Archive for April, 2007
April 23, 2007 at 3:24 pm - Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Misc
Inkblot earth has released the results of an online poll asking people if they are afraid of future “Intelligent Machines”. More than 6,000 people have responded, giving these numbers:
16.7% Yes, I find the idea of intelligent machines frightening (1002 votes)
27.1% No, I don’t find intelligent machines frightening (1632 votes)
56.3% I’m not afraid of intelligent machines, I’m afraid of how humans will use the technology (3366 votes)
The poll did not use a representative panel though, as noted by the author:
“16% of voters fearing AI is quite high. I can only imagine that this percentage would rise sharply if the poll was subjected to people with less knowledge of tech and/or science.”
Indeed.
April 23, 2007 at 12:07 pm - Tags: Japan, Quote of the day
Mary King, in her essay “Robots & AI in Japan and the West“:
“Integrating robots into Japanese society is less complex than in the West because Japanese revere both animate and inanimate objects, have historically taken a positive view of technology, and enjoy a culture where robots are presented as friends. Western dualistic thinking splits concepts into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and historically and culturally robots and technology have been perceived as potential threats to humanity and God.”
Via Robots.net
April 23, 2007 at 11:59 am - Tags: Cyborgs, Japan
According to The Japan Times, it will be possible next year to rent a robotic-exoskeleton. Designed by Pr. Yoshiyuki Sankai, the famous “cyborg-type suit” has been described as a unique tool to help elderly or disabled people in their daily lives. The 2005 version of the exoskeleton was described as:
“a robot suit which can expand and improve physical capabilities of human being. By wearing it, you can hold up to 40 kg load by arms and can increase the maximum weight of leg press from 100 kg to 180 kg.”
Now the robotic tool is going to become a reality, as explained by The Japan Times:
“The professor has already tied up with Daiwa House Industry Co. and the company started constructing a manufacturing facility recently to produce 400 to 500 suits annually starting in 2008. For an individual, the suit will be leased for 70,000 yen [$590] a month plus a maintenance fee.”
Via The Raw Feed
April 21, 2007 at 8:35 am - Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Quote of the day, Consciousness
Michael Cox, of BBN Technologies, in Newsweek:
“There is nothing magical, mystical, spiritual or uniquely human about introspection and metacognition.”
April 17, 2007 at 12:54 pm - Tags: France, Humanoid Robots, Domestic Robots
Thanks to Jean-Michel Billaut, you can watch a short - but nice - clip showing Nao in action. Nao, built by French start-up Aldebaran Robotics, will try to compete with advanced domestic humanoid robots from Asia. The Linux-based, Wi-Fi equipped robot will walk, dance, understand voice commands, recognize faces and it will be “teachable by the user”.
I interviewed Bruno Maisonnier, Aldebaran’s CEO, last year, and I’m really happy to see that the project is doing well. Interestingly, he confirms in the video that:
“Limited versions of Nao will be on sale at the end of 2007, with a full commercial launch by early 2008; the expected retail price will be in the EUR2,500-3,000 range.”
April 17, 2007 at 9:41 am - Tags: Misc
The guys at Engadget have been conducting a poll among their readers to select the “2006 Robot of the Year“. The initial selection was quite odd, but the results are much more bizarre: “Lego Mindstorms NXT” gets about half of the ballot (on a total of 7,000 votes), while “TMX Tickle Me Elmo”, a puppet that is to robots what Segway is to Formula 1 racing, is second. Manoi, a very cute humanoid robot, which clearly was my favorite, ends last. OK, Mindstorms are cool, but are they that cool?
April 14, 2007 at 10:07 am - Tags: US, Research, Artificial Intelligence, Singularity
In a short and mind-blowing essay published a few days ago, “Artificial General Intelligence: Now is the Time“, Ben Goertzel explains why Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) may exist “sooner than you think”. In his introduction, he states that:
“I believe that the creation of a superhumanly intelligent AI system is possible within 10 years, and maybe even within a lesser period of time (3-5 years). Predicting the exact number of years is not possible at this stage. But the point is, I believe that I have arrived at a detailed software design that is capable of giving rise to intelligence at the human level and beyond.”
Giving a few updates on his startup, Novamente, whose goal is to develop advanced AI systems, he suggests that this kind of research could be boosted if more people were pursuing the same objective:
“If the US government created an ‘AI Manhattan Project’—run without a progress-obstructing bureaucracy, and based on gathering together an interdisciplinary team of the greatest AI minds on the planet—then we would have a human-level AI within 5 years. Almost guaranteed, assuming Novamente or some other viable design were adopted. It is a big project, but not nearly as big as building, say, Windows Vista.”
Then he explains the “two paths” that could lead to AGI, details a few noticeable projects as well as the possible risks implied by AGI and concludes:
“One of these years, one of these AGI designs—quite possibly my own Novamente system—is going to pass the critical threshold and recognize the pattern of its own self, an event that will be closely followed by the system developing its own sense of will and reflective awareness. And then, if we’ve done things right and supplied the AGI with an appropriate goal system and a respect for its human parents, we will be in the midst of the event that human society has been pushing toward, in hindsight, since the beginning: a positive Singularity.”
The whole piece is definitely worth reading!
April 13, 2007 at 1:28 pm - Tags: Robotic Art
Thanks to MAKE, I have discovered the fascinating work of Christopher Conte. His creations, from “carbon fiber spiders” to “lethal droids” or “bronze skulls”, are simply gorgeous. Somewhere between steampunk-inspired art and actual robotics…
Image: © Christopher Conte
April 12, 2007 at 9:42 am - Tags: Humanoid Robots, US, Research, MIT
This news release from MIT gives details on Domo, an advanced humanoid robot research project. “A robot that can function in a real human environment”, Domo is “an assistive robot which adapts itself to people and new places”.
Many applications are envisioned:
“A robot like Domo could help elderly or wheelchair-bound people with simple household tasks like putting away dishes. Other potential applications include agriculture, space travel and assisting workers on an assembly line, says Aaron Edsinger, an MIT postdoctoral associate who has been working on Domo for the last three years.”
Following researches conducted for years at MIT (namely on Kismet and Cog), Domo has 29 degrees of freedom and incoportaes dozens of sensors that “make it able to sense when a human is touching it”. Additional details and pictures can be found here.
Image: © MIT
April 11, 2007 at 8:40 am - Tags: Humanoid Robots, Japan, US
Very good reading on News.com today: “Baby steps for Dexter the robot“. Its a long piece, mostlty focused on Dexter, a human-sized robot being built by US-based start-up Anybots. The young company is quite ambitious:
“Anybots wants its creations to be all-purpose, not specialized à la Roomba. The goal is nothing less than to create a robot that can be taught to do all the things humans can do.”
The whole article is worth reading and gives a good view on the state of advancement in the humanoid robots fields. Reading this article, one gets the feelling that the US have eventually decided to catch up with Japan in the humanoid race.
Speaking of Japan, there is an interesting interview of Stephen Keeney, North American Asimo project leader at Honda, on Tech Digest. Nothing really new here, but it’s a good summary of the goals (and achieved steps) of the Asimo project, which remains one of the most advanced large size humanoid robot in the world. This quote from Keeney is quite noticeable:
“Asimo is a new technology that will continue to evolve, but we hope in about 10 years we’ll start to see versions working in homes or hospitals. I just hope by the time I retire, I’ll be able to have an Asimo!”
Wow. 10 years!
April 9, 2007 at 6:00 pm - Tags: Humanoid Robots, Japan, Toys
Absolute Gadget reports that “Plen” is now available, for about $2,400 (it’s a limited edition, though).
Plen is a small and cute robot created by japanese maker Akazawa. Dubbed “Desktop Hobby Robot”, it’s a 700g, 23cm tall, Bluetooth-equipped robot with 18 degrees of freedom. It walks on two legs and is able to perform different complex movements, including roller-skating. A humanoid robot able to do roller-skating on its own… how cool is that?
Image: © Akazawa
April 9, 2007 at 9:44 am - Tags: France, Medical Robots
The French company Robosoft unveils “worldwide first healthcare robot for tele-echography”, that will be officially launched later this month.
Named “Estele“, the system:
“allows any expert clinician to perform remotely echographic diagnosis as if he were ‘on site’; the patient and the specialist are able to communicate as if they were in the same room; the specialist can visualize the images generated by the echograph while seeing and talking with the patient.”
Image: © Robosoft
