What is Artificial Intelligence?

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

the human brain needs a consistent training to keep it sharp

In the fast paced world and all the millions of events happening around us everyday, it is but a normal excuse to forget about names, dates and even places and events. Little memory mishaps is no longer an issue. But of course, major forgetfulness, means you need to consult a neurologist.

Training your memory is quite extensive and very time consuming. It takes hard work and several pictures and events to make up a model story for the training. But once you get hooked to it, there's no stopping and you'll love it.

Take it from Ronnie White, the 2009 U.S. Memory Champ. During the competition Ronnie and several others, including last year's winner Chester Santos, went through seven qualification rounds.

Rounds included names and faces, numbers, speed cards, poetry and so on. The three top scorers for the first three rounds will automatically compete in the final round. Each round was timed differently, at least 5 minutes memorization and at most 20 minutes recall.

According to White, there is a system, a training program for the memory to optimize its function. He trained underwater and used a computer program that flashes a number sequence which enhanced the speed of his memory. If our body needs exercise, our memory most definitely needs one to keep it sharp.

One training example mentioned during an interview with Chester Santos, was to build a story that connects all the words or objects that need to be recalled. Each word or object is memorized with a particular event or picture in the story. It is also the same method used by Ronnie White, only he exercised more often.

Watch the video with Chester Santos.

Try this doing it yourself, it's kind of fun, and it's really effective.

Click here to read more about Training Your Memory, U.S. Memory Championship

synaptic communication captured on a laser camera

Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia, lead by Dr. Tsien, were able to decode the communication among neurons during formation and recall of memory. Using state-of-the art neurotechnologies and the century-old Pavlovian condition, they were able to recognize in real time the formation and recollection of a memory in a mouse's brain.

In the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, MCG scientists connected 128 electrodes in order to detect communication among 200 to 300 neurons during the time when the [subject] mice learned to associate a certain tone with a mild foot shock 20 seconds later.

An algorithm computed the neuronal chats and translated them into discernible and dynamic patterns that provided scientists a clearer picture of what the memory appeared during formation and recall.

MCG scientists used a mouse as the subject. The subject underwent two memory recall tests. One, by hearing a tone, the mouse freezes and second, returning to the chamber where the foot shock occurred. They later correlated these actions to memory retrieval.

The results were very significant to finding specific solution to memory problems, because as Dr. Tsien said, "the ability to watch memories being made in real time should help pinpoint where problems lie, enabling more targeted research and eventual treatment".

Click here to read more about Decoding Neuronal Communication, Memory Formation and Recall and Pavlovian Conditioning.

FUGA is a method of measuring human experience in media enjoyment

Digital games, both computer and video are among the fastest growing entertainment forms in the media industry and large scale investments are being dedicated to develop new digital games. In addition to entertainment, digital games are becoming more valuable resources of learning and therapy for both the mentally and physically disabled.

FUGA, the fun of gaming is a method of measuring the level of fun in multimedia gaming. It mainly focuses on measuring the human experience of media enjoyment from computer games and developing emotionally adaptive gaming prototypes.

FUGA's main objective is to develop novel methods and improve existing models to evaluate the different aspects of gaming experience, such as cognitions and emotions, comprehensively with high temporal resolution.

FUGA will employ neurological and physio-psychological instruments such as facial EMG, EEG, ECG, EDA, and respiration, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), eye movement recordings, the so-called (online) implicit association test and tracking of behavioral indicators of emotion and motivation.

new digital games are developed for different purposes in education, therapy and entertainment

The results of this innovative measurement approach will be primarily used in the development of new digital games for several different purposes in education, entertainment and therapy.

Click here to read more about FUGA project and Fun of Gaming