3.30.2005

 

NASA's Shape-Shifting Robot

NASA Tests Shape-Shifting Robot Pyramid for Nanotech Swarms

From the article: There is more detail along with photos on this NASA page.

3.29.2005

 

NASA's Clarissa system sounds remarkably like Manna

NASA - Clarissa

From the article:This sounds remarkably like the Manna system.

 

135 trillion floating point operations per second

IBM's Blue Gene/L eclipses its previous record

From the article:See also 100 core chips.

3.28.2005

 

Fully automated surgery robots

Pentagon Funds Research On Robots For Surgery

From the article:

 

Robot lawyers

AI am the law

From the article:This same kind of thing will be happening to doctors, teachers, etc. See also Robots taking jobs.

3.26.2005

 

More on Numenta


Jeff Hawkins' Bold Brainstorm Unveiled

Numenta was already introduced in the post on Numenta. This article provides a little more detail. From the article:

 

Bomb robots

Backpack raises concerns at bank

From the article:Also:

3.25.2005

 

Medical Robots

Medical robot a smooth operator

From the article:Also:See also: Digitized people and the end of doctors.

 

Robots at Aichi

Robots Take Center Stage at World's Fair

Several quotes from the article:See Robotic Nation for details.

 

Numenta memory systems

Numenta web site

From the home page:See also Building a better brain from Forbes. From the article:See Robotic Nation for details.

 

Clocky

Clocky

From the page: Robots come in many different shapes and sizes...

3.24.2005

 

Snakebot

Snake-like robot conquers obstacles

From the article:A nice video clip is also available.

See also Robot spiders

3.23.2005

 

More robots in hospitals

Robo-docs check in at Detroit Medical Center

The article provides a perfect example of why robots are going to spread incredibly quickly in the American economy. From the article:See also: Digitzed people and the end of doctors.

3.21.2005

 

Robots already widespread in Japan

Humanoids with Attitude

From the article:Interesting that they picked the date 2015. See Robots in 2015 for details.

3.17.2005

 

Spiderbot

GIANT SPIDERBOT STEPS OUT

From the article:Very nice videos of John Deere's 6-legged robot are available here.

3.16.2005

 

Home robot

Daily chores the order for latest mobile robot.

The robot is called EMIEW, short for Excellent Mobility and Interactive as Workmate.

From the article:A photo is available on engadget.

3.14.2005

 

Manna and the water heater

This morning our water heater blew out its bottom and dumped several hundred gallons of water into the garage (the 50 gallons in the tank, plus a stream of cold water coming in from the cold water pipe). I cut off the water and the gas to the water heater and drove over to Home Depot at lunch to buy a replacement.

I found the water heater I wanted, and next to it was a pamphlet talking about same-day installation. I read the pamphlet and then walked up to the desk labeled "professional installation." There were two people at the desk -- a man and a woman -- both wearing their orange Home Depot aprons. The woman spoke to me:So I take two steps to my left, reach down and pick up the phone. It auto-connects to a call center in less than 5 seconds. A voice comes on the line that says, approximately, "Hello, I am the automated attendant. What would like to do?" I am instructed to speak the word, "installation" if that is what I need, so I say, "Installation." I am asked what I want installed and I say, "Water Heater" without any prompting.

At this point I am transferred to a woman in a call center in Tampa, FL. She has a very bad case of laryngitis today but is otherwise quite pleasant. She takes my order, quotes me a price, has me read my credit card number to her, gives me a reference number and we are done. It is supposed to be installed tomorrow.

My point here is simple. What we are witnessing is the Manna-tization of society right before our very eyes. I approached the "Professional Installation" desk, and there were two human beings who could help me. But they did not. They instead had me get on the phone and speak to a woman who was operating in a Manna-like environment in Tampa. She is being managed completely by computer.

Throughout her working day, this woman's thoughts and actions are dictated by a computer screen. Customers flow into her telephone head set automatically. She does voice recognition and types in their responses to questions that pop up on her screen. Then she takes another call. The woman in Tampa is essentially wet-ware filling in for the software that will eventually do her voice recognition job in five to ten years.

See Manna for details.

3.13.2005

 

Robots and the right brain

Revenge of the Right Brain

From the article is a quote that directly demonstrates the power of the Robotic Nation and Manna:I think that what this quote misses is that that computers will be taking over right-brain skills as well. Think of many of the things that we traditionally consider to be right-brained:Many of these things can be modeled, or can be tested using large groups of people. In that case, then the computer actually does a better job and the right-brain activity gets taken over by a computer.

Here is an example. The company Optimost takes ads and web pages and optimizes them by computer to improve the click-through rate (look at the 2-minute demo). People used to lay out ads and web pages using the "right brain". Now a computer does it, and does it MUCH better.

3.11.2005

 

Helper robots

Friendly Helper Robots for Everyman from October

From the article:See Robotic Nation for details.

 

Robot greeters

Robots to offer warm welcome at Japan's World Expo

From the article:See Robotic Nation for details.

3.08.2005

 

Practical robots are "one step away from being a reality"

Robots just 1 step from real life / Practical robotics for everyday life to be displayed at Aichi Expo

From the article:

3.07.2005

 

100-core chips

Intel's 100-core chip could power intelligent toilet

From the article:See also Moore's law marches on and Moore's Law.

3.06.2005

 

Peeking Into Google

There are many aspects of Google that are robotic. For example, you can think of the spidering process that gathers pages from the Web as a robot. This article is therefore interesting:

Peeking Into Google

From the article: When human beings start creating "human-like intelligence" inside of computers, it is likely that a system like Google's will house the first incarnations. Google shows that we can store unimaginable amounts of data in a relatively inexpensive system. Then, over time, these systems will get smaller and smaller until they fit into a package that consumes about two liters of space.

See also:

3.05.2005

 

Yet another example...

...of why airlines will remove human pilots from the cockpit and replace them with robots as soon as possible:

'A Little Fun' Before Plane Crash

From the article:See also Three more reasons pilots will be replaced by robots and Robotic Nation for details.

 

Robots learning from ants

Via Slashdot:From the article:See also:

3.04.2005

 

Robot dinosaurs

Dinosaurs return to Earth, courtesy of Japanese robotics

From the article:See also: Robot teachers.

3.03.2005

 

Robots to Watch Children

Robots to Watch Children Showcased

From the article: Robots will be taking care of kids at home. Then the kids will board robotic buses and go to school, where they can be taught by Robotic teachers.

3.02.2005

 

Robot mannequins

Japanese robot mannequins to strike a pose for their customers

From the article:A very nice photo of the mannequin is available here.

See also: Robot Surveillance on every corner

3.01.2005

 

Artifical muscles and arm wrestling

Artificial Muscles Get a Grip on Human Hand

From the press release:Also:

 

New storage technology

Tiny Data Switch May Store More

From the article:Also:

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