Robotic melancholy

When it premiered, in 2016, it cut a big swath… “Her” company, Hanson Robotics, based in Hong Kong, specializes in high social intelligence machines. As self-presented on its website: Robots will soon be everywhere. How can we nurture them to be our friends and useful collaborators? Robots with good aesthetic design, rich personalities, and social cognitive intelligence can potentially connect deeply and meaningfully with humans. So Sophia (this is the name of the model on the top left) may now have the opportunity to become a commercial success. The founder and ceo of the manufacturer has concluded: The world of …

Swarms…

Many species have group behaviors without “leaders”. This “anti-authoritarian” behavior has for years attracted the attention of developers in the fields of artificial intelligence and “machine learning”. And their efforts have already paid off; useful (you guessed it?) to the armies. Developments with flying drones are well known, and anyone interested in video demonstration (and not only) of swarm drones can easily find it. The latest development was the construction of a herd of robotic fish by Harvard techno-scientists. What is the advantage of this feat? The fact that systems such as GPS and WiFi (used by flying swarms of …

where is your mind?

The inventor is an american, studied at Harvard. His name is Han Bicheng, and his start-up BrainCo. His invention is sensors that by resting on the forehead “catch electrical signals” of the frontal lobe, transforming them, through complex machine learning algorithms into other types of signals that allow the operation of electronic machines (such as robots) remotely. But the widespread application of his invention takes place (experimentally since last year) in classrooms in china. The “headbands” that the students wear, with a LED in front, “read” these signals and divide them into useful educational categories: close attention, less attention, indifference …

predictive algorithms

The canadian company bluedot, founded in 2013, offers communicable disease mapping services. According to founder Kamran Khan, the sars pandemic in 2002-04 was the reason for starting this business. This platform collects information from dozens of sources, such as news sites, data on animal and plant diseases, state and regional announcements, airline flights, worldwide and in various languages (social media information is not on the menu, as well as it’s considered inaccurate). The “smart” algorithms then process all this (big) data to map infection “streams”, detect cases and predict trends. As for covid-19, it is reported that the company was …

“Smart” mask

Do you have troubles hearing what they tell you, behind the masks? Do you need to repeat what you say because they can’t hear you? Do you feel like you speak another language? The smart mask of the japanese startup company Donut Robotics is the solution! Designed to fit over a protective (non) medical mask – since it has no protection against coronaviruses or other infectious risks – it can become your personal “smart” megaphone! The company developed the software to use it in airport passenger information robots, but when the pandemic occurred, the project froze, and the company’s engineers …