What is Artificial Intelligence?

It was in the news in mid-November 1999, a car accident left a 16-year old teenager totally paralyzed. Erick Ramsey could not move any part of his body; could not blink his eyes and could not even speak a single letter. He was a total wreck 10 years ago. But, now he is like a little child learning his first two words "mama" and "dada".

Thanks to neuroscience genius, Dr. Philip Kennedy, a pioneer in the field of brain-computer interface (BCI) research. He dedicated his expertise in order to develop a system that interprets Erik Ramsey's thoughts and translates them into speech. If successful, this would be the first brain-computer interface with the speech technology.

Several electrodes were connected directly into the boy's premotor cortex, a region of the brain that controls movement of the mouth, lips, tongue, and jaw. Kennedy developed a matrix of six words: heat, hid, hat, hut, hoot, and hot. that represented the major English vowel sounds. During the tests, he made Erik think of these words by saying in his mind the word uh-ee. As he does, a green cursor jumps across the matrix from hut to heat, and a sound booms out of the speaker "uuuhahuuuuhaheeeeeeee." That was the sound of Erik's brain, saying those words.Read more.

With Erick making a good progress in the BCI speech system, another scientist joined the project in 2006. Frank Guenther, a computational neuroscientist at Boston University, helped Kennedy develop a computer decoder that could turn those patterns into a prosthetic voice.

Click here to read more about Brain-Computer Speech Decoder, Erik Ramsey, Brain Implant, Neuroscience, and Prosthetic Voice

Read the full Erick Ramsey story.

simulated game using brain waves (by Melissa Folks, learning specialist)

Video games and/or computer games are said to disturb the learning behaviors of children in school. Contrary to what is believed to be the villain in children's poor performance in school, is actually helping kids focus more in their studies. But, of course, these computer games should be educational, meaning it shouldn't include any violent scenes.

Several mind over game studies have already proven their hypothesis. And in a recent experiment conducted at a London primary school for children with learning and attention difficulties, scientists studied the learning behaviors of children by making them concentrate over their own brain waves as they see them on the computer.

Two electrodes were attached one to the ear and other to the scalp. Electrodes were used to measure electrical activities of the part of the brain where millions of neural activity occurs. The captured electrical signals are seen as "waves".

The study suggests that "lots of theta waves mean you're drowsy, low to medium frequency beta waves are good for calm, focused attention and flexibility, while lots of high frequency beta waves mean you're excited or anxious"

Furthermore, when the brain finds the right balance of all three wave patterns simultaneously, the subject is said to have success in the simulated game, that is in a maze his or "her character is going around eating dots, making beeps and getting points". This is called neurofeedback.

Click here to read more about Brain Games, Neurofeedback, Brain Waves

researcher tapping the soil moisture sensor to the tree trunk

Interactive telecommunications had gone a notch higher with this new innovation. Who would possibly think that trees can now inform their owners what they 'feel'. But for the love of nature, scientists have developed a sensor that measures the moisture-level of the plants. Once the sensor detects low-moisture level, it sends electrical signals to a wireless device that would send a text message to their owners saying "I am thirsty!" or "You over watered me".

Israeli researchers at the Volcanic Center and Agriculture Ministry have developed a new sensor that monitors moisture levels in plants and trees, that signals real-time alerts to farmers' mobile phones or computers when watering is needed.

The portable sensor shaped like a hammer, has a monitor that is tapped onto tree trunks or roots. Unlike other models, which are implanted in the leaves, this new device is more effective in monitoring water levels because it gathers information from the roots or stems via electrical signals.

According to Dr. Eran Raveh and Dr. Arieh Nadler, experts in plant biology and ground science, "We have a water crisis here in Israel and need a way to irrigate more accurately, and it will be extremely useful to farmers growing fruits and vegetables to cut down irrigation expenses by up to 50 percent".

Click here to read more about Interactive Telecommunications and Soil Moisture Sensor.

simulated war video game (setting: iraq)

Video "war" games are not for pro players only anymore. High ranking military officers also, play the game. But they are not playing the games for the sake of mere entertainment; they are up to the challenge of winning with every possible solution. The sophistication of video games and the advances in computerized modeling and group behavior prediction are creating "virtual worlds" wherein defense analysts can explore and predict outcomes of various possible military and policy actions.

According to a research computer scientist in Maryland, defense analysts can simulate all possible military actions both for offensive and defensive strategies in this "virtual world" environment. By actually playing the "game", they can better understand the positive and negative effects of their propositions for policy options or military actions. They can experience in the "virtual war zone", the consequences of every decision military commanders make to progress in the war.

The computer scientist even developed a "virtual Afghanistan" or other real war zones in order to capture the optimized defense analysis for every situation that may occur in the virtual war field. And this artificial intelligence project had been very useful in the development of real security strategies before, during and even after actual defense operations.

Click here to read more about War Video Games, Simulated War Games, Real Security in Virtual Worlds.

This graphical figure shows the optimal solution by the VACCINE-AIS algorithm (PhysOrg.com)

One of the most difficult and challenging aspect of the human's physiology is the immune system. It is very complicated because it involves millions of cells and antibodies fighting against foreign microorganisms that evade the immune system every single second.

At Oklahoma State University, two researchers have worked together to build an artificial immune system that mimics the way the human body acquires immunity against diseases through vaccination. The AIS makes use of an algorithm VACCINE-AIS that identifies the best optimal solution from a given number of anti-bodies and antigens (weak or malfunctioning cells).

The core concept of AIS is boosting the immune system by injecting a vaccine that will stimulate the antibodies to quickly learn and locate weak or malfunctioning cells called the antigens. This process of location is called the optimization problem, the antibodies are the decision points in the immune system and the antigens are the solutions that the immune system are looking for.

An AIS application - AIS create or exhange antibodies to detect spam emails

Originally the AIS project was designed for data mining, anomaly detection and the like, however other research fields have shown interest in the AIS to use it for medical imaging (fMRI), power stabilizer and fault estimation, routing misbehavior detection and email spam filtering applications.

Click here to read more about Artificial Immune System and VACCINE-AIS algorithm.