Robots May Help Kids with Special Needs
“Robots are always charming to children. The idea that a child in a hospital with issues can stand in front of an object, human or otherwise, and the child would have curiosity about that object was fascinating to me,’’ Ferran says. To test his theory—back in the late 1980s—Ferran and Doornick conducted a psychiatric interview behind a mirror while Seco was in the room with a child. Doornick controlled the robot with his voice, and once the child began to feel at ease, he would slip in the questions Ferran needed addressed.
(April 18, 2012)
Bio-Inspired Robots Impact Commercial and Research Sectors
Indeed, what is alternately called biomimicry or bio-inspiration—across robotics and other industries—could represent $300 billion annually of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 dollars within 15 years, according to the Da Vinci Index, a biomimicry report developed by a consortium that includes San Diego Zoo Global, Point Loma Nazarene University, in San Diego, and the University of San Diego.
The Da Vinci Index, which measures number and value of biomimicry-related research grants, scholarly articles, and patents to estimate the extent of the marketplace. Forecasts show that biomimicry could account for 1.6 million U.S. jobs by 2025 and represent about $1.0 trillion of global GDP.
(March 01, 2012)
Windfall for Human-robot Communication Systems
Google has acquired mobile app maker CleverSense. a learning AI with a natural language processing front-end - and the developer of the popular Alfred personal assistant app for an undisclosed amount. Fear that Apple’s Siri “could provide a new paradigm for searching the Web that circumvents Google’s search engine and ads” may be the reason.The first language processing front-end made available to developers by either Apple or Google will be a windfall for human-robot communication systems development.
(February 17, 2012)
Robots and Human Attachment
"People respond to things that they have a mental model of and the easiest way to do that is to anthropomorphosize the robot."
(February 14, 2012)
Robots May Help Kids with Special Needs
Children diagnosed with autism and attention issues, and even those who suffer from abuse and behavioral disorders, could benefit from the nonthreatening, nonjudgmental interactions they experience with robots.
(December 16, 2011)
The Cocktail Party Effect
New algorithm models techniques the human brain uses to process complicated auditory scenes, may one day enable robots to better understand and distinguish voices in a crowd.
(November 15, 2011)
Human and Robot ‘Colleagues’ in Manufacturing
What obstacles remain for robots to work alongside humans in industrial settings, and how far have we come in eliminating those challenges? Dr. Roland Menassa answers these and other questions in his presentation at the RoboBusiness summit November 2-3 in Boston.
(October 25, 2011)
Shape-Shifting Robots
Building flexible, intelligent, multipurpose devices from thousands - or millions - of cell-like components.
(October 21, 2011)
Fukushima Fallout
Two months after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated northern Japan, leaving some 26,000 people dead and causing apocalyptic damage, workers finally entered the reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
(July 06, 2011)
The Age of Cloud Robotics
Transferring processing-intensive tasks to remote computing clusters will lead to less costly, more versatile robots, able to share information and capabilities with each other's long as they remain connected.
(July 05, 2011)
Aldebaran Robotics Raises $13 Million in Round Led by Intel Capital
The funds will help expand the humanoid robot company's products into additional areas such as health and social care.
(June 09, 2011)
RIBA to the Rescue
Can a teddy-bearish robotic nurse care for millions of Japan's elderly?
(May 24, 2011)
Microsoft Kinect and Robotics
Why Redmond’s Xbox 360 video-game interface could be as important to robotics as the invention of the mouse was to the personal computer.
(April 19, 2011)
The Market for Social Robots
Growth for social robots will only come with large-scale commercial sales.
(April 11, 2011)
All Hands on Deck at Automate 2011
The show emphasized robotics' expanding role in manufacturing.
(March 25, 2011)
