Thursday, May 07. 2009Robot Comes to Facebook; Everyone YawnsThere’s nothing wrong with hooking up a robot with a Facebook account. IRC channels have had ELISA-style bots who have answered your questions in a seemingly intelligent manner for decades. Plants are tweeting, asking for more sunlight and water; babies are sending messages from the womb. However, the high tone and far-reaching assumptions of the BBC article, discussing how Dr Nikolaus Mavridis will give his robot a Facebook page, make for a particularly funny read. First, it says that the good doctor and co-researchers are doing this because they want to “look into ways of overcoming the reluctance of people to stay in touch with robots.” Well, this may come as a surprise, but I’ve been reluctant to stay in touch with robots for several reasons other than the lack of their Facebook profile. First, there aren’t that many of them; and those that do exist aren’t really all that intelligent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge science fiction fan and have a keen interest in robotics and AI, but however you feel about the subject it’s a bit too early to “stay in touch” with robots. The article also says that embedding the robot in a social web - Facebook, that is - will “give rise to a sustainable friendship can grow up between man and machine.” Erm, nope. It’s a fun stunt to raise some awareness about the project, and it’s cool for Facebook to have a robot among its 200 million users, but it will not give rise to friendship between man and machine; just like those IRC bots haven’t really improved human-robotic relationships over the years. Maybe the fact that we’re mostly ignoring robots as far as social activities go will come back and haunt us in some Matrix-like fashion, but I’ll take my chances and skip this particular Facebook friend. [image credits: BBC] ----- Via Mashable
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Interaction design, Science & technology
at
09:58
Defined tags for this entry: artificial reality, interaction design, interferences, research, robotics, science & technology
Swiss robot wants some time with youAt first glance, QB1 appears to be a simple screen mounted onto a black arm and box. But it comes to life through human interaction, for now in the form of a sort of personal DJ service. (Credit: OZWE)SAN FRANCISCO--When Swiss developers designed the QB1 robot, they weren't going for human-like looks or cute puppydog mannerisms. Instead, they're hoping QB1 will hook people in on a more meaningful level--by providing a handy music-suggestion service--and thus giving the robot continuous exposure to data stemming from real human interaction. Artificial intelligence "systems need to learn in the real world, from real people. You cannot program them with knowledge from the real world," said Frederic Kaplan, CEO and co-founder of QB1 developer OZWE. The QB1 was showcased to the public last weekend at Swissnex, an annex of the Consulate General of Switzerland here that's dedicated to bridging knowledge in science, education, art, and innovation between Switzerland and North America. QB1 is what Kaplan calls a "robotic object"; people interact with it through gestures. In its first application, QB1 is loaded with a kind of disc jockey feature because that invites people to spend time with it. Kaplan got this idea out of his experience working for 10 years with Sony's world famous dog-like AI robot, Aibo. "What was frustrating was that nobody was interacting with it long-term. There are so many objects in your house, so why interact with an object that is only for pleasure?" he said. And as Aibo needed time with humans to learn, this was a fundamental problem. "The limit for AI is not computing power, it's getting experience," Kaplan said. So QB1 tries to steal your time doing something useful, playing your music. The AI system incorporated into QB1 has about five different strategies to intelligently predict what music you want to listen to at the moment. One of the approaches is based on statistical probability and might give the best results with the fewest errors in the beginning. Another more complicated scheme observes who is in the room, the time of the day, and how people move. After some time, it might have learned enough to perform better than the statistical probability analysis, and data gets prioritized based on your feedback. It is, in effect, learning the user. "If indeed it is successful, it can be used for an enormous number of applications," Kaplan said. At first glance, the QB1 seems to have nothing to do with AI. It's just an elegant screen mounted on a sleek, black, cloth-covered arm and box. The screen moves to look toward you, displaying a shadow of your movements and an intuitive interface. OZWE CEO Frederic Kaplan presented his company's QB1 robot over the weekend at Swissnex, an annex of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco. (Credit: Erik Palm/CNET)According to Kaplan, QB1 is unique in having both an interactive gesture-based interface and robotic movements. With built-in infrared lights and sensors, it performs face recognition through 3D modeling without a stereo camera. It also detects how your body moves. The AI system is layered on top of all this. "It's the combination that's difficult. You need all these experts in the same team," he said. As a researcher at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Kaplan founded OZWE a year ago with Martino d'Esposito. D'Esposito teaches at the University of Art and Design, Lausanne. "Industrial and graphic design are core aspects of QB1," Kaplan said, mentioning how people's movements are reflected stylistically on the screen when they interact, as many people don't like to see their own raw image. This was discovered when a predecessor of QB1, Wizkid, was exposed to visitors for three months at The Museum of Modern Art in New York last year. "We're now looking for people who want to try (out QB1) in their homes for a couple of weeks. Later we will start production and sell it, hopefully in 2009," Kaplan said. ----- Via Cnet News (with a video presentation) Related Links:Personal comment: Notre ami Frédéric Kaplan à Swissnex San Francisco (où nous étions le mois passé) qui présente son robot-computer QB1. Nouveaux modes d'interaction avec ici l'usage d'une caméra 3d (enregistre la profondeur par le biai d'un faisceau infra-rouge).
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Interaction design, Science & technology
at
08:36
Defined tags for this entry: computing, interaction design, interface, robotics, science & technology, surveillance
Tuesday, May 05. 2009Pachube: Building a Platform for Internet-Enabled EnvironmentsPachube was one of 5 Internet of Things services that we profiled in February. Pachube, (pronounced "PATCH-bay" according to the New York Times) lets you tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments both physical and virtual. In a recent monumental blog post by Tish Shute, Pachube founder, Usman Haque, explained that Pachube is about "environments" moreso than "sensors." In other words, Pachube aims to be responsive to and influence your environment - for example your home. This type of environmentally aware Internet technology will become increasingly important, so in this post we look at the business model of Pachube and an early product built on top of the service. One of the motivations behind Pachube was to "open up the production process of 'smart homes'," in order to provide an alternative to products by the likes of Microsoft and Apple. Usman Haque wants Pachube to be a platform for others to transition to the Internet of Things. Although, he doesn't yet know what types of applications built on the service will become important. On the Pachube site, as we explained in our earlier post, users can either input a feed or use one of the feeds available. The feeds come from devices, buildings, or interactive installations that are already connected to the internet or that send out SMS messages. Also supported are Second Life installations. Where's The Business Model?In an interview with Tish Shute's excellent UgoTrade site, Usman Haque said that "Pachube came about as a direct attempt to enable the production of dynamic, responsive, conversant 'environments'." However it's not all scientific endeavour - there is also a business model behind Pachube. Haque explained that there are 4 current facets: 1) Pro accounts with "a more sophisticated set of services", ala Flickr. 2) A set of tools and applications for medium scale manufacturers and developers who want to web-enable their offerings, who according to Haque "will be able to take advantage of the growing repository of Pachube.Apps and add-ons, and who want the convenience, security and economy that Pachube will be able to offer." 3) Involvement in large-scale urban infrastructure projects. 4) A "killer" business model, currently being kept under wraps! The service is far from finished. Upcoming features in Pachube will include a range of privacy options on feeds, the ability to create "aggregates" from collections of feeds, groups, and open environment-level tagging (so that anyone will be able to tag environments). Day of the Networked TriffidsAn early example of a product built on top of Pachube is one created by Usman Haque's company, Haque Design & Research, called Natural Fuse. It uses house plants, energy-monitoring sensors, and Pachube to create "a city-wide network of electronically-assisted plants that act as carbon-cycle circuit-breakers in much the same way as conventional electrical circuit-breakers do". If that sounds like Greek to you (it did to me), basically these "networked plants" enable people to "cooperate on their energy expenditure. Then, the plants thrive (and they can all use more energy); but if they don't the network starts to kill plants, thus diminishing the network's energy capacity." It doesn't sound too pleasant for the plants, but it is probably good for the environment. ConclusionWe've only scratched the surface of Pachube here. It's an ambitious new platform for sensor data - sorry, environments. Expect this kind of Internet service to be a key part of your urban environment in the not too distant future. You can keep track of progress via the Pachube community and of course their Twitter account. Also, read Tish Shute's blog post for more details about Pachube, and/or check out the slideshow below. ----- Via Read Write Web via Bruce Sterling's blog Related Links:Personal comment: Pachube, une plateforme "Internet of things & environment" lancée par Usman Haque. Qui n'est pas sans me faire penser un peu (un peu) à Rhizoreality.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Science & technology
at
09:41
Defined tags for this entry: architects, architecture, computing, design (environments), science & technology, ubiquitous
Google Latitude Lets You Share Your Location With the MassesFor those that value their privacy, this feature isn’t for you. But if you want to share your current physical location with everyone, Google Latitude will now let you do it, with a new widget you can embed on your own website, plus an option to update your Google Talk status with your coordinates as well. Before today, your Latitude location was only viewable to people that you became friends with on the fledgling location-based network. But according to Google, “one frequent request was to allow you to share your location with even more people and not just your Latitude friends.” The badge can be grabbed from here, while you can enable location-sharing in Google Talk by signing into Latitude. Although I certainly wasn’t one of the people requesting this feature, it’s not as potentially scary as it sounds. For example, the Google Talk feature only shows your current city, while the embeddable widget lets you specify the level of location you’d like to share (best available location or city). Nonetheless, assuming some people do go ahead and enable the feature, it’s great exposure for Latitude. Other applications – like BrightKite and Plazes – already enable public location sharing, but Latitude has the advantage of already having millions of users through Google Talk that can now use this feature. In other news, while I was impressed with Google Latitude at launch, I’m not actively using it today. Part of the reason is privacy – I’m not super stoked about sharing my location all of the time, and don’t want the hassle of turning the app on and off. Another issue is that I don’t feel like building a separate contact network, and would rather Facebook and/or Twitter simply build location-aware features. ----- Via Mashable Related Links:Personal comment:
Possibilité d'être encore plus transparent ou de lâcher un peu de sa privacité vie Google Latitude! Monday, May 04. 2009Beware surfers: cyberspace is filling upJohn Harlow Internet users face regular “brownouts” that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year. Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 per cent a year, will start to exceed supply from as early as next year because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry websites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC’s iPlayer. It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an “unreliable toy”. When Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist, wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the world wide web in 1989, the internet appeared to be a limitless resource. However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems. “With more people working or looking for work from home, or using their PCs more for cheap entertainment, demand could double in 2009,” said Ted Ritter, a Nemertes analyst. “At best, we see the [economic] slowdown delaying the fractures for maybe a year.” In America, telecoms companies are spending £40 billion a year upgrading cables and supercomputers to increase capacity, while in Britain proposals to replace copper cabling across part of the network with fibreoptic wires would cost at least £5 billion. Yet sites such as YouTube, the video-sharing service launched in 2005, which has exploded in popularity, can throw the most ambitious plans into disarray. The amount of traffic generated each month by YouTube is now equivalent to the amount of traffic generated across the entire internet in all of 2000. The extent of its popularity is indicated by the 100 million people who have logged on to the site to see the talent show contestant Susan Boyle in the past three weeks. Another so-called “net bomb” being studied by Nemertes is BBC iPlayer, which allows viewers to watch high-definition television on their computers. In February there were more than 35 million requests for shows and iPlayer now accounts for 5 per cent of all UK internet traffic. Analysts express such traffic in exabytes – a quintillion (or a million trillion) bytes or units of computer data. One exabyte is equivalent to 50,000 years’ worth of DVD-quality data. Monthly traffic across the internet is running at about eight exabytes. A recent study by the University of Minnesota estimated that traffic was growing by at least 60 per cent a year, although that did not take into account plans for greater internet access in China and India. While the net itself will ultimately survive, Ritter said that waves of disruption would begin to emerge next year, when computers would jitter and freeze. This would be followed by “brownouts” – a combination of temporary freezing and computers being reduced to a slow speed. Ritter’s report will warn that an unreliable internet is merely a toy. “For business purposes, such as delivering medical records between hospitals in real time, it’s useless,” he said. “Today people know how home computers slow down when the kids get back from school and start playing games, but by 2012 that traffic jam could last all day long.” Engineers are already preparing for the worst. While some are planning a lightning-fast parallel network called “the grid”, others are building “caches”, private computer stations where popular entertainments are stored on local PCs rather than sent through the global backbone. Telephone companies want to recoup escalating costs by increasing prices for “net hogs” who use more than their share of capacity. ----- Via The Sunday Times
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Science & technology
at
10:21
Defined tags for this entry: science & technology
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fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
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