Salad-Making Robot Gives Us a Creepy View Of the Future If ever you wanted a dead-eyed robot wielding a knife to be your next personal chef, you're in luck. The Korean Institute of Science and Technology recently unveiled CIROS, a robot that can make you salad. CIROS is designed to help out around the house; it can grasp items from the refrigerator, serve tea, scrub dishes and slice vegetables... very, very slowly. In the below video from Robot World 2012, CIROS slices a cucumber for a salad at a glacial speed, then dumps a load of dressing atop it. Gizmag writes that CIROS' head contains stereoscopic cameras and a 3D IR sensor that helps it recognize objects, like microwaves, sinks, refrigerators and dishwashers. Watch CIROS in action in the below video. Also on HuffPost: Thinking Machine 4 Thinking Machine 4 explores the invisible, elusive nature of thought. Play chess against a transparent intelligence, its evolving thought process visible on the board before you. The artwork is an artificial intelligence program, ready to play chess with the viewer. If the viewer confronts the program, the computer's thought process is sketched on screen as it plays. A map is created from the traces of literally thousands of possible futures as the program tries to decide its best move. Those traces become a key to the invisible lines of force in the game as well as a window into the spirit of a thinking machine. Play the game. Image Gallery View a range of still images taken from Thinking Machine 4. About the work More information about the project and answers to common questions. Credits Created by Martin Wattenberg, with Marek Walczak. About the artists Martin Wattenberg's work centers on the theme of making the invisible visible.
RSLSteeper launches third version of its bebionic myoelectric hand Nigel Ackland could be mistaken for a cyborg. He has a high-tech robotic hand that looks like it started life as a Formula 1 car and its movements are alarmingly lifelike. It’s called the “bebonic3” and is the latest version of bebonic series of artificial hands produced by RSLSteeper of Leeds, U.K. The myoelectric hand has been under development for a couple of years now, but the bebonic3 is moving prosthetic limbs from Captain Hook to Luke Skywalker territory. View all Artificial hands have come a long way in recent years, but it turns out the human hand is amazingly complex. While there have been a lot of advances over the past fifty years (as evidenced by the i-LIMB, ProDigits and SmartHand), many artificial hands are little more than powered hooks or pincers that often require a great deal of effort to work. The bebionic3 is designed to not only look human, but also to provide the wearer with a large degree of natural movement. The bebionic3 hand's silicone glove
Alchemy - Open Source AI AMP-Foot 2.0 prosthesis mimics human ankle's spring An amputee tests the AMP-Foot 2.0 on a treadmill Image Gallery (2 images) The majority of protheses available today that replace the lower leg, ankle, and foot are passive devices that store energy in an elastic element (similar to a coiled spring) at the beginning of a step and release during push-off to give you some added boost. While this type of prosthetic is energy efficient, it doesn't replicate the full power we get from our muscles. In order to provide that kind of energy an actuator is required, and these are often heavy and bulky. The latest version, AMP-Foot 2.0, uses an actuator to store energy in springs, which is released when needed. CAD rendering of the AMP-Foot 2.0 The result is a prosthesis that, despite utilizing actuators, weighs just five and a half pounds (2.5 kg), which is roughly the weight of a healthy foot. This isn't the only prosthesis with an actuated ankle, but the low power is key. Source: Vrije Universiteit Brussel About the Author
PC AI sucks at Civilization, reads manual, starts kicking ass The Massachusetts institute of technology have been experimenting with their computers' AI. Specifically the way they deal with the meaning of words. You might think that the best way to analyse this kind of thing would be with a human to PC conversation, like in Short Circuit. That's not the case. Instead, the boffins handed over PC classic, Civilization, and let the AI get on with it. Then the researchers handed over the instructions and taught the PCs a "machine-learning system so it could use a player's manual to guide the development of a game-playing strategy." Associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, Regina Barzilay, offered insight into why they used a game manual to prove their point. Civ was picked because it's a really fun game, and they didn't want the computers to get bored during the testing. Not really. These kind of systems could make developer's jobs a lot easier. What's the best AI you've ever played against? (via Reddit)
Mind-controlled robot avatars inch towards reality A researcher minds the robot's balance as it is commanded to pick up a canned drink by an operator (off camera) Image Gallery (5 images) Researchers at the CNRS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory (a collaboration between France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) are developing software that allows a person to drive a robot with their thoughts alone. The technology could one day give a paralyzed patient greater autonomy through a robotic agent or avatar. View all The system requires that a patient concentrate their attention on a symbol displayed on a computer screen (such as a flashing arrow). The system does not provide direct fine-grain motor control: the robot is simply performing a preset action such as walking forward, turning right or left, and so on. With training, the user can direct the robot's movements and pick up beverages or other objects in their surroundings. About the Author
The Coming Technological Singularity ==================================================================== The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era Vernor Vinge Department of Mathematical Sciences San Diego State University (c) 1993 by Vernor Vinge (Verbatim copying/translation and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.) This article was for the VISION-21 Symposium sponsored by NASA Lewis Research Center and the Ohio Aerospace Institute, March 30-31, 1993. It is also retrievable from the NASA technical reports server as part of NASA CP-10129. A slightly changed version appeared in the Winter 1993 issue of _Whole Earth Review_.