What is Artificial Intelligence?

A Day With Keats, painting by William James Neatby (1860-1910)

A painting masterpiece is an art. But how does a typical computer interprets it? This is quite difficult to do when we talk of high-level concepts of classification, like how, we, humans use our perception abilities and unique taste in art.

But a group of researchers from the University of Girona and the Max Planck Institute in Germany has shown a schematic evidence that a computer can now understand how paintings are done and classified.

They developed mathematical algorithms that provide clues about the artistic style of a painting. How the painter made his brush strokes create a masterpiece that stands to astound many people. The unique composition of colors or certain aesthetic measurements can already be quantified by a computer, but machines are still far from being able to interpret art in the way that people do.

Using low-level classification, the researchers were able to show that their artificial vision algorithms can be programmed to "understand" pictures and compare between artistic strokes.

Lady with flowers by Edmund H. Garrett (1853-1929)

The artificial vision algorithms makes use of low-level pictorial information to determine an artist's brush thickness, the type of material used and the composition of the palette of colors. Although the researchers admit that it's absolutely difficult to copy how humans interpret art, but, according to them "they can look for trends".

Click here to read more about Understanding Art Through Computer, Artificial Vision Algorithms.

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

ClimateWizard is an interactive database of complete climate information

A new web tool has just been demonstrated at the The Nature Conservancy in Copenhagen, Denmark, in conjunction with an on-going climate summit. The lead author and presenter, Evan Girvetz worked on the this new model of the world climate during his postdoctoral work at the University of Washington's School of Forest Resources and just accepted a job with The Nature Conservancy.

Climate Wizard is the latest web tool that accesses complete information of the world's climate in real time. The new tool can be used by both scientists and non-scientists to get interactive information on projected temperature and precipitation changes using 16 of the world's most prominent climate-change models.

The web tool can be used also to gather data on habitat shifts that will affect endangered species, places where crops could be at risk because of drought and temperatures that could cripple fruit and nut production in California's Great Central Valley.

Climate Wizard uses several parameters to maximize collection of data. One can generate climate changes for the past 50 years, or even 50 future years until the end of the century 2080.

It is a large database of information using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes on estimates of greenhouse gas emissions being high, medium or low in the future. All other variables are generated on colored maps of focused states, countries or regions around the world.

Click here to read more about Climate Wizard, World Climate software, World Climate Information Database

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