Artificial Intelligence
Bioengineers at Duke Univesity in North Carolina have developed a laboratory prototype of a robot that can locate and surgically extract shrapnel pieces from flesh without any kind of human supervision. Using 3-D ultrasound imaging as “eyes”, the tabletop robot was able to precisely locate tiny shards of metal and then successfully guide a needle to their exact location. Read More
If you have trouble getting to sleep at night, and drinking warm milk or counting sheep doesn't do the trick, you might want to try the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach. The product works on different levels. On one hand, it is designed to educate you about sleep as well as monitor your sleeping patterns, using a headband that records information to a digital reader. But the Zeo goes further – it also shows you how to analyze the data and understand its impacts on your lifestyle. Through a personalized "sleep fitness" program, it recommends ways you can catch that much-needed 40 winks. Read More
Achieving quantum computing is not just a sheer matter of improving computational speed: it is a radically different paradigm that has attracted physicists and engineers for decades with its potential to solve problems across a number of domains — from database searches to prime number factorization and artificial intelligence. Now in a major breakthrough, a research team from the University of Bristol has achieved highly precise control of up to four photons on a silicon chip for the very first time. Read More
Autonomous helicopters offer a highly maneuverable and versatile platform in scenarios like disaster relief operations, but programming these machines to perform complex aerobatics is a formidable challenge - unless of course they teach themselves. This example developed by Stanford computer scientists does just that, learning to fly by watching other RC helicopters in the air. Not only does this artificial intelligence system produce a spectacular flying exhibition, it's seen as an important demonstration of robotic learning through observation. Read More
Earlier this week we looked at developments in low-cost prosthetics, but at the other end of the spectrum, advanced prosthetic devices like Ossur's recently announced second generation POWER KNEE are opening up new frontiers in the field. As the world’s first motor-powered artificially intelligent prosthesis for above the knee amputees, the POWER KNEE is designed to enable daily activities without having to think about movement. Something most of us take for granted. Read More
September 18, 2007 For the last decade Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot has been the most visible public face of personal robotics but Hanson Robotics and Massive Software have partnered to change all that with the arrival of Zeno, a robot that can see, hear, talk and remembers who you are. Read More
