Posted by ljmacphee on October 31, 2007 under artificial intelligence in the news, robotics | 
A newly released Georgia Tech study shows that some Roomba owners become deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and suggests there’s a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house - even flawed ones.”They’re more willing to work with a robot that does have issues because they really, really like it,” said Beki Grinter, an associate professor at the school’s College of Computing. “It sort of begins to address more concerns: If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn’t have to be as reliable.”Grinter decided to study the devices after she saw online pictures of people dressing up their Roombas, disc-shaped, self-directed vacuums made by iRobot Corp.”This sort of notion that someone would dress a vacuum cleaner seemed strange,” she said. “A lot more was going on.” . . . [ read more Study finds human-robot attachment]
I admit it, I cried when Scooba died last week. But that was because it had been two years since I mopped a floor and didn’t want to have to start again. My new industrial version of Scooba should be here late this week.
See also:
Development and Application of Heuristic Evaluation to Human-Robot Interaction ( DOC )
Posted by ljmacphee on October 29, 2007 under artificial intelligence in the news, computer vision |
New technology to scan facial features may allow doctors to diagnose rare genetic conditions in children.The new software, shown at the BA Festival of Science in York, is able to compare facial features with a database of images of people who have the conditions.Scientists say the new software has a 90% success rate.Professor Peter Hammond, a computer scientist at the UCL Institute for Child Health in London and part of the research team, said that many conditions can cause particular facial features as a result of “alterations in the genes”.Over 700 genetic disorders have an effect on facial features, although many are hard to diagnose because of a lack of information or subjects.[read more . . . Face scans help gene diagnosis ]
See also:
3D face scans spot gene syndromes
Discriminating Power of Localized 3 Dimensional Facial Morphology
Delineation and Visualization of Congenital Abnormality using 3D Facial Images
Posted by ljmacphee on October 26, 2007 under artificial intelligence in the news, robotics |
A three-legged robot with an unconventional and graceful walk has been developed by US researchers. Like humans, it exploits gravity to save energy with each step, but it also flips its entire body upside-down with each stride.The fearsome alien tripods in HG Well’s book The War of The Worlds are described as moving like “a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground”. STriDER (Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot) has a far more graceful, and acrobatic, gait that sees its body flip 180 degrees with each step. A second video explains more about the project and shows the initial prototype.To take a step forwards, the robot shifts its weight onto two of its legs, allowing itself to fall forwards away from the third leg. Its body then flips upside-down and the third leg swings up between the other two just in time to catch the ground and return STriDER to a stable tripod stance. To change direction, the robot simply switches its choice of swinging leg. [read more ... ]New Scientist Tech, Tripedal robot swings itself into action
More information:
RoMeLa ( Dennsi Hong’s site )
You Tube video of STriDER 2.0’s first steps
Robot Lab; STriDEr: Virginia Tech’s creepy, three legged bot
Posted by ljmacphee on October 24, 2007 under artificial intelligence in the news |
Researchers at US firm Novamente have created software that learns by controlling avatars in virtual worlds.Initially the AIs will be embodied in pets that will get smarter by interacting with the avatars controlled by their human owners.
[read more. . . ] Online worlds to be AI incubators
Lately virtual worlds have been a test bed for experimenting with how humans will behave in various situations. Now the more complex virtual worlds are being used to create AIs. It’s a great idea. You can give your AI a body and a safe, controlled place to grow.
More information:
Novamente
Novemente Talk at Google
Ben Goertzel
Novamente: An Integrative Architecture for Artificial General Intelligence