What is Artificial Intelligence?

Epoc Headset Brainwave Controller by Emotiv Systems

A new technology has been launched lately to make gaming experience a 'more real' adventure and fun. Imagine playing a video game and seeing all your reactions and expressions being mimicked by characters in the game, in real time! How cool is that?

Emotiv Systems have developed the revolutionary Epoc Headset Brainwave Controller that is especially created to augment virtual gaming experience. Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset. It uses a set of sensors to capture the brains electric signals to detect thoughts, emotions and expressions of the player and connects wirelessly to most PCs via Bluetooth.

The Emotive Systems call it the "revolutionary new personal interface for human computer interaction".

The Epoc Headset takes advantage of three detection suites which are included in the package. The Affectiv™ Suite monitors emotional states of the player in real-time. It provides an extra dimension in game interaction by allowing the characters in the game to respond to the player's emotions. Characters can transform in response to the player's feeling.

Cognitiv™ Suite reads and interprets a player's conscious thoughts and intent. Gamers can take full control over virtual objects using only thoughts! While Expressiv™ Suite uses the signals measured by the neuroheadset to interpret player facial expressions in real-time. The Epoc Headset only costs $299.

Click here to read more about Epoc Headset Brainwave Controller.

ICub, the toddler robot moves and talks like a child

One of the most challenging tasks for robot engineers is to make a robot that can interact with its environment through perceptions. There has already been several projects attempting to create human-like robots, however, engineers and scientists alike, continue to find ways in order to increase their adaptivity and interaction with humans.

In Manchester University, a todder-like robot was shown to the public in a Symposium on Humanoid Robotics, showcasing its childlike abilities of recognizing objects for the first time, crawling, reacting to objects and shapes, making many facial expressions and talking to its human friend. The robot-toddler is popularly known today as the ICub.

The prototype, which is 100cm tall and weighs 23kg, is being developed by the RobotCub Consortium in Italy, which is a group of several European universities. The goal of the £7.5million, five-year project is to develop a highly dexterous humanoid child robot.

One of the most interesting aspect of the ICub project is that it is an open systems platform. Users and developers are given the freedom to contribute their expertise, from psychology, through to cognitive neuroscience, to developmental robotics, to customize ICub.

Click here to read more about ICub Project, RobotCub Consortium, ICub

Kevin at work with controlling a robot with his arm's nerves

Remember Kevin Warwick, the scientist who controlled a two-wheeled robot with live brain neurons of a rat? Well he is back and this time, he wants more control, by connecting to a remote computer in New York City’s Columbia University, while he is inside his lab.

You might think he is out of his mind, but this professor from the University of Reading is just not contented with making robots with little or no sense at all. He is really serious with what he is currently experimenting on. His own nerves to control the robotic systems through a remote server in New York.

In his own lab, he connected several electrodes to the nerves of his forearm. The actions that his arm is producing, is being fed to a remote server located inside the campus lab of Columbia University, in New York. The server is then networked to the robotic system, Warwick created in his lab, in the University of Reading. Interestingly, his experiment was a complete success.

Kevin is serious about those wires

Now, he is planning to have a sensor implanted on his own brain by 2015, even if he medically doesn't need one. Just for experimental purposes again, Kevin Warwick is straightforward with his intentions for the sensor that will allow him to send signals across a computer network.

Click here to read more about Cybernetic Man, Kevin Warwick

Cognitive Anteater Robotics Lab, CARL was the name given to this robot with digital neurons programmed from real rat brains

Carl short for Cognitive Anteater Robotics Laboratory is the name given to the robot that was designed to think and act like a human being. His brain was modeled out from a rodent's brain, in order for researchers at Irvine and San Diego to study how humans adapt to the changes in their environment.

It has the ears of rodents, and it’s thinking with a computerized model of a rodent brain and interacting with the world through a “biologically plausible nervous system. Carls brain was programmed from brain recordings of real rats, and when it learns to adapt to the behaviors in the environment, researchers hope they can make further inferences how human brains work.

A collaborative study with researchers at UCSD ANDREA CHIBA, Douglas Nitz and Angela Yu, will evaluate the decision making capacity in rodents by altering their environment quickly and forcing them to adapt to this change.

Further development of this research will not only focus on medical applications, but also promises an advanced future for robotics research, allowing robots to act more humanly in complex and variable environments.

Click here to read more about Neurobotics, Robot with Digital Neurons, and CARL.

brain waves and heart rythyms are now used in biometrics to identify a person

Since the 9/11 incident, most American and European establishments have doubled their efforts in securing their establishments from identity thefts, which could be terrorists. This is very hard to accomplish, as most of these suspected "terrorists" use more sophisticated disguise technologies than the commercial biometrics technology presently used. The most common biometrics currently integrated in the security systems of most establishments nowadays are finger print analysis, face and voice and Iris scan analysis.

Although, it is sad to note, face, voice and finger biometrics can be faked. That is why scientists are continually seeking for ways to improve on the currently used biometrics. In Europe, researchers at HUMABIO, an EU-funded project, have combined biometrics' methodologies and the latest sensor technologies to capture brain patterns and use them to identify a person. Accordingly, brain patterns are unique for every person which make them impossible to be fraud.

typical EEG readings

In its early stage, the project had already developed the prototype headgear with two electrodes to read brain patterns. Using EEG and ECG technologies, HUMABIO will be able to extract the biometric profile of individuals, based on physiology and behavior characteristics. This information will be stored in a database and then compared to profiles created in real time, when individuals enter the secured area.

Click here to read more about Brain Waves Biometrics, HUMABIO, New Biometrics Systems.