http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2927410/The-real-life-Matrix-MIT-researchers-revealinterface-allow-computer-plug-brain.html
The real-life Matrix: MIT researchers reveal interface that can
allow a computer to plug into the brain
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System could deliver optical signals and drugs directly into the brain
Could lead to devices for treatment of conditions such as Parkinson's
It has been the holy grail of science fiction - an interface that allows us to
plug our brain into a computer.
Now, researchers at MIT have revealed new fibres less than a width of
a hair that could make it a reality.
They say their system that could deliver optical signals and drugs
directly into the brain, along with electrical readouts to continuously
monitor the effects of the various inputs.
Christina Tringides, a senior at MIT and member of the research team,
holds a sample of the multifunction fiber that could deliver optical
signals and drugs directly into the brain, along with electrical
readouts to continuously monitor the effects of the various inputs.
HOW IT WORKS
The new fibers are made of polymers that closely resemble the
characteristics of neural tissues.
The multifunction fiber that could deliver optical signals and drugs directly
into the brain, along with electrical readouts to continuously monitor the
effects of the various inputs.
Combining the different channels could enable precision mapping of
neural activity, and ultimately treatment of neurological disorders, that
would not be possible with single-function neural probes.
'We're building neural interfaces that will interact with tissues in a more
organic way than devices that have been used previously,' said MIT's
Polina Anikeeva, an assistant professor of materials science and
engineering.
The human brain's complexity makes it extremely challenging to study not
only because of its sheer size, but also because of the variety of signaling
methods it uses simultaneously.
Conventional neural probes are designed to record a single type of
signaling, limiting the information that can be derived from the brain at any
point in time.
Now researchers at MIT may have found a way to change that.
By producing complex fibers that could be less than the width of a hair,
they have created a system that could deliver optical signals and drugs
directly into the brain, along with simultaneous electrical readout to
continuously monitor the effects of the various inputs.
The new technology is described in a paper in the journal Nature
Biotechnology.
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http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/01/20/researchers-create-video-game-mario-that-thinks-forhimself/
Technology
Researchers create a video game Mario that thinks for himself
By Matt Cantor
Published January 21, 2015
Newser
Facebook18 Twitter20 Email Print
In this image provided by Nintendo, video game icon Mario is shown. Even
though Mario hasn't changed much in nearly three decades, the latest
game he stars in, the newly released "The New Super Mario Bros.
Wii," is one of the holiday season's top titles. (AP Photo/Nintendo)
Before you know it, your video games could be playing themselves.
Researchers in Germany are working on giving Nintendo's best-known
character a form of artificial intelligence, the Verge reports.
Their goal is a "Living and Conversing Mario Agent" that can act on
commands given not with a gamepad but by simply talking to him. "Mario
has become aware of himself and his environment—at least to a certain
extent," a researcher says in a video entry for an artificial intelligence
competition.
This version of the character, it seems, learns as he plays through a
standard Mario world—and researchers are also working on a project in
which both Mario and Luigi are controlled by AI and are able to speak to
each other, thus sharing information and teaching each other.
AI Mario's experience in his world can inform his actions, Newsweek
reports. "We give him internal needs—what we call a constant homeostatic
state—like hunger, and whenever this equilibrium becomes unbalanced
Mario learns to respond based on his previous interactions with objects," a
scientist says.
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http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/in-davos-executives-express-worries-over-more-disruptivecyberattacks/?ref=technology
Executives in Davos Express Worries Over More Disruptive Cyberattacks
By David Gelles
January 22, 2015 1:47 pm January 22, 2015 1:47 pm
Photo
Robert Smith, chief executive of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm in Austin, Tex.Credit Chester
Higgins Jr./The New York Times
DAVOS, Switzerland – Executives from Target and Home Depot were not
present at the World Economic Forum, where world leaders and corporate
titans are rubbing shoulders and debating weighty issues.
Yet the names of those two companies are being invoked several times a day
here, held up as examples of early victims in the growing battle against
cybercrime.
Hackers stole credit card information from 40 million Target customers in
late 2013. Last year, Home Depot was hit with a similar breach. And those are
just two of a growing list of embattled businesses that includes JPMorgan
Chase, Sony and others.
Executives were broadly pessimistic on the topic, believing that while last year had
a number of prominent cyber attacks, this year would only be worse.
“The number of security incidents this year will be exponentially greater than last
year,” said John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco, the big Silicon Valley
technology company.
And not only are such incidents becoming more common, they are getting more
disruptive.
“We haven’t sent he worst yet,” said Vishal Sikka, chief executive of the Indian
outsourcing giant Infosys. “I think we’ll see five times as many bad incidents as we
did last year.”
Though Infosys has so far escaped a major cyber attack, Mr. Sikka said his
company was being more vigilant than ever before, and regularly fended off
smaller, unsuccessful efforts to penetrate the company’s network.
…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/technology/microsoft-to-give-away-windows-10-in-move-towoo-software-developers.html?ref=technology&_r=0
At Windows 10 Event, Microsoft Jumps Into Augmented Reality With HoloLens Headset
By NICK WINGFIELDJAN. 21, 2015
Inside
Photo
Alex Kipman, a Microsoft executive, describing HoloLens. Credit Glenn
Chapman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft wants back in the game, and it is using a little
science fiction to get there.
The company has seemed adrift in recent years. But on Wednesday, it unveiled
an unexpected new headset that allows interaction with holographic images,
enabling people to play video games, build 3-D models and hold immersive
videoconferences with colleagues.
With the device, HoloLens, Microsoft is entering an increasingly crowded area,
with giant competitors, in the world of virtual and augmented reality. Whether
Microsoft can outmaneuver those companies, like Facebook and Google, is far
from guaranteed.
Still, the HoloLens could help renew some of the luster Microsoft has lost in the
last decade, when it reacted late to critical new technology trends like mobile
devices, cloud computing and Internet search.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, went even farther, saying that the new
technology heralded a big shift in the industry. “Our industry’s progress is
punctuated by moments of category creation,” he said. “Windows and
holographic computing is one such moment.”
…
http://www.cnet.com/news/robots-learning-to-cook-by-watching-youtube-videos/
Robot Learning Manipulation Action Plans by “Watching” Unconstrained
Videos
from the WorldWideWeb
Yezhou Yang
University of Maryland
yzyang@cs.umd.edu
In order to advance action generation and creation in robots
beyond simple learned schemas we need computational tools
that allow us to automatically interpret and represent human
actions. This paper presents a system that learns manipulation
action plans by processing unconstrained videos from
the World Wide Web. Its goal is to robustly generate the sequence
of atomic actions of seen longer actions in video in
order to acquire knowledge for robots. The lower level of the
system consists of two convolutional neural network (CNN)
based recognition modules, one for classifying the hand grasp
type and the other for object recognition. The higher level
is a probabilistic manipulation action grammar based parsing
module that aims at generating visual sentences for robot
manipulation. Experiments conducted on a publicly available
unconstrained video dataset show that the system is able
to learn manipulation actions by “watching” unconstrained
videos with high accuracy.
…
(http://www.atelier.net/en/trends/articles/computers-begin-learn-people_433125).
(http://web.mit.edu/rudin/www/KimRuSh14.pdf)
They incorporate Bayesian ML with Case Base Reasoning to develop a prototype
space based on feature similarity and a subspace of the important features of the
prototypes.
…
http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article8499242.html
DARPA overhauls 'Atlas' robot ahead of competition this summer
By Elizabeth Palermo
Published January 28, 2015
DARPA's Atlas robot has been revamped ahead of this summer's
competition. But robotics teams will have to develop their own software for
the improved bot. (DARPA image courtesy of Worcester Polytechnic
Institute)
What do you call a robot that can drive a car, break down walls and scale
buildings? Hint: It's not "The Terminator." This super-capable bot's name is
Atlas, and it was created to save lives, not destroy them.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of
the U.S. Department of Defense charged with developing new technologies
for the military, recently upgraded its Atlas robot in preparation for the
final round of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). The design and
development competition began in 2012, and the last round is set to take
place June 5-6 in California.
Approximately 20 teams will be competing in the challenge and are tasked
with designing and testing a robot that can save human lives after a
natural disaster, such as an earthquake or a tsunami. [Images: DARPA
Robotics Challenge]
Seven of the teams that made it to the final round of the DRC will be
using the DARPA-developed Atlas robot, which has been significantly
upgraded for this final test of its abilities. The bot's lower legs and feet
are all that remain from the original design of this humanoid robot. The rest
of the bot has been totally revamped, according to DARPA officials.
The most significant changes to Atlas' design have to do with the robot's
power supply and hydraulic pump (the mechanism that allows the bot to
stand, walk, use tools and perform a variety of other movements). Unlike in
previous rounds, the engineers who control the robots will not be permitted
to attach their bots to any kind of wires or tethers, which is why Atlas now
needs a lithium-ion battery pack.
"The introduction of a battery and variable-pressure pump into Atlas poses
a strategic challenge for teams," Gill Pratt, the DRC program manager, said
in a statement. "The operator will be able to run the robot on a midpressure setting for most operations to save power, and then apply
bursts of maximum pressure when additional force is needed. The
teams are going to have to game out the right balance of force and
battery life to complete the course."
In fact, balance will be of the utmost importance to all teams participating in
the final round of the DRC. The untethered bots won't be getting assistance
from robotics teams if they fall over or get stuck during any stage of the
competition, according to DARPA officials. In keeping with the new "no
wires" clause, fall arrestors — cables that help the robot right itself if it falls
over or becomes unstable — will not be permitted. The wired
communications tethers that previously helped teams control their bots will
also be prohibited.
…