What is Artificial Intelligence?

Japanese researchers have developed a humanoid robot that can laugh and smile as it mimics a person's facial expressions. Geminoid TMF, smiled and furrowed its brow in almost concurrent mimicry of the woman, whose face was filmed with a video camera which then provided information on her expressions to the robot through electric signals.

The developers are hoping to have these in hospitals and the like in the not-too-distant future so they could be used in real-life situations. "We've already got some data showing that the robot gave patients psychological security by nodding and smiling at them, when patients were checked on by doctors," said Satoko Inoue, spokeswoman for Kokoro, one of the two companies involved in the development.

Copies of the robot are expected to be sold for about 10 million yen (110,000 dollars).

Click here to read more about Geminoid TMF.

Another novel and breakthrough device has been developed to help the physically disabled people play "pong" for the first time, without having to use the arms or the legs.

Pong is one game that really pushes a player to move in sync with the ball's movement. Although playing Pong as a video game won't need your body to move vigorously, but you still need to use your arms. But how about our physically disabled friends who cannot use both?

Well, that was the challenge taken by the students, from Imperial College London. The student researchers have used an open source game called 'Pong', where a player moves a virtual bat to strike a ball as it bounces around the screen using his own eye.

The game is played by wearing a special pair of glasses having an infrared light and a tiny webcam mounted on the glasses to record the movement of one eye.

The webcam is connected to a mobile device or laptop where a computer program synchronizes the player's eye movements to the game.

Click here to read more about Playing "Pong" using eye movements, Neurotechnology

A new technology revolutionizes the way we perceive and use input devices.

Skinput is the latest breakthrough in human-computer interaction. This technology was developed by Chris Harrison, a junior Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), in collaboration with Desney Tan and Dan Morris of Microsoft Research.

Chris Harrison, used the human skin as the primary input surface or touchpad for mobile devices such as your smart phone. Skinput is a combination of simple bio-acoustic sensors attached to the upper arm and some sophisticated machine learning through capturing sound generated by such actions as flicking or tapping fingers together, or tapping the forearm.

The armband design includes both the collection of sensors and a tiny projector that can superimpose multi-colored navigation buttons onto the bearer's forearm.

Moreover, a keypad can show on the palm of the hand. Simple mobile devices, like an MP3 player, might be controlled merely by tapping of fingertips, without need of superimposed buttons.

Also, Skinput can use "proprioception", a person's sense of body configuration - for eyes-free interaction.

Click here to read more about Skinput, Chris Harrison Skinput Device

The world-renowned Honda Humanoid Robot has evolved into a desktop program assistant, ASIMO will be on your desktop for free! The ASIMO DESKTOP WIDGET brings the real humaoid ASIMO right onto your screen. The robot ASIMO does not only walk and run around your screen, but presents the latest news headlines from Honda, provides an easy memo function, and more. Although some functions need internet connection to work. The ASIMO Desktop Widget Features:

• walks to and fro and runs around your computer screen, and does many unique actions.
• RSS News Display - whenever available, ASIMO shows the latest Honda news all its Worldwide site.
• Menu - the main ASIMO Menu allows you to have access to the available functions below:
• - News: The latest news from the Honda Worldwide site
• - Search: Google search window
• - Memo Pad: A simple memo pad
• - Widget Settings: Balloon style, sound and automatic start settings
• - Quit: Quits the ASIMO DESKTOP WIDGET
• - Honda Logo: Opens your browser to the Honda Worldwide site

You can drag and drop the Menu window anywhere you want to place it on the screen. Click here to download the ASIMO DESKTOP WIDGET. Click here to read more about ASIMO Desktop Widget, Asimo Desktop Companion

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