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• A website that hopes to speak the language of freely available data .
  Flummoxed by a document in Welsh? Now you can get a free translation at cymraeg.org.uk. The Apertium-cy software, described as the first free automatic translator from Welsh to English, is the fruit of a multilingual effort involving developers in Spain, Wales and Ireland pushing forward the possibilities of open-source software and, they hope, free public-sector data. ... Work on the Welsh-language version was led by Francis Tyers and Kevin Donnelly. It contains about 10,000 words in Welsh and English and 150 grammatical rules - enough to get the gist of the text, the developers say. The idea is to provide an easy way for people who don't speak Welsh to keep an eye on Welsh-language media reports in an area of interest, and to provide a "first-pass" translation of documents, improving the productivity of human translators. August 14, 2008. (more)
• Don't dismiss robot surgeons.
  Lord Winston in his new BBC1 series, Superdoctors ...worries "...that robotic nurses and robotic doctors are completely contrary to what medicine is about." ... The second half of Superdoctors dealt with two robot surgical assistants. First was a da Vinci robot, the most widely used in the world, performing laparoscopic surgery on an infant. Second was a £12m Canadian neuroArm assisting in the removal of a brain tumour. Unlike human surgeons, neuroArm can operate inside an MRI scanner to make brain surgery extremely accurate. This time the criticisms were that the instruments were too large, which is not hard to fix, and that human surgeons could have performed the operations just as well. Lord Winston concludes, "I hate the idea of the surgeon being removed from the patients." But surely distant control is the biggest advantage of using robots. Human contact is certainly important in medical treatment but it can come from other carers at the site. August 26, 2008. (more)
• Gates foresees another revolution.
  MICROSOFT chairman Bill Gates said last week the dramatic growth of the internet would help to eventually eliminate "the last constraints we have", leading to a software-writing revolution. ... The way people used computers would expand "to encompass all interactive techniques: the touch, the speech, the vision", said Mr Gates, who stepped down in June from his full-time role at Microsoft, which he co-founded. Major developments in internet services and computer interfaces, "because they're fairly developed in the labs, I can say that in 10 years will be widespread", he said. As for the following decade, he predicted: "You might get artificial intelligence or robotics, but those are still so undeveloped, at least in widespread impact.". August 19, 2008. (more)
• MIT Model Helps Computers Think Like Humans.
  In a development that will extend the eternal quest of creating computers that think like humans, two researchers working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a model that helps computers recognize patterns in the same way as humans do. The two researchers, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Josh Tenenbaum and recent MIT PhD recipient Charles Kemp, produced a broad algorithm that examines several different approaches of looking at data that is similar to the way humans typically size up different situations. "Instead of looking for a particular kind of structure, we came up with a broader algorithm that is able to look for all of these structures and weigh them against each other," said Tenenbaum, the senior author of the paper. August 27, 2008. (more)
• The Night Sessions (Book Review).
  Review of book by Ken MacLeod in which "Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson harbours a deep mistrust of religious faith and not a little unease at the recollection of the brutal methods with which he helped to suppress the religious minority. When a priest is murdered, then a bishop, atheists are at first suspected, and later aggrieved religious fundamentalists. But Ferguson's investigations soon uncover a more sinister plot involving artificial intelligence." August 9, 2008. (more)
• 'Frankenrobot' Has Biological Brain.
  Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot to be controlled exclusively by living brain tissue. Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday. Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers said. August 13, 2008. (more)
• 'Oldest' computer music unveiled.
  "A scratchy recording of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a truncated version of In the Mood are thought to be the oldest known recordings of computer generated music. The songs were captured by the BBC in the Autumn of 1951 during a visit to the University of Manchester. The recording has been unveiled as part of the 60th Anniversary of "Baby", the forerunner of all modern computers." 17 June 2008. (more)
• 400,000 Essays Later, Vantage Learning Spells Success in Over Half of Utah's School Districts.
  Utah's students are boosting critical writing, reasoning, and computer skills in the classroom, thanks to a licensing agreement for MY Access! the award-winning online writing tool developed by Vantage Learning. Twenty four districts have decided to use MY Access! this school year after teachers, directors and administrators from across the state saw a marked improvement in student performance. Students submitted over 400,000 essays to MY Access! in one school year and administrators decided to expand their use of MY Access! to over 70,000 licenses in over twenty four school districts throughout the Utah school system. ... To use MY Access!, students write an essay based on a teacher's assignment, and submit it to the Web-based system. The program instantly analyzes over 350 semantic, syntactic, and discourse characteristics, and scores the students on focus and meaning, organization, content and development, language use and style, mechanics and conventions, and overall writing proficiency.. August 18, 2008. (more)
• A Conversation with Christos Papadimitriou.
  Christos Papadimitriou, the C. Lester Hogan Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, is this year's recipient of the Katyanagi Prize for Research Excellence. Carnegie Mellon University has cited Dr. Papadimitriou as "an internationally recognized expert on the theory of algorithms and complexity, and its applications to databases, optimization, artificial intelligence, networks and game theory." DDJ: Diverging from the philosophical to the mundane, your work on protein folding touches on an interesting economic phenomenon. Dr. Dobb's Journal is a magazine that addresses working programmers. As we pursue our careers, are we going to be sucked into biotech in large numbers? CP: I would say that, quite generally, computer scientists are going to find themselves interacting more with other fields. July 09, 2008. (more)
• Almost human: Interview with a chatbot.
  Almost human: Interview with a chatbot * 15:32 13 October 2008 * NewScientist.com news service * David Robson Printable versionEmail to a friendRSS FeedSyndicate Related Articles * Software spots the spin in political speeches * 17 September 2008 * 'Gordon Gekko' trading bot profits from mood swings * 01 July 2008 * IQ test for AI devices gets experts thinking * 12 August 2005 * Search New Scientist * Contact us Web Links * Elbot * Loebner Prize Subscribe to New Scientist Every year the Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence is awarded to the chatbot software able to converse most like a human. ... the winner of the Loebner Prize at the weekend – Elbot, brainchild of Fred Roberts at Artificial Solutions in Germany – came close, according to the contest's rather generous rules. 13 October 2008 . (more)
• Artificial Intelligence - alive and kicking.
  Artificial intelligence technology (AI) is being used all around us but don't expect any philosophical discussions with your hoover quite yet. "People think of AI and they think of brains in boxes or Terminator - kind of death destroying robots - and actually of course we haven't built those systems and there isn't a brain in a box somewhere worrying about its self existence," head of AI at Southampton University, professor Nigel Shadbolt, told silicon.com. "What AI's done by trying to set itself lofty goals about understanding how to build intelligent software or flexible software, it's produced along the waytonnes of methods and insights that are now routinely deployed everywhere." July 10, 2008. (more)
• Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk.
  Draft of long (42 page) article from the Singularity Institute book, Global Catastrophic Risks (Nick Bostrom & Milan Cirkovic, eds.). Advocates long, concerted effort to understand "Friendly AI" before a catastrophic mistake occurs in the development of AI.. August 31, 2006.. (more)
• Avatars as communicators of emotions.
  Current interactive systems enable users to communicate with computers in many ways, but not taking into account emotional communication. A PhD thesis presented at the University of the Basque Country puts forward the use of avatars or virtual Internet personages as an efficient form of non-verbal communication, principally focusing on emotional aspects. July 09, 2008. (more)
• BigDog\'s Little Brother Bots.
  Overview of Boston Dynamics (maker of BigDog) other three robots - description along with video of each. 9/27/08. (more)
• Brain Signal Decoder.
  Interfacing with the brain to control devices such as wheelchairs, robots and prosthetic devices has great potential. Monkeys have shown impressive ability to control robot limbs using brain implants, but must "rewire" their brains through training to do it. ... It would make things easier to use the signals naturally used for hand-eye coordination. But nobody has been able to figure out how the part of the brain responsible for hand-eye coordination, the primary motor cortex, does its job. Even recording the activity of this brain region has proved difficult. ... The result is a brain implant that can translate the hand trajectory signals produced by the brain and use them to control an external device. August 02, 2008. (more)
• Celebrating the UK's Computer Pioneers.
  The computer seems the very essence of the modern world, especially as the gadgets we sit before and carry around shrink as fast as they become more powerful. But if truth be told the computer has had a long and honourable history that stretches back to the closing years of the World War II. And, say conservations and computer history enthusiasts, Britain played a big part in the development of the modern computer... [Alan] Turing established the conceptual and philosophical basis for the rise of computers in a seminal 1936 paper called "On Computable Numbers". July 24, 2008. (more)
• Celebrating the man who invented the mouse.
  Forty years ago, Stanford researcher Doug Engelbart got a standing ovation in a San Francisco auditorium after dramatically introducing the computer mouse, hyperlinks, live text editing and interactive computing in an historic demo at the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference. Tuesday, in Stanford's Memorial Auditorium, the gray-haired, 83-year-old electrical engineer received another round of applause. December 10, 2008. (more)
• Cell phone tech for swarm robots.
  The tiny motors normally used to vibrate cell phones can provide researchers with a significantly more affordable option for building robots. A team of students led by Alexis Johnson at the University of Southampton's electronics and computer science school realized the tiny motors intended for cell phone vibration are already designed and manufactured to be attached to circuit boards making them ideally suited for use in swarm robots. August 6, 2008. (more)
• Complex classic meets robotic complexity.
  Robotics and a rose garden are two seemingly disparate elements that Quantum Theatre will use to bring William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" to life. A collaboration between Quantum Theatre and The Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, "Cymbeline" will begin performances Thursday in the Rose Garden of Mellon Park. Using 21st-century technology and an outdoor setting are not just gimmicks to get attention, says Quantum Theatre's artistic director Karla Boos. "It maximizes how to facilitate what I want to experiment with and serves the exploration of the play," she says. Don't come expecting to see R2-D2 or Robbie the Robot substituting for actors. "This is something far different from a walking, talking android," says Illah Nourbaksh, an associate professor at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University who has been working with Boos and her design team on the production. Instead, Boos hints, the production will employ elements of robotic technology in more symbolic ways that may surprise and involve the audience. July 27, 2008. (more)
• Computer Beats Pro At US Go Congress .
  In a historic achievement, the MoGo computer program defeated Myungwan Kim 8P Thursday by 1.5 points in a 9-stone game. “It played really well,” said Kim, who estimated MoGo’s current strength at “two or maybe three dan,” though he noted that the program – which used 800 processors, at 4.7 Ghz, 15 Teraflops on borrowed supercomputers – “made some 5-dan moves,” like those in the lower right-hand corner, where Moyogo took advantage of a mistake by Kim to get an early lead. “I can’t tell you how amazing this is,” David Doshay -- the SlugGo programmer who suggested the match -- told the E-Journal after the game. “I’m shocked at the result. I really didn’t expect the computer to win in a one-hour game.” August 7, 2008. (more)
• Computer cashes in big at Texas Hold 'Em tourney.
  In a series of matches that took place over the Fourth of July weekend in Las Vegas, the researchers' [at the University of Alberta] Polaris poker program won against a group of top-ranked online poker players. ...According to Prof. Bowling, the principal investigator on the Polaris project, "when you look at games where players are asked to make decisions with different amounts of information, missing information, poker is the quintessential game.". July 13, 2008. (more)
• Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.
  "After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games." July 31, 2008. (more)
• Engineering courses offered free online.
  Ten of Stanford’s most popular engineering courses are now offered for free online. A new program called Stanford Engineering Everywhere, or SEE, gives any Internet user with an interest in engineering access to classes. Courses include the three-part computer science introductory sequence and other more advanced classes on artificial intelligence and electrical engineering. Lectures will be delivered through YouTube videos and iTunes podcasts. Other features include online tests and a social network for SEE students. A Creative Commons license allows educators and students to adapt and redistribute the content for non-commercial purposes, as long as Stanford receives credit. September 23, 2008. (more)
• Ethical Robots: The Future Can Heed Us.
  Abstract: "Bill Joy’s deep pessimism is now famous. “Why The Future Doesn’t Need Us,” his defense of that pessimism, has been read by, it seems, everyone — and many of these readers, apparently, have been converted to the dark side, or rather more accurately, to the future-is-dark side. Fortunately (for us; unfortunately for Joy), the defense, at least the part of it that pertains to AI and robotics, fails. Ours may be a dark future, but we can’t know that on the basis of Joy’s reasoning. On the other hand, we ought to fear a good deal more than fear itself: we ought to fear not robots, but what some of us may do with robots." May 8 2006. (more)
• Expert systems help Italian ministries provide quick, accurate responses to search terms.
  Expert System, leading provider of semantic software that discovers, classifies and interprets text information, today announces that the Italian Ministry of Culture and Heritage has chosen COGITO Semantic Search to improve and simplify the search of its online content and provide accurate, multi-lingual search results. July 08, 2008. (more)
• Flying Saucers and Mini-Tanks Highlight Spy Robot Competition.
  Eleven teams, including universities, defense contractors and small companies, are competing in the British Ministry of Defense’s Grand Challenge with autonomous information-gathering vehicles that include flying saucers, a mini tank, several mini-helicopters and darts, among other machines. ... During the competition, the robots have to identify threats such as potential snipers and enemy vehicles and other threats, with minimal human guidance. The machines then have to report the information back to troops preparing for an assault. The judges will reward accuracy and autonomy. August 18, 2008. (more)
• Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone) .
  Pushing ahead in the decades-long effort to get computers to understand human speech, Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company’s search software for the Apple iPhone. Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?” The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine. November 14, 2008. (more)
• Handle With Care .
  “The complexity of newly engineered systems coupled with their potential impact on lives, the environment, etc., raise a set of ethical issues that engineers had not been thinking about,” said William A. Wulf, a computer scientist who until last year headed the National Academy of Engineering. As one of his official last acts, he established the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society there. Rachelle Hollander, a philosopher who directs the center, said the new technologies were so powerful that “our saving grace, our inability to affect things at a planetary level, is being lost to us,” as human-induced climate change is demonstrating. ... “It’s a hot topic,” said Ronald C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech who advises the Army on robot weapons. “We need at least to think about what we are doing while we are doing it, to be aware of the consequences of our research.” ...Dr. Arkin said robotics researchers should consider not just how to make robots more capable, but also who must bear responsibility for their actions and how much human operators should remain “in the loop,” particularly with machines to aid soldiers on the battlefield or the disabled in their homes. August 11, 2008. (more)
• Hands-Free Driving Likely To Spur More Voice Recognition.
  New rules in California and Washington make the market ripe for improved speech-enabled cell phone applications, a Nuance study suggests. This week's inauguration of "hands-free" cell phone use for drivers in California and Washington focuses attention on the spread of voice recognition technology for mobile phones. With Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) preparing to add voice-enabled search to its mobile platform this summer and with more voice recognition features offered all the time for individual cell phone owners, drivers are increasingly being offered a broad array of new speech recognition features. July 3, 2008. (more)
• Tags/Have you hugged a robot today?
  "Mechanical creatures that respond to humans are cute, but are also a step on the way to improving our relationship with machines. ... to [Steve] Bannerman, a former Apple staffer who set up Quicktime TV (which became the iTunes Store), Pleo, as the dinosaur is called, might just be the future of human-machine interaction. Pleo, made by a company called Ugobe, coos and even sings. Rub its neck and stomach and it blinks its baby-like eyes and turns towards you and writhes happily. ... Pleo fascinated him: "I fell in love with this dinosaur," he says. "I loved the artificial intelligence component." July 31 2008. (more)
• I, human.
  Robotics: They are staples of science fiction. And it seems that humanoid robots may make people feel more at ease than other designs. ... The study, published in the Public Library of Science, was led by Soren Krach and Tilo Kircher of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Aachen University. They used a scanning technique, called functional magnetic-resonance imaging, to find out how people’s brains respond to various sorts of robots. Dr Krach and Dr Kircher chose the “prisoner’s dilemma” game because it involves a difficult choice: whether to co-operate with the other player or betray him. ... ... shows that the less human-like a robot is in its appearance, the less it will be treated as if it were human. That may mean it will be trusted less—and might therefore not sell as well as a humanoid design. Sep 4th 2008. (more)
• Language Lessons for Robots.
  "Language-learning techniques designed for children are being used in a bid to break new ground by developing algorithms that enable robots to learn and understand concepts. As part of the project by Plymouth University researchers, two robots will be built featuring software that allows them to interact with each other to exchange learned information like humans." 28 July 2008. (more)
• Noted Inventor Files Patent for Combining Artificial Intelligence With Event-Driven Security.
  The field of Mr. Rodriguez's invention will set the industry standard for identity management in global companies and government agencies, by preventing identity theft before it happens. The solution provides real-time authentication and authorization of digital identities using an artificial intelligence (AI) based architecture which include neural and semantic network based algorithms. It answers three critical aspects in the new paradigm of security management (1) Are you who you say you are? (2) Where will I allow you to go? (3) What will I allow you to do? These algorithms promote and demote users, in real-time, to provide a multi-factor, risk based authentication model. 08/07/2008. (more)
• Oliver Selfridge, an Early Innovator in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 82 .
  Oliver G. Selfridge, an innovator in early computer science and artificial intelligence, died on Wednesday in Boston. He was 82. ... Credited with coining the term “intelligent agents,” for software programs capable of observing and responding to changes in their environment, Mr. Selfridge theorized about far more, including devices that would not only automate certain tasks but also learn through practice how to perform them better, faster and more cheaply. 12/3/08. (more)
• Paraplegics take first steps with robotic legs.
  The device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, based in Israel. ReWalk consists of motorised leg supports, body sensors and a back pack that contains a computer and rechargeable batteries. Users still need crutches to help with balance. Goffer himself became paralysed in an accident in 1997, but because he lacks full use of his arms cannot use his own invention. To move, the user picks a setting with a remote control wrist band – "stand", "sit", "walk", "descend" or "climb" – and then leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion. ReWalk is in clinical trials in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Centre, with more scheduled at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania, US. August 26, 2008. (more)
• Pneumatic robot arranges limbs for MRI 'sweet spot'.
  A pneumatic robot that positions patients' limbs inside an MRI scanner allows physicians to exploit a bizarre phenomenon where hard-to-see tendons jump into sharp focus when held at the right angle. That "magic angle" effect happens when a tendon is at 55° to a scanner's powerful magnetic field and can help with diagnosing tendon injuries. ... The robot judges its own position, and even uses image processing software to check whether it has reached the right angle. (with video). August 01, 2008. (more)
• Poker bots raise the stakes for human players .
  the scene, at a nondescript booth of a Las Vegas convention centre in July this year, may to be a pivotal moment for the development of artificial intelligence. That's because at the Gaming Life Expo at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, a computer program called Polaris became the first to beat a team of world-class poker players, each of whom had previously won more than $1 million. Some may see the victory as the latest dismal step in silicon's march towards superiority over humans. Others will view it as an exciting move forward in artificial intelligence - a foretaste of the sophisticated tasks computers should be able to perform for us in years to come. November 13, 2008. (more)
• Prospects keep hand on the stick, eye on the screen.
  Scouting young hockey prospects is, at best, an inexact science. Something Lauren Sergio is aiming to change with the help of her trusty “force field-creating robotic arm.” ... It was developed in the artificial intelligence lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by researchers who went on to found SensAble Technologies Inc. Using haptic – or artificial touch – technology, it allows the user to feel and manipulate objects in a virtual environment. Similar technology is used by scientists at the Canadian Space Agency to manipulate robotic arms and by medical students to practise surgeries on virtual patients by simulating the textures of bones and tissues. September 22, 2008. (more)
• Rapid7's NeXpose Named SC Magazine Recommended Product This Month.
  In a review published in the August issue, SC Magazine's technology editor and product tester, Peter Stephenson, identifies NeXpose's strengths as "vulnerability assessment and risk analysis in one box" and reports that there are no weaknesses to be found. He describes NeXpose as a "tool that always goes beyond expectations," and points out that NeXpose "can not only scan for network-based vulnerabilities, but also looks inside web apps and databases for potential threats." ... NeXpose discovers the vulnerabilities that hackers most exploit and other products fail to detect by using an expert system to chain together individual external vulnerabilities to reveal potentially hidden vulnerabilities at deeper levels of the systems.. Aug. 13, 2008. (more)
• Real-life robots obey Asimov’s laws.
  European researchers have developed technology enabling robots to obey Asimov’s golden rules of robotics: to do no harm to humans and to obey them. September 8, 2008. (more)
• Researchers develop "robotic apprentices" .
  University researchers have developed an artificial intelligence that can learn by watching "experts" perform a task. The artificial intelligence was developed by Stanford University for use in robotic helicopters which learn to fly and perform stunts by watching "expert" helicopters perform the same tasks, rather than by having software engineers input every individual instruction. Sept. 02, 2008. (more)
• Robo-relationships are virtually assured: British experts.
  Both Heart Robot and iC Hexapod are "emotibots" -- robots programmed to react to human emotions -- on display this week at the Antenna Gallery at London's Science Museum. For McGoran and iC Hexapod's inventor, Matt Denton, creating robots that recognise and respond to basic human emotions is a logical step as people's daily lives become increasingly dependent on technology. "People know about artificial intelligence but the perception is that robots are cold and calculating industrial automatons," McGoran, who is studying robotics at the University of the West of England, told AFP. "But over the last decade, there has been a new field where robots have become the opposite of that." June 30, 2008. (more)
• Robot Teachers (w/embedded video).
  A third year computer science graduate student, Whitehill and his colleagues are working to make a new generation of robots that would be effective and responsive teachers. They believe the key is to train them to recognize and respond to facial expressions, the way humans do naturally. Whitehill described the demonstration, part of his research at the University of California, San Diego's Machine Perception Laboratory, as "almost like having a remote control built into your face." The research falls under the umbrella of artificial intelligence -- the creation of machines that can behave like humans -- and Whitehill envisions a not-so-far-away future when robots will replace people as teachers, at least in areas that require a lot of repetition, such as foreign language and math drills. He doesn't, however, foresee them ever replacing philosophy teachers, for example. July 29, 2008. (more)
• Robot cleaners go to hull.
  Newcastle University engineers have developed an automated robotic cleaning system that removes marine growth from the hull of a ship. Operating in a similar way to the automatic carpet cleaner, the robot has been developed out of an EU-funded project called HISMAR (Hull Identification System for Marine Autonomous Robotics) and is able to navigate its own way across the ship’s hull. 19 September 2008. (more)
• Robot fliers racing to catch the Zephyr.
  The Pentagon's hope of having a squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) capable of staying in the air and performing surveillance for years rather than hours recently took a small step forward. Working with U.K.-based idea factory QinetiQ Group PLC, researchers from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) managed to keep the solar-powered Zephyr high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft in the air over the Arizona desert for 82 hours 37 minutes. ... The flight, which took place between July 28 and 31, researchers guided the Zephyr by remote control to an operating altitude in excess of 60,000 ft (18 km), according to BBC News. After that, the aircraft, which carried a 4.4-pound (2-kilogram) payload, flew on autopilot and via satellite communication. August 25, 2008. (more)
• Robot wheelchair finds its own way: MIT invention responds to user\'s spoken commands.
  MIT researchers are developing a new kind of autonomous wheelchair that can learn all about the locations in a given building, and then take its occupant to a given place in response to a verbal command. ... After months of preliminary tests on campus, they have begun trials in a real nursing home environment with real patients, at the Boston Home in Dorchester, a facility where all of the nearly 100 patients have partial or substantial loss of muscle control and use wheelchairs. September 19, 2008. (more)
• Robots & Us at Great Lakes Science Center.
  CLEVELAND -- A new exhibition is opening at the Great Lakes Science Center that brings humans into the world of robots. The Robots + Us exhibit is a place where humans meet machines in a fun and educational journey to the world of artificial intelligence. September, 2008. (more)
• Robots aim to mimic humans.
  Over the last few years, research into the fields of vision, speech recognition, artificial intelligence, and robotics has become fragmented. This has limited the ability of researchers to develop cognitive robots that require the incorporation of many developments in each one of these disciplines. Now a consortium of universities under the auspices of the EU-funded Cognitive Systems for Cognitive Assistants (CoSy; www.cognitivesystems.org) project aims to merge ideas from several relevant disciplines to develop a cognitive robot capable of emulating the abilities of a young child. The project has already led to the development of interactive robots that understand human speech and objects and react to their environment. Jul 1, 2008. (more)
• Sci-fi film: The apes weren't cuddly.
  Classic sci-fi films address issues that make adults think. 'Wall-E' promises the moon, then ends up just chasing the Happy Meal set. July 13, 2008. (more)
• Search site aims to rival Google.
  Called Cuil, from the Gaelic for knowledge and hazel, its founders claim it does a better and more comprehensive job of indexing information online. The technology it uses to index the web can understand the context surrounding each page and the concepts driving search requests, say the founders... Instead of just looking at the number and quality of links to and from a webpage as Google's technology does, Cuil attempts to understand more about the information on a page and the terms people use to search. July 28, 2008. (more)
• Teaching the public about nanotech increases their concerns.
  Educating the public about nanotechnology and other complex but emerging technologies causes people to become more "worried and cautious" about the new technologies' prospective benefits, according to a recent study by researchers at North Carolina State University. A new study by researchers at North Carolina State University on public attitudes towards nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies shows that educating people about the new technologies results in those people becoming more concerned about the potential impact of the technologies. July 27, 2008. (more)
• TechX Contest Preps Non-Superpower Military Bots for Urban War.
  Like DARPA's competitions in the U.S., Singapore's new robot showdown offers big bucks for smart bots, and these iRobot mods could lead the way for smaller countries to hand-build autonomous armies of their own. On hand for this weekend's stair-climbing, elevator-riding action, PM gets a sneak peek at the high-tech challenges ahead. September 19, 2008. (more)
• The Grill: Ray Kurzweil talks about 'augmented reality' and the Singularity.
  The futurist and inventor talks about pervasive computing, augmented reality, and storage as a philosophical issue. By Ian Lamont. Computerworld (November 11, 2007). "[Q] What’s your definition of artificial intelligence? [A] Artificial intelligence is the ability to perform a task that is normally performed by natural intelligence, particularly human natural intelligence. We have in fact artificial intelligence that can perform many tasks that used to require -- and could only be done by -- human intelligence. There are hundreds of examples today, and they are deeply embedded in our economic infrastructure. All communication is governed by intelligent algorithms that route and connect the information. Programs are embedded into computer-assisted design systems. AI flies and lands airplanes, guides intelligent weapons systems, places billions of dollars of financial transactions each day. These examples are narrow AI, in that they are performing specific tasks, very often sophisticated tasks that required human experts to perform. [Q] What could slow down the arrival of strong AI, or of the 'smarter than human' technologies you call the Singularity? [A] There are really two areas to think about. One is hardware and one is software. ...". November 11, 2007. (more)
• The MouseSite .
  The MouseSite Digital Archive contains a broad variety of materials documenting the development of human/computer interaction. The archive includes texts, images, video clips, bibliographies, and interviews with Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse. . (more)
• The beauty of tragedy: Tilting at Windmill.
  Nietzsche describes Greek tragedy as a union of two divine forces: the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian is found in the dream of a well-ordered world. It is the force of harmony, clarity, beauty, and individuation. The Dionysian reflects a darker, primal side of human nature. Revealed in intoxication, it is chaotic, orgiastic, destructive, and undifferentiated. ... The fusion of the two forms the essence of tragedy. But the advance of artificial intelligence will instigate the end of this tragedy. When computers drive cars, the computer has monopolized the Apollonian. And while the Dionysian will still be available, rock radio will enter decline as passengers take advantage of more time to attend to their everyday affairs. September 19, 2008. (more)
• The robot that acts like Keanu Reeves .
  [Researchers at] the University of West of England and the University of Bristol, as part of a project called Human-Robot Interaction, have been working to perfect an (allegedly) human-looking robot. You know, one that can manage a few facial expressions, move its lips, and criticize you day after day. November 13, 2008. (more)
• Theorist says humor is pattern recognition.
  A British science writer says he has determined humor is just the recognition of a pattern that a person finds surprising. "Humor occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it and that recognition of this sort is rewarded with the experience of the humorous response, an element of which is broadcast as laughter," said researcher and theorist Alastair Clarke. "It is not the content of the stimulus but the patterns underlying it, that provide the potential for sources of humor. For patterns to exist it is necessary to have some form of content but once that content exists, it is the level of the pattern at which humor operates and for which it delivers its rewards." Clarke also predicts the use of his hypothesis will facilitate the creation of a less robotic form of artificial intelligence. July 09, 2008. (more)
• UMass startup's uBot builds other robots.
  Academic robotics research often includes building a robot from scratch, a labor-intensive process that a base robotics platform could eliminate. The uBot balances on two wheels, can pick objects up with its arms, and can interact via Skype using a camera and a computer monitor for a “head,” giving researchers the core robotic functions they might need when developing their own specialized robot. August 29, 2008. (more)
• Untangling Web Information The Semantic Web organizer Twine offers bookmarking with built-in AI.
  The next big stage in the evolution of the Internet, according to many experts and luminaries, will be the advent of the Semantic Web--that is, technologies that let computers process the meaning of Web pages instead of simply downloading or serving them up blindly. ... many eyes will be on Twine, a Web organizer based on semantic technology that launches publicly today. Twine uses artificial intelligence--machine learning and natural language processing--to parse the contents of Web pages and extract key concepts, such as people, places, and organizations, from the pages that a user saves. The site then uses these concepts to link information and users. October 21, 2008 . (more)
• Tags/What is Artificial Intelligence?
  One of the founders of the field of AI, McCarthy covers the basics in a question and answer format, starting with: "Q. What is artificial intelligence? A. It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable. Q. Yes, but what is intelligence? A. Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines." (more)
• When Computers Meld With Our Minds.
  ...e-mails represent just a small sample of the vast amount of digital information being generated by the gigabyte every minute. If we can cope with this rising flood of information, we are likely to be on track for using technology in the creation of superhuman intelligence, according to Vernor Vinge, futurist, best-selling science fiction author, and retired professor of computer science. Machines will become far more than just tools; they will physically merge with us, seamlessly endowing powers that are currently beyond our imagination. And all of this will happen in our lifetime, Vinge says. 07/25/08. (more)
• iRobot preps pared-down PackBot for civilians.
  iRobot announced a new addition to its lineup of industrial robots Wednesday.... Like the PackBot, the Negotiator can climb stairs, work by remote control, and be outfitted with tools for reconnaissance and chemical detection.. August 6, 2008. (more)

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