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Wu Yulu may have only a primary school education, but his fascination with robots has inspired him to create 26 automata, a veritable robot army. Rather than leading his robots toward global conquest, Wu has designed them for more socially beneficially uses. His robotic rickshaw Wu No. 25 can pull an individual through the streets of China’s Beijing region for up to six hours on a single charge. More »
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Your household robot won't just clean and make repairs, it will come up with clever, novel solutions to problems by improvising. This hallmark of artificial intelligence is a little closer to reality thanks to a robot named Kurt3D. In a recent test, Kurt3D figured out how to activate a switch and open a door by improvising, using a limited set of instructions. The key to this A.I. breakthrough is a new way of teaching computers about objects by teaching them what something is for rather than simply what it is. More »
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You might like it when your Tivo predicts what you want to watch, but you probably don't think that makes it intelligent. But what if your Tivo could cheer for a game, or cry with you when you're watching a poignant death scene in Battlestar Galactica? Researchers with the HUMAINE project are studying machine/human emotional interactions, and they're asking this very question. In essence, will people consider their machines intelligent when those machines can express what appear to be feelings? More »
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