Clipmarks | wildcat's 'robotics' clips

Robots Advance

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:35:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Last week, I explained how humans might soon be learning things from robots. Today, I’d like to explain why robots might become a more integral part of life faster than most people expect.

Yesterday, Technology Review published an interesting article entitled: ”Robots Learns to Use Tools.” What is really intriguing about the article, which describes a new robot called the UMass Mobile Manipulator or UMan for short, is that the robot is employing sophisticated algorithms to teach itself how to deal with unfamiliar objects.

One of the major barriers to date with robotics is that programmers have had to write complicated software code to help robots deal with almost every contingency that it might encounter. For example, for a household robot to be effective, it needs to recognize every item that might conceivably be in someone house—everything from a pair of scissors to a flower vase. This is no easy chore.

The implications of self-learning robots could be quite profound

Tags: robotics

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:04:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Robots are not human, but humans aren’t the only things that have emotions,” she said. “The question for robots is not, Will they ever have human emotions? Dogs don’t have human emotions, either, but we all agree they have genuine emotions. The question is, what are the emotions that are genuine for the robot?”

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

There is ongoing debate about what constitutes life. Synthetic bacteria for example, are created by man and yet also alive. Some go so far as to say that robot “emotions” may already have occurred—that current robots have not only displayed emotions, but in some ways have experienced them.

“We’re all machines,” says Rodney Brooks author of “Flesh and Machines,” and former director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, “Robots are made of different sorts of components than we are — we are made of biomaterials; they are silicon and steel — but in principle, even human emotions are mechanistic.” A robot’s level of a feeling like sadness could be set as a number in computer code, he said. But isn’t a human’s level of sadness basically a number, too, just a number of the amounts of various neurochemicals circulating in the brain? Why should a robot’s numbers be any less authentic than a human’s?

Tags: robotics, intelligence, life

Can a Robot, an Insect or God Be Aware?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:43:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Our intuitions about consciousness in other beings and objects reveal a lot about how we think.

Can a lobster ever truly have any emotions?

Or a sophisticated computer? The only way to resolve these questions conclusively would be to engage in serious scientific inquiry—but even before studying the scientific literature, many people have pretty clear intuitions about what the answers are going to be. A person might just look at a computer and feel certain that it couldn’t possibly be feeling pleasure, pain or anything at all. That’s why we don’t mind throwing a broken computer in the trash. Likewise, most people don’t worry too much about a lobster feeling angst about its impending doom when they put one into a pot of boiling water. In the jargon of philosophy, these intuitions we have about whether a creature or thing is capable of feelings or subjective experiences—such as the experience of seeing red or tasting a peach—are called “intuitions about phenomenal consciousness.”

Tags: consciousness, thought, awareness, robotics

Virsona -- Talk with Artificial Intelligence

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:44:44 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp
clipper's remarks: Virsona is a social media service that provides a real-time chat interface where it looks like you’re having an instant messager conversation,with historical, fictional or public figures like Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, etc. Moreover Virsona is a social media service that allows you to create virtual personas and interact with others.

Clip Source: smart-machines.blogspot.com

Virsona lets you talk to anyone

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Virsona

[Video]

Clip Source: www.virsona.com

Welcome to Virsona™

Clip Source: www.virsona.com

What is Virsona™?

Virsona is a social media service that allows you to create Virtual Personas that can emulate a historical, fictional or public figures.

How do I create a Virsona™?

There are two different types of Virsonas. The first is your own personal Virsona and the second is Community Virsonas. You can interact with Community Virsonas simply by clicking on the picture and chatting.

How do I interact with my Virsona™?

Interaction with Virsona is thru a chat box. The conversation looks much like an Instant Messaging, or Text Messaging chat. Simply click on the chat box and type away.

Clip Source: www.virsona.com

Virsona™ Community Pages

Historical:


Abraham Lincoln

Fictional:


Hulk

Public:


Barack Obama

Experience:


aliens

Clip Source: www.pixelheadsnetwork.com

Episode #59 - Digital Hollywood 2008 - Virsona

Tags: ai, artificial intelligence, virsona, persona, virtual, online, community

Researchers Design Band-Aid-Size Tactile Display

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:42:54 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

Currently, we get most of our information from computers through visual and audio features. But as researchers from Korea point out, the most widespread sense on the human body is touch. While some tactile computer devices do exist, the researchers are trying to take full advantage of this overlooked sense with the development of a tactile display that can be wrapped around your finger like a band-aid.

In an upcoming issue of IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Ig Mo Koo, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, and co-authors from Sungkyunkwan University and the University of Nevada explain how they have designed the innovative tactile display based on soft actuator technology. Overcoming the rigidity and bulkiness of current devices, the new display is soft and flexible enough to be wrapped around almost any part of the human body, such as the fingertip, palm, or arm.

“The big advantage of a wearable tactile display compared to a normal tactile display is flexibility,”

Tags: display, finger size

Dutch robot Flame walks like a human

Fri, 23 May 2008 09:57:05 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

Researcher Daan Hobbelen of TU Delft has developed a new, highly-advanced walking robot: Flame. This type of research, for which Hobbelen will receive his PhD on Friday 30 May, is important as it provides insight into how people walk. This can in turn help people with walking difficulties through improved diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.

If you try to teach a robot to walk, you will discover just how complex an activity it is. Walking robots have been around since the seventies. The applied strategies can roughly be divided into two types.

To watch Flame in action click here (WMV, 5.25MB).

Tags: robotics, flame, walking

Artificial mouth takes on a chewy problem

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:02:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: technology.newscientist.com

An artificial mouth that can reproduce the mush created by a human munching on an apple has been created by French researchers.

It could form part of a robotic taste-tester designed to improve food quality and our understanding of flavour.

Previous groups have developed artificial mouths that can analyse soft foods or sets of robotic jaws to test teeth. But, until now, none has been able to recreate what happens when a human chows down on hard foodstuffs.

Taste test

Many of the flavours we taste are generated by the release of volatile compounds from food, which pass around the back of the mouth and up into the nose.

Hard foods release those compounds differently according to whether they are crushed, sliced, or liquidised.

So if a robotic system is going to "experience" the same tastes that humans do when eating, the food must undergo the same changes that occur in the mouth, says Gaëlle Arvisenet at ENITIAA in Nantes, France.

Pulp friction

Tags: robotics, mouth, taste

Real-Life Droid 'By End of the Year'

Mon, 05 May 2008 09:52:35 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Real-Life Droid Army of Robotic Spiders to Be Deployed 'By End of the Year'

In another creepy case of life mimicking fiction, BAE Systems is creating an army of robotic spiders that they will be selling to the US Army to use in warfare. The development is causing some worry over whether some of the frightening scenes in the sci-fi flick Minority Report were a fairly accurate representation of the future.

In the movie, Tom Cruise is chased by an army of government deployed robotic spider spies attempting to hunt him down. Although Hollywood intended it as science fiction, the US military says they are dropping the fiction part of the equation.

Dr. Joseph Mait of the US Army Research Lab explains, “Robotic platforms extend the warfighter's senses and reach, providing operational capabilities that would otherwise be costly, impossible, or deadly to achieve."

Eventually we hope to have animals flying and slithering.

Tags: robotics, soon, here

Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery

Mon, 05 May 2008 09:40:56 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WHAT do you call a surgeon who operates without scalpels, stitching tools or a powerful headlamp to light the patient’s insides? A better doctor, according to a growing number of surgeons who prefer to hand over much of the blood-and-guts portion of their work to medical robots controlled from computer consoles.

Many urologists performing prostate surgery view the precise, tremor-free movements of a robot as the best way to spare nerves crucial to bladder control and sexual potency. A robot’s ability to deftly handle small tools may lead to a less invasive procedure and faster recovery for a patient. Robots also can protect surgeons from physical stress and exposure to X-rays that may force them into premature retirement.

Today, robots are a fast-growing, diversifying $1 billion segment of the medical device industry. And Wall Street has just two questions for the industry: How far is this going, and how fast?

Tags: robotics, surgery

Cyborg research enters the brain

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:50:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Japan

Clip Source: www.pinktentacle.com

Researchers at Osaka University are stepping up efforts to develop robotic body parts controlled by thought, by placing electrode sheets directly on the surface of the brain. Led by Osaka University Medical School neurosurgery professor Toshiki Yoshimine, the research marks Japan’s first foray into invasive (i.e. requiring open-skull surgery) brain-machine interface research on human test subjects. The aim of the research is to develop real-time mind-controlled robotic limbs for the disabled, according to an announcement made at an April 16 symposium in Aichi prefecture.

Although brain waves can be measured from outside the scalp, a stronger, more accurate signal can be obtained by placing sensors directly on the brain — but that requires open-skull surgery, making it more difficult to recruit volunteer test subjects.

Tags: brain, research, interface, robotics

The 1.5 Gigayear Technology Gap

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:06:17 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Some of the world's smartest astronomers estimate that some of the more advanced technological civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy may be 1.5 gigayears older that Earth (that's 1.5 billion years older). In other words, the search for extraterrestrial life is not going to end with us meeting the Hollywood kind of alien. ET or the Asgard (from Stargate) are not going to be who we first meet. Instead, we’ll be greeted by highly evolved robots.

Yes, in other words, Battlestar Galactica has got at least one thing right. The hit Sci Fi channel show’s bad guys are, unlike most other Sci Fi shows, highly evolved robots that have turned on their human creators.

"There are two kinds of encounters with aliens you can have," said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the California-based SETI Institute. "Either you pick up a signal, or you pick them up on the corner. But I think it's safe to say that in both instances they will be synthetic. They will be artificial constructions."

Tags: robotics, aliens, civilization

Robots could do work of 3.5 million people by '25

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:12:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: search.japantimes.co.jp

Robots could be performing the work of 3.52 million people by 2025 to help cover a labor shortage in the graying society, an industry body said Thursday.

The Machine Industry Memorial Foundation has estimated that "working robots" under development by Honda Motor Co. and many other leading companies could take over about 970,000 jobs in medical and nursing care services.

In the agriculture and forestry sector, 450,000 jobs could be held by robots if harvesting and pruning robots spread widely, according to the foundation, an affiliate of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In services such as cleaning and delivery, robots could do the jobs of 1.41 million people.

It projects that 74 minutes of free time per household could be created each day by robots that do household chores such as cleaning. This could help more women enter the labor market, the foundation said.

Tags: robotics, labor

Quadruped Rough Terrain Robot Prototype

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:25:53 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The application of Boston Dynamics work is infinite and may provide alternative solutions to the physical limits of mankind.

Clip Source: physorg.com

Boston Dynamics has released a prototype of an all-terrain robot, BigDog. The quadruped robot is equipped with a computer featuring sensors that aid its movements over harsh terrain. The robot is powered by a gasoline engine that drives the hydraulic system

BigDog is the latest from the engineering geniuses at Boston Dynamics. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog is approximately 3.28-feet long and 2.30-feet tall and weighs 165-pounds. It is about the size of a small mule or big dog.

[Video]

BigDog has a computer built-in that controls locomotion. It is equipped with sensors that aid BigDog in adapting to varying conditions. The sensors provide stereo vision, joint force, joint position and ground contact that aids in continuous movement. Most importantly, the robot is equipped with a laser gyroscope that aids in balance under extreme conditions.

Tags: robotics

Will Blackberrys Alter the Brains of Future Generations?

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:29:39 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

We've all descended from a common ancestor, but, as Homo sapiens, we no longer brachiate through trees and have long abandoned our stone tools for Blackberrys and iPods. Evolution has shaped us into the big-brained, bipedal, text-messaging specimens we are today. But it didn't happened without a lot of pressure. SETI Radio takes a look at some of the forces that have driven human evolution - from the snake-phobia that sharpened our eyesight, to the anger-management that was a prerequisite for civilization.

Also, how your Blackberry may be changing the brains of future generations. And, are we engineering our own successors through robotics?

Lynne Isbell - anthropologist, University of California, Davis

Timothy Taylor - archeologist, the University of Bradford in the U.K.

Nicholas Wade - science writer, New York Times, author of Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors

Lee Gutkind - author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think

mp3 - Higher Quality

Tags: brains, evolution, blackberry

Robotic Bird Makes First Flight

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:41:17 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

A micro-aircraft with feathered, morphing wings showed off its stuff yesterday when the bird-like craft lifted off for its first flight. And its landing was just as dramatic: The RoboSwift crashed into a tree.

The craft weighs less than three ounces (80 grams) and spans just 20 inches (51 centimeters) from wingtip to wingtip. Its small size and onboard cameras make RoboSwift a possible soaring spy: The craft could make scientific observations of wild birds without disturbing them or hover above crowds of people or vehicles for government and law enforcement surveillance purposes. In fact, the Dutch National Police Services Agency said it will financially support the craft's development.

"The new vehicle can really morph like a bird does. It uses actual feathers," Lentink said.

In the future, the craft will get lessons in bird-flying behaviors such as gliding. When gliding, the motor will be turned off and the propeller will fold up so the aircraft can fly even more quietly and save energy

Tags: birds, robotics

Clipmarks | wildcat's 'robotics' clips

Robots Advance

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Can a Robot, an Insect or God Be Aware?

Our intuitions about consciousness in other beings and objects reveal a lot about how we think.

Virsona -- Talk with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics A blog about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics.

Virsona lets you talk to anyone

Episode #59 - Digital Hollywood 2008 - Virsona

Researchers Design Band-Aid-Size Tactile Display

Dutch robot Flame walks like a human

Artificial mouth takes on a chewy problem

Taste test

Pulp friction

Real-Life Droid 'By End of the Year'

Real-Life Droid Army of Robotic Spiders to Be Deployed 'By End of the Year'

Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery

Cyborg research enters the brain

The 1.5 Gigayear Technology Gap

Robots could do work of 3.5 million people by '25

Quadruped Rough Terrain Robot Prototype

Will Blackberrys Alter the Brains of Future Generations?

Robotic Bird Makes First Flight