MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'artificial intelligence'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:00:32 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050784&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=22291&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FMedgadget%2F%7E3%2F551pYVef_DQ%2Fscientists-create-artificial-neural-network-from-dna.html Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have successfully created an artificial neural network using DNA molecules that is capable of brain-like behavior. Hailing it as a “major step toward creating artificial intelligence,” the scientists report that, similar to a brain, the network can retrieve memories based on incomplete patterns.  Potential applications of such artificially intelligent biochemical networks with decision-making skills include medicine and biological research. The researchers predict that, eventually, neural networks could be developed that operate within cells to gather information for disease diagnosis. More details from Caltech: Consisting of four artificial neurons made from 112 distinct DNA strands, the researchers’ neural network... Medgadget blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050784 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:33:15 +0100 5050784 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028087&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F008177.html Kyle Munkittrick argues we need cognitive enhancement to deal with existential threats. The reason I use Ender’s Game as an example is that we human beings face a lot of existential threats. We have our current challenges such as climate change, over-population, the looming health care crisis, and the ever present threat of global nuclear war (forgot about that one for a while there, didn’t ya?); not to mention the improbable but possible future-threats of asteroid impact, AI uprising, or alien invasion. Having more rather than less great minds to work together to solve these problems could be the difference between human survival and extinction. But, as it stands, the number of geniuses among humanity is a result of genetic statistical probability.... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028087 Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5028087 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028088&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F008178.html Even if more human geniuses get produced by genetic engineering before artificial intelligence is realized does AI doom us anyhow because geniuses will underestimate the threat? This becomes a plausible idea if even geniuses suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Dunning-Kruger Effect? Yes, the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It could doom us to being wiped out by hostile A.I.'s. As you can read at that link, Cornell professor of social psychology David Dunning and his then grad student Justin Kruger did some cool experiments showing that incompetent people are not competent enough in self evaluation to know they are incompetent. People don't know their limits. People assume they can model what's important about their place in the world and make decisions wisely.... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028088 Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0100 5028088 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4742536&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FWMn1-gocfY8%2F SharpBrains served a highly thought-provoking and informative 2011 Virtual Summit on Retooling Brain Health for the 21st Century over 3 days, March 30th — April 1st. Here is a brief distillation of the large number (40+) of presentations. 1.The range and variety of presentations left no room for doubt that the digital brain health market is concerned with much more than improving cognitive performance and preventing/treating disease. There is a need for many tools in each of the following categories: computerized assessment for myriad cognitive, psychological and neurological concerns; data analysis and recommendation systems; interventions for manifold clinical and non-clinical problems; measurement of the effectiveness of interventions; dynamic feedback and intervention adjustment. Sig... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4742536 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:40:06 +0100 4742536 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4636555&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2F2MrgmzutFLQ%2Fembodied-cognition-with-lawrence-shapiro-bsp-73.html Discussion) Brooks, R. (1991) "New Approaches to Robotics," Science 253: 1227-32. Brooks, R. (1991) "Intelligence without Representation," Artificial Intelligence 47: 139-59. Clark, A. and Chalmer, D. (1998) "The Extended Mind." Analysis 58: 7-19. Glenberg, A. and Kaschak, M. (2002) "Grounding Lanquage in Action," Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9: 558-65. Ehrlich, S., Levine, S., and Golden-Meadows, S. (2006) "The Importance of Gesture in Children's Spatial Reasoning," Developmental Psychology 42: 1259-68. Thelan, E. and Smith,L. (1994) A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action (Cambridge: MIT Press) See Episode Transcript for additional references.  Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast: Annoucements:   Join the discussion of this episode in... the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4636555 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:00:06 +0100 4636555 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4532211&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdr-watson-and-the-7-human-qualities-of-an-ideal-physician%2F2011.02.28 After the computer known as Watson easily dispatched of the best two human Jeopardy! contestants in history, IBM announced that one of the first applications of their artificial intelligence technology would be in the medical field. We should soon expect virtual physician assistants in the exam room. At least one of my friends even speculated that the days of human doctors are numbered. Is it possible that machines will replace humans in the doctor-patient relationship? I doubt it. According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic in 2006, the most important characteristics patients feel a good doctor must possess are entirely human. According to the study, the ideal physician is confident, empathetic, humane, personal, forthright, respectful, and thorough. Watson may have proved his cognitive ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4532211 Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:00:27 +0100 4532211 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4498276&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fibm-watson-could-revolutionize-healthcare%2F2011.02.19 If you’ve been watching Jeopardy! over the past couple days, you probably know that IBM’s highly-advanced artificial intelligence software, Watson, has been competing against Jeopardy!’s most successful contestants (and as of Tuesday night, took a commanding lead over the humans, despite having some trouble with United States geography). Besides the amazing ability to power through “Daily Doubles” and answer random trivia in the form of a question, IBM researchers believe that Watson could revolutionize the healthcare industry. From diagnostics to informatics, Watson could quickly search through medical records, clinical documents, and research information for precise answers that would benefit both doctors and patients. Check out the video below to see physic... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4498276 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:00:16 +0100 4498276 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4495322&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2011%2F02%2F19%2Fai-mashup-challenge%2F A mashup is a lightweight (web) application that offers new functionality by combining, aggregating and transforming resources and services available on the web. The AI mashup challenge accepts and awards “intelligent” mashups that use AI technology The deadline is April 1, 2011. Awards • € 1750 sponsored by Elsevier • Speech outfit from Linguatec • 10 O’Reilly e-books • 2 x up to 5 mashup books from Addison-Wesley http://sites.google.com/a/fh-hannover.de/aimashup11/ AI Mashup Challenge 2011 http://sites.google.com/a/fh-hannover.de/aimashup11/ of the 8th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC) http://www.eswc2011.org/ May 29 – June 2, 2011, Heraklion, Greece Topics of interest A mashup is a lightweight (web) application that offers new functionality by co... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4495322 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:36:58 +0100 4495322 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4098203&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F10%2F20%2Fphenotropic-computing%2F (from 2003) Jaron Lanier talks about the “phenotropic” programme, which consists of trying to design software systems that uses pattern recognition, rather than protocols, for communication between components of the system. …where might things have gone wrong? The leaders of the first generation were influenced by the metaphor of the electrical communications devices that where in use in their lifetimes, all of which centered on the sending of signals down wires. If you model information theory on signals going down a wire, you simplify your task in that you only have one point being measured or modified at a time at each end…At the same time, though, you pay by adding complexity at another level….which leads to a particular set of ideas about coding schemes... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4098203 Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:52:22 +0100 4098203 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4082170&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2010%2F10%2F18%2Fhrp-4c-cybernetic-human-dance.html Dance Robot LIVE! is a performance recently shown at the Digital Content Expo in Tokyo. The performance features AIST's feminine HRP-4C robot and four humans. The routine was produced by renowned dancer/choreographer SAM-san and the lip-synced song is a Vocaloid version of "Deatta Koro no Yō ni" by Kaori Mochida (Every Little Thing). (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4082170 Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:00:21 +0100 4082170 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4040637&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2010%2F10%2F07%2Fraytheon-shows-off-the-xos2-exoskeleton-robotic-suit.html (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4040637 Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:04:00 +0100 4040637 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3983451&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2010%2F09%2F19%2Fartificial-skin-projects-could-restore-feeling-to-wearers-of.html Via Telemedicine and E-Health news Research groups at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley are developing sensor-based artificial skin that could provide prosthetic and robotic limbs with a realistic sense of touch. Stanford's project is based on organic electronics and is capable of detecting the weight of a fly upon the artificial skin, according to Zhenan Bao, professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. The highly sensitive surfaces could also help robots pick up delicate objects without breaking them, improve surgeons' control over tools used for minimally invasive surgery, and increase efficiency of touch screen devices, she noted. Meanwhile, UC Berkeley's "e-skin" uses low-power, integrated arrays of nanowire transistors, according to UC Berkeley Profes... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3983451 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:31:00 +0100 3983451 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3862047&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2Fj1NcIpcQuBg%2Fdiffuse_to_focal_shifts_with_a.php Two seemingly contradictory trends characterize brain development during childhood and adolescence: Diffuse to focal: a shift from relatively diffuse recruitment of neural regions to more focal and specific patterns of activity, whether in terms of the number of regions recruited, or the magnitude or spatial extent of that recruitment Local to distributed: a shift in the way this activity correlates across the brain, from being more locally arranged to showing more long-distance correlations. In this post I will describe some of the most definitive evidence for each of these developmental shifts, and will then conclude with a discussion of how they may relate to one another as informed through computational modeling. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Sour... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3862047 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:06:20 +0100 3862047 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3794840&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2FbyCRDFUQF3A%2Fsynapse_in_pusuit_of_the_cogni.php "What we're seeking is not just one algorithm or one cool new trick - we're seeking a platform technology. In other words, we're not seeking the entirety of a collection of point solutions, what we're seeking is a platform technology on which we can build a wide variety of solutions." Dharmendra Modha, manager of cognitive computing at IBM Research Almaden, discusses the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics ("SyNAPSE") project. Mad scientist eyes are also on display: Video after the jump: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: Developing Intelligence) Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3794840 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:20:36 +0100 3794840 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3780400&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2FQzR2ZbpEwTM%2Ftwo_varieities_of_reinforcemen.php Recent work has leveraged increasingly sophisticated computational models of neural processing as a way of predicting the BOLD response on a trial-by-trial basis. The core idea behind much of this work is that reinforcement learning is a good model for the way the brain learns about its environment; the specific idea is that expectations are compared with outcomes so that a "prediction error" can be calculated and minimized through reshaping expectations and behavior. This simple idea leads to exceedingly powerful insights into the way the brain works, with numerous applications to improving learning in artificial agents, to understanding the role of exploration in behavior and development, and to understanding how the brain exerts adaptive control over behavior. So far, however, neuroima... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3780400 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:08:29 +0100 3780400 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3753873&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2FTE4jCP3M2WU%2Fdestination_computational_deve.php How can we enhance perception, learning, memory, and cognitive control? Any answer to this question will require a better understanding of the way they are best enhanced: through cognitive change in early development. But we can't stop there. We also want to know more about the neural substrates that enable and reflect these cognitive transformations across development. Some information is provided by developmental neuroimaging, but even that's not enough, because the real question we have can only be answered via mechanisms ("how"/"why") - quite different than the "what" "where" and "roughly when" questions addressed by neuroimaging. For "how/why," we ultimately need a mathematical way of describing cognitive changes and how they unfold in tandem with changes in neural information proces... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3753873 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:35:38 +0100 3753873 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3746706&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Fits-official-real-friends-are-better-than-robot-friends%2F While watching New York Times correspondent Amy Harmon try with some difficulty to have a conversation with a robot woman, it becomes increasingly obvious that robots will not replace humans for emotional fulfillment anytime soon. The only similarity between Bina48 and your best friend is that they both sometimes say, “Um.” But Bina48 makes awkward jokes about scheming to take over the world. via The Daily What Post from: BlissTree It's Official: Real Friends are Better than Robot Friends (Source: Breastfeeding 1-2-3) Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3746706 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:01:25 +0100 3746706 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3671877&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F06%2F16%2Fi-b-m-building-a-i-to-play-jeopardy%2F NYTimes: I.B.M.’s Supercomputer Challenges ‘Jeopardy!’ Champions – NYTimes.com IBM is building a massive question answering A.I., named “Watson”, that is going to play on Jeopardy in the fall. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3671877 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:25:24 +0100 3671877 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3552425&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F05%2F10%2Fwhen-will-we-be-able-to-build-brains-like-ours%2F – by Terry Sejnowski – scientificamerican.com Terry Sejnowski discusses the recent ‘catfight’ that erupted between Dharmenda Modha of IBM and Henry Markram of the EPFL over claims from Modha that his group had successfully modeled the brain of a cat. Dr. Sejnowski provides a summary of the quest to describe the nervous system using computational models and introduces a central question: What level of abstraction is appropriate? “Looking at the same neuron, physicists and engineers tend to see the simplicity whereas biologists tend to see the complexity. The problem with simplified models is that they may be throwing away the baby with the bathwater. The problem with biophysical models is that the number of details is nearly infinite and much of it is unknown. How muc... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3552425 Mon, 10 May 2010 19:10:42 +0100 3552425 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3463712&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F04%2F13%2Fmloss-machine-learning-open-source-software%2F http://mloss.org/software/ In addition to an index of over 200 open source machine learning software projects, the “about” section notes that there is an open source tools track of the journal JMLR, and that there are MLOSS workshops sometimes at NIPS and ICML. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3463712 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:07:09 +0100 3463712 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3443794&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2010%2F04%2F07%2Fgeminoid-f-remote-control-female-android.html Via: Kokoro, AFP Researchers from the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University have teamed up with robot maker Kokoro Co., Ltd. to create a realistic-looking remote-control female android that mimics the facial expressions and speech of a human operator. Modeled after a woman in her twenties, the android has long black hair, soft silicone skin, and a set of lifelike teeth that allow her to produce a natural smile. According to the developers, the robot friendly and approachable appearance makes her suitable for receptionist work at sites such as museums. The researchers also plan to test her ability to put hospital patients at ease. The research is being led by Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, who is known for creating teleoperated robot twins such as the celebrated ... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3443794 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:09:10 +0100 3443794 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3298459&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2010%2F02%2F22%2Ffoldit-the-useful-protein-folding-game%2F You can help with protein folding research! http://fold.it/ According to the website, currently they are collecting data from the game to see if humans can actually contribute anything beyond what the computers can already do. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3298459 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:50:26 +0100 3298459 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3246940&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F02%2Fempathy-and-ai-part-v.html In Empathy and AI: Part I I discussed the possibility of coding for empathy in our imagined AI offspring. In Empathy and AI: Part II I wondered about how to perform the mirroring function for an AI.  Most AI researchers believe that the AI's mind will evolve rather than spring into being fully formed.  As such, encoding for empathy becomes a significant issue. In Empathy and AI: Part III I briefly described some of the factors involved in the development of a coherent sense of self and how such development depends upon an empathic connection to another's mind. In Empathy and AI: Part IV I speculated on how the development of a self in an AI could go awry analogous to disorders of the self in humans. In this final post in the series I want to discuss th... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3246940 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:47:12 +0100 3246940 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239632&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F02%2Fempathy-and-ai-part-iii.html In Empathy and AI: Part I I discussed the possibility of coding for empathy in our imagined AI offspring. In Empathy and AI: Part II I wondered about how to perform the mirroring function for an AI.  Most AI researchers believe that the AI's mind will evolve rather than spring into being fully formed.  As such, encoding for empathy becomes a significant issue. The early Psychoanalysts developed a Theory of Mind that continues to resonate and have significance, including having gained some support from modern neurosciences, as noted in A Conscious Digression: Mahler's contributions included her elegant descriptions of the child's sense of self emerging from the undifferentiated mother-infant matrix.  She called the first glimmers of separateness &q... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239632 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:44:05 +0100 3239632 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3231610&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F02%2Fempathy-and-ai-part-ii.html In Empathy and AI: Part I I discussed the possibility of coding for empathy in our imagined AI offspring.  The discussion among the commenters was impressive, as so often occurs here, and toughed upon many themes worth exploring in more detail.  Two themes stood out in the comments.  First the probability that even were we able to write code determining the acquisition of consciousness, we could never delineate a wide enough set of "human like" experiences for our AI.  We might be able to simulate Jimmy J's transcendental experience but we could never do it in a way in which the AI would believe it emerged from within his own (organic) conscious mind and he would always be aware that it did not enter him from outside of his programming.&#01... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3231610 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:13:04 +0100 3231610 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227844&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F02%2Fempathy-and-ai.html There are a lot of very smart people working on developing human level AI, with the expectation that once created, it will rapidly evolve past us.  Literature and cinema have accustomed us to concerns about creating our own "Frankenstein" monsters (though the identity of the monster in the story always surprises people the first time they read and think about the book.)  The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence was created to increase the likelihood that any future Superintelligence/AI would be friendly to its creators.  Michael Anissimov, blogging at Accelerating Future writes cogently for the layperson about the dangers and benefits that we might expect from AI.  Through his site I have found my way to a number of other very smart peop... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227844 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:33:56 +0100 3227844 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3133701&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F12%2F31%2Fcatalina-vallejos-statement-of-purpose-art%2F I devote my life to the momentary constructions for the purpose of maintaining a regular study of neural biochemistry, processes, patterns, and networks whose effects on a performance installation would successfully present a solution. An example of this is affecting a site’s mood initally set up by a pre-set design, with a resulting performance based upon the affected concentration of biochemicals in each present body. The modulation of mood and perception, as evoked or supressed by the artwork itself. A more specific example of this is the observation of different levels of dehydration which affect the integral effectiveness of body enzymes by varying concentrations. This type of work is relevant since exemplary leading behaviours are that which initiate communication before utterance ... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3133701 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:23:25 +0100 3133701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3133702&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F12%2F30%2Fnew-brain-model-applied-to-%25e2%2580%259cpythagorean-harmonics%25e2%2580%259d%2F Neurodudes kindly allowed me to post links to my “alternative brain models” in 2006 ( http://neurodudes.com/2006/09/14/new-brainmind-theory/ ) and 2007 ( http://neurodudes.com/2007/02/24/more-on-quad-nets-new-brainmind-theory/ ) and I hope a third occasion is permitted as there is no comparable resource for a person like me.  I am an amateur in brain science but have a solid technical background (B.S.E.E. MIT; M.A. Physics/Materials Science, UC Berkeley). I have developed a new class of proposed devices called “timing devices.”  Timing devices are idealized models of neurons, with a variety of forms and components.  The timing devices system resembles that of components (resistances, capacitances, transistors, etc.) used in standard electronic circuits.  In both cases, there is... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3133702 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:51:53 +0100 3133702 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071265&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2009%2F12%2F08%2Fhow-to-make-robot-friends-and-influence-people.html The world's first robot with its own Facebook page (and that can use its information in conversations with "friends") has been developed by Nikolaos Mavridis and collaborators from the Interactive Robots and Media Lab at the United Arab Emirates University. The main hypothesis of the FaceBots project is that long-term human robot interaction will benefit by reference to "shared memories" and "events relevant to shared friends" in human-robot dialogues. More to explore: N. Mavridis, W. Kazmi and P. Toulis, "Friends with Faces: How Social Networks Can Enhance Face Recognition and Vice Versa", contributed book chapter to Computational Social Networks Analysis: Trends, Tools and Research Advances, Springer Verlag, 2009. pdf N. Mavridis, W. Kazmi, P. Toulis, C. Ben-AbdelKader, "On the synergie... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071265 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:41:00 +0100 3071265 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2904850&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F006639.html Robin Hanson doesn't want to live in a country where robots are held back from full sentience and autonomy. On Tuesday I asked my law & econ undergrads what sort of future robots (AIs computers etc.) they would want, if they could have any sort they wanted.  Most seemed to want weak vulnerable robots that would stay lower in status, e.g., short, stupid, short-lived, easily killed, and without independent values. When I asked “what if I chose to become a robot?”, they said I should lose all human privileges, and be treated like the other robots.  I winced; seems anti-robot feelings are even stronger than anti-immigrant feelings, which bodes for a stormy robot transition. At a workshop following last weekend’s... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2904850 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2904850 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855727&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F10%2F01%2Frobust-systems%2F A great essay by Gerald Sussman, “Robust Systems”. In the first half or so (my favorite part) he describes architectural principals of biological systems that contribute to robustness. In the second half, he gives proposals for making computers more robust. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855727 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:11:47 +0100 2855727 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832246&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2009%2F09%2F25%2Fmiruko-eyeball-robotic-eye.html Via Pink Tentacle Miruko is a camera robot in the shape of an eyeball capable of tracking objects and faces. Worn on the player’s sleeve, Miruko’s roving eye scans the surroundings in search of virtual monsters that are invisible to the naked human eye. When a virtual monster is spotted, the mechanical eyeball rolls around in its socket and fixes its gaze on the monster’s location. By following Miruko’s line of sight, the player is able to locate the virtual monster and “capture” it via his or her iPhone camera. In this video, Miruko’s creators demonstrate how the robotic eyeball can be used as an interface for a virtual monster-hunting game played in a real-world environment.     According to its creators, Miruko can be used for augmented reality games, security,... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832246 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:31:35 +0100 2832246 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2814508&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2009%2F09%2F21%2Fhal-new-assistive-walking-device.html Japanese company Cyberdyne, with the scientific support provided by Professor Sankai of Tsukuba University, have developed the Hybrid Assistive Limb - HAL - a device designed to help people walk or carry heavy loads. The assistive walking system weights 10 kilogram and has a battery at the back. Embedded sensors collects electric signals that are delivered to the brain through the skin surface. Thanks to these sensors, the system can help users to move in the direction they are thinking. The walking speed is 1.8 km p/h. Watch the HAL in action in this video: (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2814508 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:10:00 +0100 2814508 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2761923&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2Fwu15RmyIXko%2Frobots_in_the_classroom_sejnow.php I've been busy writing up a new paper, and expect the reviews back on another soon, so ... sorry for the lack of posts. But this should be of interest: The Dana Foundation has just posted an interview with Terrence Sejnowki about his recent Science paper, "Foundations for a New Science of Learning" (with coauthors Meltzoff, Kuhl & Movellan). Sejnowski is a kind of legendary figure in computational neuroscience, having founded the journal Neural Computation, developed the primary algorithm in independent components analysis (infomax), contrastive hebbian learning, and played an early role in linking the mathematical concept of "prediction error" to dopamine function. One snippet from the interview: Q: In what ways has the study of how children learn been used to solve engineering problem... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2761923 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:05:31 +0100 2761923 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2441217&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=35052&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWomensBioethicsBlog%2F%7E5%2F4LrfOUoeA40%2FI_hIIDEQY3w%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1%26rel%3D0 It's summertime and time for a new Terminator movie -- and Terminator Salvation asks the age-old question will Artificial Intelligence (the coming Superbrain, as the NY Times article dubs it) be our salvation or annihilation?: "Today, artificial intelligence, once the preserve of science fiction writers and eccentric computer prodigies, is back in fashion and getting serious attention from NASA and from Silicon Valley companies like Google as well as a new round of start-ups that are designing everything from next-generation search engines to machines that listen or that are capable of walking around in the world. A.I.’s new respectability is turning the spotlight back on the question of where the technology might be heading and, more ominously, perhaps, whether computer intelligence wil... Women's Bioethics Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2441217 Fri, 29 May 2009 00:42:05 +0100 2441217 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2405719&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2009%2F05%2F11%2Ffuturist-or-random-number-generator%2F Hmmm… Ray Kurzweil from Salon/bigthink.com on simulating the human brain: I think he might be right that we can simulate the brain before we understand it, however. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2405719 Tue, 12 May 2009 02:48:56 +0100 2405719 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2232562&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2F9b7k34auiDk%2Fworking_memory_without_recurre.php A principal insight from computational neuroscience for studies of higher-level cognition is rooted in the recurrent network architecture. Recurrent networks, very simply, are those composed of neurons that connect to themselves, enabling them to learn to maintain information over time that may be important for behavior. Elaborations to this basic framework have incorporated mechanisms for flexibly gating information into and out of these recurrently-connected neurons. Such architectures appear to well-approximate the function of prefrontal and basal ganglia circuits, which appear specialized for maintenance and gating, respectively. However, these architectures do not capture some subtleties in the temporal dynamics of prefrontal cortex and other regions showing delay-period activity. Si... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2232562 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:57:17 +0100 2232562 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2035844&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=35052&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FWomensBioethicsBlog%2F%7E3%2F485199383%2Flife-imitating-art-twenty-seconds-into.html I just had flashback to the eighties when I saw this headline: Dreams may no longer be secret with Japan computer screen.Does anyone else remember the Max Headroom episode entitled 'Dream Thieves.', where unscrupulous entrepreneurs steal people's dreams and sell them to the highest bidders? (as visions of privacy lawsuits danced across my head.)What next? Neurostim, a device to directly stimulate the brain and bypass the need to use television for advertising? Naaahhh, too sci-fi, right? Or not. (Source: Women's Bioethics Blog) Women's Bioethics Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2035844 Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:10:38 +0100 2035844 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1926553&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=35052&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FWomensBioethicsBlog%2F%7E3%2F438414719%2Fwho-knows-what-evil-lurks-in-heart-of.html A Special Halloween post: No, not the Shadow - try Selmer Bringsjord, cognitive scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Although he admits it is 'creepy,' he is working on what is evil and how to formally define it. According to the article in Scientific American, Bringsjord says that to be truly evil, someone must have sought to do harm by planning to commit some morally wrong action with no prompting from others:"Bringsjord's research builds on earlier definitions put forth by San Diego State University philosophy professor J. Angelo Corlett as well as the late sociopolitical philosophers and psychologists, Joel Feinberg and Erich Fromm, but most significantly by psychiatrist and author M. Scott Peck in his 1983 book, People of the Lie, The Hope for Healing Human Evil. After readi... Women's Bioethics Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1926553 Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:11:13 +0100 1926553 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1788693&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2F390839161%2Fdomaingeneral_use_of_visual_ve.php Much evidence supports the idea that parietal cortex is involved in the simple maintenance of information, such as in object permanence paradigms (also here) and other tasks. This evidence is part of the justification for the "parietofrontal integration theory", which suggests that parietal areas work in concert with prefrontal regions of the brain to accomplish the maintenance and manipulation of information. Orthodoxy holds the prefrontal cortex is more involved than parietal cortex in information manipulation (eg). However, some have suggested that the spatial transformations accomplished by parietal cortex might also be used for the manipulation or organization of nonspatial information - for example, in the subtraction and addition of magnitudes. Read the rest of this post... | Read... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1788693 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:01:33 +0100 1788693 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1645883&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F07%2F22%2Frobot-butler.html From Smart Mobs    (Credit: Fraunhofer IPA)    German researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute have introduced their third generation of household robots, the Care-O-Bot 3. The robot has has a flexible arm with seven degrees of freedom and a hand with three fingers. This allows it to pick up bottles, cups and similar objects and to operate machines. Here are the major functionalities of Care-O-bot 3:   Omnidirectional Navigation: Care-O-bot 3 has an omnidirectional platform, with four steered and driven wheels. This kinematic system enables the robot to move in any desired direction and therefore also safely to negotiate narrow passages. Safe Manipulation: Care-O-bot 3 is equipped with a highly flexible, commercial arm with seven degrees of freedom as well as with... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1645883 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:25:00 +0100 1645883 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1363701&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2F267764228%2Fbrains_are_they_really_like_an.php Peter Hankins has written an excellent commentary criticizing the "positive comparisons" I make after contrasting brains with computers. Peter says: "... the concept of processing speed has no useful application in the brain rather than that it isn't fixed." While this statement may intuitively appeal to some philosophers, temporal limitations in neural processing are both critical for neuronal function and well accepted in both neuroscience and psychometrics. At the biological level, the membrane capacitance of neurons is important for regulating the firing rate of neurons, which itself has an upper limit. Myelination is another feature of neurons which is clearly critical for the speed that information can be processed. At the level of individual differences, "processing speed" is a we... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1363701 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:02:49 +0100 1363701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1321797&cid=t_104639_145_f&fid=35710&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstoryofhealing.com%2F2008%2F03%2F23%2Fcan-our-art-and-science-keep-pace-with-technological-evolution%2F This article explores further its possible medical use. The arrival this June of an enterprise-friendly iPhone is exciting to more than just business users. Doctors, too, are eyeing Apple’s handheld and wondering if it could kill off the old-fashioned clipboard and X-ray light box once and for all. “If you could use the gesture-based way of manipulating images on the iPhone and actually manipulate a stack of X-rays or CT scans, that would be a huge selling point,” says Adam Flanders, director of informatics at Thomas Jefferson University and an expert in medical imaging. To date, such a feature has remained a pipe dream due to most smartphones’ inability to handle the sophisticated compression techniques used on large medical images. Also, most phones lack the requ... the story of healing blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1321797 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:39:16 +0100 1321797 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1306516&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F03%2F16%2Fa-second-life-for-ai.html Source: Eetimes  Passing the Turing test - the holy grail of AI (a human conversing with a computer can't tell it's not human) - may now be possible in a limited way with the world's fastest supercomputer (IBM's Blue Gene) and mimicking the behavior of a human-controlled avatar in a virtual world, according to AI experts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "We are building a knowledge base that corresponds to all of the relevant background for our synthetic character--where he went to school, what his family is like, and so on," said Selmer Bringsjord, head of Rensselaer's Cognitive Science Department and leader of the research project. The researchers plan to engineer, from the start, a full-blown intelligent character and converse with him in an interactive virtual environment, lik... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1306516 Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:46:06 +0100 1306516 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1288708&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2F248006264%2F Discussion Forum about whether the importance of embodiment is an essential obstacle to trying to simulate human cognition with computers. Meanwhile, the role of embodiment in cognition continues to be a growing area of research. I enjoyed a recent post on the Scientific American Community website entitled Thinking with the Body by Art Glenberg from Arizona State University. He reviews recent research by Holt and Bellock. The bottom line is that even when people are involved in verbal tasks, like reading sentences, their comprehension is influenced by their body knowledge of what is being described. You can read more at Mind Matters: Neuroscience, Psychology, Psychiatry, and More. (Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell) the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1288708 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:52:07 +0100 1288708 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1234978&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2F235654247%2F The latest episode of Talking Robots is an interview with Inman Harvey of the University of Sussex. He observes that when researchers attempt to build automous robots their approach is strongly influenced by their philosophy of mind, even if that philosophy is only implicit. He also points out that what he calls “good old-fashioned AI” fails to represent how brains really work. This is a point I have emphasized repeatedly. Inman observes that approaches liked embodied artificial intellingence (which we discussued with Rolf Pfeifer in Episode 25) are really based on a different philosophy of mind that “good old-fashioned AI.” His paper Philosophy of Mind Using a Screwdriver is available as a PDF. (Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell) the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1234978 Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:09:15 +0100 1234978 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1205021&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2F229303619%2F I often emphasize the fact that our brains our different from computers. If you would like to read an article that comes at the subject from the opposite direction (computers are not brains) read this summary of a recent talk given by Jeff Hawkins about “why computers can’t be more like a brain on Dean Takahashi’s Tech Talk Blog. Jeff Hawkins was the co-founder of Palm, Inc. and he is author of On Intelligence, which was discussed in the Brain Science Podcast Episode 2. (Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell) the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1205021 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:07:25 +0100 1205021 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1191354&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2F226628759%2Fare_analog_artificial_neural_n.php Phil Stearns has constructed a 45 "neuron" network of electronic parts which responds to lights and tones with a (rather cute) squealing sound. A picture of the strange device: Each "neuron" consisted of analog electronics corresponding to each of 6 functions: Input, Summing, Threshold, "Offset," "Output," and "Structure" (not sure about those latter three). The connectivity was determined by hand. Phil states that the sculpture is not intelligent, but rather "some kind of squid baby." Neural networks have great potential for contributing to the arts. For example, JP Thivierge used results from the cascade correlation learning algorithm to visualize random output values from a neural network: Here's some art from a portion of rat brain placed into a petri dish: And, of course, t... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1191354 Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:05:40 +0100 1191354 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1146288&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2F215198903%2Fa_cortical_network_for_rapid_d.php One of the bottlenecks in human memory capacity is its "filtering efficiency" - irrelevant information in memory only detracts from an already-constrained memory span. New work by McNab & Klingberg images the neural structure directly responsible for such filtering, and shows it can predict behavioral measures of memory span. Impressively, the location of this "memory filter" is the globus pallidus, as predicted by a computational network model of cortex, but in contrast to that model, it shows functional correlations with parietal in addition to frontal areas. This work has immediate implications for understanding how the brain accomplishes attention and goal-directed behavior, including topics like perceptual load, the attentional blink, and methods for enhancing memory. Read the rest of... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1146288 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:09:37 +0100 1146288 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1106176&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F12%2F19%2Favatar-controlled-robots.html Via KurzweilAI.net Researchers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a system for controlling physical robots using software robots, displayed as virtual-reality avatars.   Article   (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1106176 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:53:41 +0100 1106176 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1076195&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F12%2F07%2Ftoyota-unveils-robot-violinist.html Via Pink Tentacle     Link Video  (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1076195 Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:03:46 +0100 1076195 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1068649&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F12%2F04%2Fsimroid.html Via Pink Tentacle    Simroid is a robotic dental patient designed by Kokoro Company Ltd as a training tool for dentists. The simulated patient can follow spoken instructions, closely monitor a dentist’s performance during mock treatments, and react in a human-like way to mouth pain thanks to mouth sensors. video (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1068649 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:37:47 +0100 1068649 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1064593&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=35052&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwomensbioethics.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F12%2Fperfect-spouse.html (Source: Women's Bioethics Blog) Women's Bioethics Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1064593 Sun, 02 Dec 2007 01:47:00 +0100 1064593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1063142&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E3%2F193044796%2F Discussion Forum Audience Survey Subscribe via iTunes™ Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell by Email (Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell) the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1063142 Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:35:45 +0100 1063142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1061021&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FDevelopingIntelligence%2F%7E3%2F192743168%2Fis_google_in_your_brain_pagera.php The world wide web can be understood as a giant matrix of associations (links) between various nodes (web pages). At an abstract level, this is similar to human memory, consisting of a matrix of associations (learned relationships, or neuronal connections) between various nodes (memories, or the distributed representations constituting them). In the new issue of Psych. Science, Griffiths et al. ask whether Google's famously accurate and fast PageRank algorithm for internet search might behave similarly to the brain's algorithm - whatever that might be - for searching human memory. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: Developing Intelligence) Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1061021 Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:01:59 +0100 1061021 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1048967&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F11%2F25%2Fbrain2robot.html     Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology FIRST and the Charite hospital in Berlin have developed a new EEG-controlled robot arm, which might one day bring help to people with paralysis.   Electrodes attached to the patient's scalp measure the brain's electrical signals, which are amplified and transmitted to a computer. Highly efficient algorithms analyze these signals using a self-learning technique. The software is capable of detecting changes in brain activity that take place even before a movement is carried out. It can recognize and distinguish between the patterns of signals that correspond to an intention to raise the left or right hand, and extract them from the pulses being fired by millions of other neurons in th... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1048967 Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:50:00 +0100 1048967 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1013374&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1194357356 A new program developed in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Haifa enables computers to "know" if an artwork is a Leonardo da Vinci original or the work of a less well-known artist. The researchers "taught" the computer to identify the artworks of different artists. The computer learned to identify the artists after the program turned the drawings of nature, people, flowers and other scenes to a series of mathematical symbols, sines and cosines. After the computer "learns" some of the works of each artist, the program enables the computer to master the individual style of each artist and to identify the artist when looking at other works--works the computer has never seen. www.physorg.com/news113480676.html (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1013374 Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1013374 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=979144&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F10%2F25%2Fjapanese-android-recognizes-and-uses-body-language.html Via Pink Tentacle   Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) researchers have developed an autonomous humanoid robot that can recognize and use body language. According to the press release, the android can use nonverbal communication skills such as gestures and touch to facilitate natural interaction with humans. NICT researchers envision future applications of this technology in robots that can work in the home or assist with rescue operations when disaster strikes.   NICT press release (japanese) (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=979144 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:45:00 +0100 979144 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=968369&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1192714279 Using a Google Labs widget called Google Sets (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=968369 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:00:00 +0100 968369 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=947961&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1192219091 Called Object Recognition via Brain-Inspired Technology (ORBIT), the system will automatically recognize objects in urban environments from ground and aerial surveillance. "We think ORBIT will reduce analysis time of one square kilometer of imagery from 1,300 hours to less than 10 hours. Faster turnaround time for analysts means more timely and accurate mission planning." said Dr. Peter Bilazarian, Lockheed Martin (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=947961 Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:00:00 +0100 947961 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=933157&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F10%2F07%2Fnips-2007-workshop-robotics-challenges-for-machine-learning.html Via Neurobot Dates: 7-8 December, 2007 Organizers: Jan Peters (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics & USC), Marc Toussaint (Technical University of Berlin) http://www.robot-learning.de email: nips07@robot-learning.de Abstract Submission Deadline: October 21, 2007 Acceptance Notification: October 26, 2007 (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=933157 Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:12:46 +0100 933157 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=925312&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1191363080 (University of Southern California (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=925312 Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:00:00 +0100 925312 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=917923&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F10%2F01%2Foribotics.html Re-blogged from Networked Performance Part of the Melbourne International Arts FestivalOribotics [network] is a unique art and technology installation in the Atrium at Federation Square, drawing on cutting edge research in biology, computing, and scientific origami. Discover living biomimetic works attached to the glass panes of the Atrium’s Fracture Galleries. Seek out Oribotics [network] and you will find robots rooted to the architecture, surviving on solar power, with their faceted folded mechanical blossoms attracting data, moving in response to the physical audience and stimuli from online users at www.oribotics.net. In Oribotics [network] each robot is individually connected to the vastness of the internet, and to local mobile phone, Bluetooth and wifi networks, enabling interact... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=917923 Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:26:35 +0100 917923 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=917926&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F10%2F01%2Fartificial-brain-falls-for-optical-illusions.html Via New Scientist A computer program that emulates the human brain falls for the same optical illusions humans do. It suggests the illusions are a by-product of the way babies learn to filter their complex surroundings. Researchers say this means future robots must be susceptible to the same tricks as humans are in order to see as well as us. For some time, scientists have believed one class of optical illusions result from the way the brain tries to disentangle the colour of an object and the way it is lit. An object may appear brighter or darker, either because of the shade of its colour, or because it is in bright light or shadows. The brain learns how to tackle this through trial and error when we are babies, the theory goes. Mostly it gets it right, but occasionally a scene contradic... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=917926 Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:15:29 +0100 917926 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=914090&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F09%2F29%2Fpostdoctoral-position-in-nonlinear-dynamics-of-memory-and-active-perception%2F POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH in NONLINEAR DYNAMICS of MEMORY and ACTIVE PERCEPTION Biologically Inspired Neural & Dynamical Systems (BINDS) Laboratory University of Massachusetts Amherst The postdoc work will be concentrating on: How memories are modified, what other systems take part of it, how can the system benefit from changing memories? These questions are asked from the functional and computational view, and will be tackled using theories of dynamical systems, knowledge of neurobiology and memory system, mathematical analysis and control. The modeling created will then be transferred into crisp principles and from there to machine learning, detection, and navigation. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Engineering or a rel... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=914090 Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:22:29 +0100 914090 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=914118&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1190984557 Beau Lotto and David Corney at University College London, UK, developed a computer program that learns to predict the lightness of an image based on its past experiences--just like a baby. As expected, filtering its environment in this manner makes its subject to the same illusions as the brain. Researchers say this means future robots must be susceptible to the same tricks as humans are in order to see as well as us. http://technology.newscientist.com/article_view/default.jsp (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=914118 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 914118 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=908515&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F09%2F27%2Fa-device-for-robotic-upper-extremity-repetitive-therapy.html Design and control of RUPERT: a device for robotic upper extremity repetitive therapy. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2007 Sep;15(3):336-46 Authors: Sugar TG, He J, Koeneman EJ, Koeneman JB, Herman R, Huang H, Schultz RS, Herring DE, Wanberg J, Balasubramanian S, Swenson P, Ward JA The structural design, control system, and integrated biofeedback for a wearable exoskeletal robot for upper extremity stroke rehabilitation are presented. Assisted with clinical evaluation, designers, engineers, and scientists have built a device for robotic assisted upper extremity repetitive therapy (RUPERT). Intense, repetitive physical rehabilitation has been shown to be beneficial overcoming upper extremity deficits, but the therapy is labor intensive and expensive and difficult to evaluate quantitati... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=908515 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:33:11 +0100 908515 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=903368&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1190641433 Talks and discussions that took place during Singularity Summit 2007 (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=903368 Mon, 24 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 903368 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=888520&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F09%2F20%2Fjapanese-seniors-bored-with-robot.html From Robot.net   According to a Reuters report, Japanese senior citizens quickly become bored with the simple robots so far introduced into nursing homes: "The residents liked ifbot for about a month before they lost interest. Stuffed animals are more popular." Ifbot is a small robot that can converse, sing, express emotions, and even present trivia quizzes to senior citizens. According to the article the robot has spent most of the past year sitting in a corner, unused. Another robot, Hopis, that looked like a furry pink dog has gone out of production due to poor sales. Hopis was designed to monitor blood sugar, blood pressue, and body temperature. One problem may be that both robots are little more than advanced toys. Neither can help elderly people with day-to-day problems they fac... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=888520 Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:25:00 +0100 888520 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=882641&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1190122967 If artificial intelligence developers like Novamente (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=882641 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 882641 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=877665&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1190038707 The US and UK governments are developing increasingly sophisticated gadgets to keep individuals under their surveillance. When it comes to technology, the US is determined to stay ahead of the game. BBC Hi-graphics (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=877665 Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 877665 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=875158&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F09%2F16%2Feu-researchers-implanted-an-artificial-cerebellum-inside-a-r.html Roland Piquepaille reports that "An international team of European researchers has implanted an artificial cerebellum - the portion of the brain that controls motor functions - inside a robotic system. This EU-funded project is dubbed SENSOPAC, an acronym for "SENSOrimotor structuring of perception and action for emerging cognition". One of the goals of this project is to design robots able to interact with humans in a natural way. This project, which should be completed at the end of 2009, also wants to produce robots which would act as home-helpers for disabled people, such as persons affected by neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease." SENSOPAC website    (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=875158 Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:39:08 +0100 875158 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=869471&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F09%2F13%2Ftelepresence-robot-for-interpersonal-communication-with-the.html Developing a Telepresence Robot for Interpersonal Communication with the Elderly in a Home Environment. Telemed J E Health. 2007 Aug;13(4):407-424 Authors: Tsai TC, Hsu YL, Ma AI, King T, Wu CH "Telepresence" is an interesting field that includes virtual reality implementations with human-system interfaces, communication technologies, and robotics. This paper describes the development of a telepresence robot called Telepresence Robot for Interpersonal Communication (TRIC) for the purpose of interpersonal communication with the elderly in a home environment. The main aim behind TRIC's development is to allow elderly populations to remain in their home environments, while loved ones and caregivers are able to maintain a higher level of communication and monitoring than via traditional method... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=869471 Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:32:02 +0100 869471 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=867311&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1189608737 By 2030, or by 2050 at the latest, will a super-smart artificial intelligence decide to keep humans around as pets? Will it instead choose to turn the entire Earth, including the messy organic bits like us, into computronium? Or is there a third alternative? These were some of the questions pondered by the 600 or so technosavants meeting in the Palace of Fine Arts at the second annual Singularity (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=867311 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 867311 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=865510&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1189546235 (University of Bath (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=865510 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 865510 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=845768&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1189009554 Self-Aware Systems (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=845768 Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 845768 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1147441&cid=t_104639_107_f&fid=36698&url=http%3A%2F%2Fminingdrugs.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F09%2Fintelligent-data-analysis-in.html Two interesting communities in this area are IDAMAP and IDADM. Some scientific information is collected in the following books and article seriesArtificial Intelligence in Medicine, Volume 37, Issue 3, Page 163-222 (July 2006)Knowledge-Based Data Analysis in MedicineEdited by Blaz Zupan, John H. Holmes and Riccardo BellazziArtificial Intelligence in Medicine, Volume 16, Issue 1, Pages 1-120 (May 1999)Data Mining Techniques and Applications in MedicineEdited by Blaž Zupan, Nada Lavrac and Elpida KeravnouJournal of Biomedical Informatics, Volume 40, Issue 5, Pages 453-604 (October 2007)Intelligent Data Analysis in Medicine and Pharmacology (The International Series in Engineering and Computer Science), by Nada Lavrac, Elpida Keravnou, Blaz Zupan (Editor) (Source: Mining Drug Space) Mining Drug Space blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1147441 Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:17:00 +0100 1147441 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=819523&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F08%2F24%2Fcompany-using-in-silico-embodiment-to-build-artificial-intelligence%2F If there’s one lesson to be learned from almost 60 years of AI research its almost certainly to be skeptical of anyone who says they have found THE ANSWER to producing human level intelligence from computers. Even in the face of this, however, I am intrigued by a new company’s approach to developing Artifical General Intelligence (AGI), a term which is meant to indicate Strong AI rather than Weak AI. That’s probably because its founder, Ben Goertzel, manages to skillfully walk the tightrope between staying conservative about how much they realistically accomplish and still managing to inspire hope that their methodology has the potential to get close to AGI. This is best demonstrated in a recent talk that Goertzel gave at Google on his approach to AGI. His company, No... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=819523 Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:06:25 +0100 819523 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=793720&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1186843165 (Virginia Tech (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=793720 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0100 793720 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=760473&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F07%2F26%2Fhumans-win-man-machine-poker-tournament-against-polaris%2F But it seems to have been close. The players claim that the program was quite challenging. nytimes article The website of the lab that wrote Polaris, with detailed blogs of the games. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=760473 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:14:45 +0100 760473 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=760413&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F07%2F26%2Fhalluc-ii-8-legged-robot-vehicle.html Via Pink Tentacle                 Researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology have developed a robotic vehicle with eight wheels and legs designed to drive or walk over rugged terrain. The agile robot, which the developers aim to put into practical use within the next five years, can move sideways, turn around in place and drive or walk over a wide range of obstacles. The researchers hope the robot’s abilities will help out with rescue operations, and they would like to see Halluc II’s technology put to use in transportation for the mobility-impaired. Here’s a short video of the model in action.   (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=760413 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:05:00 +0100 760413 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=747176&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1184960663 It could be a case of game over for draughts--scientists say the (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=747176 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:00:00 +0100 747176 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=745512&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F07%2F19%2Fcheckers-solved%2F The game of checkers has been solved. pop sci article in Nature news the website of Chinook, an unbeatable checkers program Interestingly, one of the writers of Chinook is working on poker, according to a nytimes article about the solution of checkers. His team’s program is playing in the AAAI Man vs. Machine Poker Challenge at AAAI-07. Here’s the link to the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group. (Source: neurodudes) neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=745512 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:19:04 +0100 745512 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=738895&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F07%2F17%2Fsoftware-enzymes-for-genetic-algorithms%2F Andrew Arensburger presents a neat idea: use the metaphor of the lock-and-key hypothesis for enzymes to route data in genetic programming. Briefly, imagine that each function in the program is a biological structure sitting inside a cell. The structure has a number of binding sites where enzymes can bind to it. The structure is inactive until a promoter enzyme binds to it and activates it. The structure then is fed molecules to process via enzymes that bind at other binding sites. The outcome of the structure’s processing is carried off by other enzymes that bind to yet other binding sites. Now, the binding sites are strings, the molecules are data, and the enzymes each have a regular expression that specifies which strings they bind to. Each function in the program is associate... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=738895 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:51:13 +0100 738895 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=734452&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F07%2F14%2Frunbot.html This study shows that the tight coupling of physical with neuronal control, guided by sensory feedback from the walking pattern itself, combined with synaptic learning may be a way forward to better understand and solve coordination problems in other complex motor tasks.   The paper: Adaptive, Fast Walking in a Biped Robot under Neuronal Control and Learning (Manoonpong P, Geng T, Kulvicius T, Porr B, Worgotter F (2007) Adaptive, Fast Walking in a Biped Robot under Neuronal Control and Learning. PLoS Comput Biol 3(7): e134) (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=734452 Sat, 14 Jul 2007 14:18:49 +0100 734452 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=728411&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F07%2F11%2Fmyomo-e100-neurorobotic-system.html Via Medgadget  US company Myomo has announced that the e100 NeuroRobotic System, a technology designed to help in the rehabilitation process of patients by "engaging and reinforcing both neurological and motor pathways,"  has received FDA clearance to market. How it Works Patient's brain is the controller: When a patient attempts movement during therapy, their muscles contract and electrical muscle activity signals fire Non-invasive sensing: An EMG sensor sits on the skin's surface to detect and continuously monitor a person's residual electrical muscle activity Proprietary system software: Advanced signal processing software filters and processes the user's EMG signal, and then forwards the data to a robotic device Proportional assistance: Portable, wearable robotics use the pe... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=728411 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:36:35 +0100 728411 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=728412&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F07%2F11%2Fusing-a-robot-to-teach-human-social-skills.html Via KurzweilAI A humanoid robot designed to teach autistic children social skills has begun testing in British schools. Known as KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics), the $4.33 million bot smiles, simulates surprise and sadness Read full article   (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=728412 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:26:52 +0100 728412 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=717977&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F07%2F06%2Fepigenetic-robotics-2007-extended-deadline.html Via NeuroBot 5-7 November 2007, Piscataway, NJ, USA Seventh International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org Email: epirob07@epigenetic-robotics.org Location: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA *Extended* Submission Deadline: 1 August 2007   (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=717977 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:16:28 +0100 717977 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=717979&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F07%2F06%2Fusing-ai-to-produce-3d-paintings.html Via Emerging Technology Trends Jason Green, CEO of Florida-based Medical Development International (MDI) announced that experts at his company have applied artificial intelligence to produce original, three-dimensional paintings. From the press release:   Most computers store individual instructions as code with each instruction given a unique number; the simplest computers perform a handful of different instructions, while the more complex computers have several hundred to choose from. Green took programming capability one-step further by producing thousands of images using a set color scheme and style from multiple images simultaneously created on multiple machines. The best of these images are then rendered at extremely high resolutions. Green's "Virtual Van Gogh" takes High-Defini... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=717979 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:04:26 +0100 717979 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=674709&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F06%2F07%2Fkansei-robot.html Via Pink Tentacle  Researchers at Meiji University have developed a robot face called "Kansei" that is capable of a wide range of emotional expressions. The robot is part of a program that aims at creating conscious and self-aware robots. video (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=674709 Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:42:03 +0100 674709 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=578680&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F04%2F29%2Ffirst-darpa-limb-prototype.html From the DARPA press release (via Medgadget)    An international team led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., has developed a prototype of the first fully integrated prosthetic arm that can be controlled naturally, provide sensory feedback and allows for eight degrees of freedom--a level of control far beyond the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs. Proto 1, developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program, is a complete limb system that also includes a virtual environment used for patient training, clinical configuration, and to record limb movements and control signals during clinical investigations. The DARPA prosthetics program is an ambitious effort to provide the mo... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=578680 Sun, 29 Apr 2007 16:59:31 +0100 578680 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=577142&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1177812655 US researchers have simulated half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=577142 Sat, 28 Apr 2007 04:00:00 +0100 577142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=573436&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F04%2F27%2Fevolution-of-visually-guided-behavior-in-artificial-agents.html Authors: Boots B, Nundy S, Purves D Recent work on brightness, color, and form has suggested that human visual percepts represent the probable sources of retinal images rather than stimulus features as such. Here we investigate the plausibility of this empirical concept of vision by allowing autonomous agents to evolve in virtual environments based solely on the relative success of their behavior. The responses of evolved agents to visual stimuli indicate that fitness improves as the neural network control systems gradually incorporate the statistical relationship between projected images and behavior appropriate to the sources of the inherently ambiguous images. These results: (1) demonstrate the merits of a wholly empirical strategy of animal vision as a means of contending with the inve... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=573436 Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:06:11 +0100 573436 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=563419&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F04%2F22%2Fseventh-international-conference-on-epigenetic-robotics.html : Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems Call for Papers: Epigenetic Robotics 2007 5-7 November 2007, Piscataway, NJ, USA Location: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=563419 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:17:30 +0100 563419 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=547339&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceblogs.com%2Fdevelopingintelligence%2F2007%2F04%2Fpost_15.php Among nature's most impressive feats of engineering is the remarkably flexible and self-optimizing quality of human cognition. People seem to dynamically determine whether speed or accuracy is of utmost importance in a certain task, or whether they should continue with a current approach or begin anew with another, or whether they should rely on logic or intuition to solve a certain problem. A topic of intense research in cognitive neuroscience is how cognition can be made so flexible. One possibility proposed by by Brown, Reynolds & Braver is that cognitive control is multi-faceted, in that different forms of control are engaged in response to different scenarios. For example, if tasks or responses shift unpredictably, then behavior may be generally slowed in order to reduce the chances ... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=547339 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:46:19 +0100 547339 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=537709&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F04%2F11%2Fmobi.html From Networked Performance MOBI (Mobile Operating Bi-directional Interface), by Graham Smith, is a human sized telepresence robot that users remotely control to move through distant environments, see through its camera eye, talk through its speakers and hear via its microphone ear. Simultaneously a life sized image of themselves is projected onto the robots LCD face, creating a robotic avatar. MOBI allows people to "explore far away art shows, attend distant presentations and make public appearences from anywhere on earth, thus helping to reduce air travel and reduce global warming". MOBI is at DEAF 07. Graham Smith is a leading expert in the fields of telepresence, virtual reality, videoconferencing and robotics. He has worked with leading Canadian high tech companies for more than 14 ye... Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=537709 Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:05:33 +0100 537709 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=538003&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceblogs.com%2Fdevelopingintelligence%2F2007%2F04%2Fthe_death_of_a_beautiful_theor.php Very early in the history of artificial intelligence research, it was apparent that cognitive agents needed to be able to maximize reward by changing their behavior. But this leads to a "credit-assignment" problem: how does the agent know which of its actions led to the reward? An early solution was to select the behavior with the maximal predicted rewards, and to later adjust the likelihood of that behavior according to whether it ultimately led to the anticipated reward. These "temporal-difference" errors in reward prediction were first implemented in a 1950's checker-playing program, before exploding in popularity some 30 years later. This repopularization seemed to originate from a tantalizing discovery: the brain's most ancient structures were releasing dopamine in exactly the way pr... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=538003 Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:07:08 +0100 538003 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=520325&cid=t_104639_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F004165.html Here's one of the pieces needed to create an artificial intelligence. Now, in a new MIT study, a computer model designed to mimic the way the brain itself processes visual... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=520325 Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:00:00 +0100 520325 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=499375&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35069&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcognews.com%2F1174676118 The U.S. military is working on computers (Source: CogNews) CogNews blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=499375 Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0100 499375 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=489650&cid=t_104639_109_f&fid=34743&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceblogs.com%2Fdevelopingintelligence%2F2007%2F03%2Fan_idle_mind_or_more_alpha_osc.php In the new issue of Seed, Douglas Hofstadter talks about "strange loops" - his term for patterns of level-crossing feedback inside some medium (such as neurons) - and their role in consciousness. Likewise, Gerald Edelman has talked about how a "reentrant dynamic core" of neural activity could tightly integrate large groups of neurons through positive feedback cycles. Similarly, many view interactions among neural oscillations as a candidate mechanism for the formation of consciousness - such oscillations can perform abstract computations (as in liquid state machines) and can interact with one another through multiplexing mechanisms (in which, for example, a certain rhythm of neural firing might have its periodicity or phase locked to other rhythms). This theory of nested oscillations and c... Developing Intelligence blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=489650 Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:54:56 +0100 489650 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=477914&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F03%2F16%2Fsocially-assistive-robotics-for-post-stroke-rehabilitation.html Conclusion: We outline and discuss future experimental designs and factors toward the development of effective socially assistive post-stroke rehabilitation robots. (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=477914 Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:46:57 +0100 477914 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=477915&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F03%2F16%2Frobot-computer-assisted-motivating-systems-for-personalized.html Conclusion: The Robot/CAMR suite has potential for stroke rehabilitation. By manipulating hardware and software variables, we can create personalized therapy environments that engage patients, address their therapy need, and track their progress. A larger longitudinal study is still needed to evaluate these systems in under-supervised environments such as the home. (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=477915 Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:45:03 +0100 477915 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=486193&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F03%2F05%2Fhawkins-releases-numenta-code%2F Entrepreneur-turned-cognitive neuroscientist Jeff Hawkins is distributing a “research release” of their experimental code base implementing his idea of hierarchical temporal memory described in his book, “On Intelligence”. Hawkins drew inspiration for the model from his own reading about the structure and function of the human neocortex and believes that it represents the foundation for developing intelligent machines. Jeff explains this surprising move to open source the code for the Numenta Platform for Intelligent Computing (NuPIC) on the Numenta web site: Why are we making NuPIC available now? We have been contacted by dozens of researchers and scientists who are excited about HTM and by our work at Numenta. These people are anxious to work on HTM, are willin... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=486193 Mon, 05 Mar 2007 23:57:50 +0100 486193 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=463572&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F02%2F25%2Fgrand-challenges-proposed-by-the-u-k-computing-research-comm.html Re-blogged from KurzweilAI.net    Grand challenges proposed by the U.K. Computing Research Committee include a project to unify cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and robotics. One sign of success would be a robot capable of functioning at the level of a 2- to 5-year-old child. Another milestone could be a robot capable of autonomously helping a disabled person around a house without explicit preprogramming about its environment. Other challenge is intended to create more dependable computers and associated software systems, which oversee the bulk of the world's financial transactions, regulate life-saving instruments, and manage the delivery of products.   Read Original Article>> (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=463572 Sun, 25 Feb 2007 11:18:42 +0100 463572 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=463574&cid=t_104639_113_f&fid=34637&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaggio.blogspirit.com%2Farchive%2F2007%2F02%2F25%2Fsocially-assistive-robotics-for-post-stroke-rehabilitation.html Conclusions: Future experimental design and factors that will be considered in order to develop effective socially assistive post-stroke rehabilitation robot are outlined and discussed.   (Source: Positive Technology Journal) Positive Technology Journal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=463574 Sun, 25 Feb 2007 02:36:46 +0100 463574 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=486195&cid=t_104639_122_f&fid=35066&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneurodudes.com%2F2007%2F02%2F24%2Fmore-on-quad-nets-new-brainmind-theory%2F In September, 2006, I described my “new brain/mind theory” here and received some challenging criticism from Eric Thomson and Mike S. (see below). To meet these challenges, I prepared a reduced model discussed in a web page linked to a paper in .pdf form. Since my approach is based on little-known thermodynamics, I have also written about mechanical metaphors that may be helpful in explaining my ideas. “Timing devices” in the new paper are like RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computers) in comparison to Quad Nets that are like CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computers). “Quad Nets” is based on “critical point thermodynamics” and I am confident that they are new. However, “timing devices” may have been explored by others and I will... neurodudes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=486195 Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:43:25 +0100 486195