I love the following article about TIME’s Washington Bureau Chief trying to decipher if a telemarketer was a robot: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/10/meet-the-robot-telemarketer-who-denies-shes-a-robot/ This is a story the World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist® has waited a lifetime for, as the significance is not so much as whether or not the caller was a human or a ‘robot’, but that it still has not been proven one way or another. Alan Turing would be delighted. (December was a good month for him. Just days ago, he was given a posthumous pardon by the Queen of England. The Royal pardon only took 61 years…) Did Samantha pass the Turing Test? She denied she was
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Hup two, three, four – you can do it
My friend, Dr. Julie Albright, sent me the following National Science Foundation (NSF) study being conducted at USC entitled Socially Assistive Robots for Post Stroke Rehabilitation, utilizing robots to provide motivation and instruction. Another NSF project, focusing on children, is: ‘Socially Assistive Robotics: An NSF Expedition in Computing’. Here are a few more social robots to keep an eye on, as they will certainly be looking after us: Autom – Weight Loss Coach Jibo, Inc. – a new startup founded by Cynthia Breazeal, a pioneer of social robotics and human robot interaction Zeno R25 – One of the most advanced social robots in the world, built by David
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remix-it-up
My teenage daughter got an auxiliary cord for the car that allows her to play music directly from her iPhone directly through the car stereo and speakers. She uses an app that downloads songs from the internet, either in real-time or from ones she’s already added to her list. I actually like a lot of the music she listens to, though there’s those occasional rap lyrics that I don’t care much for, like Jeremih’s Birthday Sex. Today I learned that a ‘remix’ is a digitized version of a song. What I said to my daughter was, “if I wanted to
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artificial sex
Careful what you think, as it may extend to more than just your own brain. (I’m certainly hoping that my robotic assistant will understand my thoughts even before I speak. That way, I can Blog in my Brain and have a direct neural connection to the internet/rest of the world.) Is this a good thing? How can I control not sharing my personal thoughts at the same time? Will there be a private mode before my thoughts go public and is there a way I can edit my thoughts before sharing? Let’s say I’m blogging in my brain which is
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Lookalikes
I don’t mean to criticize (OK, I really do), but the headline “More human than human: People prefer robots that look like them”, should not be taken at face value (pun intended). Scientific studies can be extremely valuable, but not when they’re taken out of context. Many times, headlines are created which give the reader a false summary of the research. I doubt the writer of the article created the title, as it is the creative title that translates into advertising dollars for the publisher. Who writes these titles? 60 Minutes? The National Enquirer? Am I going to have to
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1+1 = who cares? my phone will do it 4 me
Two skills that seem of inevitable importance for the upcoming generations to survive in the future are creativity and managing stress. While my generation may have thought of our lives in terms of decades – our twenties, thirties, forties, etc. — younger generations will be in thrall to a much more rapidly changing landscape. The world around them will transform so drastically and so frequently, that societal changes over what once took a decade, will now occur in months. The options in life will be unpredictable, and ever-changing. Unfortunately, what we can count on, is that we humans will continue
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tech-shy to tech-sly?
Since I am the World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist®, everyone always assumes I’m a techy. There is almost nothing further from the truth. I have always loved math, duplicate bridge, and analysis (mostly of people), but my use of technology (and robots) to date is strictly as a user, not as an innovator or a hardware/software expert. I revere the engineers I work with, all of whom are either creating new technology, or are at least early adopters looking to modify existing technology. I, on the other hand, see the message on my iPhone “Download the iOS7” and quickly close the
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RoboRaid
The following article is about a roving robot that can kill ticks: http://www.vmi.edu/Content.aspx?id=10737425074 Great app. I’m also wondering if this technology can this be applied to other applications. Can it mow while it’s roving and spraying? Can it work with a team of other rovers to prevent ticks from repopulating? Can this technology be utilized as a solution for other forms of pests?
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Robot R & D
Sabre and its flagship Autonomous Grit-Blaster is a successful commercial start-up out of the University of Technology Sydney http://sabreautonomous.com.au/ This is an excellent business model that more universities around the world should be modeling: research and development in collaboration with both private industry and government, both of which are willing to continue to invest resources into the R&D spinoff. Sabre’s partners include Burwell Technologies which makes sandblasting equipment, and the Australian government’s Roads and Maritime Services which has been involved in the development of the robotic grit-blasting technology in collaboration with UTS for more than 6 years.
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Sexbots
I was talking to an older gentleman while we both waited in line. When I mentioned I was from Massachusetts, he told me he had served in the Navy in New Bedford, MA when he was younger. We then started talking about New Bedford which led to a discussion of the true story about the gang rape portrayed in the 1988 movie, ‘The Accused.’ This led to a further conversation on the cover-up and politics in the ‘Whaling City’ (New Bedford) and then I mentioned that 25 years later, I could not believe how so many women in the military
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