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<< Headlines are listed according to date posted <-> Articles are organized by date published >>
July 31, 2003: Why
are real-life robots so lame? By Ian Sample. The Guardian. July 31, 2003: Insect
may jump-start robotics - Study on spittlebugs' explosive leaping
ability deemed an advancement for designers. By David Perlman. San Francisco
Chronicle. "At UC Berkeley, zoologist Robert J. Full studies animal
locomotion as a model for building robots and works in collaboration
with Stanford engineer Mark Cutkosky to design robots with legs instead
of wheels. The legged versions, they believe, should prove much more
agile and versatile wherever terrain -- on Earth or other planets --
is far too rough for wheels. Burrows' discovery of the spittlebug's
spectacular jumping ability, Full said in a phone interview Wednesday,
'should give us new insights for our robot designs. Nature is a much
better teacher, and studying insects like the spittlebug will revolutionize
robotics one day.'" July 31, 2003: It
Mulches, Too? Robotic Mowers Gain in Appeal. By John R. Quain. The
New York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). " For many, such gadgets are
more than just a novelty. "It's the first time since I lost my sight
20 years ago that I've been able to handle the yard by myself," said
Rick Wells, a RoboMower owner in Kernersville, N.C. Mr. Wells and his
wife, Alysia, are blind, and until he bought a robotic mower they had
to rely on neighbors to cut their grass. ... 'We're also looking at
robotic snowblowers,' said Dennis Willis, Friendly's director of marketing
for North America, 'and robotic garbage caddies that roll out your bins
to the curb on pickup day.'" July 31, 2003: The
Age of Automation. By Michael Kanellos. CNET News. "The '60s
and '70s were the decades of the mainframe. The '80s made up the decade
of client-server computing. The '90s were the Internet years. Now we're
entering the decade of the electronic butler. Instead of developing
computers that we can use to solve complex problems, researchers are
dedicating themselves to the task of inventing machines that will solve
problems for us. ... Have we really become so lazy that we need this
kind of help? Not entirely. These new machines are part of a trend toward
what I call 'extroverted computing.' ... Robots and automation technology
essentially take much of the risk and drudgery out of the daily grind.
If a robot existed that could weed out junk mail, rearrange furniture
or drive into combat carrying a bomb on your behalf, you'd buy it." July 31, 2003: Medical
informatics - A promising future. By Prof Dr Mohan Bansal. Express
Healthcare Management. "Medical Informatics (MI) provides a comprehensive
survey of current work performed to develop information technology for
the clinical workplace. It deals with the acquisition of data from patients,
processing and storage of data in computers, and the transformation
from data into information data. Some topics pertain to methodological
aspects of medical informatics and others are intended to be used for
more advanced or specialised education. They contain the methodology
for information systems and their processing. The future of MI as a
profession is very promising. ... The rapid evolution of technology
and clinical research makes it difficult even for the specialist to
keep up. In the light of this 'information explosion', it has been demonstrated
that physicians do not always make optimal decisions. A computer-assisted
diagnostic support system (CAD) generates diagnostic hypothesis from
a set of patient data. It can be used simultaneously with the doctor-patient
consultation. The knowledge-based system (KBS) is designed to meet the
knowledge gaps of the individual physician with specific patient problems.
KBS and such other expert systems (ES) can be a boon to the rural health
centres because even the general medical practitioners can operate the
systems. Computer-assisted medical decision making and knowledge- based
systems are ideal examples of artificial intelligence." July 31, 2003: Practice
management solution for cardiologists. Express Healthcare Management.
"Mumbai-based Ketan Software Ltd has designed a specialized software
solution for all cardiologists called Cardio-ket. It is a Patient Information
System which acts like doctor's assistant and secretary as well. It
has built in integrated utilities like scheduler, reminder, dialer,
address book, inventory control, account maintenance etc. to make life
much more easier for doctors and help him plan and work. Further with
its unique Artificial Intelligence, software starts thinking the way
doctor diagnoses, prescribes, advices, etc. and then acts like a parallel
doctor which is completely trained by the doctor himself." July 31, 2003: Software
stunts put on a show - Soon virtual stuntmen could be carrying out
the physical feats too dangerous for people to take on. BBC. "Oxford-based
Natural Motion has developed a simulation system that lets them swiftly
generate action sequences that would ordinarily demand the skills of
a stuntman. The AI system controlling the bodies of the simulated stuntmen
means they fall, run, move and react like real people." July 31, 2003: The
Right and Wrong Stuff of Thinking Outside a Box. By Christopher
Marquis. The New York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "The Pentagon
branch responsible for developing technology and techniques for warfare
stumbled badly this week by devising a plan for people to bet on future
terrorist attacks. Yet in pressing an idea that senators quickly denounced
as absurd, the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, is
doing what it is supposed to do -- think outside the box. Over five
decades, Darpa has had some standout triumphs. It developed the model
for the Internet and came up with the stealth technology that renders
American jets undetectable by radar. ... Another project that is seeking
researchers is Lifelog. ... Lifelog is part of a broader effort to find
ways to make computers adapt more to people, instead of the other way
around. For all the progress in processing information, Darpa experts
say, computers are still unable to learn, explain their reasoning or
fix themselves. Ronald Brachman, a Darpa expert in artificial intelligence,
said it was time to view computers in a dramatically different way.
He expressed annoyance at his 'stupid PC,' which cannot, in any real
sense, learn. ... Another busy field involves unmanned air vehicles,
or U.A.V.'s, which can conduct especially hazardous missions, including
striking enemy targets, without endangering American forces. Two models,
the Predator and Global Hawk, were used successfully in Afghanistan." July 30, 2003: Inventor
constructs 'ethical' artificial intelligence. By Chappell Brown.
EE Times. "As the 22 labs that have received initial funding from
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency work out the thorny artificial
intelligence (AI) issues to realize the agency's vision, a critical
piece of the puzzle may already be in place, in the form of a patent
granted last month to author and inventor John E. LaMuth for an 'ethical'
AI system. ... The inventor believes his system addresses a crucial
facet of any human-oriented automated personal assistant: an understanding
of human motivation and ethics. ... The system is based on affective
language analysis, a branch of linguistics in which language is characterized
in terms of goals, preferences and emotions. LaMuth has automated this
aspect of linguistics using conventional ethical categories drawn from
Western religion, philosophy and ancient Greek thought." July 30 - August
6, 2003: Eyes
off, screen off. By Kimberly Patch. Technology Research News. "If
a computer screen is on, but no one is watching, it still consumes energy.
Researchers from Duke University have devised a detector that determines
if a person is present and looking at a computer screen, and keeps the
screen on only when it is being watched. ... The researchers' prototype
uses a wireless motion sensor and a WebCam. When the motion sensor is
triggered, indicating that someone is present, the WebCam turns on and
takes pictures, and the pictures are analyzed by a face detection algorithm
to determine if anyone is looking at the display." July 30, 2003: Royal
Mail hopes IT overhaul will deliver productivity. By James Watson.
Computing. "'We're in the process of changing from being a big
government organisation into a functional commercial entity that can
compete strongly,' Royal Mail chief information officer David Burden
told Computing in an exclusive interview. For Burden, IT will be used
to improve every part of the organisation's business, from sorting mail
more efficiently to delivering digital services such as electronic stamps.
... A leading-edge mail sorting facility is being built near Heathrow
to handle international post; the company is working with Lockheed Martin
to implement a new mail sorting system for scanning and interpreting
mail (Computing, June 5); and artificial intelligence is being used
to optimise mail delivery routes." July 30, 2003: Avaya
CEO Don Peterson looks ahead. Interview by Matthew Hamblen. Computerworld.
"In this interview, Peterson, 53, spoke with Computerworld about
Avaya's need for greater visibility and efforts to grow revenue, as
well as its plans for capitalizing on voice as a means to browse the
Web. ... 'We spend a reasonable amount of R&D in support of service
offerings. We have systems actually based on artificial intelligence-type
technologies.' ... 'Voice is a great interface, and people have preferred
voice forever. They didn't draw pictures first; they spoke first. Michael
Dertouzos, the head of MIT's Computer Lab until he died last year, had
the view that the perfect computer was a voice interface and some kind
of holographic projection device, maybe in a pair of glasses.'" July 30 - August
5, 2003: Cyborg
Liberation Front. By Erik Baard. The Village Voice. "Yeats's
wish, expressed in his poem 'Sailing to Byzantium,' was a governing
principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference
at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists,
they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens
and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of
human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people
who aren't necessarily human at all. ... [T]he purpose of the Yale conference
was direct, with no feinting at other agendas. The crowd there wanted
to shape what they see as a coming reality. From the first walking stick
to bionic eyes, neural chips, and Stephen Hawking's synthesized voice,
they would argue we've long been in the process of becoming cyborgs.
A 'hybrot,' a robot governed by neurons from a rat brain, is now drawing
pictures. Dolly the sheep broke the barrier on cloning, and new transgenic
organisms are routinely created. The transhumanists gathered because
supercomputers are besting human chess masters, and they expect a new
intelligence to pole-vault over humanity -- in this century. ... 'I
would say if a creature is both sentient and intelligent, and has a
moral sense, then that creature should be considered a human being irrespective
of the genesis of that person,' says Rabbi Norman Lamm, chancellor of
Yeshiva University. He finds agreement at the Catholic-run Georgetown
Medical Center. 'To err on the side of inclusion is the loving thing
to do,' concludes Kevin FitzGerald, a Jesuit priest who happens to be
a molecular geneticist and bioethicist." July
29, 2003: Robotics
to play major role in future warfighting. By JO1(SW) Ron Schafer.
U.S. Joint Forces Command. "Project Alpha, a U.S. Joint Forces
Command rapid idea analysis group, is in the midst of a study focusing
on the concept of developing and employing robots that would be capable
of replacing humans to perform many, if not most combat functions on
the battlefield. The study, appropriately titled, 'Unmanned Effects:
Taking the Human out of the Loop,' suggests that by as early as 2025,
the presence of autonomous robots, networked and integrated, on the
battlefield might not be the exception, but, in fact, the norm. ...
'We call them tactical autonomous combatants because they'll operate
largely autonomously with some limited human supervision,' explained
[Gordon] Johnson. 'We're talking about, where we can and where we have
the capability of replacing humans. We're not talking about the operational
level or strategic level, but at the tactical level, still using humans
where we need to. Using adjustable autonomy or supervised autonomy,
humans will still have to interact with the machines and help guide
them.' ... They will have faster reaction times and have more and superior
sensing capabilities. They don't have fear, they don't get hungry, sleepy,
or tired, and they take humans out of danger. And, from an economic
perspective, they are cheaper than humans. 'The robots will take on
a wide variety of forms, probably none of which will look like humans,'
explained Dr. Russ Richards, Project Alpha's director." July 29, 2003: CU
team wins 'Robocup' championship in Italy. By Jessica Keltz. The
Ithaca Journal. "This summer, for the fourth time in five years,
Cornell University's robot soccer team won an international championship.
Known as 'Robocup,' the competition mixes artificial intelligence and
engineering in pitting robots against each other in a soccer game. The
teams of five robots each are not directly controlled by the students,
but by a computer system the students build. ... Jeremy Miller, a 2002
Cornell graduate who worked on the team for the second time, said paying
attention to engineering as well as artificial intelligence is what
sets Cornell's team apart." July 29, 2003: Students
seek the knowledge. By Steve Pain. ic Birmingham. "Students
from the University of Birmingham's school of engineering are checking
out a new mobile 'knowledge management' system developed by BT's research,
technology and IT operations business, BT Exact, it has emerged. The
trial allows students to access personalised information and to contact
people based on their personal profiles. The project was set up to help
students with their studies and is part of research at BT and Birmingham
in mobile technology to transform learning. ... At the heart of the
trial is the intelligent personal agent technology developed by BT Exact
that can reliably and accurately select information from a range of
sources to match a particular user’s profile of interests." July 29, 2003: Virtual
humans edge closer. By Spencer Kelly. BBC. "Looking good is
important, but if an avatar is to be totally life-like, it will have
to sound good too. How do you give a computer a human voice? ... It
was a problem faced by Jonathan Jowitt, when he invented the news reading
avatar Ananova. 'Most avatar systems that are on the market today use
a process of converting written text into audio,' said Mr Jowitt. 'In
previous times, a text-to-speech engine would look at how are the words
are constructed, and try to reassemble that in an audio domain, using
short phonetic sounds. Things have moved on, so that engines these days
know combinations of letters and word clusters. Our new text-to-speech
engine apparently has the word 'the' in 700 times, which is impossible
to believe, but some of the pronunciations of 'the' are very short.'
Just as the key to looking human is the imperfections, it is important
that the avatar does not sound too perfect either." July 29, 2003: Helping
Machines Think Different. By Noah Shachtman. Wired News. "In
recent months, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched
a series of seemingly disparate programs -- all designed, the agency
says, to help computers deal with the complexities of life, so they
finally can begin to think. 'Our ultimate goal is to build a new generation
of computer systems that are substantially more robust, secure, helpful,
long-lasting and adaptive to their users and tasks. These systems will
need to reason, learn and respond intelligently to things they've never
encountered before,' said Ron Brachman , the recently installed chief
of Darpa's Information Processing Technology Office, or IPTO. ... 'LifeLog
is about forcing computers into the real world,' said leading artificial
intelligence researcher Doug Lenat, who's bidding on the project. What
LifeLog is not, Brachman asserts, is a program to track terrorists.
By capturing so much information about an individual, and by combing
relationships and traits out of that data, LifeLog appears to some civil
libertarians to be an almost limitless tool for profiling potential
enemies of the state. ... Human beings don't dump their experiences
into some formless database or tag them with a couple of keywords. They
divide their lives into discreet installments -- 'college,' 'my first
date,' 'last Thursday.' Researchers call this 'episodic memory.' LifeLog
is about trying to install episodic memory into computers, Brachman
said. It's about getting machines to start 'remembering experiences
in the commonsensical way we do -- a vacation in Bermuda, a taxi ride
to the airport.'" July
29, 2003: AI
Depends on Your Point of View. By Noah Shachtman. Wired News. "Even
the dumbest people can look at a situation from several different angles.
But that's still a problem for even the smartest computer systems. The
Real-World Reasoning project, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
program, is designed to get computers to start examining situations
in more than one way. It's part of a larger effort, spearheaded by the
Agency's Information Processing Technology Office, or IPTO, to move
toward machines that can think for themselves. ... The project also
is supposed to help computers learn from their experiences. If machines
are ever going to have minds of their own, they must put what they know
into context, as people do. When human beings learn things, [Ron] Brachman
said, 'we don't just stick it into a database. It's got to jive with
what we know already. Or we've got (to) adjust our previous understanding.'" July 29, 2003: Robots
Rumble at Annual Expo. By Kari L. Dean. Wired News. "Robots
played soccer, wandered around like big creepy spiders and generally
beat the metal out of one another at the Robotics Society of America's
Summer Robot Games & Expo, which took place here Sunday. Billed as the
largest amateur robotics show in America, the event attracted hundreds
of spectators who displayed their homemade robot creations alongside
retailers hawking their bot-programming wares." July
29, 2003: Robo-nurse
could help cope with future Sars outbreaks. Ananova. "China
has developed a 'robo-nurse' to treat patients in the event of future
Sars outbreaks, according to reports. It can monitor patients, dispense
medication, dispose of medical garbage, and deliver meals and other
daily necessities." July 28, 2003:
AI quest
goes small-concept. By R. Colin Johnson EE Times. "The
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in recent years has poured
hundreds of millions into every aspect of 'big' artificial intelligence-expert
systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming,
fractal geometry, chaos theory, cellular automata, artificial life.
And that just scratches the surface on the software side; legions
of cognitive hardware architectures have also been beneficiaries
of Darpa largesse. But thus far the far-flung investment has yielded
little tangible return in solving the big-AI problem-getting machines
to think like humans, learning from experience and applying logic
and common sense to solve real-world problems. Given laymen's expectations
of robots as fully cognitively functional assistants, that lack
of quantitative progress has been a thorn in the agency's side.
Last year, Darpa began ratcheting up its cognitive-computing efforts
for the 21st century, making the discipline a 'strategic thrust'
for its Information Processing Technology Office and charging IPTO
with the heady task of chipping away at the big-AI problem. ...
Chess-playing programs like IBM's Deep Blue have shown the world
that today's high-speed computers can accurately imitate human functions,
noted IPTO director Ronald Brachman. Now Darpa, through PAL and
other programs, will look to foster what IPTO describes as 'systems
that know what they're doing.' ... Brachman's secret weapon will
not be self-endorsed evaluation metrics designed to counter critics,
however, but a new generation of 'mini AI' applications he hopes
will prove so compelling that even the critics would want to use
them. July 28, 2003:
A veritable
cognitive mind. By R. Colin Johnson EE Times. " Marvin
Minsky, MIT professor and AI's founding father, says today's artificial-intelligence
methods are fine for gluing together two or a few knowledge domains
but still miss the 'big' AI problem. Indeed, according to Minsky,
the missing element is something so big that we can't see it: common
sense. 'To me the problem is how to get common sense into computers,'
said Minsky. 'And part of that, it seems to me, is not how to solve
any particular problem but how to quickly think of a new way to
solve it-perhaps through a change in emotional state-when the usual
method doesn't work.' In his forthcoming book, The Emotion Machine,
Minsky shares his accumulated knowledge on how people make use of
common sense in the context of discovering that missing cognitive
glue. ... Reasoning by analogy is a way of adapting old knowledge,
which almost never perfectly matches the present situation, by following
a recipe of detecting differences and tweaking parameters. It all
happens so quickly that no 'thinking' seems to be involved." July 28, 2003:
Allot
Upgrades Content Filtering Appliance. By Caron Carlson. eWeek.
"Content filtering becomes an escalating challenge as Internet
users become more adept at sidestepping efforts to block their views.
Today, Allot Communications Inc. is rolling out an upgraded version
of its NetPure content filtering system, with added Russian and
Spanish language filtering support and improved management capabilities.
... NetPure uses artificial intelligence to analyze and categorize
the HTML page of a requested site, looking at many characteristics
of the page, including color, font, number of pictures, and word
repetition. Comparing unwanted Web sites to spam, P.G. Narayanan,
CEO for Allot Americas, said that filtering cannot rely on periodically
updated databases." July 28, 2003:
Robot cars
rally for desert race. By Michael Kanellos. CNET News. "By
day, Seth Cabe is a manufacturing engineer for a mannequin maker.
By night, he's working on what could become the battlefield vehicle
of the future. Cabe, leader of Team Loghiq, is one of a number of
engineers, researchers and robot aficionados who have signed up
for the DARPA Grand Challenge, a contest designed to generate ideas
that ideally will lead to the development of self-driving combat
vehicles. Put simply, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency
(DARPA) will give $1 million to the team whose robotic car drives
itself the fastest from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, on an off-road
course. The race, which must be won within 10 hours, will take place
on March 13 next year." July 28, 2003:
Summer
scientists - Robots, lasers, insights for teenagers working
at Berkeley lab. By Meredith May. San Francisco Chronicle. "Now
in its fourth year and growing, the High School Student Research
Participation Program pairs students with scientists who are building
robots that retrieve golf balls and lasers that can allow scientists
to see chemical reactions on an atomic level. ... Kentrell Davis,
a senior at Castlemont High in Oakland, is helping repair a broken
robot for UC Berkeley's bomb squad. He's also working on the robotic
golf ball retriever that will light up and make noise when pegged
by a ball on the driving range. The team plans to put rotating eyes
on it and turn the gizmo into a game of target practice. 'Last year,
my summer job for the city of Oakland was boring. We just sat around
in meetings for seven hours planning parades,' Davis said. 'Now,
I'm learning how to wire things and program things.' ... 'We learn
a lot from them,' said robotics mentor Deb Hopkins. 'Teenagers ask
the questions other people don't. They come up with the ideas other
people don't.'" July 28, 2003:
Rat-brained
robot does distant art. By Lakshmi Sandhana. BBC. "The
'brain' lives at Dr Steve Potter's lab at Georgia's Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, while the 'body' is located at Guy Ben-Ary's
lab at the University of Western Australia, Perth. The two ends
communicate with each other in real-time through the internet. The
project represents the team's effort to create a semi-living entity
that learns like the living brains in people and animals do, adapting
and expressing itself through art. ... The computer translates any
resulting neural activity into robotic arm movement. By closing
the loop, the researchers hope that the rat culture will learn something
about itself and its environment. 'I would not classify [the cells]
as 'an intelligence', though we hope to find ways to allow them
to learn and become at least a little intelligent.' said Dr Potter.
... Dr Potter hopes the venture will provide valuable insights into
how learning occurs at a cellular level." July 28, 2003:
Are
You Ready for a 64-Bit PC? The next generation of desktop computers
is coming, and here's why it matters. By Tom Mainelli, PCWorld.
"New processors coming soon from Advanced Micro Devices and
Apple suggest 64-bit computing will make its way to a desktop near
you this year. But what does that really mean for you? July 28, 2003:
Robo
jocks teaching university students - Soccer-playing robo jocks
are being used to teach Massey University students the art of artificial
intelligence. By Bevan Hurley. Manawatu Evening Standard / available
from Stuff. "Using radio frequencies and high-tech software,
the feisty robots play three-a-side soccer matches with a golf ball.
Visiting senior lecturer Gourab Sen Gupta built the robots, and
uses them to show fourth-year students how to write complex computer
programmes." July 27, 2003:
Spreading
research. By Ibn Campusino. The Sunday Times (Malta). "The
Computer Science and AI Department has organised a workshop (CSAW
'03) in which the members of staff and graduate students presented
their ongoing research. It was held at Villa Bighi, the premises
of the Malta Council for Science and Technology. In all, 22 presentations
were given over two days divided in different areas, including artificial
intelligence, natural language understanding, software engineering
and web services. The workshop is planned to become an annual event
that will serve to disseminate research ideas within the department
and industrial partners." July 26, 2003 [issue date]: Wheelchair users think to steer. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. New Scientist (page 14). "Severely disabled people who cannot operate a motorised wheelchair may one day get their independence, thanks to a system that lets them steer a wheelchair using only their thoughts. ... [José] Millán's software exploits the fact that the desire to move in a particular direction will generate a unique pattern of brain activity. It can tell which command the user is thinking of by spotting the telltale pattern of brain activity associated with that command. To ensure the robot does not hit any objects, it contains some inbuilt intelligence. So, when the user thinks of one of the three states - for example, 'turn left' - the software translates it into an appropriate command for the robot, such as 'turn left at the next opportunity'. ... [T]he team has designed its own software to analyse the activity from a standard eight-electrode EEG array. It uses a neural network that can be trained to recognise complex non-alpha-wave patterns and relationships more quickly."
July 25, 2003:
Neat
freak delighted by electric maid. Roomba: The robotic vacuum cleaner
works but has its limits. July 25, 2003:
Intel,
Alzheimer's Association team up on tech. By Therese Poletti. Mercury
News / available from Bayarea.com. "Intel and the Alzheimer's
Association have formed a consortium to fund the development of technologies
to help patients and their caregivers. The consortium, called Everyday
Technologies for Alzheimer Care (ETAC), will fund more than $1 million
in research on new ways to improve the care of Alzheimer's patients,
with existing and emerging technologies. ... Intel said it is also
testing the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on items
that the patient uses every day, such as a coffee mug, shoes and plates.
The tags would track the patterns of activity with the items, and
with an underlying artificial intelligence system, it could generate
prompts to remind the person how to make their tea, or to drink it." July 25, 2003:
Intel
and Alzheimer's Group Join Forces. By John Markoff. The New York
Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "The Alzheimer's Association and
the Intel Corporation announced yesterday that they were forming a
research consortium to explore the application of computing technologies
and sensor networks to the care of patients with early and advanced
cases of Alzheimer's disease. ... For patients with more advanced
cases, the researchers held out the possibility of systems that use
artificial intelligence techniques to determine whether a person has
remembered to drink fluids during the day. 'If it's 3 o'clock in the
afternoon and the person has not gone into the kitchen or the refrigerator
and the cabinets have not been opened, then it might be useful to
offer a reminder,' said Eric Dishman, an Intel sociologist who is
a member of the company's proactive health strategic research project,
based in Hillsboro, Ore." July 24, 2003:
Computer Language Translation
System Romances the Rosetta Stone. Information Sciences Institute.
"University of Southern California computer scientist Franz Josef
Och has developed a single system that can translate between any two
languages. ... Och spoke after the 2003 Benchmark Tests for machine
translation carried out in May and June of this year by the U.S. Commerce
Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. Och's
translations proved best in the 2003 head-to-head tests against 7
Arabic systems (5 research and 2 commercial-off-the-shelf products)
and 14 Chinese systems (9 research and 5 off-the-shelf). ... 'Our
approach uses statistical models to find the most likely translation
for a given input,' Och explained 'It is quite different from the
older, symbolic approaches to machine translation used in most existing
commercial systems, which try to encode the grammar and the lexicon
of a foreign language in a computer program that analyzes the grammatical
structure of the foreign text, and then produces English based on
hard rules,' he continued. 'Instead of telling the computer how to
translate, we let it figure it out by itself.'" July 24, 2003:
Workforce
- Man vs. machine on the job. By T.K. Maloy. United Press International
/ available from Interest!ALERT Opinions. "The real 'brain drain'
is not from certain high-technology jobs going overseas, but from
human jobs going to the machines. Warning of this, Richard W. Samson,
author of an employment trend report issued this week by the think
tank EraNova Institute, said workers should not count on 'yesterday's
jobs for tomorrow's income.' Thanks to a 'brain drain' of human skills
into electronic systems, 'even the most high-tech jobs are being downsized
rapidly,' said Samson, the director and founder of EraNova. ... As
the earlier industrial age evolved and machines began taking over
muscle work, people adjusted by moving up to know-how work, notes
Samson's report. 'But know-how is the very thing now being automated,'
said Samson." July 24, 2003:
Chatting
with Online Characters. By Sebastian Ruple. PC Magazine News.
"While today's intelligent online characters, or bots, have disappointed
some people, two prominent partners have launched a new effort to
find useful e-learning and customer service applications for virtual
people. Oddcast, a company that makes conversational characters, and
the ALICE AI Foundation, a nonprofit research organization focused
on advancing AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) have announced
a partnership to create smarter intelligent online characters. The
technology allows for personal interaction with online agents that
can function as customer service agents, tutors, and the like." July 24, 2003:
PC
Updates 19th Century Stenography - Italian Senate taps MIDI technology
for transcriptions. By Philip Willan. PC World. "The Italian
Senate has updated the mechanical shorthand technology it has been
using since the 19th century and integrated it with transcription
software and MIDI technology to create what it claims is one of the
world's most efficient stenographic systems. ... The system, which
also uses artificial intelligence techniques, enables stenographers
to achieve speeds of 150 to 160 words per minute, compared with typists
using regular computer keyboards who operate at about half that speed,
the Senate's [Beatrice] Gianani says. 'The system is so advanced that
you can teach it to correct recurrent errors. It has achieved word-recognition
levels of 98 to 99 percent,' she said." July 24, 2003:
City
students to take part in Robotics camp. Press Trust of India (PTI)
/ available from Mid-Day Mumbai. "Three engineering students
of a city college will participate in a Robotics Camp at a university
in Bremen, Germany, after winning prizes in the field. The nine-day
camp on 'Advanced Robotics' beginning July 27 will focus on Underwater
Robotics and Humandois, Principal of K J Somaiya Insititute of Engineering
and Information Technology, Nalini Kumthekar said today." July 23, 2003:
Subcommittee on Infrastructure
and Border Security Hearing on Best Business Practices for Securing
America's Borders - Statement
of Richard Stephens, Vice President & General Manager Homeland
Security and Services, The Boeing Company. "Right now, we have
software intelligent agents that can pull that information together
in a matter of minutes, presenting authorities with a threat correlation
report and probability of a plausible terrorist plot. They look for
the common thread -- like shared phone numbers, credit card and drivers
license numbers, flight data, etc. Software intelligent agents act
like a continually running search engine. In fact, you don't have
to tell the search engine to go find the information it does it
for you. It anticipates your needs based on knowing your requirements.
In this way, the network becomes our best arsenal in the war on terrorism." July 23, 2003:
Robots to
the Rescue - Search is on for top technology in search & recovery.
By Hiroyuki Ueba. Daily Yomiuri. "[T]eams comprising mostly high
school and university students will compete in a contest to retrieve
small dolls from beneath rubble with rescue robots they designed and
developed themselves. The robots are about one-eighth the size of
conventional rescue robots. The Rescue Robot Contest, to be held Aug.
2-3, will be the third annual event held to raise public awareness
of rescue robots and attract promising young scientists to the field
of robotics. Koichi Osuka, an associate professor at Kyoto University
who heads the contest's managing committee, said the Great Hanshin
Earthquake had been the motivating force behind the contest." July 23, 2003:
'Indian
pharma cos. need to go up value chain.' By K. Ramachandran. The
Hindu. "'There is a great and immediate need to reduce the cost
and time spent by pharmaceutical companies in discovering a new drug
molecule, developing it and finally marketing it as a product, as
it essentially saves huge money,' says Venkat Venkatsubramanian, a
Faculty Scholar Professor in the Laboratory for Intelligent Process
Systems (LIPS) in Purdue University. ... Estimates in the U.S pharma
sector show that each day's work cost a million dollar. If the drug's
`D to D process' is shortened by say, three years, the industry can
save a billion dollar, which can be reflected in the drug cost. Talking
to The Hindu, the Prof. says, the research at LIPS focuses on developing
an integrated, intelligent information modelling framework for automating
and optimising the pharma products pipeline. ... During the lecture
tour, he has explained current efforts in the LIPS towards quickening
the drug discovery process. 'Here we need the help of a new area that
combines different disciplines in fundamental sciences, engineering,
computing, artificial intelligence, math programming, statistics and
information technology,' all of which can help in combating information
flow problems." July 2003: A
Chat Room Like No Other - How to assume a 3-D online identity
that lets you put on a happy -- or angry -- face. By Steven Johnson.
Discover Magazine. " Avatars in There convey emotions
through both facial expressions and body gestures. When your on-screen
representative frowns, his shoulders sag along with the corners of
his mouth. The prototype version offers more than 100 different emotional
states to choose from-everything from surprise to anger-and [Tom]
Melcher says the plan is to release 10 new emotions per quarter. The
software behind There's emotion system was designed by pioneering
artificial intelligence researcher Jeffrey Ventrella ('Our first employee,'
Melcher says proudly). Like many artificial intelligence projects,
it uses a genetic metaphor. The facial expression system contains
62 'genetic pairs,' with each pair referring to a specific movement
of the face (raising eyebrows, lowering the corner of a lip). New
emotions are concocted by creating new combinations of these genetic
pairs. Melcher's team deliberately avoided making the avatars' expressions
exact duplicates of the human versions." July 23, 2003:
Socially
Intelligent Software - Agents Go Mainstream. Researchers are working
on ways to add social intelligence to software, letting people interact
with computers in a less static way and allowing computers to respond
to users' emotions more effectively. By Gene J. Koprowski. TechNewsWorld.
"While the popular conception of an agent is a cartoon character
who talks with or interacts with a visitor to a Web site, today's
technologies are much more sophisticated than that. Venture investors
are eying the agent niche -- and its associated artificial intelligence
and linguistics technologies -- as a possible major market opportunity.
'By conducting dialogue with customers, virtual agent technologies
can more quickly identify customers' problems and therefore provide
appropriate solutions faster than traditional search interfaces,'
Timothy Hickernell, senior program director for Web and collaboration
strategies at Meta Group, told TechNewsWorld. July 23, 2003:
Can
computers rule the world? Science fiction suggests that computers
may dominate the world, but is it really fiction? By Ping na Thalang.
Bangkok Post. "Hollywood movie makers giving the role of world
destroyer to a machine is a proven choice, time and again - fighting
against machines is fun and they don't feel hurt or let down. But
as we're being slowly hypnotised by one movie after the other, people
may have the notion that a world domineering computer is only the
stuff of fiction - or is it? In real life, for the computer to conquer
the world it has to satisfy two criteria - intelligence and infectiousness." July 22, 2003: France
offers grants for games. By Alfred Hermida. BBC. "The French
Government is offering four million euros (£2.9m) to help aspiring game
developers turn their ideas into reality. ... Around 80% of sales for
French game makers come from abroad. Analysts say the French Government
is eager to encourage more people to get into computers and gaming.
'The government has tried to push broadband and the internet,' said
Philippe Poutonnet, Jupiter Research analyst in Paris, 'and it is now
trying to do the same with the game sector.'" July 22, 2003: Brave
new future - What will IT have achieved, five years from now? "Computer
Weekly approached some of the more creative corporate research and development
establishments and asked them to preview their most interesting projects.
Andy Favell highlights a few that caught our eye. ... [#1] Scientists
at BT Labs are working with 'haptic' interfaces that allow people to
touch and feel something remotely. ... [#3] It is not the coolest name,
but the Knowledge Extraction from Document Collections (KXDC) team at
the Palo Alto Research Center has a bold, long-term vision 'to build
computers that can acquire and reason with information that is expressed
in natural language, and can communicate in natural language on a par
with human peers'. ... [#4] Suffice to say BT has picked up an algorithm
from the fly that could help these self-organising networks to organise
themselves. ... [#5] There is a theory at Bell Labs that putting more
intelligence into the network is the key to cutting the inefficiencies
and restrictions of modern network security. ... [#6] The most common
future scenario for the sensor network is the treatment of elderly or
infirm patients in their own homes. Hundreds of sensors around the home
could monitor the patient's behaviour, suggest action to the patient
or report back to someone of the patient's choosing if there is an alteration
from the usual pattern of events. ... Intel's research effort is geared
to adding more capability to each sensor and to adding intelligence
to the network to process masses of data automatically at a local level
and only pass on correct and important information or alerts." July 22, 2003: Founder
of Web-based grocery store tries again with online newsstand. By
Kevin Maney. USA Today. "[Louis]Borders got his start in Ann Arbor,
Mich., in 1971. Then 23, Borders and his brother Tom opened a used book
store, according to the book eBoys by Randall Stross. Louis Borders
had a degree in math from the University of Michigan. At his store,
he went to work designing artificial intelligence software for managing
the inventory of a super-size bookstore, and by doing so made those
bookstores possible. For the next 15 years, he and his brother operated
Borders Books in Ann Arbor and sold the software to other stores. Then
Borders Books started opening more stores. In 1992, Kmart bought what
was then a 21-store chain for an estimated $200 million-plus. Louis
Borders looked for something else to do." July 22, 2003: AI
is not a difficult concept for them. The Hindu. "If anyone
thought that students of ninth and 10th standards cannot comprehend
the artificial intelligence (AI) concept, they should have been at a
programme organised by The Hindu, in association with 'Intel-Involved
in India', here on Tuesday. ... They also learnt that career prospects
in the computer field were increasing, and that about one million more
professionals would be needed in the next few years." July 22, 2003: NASA,
Carnegie Mellon Inspire Future Robotics Engineers. SpaceDaily. "As
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers journey toward the red planet, 36 high
school students are honing their engineering and programming skills
during an intensive, seven-week robotics course called 'RoboCamp-West.'
... 'One of the ideas behind a summer with Carnegie Mellon, is to engage
students in understanding both the science and engineering challenges
of space exploration,' said Daniel Clancy, acting director of NASA Ames'
Information Sciences and Technology Directorate. 'The premise is that
space is cool, robots are cool and the combination of both is really
cool. We believe that robotics and space exploration is a way to motivate,
challenge and encourage students.' ... The NASA Ames Equal Opportunity
Programs Office provided scholarships for 20 minority students in the
course. The scholarships supply each student with a laptop computer,
a PDA and a two-week training course in JAVA taught at San Jose State
University, San Jose, Calif. ... 'The scholarships opened the eyes of
many of the students to the world of programming and robotics,' said
Horacio Alfaro, director of San Jose State's MESA Engineering Program."
July 21, 2003: MIT's
tablet tech gets a look-see from Microsoft. By Jeff Miller. Mass
High Tech. "For Randall Davis, a professor of electrical engineering
and computer science at MIT, one of the worst accidents ever to occur
in computer engineering was the day someone hooked up a typewriter to
a computer. 'It's been about 25 years since the mouse came out,' Davis
said. 'It's time for another breakthrough.' To that end, Davis and his
team of graduate students in the MIT department of electrical engineering
and computer science are developing sketch interpretation software,
which would allow a computer to recognize shapes drawn by a user within
the context of other shapes. ... 'I wanted smart paper,' Davis said.
'Paper is easy, fast and familiar, but it's appallingly dumb.'" July 21, 2003: Science
communication under scrutiny - Peer review process to be examined
in Royal Society consultation. By Helen Gavaghan. The Scientist. "The
Royal Society is to launch a wide-ranging consultation among scientists,
the media, and the public next month, into the best way to communicate
the results of original research. ... The reports will identify ways
in which peer review can be improved to increase public confidence in
research. They will also consider alternatives to peer review for assessing
the quality of research results released to the public. ... 'Some have
even said the system of peer review is so flawed, why not simply do
away with it,' [Patrick Bateson] added. Yet alternative methods of ensuring
the quality of research findings also have drawbacks. An example is
preprint publication, in which unpublished findings are openly subjected
to the wider criticism of peers. This currently happens in some fields
of physics, in artificial intelligence, and in larger, specialized institutions.
In branches of the biomedical sciences, however, such an approach could
be counterproductive." July 21, 2003: Local
school gets grant - A&M-CC will receive $1.35 million. By Icess
Fernandez. Caller-Times. "A recently awarded $1.35 million grant
will help Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recruit more students,
specifically Hispanic students, to computers, math and science programs.
About 38 percent of students in the Computer and Math Sciences Department
are Hispanic, [Carl] Steidley said. Steidley said he would like to see
that percentage increase. The grant is from the National Science Foundation
to the College of Science and Technology. In addition to recruitment,
the money will be used to buy lab equipment, pay student researchers,
support faculty research and help establish the foundations for a future
doctoral curriculum in computer science. ... The money will also go
to buying equipment for different labs, Steidley said. The artificial
intelligence lab will receive computers and robots." July 21, 2003: IIIT
to set up robotics and artificial intelligence centre. The Hindu.
"After introducing several under-graduate and post-graduate courses,
the industry-driven International Institute of Information Technology,
Hyderabad, has now embarked on setting up a robotics and artificial
intelligence centre to support a whole range of man-machine interface." July 21, 2003 (issue
date): Machine vs. Man
- Checkmate. We are sharing our world with another species, one
that gets smarter and more independent every year. By Steven Levy. Newsweek
/ available from MSNBC. "Garry Kasparov's head is bowed, buried
in his hands. Is he in despair, or just stealing a minute of rest in
his relentless quest to regain the world championship, promote chess
and represent humanity in the epic conflict between man and machine?
He professes the latter. But no one could blame the greatest grandmaster
in history if he did succumb to bleakness. His own experiences indicate
the end of the line for human mastery of the chessboard. In the sport
of brains, silicon rules. Still, Kasparov is preparing to throw himself
into the breach once more. In November he will play his third computer
opponent in a highly touted match. ... Next up will be X3d Fritz, a
world-class program modified to 'play in the third dimension,' where
his 3-D glasses will create the illusion that a virtual chessboard is
floating between Kasparov and the screen. ... There's a scary lesson
in these contests between the grandmaster and his soulless opponents.
We are sharing our world with another species, one that gets smarter
and more independent every year. ... Could we ever face anything akin
to the horrendous sci-fi nightmares that we see in 'Terminator 3'? In
the long run, it's well worth worrying about." An audio interview
is also available. July 18, 2003: US
snooping plan blocked. BBC. "A controversial computer surveillance
project that would comb through the personal records of Americans in
the search for suspected terrorists has suffered a severe setback. The
US Senate has voted to cut funding for the programme, known as Terrorism
Information Awareness (TIA), despite pressure from the White House to
back it. Civil liberties activists have been vocal in their opposition
to the plan, arguing it would impose a Big Brother state and intrude
into the privacy of Americans. ... The aim was to used advanced data-mining
tools to look for patterns of terrorist activities in the electronic
data trails left behind by everyone." July 17, 2003: Picking
Up the Pieces. By Douglas Heingartner. The New York Times (no fee
reg. req'd.). "Advanced scanning technology makes it possible to
reconstruct documents previously thought safe from prying eyes, sometimes
even pages that have been ripped into confetti-size pieces. And although
a great deal of sensitive information is stored digitally these days,
recent corporate scandals have shown that the paper shredder is still
very much in use. ... Some of the companies competing for the job concentrated
on the shape, color and perforations of the shreds, while other contenders
opted for semantically driven systems, which looked for keywords and
likely text matches. The Fraunhofer plan is to combine its smart scanning
software with the know-how of the Zirndorf archivists, who have amassed
years of experience working with these tiny pieces of history. After
all the shreds have been scanned (at 200 dots per inch), the interactive
software will suggest possible matches, which an operator can accept
or reject. While Fraunhofer IPK eventually plans to use a similar technique,
several companies say they can do so already. ChurchStreet's software
analyzes the graphical patterns that go to the edge of each piece. First,
workers paste the random shreds onto standard sheets of paper, which
takes three to seven minutes per page. The pages are scanned, and software
analyzes the shreds for possible matches." July 17, 2003: Panhandle
cognition institute statewide status. The Associated Press / available
from the Herald-Tribune. "The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition,
formerly under the University of West Florida, has become one of three
state-sponsored, statewide research institutes. Gov. Jeb Bush signed
legislation Wednesday giving the institute its own board of trustees
and chief executive officer although it will maintain a relationship
with West Florida. ... 'When you get to that level of recognition, there
is an increased capability to partner with government and private entities,'
said state Rep. Holly Benson, R-Pensacola, who sponsored the bill. ...
With about 100 researchers and other staffers, the institute has become
a national leader in artificial intelligence and human-centered computing."
July 17, 2003: Japanese
scientists invent dancing robot. Ananova. "Japanese scientists
have developed a dancing robot that can follow a human dancer's lead.
... The MS DanceR (Mobile Smart Dance Robot) predicts the dancer's next
move through hand pressure applied to its arms and back." July 17, 2003: University
robot ruled too scary. By Tim Radford.The Guardian. "Meet Morgui,
the new robot constructed at the University of Reading, which has been
deemed so scary it has been banned from interacting with anyone aged
under 18. The x-rated robot is a disembodied head with five senses and
big bright eyes and is able to follow people around the room. ... The
metal head, a bit like a cadaverous automaton from Star Wars or a Terminator,
is the creation of Kevin Warwick, a University of Reading cybernetics
professor with a long record in attention-seeking robots. 'We want to
investigate how people react when they first encounter Mo, as we lovingly
like to call the robot,' said Prof Warwick. ... In Europe, Japan and
the US, researchers have been looking for robots that will respond 'naturally'
to humans. It therefore follows that the robots must also study how
humans respond to them." July 17, 2003: CMU
team to develop a software 'secretary.' By Byron Spice. Post-Gazette.
"Computer scientist Dan Siewiorek spent six hours this week compiling
an interim report on one of his research projects for a government agency.
It was a necessary chore, but in terms of what he thinks is productive
work, it also represented six hours down the hole. Siewiorek will never
get those six hours back, but he and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University
are getting $7 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
to begin developing the type of smart software that someday might compile
such a report automatically. They'll develop what might be called a
'personalized cognitive assistant,' sort of a personal secretary in
the form of computer software. ... 'It's a very ambitious effort,' said
Ron Brachman, director of DARPA's Information Processing Technology
Office, which has launched the new effort, called Perceptive Assistant
that Learns, or PAL. Designing office software that has the ability
to learn, to remember its user's personal preferences, to reason and
to understand everyday communications between humans is so ambitious,
he acknowledged, that it will be at least a couple more years before
researchers really know what they'll be able to accomplish and when.
... Although it's a new program, PAL already has received brickbats
from New York Times columnist William Safire, who last month suggested
that some of the capabilities DARPA is talking about could impinge on
the user's privacy. Brachman countered that PAL isn't intended to snoop
on users, but to learn enough of their preferences and circumstances
so that it can be more helpful to them." July 17, 2003: Software
helps police draw crime links. By Gareth Cook. Boston Globe. "The
Boston Police Department is rolling out a powerful new computer program
built to find hidden connections among people and events almost instantly,
allowing detectives to investigate murders, rapes, and other crimes
far faster than they can today. ... Designed in an Arizona artificial
intelligence lab, Coplink searches through arrest records, incident
reports, and emergency phone calls to identify potential suspects and
compile all possible leads on them, including past addresses, weapons
they have owned, and even the arrest records of people with whom they
have been stopped in a car. In Boston, it will search only through city
police records, though it could later be expanded to stretch far more
broadly. ... It reflects a growing recognition in law enforcement that
many significant clues may be overlooked because they are lost in a
maze of isolated computer databases." July 17, 2003: MSU
offering training to boost computer security. The Clarion-Ledger.
"Catching cyber criminals is the goal of programs at Mississippi
State University to develop experts in detecting and halting computer
security problems. ... Over the past five years, Vaughn and department
colleague Susan Bridges -- an authority on the application of artificial
intelligence to computer security problems -- have secured nearly $5
million in government and private industry grants. 'We use artificial
intelligence to detect activities by unauthorized intruders in computer
systems,' said Bridges, an Elkins, Ark., native who holds a doctorate
in computer science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville." July 15, 2003: Ralph
Etienne-Cummings -Envisioning the Future of Robotics. By Bruce E.
Phillips. US Black Engineer Magazine. "At [The Johns Hopkins University],
Dr. Etienne-Cummings is known for his work in the relatively new field
of 'neuromorphic engineering' -- how biology solves problems and creates
engineering solutions. For example, how do a fly's eyes work so effectively
that they can see obstacles -- like you with a swatter -- so quickly
and at any angle? What if a device could be engineered to help machines
-- or people -- see in the same way? ... His special interest today
is finding ways to improve visual systems for robotics. For example,
he has worked on developing a handheld device with sensors that give
verbal cues to identify objects in its 'visual' range. For the blind,
this device is like another set of eyes. After a short learning phase,
the device, which resembles a flashlight, can recognize objects such
as a favorite coffee cup, a hairbrush, or other household objects and
tell the user when it is in front of her or him. ... Dr. Etienne-Cummings
collaborates with a biologist at the University of Maryland, where he
also holds an appointment, to study the primitive spinal cord of lampreys.
... 'We hope to take what we learn from fish and then make robots that
can move the same way,' Dr. Etienne-Cummings says." July 15, 2003: Take The Right Business Decision With The Help Of AI. Financial Express. "Artifical intelligence (AI) has always been a fascinating subject. It has also been the theme of many best selling novels and blockbuster movies. But can AI find its feet in the real world and form a core part of business applications? AI, as one of the many definitions goes, is the science of putting intelligence into machines so that they can carry out the activities of human beings. ... AI is beginning to make significant inroads into the world of business. Automated trading systems have been able to beat a team of human beings in commodity trading. ... There are many new applications of AI which are being constantly developed. Like virtual reps who can handle a range of queries in natural language to robots who can mimic human behaviour in dive | |||