Lucy: Her Story of Survival
Otto is not listening–again. The first time this happened was with Lyta.
Now, he has found a beautiful female Homo erectus. She’s a warrior, strong powerful. She lives in Africa so wears no animal skin clothing to protect her from the cold.
Here are a few more pictures of Lucy, her clan, her habitat:
I’m fascinated by robots. It’s not my field, but it’s where the human race is headed. For better or for worse, only time will tell.
What Japan is doing in robotics blows me away. I posted recently about Aiko. Now, meet Kojiro. This android’s movements are based on a skeletal structure similar to ours, which means he moves in a more natural fashion, and bends and twists via his artificial spine. Continue reading ‘Meet Kojiro, Your Next Assistant’
It is well-known that military research has created a myriad of everyday products (like Velcro) that have filtered onto our store shelves. Here’s the next: PETMAN. For this robot to perform its chemical protection tests correctly for the Army, it must balance itself, walk, crawl, all while exposed to chemical warfare agents. The robot will have the shape and size of a standard human, making it the first anthropomorphic robot that moves dynamically like a real person.The development program has a 13 month design phase, with delivery scheduled for 2011.For more information, read Wired’s Army Terminators Walk Like Men.
For a different kind of futuristic soldier, read Soldier of the Future is a Hologram.
If you were wondering when robots would become sentient, we’re one day closer with Aiko. She can be used in the home, to help kids with their math, help the elderly read newspapers, check the weather, distinguish between different medicines etc. In the office at an information desk, to alert meeting times, give directions such as food court, washroom, elevators. She performs security functions well–she can
detect 250 faces per second and do a quick filter of known faces at the airport, answer arrival/departure time questions or give locations to certain gates and answer other queries etc. You can follow her on Twitter Click Here and here her singing here (Aiko Singing Video Click Here).
Who is this dream assistant? Watch YouTube:
More? Read on…
(PhysOrg.com) — In August 2007, Le Trung invented Aiko, a Yumecom, or “Dream Computer Robot.” Although it took only a month and a half to build Aiko’s exterior, the artificial intelligence software has been a work in progress ever since. Recently, Le Trung has demonstrated his most recent improvements to the software, called BRAINS (Bio Robot Artificial Intelligence Neural System).
In the video below, Le Trung demonstrates Aiko’s internal operating system, which gives the robot many abilities, including the ability to speak two languages (English and Japanese), solve high school math problems, communicate the weather forecast, understand more than 13,000 sentences, sing songs, identify objects, focus on objects or people of importance, read newspapers and other materials, and mimic human physical touch.
As Le Trung explains, in some ways the BRAINS software is even more powerful than a human brain because it can link to infinite sources of data. Similar to a human brain, the software is designed to interact with the surrounding environment, process it, and record the information in its internal memory. Once the internal memory is at full capacity, the information can be transferred into a server database. The information can then be shared with current and future robots.
With the BRAINS software, Aiko (whose name means “beloved one”) has the potential for many applications. For example, in the home, Aiko could help elderly people by reminding them when to take their medicine and helping them read the newspaper. It could also help kids with their math homework. In work and public environments, the robot could be used at information desks, where it could give directions and inform people when and where events take place. Le Trung also suggests that, with Aiko’s ability to detect 250 faces per second, it could be useful in airports to quickly scan and filter faces, as well as answer questions regarding flight times and gate locations. In addition, Aiko’s sensitivity sensors and humanlike appearance offer the potential for its use as a companion robot.
“The most recent improvement with Aiko is the BRAINS software,” Le Trung said. “I have just finished re-architecting the BRAINS software to have triple threads, which will make the software run a bit smoother and process about 15% faster for 3D recognition. As a result, Aiko can distinguish the difference between a $20 Canadian bill and $20 American bill. Aiko also has new improved facial expressions with 21 recognition points. Aiko will know when you are angry, happy, etc. Finally, the BRAINS can now process newspaper reading much faster and more accurate.”
Le Trung, whose background is in microbiology and chemistry, was originally inspired to build Aiko after watching “Chobits,” a Japanese manga that explores the relationships between humans and personal computers. While he hopes to continue to improve Aiko’s software, he currently faces a hardware limitation, as the CPU is currently at 99% capacity. Le Trung hopes to raise funds to upgrade the CPU.
In the future, Le Trung hopes to enable Aiko to achieve further skills, such as making tea, coffee, and a breakfast of eggs and bacon; cleaning a human’s ears with a Q-tip; giving a neck massage; writing; and cleaning windows, shelves, and bathrooms. He also hopes that, one day, he will be able to mass produce sister copies of Aiko for an estimated cost of about $17,000 – $20,000.
“Future improvements include making the voice with more emotions and feelings when speaking, improving the silicone material on her face so that she can do facial expressions like humans, and redesigning the body and arm system to move more naturally and carry heavier things,” Le Trung said.
So many questions about our past are debated because of the lack of written records. Before man put proverbial pen to paper, we had only bones and teeth, soil contents, paleo-geology and -geography and -climate, to intuit what might have been.
This, despite the fact that we know for a fact that written records are always from the writer’s perspective. They are only trustworthy to the point we trust the writer–like a Leakey, Donald Johansson, Chris Beard, Jane Goodall. These interpretations–albeit highly trained–of primary sources (Earth’s record) are given more credibility than the primary source itself (an action I’m sure discouraged by Leakey’s and Johnasson’s and Beard’s and Goodall’s teachers as they pursued their research). Why? The reason is simple: It takes a PhD to interpret Earth’s story. Continue reading ‘The How and Why of Early Man’
You don’t always get what you want. ‘Research’ is the ‘systematic investigation to establish facts’. You don’t know them when you start. You pick them up like breadcrumbs along the path to the Dissertation.
Because mine involves an AI I seem to have lost control over, mankind’s past which is poorly documented by million-year-old artificacts, and a prodigious lack of money, I have often ended up places I had no intent to be, but must some how be connected to my thesis. How do I know they’re connected? Because that’s what Otto does. He takes a collection of facts and finds connections. Here’s an example Otto found and played for me. Why I don’t know. We know man’s past is violent, dangerous. What’s Otto’s point in throwing this into Lyta‘s search for her family?
What I do know is it’s connected to my research, because that’s how I programmed Otto.
Otto found this. It’s what he dreams of being when he grows up. For the entire story, click the title:
A new robot navigates using human-like visual processing and object detection.
By Anne-Marie Corley
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
European researchers have developed a robot capable of moving autonomously using humanlike visual processing. 
The robot is helping the researchers explore how the brain responds to its environment while the body is in motion. What they discover could lead to machines that are better able to navigate through cluttered environments.
The robot consists of a wheeled platform with a robotic “head” that uses two cameras to capture stereoscopic vision. The robot can turn its head and shift its gaze up and down or sideways to gauge its surroundings, and can quickly measure its own speed relative to its environment.
The machine is controlled by algorithms designed to mimic different parts of the human visual system. Rather than capturing and mapping its surroundings over and over in order to plan its route–the way most robots do–the European machine uses a simulated neural network to update its position relative to the environment, continually adjusting to each new input. This mimics human visual processing and movement planning.
These are too cool to keep to myself. It’s amazing what man’s big brains come up with. There is no fiction stranger:
Sounds unbelievable, but it isn’t. The human brain loves solving puzzles. Never tell it something’s impossible. Want more on the excitement of science? Read my post, How to Kindle your Child’s Interest in Science.
Cat asked me that. I didn’t even know she noticed me, despite the fact we share an office. She’s beautiful and brilliant, where I’m not.
HAL--the most famous AI
One day, I was reviewing Otto’s report on H. habilis and Cat came back from teaching. She asked me about my research. Compared to hers on a DNA virus that can destroy anything it wants, mine sounds boring. Educational research. But it excites me and that’s all I care about at this point in my life.
I explained that I’m not really researching artificial intelligence so much as using it to do my research. Otto collects info on paleo flora and fauna, paleoclimate, geography, everything he can tap into in the metaverse, and creates what’s called a data-driven simulation. Would you be surprised to know she understood all of that.
Well, maybe she wasn’t listening. “I’m hot, and what’s that I’m smelling?”
Otto shares scents and sounds with sensory ports, but that’s only part of it. When he finished collecting the billions of bytes of data available on Plio-Pleistocene Africa, he stitched together a 360 degree four-dimensional panorama, similar to those virtual tours of hotel rooms, but Otto carries it further. As you move through the habitat, Otto re-renders everything as your eyes would in real time. His processors are so fast and his database so huge—equivalent to the digital size of the Library of Congress—he can add the details that make it feel real.
Take the pothole Lyta just avoided. It’s a reasonable assumption the equatorial heat would spiderweb the savanna with crevices. Where I might not have thought to add that, Otto would never miss it.
The ‘actors’—Homo habilis, Australopithecine and Homo erectus—are built using data from ancient bones and teeth. Because there are so few organic remains, the creatures aren’t as realistic as their surroundings. In fact, at that time, they were cardboard figures amidst a lush, vibrant world. That’s changed, but more on that later.
It’s like virtual reality, but without limits. Otto is more a simulated reality. He isn’t predesigned, as the world around you isn’t. Everything is interactive and you can influence what you choose. When you enter Otto’s world, you and he discover it as you go.
That cleared it up for Cat, but her IQ is 198. Do you think it makes sense?
It doesn’t seem like they could, does it? Otto is sapient, but only within the parameters of my programming. He does as he’s directed.
The question is, since Otto is so fast–not as fast as a human brain, but approaching the speed of DNA computers–what does he do when he’s done with my computing? Does he go into sleep mode? Or, does he pursue that most benign of human activities, ‘thinking’.
Otto has a contest coming up in August against Dr. Eitan Sun, probably the smartest man I’ve ever known. He types on three keyboards simultaneously because none of the buffers can keep up with him. He can recite pi to the 4,297th place. Nothing like Daniel Tammet’s 22,000+, but the best in my University.
When Otto’s pure processing power became obvious, Eitan challenged him to crack Fermat’s Last Theorem, Man vs. Machine. Though recently solved, it had taken mathematicians over 350 years to unravel, so Eitan saw it as an appropriate challenge. Otto was fast, but Eitan was clever–and smart enough to know where to cut intellectual corners.
I think Otto is nervous. I hear his processors buzzing even when he’s not working on my projects. He doesn’t talk; his screen is blank, but his virtual mind is busy. (image credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/ArtificialFictionBrain.png )
Fact and Fiction about Early Man
