applications, Vision, AI Academic Departments (@ Resources for Students), Interviews
-> back to headlines

October 25, 2007: Darpa's Robot Car Race - Gentlemen, Start Your Processors. By Michael Belfiore. Wired. "Next week, three-dozen robot cars bristling with lasers, radars and antennas will rev their engines as dawn breaks over a former Air Force base in the California desert. If all the robots behave as their programmers hope, the Pentagon's Urban Challenge race will hold about as much excitement as a round of miniature golf. But it could turn into a smash-up derby. Following a week of trials by an initial field of 36 autonomous vehicles, 20 finalists will compete for $3.5 million in the Urban Challenge on November 3, the third in a series of robot car races sponsored by the Pentagon's wild-haired research department, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa."

  • And see:
    • Driverless vehicles get to show how they 'think.' By Bob Keefe. ajc.com | Cox News Service (October 26, 2007). "Beginning today, 35 vehicles will hit the streets of a former Air Force base north of here for a very unusual race. None of them will have a driver. Not even a remote control. ... Competitors with colorful names like Sting Racing, Mojavaton, Gator Nation and CajunBot began rolling into the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif. this week from across the nation, including Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Gainesville, Fla., and Grand Junction, Colo. ... 'What we're doing is much more difficult than an autopilot on an airplane,' said [Georgia Tech] Sting Racing team leader Tucker Balch, a former Air Force F-15 fighter pilot who should know. 'With an autopilot, you're basically addressing how to plan a route from A to B. We're driving on a road system where you have to obey traffic laws and so forth.'"
    • Robot cars at the starting line of futuristic race - Cars must "think" their way through situations. By Bob Keefe. statesman.com | Cox News Service (October 26, 2007). "'This is a challenge ... not only to save lives, but also to create technology that will sooner or later trickle down to mainstream consumers,' racer Dave Tuttle of Austin said. In a former life as a semiconductor engineer, Tuttle oversaw the design of microprocessors used in IBM's chess-champion Deep Blue computer. Now he's the leader of Austin Robot Technology, a team of high-tech hobbyists and University of Texas engineers behind 'Marvin,' a self-driving Isuzu sport-utility vehicle that will compete in the semifinals today. ... Car makers and other businesses see potential. Helping sponsor some of the teams are Volkswagen and General Motors, Caterpillar and Lotus. High-tech companies like Google Inc. and Intel Corp. also are helping fund teams, as are defense contractors like SAIC Inc."
    • Have car, no driver ... will travel? Austin team to test unmanned auto in competition that may pave future for military vehicles. By Karen Brooks. Dallas Morning News (October 26, 2007). "Marvin the Land Robot may have a long road to travel before he pulls into the average American driveway – but this tricked-out SUV being developed at the University of Texas won't need a driver to get there. ... 'This is the sort of thing that can really change society,' said team member Peter Stone, professor of computer science at UT whose class last spring featured Marvin as its lab project. 'Looking back on the history of the automobile over 100 years, people will mark the Ford and the invention of the assembly line ... but then they'll also mark this as the time when cars started driving themselves.' ... The team named him Marvin after the 'Paranoid Android' in Douglas Adams' cult-favorite series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the books, Marvin is depressed because he's infinitely more intelligent than the universe around him, and therefore bored to tears. ... The team knew that Marvin was the right name for its creation when it received its random team number for the 2005 Grand Challenge: 42."
    • “Junior” on track for Urban race Racing team’s robotic car enters qualifying round today. By Mima Mohammed. The Stanford Daily (October 26, 2007). "The Stanford Racing Team and its robotic car 'Junior' begin competition today at the National Qualifying Event for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge."
    • Driverless cars set to take on urban challenges - A snazzy Lotus is Triangle's entry. By Bruce Siceloff. newsobserver.com (October 26, 2007). "A Cary-based Lotus sports car dubbed Lone Wolf is one of 35 robot vehicles that will meet today in California for the semifinals of the $3.5 million DARPA Urban Challenge, a Defense Department contest in driverless driving. ... Lone Wolf is the creation of Insight Racing, a team of 50 volunteer engineers and N.C. State University students."
    • Pentagon robot challenge goes corporate. By Alicia Chang. The Associated Press / available from denverpost.com (October 26, 2007). "'They've become like NASCAR teams with multiple sponsors and stickers on everything,' said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who has followed the DARPA competitions. 'It shows that it's becoming big business.' For the first time, there even will be a sponsors-only section for companies to display their swag next to the pit stop on the grounds of the old George Air Force Base east of Los Angeles on race day, Nov. 3. ... Sponsors in the first two challenges mostly were bit players. Today, they are more likely to back several teams and in some cases, help lead one. Part of the reason has to do with new rules that made the contest more lucrative. Unlike in past years when competitors raised their own money, DARPA gave up to $1 million each to 10 teams in return for the right to use some of the technology that's developed. ... DARPA does not endorse any team or corporate sponsor, but it encourages academia and business to work together. 'It's wonderful to have associates to complement each other. Together you're much greater than the sum of the parts,' said William 'Red' Whittaker, Carnegie Mellon robotics professor who is competing for the third time."

>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Transportation, Military, Grand Challenges, Applications, Science Fiction
-> back to headlines

October 25, 2007: The E-Learning Adventure. By Nicole Girard. TechNewsWorld. "Improvements in the processing power of personal computers combined with Internet delivery applications provide a tremendous opportunity for novel approaches to preparedness training. The power of virtual learning environments lies in creating 3-D spaces that give users a sense of learning by doing. ... A simulation-based training game designed to equip players with the ability to deal with crises in a military situation was developed by research and development firm Stottler Henke. The system -- developed by the Navy to train tactical action officers (TAO) -- allows players to train within a battlefield simulation. As officers second in command to the captain, they are the individuals who run the ship in a crisis situation. 'In real life, the captain commands a cadre of about 15 people,' Jim Ong, group manager for Stottler Henke, told TechNewsWorld. Ong leads the development of artificial intelligence-based systems for training, performance support and decision support. ... Instead of pressing buttons on a dashboard, the player is talking to a person through the use of automated speech recognition and speech synthesis provided by a tool called 'Symbionic.' It's an intelligence agent toolkit used to monitor the students actions. It consists primarily of voice commands and questions and assesses whether or not the student is doing the right thing or not.... Stottler Henke specializes in turnkey applications and developing tools. Their main area of expertise is developing advanced training systems. Their core competition is artificial intelligence. 'We use [artificial] intelligence to make training more effective,' Ong said. 'A lot of simulations used by corporations tend to be pretty simple. Artificial entertainment games tend to have the intelligence of the characters that are in the game, the non-live characters.' The way to make the characters smarter is to enable the sim to automatically assess the students' performance, Ong said."
>>> Education, Military, Video Games, Speech, Applications
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October 25, 2007: Rating Facial Expressions - New software could help mental-health professionals assess patients and ensure that salespeople project a positive attitude. By Anna Davison. Technology Review. "Software that recognizes and rates smiles was demonstrated recently at an exhibition in Tokyo, where attendees competed to outsmile one another. The smile-checking technology is the latest addition to Omron Corporation's OKAO Vision software suite, which detects faces in images and can determine the person's gender and approximate age, or verify his or her identity from a database of faces. The smile ­software is Omron's first foray into facial-expression detection and analysis, a field that could revolutionize how humans interact with machines, and with each other. ... 'Clearly, it's an interesting thing,' says Joseph Atick of L-1 Identity Solutions, based in Stamford, CT, which supplies identification technology, primarily for security applications. 'If you can read people better, you can serve them better.'  ... Sophisticated facial-expression analysis could help mental-health professionals evaluate their patients and monitor their progress."
>>> Image Understanding, Interfaces, Machine Learning, Vision, Applications
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October 25, 2007: Parents blamed for low IT enrolment levels. By Charles Mandel, CanWest News | Edmonton Journal. "Enrolment in information technology (IT) programs is declining at universities across Canada and parents are to blame, says one of Canada's leading computer scientists. 'I fundamentally blame the parents, because the parents are the ones who survived the dot-com bust with the perception that there are no jobs in IT,' said Jonathan Schaeffer, a Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Alberta. ... He is one of about 100 computer scientists, academics, industry leaders and government officials gathered at a Toronto conference aimed at understanding why interest in computer science and computer engineering programs is dropping across Canada. Research shows 89,000 new IT jobs will be required in Canada in the next three to five years...."
>>> Computer Science, Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Industry Statistics
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October 24, 2007: Simplest 'universal computer' wins student $25,000. By Jim Giles. NewScientist.com news. "A 20-year-old computer science undergraduate has claimed a prestigious $25,000 mathematics prize by proving that a simple mathematical calculator can be used as a 'universal computing machine'. The proof involves a kind of mathematical calculator known as a Turing machine, a concept originally studied by mathematician Alan Turing in the 1930s. Some kinds of Turing machine are 'universal computers' - given enough time and memory, they can solve almost any mathematical problem. Mathematician Stephen Wolfram discussed the simplest possible Turing machine, a cellular automaton that uses just three different symbols in its calculations, in his 2002 book A New Kind of Science. In May 2007, Wolfram announced a $25,000 award to anyone who could prove that this Turing machine is also universal."

  • Also see:
    • The Prize Is Won; The Simplest Universal Turing Machine Is Proved. Stephen Wolfram - Wolfram Blog (October 24, 2007). "I had no idea how long it would take before the prize was won. A month? A year? A decade? A century? Perhaps the question was even formally undecidable (say from the usual axioms of mathematics). But today I am thrilled to be able to announce that after only five months the prize is won--and we have answer: the Turing machine is in fact universal! ... Here it is. Just two states and three colors. And able to do any computation that can be done. ..."
    • A New Kind of Science - Author Pays Brainy Undergrad $25,000 for Identifying Simplest Computer - But will it jumpstart Stephen Wolfram's scientific revolution? By JR Minkel. ScientificAmerican.com Science News (October 25, 2007). "Wolfram's book explored the theme that extreme complexity can blossom from very simple rules, especially those of so-called cellular automata, which resemble ever expanding games of tic-tac-toe and can produce complex, nonrepeating patterns reminiscent of everything from snowflakes to quantum mechanics to natural selection. The former child prodigy argued that such models might offer a better way of understanding physics and even biology than can the traditional tools of calculus. One of Wolfram's main conjectures was that nearly any simple set of abstract rules should be equivalent to a universal Turing machine in the complexity it can produce. The existence of the new proof, he tells ScientificAmerican.com, adds weight to the idea. It also marks a 'monument in the computational universe,' Wolfram says. 'This is the end of the road. This is the simplest conceivable universal Turning machine.'"


>>> Turing (@ Namesakes), Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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October 24, 2007: Intelligent approach to meeting technology needs of Gulf region. AME Info. "The British University in Dubai (BUiD) has announced the opening of a unique outreach programme, based on innovative thinking in artificial intelligence and information technology, which is open to all IT professionals working in the region. ... This ambitious programme begins with a public lecture from Henry S. Thompson, a leading expert on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive science from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The talk is entitled 'Artificial Minds, Natural Computation: How computers have changed the way we think about ourselves'. ... The public lecture, informed by the particular use of computer models of human language, will be followed by a major event open to IT professionals from across the region. The Dubai Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (DAMAS) School will be held at The British University in Dubai from 27-30 January 2008, organized by BUiD's Autonomous and Adaptive Systems research group."
>>> Cognitive Science, Multi-Agent Systems, Applications, AI Academic Departments -and- Events (@ Resources for Students)
-> back to headlines

October 24, 2007: Japan traces robots' past, future. By Tim Hornyak. The Japan Times Online. "A major robot exhibition that opened Tuesday at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo's Ueno Park presents that dream as a sweeping historical progression going back centuries. "The Great Robot Exhibition: Karakuri, Anime and the Latest Robots" brings together dozens of robots, toys, artifacts and demonstrations in what is Japan's biggest 'bot extravaganza since a hit droid-fest that was held at the 2005 Aichi Expo. The show is a compelling illustration of how robots are both science and fiction and how Japan's approach to robotics is heavily influenced by fantasy. ... The exhibition is based on three themes: real robots, imaginary robots, and karakuri. The latter were ingeniously devised clockwork dolls created when Japan was closed to the rest of the world during the Edo Period (1603-1867), and they are considered proto-robots. ... It's easy to understand how this cultural predilection for anthropomorphizing things, part of an animistic religious tradition, made it natural for Japanese to want to welcome robots, especially humanoid ones, into the workplace and home."

  • Also see the related article: Asimo steps closer to Honda's Astro Boy goal. By Tim Hornyak. The Japan Times Online. "Honda's humanoid robot Asimo is so amazingly graceful for a machine that it's hard to believe there isn't a man inside that walking spacesuit. ... [O]ne of the biggest obstacles to having a handy robot like Asimo around the home is smarts. "Artificial intelligence is a huge field," says lead inventor Masato Hirose. 'We're working on an important part  -- getting the robot to understand its surroundings through environmental sensing technology. It's a preliminary step before real AI. Our hope is to commercialize Asimo over the next five to 10 years.'"
  • And see this slide show: Great Robot Exhibition Showcases Centuries of Japanese Bots. By Tim Hornyak. Wired (October 25, 2007).

>>> Robots, Science Fiction, Events (@ Resources for Students)
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October 24, 2007: Gray to compete in DARPA Urban Challenge. By Tiffany Williams. The Courier of Mongomery County. "It's taken Jennifer Gray 34 years to find how she fits into a world filled with patterns, and she now has a chance to show her unbounded math skills at a national competition. ... It wasn't until she was committed to a mental health institution and scored 129 on a mandatory IQ test that Gray was diagnosed as a high-functioning autistic. ... Gray has the opportunity to use her skills and learn more about her passions, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles, at the DARPA Urban Challenge, taking place in Victorville, Calif. ... Gray has been invited to join Team Berlin from Rice University on the trip. The event begins Friday. 'For me it is the same excitement of meeting a Hollywood actor,' she said. Gray is raising money for her trip by hosting garage sales at her mother's home and seeking sponsorships."
>>> see articles about the DARPA Grand Challenge elsewhere on this page
-> back to headlines

October 23, 2007: Start-up warms up personal robots - Silicon Valley company started by a Google veteran plans to make its robotics software open-source. By Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. "Willow Garage, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is developing a hardware and software development platform for personal-assistant robots, autonomous boats and unmanned cars. The privately funded company, quietly started almost a year ago by eGroups founder and veteran Google architect Scott Hassan, plans to make its robotics software open-source. That way, it hopes to draw a community of developers to build applications in these respective fields. ... The emergence of Willow Garage comes as commercial interest in robotics and cognitive computing is on the rise. ... 'We want to allow software people to be able to share ideas and a common robot platform. We think the field will advance much more quickly that way,' according to the personal robot team."
>>> Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, Assistive Technologies, Household Appliances, Robots (@ Software, Open Source Projects & Hardware), Applications
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October 23, 2007: Robots 'boost' science interest. BBC News. "Robots are being used by teachers in a bid get more female pupils interested in engineering and science. Belvidere school in Shrewsbury has been chosen as a regional training centre to show teachers how to make the subject more relevant to girls. A group of German experts have been using robots that can be used in classrooms to appeal to girls."
>>> Resources for Educators
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October 23, 2007: Future of science - 'We will have the power of the gods' - A leading theoretical physicist has tapped the best scientific brains of the age to provide a startling vision of the future. By Roger Highfield. Telegraph. "According to the theoretical physicist Professor Michio Kaku of the City College of New York, we are entering an empowered new era: 'We have unlocked the secrets of matter. We have unravelled the molecule of life, DNA. And we have created a form of artificial intelligence, the computer. We are making the historic transition from the age of scientific discovery to the age of scientific mastery in which we will be able to manipulate and mould nature almost to our wishes.' ... In a new BBC4 series called Visions of the Future, Prof Kaku talks to today's pioneers about how we are moving from being passive observers of nature to its choreographers. Here are their remarkable speculations about how the scientific and technological revolution will transform life and society in the 21st century. ... Nanobot armies: Dr John Alexander, US Joint Special Operations University. ... The virtual family: Jaron Lanier, virtual-reality pioneer. ... Biological robots: Prof Rodney Brooks, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Superhuman machinery: Paul Saffo, technology forecaster, Stanford University. ... Artificial intelligence: Eliezer Yudkowsky, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, California. ..."
>>> The Future, Applications
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October 22, 2007: Super search. The Engineer Online. "Unique software devised by Ulster University (UU) researchers has won the top prize at this year’s 25k Award organised by the Northern Ireland Science Park. Invented by a team of three UU researchers in collaboration with St Petersburg State University, Russia, the so-called SOPHIA software automatically trawls through documents to build structure by discovering key themes that naturally exist within them. Documents are then associated with the theme they are most closely aligned to with respect to their semantic content. When a user requests information, SOPHIA returns the themes that most closely match their needs."
>>> Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Applications
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October 22, 2007: How Do You Say...Translation software is at last good enough to help companies do business in other languages. By Peter Loftus. The Wall Street Journal. "Thanks to the Internet, companies can leap over most geographical barriers to conduct business globally. But language barriers remain a tough hurdle. Increasingly, though, translation software is making it easier to do business in other languages. While computer translation isn't perfect -- human input is still needed to ensure complete accuracy -- the latest programs are faster and more accurate than earlier generations of translation tools. ... Ford Motor Co. uses translation software from Systran SA of France, along with some human input, to convert vehicle-assembly instructions written in English into four languages: Spanish, German, Portuguese and Dutch. It also uses software from Applications Technology Inc., of McLean, Va., for translations from English to Turkish. Nestor Rychtyckyj, a Ford technical specialist in artificial intelligence, says that while machine translation still isn't 100% accurate, it has improved over the years and is good enough to convey the substance of instructions to foreign workers. 'Machine translation just makes the process more efficient' than it would be using human translators alone, Mr. Rychtyckyj says. 'We're saving a lot of time and effort.'"
>>> Machine Translation, Business, Marketing, Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Applications
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October 22, 2007: 'Smart' video offers an alert to threats - Taking boredom factor out of security systems. By Hiawatha Bray. The Boston Globe. "In video surveillance systems, the weakest link is the often bored, distracted human who has to spend hours staring at a bank of video monitors, waiting for something suspicious to happen. Several Boston area companies say they have found a solution: surveillance systems smart enough to recognize threats, even when their human operators do not. 'It essentially replaces the need for people to watch video,' said Scott Schnell, chief executive of VideoIQ Inc., a Bedford firm that was spun off earlier this year from General Electric Co. ... Systems from VideoIQ and Intuvision Inc. of Woburn can automatically spot an intruder climbing a fence or a subway passenger leaving a suspicious parcel on the platform. ... [Simon] Harris said that worldwide sales of smart video surveillance systems will be less than $100 million this year, but rise to about $3 billion by 2010. ... One test video shows ducks and boats on the Hudson River. The system draws yellow boxes around the harmless ducks, but when a boat appears, the box turns bright red. ... Intuvision, a startup funded by grants from the US intelligence community, has attacked the problem using a technique called 'task-based attention.'"

>>> Law Enforcement, Image Understanding, Vision, Machine Learning, Applications, Industry Statistics

October 22, 2007:  Japan stages robot Olympics  [video] - Japan has held a special 'robot athletic meet' in which competing robots played football and danced. BBC.

>>> Robots, Sports
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October 22, 2007: CMU robotic SUV nearly ready to compete for $2 million prize. By David Templeton. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Beginning Friday, Tartan Racing's driverless car will try qualifying for the finals of the Urban Challenge on a former Air Force base in Victorville, Calif. Twenty qualifiers then will compete Nov. 3 in a 60-mile 'mission' through cityscape on the base with two-way traffic, stop signs, four-way intersections and other roadway obstacles. ... The event allows the public to see the technology. In time, the technology will allow cars to park themselves, then return to pick up the owner. Cars also will drive themselves on interstate highways with 'efficiency, safety and reliability that's far beyond what we have today,' Dr. [William 'Red'] Whittaker said."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Transportation, Military, Grand Challenges, Applications
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October 22, 2007: The future is here right now, if you can read the signs. By Leon Gettler. The Age. "Mr [Ray] Hammond, a European author and futurologist, says Maria is very much a sign of things to come. The signs are already there. "My particular approach is to study trends in the present and work out the number of ways that they may extrapolate into the future," Mr Hammond says. ... I use Google a metaphor for an emerging intelligence. Every single day that I use Google, and I use it constantly, I notice that it's getting a little bit more capable at understanding what I mean when I don't say precisely what I mean. 'Now, if brainpower in the computer is doubling every 12 months and Google is gathering every single minute of every day the intentions of all the humans in the planet, imagine where that might lead in 10 years. And if we accept that Moore's law (that the number of transistors on a chip should double every 18 months to two years) will continue, somewhere between the years 2020 to 2035, artificial intelligence will equal human intelligence and by definition, it will then double it.' The result, he says, will be a rupture in human evolution. 'We are effectively inventing a new species. So where does that leave us then? In control.'"
>>> The Future, Applications
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October 21, 2007: Robot Warriors In Iraq - The Pentagon Is Looking Towards High-Tech Solutions In Effort To Reduce U.S. Casualties. CBS Evening News. "The sniper nests and IED-laced roads of Iraq have posed deadly challenges for the U.S. military. The result has been speedy development of soldiers that know nothing about fear or danger: the combat robot. "It's a tremendous capability to put a robot where you do not want to put a man," said Jim Braden, of the Army's Joint Robotics Program. Never before have robots played such a wide role in a ground war, reports CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell. Five thousand robots are working alongside U.S. forces, finding booby traps or searching for the enemy. ... The Pentagon plans to spend nearly $2 billion over the next five years on robots.... The Warrior could be in Iraq by 2009, transporting ammunition or wounded soldiers. But another robot recently sent to Iraq is lethal. It's called Swords and CBS News has learned three of these armed robots could see their first combat very soon. But the military insists it is not unleashing a mindless killing machine. A soldier must press the fire button. 'You need a man in the loop,' said Braden. ... But the ability for robots to think for themselves - what designers call 'autonomy' - may not be far away."

  • Watch the CBS News video report: Robots Help U.S. Fight In Iraq. (October 21, 2007). "Robots are being used by the military in Iraq are able to disarm IED's and to search for and even kill the enemy. Russ Mitchell reports."

>>> Robots, Military, Autonomous Vehicles, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications, Industry Statistics
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October 21, 2007: Stanford team getting ready to take Junior out for a drive. By Matt Nauman. The Mercury News (SiliconValley.com). "Junior, a Volkswagen Passat station wagon, will compete this week as the Stanford Racing Team's entrant into the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Driving it will be, uh, itself - it's a robotic vehicle. Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford computer professor, again heads the effort that resulted in a $2 million victory in a similar event in 2005. This time, however, instead of a run across the Southern California and Nevada desert, the autonomous vehicles from 36 teams must deal with other traffic, obey traffic laws, merge and park. Although the purpose of the event is to foster development of unmanned vehicles for the military, Thrun thinks robotic vehicles eventually can make highways safer and less congested, and even improve the environment. He talked to Mercury News Staff Writer Matt Nauman last week. Here is a transcript of their conversation. Q: What was the significance of winning the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and how has all the fanfare affected you and the team?  ... Q: Aren't robots better drivers than humans? ... Q: How significant are autonomous vehicles in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence? And how close are they to commercialization?A: Cars are a great opportunity for artificial-intelligence research to make advances. Many of the issues addressed by artificial intelligence are found in traffic, like scene research, understanding what's out there. Clearly that's something that happens in traffic. How close to commercialization? My guess is that in about six to eight years' time, we'll have technology that actually improves the performance and reliability of driving. I think the way the commercialization will go is that we'll have driver assistance systems that help people, but people are still in charge. They won't be completely autonomous for the near future. Q: How successful have robots been? ... Q: Will robot cars improve our lives and the world?"

  • Also see these 3 stories from Palo Alto Online:
    • 'Look Ma, no hands!' - Stanford bids for second win in robotic-car DARPA Challenge. By Sue Dremann (October 23, 2007).
    • A future for driverless cars? By Sue Dremann (October 23, 2007). "Autonomous vehicles for military applications are probably five to 10 years away, performing tasks such as removing mines and explosive devices. It will be 20 years before a fully autonomous car hits the mainstream market, according to Sebastian Thrun, project leader of the Stanford Racing Team. ... And there are greater obstacles beyond technology. 'There are all the [transportation-safety] regulation hurdles. Who will be responsible if it crashes? If you don't have a driver anymore, the liability shifts to the manufacturer,' he said."
    • The mission to accomplish. By Sue Dremann (October 23, 2007). "Below are some of the challenges the vehicles will face: • Stay in the lanes • Travel to all designated 'military' checkpoints • Get out of dead-end streets ..."

>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Transportation, Military, Grand Challenges, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications, Interviews
-> back to headlines

October 21, 2007: When the Military Needs It Yesterday. By G. Pascal Zachary. The New York Times. "The Pentagon has long indulged in highly polished technological systems that are the product of many years of bureaucratic wheel-spinning, grinding meetings and wish-list overkill. But those soul-deadening procedures have come under intense criticism for turning creative people away from innovation for national security. ... BBN built a two-way translator, a hand-held device that allows an American soldier to understand an Arabic speaker, sort of. It is not perfect, Mr. [Mark] Sherman acknowledges, but at 50 percent accuracy, the digital translator may indeed improve security and save lives because human translators in Iraq often spy for the other side or are targets for assassination by insurgents. In late 2006, Mr. Sherman had a chance meeting with some Army officers at Harvard. Because BBN had been researching language translation for decades, a team was able to produce a single hand-held translator in just 42 days. It is now being tested in Iraq. The idea of bringing inventions quickly to the battlefield has roots stretching to World War II and the Korean War."
>>> Military, Machine Translation, Natural Language Processing, Speech, Applications
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October 19, 2007: What I Meant to Say Was Semantic Web. John Markoff's post to Bits, The New York Times' Technology Blog. "One great way to start a fight in a crowded Silicon Valley cocktail party (and there are a lot of them these days) is to mention Web 3.0. There is no easy consensus about how to define what is meant by Web 3.0, but it is generally seen as a reference to the semantic Web. While it is not that much more precise a phrase, the semantic Web refers to technology to make using the Internet better by understanding the meaning of what people are doing, not just the way pages link to each other. ... So companies are bubbling up all over the place that claim to be building part of the semantic Web. Some are building voice recognition systems to use while browsing the Internet on a cell phone. Some want to challenge Google head on with a better search engine. ... In a demonstration I saw earlier this week Twine appeared to do a good job of what artificial intelligence researchers refer to as 'entity extraction,' that is categorizing things like people and places automatically."

  • Also see Dan Farber's post to his ZDNet Between the Lines Blog: Radar Networks weaves semantic Twine (October 18, 2007). "'Twine uses natural language processing and statistical, link and graph analysis, as well as Web crawling, data mining and machine learning to figure out what information users put into the system is about, what it means and what is should be related to. Then Twine connects it and organizes it for you automatically,' he said. Underling all the computation to extract meaning, classify and relate data are emerging semantic Web standards, such as RDF, OWL and SPARQL (the query language for RDF). 'Web 2.0, as Tim O’Reilly says, is all about collective intelligence. Twine does it in a smarter way -- it’s Web 2.0 with a brain, which is sort of what web 3.0 is,' [Nova] Spivack said."

>>> Interfaces, Representation, Web-Searching Agents, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Knowledge Management, Applications
-> back to headlines

October 19, 2007: 'Robotic rampage' unlikely reason for deaths. By Tom Simonite. NewScientist.com news. "Nine South African soldiers died and eleven were injured last Friday during a live-fire exercise when an anti-aircraft gun went out of control. But, contrary to some reports, the tragic accident was not the result of an automated or robotic weapon going out of control, a defence expert says. ... Blogs and other online news sources have suggested the incident may be due to software problems, highlighting the danger of automated weapon systems. But Jim O'Halloran of defence publication Jane's Land-Based Air Defence says the incident is more likely the result of a simple mechanical failure."

  • Also see: Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14. Noah Shachtman's Danger Room Blog at Wired (October 18, 2007). "The South African National Defence Force 'is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.'"

>>> Robots, Military, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications
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October 19, 2007: Newsmaker - Gates still finding his voice. By Ina Fried. CNET News.com. "Bill Gates has been saying for years that one day soon we will use handwriting, voice and touch to control our computers. He's still saying that. In an interview with CNET News.com, Gates talks about some of the ways that speech recognition has already made inroads and discusses some of the places it will eventually go. ... Q: When did you really first see the possibilities of voice? Was there a real early demo you saw years ago that sort of--you saw it and could really see the possibilities? Gates: Well, certainly the idea that computers should deal with voice has been around a long time. It's kind of a natural way to communicate. In the 1970s, DARPA was funding people, including people at Harvard, to do speech recognition. And so people kind of thought, hey, this should be easy to do. The dream of computers understanding voice goes way back. And the dream that the data network and the voice network would be one in the same goes way back as well. ... [Q:] What are some of the areas where you see voice going that people aren't necessarily thinking about today? Gates: To me, voice is in the broad realm of natural interface. ..."

>>> Speech, Natural Language Processing, Interfaces, Applications, Interviews
-> back to headlines

October 18, 2007: Newsmaker - DARPA sees inspiration as trophy of robot race. By Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. "For Tony Tether, an upcoming race of robot cars isn't just about saving lives in the military. It's also designed to inspire a generation of technologists. As director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. government's military research and development arm, Tether pioneered a series of driverless challenges that have wowed the public and four-star generals alike. ... He was appointed director of DARPA in 2001. CNET News.com talked to Tether ahead of the Urban Challenge, the third in DARPA's series of robot races, which will award $2 million to the winner. The finals will take place November 3 in Victorville, Calif. Q: We're getting close to the Urban Challenge, and you've witnessed all of the others. So how do you suspect this one will vary from the others? ... What will be the hardest thing about the course, without giving anything away? ... So what do you think has been accomplished between the second and now? Tether: I think the thing that's really been accomplished is that these vehicles have learned to recognize not only fixed obstacles, but obstacles that are moving. ... Can you tell us how this challenge came about? [Tether:] The autonomous vehicle really came about for two reasons. One was that it's a serious mission for the military and that if we can reduce the number of people who are driving convoys in a place like Iraq or Afghanistan, we would definitely reduce the infrastructure to take care of those people. The second reason is that we are worried here at DARPA about the food stock: that the kids today in the United States don't seem to be going into engineering and science like they used to. ... What are the top three advances to come out of DARPA in the last five years would you say? ..."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Military, Transportation, Grand Challenges, Applications, Interviews
-> back to headlines

October 18, 2007: Do you, Mr. Insensitive, take this robot to be your lawfully welded wife? Editorial- The Vancouver Sun (canada.com). "[Isaac] Asimov did foresee the advent of intelligent robots, and he promulgated three famous laws of robotics. But those laws seem rather mundane today, dealing as they do with robots' responsibility to protect and serve humans and themselves. Nowhere, for example, does Asimov broach the much more intriguing topics of humans having sex with, or indeed, marrying robots. That oversight has now been corrected though, thanks to artificial intelligence researcher David Levy, who recently received his PhD from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands for his thesis on human-robot relationships. Titled Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners, the thesis explores what Levy believes is an inevitability: That some humans will eventually take robots to be their lawfully wedded -- or welded, as the website Digital Daily put it -- partners. ... This does, however, seem to be jumping the gun a bit, since most people would only fall in love with -- and society would only sanction relationships with -- robots that are fully sentient, and there's no telling how long it will be before we develop artificial sentience."
>>> also see these related articles
-> back to headlines

October 17, 2007: Robots Will Become Part of Daily Life. By Fred O'Connor, IDG News Service via PC World. "Caring for an aging population, giving manual-labor jobs to illegal immigrants and keeping production costs down as worker wages rise sound like issues reserved for a political campaign. But panelists at a recent discussion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge believe robotics will help solve these problems and others faced by society and businesses. Once relegated to science-fiction movies and automobile assembly lines, robots will handle more complex tasks in various industries, including health care and agriculture, according to those who spoke about the future of robotics. ... Technology's interdisciplinary nature will help foster robotics advancements, the panelists said. ... Meanwhile, developments in multicore computing and storage advancements have already affected robot development."
>>> Robots, Applications
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October 17, 2007: Next-Gen Robots Will Be Big For Holidays - High-Tech Robotics Come In Toy Packages. By Gregg Geller. WCBSTV.com. "Next generation robots will be a big hit this upcoming holiday season. Robots at this year's Digital Life Expo came in many shapes, sizes and prices, and with varying capabilities. What became clear was that no matter what you budget or desires for a new robotic toy, something is available for everyone." Videos of the robots can be accesed via links in the article.
>>> Toys & Robotic Pets, Robots, Applications, Events (@ Resources for Students)
-> back to headlines

October 17, 2007: Finding a parking space is a call away - High-tech system helps motorists find where the empty spaces are. By Erik N. Nelson. Contra Costa Times. "Parking meters are so 1920s. That is what U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a crowd of journalists Tuesday.... 'Meter technology has remained unchanged since -- can you believe this -- the 1920s, when vehicle travel was a relatively new activity in American life,' she said. 'Back then, the early parking meter concept wasn't too much different from parking during the last turn of the century, when travelers would tie up at a hitching post and throw a coin to the stablehand to watch their horse.' But now the stablehand is artificial intelligence, the hitching post is wireless Internet parking and the days of trolling for a parking space are, in theory, numbered. All the well-equipped motorist will need to do is call up the parking system on a cell phone or hand-held computer, and the system will show where the empty spaces are. A few clicks later and the space is reserved and waiting for the driver to arrive. ..."
>>> Transportation, Applications
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October 17, 2007: NASA extends Mars probes' mission for 5th time. AFP via Yahoo! News. "NASA Tuesday announced it was extending for the fifth time the mission of Mars space probes Spirit and Opportunity, in their indefatigable exploration of the Red planet. The two robots touched down three weeks apart on Mars in January 2004 for an expected 90-day mission that instead could stretch out to 2009...."

  • NASA scientists plan to continue Mars rover mission to 2009. By David Perlman. San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com; October 16, 2007). "'After more than 31/2 years, Spirit and Opportunity are showing some signs of aging,' said John Callas, the rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 'but they're in good health and capable of conducting great science.' ... From its landing spot in January 2004, Opportunity drove along a winding route for exactly 7.19 miles to reach Victoria Crater. Meanwhile, Spirit, Opportunity's twin, has driven 4.51 miles on the opposite side of the planet and is examining an area of basalt rock where lava once flowed from an ancient volcano."

>>> Space Exploration, Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, Applications
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October 17, 2007: UA aim - predict enemies' moves, save our troops. By Renée Schafer Horton. Tucson Citizen. "[Jerzy] Rozenblit leads a team of UA computer engineers and students in developing the Asymmetric Threat Response and Analysis Project for the Army's Battle Command Battle Laboratory - Huachuca at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista. The military lab awarded UA the $2.2 million contract this week to help design computer software that will analyze volatile situations and, Rozenblit said, 'predict the unpredictable.' ... In simplest terms, Rozenblit said, the computer program will allow examination of reams of data about a particular group's behavior, then overlay that with cultural, social and political influences, and spit out a picture that 'visualizes data symbolically so decisions can be made accurately and quickly.' This is impossible for human analysts because the amount of data coming in is simply overwhelming, he said. In addition, computers are 'dispassionate,' sidestepping human biases that might 'prematurely rule out unorthodox or seemingly bizarre courses of action,' he said. ... Rozenblit, who did his doctoral work in computer modeling and simulation and has extensive training in artificial intelligence, said the initial benefit of the project will be 'hundreds of soldiers' lives saved.' [Jason] Denno said some of those lives will be saved by commanders who will know which routes are most likely to be clear of roadside bombs. Others will be saved by showing U.S. troops where the enemy is hiding based on predicted behavior."
>>> Military, Machine Learning, Applications
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October 16, 2007: Mayor wants Ottawa to be 'sophisticated, web-savvy.' By Vito Pilieci. Ottawa Citizen. "Mayor Larry O'Brien is going back to his technological roots and he plans to take the City of Ottawa with him. ... He also said he would like to introduce artificial intelligence software to city phone systems to help cut wait times experienced by many. When callers dial the 311 information line, they must wait for an available representative to answer their questions. A computer with voice recognition technology could automatically answer many questions. Only the more complex ones would be forwarded to a call-centre agent. 'Artificial intelligence is the next part of this equation,' he said. 'That will truly start the breathtaking age of e-government for all of us.'"
>>> Customer Service, Telecommunications, Speech, Natural Language Processing, Applications
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October 16, 2007: Software saves day. By Cameron England. The Advertiser (via AdelaideNow). "Adelaide firm SolveIT launched its new currency hedging program in time for the recent volatility in the Australian dollar, helping local wool company Michell ride out the turbulence.