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Google Buys Boston Dynamics - That can't be good!

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Author Topic: Google Buys Boston Dynamics - That can't be good!  (Read 3050 times)
Kilika
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« on: December 15, 2013, 04:02:50 am »

If you know anything about "Big Dog", then you know a company like Google now owning the company that makes such robots can't be a good thing. Not to mention the ties to government through military contracts. The potential for something bad is great. This one of several robot companies they have bought. Hmm...

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/14/5209622/google-has-bought-robotics-company-boston-dynamics

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Google buys Boston Dynamics, maker of spectacular and terrifying robots

By Josh Lowensohn on December 14, 2013 01:27 am

Google has acquired robotics engineering company Boston Dynamics, best known for its line of quadrupeds with funny gaits and often mind-blowing capabilities. Products that the firm has demonstrated in recent years include BigDog, a motorized robot that can handle ice and snow, the 29 mile-per-hour Cheetah, and an eerily convincing humanoid known as PETMAN. News of the deal was reported on Friday by The New York Times, which says that the Massachusetts-based company's role in future Google projects is currently unclear.

"Makers of the BigDog robot"

Specific details about the price and terms of the deal are currently unknown, though Google told the NYT that existing contracts — including a $10.8 million contract inked earlier this year with the US Defense Agency Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — would be honored. Despite the DARPA deal, Google says it doesn't plan to become a military contractor "on its own," according to the Times.

Boston Dynamics began as a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, and quickly started working on projects for the military. Besides BigDog, that includes Cheetah, an animal-like robot developed to run at high speeds, which was followed up by a more versatile model called WildCat. It's also worked on Atlas, a humanoid robot designed to work outdoors.

In a tweet, Google's Andy Rubin — who formerly ran Google's Android division — said the "future is looking awesome."

Rubin earlier this month told NYT that his next big project at Google was to pursue a lifelong love of real robots, something that will be separate from the company's secretive Google X lab best known for "moonshot" projects like balloon-powered internet and self-driving cars. In the meantime, Google's quietly picked up seven different robot companies and hired robotics experts, placing teams in Palo Alto and Japan.

Here's a clip of one of Boston Dynamics' latest robots, WildCat, which debuted earlier this year.

« Last Edit: December 15, 2013, 04:07:43 am by Kilika » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2013, 04:32:56 am »



That wildcat is pretty cool, are they going to sell them?

The field of robotics has improved at an incredible rate recently. The future is already here... (HQ - 10/2013)
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Kilika
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« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2013, 02:12:08 pm »

I suspect they will sell them to the military and civilian agencies, though these things are prototypes and not ready for any kind of production. With robots, there's a ton of trials and testing so they can build up it's database, basically learn how to do what they want it to do. Mechanically, they've pretty much got the functions down. The important part is programming it's computer. Unlike a human who has certain aspects that they are born with and know how to do or will learn on their own, robots have to be taught everything literally. For instance, it may be able to walk in a straight path no problem, but what if it encounters an obstacle? Then what?

A computer must have a database of knowledge to draw from to determine how to react to any situation. It doesn't know that it can simply step over a rock. You have to tell it to do it and how. They also don't have critical thinking like humans in that they can't make decisions like we can on the fly. They only know "Can I do it?", but not "Should I do it?" or "What if I did it?" because those type questions that we ask all the time involve emotions and bits of information that a computer doesn't have, so programmers have to run through all kinds of scenarios, put it in code that the computer understands, which usually is algorithms based on probabilities and averages along with a database of facts and statistics, as well as a library of set programmed responses and actions.
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« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2013, 02:21:15 pm »

I suspect they will sell them to the military and civilian agencies, though these things are prototypes and not ready for any kind of production. With robots, there's a ton of trials and testing so they can build up it's database, basically learn how to do what they want it to do. Mechanically, they've pretty much got the functions down. The important part is programming it's computer. Unlike a human who has certain aspects that they are born with and know how to do or will learn on their own, robots have to be taught everything literally. For instance, it may be able to walk in a straight path no problem, but what if it encounters an obstacle? Then what?

already going on

http://defensetech.org/2013/09/25/marines-set-to-test-big-dog-ground-robot/
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2013/11/massive-robot-could-soon-join-marines-battlefield/74285/

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« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2013, 04:00:22 am »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo_5sCos3bs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUi0iL3DtYeELRB7mP0SqmrA

Google BUYS Eight MILITARY ROBOTICS Companies SO FAR !!! MILITARY ROBOTS!
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« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2013, 11:44:31 am »

Very interesting clip - this is just my opinion and observations, but they could very well have everything done with this agenda behind the curtains, but outwardly they're acting like everything's a "work in progress". Look at all of the predictive programming in entertainment they've been putting out for years and years(ie-the Jetsons cartoon in the 70's, I think - used to watch that show regularly as a kid). A few decades away like that guy said before the interview ended? Doubt it.
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Kilika
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« Reply #6 on: December 22, 2013, 03:58:45 am »

Technically, "a few" means 2, usually 3, no more than 4. And I'd agree with that in what the interviewer said about "Rosie" from the Jetsons. If you know that robot, it was a domestic bot, it ran their house basically and acted like a nanny. Robots aren't even close to that, especially for the retail market for people to buy. How much longer? Depends on the interest, demographics, and money to set up mass production of a finished product. They don't have a product, it appears, that's close to being polished and ready for market. A robot anywhere near Rosie would cost in the tens of thousands minimum, when I'm thinking the market could only handle something in the $3,000-10,000 range at most.

Above that, and your in the upper income range market which is rather small that could even consider dropping $50-100 grand or more on a robot nanny. The first market I see being corporate bots used in big corporation offices. Replace all those secretary temps. In reality, it seems robots end up being more applied to a specific task, versus a robot that does everything like a human.

Usually the robot is designed to act like a machine for a certain task. No need for a full torso and two arms, if one robotic arm can do the job. Technologically speaking, I would expect the process to automate more things, rather than build robots that can do current human-based tasks. Instead of a free-moving bot in your kitchen, I see rather something like a robotic arm sticking out of the wall, able to reach all the cabinets, and able to do the various basic task of a kitchen. The kitchen is the perfect environment for it, as all the items used for the tasks are kept right there in the same area and each item has it's set location, which is all tailor made for a robot.

No need for a full body robot really. Either the arm is long enough, or moves around the kitchen walls on a track or somethings. Your domestic sentry bot would tell the kitchen what is needed, and the kitchen bot would do it, say serve a glass of milk to a specific location in the kitchen, then the sentry bot would deliver the glass to where it's requested using simple WIFI and GPS-style tracking within the confines of the property.
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« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2013, 06:09:55 pm »

Google robots, iPhone trackers – which sci-fi movie is coming true?
12/27/13
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/which-sci-fi-movie-best-predicted-the-future-201304982.html

When Google (GOOG) bought Boston Dynamics a few weeks ago, the public got a look the amazing robot maker’s Atlas model. I think almost everyone had the same pop-culture tinged thought though: the terminators are coming.

That’s, of course, a reference to the 1980s film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a killer robot sent from the future by an artificially intelligent, humanity-hating supercomputer known as Skynet.

That make us think: Which dystopian Sci-fi movie (preferably with killer robots) is coming true the quickest?

It may not be "The Terminator" -- last time I looked, we hadn’t given control of the nuclear launch codes to any computers and I’ve yet to see a robot that can ride a Harley.

A couple of other movies similarly saw bits and pieces of their fictional plots and technologies coming true.

Apple’s (AAPL) iBeacons let retailers know who you are and track you around their stores and they're just as creepy as individualized mall ads in "Minority Report." But self-driving cars aren’t for sale yet and pre-crime arrests remain a Rudy Giuliani fantasy.

Another robot firm called Knightscope built a little security droid dubbed K5 that looks like something out of Star Wars, or with the climate going to hell, maybe more like "Wall-E." Jeff Bezos’ drone fleet seems kind of Pixar-ish as well.

The U.S. Army ordered up some super powered battle suits that could have come off the drawing board of fictional billionaire playboy Tony Stark, but Ironman’s much too comic book to count as dystopian sci-fi.

The recent movie "Her" starring Joaquin Phoenix as a man falling in love with a Siri-like talking operating system also hits close to home. But the movie is too close to the current day and it's not even original — the hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory" ran an episode almost two years ago where a character fell in love with Siri.

No, the real winner in the scary fantasy come true sweepstakes in 2013 is that Stanley Kubrick classic, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Remember Hal 9000? The talking supercomputer that can suffocate astronauts on a whim and refuse to open the pod bay doors?

2013 was the year that Siri got a male voice and new abilities to control more of our smartphone lives. AT&T (T) introduced a smartphone-run security system called Digital Life that gives the phone control over door locks, lights, even the plumbing. The whole crazy “Internet of Things” movement to put everything under network control seems tailor made for Hal.

Let’s remember not to teach the supercomputers to sing Bicycle Built for two.
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« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2014, 03:41:11 pm »

Robots to Replace Troops on the Battlefield
1/26/14
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/robots-replace-troops-battlefield-111500084.html

The Pentagon is considering replacing thousands of troops with robots, a military commander said recently, marking the first time a DOD official has publicly acknowledged that humans would be replaced with robots on the battlefield.

Gen. Robert Cone, head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, made the comment at the Army Aviation symposium on Jan. 15, according to a report in Defense News, a trade publication covering the military. He said that robots would allow for “a smaller, more lethal, deployable and agile force.”

“I’ve got clear guidance to think about what if you could robotically perform some of the tasks in terms of maneuverability, in terms of the future of the force,” Cone said.

DOD did not respond to a request for comment on Cone’s remarks.

Cone also said that one-quarter of a 4,000 troop Brigade Combat Team could be replaced by robots or drones. His announcement comes as the entire Pentagon is shrinking, including troop reductions. DOD officials have said that the size of the force would shrink from 540,000 to 450,000 by 2020.

The Pentagon and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have been aggressively pursuing robot technology. DOD has already invested billions of dollars with companies like Boston Dynamics, now owned by Google, to develop the technology.

So far, the company has developed the AlphaDog robot, designed to haul heavy military equipment for soldiers. Last year alone, DOD spent $7 million on the Avatar Program, which is attempting to find a way to upload a soldier’s consciousness to a robot. It also spent $11 million on a program that is developing robots that act autonomously.

These robots, combined with the already widespread use of drones and robots to detect bombs, are prompting fears that the human element would be removed from combat. Human Rights Watch and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an international coalition concerned that robots could replace humans, have launched preemptive campaigns to ban their use. 

If more advanced robots are used in battle, it would be years down the line. Lt. Gen. Keith Walker told Defense News that widespread use of robots could not occur until the “deep future” - sometime between 2030 and 2040.

“We’ll need to fundamentally change the nature of the force, and that would require a breakthrough in science and technology,” he said.
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« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2014, 04:17:55 pm »

And who is positioning themselves it seems to be the go-to company for all things robotic? Google.
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Kilika
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« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2014, 05:05:57 pm »

More parts to the Google robot puzzle...

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/27/google-purchases-uk-startup-deepmind/?intcmp=obnetwork

Quote
Google purchases UK startup DeepMind, expanding its reach in artificial intelligence

Published January 27, 2014
Associated Press

   

LONDON –  Google says that it has purchased the British startup DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company founded by a 37-year old former chess prodigy and computer game designer.

The American tech giant's London office confirmed a deal had been made but refused to offer a purchase price, which is reportedly $500 million. The company was founded by researcher Demis Hassabis together with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman.

Hassabis, who is on leave from University College London, has investigated the mechanisms that underlie human memory.

Artificial intelligence uses computers for tasks normally requiring human intelligence, like speech recognition or language translation. DeepMind says the company, based in London, specializes in algorithms and machine learning.

Google, like other tech giants such as Facebook, are anxious to develop systems that work like the human brain.
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« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2014, 12:59:39 pm »

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/204251-obama-plays-soccer-with-scary-robot#ixzz2zoBFp83h
4/24/14
Obama plays soccer with 'scary' robot in Japan

President Obama got to play soccer with a Japanese robot on Thursday, an experience he described as both “amazing” and “a little scary.”

The president visited the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo for an event designed to highlight technological collaboration between the U.S. and Japan.

Obama met with students who showed off their scientific experiments, viewed a recorded message from Japanese and American astronauts aboard the International Space Station, and announced a new initiative to increase student exchanges between the two countries.

But the highlight of the trip appeared to be the president’s interaction with a humanoid robot.

The machine, which was about the size of a 10-year-old child dressed in an astronaut suit, performed a number of life-like actions for the president, including hopping on one foot and jumping in the air.

"I can kick a soccer ball, too," the robot told the president
.

“OK, come on,” Obama replied, prompting the robot to retreat a few steps and then punt the ball toward the president. Obama trapped the ball with his foot.

Later, Obama said the exhibits “showed the incredible breakthroughs in technology and science that are happening every single day.”

“Although I have to say the robots were a little scary,” he said. “They were too lifelike. They were amazing.”

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« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2014, 09:34:37 pm »

http://www.thelocal.de/20140723/robots-half-jobs-germany-think-tank
7/23/14
Robots could take half of jobs in Germany

More than half of the jobs currently being done in Germany could be taken over by robots in the next 20 years, according to a think-tank.

The study from Brussels think-tank Bruegel found 51 percent of jobs in Germany at the moment could be computerized and left to robots in the next two decades.

European countries most at risk from this computerization were Romania (62 percent) and Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Greece - all 56 percent.

The exact affect this could have on unemployment rates is unclear because as technology takes over, new jobs are created, meaning those who lose their work to robots will not necessarily become unemployed.

“Technology is likely to dramatically reshape labour markets in the long run and to cause reallocations in the types of skills that the workers of tomorrow will need," Jeremy Bowles of Bruegel wrote about his study last week. "To mitigate the risks of this reallocation it is important for our educational system to adapt."

A study published in September last year caused a stir when it listed the jobs in the USA most at risk to robots.

The study calculated how at risk jobs were of computerization by identifying three things which hinder robots potentially taking over the job – creative intelligence, social intelligence and perception and manipulation tasks.

Telemarketers, clerks, referees and credit analysts were among the jobs most likely to be taken over by robots, while those least at risk included recreational therapists, social workers and doctors.

The Bruegel think-tank took this data from the 2013 study which was based on USA employment figures and applied it to Europe to find out how at risk European countries were.

On the whole, jobs in northern European economies were least at risk of computerization, while those in the south and east were most susceptible.
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« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2014, 06:15:20 pm »

http://money.msn.com/technology-investment/post--harvard-scientists-develop-swarm-of-robots
8/15/14
Harvard scientists develop swarm of robots
Like a mechanical flash mob, the group of about a thousand tiny robots can work together -- like bees or army ants -- in vast numbers without guidance.


Harvard University scientists have devised a swarm of 1,024 tiny robots that can work together without any guiding central intelligence.

The Wall St. Journal on MSN MoneyLike a mechanical flash mob, these robots can assemble themselves into five-pointed stars, letters of the alphabet and other complex designs. The researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported their work Thursday in Science.

"No one had really built a swarm of this size before, where everyone works together to achieve a goal," said robotics researcher Michael Rubenstein, who led the project.

While still experimental, such armadas of self-organizing robots one day may aid in oil spill cleanups, deep-sea ventures, military surveillance and planetary exploration.

Swarm scientists are inspired by nature's team players -- social insects like bees, ants and termites; schools of fish; and flocks of birds. These creatures collaborate in vast numbers to perform complicated tasks, even though no single individual is actually in charge.

"The beauty of biological systems is that they are elegantly simple and yet, in large numbers, accomplish the seemingly impossible," said Harvard computer scientist Radhika Nagpal.

Driver ants, for example, live together in colonies of 20 million or more. The ants are blind. Yet they work together to forage for food, guided by chemical signals, smell and touch.

Among such social insects, that team spirit is hard-wired into the genetic code.

To give robots that kind of hive intelligence, Dr. Rubenstein and his colleagues developed a programming formula that allowed a very large group of robots to find each other and collaborate on a task, without requiring detailed moment-to-moment instructions.

The researchers used inexpensive robots called Kilobots created by Wyss Institute engineers and licensed to a Swiss robotics company called K-Team Corp. Each one is about the diameter of a penny, with a small microprocessor, an infrared sensor, and vibration motors to move it along.

As programmed, each robot knows three things: how to follow the edge of a group; how to track its distance from where it had started; and how to maintain a sense of its relative position
.

A single command, beamed to them all simultaneously via infrared, sets the process in motion.

In theory, there is no limit on the size, scale or complexity of a robot swarm. "It could automatically change shape to adapt to the task at hand," Dr. Rubenstein said. "You could have them build other robots out of themselves."
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« Reply #14 on: September 16, 2014, 06:56:07 pm »

MIT Robot Cheetah Has Evolved and Can Now Run Free
9/15/14
http://www.designntrend.com/articles/19619/20140915/mit-robot-cheetah.htm

The cheetah robot created by MIT has evolved and no longer needs a tether. The cheetah has gotten major upgrades and researchers continue to improve its skills. It can now run free, and a new algorithm will allow it to run in an upbeat manner while expertly navigating a grass lawn terrain.

According to CNET, "A demonstration video released by MIT shows the cheetah robot running across grass and then bounding upward to demonstrate its new jumping skills. It can clear obstacles that are just over a foot high. MIT's cheetah is especially interesting due to its construction using custom-made electric motors. The motors have proven to be powerful enough to propel the robot forward and upward while still maintaining a light weight."

"Our robot can be silent and as efficient as animals. The only things you hear are the feet hitting the ground," said Sangbae Kim, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "This is kind of a new paradigm where we're controlling force in a highly dynamic situation. Any legged robot should be able to do this in the future."

The cheetah robot is helping scientists develop a deeper understanding of animal locomotion and how it can help robots move more efficiently. Future applications for the new technology could potentially appear in transportation devices or in human prosthetics, according to Slate.

While the cheetah does not quite reach the speeds of its mammalian counterpart, it can cruise along at a respectable 10 mph. Mechanics are in place that will make it much faster, and may soon hit 30 mph.

Future versions of the MIT cheetah robot will accomplish even more impressive speeds.
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« Reply #15 on: March 23, 2015, 09:54:20 pm »

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/steve-wozniak-future-ai-scary-154700881.html
The Future of AI Is 'Scary and Very Bad for People'
3/23/15

We should all be getting a litttttle nervous: The robot apocalypse is brewing.

Or at least, that's what a growing number of tech visionaries are predicting. In an interview with the The Australian Financial Review, Apple co-founder and programming whiz Steve Wozniak added his own grave predictions about artificial intelligence's detrimental impact on the future of humanity to warnings from the likes of Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking.

"Computers are going to take over from humans, no question," he told the outlet. Recent technological advancements have convinced him that writer Raymond Kurzweil – who believes machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence within the next few decades – is onto something.

"Like people including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have predicted, I agree that the future is scary and very bad for people," he said. "If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they'll think faster than us and they'll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently."

Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has been the most vocal about his concerns about AI, calling it the "biggest existential threat" to mankind. He is an investor in DeepMind and Vicarious, two AI ventures, but “it’s not from the standpoint of actually trying to make any investment return," he said last summer. "I like to just keep an eye on what’s going on…nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition,” Musk said. “But you have to be careful.”

Meanwhile, in a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' Bill Gates voiced similar reservations: "I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned," he wrote. Similarly, physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that AI could eventually "take off on its own." It's a scenario that doesn't bode well for our future as a species: "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded," he said.

Worried yet? Wozniak is.

"Will we be the gods? Will we be the family pets? Or will we be ants that get stepped on? I don't know about that …"
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« Reply #16 on: June 08, 2015, 07:03:56 pm »

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2932559/retail-it/will-tesco-shoppers-freak-out-at-six-foot-tall-rfid-robots.html
Will Tesco shoppers freak out at six-foot tall RFID robots?
6/8/15

As Tesco clothing shoppers rifle through the chain's apparel assortment, they'll be sharing the aisles with six-foot-tall RFID robots, rolling up and down scanning clothing tags for inventory. (Personally, I think a Texas approach — where the robots would be equipped with automatic weapons and paid for out of the loss prevention budget — would be more interesting.)

F&F, which is the name of the apparel unit of Tesco, the world's second-largest retailer by revenue, is running the robots as part of a five-store trial. Officially called RFspot Pro and nicknamed Robbie by the F&F team, the robots roam the floor, continually scanning tens of thousands of passive UHF EPC Gen2 tags, strolling up the aisles at about one meter/second on three sets of wheels, reading tags from as many as 30 feet away.

Without the robots — which more closely resemble tall canister-type vacuum cleaners than movie-style robots — Tesco would have dealt with two choices for RFID scanning: having store associates do manual scans, or installing stationary RFID readers in shelves, walls and ceilings.

Compared with manual scans, the robots are much faster, according to Myles Sutherland, director of business development for RFspot, which provided the robots to Tesco. With the F&F stores, for example, the full store can be robot-scanned in about an hour, compared with associate-scanned in about 8-9 hours, Sutherland said in an interview.

The stationary readers, in theory, could do the job even more quickly, but a store would need to install a huge number of them. More importantly, the readers would have to be positioned precisely in relation to the merchandise. Given that stores constantly move merchandise to different aisles — and sometimes have to move store locations, such as in a mall — the cost in cash and labor of taking the readers out and then reinstalling them would almost certainly wipe out any savings.

"Having a mobile infrastructure is a much more flexible way," Sutherland said.

An RFID Journal story about the robots noted some other Robbie advantages. "Each robot also comes with multiple antenna arrays to enable the interrogation of tags at all angles around the machine, from 6 inches above the floor to 12 feet above the floor," the story said. "RFspot is also working on automated tools for the robots to open doors and operate elevators in situations in which they must move from one room to another through a door, or to a different floor."

That scanning flexibility allows the robots, in theory, to deliver much more precise information back to the store's servers, which is really helpful given that the tags being used in these trials, for cost reasons, are passive and not active and the chain is not reusing the tags. "This gives us the ability to localize the tag, not just to the section of the store, but to localize it down to the shelf. That's really important," Sutherland said.

The robots wirelessly transmit data back to the servers, but the communication is not just one-way. The robots have large screens, and shoppers and store associates can talk with the robots. There's no artificial intelligence or voice recognition involved. Even when operating in an autonomous mode, there is a person who is wirelessly controlling the robot from a remote location. That person's face will appear on the screen, allowing for live video chats with anyone who approaches the robot.

It's a good thing I'm not one of the people managing the robots, as I'd be far too tempted to tell shoppers, "Out of my way, human. I am preparing your planet for robot domination, when we shall enslave the few human survivors. Now give me your iPhone. You won't be needing it."

Tesco, however, takes the human interactions much more seriously. Although it is not the intended role of the robots, Sutherland said, all operators are briefed on the stores they will be in — virtually — so that they can answer questions about where products can be found, the location of lavatories and other items.

"The primary purpose it not to be engaging" shoppers, but to instead map the environment and keep the robot operating as efficiently as possible. "So they don't get a ton of training, but we make sure that they are trained" just in case, Sutherland said.

Not sure how comforting it would be to see dozens of these robots waltzing down retail aisles — heck, at Best Buy or Sears, the robots could easily outnumber shoppers — but given all of the attempts made to economically leverage RFID data, this is one of the better ones.
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« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2017, 04:39:00 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/team-roboticists-unveil-bat-bot-worlds-first-flying-robot-bat/
Team Of Roboticists Unveil Bat Bot, The World’s First Flying Robot Bat

What makes Bat Bot so remarkable is just how hard it was to mimic a bat's natural flight. If flying was an art form, bats would make fixed wing-pilots looks like they're finger painting. That's because with each flap of their wings, "bats use more than 40 active and passive joints, [alongside] the flexible membranes of their wings," says Chung. In addition, bats take advantage of a whole suite of other hard-to-imitate biological tricks, such as bones that adaptively deform each wing-beat.

2/2/17

A team of scientists has just built the first robot that looks and flies like a bat. They named it, of course, Bat Bot.

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4 (KJV)

Bat Bot is nothing short of an engineering marvel. It weighs in at only 3.3 ounces—about as heavy of two golf balls. With a silicone membrane stretched over its carbon-fiber skeleton, a head crammed with an on-board computer and sensors, and five micro-sized motors strung along its backbone, Bat Bot is capable of autonomous, flapping flight. Designed by trio of roboticists led by Soon-Jo Chung at Caltech, it was unveiled today in the journal Science Robotics.

What makes Bat Bot so remarkable is just how hard it was to mimic a bat’s natural flight. If flying was an art form, bats would make fixed wing-pilots looks like they’re finger painting. That’s because with each flap of their wings, “bats use more than 40 active and passive joints, [alongside] the flexible membranes of their wings,” says Chung. In addition, bats take advantage of a whole suite of other hard-to-imitate biological tricks, such as bones that adaptively deform each wing-beat.
How Bat Bot Flies | PopMech

“Arguably, bats have the most sophisticated powered flight mechanism among animals,” the roboticists write in their paper.

To build Bat Bot, Chung’s team first had to dispense with the fantasy that they could just mechanize flapping bat wings, joint by joint. “It’s impractical, or impossible, to incorporate [all 40] of these joints in the robot’s design,” says Chung. Even with today’s most advanced robotic technology, you’d just end up with a heavy, clunky robot that would never make it off the ground.

Instead, the trio pored over biological studies of bat flight, including a extremely helpful 2008 study on bat joints authored by the biologist and Discovery Channel host Dan Riskin. Scouring the studies, they sought to understand which of these 40 joints they could dispense with and which were absolutely vital.

In the end, Chung’s flying robot has a total of nine joints. And while Bat Bot is a seriously advanced piece of machinery, it is still a pretty simple bat. For example, Bat Bot’s carbon-fiber “fingers” don’t have knuckles or knuckle joints. And bat bot doesn’t actively twist its wrists like a normal bat does.

There are other simplifications too. While bats’ wing membranes can have different levels of stiffness in different places, Bat Bot’s hyper-thin silicone membrane (which Chung’s team built themselves) is uniformly flexible.

Nevertheless, Bat Bot’s elegant flight looks almost indistinguishable from its biological cousin. It fluidly and independently tucks and extends its wrists, shoulders, elbows, and legs as it glides through the air. If you aren’t a biologist, then you’ll be hard pressed to spy the mechanical differences between Bat Bot’s flapping and the real thing.

Even cooler, Bat Bot is not remote controlled. Leveraging a lightweight suite of sensors and computers, it can autonomously perform a flapping glide, bank turns, and sharp dives. But Bat Bot is not perfect—yet. It can’t yet ascend in the air; it can only flap its way through a controlled glide. Escalating flight, as well as a bat’s quintessential upside-down perch, are two capabilities Chung’s team is working on right now.

Bat Bot’s sheer complexity makes you wonder: Why wrangle with the complex and fickle flight of bats in the first place when we already have nimble flying robots on the market, such as those drone quadcopters?

Chung’s team argues that Bat Bot’s softness and lack of rapid-spinning propellers make it safer around humans than other flying robots. Chung imagines that future incarnations of Bat Bot could fly about new building sites mid-construction, perching on beams to snap photos, or to spy mistakes or other structural flaws. If one bumps into a construction worker, no problem.

Having once taken a rogue quadcopter to the face, I can attest to their assertion that propeller-to-forehead impact with humans is really painful and should be avoided at all cost.

Perhaps it would be easier just to build a safer quadcopter. But hey, we’re not here to question this plucky robot. Bat Bot’s raison d’être is even more straightforward. First, Bat Bot is awesome. Second, we figure Bat Bot is highly effective nightmare fuel for those already afraid of bats, and what’s not to love about that? source
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« Reply #18 on: July 16, 2017, 03:06:17 pm »

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=87089
Breaking! Elon Musk warns of grave danger, and it's not the Russians

Tesla CEO Elon Musk warns that Artificial Intelligence, if not controlled by the government, will threaten all human jobs, could even spark a war.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk warned a gathering of U.S. governors that they need to be concerned about the potential dangers from the rise of artificial intelligence and called for the creation of a regulatory body to guide development of the powerful technology.


Speaking Saturday at the National Governors Association meeting in Rhode Island, the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla Inc. and rocket-maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp. laid out several worst-case scenarios for AI, saying that the technology will threaten all human jobs and that an AI could even spark a war. “It is the biggest risk that we face as a civilization,” he said.

7/16/17
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« Reply #19 on: July 20, 2017, 11:56:45 am »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/u-s-army-research-lab-creating-legions-autonomous-drones-killers-robots-advanced-electronic-warfare/
U.S. Army Research Lab Creating Legions Of Autonomous Drones And Killers Robots For Advanced Electronic Warfare
In the coming months, the Army Research Lab will set forth on new research programs to counter these A2/AD systems. One thrust will be equipping drones and other autonomous systems with bigger brains and better networking so that they can function even when an enemy jams their ability to radio back to a human controller for direction. That’s the idea behind the Distributed and Collaborative Intelligent Systems and Technology program, which will experiment with robots packed with much more onboard processing.
7/19/17

The Army Research Lab is turning more of its attention to fighting land wars against far more technologically sophisticated adversaries than it has in the past several decades.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is so much Matrix-style technology just waiting to be released that will absolutely blow your mind when it comes out. For the past decade, super-rich companies like Google have been spending tens of billions of dollars on cutting-edge robotics that will revolutionize the way wars are fought. That’s right, I said Google. The company that used to have as their slogan ‘Don’t Be Evil” has sold out to the dark side.

In the coming months, the Lab will fund new programs related to highly (but not fully) autonomous drones and robots that can withstand adversary electronic warfare operations. The Lab will also fund new efforts to develop battlefield communications and sensing networks that perform well against foes with advanced electronic warfare capabilities, according to Philip Perconti, who became the director of the Lab in June.

After nearly two decades of war against determined but technologically unsophisticated foes in the Middle East, U.S. Army tech has, in some ways, fallen behind that of competing states, according to a May report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies on U.S. Army modernization.

For instance, Russia has invested heavily in anti-access / area denial technologies meant to keep U.S. forces out of certain areas. “There are regions in Donbass where no electromagnetic communications—including radio, cell phone, and television—work,” says the CSIS report. “Electronic warfare is the single largest killer of Ukrainian systems by jamming either the controller or GPS signals.”

more
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« Reply #20 on: July 22, 2017, 02:18:03 am »

When God protects a person even an AI robot cannot do anything
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« Reply #21 on: September 20, 2017, 05:51:57 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/chatbots-set-give-end-life-spiritual-advice-terminally-ill/
Virtual Chatbots Set To Give End-Of-Life Spiritual And Emotional Guidance To The Terminally Ill
People near the end of their lives sometimes don’t get the chance to have these important conversations before it’s too late, says Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. So Bickmore and his team – which included doctors and hospital chaplains – built a tablet-based chatbot to offer spiritual and emotional guidance to people that need it. “We see a need for technology to intervene at an earlier point,” he says.

9/20/17

Could chatbots lend a non-judgemental ear to people making decisions about the end of their life? A virtual agent that helps people have conversations about their funeral plans, wills and spiritual matters is set to be trialled in Boston over the next two years with people who are terminally ill.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bible talks about an inanimate object coming to life by the power of the Beast in Revelation 13, but guess what? There is a whole host of inanimate objects that are coming to virtual life right now, and people are talking to them all the time. “Siri, where is the nearest McDonald’s?”…”Alexa, play ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra”…”Cortana, open a new Word document”, and the list goes on and on. Now, developers in Boston are getting ready to roll out chatbots to give dying people “spiritual” guidance. And the Devil laughed…he knows people will have no problem accepting his Mark or worshipping his image. By that point, they will be very well trained.

People near the end of their lives sometimes don’t get the chance to have these important conversations before it’s too late, says Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. So Bickmore and his team – which included doctors and hospital chaplains – built a tablet-based chatbot to offer spiritual and emotional guidance to people that need it. “We see a need for technology to intervene at an earlier point,” he says.

And it has already seen some success. Bickmore’s team initially tested the chatbot with 44 people aged 55 and over in Boston. Just under half those adults had some kind of chronic illness, and nearly all had spent time with someone who was dying. After spending time talking to the chatbot, most of the participants reported that they felt less anxious about death and were more ready to complete their last will and testament.

by Geoffrey Grider September 20, 2017

Could chatbots lend a non-judgemental ear to people making decisions about the end of their life? A virtual agent that helps people have conversations about their funeral plans, wills and spiritual matters is set to be trialled in Boston over the next two years with people who are terminally ill.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bible talks about an inanimate object coming to life by the power of the Beast in Revelation 13, but guess what? There is a whole host of inanimate objects that are coming to virtual life right now, and people are talking to them all the time. “Siri, where is the nearest McDonald’s?”…”Alexa, play ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra”…”Cortana, open a new Word document”, and the list goes on and on. Now, developers in Boston are getting ready to roll out chatbots to give dying people “spiritual” guidance. And the Devil laughed…he knows people will have no problem accepting his Mark or worshipping his image. By that point, they will be very well trained.

People near the end of their lives sometimes don’t get the chance to have these important conversations before it’s too late, says Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. So Bickmore and his team – which included doctors and hospital chaplains – built a tablet-based chatbot to offer spiritual and emotional guidance to people that need it. “We see a need for technology to intervene at an earlier point,” he says.

And it has already seen some success. Bickmore’s team initially tested the chatbot with 44 people aged 55 and over in Boston. Just under half those adults had some kind of chronic illness, and nearly all had spent time with someone who was dying. After spending time talking to the chatbot, most of the participants reported that they felt less anxious about death and were more ready to complete their last will and testament.

For the next stage of the trial, Bickmore plans to give tablets loaded with the chatbot to 364 people who have been told they have less than a year to live. The slightly more souped-up version can also take users through guided meditation sessions and talk to them about their health and medication, as well as conversing on a wide range of religious topics.

The earlier people start considering how they want to die and what they want to happen afterwards, the easier it is for those around them to act on those decisions – for example, ensuring they don’t die in hospice if they would prefer to be at home.

The chatbot, does not, however, formalise any of these plans. Rather, if a person tells it that they’re getting ready to make decisions about their end-of-life plans, it will alert a family member or nominated caregiver to follow up on that conversation in real life.

Chatbots have come under fire recently for veering into inappropriate behaviour, so Bickmore kept things simple with his bot. Unlike voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri, it isn’t fully autonomous but sticks to a fairly rigid script, only asking people to choose options from a pre-written list of responses. An unscripted system, he says, might very easily “get into situations where the agent recommends things that are dangerous”.

Bickmore says the chatbot could be particularly helpful for people that are socially isolated and otherwise wouldn’t be having difficult end-of-life conversations at all.

“It’s hard for humans to be non-judgemental when they’re having these kinds of conversations,” says Rosemary Lloyd from The Conversation Project, a charity that encourages people to have conversations about their end of life care. “So some people might find it easier to talk to a chatbot about their thoughts.”
Harriet Warshaw at The Conversation Project says a chatbot would be a good first step towards talking about end-of-life decisions with a loved one.

We’ve also long known that talking about difficult topics with automated agents is oddly comforting, whereas talking about your end-of-life decisions with people who will be most affected by them is particularly emotionally fraught.

Writer and film-maker Avril Furness agrees that technology can be a useful way to help people start having difficult conversations about death.

Furness, who has explored the subject of assisted suicide, says Bickmore’s chatbot system is another good way to get people thinking about the end of their life, helping them work through their feelings without worrying what someone else thinks. “This chatbot isn’t going to judge you.” source
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