Hasta La Gadget!

Tokyo Institute of Technology’s SOINN (Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network) bot was impressive enough during our first introduction back in 2011, but the intelligent device can now tap the web for its latest trick: accurate object identification. The updated system, which appears to utilize a database akin to Google’s image search, can scour the web for similar shots, making it possible to ID objects based on comparable structures published on the web. It can distinguish a box cutter from a knife, for example, or a rickshaw from a car. For now, SOINN is limited to identifying objects in images, including those captured in realtime with a camera, but its designers imagine that future revisions could enable content recognition in video streams, and audio clips, too. Our friends at DigInfo saw the update in action — check it out for yourself in the video after the break.

Filed under: Robots, Internet, Alt

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Source: DigInfo.TV

Leave it to Canada to roll out an awesome design you can carry on every ($5) bill in your pocket. Earlier today, the Bank of Canada announced its new $5 and $10 polymer bank notes, which are not only among the most secure bills Canada has ever issued, but the lesser denomination also features Canada’s awesome robot arms and was unveiled in part by Commander Chris Hadfield of the ISS.

The $5 note features a picture of Canadarm2 and Dextre, robotic arms that were used in part to construct and further maintain the International Space Station. Given the nature of the bill, it only makes sense, then, that it was unveiled by Commander Hadfield, who said that the image represented on the bill should serve as a reminder of Canada’s space achievements and that the sky, in fact, is not the limit.

Canadians will see the bill – as well as the $10 note – in the wild when they are both released in November, finishing up a series that already contains $20, $50, and $100 notes out in circulation. The polymer notes are boasted as being very secure due to the use of both holography and transparency, as well as being more durable than their cotton counterparts, thus making them more economical and green as well.

Canada’s Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty said: “Canadians can be very proud of their new polymer bank notes. With today’s unveiling of the final two notes in the series, one can see not only the unique story that each of the five denominations tells, but the unifying theme that underlies them all – the profound courage, determination, and ingenuity of our nation and its people.”

[via Bank of Canada]

Bank of Canada reveals polymer note decked out with robot arms is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Do you think that we take the small things in life for granted? Take for instance, you holding on to an egg without breaking it, or how about closing your eyes and feel the breeze caress your face? Of course, we might think nothing much of those, but pause for a moment and reflect on how robots are. I suppose if they were capable of emotions, then they would certainly want to “kill” (hopefully not literally) to be able to have the sense of touch built-in.

Perhaps all of that might change sometime down the road, courtesy of breakthrough research which offers robots as well as other compatible electronic devices an extraordinarily nuanced sense of touch. The implementation of piezoelectricity in a robot by a team of Georgia Tech researchers led by Zhong Lin Wang could result in a finely tuned electronic sense of touch, which is definitely something that would elevate robots to the next level of their evolution. Surely this is a scary yet exciting thought simultaneously.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Baseball Robot Has 100,000 Neuron Fake Brain, Robot That Steals From Vending Machines,

Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have built a small humanoid robot. Nothing unusual there. Everybody is building robots these days, and one day soon we will all regret it. But this robot plays baseball. Or, at least can hit a ball.

Granted, the ‘bot holds a fan-like bat that even I could hit a ground-rule double with, but this robot is about more than just hitting balls. Like a human, it may miss at first, but with each new pitch it adjusts its swing accordingly – just like how a human learns. That’s because this robot has an artificial brain with 100,000 neurons. This complex “brain” is actually based on an Nvidia graphics processor, along with software developed by the chipmaker.

For now, the scientists have programmed these neurons for this specific task, but this will help them understand how to create a better fake brain in the future. Great. I can’t wait for actual thinking robot ball players who also want to make millions of dollars a year. And then beat us with bats when we don’t.

[via WIRED via Botropolis]

Researchers and scientists at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have built a robot with quite the sports prowess, although you probably won’t see it take the field anytime soon. The robot is able to swing and hit at plastic balls, and can improve its swing over time.

The robot only stands a couple feet tall, and it uses a giant flyswatter-like bat in order to make contact with the ball, so it essentially can’t hit like Alex Rodriguez, but maybe in the future the robot will give the all-star a run for his money. The robot features an artificial brain with the power of 100,000 neurons that allow the robot to learn and improve on its swing over time.

How the whole thing works is that when a ball is pitched to the robot, an accelerometer behind the robot records information about the flight and speed of the ball, and this data is sent to a separate machine off to the side that holds the robot’s brain. The data gets processed and it lets the robot know when to swing.

The impressive part is that if the speed of the ball changes, the robot can re-learn the swing all over again to try and hit the ball at the new speed. Hopefully the researchers will be able to soon give the robot a real bat instead of a giant flyswatter and be able to hit real baseballs, but that kind of technology probably won’t be on its way for several more years.

[via Wired]

Japanese scientists build baseball-playing robot with artifical brain is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.