What is Artificial Intelligence?

For the last two years we have witnessed the debut and the fame of iRobot's Blob Bot, ChemBot. Many scientists have attempted to create whole-skin locomotion (WSL) robots, but iRobot just won the project.

Today, another scientist is given the opportunity to create a whole new WSL robot that will have less or no restrictions to environmental constraints.

Dr. Dennis Hong of Virginia Tech's RoMeLa Lab is awarded a $400k grant by the NSF to develop a new whole-skin locomotion robot named ChIMERA which stands for "Chemically Induced Motion Everting Robotic Amoeba" that was first introduced at a recent TEDxNASA event.

As described by Dr. Hong, ChIMERA is likened to a slippery water-snake toy, made with silicone which makes it very flexible and difficult to grasp.

Although the researchers have not disclosed how ChIMERA was engineered and formed, they have provided enough video materials for us to visualize how it moves. I'm especially fascinated by the robot's fast movements (0.5 m/s) and it's ability to squeeze through small holes (half its own diameter).

Click here to read more about ChIMERA, Amoeba-Like Whole-SKin Locomotion Robots

A recent study in MIT proved alteration of moral judgments by application of magnetic field on the right TPJ of the brain

MIT scientists have proven in their recent study that a person's moral judgments can be altered by disrupting or disturbing the current activity of the brain region, TPJ.

This study is a follow-up of the previous study of the right TPJ, a region of the brain actively involved in making moral decisions or judgments. TPJ, acronym for temporo-parietal junction is observed to be very active when we think of something to other people.

In this study, led by Rebecca Saxe, MIT assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, the right TPJ's activity is disrupted by inducing a current in the brain with a magnetic field applied on the surface of the scalp. After this test, it was observed that "subjects' ability to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people's intentions -- for example, a failed murder attempt -- was impaired", reported Saxe in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

How was this accomplished? The scientists used a non-invasive strategy known as trans-cranial magnetic stimulation or (TMS) to selectively interfere or disrupt with brain activity in the right TPJ. A magnetic field applied to a portion of the skull generates weak electric currents that causes brain cells' within the area to fire normally, however the effect is only short-lived.

Click here to read more about Altering Moral Judgments with Trans-Cranial Magnetic Stimulation, MIT Brain Science Project

LaDiDa in action.

The husband-and-wife team behind LaDiDa — Khush CTO Parag Chordia and CEO Prerna Gupta — have devised a “reverse karaoke” app that makes it simple for anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch to make songs with full instrumentation using only their voice.

LaDiDa is a dream-come-true for those diehard singers out there. It creates harmonic and rhythmic elements after you’ve recorded yourself singing anything you please. It then corrects your pitch and adds some reverb, then aligns it with these elements and plays it back in a variety of styles that you can toggle through until you find the one that sounds best. You don’t need to have a good voice to use this app.

From there, the app lets you easily share your creation through Facebook or Twitter.

Click here to read more about LaDiDa, iPhone App, iPod Touch App.

NOMFET

Researchers in France claim to have made the first transistor that mimics connections in the human brain. Many believe that this could lead to new brain-based computers and help connect artificial structures to biological tissue.

This device which serves as an artificial version of a synapse is based on an organic semiconductor transistor made of pentacene, an insulation layer and gold nanoparticles. The resulting device is called a nanoparticle organic memory field-effect transistor or "NOMFET".

“In the NOMFET, the pre-synaptic signal is simply the pulse voltage applied to the device and the output signal is the drain current. The holes – the charge carriers in the p-type organic semiconductor employed – are trapped in the nanoparticles and act like the neurotransmitters. A certain number of holes are trapped for each incoming spike voltage and in the absence of pulses, the holes escape in a matter of seconds.”, explains Dominique Vuillaume of the University of Lille.

Click here to read more about NOMFET, Organic Transistor.

Zenph's playerless piano.

North Carolina’s Zenph Sound Innovations has this latest advance in artificial intelligence which “resurrects” musical legends of the past by tapping into old recordings to establish a musician's style and personality, then applying those attributes to newer recordings of old songs, or even to songs the musician never played before.

Zenph’s specially designed robotic pianos take hi-resolution MIDI files created by a software that simulates the style of classical and jazz performers from days gone by and then turns them into sound by literally lowering down the keys using between 12 and 24 high-resolution MIDI attributes.

Performing in “live” settings like the Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall and on the Live from Lincoln Center show, these robotic pianos have wowed thousands of crowds with their note-for-note renditions of performances of the past. Its engineers are almost done working on a playerless double bass. They also plan on working on the saxophone model next, with the ultimate goal of creating every instrument in a typical jazz band.

Click here to read more about Zenph, Zenph Sound Innovations.