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June 30, 2003: A
Push From Homeland Security. By Steve Lohr. The New York Times (no
fee reg. req'd.). "The computer executives at the gathering in Washington
were suitably amused, nodding and smiling -- wistfully no doubt. Nothing,
of course, will bring back the dot-com heyday. But to much of Silicon
Valley, the government's mandate to improve homeland security looks as
if it could be the next-best thing -- a technology push, stimulated by
government, that is expected to create a lucrative market in computer
hardware and software for surveillance, data collection, data analysis
and cybersecurity. ... Dependence on the private sector was the mantra
of the Bush administration officials who spoke at the conference, 'Information
Technology Leadership in a Security-Focused World.' The gathering was
sponsored by the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade organization,
and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group.
... One concern, Mr. [Lance] Hoffman said, is that the national effort
to improve homeland security will mean that all the investment and research
goes into computer security, while the privacy implications are given
short shrift. ... At the conference, industry executives spoke highly
of the raft of technologies that can and are being deployed in the quest
for homeland security -- data-sifting software, artificial intelligence,
probability theory, iris recognition and digital-video surveillance gear." June 26, 2003: First
Virtual Stuntmen Ready for Hollywood. By Jennifer Viegas. Discovery
Channel News. "Special effects experts believe the software behind
the stuntmen, called endorphin, could revolutionize filmmaking and video
and computer games. Endorphin's virtual actors learn how to move and react
independently, unlike most computerized characters now that depend on
fixed databases containing animated clips. Torsten Reil, who developed
the program at Oxford and is now CEO of NaturalMotion, explained that
endorphin's technology relies upon models of the human brain, body and
nervous system. The virtual stuntmen learn how to move and react using
neural networks and artificial evolution, which is like an extended form
of artificial intelligence whereby characters build their knowledge base
over time. ... The process behind the artificial stuntmen's ability to
move and think, called active character technology, is controlled by an
artificial intelligence simulation of the human nervous system. ... Because
the characters react on their own once programmed, Reil believes they
will add a live interactive component to video games that has never been
seen before." June 25, 2003: Mammography
returning to HCMC. Hillsboro Free Press. "Forty-thousand American
women die from breast cancer every year, but this number may change thanks
to a new technology. The device, called an R2 Image Checker, gives physicians
a second method for examining mammograms. ... 'Early detection is critical
and the Image Checker greatly improves our odds,' [Hilary] Zarnow said.
Image Checker analyzes a digital image of the regular mammogram to data
associated with tumorous cells, using a sophisticated artificial neural
network. 'This is artificial intelligence,' Zarnow said, 'and it finds
potential problem areas that can't be seen by the naked eye. It functions
like a very sophisticated 'spell check', if you will, for medical images.'" June 23, 2003: NOAA
Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Navigational Safety Data.
NOAA News. "The NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products
and Services (CO-OPS) is now using artificial intelligence to extend and
improve its existing real-time quality control monitoring system. This
system, called CORMS (Continuous Operational Real-time Monitoring System)
operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week ensuring the availability and
accuracy of the real-time water levels, currents and meteorological data
provided by CO-OPS for navigational safety. CO-OPS is part of the NOAA
Ocean Service. ... The benefits of using artificial intelligence are four-fold:
1) the ability to monitor more sites; 2) provide more information to CORMS
managers to assist them in decision-making; 3) ensure consistency in monitoring
performance; and 4) significantly reduce reaction time to any instrument
failures." June 23, 2003: Investment
Newsletter Insights - Bonding with the Fed; Stock picker's plight;
A.I. By CBS.MarketWatch.com. "A.I. Stock Forecast may not be the
sequel to Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but it could very
well be the prequel. While editor Michael Henry won't have a robot boy
to help him retool his investment newsletter, formerly the Top-Down Market
Forecast, he does plan several new features over the next two months that
include the use of 'artificial intelligence' techniques to aid in his
stock selection." June 2003: Fast
Forward -25 Trends That Will Change the Way You Do Business. From
e-mail to health care, and from artificial intelligence to the end of
HR as we know it, here are forecasts of how different the world of workforce
management will be 10 years from now. Workforce (pages 43-56). "#6
- Artificial Intelligence: Making computers think more like people is
an idea that persists. In the workplace, software already predicts customer
behavior and machine failures on the factory floor. These capabilities
will continue to evolve. As the Web and data warehouses grow, artificial
intelligence will solve problems that are beyond the reach of the human
brain. ... 'AI will bring advances but also usher in ethical concerns,'
[Owen P.] Hall says. ... #22 - Security vs Privacy: ..." June 18, 2003: An
ovarian cancer screening test being developed in Detroit promises new
hope for Jewish women and general population. By Ruthan Brodsky. Detroit
Jewish News. "A new screening test for early detection of ovarian
cancer is being refined and expanded at the Detroit-based Karmanos Cancer
Institute in preparation for government approval. Michael A. Tainsky,
Ph.D., professor and director of molecular biology and genetics at Wayne
State University School of Medicine, developed the project. The research
concept is novel. It doesn't follow the traditional template of screening
for single markers. In Dr. Tainsky's screening, there are multiple markers
reflecting the varying behaviors of proteins in a heterogeneous population.
Secondly, the test would have been impossible to create without enlisting
cutting-edge technology in robotics and artificial intelligence. The need
for the new test is compelling. More than 80 percent of ovarian cancer
patients are diagnosed at a late clinical stage and have a 20 percent
or less chance of surviving at five years. In contrast, the 20 percent
of women diagnosed with early-stage disease have a 95 percent prognosis
at five years." June 17, 2003: Surely,
a little insider trading can't hurt? Think again. Opinion by Howard
Kalt. The Mercury News. "The stock exchanges won't discuss their
monitoring of transactions and trading patterns, but they examine thousands
of transactions and bring several hundred suspicious trades to the SEC's
attention each year. ... Computer databases containing public information
identify any links between investors and possible information sources
from within the company. For example, NASDAQ's SONAR text mining and artificial
intelligence system examines internal regulatory data, public records,
up to 10,000 news stories a day and even Internet message boards."
June 16, 2003: AI
software gives virtual guitars a lifelike sound. By R. Colin Johnson
EE Times. "Sibelius Software Ltd. has successfully applied the principles
of artificial intelligence to give the performances of its music software
a more humanlike sound. By crafting a rule system that simulates a human
virtuoso, Sibelius and its new 'guitar-only' version, called G7, perform
music convincingly enough to turn heads. Sibelius began its AI quest with
'expressivo' - an expert system embedded into Sibelius 1.0 for varying
the dynamics (amplitude) of individual notes as they play, but Sibelius
2.0 and G7 also add 'rubato,' which slightly changes the tempo (speed)
for emphasis and dramatic effect. It also contains an autoarrange feature
that extends its AI rule set for music into the realm of orchestration." June 16, 2003: Robot
Vacs Are in the House. By Leander Kahney. Wired News. "After
years of fits and starts, the market for robot housemaids finally seems
to be taking off. New models of robot vacuum cleaners -- and the promise
of more in the near future -- are the first signs that a nascent commercial
robot industry finally is taking hold. ... Ask the manufacturers, and
they all say robot vacuums soon will be as common as microwave ovens.
For a roboticist like Hans Moravec, it means the robot revolution is finally
here. 'I've been waiting for decades for the pieces to come together so
that we have a real robot industry,' Moravec said. 'After decades of false
starts, the industry is finally taking off. I see all the signs of a vigorous,
competitive industry. I really feel this time for sure we'll have an exponentially
growing robot industry.' ... According to Moravec, the second-generation
robots likely will navigate with the help of electronic beacons placed
around the house, possibly in wall sockets. The third-generation bot would
use vision. A built-in camera, perhaps pointed upward at the ceiling,
would guide the robot by visual landmarks. June 16, 2003: The
New Pet Craze: Robovacs. By Leander Kahney. Wired News. "Just
as owners of robot pets like Sony's Aibo develop emotional attachments
to their mechanical companions, people are acquiring similar feelings
for their robot vacuum cleaners. The two leading robovac manufacturers
-- iRobot and Electrolux -- report that owners treat their robovacs somewhat
like pets. ... Scientists believe that robot pets trigger a hard-wired
nurturing response in humans. It appears robot vacuums tap into the same
instincts. MIT anthropologist Sherry Turkle, one of the leading researchers
in the field, is conducting studies on how children perceive smart toys
like the Aibo, Furby, Tamagotchi and My Real Baby. She says humans are
programmed to respond in a caring way to creatures, even brand-new artificial
ones." June 15, 2003: Insider
trading inside out. By Kathleen Pender. San Francisco Chronicle. "Even
when they have time to consider the consequences, some people trade on
inside information anyway. Like criminals everywhere, they gamble on not
getting caught. 'Maybe 10 years ago, it was pretty easy to get away with,'
says Peter Romeo, an attorney with Hogan & Hartson. Today, it's not. 'The
surveillance techniques have been improved, and the companies themselves
are exerting a lot of oversight,' says Romeo. The stock and options exchanges
monitor price and volume in individual securities, using artificial intelligence
to flag trades that fall outside certain parameters. When trading looks
suspicious, the exchanges may refer the case to the Securities and Exchange
Commission or U.S. attorneys." June 14, 2003: Smart
cellphone would spend your money. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. New Scientist
(page 17). "A consortium of the world's top consumer electronics
firms, mobile networks and broadcasters are funding the development of
cellphones that will spend money on your behalf. The consortium, called
Mobile VCE, includes Nokia, Sony, Vodafone and the BBC. It might sound
like a bankruptcy waiting to happen, but software engineer Nick Jennings
is supremely confident the phones will not mess up anybody's life. Jennings's
team at the University of Southampton in the UK are developing programs
known as software agents for the consortium. 'I see the artificial agent
as more like a butler-type character,' he says. The agents, which will
run on the new generation of 3G phones, will watch how you use your mobile
and learn to anticipate your next move. 'They start off monitoring what
you do and gradually look for ways to increase their role. Over time they
get to know your preferences,' says Jennings." June 13, 2003: The
clean mean machine. By Astrid Wendlandt. Financial Times. "According
to Electrolux, the household appliance manufacturer, it's here. Meet the
first robotic vacuum cleaner in the UK: the Trilobite. Resembling nothing
so much as a large ladybird, the Trilobite can theoretically vacuum your
house on its own, navigating its way around tables and small objects as
if it had eyes. Named after the extinct primitive marine arthropod that
crawled the seabed feeding on plankton, the Trilobite uses artificial
intelligence (AI) to make random decisions about where to vacuum next,
or when to stop and return to base to recharge. ... 'When a robot is in
a room, it needs to make a plan,' explains John Gordon, director of the
Applied Knowledge Institute, attached to Blackburn College in Lancashire,
UK, and a member of the judging panel for the British Computer Society's
annual prize for progress towards machine intelligence. 'Sometimes it
is better to have a robot that knows roughly where it wants to go and
deals with things as they crop up,' says Mr Gordon. 'But one difficulty
with that approach is that environments are often complex. This is very
much the subject of debate in the AI research community.'" June 13, 2003: People
Genie spearheads the European launch of artificial intelligence technology.
Online Recruitment. "Technology to understand and analyse CV's just
as a human would has been launched in Europe by recruitment software innovator
People Genie. ... This cutting edge technology uses artificial intelligence
to understand each CV to the extent that it can spot the difference between
a skill studied on a course and hands on experience. ... 'Smart Genie
will pioneer the way forward by enabling recruiters to spend more time
with a true shortlist of candidates and less time processing irrelevant
CV's.' ... Smart Genie requires no manual data entry or human intervention
as it is powered by machine learning technology. Using highly advanced
pattern matching and predictive techniques it trains itself to search
for patterns of career progression rather than solely relying on matching
job titles and skills to a job specification." June 12, 2003: Artificial
intelligence identifies effective drugs for HIV patients whose treatment
is failing. Press Release from the HIV Resistance Response Database
Initiative. "New data presented for the first time today at the 12th
International Workshop on HIV Drug Resistance demonstrated that artificial
intelligence (AI) could find effective treatments for patients whose drug
therapy is failing. The system identified potentially effective drug combinations
for patients who were continuing to fail on therapy, despite having their
combinations of HIV drugs changed by their physicians according to current
clinical practice. 'These patients had high viral loads and were failing
because of drug resistance, despite multiple changes to their treatment
and the use of current resistance tests', commented Professor Julio Montaner
MD, Professor of Medicine and Chair in AIDS Research, at the BC Centre,
University of British Columbia, Canada. 'Today's results hold out the
possibility of being able to reverse the process of treatment failure
for such patients, using artificial intelligence to help us identify the
best possible drug combination for the individual.'" June 12, 2003: NeuralWare
announces Strategic Alliance with DuPont Canada and CIMTEK. Pittsburgh
Technology Council. "NeuralWare, a leading provider of neural network
software for developing and deploying innovative and intelligent business
and scientific analytics solutions, has announced a strategic alliance
with DuPont Canada and CIMTEK Automation Systems. ... With its roots in
research conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists, the
Acurum System relies on neural network-based artificial intelligence to
assess the quality of grain, barley, and other seeds and commodities.
Acurum provides rapid, repeatable, accurate and consistent analysis of
grain quality. This innovative tool utilizes digital imaging to evaluate
various seed characteristics including diseases, handling and environmental
conditions, seed classification and determination of admixtures of seeds.
By imitating the human eye, it performs the analysis objectively through
artificial intelligence software." June 11, 2003: So,
Does IT Matter? Opinion by Jon Strande. Darwin Magazine. "A recent
article by Nicholas Carr in the May issue of Harvard Business Review ,
entitled 'IT Doesn't Matter,' suggests that IT has become ubiquitous and
therefore is no longer a strategic advantage for business. He further
states 'that companies should be focused on managing risk, not aggressively
seeking an edge through IT.' ... Instead of talking about how certain
technology assets have become commodities, I prefer to focus on the things
that will help clients improve efficiencies, reduce costs, strengthen
relationships and so on. Along those lines, there are many things that
companies can be working on that, from a strategic standpoint, can provide
an advantage, like artificial intelligence (AI), handheld development
and voice interfaces. Let's take artificial intelligence as an example:
The March 2002 issue of Wired magazine featured stories about
real world implementations, the most compelling business use being smart
airports. ... AI has held great promise for many years, but has never
lived up to its hype. Until now. In the years to come, I think we will
see many more mainstream implementations of AI in virtually every industry.
What happens when today's MRP [Manufacturing Resource Planning] systems
are injected with a healthy dose of artificial intelligence? Imagine the
productivity gains of the average shop floor through more intelligent
line scheduling and so on." June 9, 2003: Robot's
knives cut drudgery. By Liam Dann. New Zealand Herald. "The [PPCS]
meat company is about to finish trials on a knife-wielding robot that
can remove the pelvis from a lamb's hindquarters with the precision of
a surgeon. The Machine is so smart that as well as measuring the size
of the carcass before it begins cutting, it can sense when a blade is
getting blunt and change knives. ... The robot cuts the meat perfectly
every time at almost twice the speed of a human, and never complains.
... But totally mechanising a processing plant was not a realistic option
in the foreseeable future, [Keith] Cooper said, and the robot was no threat
to staff. The industry faced constant staff shortages, and workers replaced
by the robot could be allocated to other parts of the chain." June 9, 2003: High
Tech Help For Elderly. KRON. "New technology is not just to help
increase productivity in the workplace. It is also helping preserve the
independence and improving the quality of life and care for the elderly.
Max may look like just a cute kitty, but it's a cat with a twist. Max
is a robotic cat, a furry feline with artificial intelligence and sophisticated
software. He responds to touch and commands and can brighten the lives
of nursing home patients." June 7, 2003: Weedkilling
robots slash herbicide use. By Duncan Graham-Rowe. New Scientist Magazine
[page 16]. "Robots make unlikely green warriors, but they could soon
be doing their bit for the environment. Trials of a Danish robot that
maps the position of weeds growing among crops suggest that herbicide
use could be slashed by 70 per cent if farmers used it to adopt more selective
spraying techniques. The robot drives across fields scanning the ground
for any weeds and noting their positions. A later version will be able
to kill the weeds too by applying a few drops of herbicide, says developer
Svend Christensen from the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences in
Tjele. But the longer-term goal is to avoid herbicides altogether by having
the robot pluck the weeds out of the ground rather than poisoning them.
... The Danish weedkilling robot - a four-wheeled, battery-powered cart
with high ground clearance - works by scanning the ground with a camera
and recognising the shape of particular plants. It does this by harnessing
software techniques from face-recognition research." June 5, 2003: Convention
envisions a more robotic future. By John Keilman. Chicago Tribune
(no fee reg. req'd.). "Robots perform surgery, squire patrons though
museums, even milk cows. And robots in the home could become commonplace
soon, some experts said Wednesday at a robotics convention in Rosemont.
... [Joe Engelberger] said a machine could be helpful in home care, assisting
an elderly person to get out of bed, preparing meals and cleaning the
house, all the while keeping up a flow of cheery conversation. ... Henrik
Christensen, a Swedish robotics professor, said a sophisticated helper
robot could prompt a backlash from displaced workers. Several on the panel
and in the audience brought up questions of regulation and liability.
... Some questioned whether the elderly would welcome the formidable technology
into their homes. ... [Colin] Angle added that in his experience, people
are not reluctant to bond with a robot. More than 60 percent of the people
who have bought his company's automated vacuum cleaners have given them
names, he said." June 4, 2003: Smartcams
Take Aim at Terrorists. By Kari L. Dean. Wired News. " These
distributed digital video arrays, or DIVAs, are collections of really
smart cameras able to detect and identify an individual in a crowded train
station and track him wherever he goes -- out of the station, into the
parking lot, onto the freeway and so on. They also notify authorities
when they 'think' the individual engages in suspicious activity or meets
with questionable cohorts. You can watch for these DIVAs in summer 2004.
... For the past four years, CVRR's DIVAs assessed traffic patterns, located
accidents and notified firefighters of emergencies, according to Mohan
Trivedi, director of the DIVA project and professor at UCSD's Jacobs School
of Engineering. ... The capability to identify a man automatically based
on his facial structure, or to locate a woman digitally based on her distinctive
gait is not what makes DIVA special. The Department of Defense has been
contracting with developers of those technologies for years. What's unique
is the DIVA systems' ability to communicate with each other automatically
and intelligently in order to better detect and then follow individuals,
according to Trivedi." June 4, 2003: Automatic
Astronomy - New Robotic Telescopes See and Think. By Robert Roy Britt.
Space.com. "If an asteroid is discovered tonight and found to be
on a collision course with Earth, you may have a robot to thank for the
warning. If a star blinks for a nanosecond, you won't notice it, but a
robot might, and it will deduce that an object no bigger than this city,
roaming the solar system in Pluto's realm, has just passed in front of
a distant star. A surprisingly cheap new crop of thinking and seeing machines
work alone, scanning the heavens every night, from dusk to dawn with no
coffee breaks, looking for objects that humans have so far failed to find.
... More than a dozen teams from around the world, all involved in creating
fully autonomous, semi-intelligent observatories, met here last week at
a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to present new findings
and swap ideas." June 3, 2003: Coal-fired
power generation - The need to be nimble. By Steve Blankinship. Power
Engineering and Power Engineering International. "One of the most
cost-effective means of improving the performance of the existing coal
fleet is by employing advanced computer technology unavailable when the
units were commissioned two or three decades ago. Emerson says the typical
coal-fired generating unit can achieve significant performance improvements
through solutions that are easily implemented in a few months with no
outage required, and provide quick payback within six to 12 months. Typical
examples are tuning, minor control changes, and advanced control and optimization
software. ... Although engineering optimization methods have been around
for a long time, it has been inexpensive Pentium-based computers and their
mind-boggling ability to crunch large amounts of numbers that have brought
optimization to full fruition. In addition, algorithms for addressing
previously daunting challenges have emerged, mostly from what is loosely
termed the artificial intelligence community. 'That's the only way we
can manage the huge number of variables that must be considered,' says
Lefebvre." June 2, 2003: Microscope
detection of shellfish bacteria. Food Production Daily. "Research
by University of Plymouth experts into the detection of harmful species
of algae has helped develop a unique microscope, which could dramatically
decrease cases of poisoning from contaminated shellfish. The HAB (harmful
algae blooms)-Buoy is a project, funded by the European Union, involving
Dr Phil Culverhouse, a senior lecturer at the University of Plymouth,
representatives from marine aquaculture and food health and academic partners,
who are technology developers in marine pump design, marine equipment
build, telecommunications and advanced artificial intelligence software.
... The HAB-Buoy - which is in essence a microscope coupled with natural
object recognition software - will be developed further so that it can
image and recognise harmful algae. It will be operated either underwater
suspended from a buoy, or on a mussel-producing raft, or in the laboratory
to assist government scientists monitoring algae. It will image everything
in each filtered seawater sample, including detritus and non-harmful plankton." June 1, 2003: UK
first for digital pacemaker - Two patients are due to become the first
in the UK to have digital pacemakers implanted, in operations to be carried
out on Monday. BBC. "Digital technology is already used in various
appliances - such as CD players and cameras - but previously has never
been applied to pacemakers. The main advantages of using digital pacemakers
over traditional analogue versions, are that signal processing is much
faster, they have more storage capacity and can provide accurate diagnostic
data. ... Consultant cardiologist Cr Derek Connelly ... 'The implanting
of this device is no different to other types of pacemaker procedures
but monitoring and follow up will be much easier and quicker for the patient
and the hospital because the data stored by the pacemaker can be downloaded
onto a computer within seconds. In addition the pacemaker has its own
artificial intelligence which can analyse the patient's rhythm disorders
and suggest changes in programming in order to improve the patient's quality
of life.'" May/June 2003: 21st-Century
AI - Proud, Not Smug. By Tim Menzies. IEEE Intelligent Systems. "AI
is no longer a bleeding-edge technology -- hyped by its proponents and
mistrusted by the mainstream. In the 21st century, AI is not necessarily
amazing. Rather, it's often routine. Evidence for AI technology's
routine and dependable nature abounds...." June 2003: Striving
for dependability. By Armando Fox and David Patterson. Sidebar to
their primary article: Self-Repairing
Computers. Scientific American. "As the costs of administration,
oversight and downtime expand in response, scientists and engineers in
the computer industry are working to enhance the dependability of their
products. Significantly, many of their efforts aim to take humans (and
the errors they inevitably engender) out of the loop. ... IBM's scheme
borrows ideas from control theory (the use of feedback to stabilize closed-loop
systems) and artificial intelligence (mimicking or otherwise capturing
expert human skills or intelligence to solve complex problems). These
concepts will help create data centers that can diagnose problems on their
own, adjust their configurations to match changes in demand, repair themselves
and defend against hacker attacks. Drawing an analogy with the body's
autonomic nervous system, IBM's management calls this goal Autonomic Computing." June 2003: Computers
That Speak Your Language - Voice recognition that finally holds up
its end of a conversation is revolutionizing customer service. Now the
goal is to make natural language the way to find any type of information,
anywhere. By Wade Roush. Technology Review. "If computers could understand
and respond to such routine natural-language requests, the results would
be win-win: airlines wouldn't need to hire so many agents, and consumers
wouldn't have to struggle with the confusion of touch-tone interfaces
that leave them furiously tapping the '0' button, vainly trying to reach
a live operator. Futurists have been envisioning such a world since at
least 1968, when 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL 9000 became the archetypal
voice-interactive computer. Academic and corporate researchers intrigued
by the sheer coolness of the idea have been tinkering for just as long
with systems for recognizing and responding to human speech. But technologies
don't take hold because they're cool: they need a business imperative.
For language processing, it's the enormous expense of live customer service
that's finally driving the technologies out of the lab. ... Such improvements
have set up natural-language systems for explosive growth: 43 percent
of North American companies have either purchased interactive voice response
software for their call centers or are conducting pilot studies, according
to Forrester Research, a technology analysis firm. As more companies replace
their old touch-tone phone menus, today's $500 million market for telephone-based
speech applications will grow -- reaching $3.5 billion by 2007, according
to Steve McClure, a vice president in the software research group at market
analysis firm IDC." May 31, 2003: Robot
displays mettle in mine. By Byron Spice. Post-Gazette. "As a
four-wheeled robot called Groundhog crept slowly into the portal of the
Mathies Mine yesterday morning, the Carnegie Mellon University researchers
who developed it felt something unusual -- separation anxiety. They knew
that within a few hundred feet, Groundhog would have to make a right turn
as it followed the mine corridor and would no longer be in a line of sight
with the portal and, thus, would be out of radio communication with them.
Groundhog would be on its own. If and when it emerged from either end
of a 3,500-foot-long mine corridor would depend on things the machine
could see for itself and decisions it would make for itself. Roboticists
at CMU have built many robots designed to operate autonomously, but yesterday's
experiment marked the first time that any of the machines had ventured
where humans couldn't intervene to avert an emergency. ... Groundhog is
the first of several robots that the Robotics Institute has developed
since August in response to the Quecreek Mine accident. Because that mine
inundation appears to have been caused at least in part by inaccurate
maps of an abandoned mine, researchers under the lead of William 'Red'
Whittaker have sought to build robots that could enter mines where no
sane person would venture and either draw accurate maps or perform search-and-rescue
of trapped miners." May 31, 2003: Robot
to the rescue. By Simon Tsang. The Sydney Morning Herald. "It
says something about a society when it creates a robot to do the vacuuming.
After all, isn't it human dependence on machines that caused all the trouble
in The Matrix? If that were true, it would appear that we're at the beginning
of the end with Karcher's latest cleaning contraption - a robotic vacuum
cleaner. Looking like a mini-Dalek flattened by a semi-trailer, the RoboCleaner
roams the house sucking up dirt. It's a robot in the sense that it operates
autonomously and is able to recharge itself and empty its load at the
designated docking station without human intervention. As for artificial
intelligence, however, I'm not convinced there's all that much going on
within its plastic body. ... It is intelligent, but not as we know it.
Neo and Morpheus have little to worry about yet." May 30, 2003: Wyoming
professors develop robots to sense terror toxins. University of Wyoming
News Service / available from the Billings Gazette. "Swarms of small
robots soon to be unleashed from University of Wyoming laboratories will
be programmed to detect and disable chemical targets in the war on terror.
David Thayer, a lecturer in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy,
is working with UW Computer Science Department researchers to combine
his expertise in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with robotic chemical
plume tracing research. The research, Thayer said, was stimulated by the
need for new defense methods after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It
incorporates what he called a 'swarm intelligence' network. Using technology
known as multimodal sensor arrays, the researchers are programming swarms
of as many as 100 autonomous mini-robots to detect chemical targets. ...
Programmed to sense a chemical, biological or even radiological plume,
the robots can zero in on the source of the contamination and eliminate
the spill without exposing people to the contaminants, Thayer said. ...
Although they essentially work as one unit, each robot is independent,
guided by artificial intelligence software." May 30, 2003: Search-Rescue
Robots Test Their Mettle in Tournaments - Researchers Aim to Improve
Vehicles' Skills for Real-Life Use. By Guy Gugliotta. Washington Post
TechNews. "Ten years ago, no one had tried to use robots for search
and rescue, but by 2001 researchers had enough expertise to deploy robotic
vehicles with some success to search through rubble at the World Trade
Center and the damaged buildings around it. Now robots compete annually
in two international search-and-rescue tournaments, measuring their progress
in diabolically difficult arenas designed by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST). With current technology, negotiating
an unstructured rubble- and debris-filled environment is about the hardest
thing there is for a robot to do. That researchers even attempt it shows
how far robotics has come in recent years. That it always fails, and sometimes
spectacularly, shows how far it still has to go. ... The challenge is
to marry two disparate disciplines. Artificial intelligence is what allows
robots to accumulate information, determine its value, map it and decide
to act on it -- either autonomously, in concert with other robots or at
the behest of a human operator. To perform the work, however, requires
a supple machine that can climb stairs, pick its way over broken concrete,
tell the difference between a mirror and a window, and squeeze into a
pitch-black basement to find a hurricane victim lying in water. ... Many
researchers credit John G. Blitch, the former chief of the Defense Department's
Tactical Mobile Robotics program, for focusing interest -- and federal
money -- on robot search and rescue. Blitch, an Army lieutenant colonel
with a special operations background, was studying robotics in graduate
school in 1995 when Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb that destroyed the
federal building in Oklahoma City. Told that there were robots on the
scene, Blitch visited the wreckage only to find that the robots had been
pulled out." May 29, 2003: Ensuring
water safety - Automatic warning devices may be answer to Walkerton.
By Jeff Jedras. The Ottawa Citizen. "When seven people died and more
than 2,000 became ill three years ago after an e-coli outbreak in Walkerton's
water system, many people started to think how a recurrence could be prevented.
While cities invested more in water treatment and a provincial inquiry
investigated what went wrong, a small group of Eastern Ontario researchers
also went to work, trying to see if there was a technological answer.
... 'It was really the Walkerton incident that made people realize here
we are in what we think is a high-tech country, and something as simple
as guaranteeing basic fresh water has been violated,' says project leader
Kevin Hall, a civil engineering professor at Queen's University and head
of Hall Coastal Canada, one of the industrial partners in the project.
Other partners include Queen's and Precarn, an Ottawa-based robotics industry
association. ... The team came up with an automated intelligent system,
in a self-contained module. It eliminates the human reliability issue
by taking a sample of water automatically into a testing chamber. Second,
the e-coli test is performed automatically, and more quickly than before.
Third, the intelligent system can take immediate corrective actions when
a problem is detected, from notifying the appropriate persons to actually
shutting down parts of the distribution system so no contaminated water
is released." May 26, 2003: Guess
who's smarter. As sophisticated as computing has become, machines
still lack the common sense of a 3-year-old. But MIT artificial intelligence
researchers are tackling ways to start building that basic breadth of
knowledge into programs and applications. By D.C. Denison. The Boston
Globe. "[N]ow there are signs that 'common sense' artificial intelligence
research may be making a comeback, sparked by projects like [Push] Singh's
Open Mind database. For the first time, after decades of theoretical research,
researchers and programmers have begun using a freely distributed, natural
language common sense database to start the process of building common
sense into products, programs, and applications. In fact, as Singh sits
in his cramped office in the Media Lab, he's able to point in the direction
of a number of MIT researchers using his database for applications that
may soon bring common sense AI to consumers. A few doors down to the right,
Barbara Barry, a graduate student in the Media Lab's Interactive Cinema
group, is working with Singh to build common sense into video cameras.
On the other side of the Media Lab, Henry Lieberman, a research scientist
who works with the Software Agents Group, is using common sense to enhance
e-mail programs, language translation software, even a search engine.
And just outside Singh's office, the Media Lab's 'wearable computing'
group is building common sense into the devices and sensors they believe
many of us will be wearing in the future. ... Marvin Minsky, one of the
cofounders of the Lab (and Singh's adviser at MIT), recently caused a
stir in the field when Wired News reported that he told a Boston University
audience that 'AI has been brain-dead since the 1970s.' The article went
on to quote Minsky attacking the current artificial intelligence 'fad'
of making 'stupid little robots.' Minsky, who is now less actively involved
with the field after working at the intersection of computing and human
intelligence since the early 1950s, said his remarks sounded more extreme
taken out of context." May 26, 2003: Westpac
NZ cuts credit card fraud. By Heather Wright. The Marlborough Express
/ available from Stuff New Zealand. "Westpac New Zealand is claiming
early success in cutting fraud rates for its Mastercard customers, thanks
to fraud-risk management software. RiskFinder, from Mastercard International,
uses artificial intelligence and historical data on past frauds along
with customer profiles to try to identify potentially fraudulent credit
card transactions. ... Product manager Vince Clark says the software has
prevented enough fraud in its first few weeks of operation to pay for
itself." May 24, 2003: Lucrative
answer to a million questions. By Peter Brown. The Times. "Five
years ago Davin Yap, a Cambridge engineering researcher, was sharing a
Darwin College bench with Dr David MacKay. They were beefing about their
students. The undergrads had just discovered e-mail and were besieging
the two academics with what are now known as Frequently Asked Questions.
How much simpler if the FAQs could be answered automatically on a website.
Maybe some artificial intelligence could be written that would recognise
and learn from questions, while giving the correct answers? Lightbulbs
flickered. 'I said, 'I'll do the plumbing, you do the smart stuff',' Yap
recalls. ... He and Mackay also had a company name -- Transversal -- and
a professional product called Metafaq. The first customer after the launch
in autumn 2001 was Procter & Gamble, for its recruitment website. Others
since then have ranged from Sony's PlayStation, Fujifilm and MFI to the
DfES and JP Morgan." May 23, 2003: Reviews
from the E3 expo - The Sequel. By Stanley A. Miller II. Journal Sentinel.
"'The Sims 2' ... The artificial intelligence in the game has been improved
so relationships between characters are more complex and lifelike, and
there will be many new items in the game for people to play with. ...
'Kya: Dark Lineage' may challenge players tired of the fevered button
mashing that is typical of many video games. ... It also has an enemy
artificial intelligence system that learns and adapts to repetitive playing
styles, so doing the same moves over and over becomes less effective." May 20, 2003: Baby
Boomers at the Gate - Enhancing Independence Through Innovation and
Technology. Statement of Dr. Gregory Abowd. Hearing - U.S. Senate Special
Committee on Aging. "The role of technology in enhancing the lives
of older but otherwise healthy Americans is not well understood or appreciated.
I will try to demonstrate some of the possibilities for technology that
are being explored in research environments today. ... My particular area
of interest is in an area called 'ubiquitous computing,' a term used to
mean the proliferation of computing artifacts throughout our environment
in support of our everyday activities in those environments. ... Technological
support for cognitive aging, often referred to as cognitive orthotics,
is a very promising direction for research, evidenced by a recent survey
on assistive technology for cognition by LoPresti et al., (in press).
The applications of cognitive orthotics range from simple reminder systems
to more elaborate interactive robotic assistants. ... Many cognitive orthotics
are designed to support prospective memory, that is, remembering tasks
that need to be performed and carrying out these tasks at the appropriate
time (Ellis, 1996). This work has progressed from using very basic and
inexpensive timing technologies (e.g., calendars, timers and watches)
to much more sophisticated and forward-thinking applications of artificial
intelligence. One of the most important examples of prospective memory
tasks is medication compliance." May 19, 2003: Robots
May Be Built as Companions, Expert Says. By John Roach. National Geographic
News. "'I have felt for years that the first 'killer application'
of personal robots will be companionship, especially for the elderly,'
said Roger Brockett, a professor of computer science and engineering at
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 'Robots are potentially
much smarter than dogs and they will not require the same level of upkeep.'
Brockett, who founded the Harvard Robotics Laboratory in 1983, is one
of several scientists who believe robots will some day be a part of everyday
life. They may be companions and helpers in much the same way that C-3PO
and R2-D2 chum around with Luke Skywalker on the silver screen."
May/June 2003: Driving
into the Future. By Dr. Judith Markowitz. Speech Technology Magazine.
"Concept cars are visions of the future created by automotive manufacturers.
Several 2003 concept cars also include visions of speech recognition.
One of them, Ford Motor Company's Model U concept SUV is described as
beginning Ford's second century of innovation. ... Question: Why did you
include a speech-based conversational system? Bryan: The overall goal
of the Model U was to create a positive view of the future. Part of that
was personalization using intelligence in the vehicle to enhance the
driving experience. That includes enhancing both convenience and safety.
Mike [Phillips]: The focus was less on the technology than on the user
experience. Car makers want to put all sorts of functionality into the
car and they need a way to do it that's cost effective, doesn't add too
much to the dashboard and is safe to use. They think that speech plus
some amount of display is probably the right way. Bryan [Goodman]: And,
from a usability standpoint, we wanted a system that was easy to use and
easy to learn so that it could be useful whether it's a vehicle you've
driven every day for years, a rental car or a brand new car you just drove
off the lot. It also allowed us to push the envelope in terms of what
user-interface technology is capable of in a fairly realistic system that's
not light-years away. ... Bryan: The conversational interface we created
allows control of a fairly large set of functions. You can get into a
Jaguar today, push the button, and say 'radio play.' Rather than presenting
you with a card that has 200 or more commands to memorize we wanted you
to be able to learn to use the system in a matter of seconds." May 19, 2003: IT
Standards Would Improve Patient Care. Viewpoint by Herbert Pardes.
InformationWeek. "'Interoperability' wasn't taught when I went to
medical school, but the lack of it affects patient care in America's hospitals
every day. It's a symptom of hospitals' advanced technology that at once
improves our ability as healers and hinders it. In most hospitals, data
can't be shared from one computer system to another, and the long-term
goal of sharing medical information among hospitals remains a distant
dream. Creating a seamless, integrated network of information could do
as much to protect patient safety and improve care as many other medical
breakthroughs. ... The promise is too great to ignore. Using integrated
technology, New York- Presbyterian researchers are creating a Patient
Health Monitor to collect patient data and analyze it with artificial
intelligence. This can be a vital tool for diagnosis and improving care.
With standards in place, information between hospitals can act as an early-warning
system of bioterror or epidemic." May 16, 2003: NSF
researchers present digital solutions to government challenges. NSF
Press Release. "Wireless disaster response, city-sized simulations,
computerized legal advice, a law enforcement data-mining tool and wearable
database uplinks are among the technologies to be demonstrated at dg.o2003,
the annual conference of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Digital
Government program. ... REGNET: What is accessible? Stanford University
researchers are using artificial intelligence technology to craft a legal
guidance engine that helps people navigate the thicket of government laws
and regulations ... COPLINK: Who's a likely suspect? A law-enforcement
data-mining engine developed by University of Arizona researchers melds
artificial intelligence with detective smarts to turn random clues into
hard arrests." May 16, 2003: Local
firms bring Birmingham into Digital Age. Opinion by Timothy E. Taylor.
Birmingham Business Journal. "Birmingham currently is being defined
by its automotive, banking and health-care business strengths; however,
a new and promising industry is rising. May 16, 2003: First
robot cleaner on sale for a tidy sum. Edinburgh Evening News. "The
world's first robotic vacuum cleaner goes on sale in the UK today with
a price tag of around £1000. The Trilobite navigates its own way around
rooms and has no problem getting to those hard-to-reach spots underneath
tables and the bed, say makers Electrolux. ... Patrick Le Corre, managing
director of Electrolux Floorcare UK, said: 'The Trilobite is the first
intelligent appliance that has real relevance for the home today.'"
May 16, 2003: Grading
Papers Virtually - Computer Software Scores Student Essays. By David
Stevenson. Tech Live / available from ABC News. "Teachers have long
graded stacks of multiple-choice exams with the help of computers. Remember
using a No. 2 pencil to fill in those bubbles? Now many school districts
are trying to save time and money by using computers to grade student
essays. Artificial intelligence software developed by companies such as
Vantage Learning assess answers that require more thought than simple
true or false responses. The company's IntelliMetric software uses roughly
300 preprogrammed writing samples to 'learn' the elements of a good essay.
Once IntelliMetric is trained to recognize a quality response, it applies
its preprogrammed data to a student's essay. ... English teacher Ryan
Brown at Parkland High School in Allentown, Pa., says his initial skepticism
gave way once he put the program to the test." May 12, 2003: Oil
scientists to ponder new sites - Geologists to convene in S.L., discuss
reserves. By Joe Bauman. Deseret News. "'We're also talking about
such things as what we call neuro-networks applications to subsurface
information,' [Raymond] Levey said. Neuro-networks are artificial intelligence-type
programs used to evaluate problems. The system works 'as if it were a
human brain making decisions inside a computer program,' he added. It
is a 'very sophisticated decision-tree analysis.' A decision tree is a
set of questions, where a yes leads to one track with additional questions
and a no leads to another, until finally a decision is reached." May 2003: Six
Technologies That Will Change the World - Imagine robots that can
read your mood and ink-jet printers that can crank out transplantable
hearts. The visionaries you are about to meet have not only imagined these
things -- they're hard at work building them. By David Pescovitz. Business
2.0. "But universities are still where the most far-fetched and futuristic
innovations develop. MIT is where we found Cynthia Breazeal, whose socialized
robots could someday baby-sit for your kids or stand in for you at a meeting.
Informed by the diverse disciplines of electrical and mechanical engineering,
psychology, human-computer interaction, education, and design, her work
benefits from the intellectual cross-pollination that happens so easily
in an academic setting. ... Robots You Can Relate To - VISION: Machines
that interact with people the way people do. WHY: Sociable robots could
teach the young, care for the infirm -- even befriend the lonely. ...
A Swarm of Sensors - VISION: Networks of cheap, aspirin-size sensor robots
everywhere. WHY: Generals need to track troop movements, executives need
to follow goods through the supply chain, and conservationists want to
track energy consumption, among other reasons." May 12, 2003: The
Evelyn Wood of Digitized Book Scanners. By John Markoff. The New York
Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "Putting the world's most advanced scholarly
and scientific knowledge on the Internet has been a long-held ambition
for Michael Keller, head librarian at Stanford University. But achieving
this goal means digitizing the texts of millions of books, journals and
magazines -- a slow process that involves turning each page, flattening
it and scanning the words into a computer database. Mr. Keller, however,
has recently added a tool to his crusade. On a recent afternoon, he unlocked
an unmarked door in the basement of the Stanford library to demonstrate
the newest agent in the march toward digitization. Inside the room a Swiss-designed
robot about the size of a sport utility vehicle was rapidly turning the
pages of an old book and scanning the text. The machine can turn the pages
of both small and large books as well as bound newspaper volumes and scan
at speeds of more than 1,000 pages an hour. Occasionally the robot will
stumble, turning more than a single page. When that happens, the machine
will pause briefly and send out a puff of compressed air to separate the
sticking pages." May 10, 2003: Matching
people and jobs. McKinsey Quarterly / available from CNET News. "A
new generation of tools has made it increasingly possible to fashion a
more sophisticated approach to the management of a large, distributed
work force. ... As for the IT firm, it could benefit from an emerging
class of analytical tools that use complex algorithms and artificial-intelligence
techniques to shorten project completion times. By sifting through a database
of employee skill sets, the tools generate staffing solutions to meet
current demand and to anticipate priorities for emerging projects. The
deployment of these solutions at a technology-consulting firm has cut
project completion times by 10 percent to 40 percent and overall resource
requirements by 25 percent to 40 percent." May 2003: Virtual
Vroom - Putting the pretend pedal to the make-believe metal in pursuit
of expedited engine excellence. By Frank Markus. Car and Driver Magazine.
"Today, untold zillions of molecules of iron, aluminum, and plastic
composites awoke at the flick of a human wrist on an ignition key. They
were compressed or stretched by the forces of combustion, they transferred
heat from cylinder walls to coolant, they transformed vibrations into
noise, and they were lubricated against the forces of friction. But before
these molecules were crafted into modern engines, virtual facsimiles of
them were subjected to vivid, lifelike simulations of these actions, the
whole shebang conjured by an artificial intelligence as sophisticated
as anything conceived of in The Matrix. ... To get a closer look at this
world of artificial abuse, we plugged into GM's engineering matrix, which
is presided over by the GM Powertrain Synthesis & Analysis group in Pontiac,
Michigan. This crew of 117, most of whose walls are papered with advanced-degree
sheepskins, maintains and develops some 300 computerized tools and test
procedures used throughout GM. ... Each tool strives to reduce the time,
energy, and cost expended on physical testing and experimentation so that
someday every part in a new car will be designed perfectly, so that no
prototype (let alone production) part will ever fail. ... Of course, GM
is not the only carmaker using computers to end the era of testing parts
until they fail, redesigning them, and testing them again. All the major
automakers have their own arsenals of computer tools." May 12, 2003: Let's
Talk - The software is capable, but dictating to your PC is harder
than it looks. By Janet Rae-Dupree. U.S. News & World Report. "Sales
of speech recognition software and hardware--from natural-voice dictation
systems for PCs to commercial telephone systems--are expected to rise
from $680 million last year to $2.2 billion in 2006. Disabled people and
those with repetitive motion injuries have embraced the technology. In
fact, Barksdale first got interested in speech recognition when he bought
IBM's ViaVoice dictation program for a student with cerebral palsy. Within
weeks, he says, the boy was entering text at twice the speed of the school's
fastest student typist. And a whole new generation of users is on the
way. Last year, the National Business Education Association recommended
that all students from fourth through 12th grade learn how to use both
speech and handwriting recognition software (as well as learn to type).
So far, hundreds of high schools and community colleges around the country
have instituted programs." May 5, 2003: Indian
software product industry comes of age. By R.P. Srikanth. Express
Computer India. "As a large conglomerate with heavy spending, GE
was in need of a solution that could reduce purchasing cycle time, improve
process efficiency and accountability and reduce procurement costs. And
a product based on Artificial Intelligence algorithms fit GE's needs to
perfection. Autoclass, which is available in both Live connect and Batch
connect modes, is a perfect solution for big corporates like GE who are
looking to find answers in their chaotic reams of data. ... As the product
classifies products into one or more of around 15,000 categories that
conform to the UNSPSC (Universal Standard products and services classification),
the content generated in e-procurement exchanges and market places is
now available in a simple form, which can be fed into different applications
and analysed. Additionally, the product provides a common platform for
mapping disparate supplier and buyer data to the UNSPSC standards." May 5, 2003: Man
or Machine? (Part 1 of 3): Human or Robot? Ivanhoe Newswire / available
from HealthCentral.com. "Movies like 'Artificial Intelligence: AI'
and 'The Matrix' offer glimpses of what artificial intelligence holds
for the future. Some say it will have a great impact on medical research.
Today, artificial intelligence flies airplanes, makes financial decisions,
and aids in medical diagnoses. Futurist and Inventor Ray Kurzweil says
the key to artificial intelligence is pattern recognition. ... SONY has
already made commercially available AIBO, an artificially intelligent
robot companion with owner recognition capabilities that follows commands.
But emotion is one quality still separating man from machines like AIBO.
Computer scientist Eric Chown, Ph.D., is working to narrow even this gap.
He's reprogramming AIBO to feel emotions. ... At MIT's Artificial Intelligence
Lab in Cambridge, Mass., Charlie Kemp is programming his computer to have
common sense. ... In the future these experts predict humans and machines
will actually merge. Humans will think using non-biological intelligence." May 2, 2003: Kosdaq
Struggles to Regain Confidence From Investors. May 2, 2003: Unicru
moves into chain drug stores. By Aliza Earnshaw. The Business Journal
of Portland. "Based on its experience with several chain drug stores,
Unicru has designed a system that can help drug stores hire the best employees
not only for the traditional hourly positions that have always been the
backbone of Unicru's software, but also for hiring good candidates for
professional positions, such as managers and pharmacists. Unicru's hiring
software incorporates artificial intelligence so that the program 'learns'
over time what characterizes the best employees, so that the program can
flag job applicants with those characteristics. The system can save hiring
managers time, and save stores money by reducing turnover. Sales performance
can also improve as stores increasingly hire the types of employees who
are best for that particular environment." May 1, 2003: Companies
working toward robot revolution. May 1, 2003: Brokers
Will Spend Big on Anti-Money Laundering. By Jessica Pallay. Wall Street
& Technology. "The brokerage industry will spend almost $700
million in the next three years on anti-money-laundering technologies,
according to a recent report by Massachusetts-based consultants, TowerGroup.
The 2001 USA Patriot Act requires financial institutions to establish
anti-money laundering programs. ... Complex solutions include technology
systems that offer artificial intelligence, [Robert Iati] says, using
rules-based analysis, such as Mantas or Searchspace. For example, if an
investor suddenly changes investing behavior, and that investor uses a
bank that has been known to transact terrorist funds, the technology would
post an alert for the situation to be investigated." April 30, 2003: Robot
science puts on a friendly face. By Edward C. Baig. USA Today. "'Robotics
is making breakthroughs but infiltrating society in small steps,' says
University of Southern California professor Maja Mataric. Even George
Jetson might get a kick out of what's here and coming. Take Pearl (short
for Personal Robotic Assistants for the Elderly), a 'nurse-bot' and the
stepchild of researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh.
... Then there's Grace (Graduate Robot Attending ConferencE), Pearl's
6-foot Carnegie Mellon cousin, developed along with researchers from the
Naval Research Laboratory, defense contractor Metrica, Northwestern University
and Swarthmore. ... Honda's humanoid ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovation
Mobility) ... Sony's Aibo ... Fujitsu's foot-high MARON-1 ... Evolution
Robotics' prototype ER-2 ... Roomba Intelligent FloorVac from iRobot.
... Lots of smart people think robots will minister backstage. Many innovations
to simplify our lives will be seamlessly embedded in appliances and built
into networking, maintains iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, director of
MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory ... But physical robots still
have their boosters. Carnegie Mellon's Hans Moravec has mapped out a future
well into the new century, drawing a strong parallel between robot intelligence
(measured by computer processing power) and biological intelligence:...." April 2003: Cognitive
Systems. ERCIM News. "The European Commission has identified
Cognitive Systems as one of the priorities for the new generation of research
projects to be developed from 2003 to 2008 (http://www.cordis.lu/ ist/workprogramme/fp6_workprogramme.htm
). The stated objective is to construct physically instantiated or embodied
systems that can perceive, understand (the semantics of information conveyed
through their perceptual input) and interact with their environment, and
evolve in order to achieve human-like performance in activities requiring
context-(situation and task) specific knowledge. ERCIM News has chosen
to devote a special issue to this exciting research challenge in order
to monitor what is under development in Europe (but not only in Europe),
and what is the current status of research and development in this domain."
- from the
introduction April 28, 2003: Simulated
rubble field tests search and rescue robots. By Byron Spice. Post-Gazette.
"'It's the Pu Pu Platter of disaster sites,' [Illah Nourbakhsh] said of
the 24-by-20-foot, two-level arena located in the basement of Newell-Simon
Hall. Sections of the maze-like set have mirrored walls to confuse video
sensors, others are lined with sound-absorbing ceiling tiles that foul
up acoustic sensors. Some areas have stairs, others have cockeyed doors
and the floors have a variety of coverings -- everything from carpet to
tile. ... This site is a 'reference test arena' designed by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. The arenas
are used by researchers to develop robots for disaster duties and, twice
a year, have been used for international competitions -- one at the RoboCup
robotic soccer tournament and one at the annual meeting of the American
Association for Artificial Intelligence. ... Like robotic soccer, it's
an application that requires a robot to be a team member. But a rescue
robot's team would include human operators, as well as 'intelligent software
agents' that could automatically find information from the Internet and
other databases about building blueprints, hazardous materials, or the
occupants themselves. April 27, 2003: Artificial
intelligence to assist mothers. By Lee Kyoung-ah. The Korea Herald.
"A small student club called 'I-New' of Seoul National University
of Technology (SNUT) surprised the baby goods industry by winning the
silver medal at the first national student invention contest with its
artificial intelligence baby bed. The artificial intelligence baby bed,
which is yet to be commercialized, is designed to play parents' voices
recorded beforehand and swing itself in an automatic response to the crying
sounds of a baby. It also sets off an alarm when the baby happens to slip
outside its baby bed." April 25, 2003:
Artificial Intelligence ... Real results. By Dena Levitz. The Red
& Black. "When she came to the Classic City, Julia Lundy, like
many other new University students, wanted one thing: independence. But,
unlike other freshmen, Lundy prepared for this goal by purchasing a motorized
wheelchair for trekking around campus. The 18-year-old is handicapped,
blind and suffers from several neurological disorders. ... Bumping into
people and property, almost rolling down flights of stairs and having
difficulty backing up are some of the problems she faces each day. But
cutting-edge work being done by a group of students and a professor within
the University's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center may change all that.
Don Potter, the graduate coordinator of the AI Center, and three students
are working with autonomous robots to develop a system for Lundy's wheelchair
in which sensors would vibrate when the wheelchair was about to hit something.
Lundy approached Potter in mid-fall, simply, she said, to see what the
institute could do to help her. Since then, the project has branched off
into several separate initiatives toward ultimately increasing Lundy's
safety." April 24, 2003: Leaders
praise plans for cleaner operation. April 24, 2003: Wakamaru
Bot at Your Service. By Elisa Batista. Wired News. "Pretty soon,
a robot named Wakamaru may become a fixture in the homes of elderly Japanese
who have no one else to look after them. The robot, which recently wheeled
around to greet guests at the Embedded Systems Conference, is still in
development. But it has the potential to replace a human caretaker in
Japan where robotic technology is embraced and the graying of the population
has left many young people wondering who will care for their parents.
... While Wakamaru may frighten people who are not used to being around
robots -- it resembles a science fiction alien more than a human child
-- in Japan, home to the Sony Aibo and others like it, robots are much
more acceptable members of society. ... 'Obviously, if this completely
replaces human companionship, that would be sad,' [Mark] Tilton added.
'But maybe that is a step up from television that keeps a lot of Americans
company.'" April 24, 2003: Humanizing
the ATM - Companies try to strike balance between efficiency and personality.
By Dennis Watkins. Columbia News Service / available from The Baltimore
Sun. "The friendlier ATM is part of a recent trend in the field of
human-computer interaction. Creating a machine that is simple and pleasant
to use raises important questions. How much informality will people tolerate
in a computer, particularly one that dispenses money? How well do people
accept computers that display some amount of artificial intelligence?
... Scientists at dozens of human-computer interaction laboratories at
universities and private companies worldwide have spent years trying to
understand the complex dynamic between man and machine. An experiment
recently conducted at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute revealed that
some people may still be unable to accept a human-like computer. ... Ben
Shneiderman, author of the upcoming book Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs
and New Computing Technologies, agreed that people are rarely charmed
by a computer. 'People don't want friendly,' said Shneiderman, a professor
of computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park, 'they
want fast and gets the job done and gets them out of there.'" April 24, 2003: Program
Administrators Are a Valuable Resource in Placing Specialized Risks.
By Glenn W. Clark. Insurance Journal. "Many program specialists capitalize
on advances in computer hardware and software to make their internal workflow
process more streamlined and efficient. Artificial intelligence built
into rating engines can assist underwriters in evaluating risk. Scanning
technologies allow for faster retrieval of policy forms. What is the advantage
of all this computer sophistication? For retail agents, it translates
into quicker turn-around time for quotes and policies." April 23, 2003: Research
and Development Takes Robots and Automation into New Territory. Plant
Automation.com. "Robotic automation has helped trim expenses and
downtime by enabling corporations to manufacture more than one product
on a production line. Cost savings can be achieved by fulfilling production
needs inhouse. ... Robots are breaking out of their cocoon of shop floor
assistance and have begun servicing more sophisticated segments including
photonics and fiber optics. With manufacturers integrating enhanced vision
and audio capabilities, these machines have become more flexible and skillful.
"'rchers and technologists are increasingly striving toward developing
innovative techniques that include the use of artificial intelligence
and progress to less human supervision,' states Technical Insights Analyst
Anand Subramanian. These modern robotics systems aid surgeons performing
complicated cardiac and abdominal operations without making large incisions.
Dexterous, voice-controlled robots can facilitate efficient microscale
operations by eliding hand tremors and offering visual magnifications.
'Surgical robots enable the surgeon to perform the surgery at the same
level of quality and time but with less pain, quicker recovery, and less
blood loss for the patient,' explains Anand." April 23, 2003: 'Virtual
Agent' Boosts Firm's Upsell Conversion. By Scott Hovanyetz. DMNews.
"Health supplement direct marketer Media Power Inc. doubled the conversion
rate on its upsells by implementing a 'virtual agent' automated system
designed to respond to consumer inquiries like a human. ... Advanced Interactive
Sciences said the system combines artificial intelligence and voice recognition
to create a 'human-like' automated agent at one-tenth the cost of live
agents." April 22, 2003: War
games Hollywood helps bring military training into the 21st century.
By Beth Greenberg. Boston Globe. "This scenario, taken from 'Think
Like a Commander,' a real-time, artificial intelligence 'immersive technology'
simulation, was developed in Hollywood - for the Army. It is an example
of a new era in training soldiers. ... One of the seemingly less-likely
collaborations has been between the military and Hollywood. The Institute
of Creative Technology, developer of 'Think Like a Commander,' is based
in a beachfront office a few miles from Tinseltown. ICT, which operates
under the umbrella of the University of Southern California, received
a $45 million, five-year contract from the Army in 1999 - with the ceiling
increased to $100 million in 2002. ICT, which employs film directors,
special-effects gurus, and computer whiz kids, has a mandate to enlist
experts from the entertainment and game development industries to work
collaboratively with computer scientists and noncommissioned officers
on improving the level of simulations and 'immersive' training available
to the military. ...[O]ne might wonder whether artificial intelligence
and immersive technology aren't turning war into a computer game. Or if
simulation training might cause soldiers to react to real crises as if
they were a game, and pull a trigger more easily, believing on some level
that the outcome will not be real. Michael Macedonia of STRICOM [Simulation,
Training and Instrumentation Command] is quite clear on this point: 'This
seems to be a common concern of folks who are not in the military. It's
unfounded. Soldiers know the difference between the 'game' and reality....'" April 22, 2003: Staying
ahead of the criminals. The Engineer. " Police forces in the
UK could be using artificial intelligence (AI) to help predict the location
of muggings and public order offences in cities within the next two years.
The AI system, recently presented to University College London's Jill
Dando Institute of Crime Science has already been used to build a picture
of crimefrequency in and around Cardiff. ... The AI system, the subject
of a Phd by University of Glamorgan researcher Jonathan Corcoran, uses
various data sources, including information from individual South Wales
police officers to predict where and when offences are likely to take
place. ... The AI system, the subject of a Phd by University of Glamorgan
researcher Jonathan Corcoran, uses various data sources, including information
from individual South Wales police officers to predict where and when
offences are likely to take place." April 21, 2003: High
tech answer to pop-music hit factory April 16, 2003: Mecmesin
advanced force gauge. Dial Info-Link Manufacturing. "SI Instruments
has introduced the new Mecmesin advanced force gauge, the AFG M3, that
combines fast sampling rate of 1200Hz, with 0.1% overall accuracy. ...
The most innovative feature is the ability to connect external force and
torque sensors. With the artificial intelligence, the force gauge is able
to recognise both the capacity of the external sensor as well as its calibration
settings. Therefore, the force or torque sensor will be recognised automatically,
also adopting its most applicable units of measurement and the gauge is
ready for use." April 15, 2003: SkiEurope
Web Site Selected for Forbes' Best of the Web Spring 2003. Business
Wire. "SkiEurope's Web site is a vacation planning tool, with extensive
information about each resort the company offers. SkiMatcher, an integral
component of the SkiEurope Web site, is a patented, agent-based recommendation
engine using artificial intelligence. Its interactive technology learns
the user's preferences and responds with comprehensive information on
each resort." April 14, 2003: Artificial
intelligence scopes out spam. By Dave Strickler. Network World. "In
the cat-and-mouse game of the antispam industry, staying one step ahead
of spammers is difficult because they constantly exploit the weaknesses
of e-mail keyword filtering. But the newest artificial-intelligence filtering
technology may adapt faster than the spammers can alter their messages.
Artificial intelligence techniques closely resemble the way our brains
learn. Once we learn a skill, we use it to reason with. Using artificial
intelligence to detect spam is done in the same way. ... Humans can quickly
skim a message to judge if it is spam. Referencing keywords by their location
in a sentence lets us understand the difference between 'chicken breasts'
as food and 'bare breasts' as pornography. Similarly, natural-language
algorithms break down messages into sentences and analyze their meaning.
With considerable processing effort, natural-language processing technology
pieces together the meaning of messages by analyzing the words, sentences
and paragraphs in the reverse order from which the algorithms originally
took them apart. ... While there never will be a system that stops 100%
of spam, artificial intelligence techniques come closer to that goal than
ever before." April 14, 2003: Springboard
for female entrepreneurs. By Darcy Evon. Sun-Times. "Women entrepreneurs
who have long bemoaned the lack of venture capital will take special delight
when Springboard Midwest 2003 gets under way on April 23 in Chicago. The
premier mentoring and national venture-capital forum has held a series
of boot camps over the past year to prepare women to compete in their
presentations for increasingly rare venture capital. ... Other presenting
companies represent 'the best of the best throughout the region,' said
Karen Andre, president of K Andre Consulting and a promoter of women's
entrepreneurial initiatives. ... The other presenting companies are: ...
Carnegie Speech, Pittsburgh, provides speech-tutoring software that uses
artificial intelligence, speech recognition and language learning pedagogy
to teach a non-native person to speak a foreign language more efficiently
and effectively." April 14, 2003: Faith,
sacrifice bring reward - Basement company gets big investment. By
Jennifer Beauprez. Denver Post. "'They did whatever it took,' said
Kirk Holland, general partner at Vista Ventures. 'We're back to the days
of real entrepreneurs,' he said. 'Those are the companies getting funded.
They're the ones making the kind of sacrifice - personal and financial
- to take companies further down the road.' For the first few weeks, Don
Springer and his partner Tim Wolters cranked out computer code in the
basement of Wolters' Rock Creek home. Their software uses artificial intelligence
to spot and monitor problems in any number of corporate business systems
- from discovering a slowdown in shipping to failures in e-commerce systems.
The duo first realized the need for such software while running Ccgenesis,
a Boulder firm that designs e-commerce software. Their client companies
didn't know that their websites had glitches until it was too late and
customers complained. Artificial intelligence could nab those problems
before the customers knew about them. ... By last fall, Dante [Group]
had nabbed $400,000 in financing from private investors and sealed a $200,000
customer contract with Corporate Express." April 14, 2003: Security
Blanket. By Chana R. Schoenberger. Forbes Global. "The threat
of smuggled bombs has the government ordering up detailed contents lists
for containers. What's to stop a terrorist from lying about what's inside.
Not much. ... The U.S. has also ordered shippers to submit far more detailed
manifests a week earlier than before. Lists of shipped items are fed into
a computer in the government's newly upgraded Automated Targeting System,
which uses artificial intelligence software to flag suspicious containers
based on combinations of country of origin, weight discrepancies and names
linked to terrorist groups." April 11, 2003: A
computer with a mind of its own is not so far-fetched. By Sarah Brett.
Belfast Telegraph. "'The great question is, will it ever be possible
to build machines which perform learning, creativity and conscious- ness
in the same way as people do?' Since he was in short trousers, Professor
Paul McKevitt has been fascinated by both science fact and science fiction.
... 'Artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to transform the lives
of people with disabilities, and make all our lives richer and more fulfilling',
he smiles. He's got some fantastic ideas - ideas that could enable him
to retire before his father - if there was a capitalist bone in his body.
'Natural language processing is my main interest, getting computers to
under- stand and use human language', he explains. ... 'The ultimate goal
is intelligent systems that are like people - like in the film Blade Runner'.
... Why is it that while we strive to advance technology, all our films
about intelligent systems involve a worst case scenario for the human
race? ... 'People are afraid of machines, even though we build them. There's
a fear they might take over, become more intelligent than we are - but
if that's the case, then just like HAL, they would be subject to all our
frailties, like mental illness.' ... 'My latest research work is focused
on computational storytelling.'" April 10, 2003: Mini
Robot Planes Deployed In Iraq. By Jennifer Viegas. Discovery News.
"Marines in Iraq are gathering intelligence using a miniature aircraft
that flies autonomously, relays information in real time and fits into
a super-sized golf bag, according to the Office of Naval Research, which
helped to develop the new plane. Called the Silver Fox, the unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) is smaller than previous flying detection devices, such
as the Predator and the Global Hawk. ... Although it stays in communication
with a remote laptop computer, the Silver Fox flies on its own, relying
on navigational systems such as Global Position Satellite. With GPS, the
plane can be programmed in advance to cover a specific territory. ...
Captain John Hobday, director of Tech Solutions, explained that the craft
first was meant for tracking whales, to protect the mammals from naval
exercises. ... In future, Mulligan hopes the Silver Fox will track, and
provide evidence against, poachers of elephants and other endangered species." April 10, 2003: A
Voice Recognition Tool Frees Hands for Other Tasks. By Laurie J. Flynn.
The New York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "Long the holy grail of
software development, voice recognition has proved a tricky feat, but
developers have made enough progress in recent years to produce several
low-priced options. The latest is the QPointer, which enables users to
operate a PC without touching the mouse or even, in some models, the keyboard.
Though it is marketed mostly for individuals with disabilities or injuries
who have difficulty using keyboards, voice operation is also an attractive
alternative for multitaskers." April 10, 2003: A
Robot for the Lawn Lazy Robomower - Trims Grass Automatically. April 8, 2003: Welcome
to the Matrix. By San Grewal. Toronto Star. "Today, 80 per cent
of North Americans access the Internet. Computers, video games, cellular
phones and the Internet now occupy more of the average North American
teenager's time than any other activity, including school. They shop,
listen to music, do their homework, play and communicate online. What
has been created isn't the dark realm of technology predicted by pop culture
and intellectuals. ... [Ejovi] Nuwere was one of the presenters at Digifest
2003, an international festival of online and digital culture held recently
in downtown Toronto, which focused on the future of the Electronic City.
Video game developers, digital artists, hackers and others from around
the world challenged the idea that virtual environments are potentially
dangerous places where people are led astray by sex, violence, bad ethics
and escapist fantasies.... [Tim] Carter says the gaming industry is in
its nascent stage. Till now most games have focussed on 'High Twitch'
reactions to the violent or fast paced confusion that takes place on screen.
But as programming and artificial intelligence get more sophisticated,
the gaming industry will change, just as Hollywood did. 'Action movies,
westerns, that was the easy way to attract an audience. You still have
them, but you also get films about real life, that represent the whole
spectrum of what their audiences relate to. A game like The Sims, using
artificial intelligence, gives players an interactive ability to 'play'
the game of life, hard decisions and all. The industry is becoming more
responsive to the demands of digital communities.'" April 7, 2003: No
matter how you slice it, spam keeps piling up - But there are means
available to keep it at bay. By Steve Makris. The Calgary Herald. "One
third of your e-mail inbox today is spam, according to industry watcher
MessageLabs. ... Although spam got its name from a Monty Python skit,
it is no laughing matter. A recent North American survey of 1,000 consumers
by Insight Express said 65 per cent of respondents spend more than 10
minutes each day dealing with spam. And 37 per cent of respondents get
more than 100 spam e-mails a week. ... Since no single anti-spam technology
is foolproof, sophisticated programs that combine multiple spam filtering
work best. Symantec's Multi-Layered Approach for businesses comes close
to keeping junk mail away. It combines heuristics (artificial intelligence)
and precise filtering, including blacklists and whitelists, to keep workers
spam-free." April 7, 2003: How
do you say "regime change" in Arabic? Don't look for your
tattered dictionary -- just pull out the Phraselator!. By Katharine Mieszkowski.
Salon (complete article can be accessed via free day pass). "[Ace]
Sarich is the vice president of VoxTec in Annapolis, Maryland, a division
of Marine Acoustics, a military contractor. He was in Kuwait training
troops on using a handheld device called the 'Phraselator,' a one-way
language translator that's the size of a large PDA and weighs about a
pound. The Phraselator uses speech-recognition technology called Dynaspeak,
developed by SRI International. It recognizes phrases phonetically, and
then matches them to the prerecorded Arabic phrases. ... The Phraselator
first saw battle in Afghanistan, where it communicated in four different
languages: Pashtu, Dari, Urdu, and Arabic. In Kandahar, Army military
police used it to communicate with prisoners of war. ... At Carnegie Mellon
University, a group of computer scientists working with three local Pittsburgh
companies, Mobile Technologies, Multi Modal Technologies and Cepstral,
last year created a prototype of a device called the 'speechlator' that
translates medical interviews from English to Egyptian Arabic and back.
The speech-recognition component translates the English to 'interlingua,'
a computer-readable intermediate language. 'That language is a mathematical
language almost like a logic,' says Alan Black, a research computer scientist
with Carnegie Mellon." April 2003: Artificial
intelligence: past and future. By Hugh McKellar. KMWorld (Volume 12,
Issue 4). "Nearly 10 years ago, the Department of Commerce issued
a technology assessment of the U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) market.
... The report estimated the 1993 global AI market -- including technologies
such as expert systems, neural networks fuzzy logic, robotics, speech
recognition, search, etc. -- at about $900 million -- and the United States
was clearly ahead of the rest of the world in the development of those
systems. ... What a difference a decade makes, as we point out in our
Industry Snapshot on p. 1. In April, Business Communication Company (BCC)
will release a thorough new study of the worldwide artificial intelligence
market, which it predicts will reach more than $21 billion by 2007 with
an average annual growth rate from 2002 to 2007 of 12.2%. In 2002 alone,
BCC calculates the worldwide market was $11.9 billion, with the growth
strongest in the United States, although the European and Asia Pacific
regions will see a greater AAGR due to growth in the financial services
and transportation sectors, say the BCC researchers. The report ... targets
five AI technologies: expert systems, belief networks, decision support
systems, neural networks and agents." April 3, 2003: GUIs
face up to the future. By Richard Sharp. Computing. "The majority
of computing power is spent presenting data to humans. We are the important
element in the equation. We need to know what information means and shouldn't
have to wade through a ton of data to find what we want. Today, we use
a lot of graphical user interfaces. ... The Acorns featured here are all
rising to this challenge and are looking at new ways to present data.
... Visual Information is developing, marketing, selling, supporting and
devising services for geographic applications for the user with its Vi
Business Analyst toolkit. Listening is easier than reading. If we can
turn text into speech we have a powerful tool of communication. Rhetorical
Systems, a spin-off from Edinburgh University, is developing bespoke voices
generated by a computer for applications such as the web. The user asks
a question and the answer is given in an accent they understand. Now take
the text-to-speech technology of Rhetorical and build a user-friendly,
real-time generated, animated 'agent' to respond to the user. This is
the work of Lexicle, a York-based Acorn building friendly interfaces for
applications. These young companies may be in the process of changing
our relationship with our computers." April 3, 2003: Robots
Take Dangerous Jobs - New models could clear land mines or do nuclear
cleanup. By Martyn Williams. PC World. "While Sony's Aibo and any
of the newest humanoid robots may be cute and draw attention, Japan's
robot industry has a serious side that's on display this week at Robodex
2003 here. A number of companies and universities are working on robot
technology that's designed to either save lives or make life easier. Some
are robots designed to perform jobs that are dangerous for humans, such
as mine-clearance work." April 1, 2003: CSIRO
tool cuts drug costs. By Jennifer Foreshew. Australian IT. "A
software modelling tool that could save $US50 million on the development
of just one drug has been created by the CSIRO. The tool, called MolSAR,
means a lot of the work involved in finding and developing new drugs can
be done using computers. The technology can extract useful information
from large quantities of data, as in pharmacological experiments, which
can then be used in the drug discovery process. 'We have a very flexible
artificial intelligence tool that can handle extremely complicated systems
and find relationships between molecules and their observed biological
response,' said David Winkler, senior principal research scientist in
CSIRO Molecular Science." April 2003: How
Antispam Software Works - 5 killer ways to eradicate junk mail. By
Seth Kaplan. Wired Magazine. "If it seems like you're getting more
spam than ever, take comfort - the junk email tide may be about to turn.
Until recently, antispam forces thought there was no way to catch enough
unwanted mail to make a difference. ... But now a raft of smarter filtering
techniques - from rules-based analysis to artificial intelligence - promises
to better shield your inbox. Here's how the most effective software works.
... 4. Outsmart It - Bayesian filtering, the most promising new technique,
doesn't adhere to any particular set of rules - it learns and relearns
how to spot spam by scanning the mail you've read and the mail you've
rejected. The AI filter calculates probabilities based on each email's
most unusual characteristics. Before long, it knows what kind of email
to deliver - and what to toss. Popular in the open source community and
expected to be adopted commercially in the next year, this method filters
out more than 99 percent of unwanted messages." April 2003: Adding
Excitement To E-learning - Simulation programs ease the cost, stress
of training. By Jennie L. Phipps. Industry Week Magazine. "Fun and
employee training aren't usually words that companies use in the same
sentence. In fact, much of e-learning is e-boring, but several computer
training companies are aiming to lighten up the learning process with
games and simulations that are anything but dull. ... Simulations are
also good for teaching the softer side of management. SimuLearn's 'Virtual
Leader,' simulates a series of company meetings in which the player has
to manage a complex network of workplace relationships. Players are scored
based on how well they meet business goals while maintaining cordial relationships
with customers and co-workers. Clark Aldrich, co-founder and vice president
of SimuLearn, explains the software uses complex artificial intelligence
routines to control the behavior of characters, including a library of
almost 200 body gestures and facial responses." April 2003: Surveillance
Nation - Webcams, tracking devices, and interlinked databases are
leading to the elimination of unmonitored public space. Are we prepared
for the consequences of the intelligence-gathering network we're unintentionally
building? By Dan Farmer and Charles C. Mann. Technology Review. "The
other two cameras in the Coolidge Bridge project are a little less routine.
Built by Computer Recognition Systems in Wokingham, England, with high-quality
lenses and fast shutter speeds (1/10,000 second), they are designed to
photograph every car and truck that passes by. Located eight kilometers
apart, at the ends of the zone of maximum traffic congestion, the two
cameras send vehicle images to attached computers, which use special character-recognition
software to decipher vehicle license plates. The license data go to a
server at the company's U.S. office in Cambridge, MA, about 130 kilometers
away. As each license plate passes the second camera, the server ascertains
the time difference between the two readings. The average of the travel
durations of all successfully matched vehicles defines the likely travel
time for crossing the bridge at any given moment, and that information
is posted on the traffic watch Web page. To local residents, the traffic
data are helpful, even vital: police use the information to plan emergency
routes. But as the computers calculate traffic flow, they are also making
a record of all cars that cross the bridge -- when they do so, their average
speed, and (depending on lighting and weather conditions) how many people
are in each car." April 2003 : Who
Loves Ya, Baby? Pass your e-mail through some new software and the
answer will become obvious. By Steven Johnson. Discover (Vol. 24 No. 4).
"In his classic novel Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut explains how the
world is divided into two types of social organizations: the karass and
the granfalloon. ... For most of the past 50 years, computers have been
on the side of the granfalloons, good at maintaining bureaucratic structures
and blind to more nuanced social interactions. But a new kind of software
called social-network mapping promises to change all that. ... Mapping
social networks turns out to be one of those computational problems --
like factoring pi out to a hundred decimal points or rendering complex
light patterns on a 3-D shape -- that computers can do effortlessly if
you give them the right data. Until software designer Valdis Krebs came
along, however, there wasn't an easy way to translate social interactions
into a machine-readable language.... Social mapping is not just for corporate
sociologists. Krebs has used his software to analyze the social networks
visible in book-buying patterns on Amazon.com, by tracking the 'people
who bought this book bought these other books' feature. ... Not surprisingly,
social-network software is ripe for political analysis." THERE'S MORE ! SEE THE APPLICATIONS NEWS ARCHIVE |
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