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Watson Tied Humans at Jeopardy! We Might Not be Doomed… Yet

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
IBM Watson

IBM Watson

Watson, a super computer from IBM is challenging the human Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the first Man vs. Machine Jeopardy! competition.

Below you can see a nice teaser for the competition.

The first round already took place on Monday, February 14th 2011, and resulted in a tie between Brad and the machine. Although Watson lead most part of the game, it got some wrong answers near the end which set it back considerably.

The match will continue on Tuesday the  15th and Wednesday the 16th. So far humanity still has a chance but it is quite possible that we will all be obsolete by the end of this match.

You can see the full first round below as it was kindly uploaded  by a YouTube user.

Via Jeopardy!

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    IBM Watson Beats Human at Jeopardy

    Monday, January 17th, 2011

    IBM really wants to beat humans with their computers. In the past, they created Deep Blue which was able to defeat the human Chess champion. Now, they developed Watson, an information retrieving machine which is intended to defeat the human Jeopardy champion.

    Watson has already accomplished this by defeating Ken Jennings, the current Jeopardy champion in a practice round. The machine is likely to defeat Jennings in the real match later this year.

    The video below explains more about Watson and the motivation behind making such a computer (besides the obvious taking over the world).

    Via Make.

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      Playful Polar Bear Destroys Indestructible Robot Camera

      Friday, December 31st, 2010

      In an effort to film polar bears in their natural habitat going about their everyday activities, the BBC devised several robotic spy cameras that can operate in the frigid conditions of the North Pole.

      The various robotic cameras created by the BBC are presented and described in the video below.  Although they incorporate some interesting camouflage, they do not go undetected by the polar bears.

      In this second video, the “almost indestructible” Snow Ball Cam robot is put to the test by a playful young polar bear. It seems curiosity killed the robot.

      Via BotJunkie.

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        Obama Invests in Robots

        Friday, September 24th, 2010
        Obama Brings Robotic Hope to America

        President Obama Brings Robotic Hope to America

        United States President Barack Obama announced as part of the President’s FY2012 Budget, the creation of  grants for Robotics Technology Development and Deployment. The funding will target companies developing service robots, drug discovery robots, and bomb disarming robots (under the DARPA supervision).

        It is good to see that major nations of the world are investing in a robotic future.

        Via Robot Snob

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          Cyborgs to Colonize Space

          Friday, September 24th, 2010

          Smithsonian Museum curator Roger Launius  among other scientist and historians, argue that humans will eventually need to colonize other planets in order to prevent extinction from a massive catastrophe, and since the Earth resources is likely not going to be sufficient for our increasing needs.

          Locutus of Borg - From the Start Trek TV Series

          Locutus of Borg - From the Start Trek TV Series

          According to Lanius, in order to adapt to the harsh conditions of life in other planets, humans will most likely need to become Cyborgs.  Although cyborgs are a thing of the present (Lanius being one of them since he was implanted a pacemaker), these predictions only apply to the very distant future since our current levels of technology do not allow for such an advanced human augmentation.

          Maybe, in the future, the RobotShop Robot Hospital will become the Cyborg Hospital.

          Via Astrobio.net

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            A robotics park in Alabama

            Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

            RTP

            According to Robotic Trends, the development project of a robotics park in Alabama is coming along nicely.

            The RTP robotics technology park, located in Tanner in Alabama (USA), already has a website at www.alabamartp.org.

            The construction is in phase 2.

            Phase 1 comprised of 68 000 square feet (about 6800 m2) for the construction of a Robotic Maintenance Training Center. It will be fully focused on the industry of robots and new jobs.

            Phase two comprises of 30 000 square feet (about 3000 m2) to complete the Advanced Technology and Research Center. It will be used primarily by NASA and the US army.

            Phase 3, which has not yet started, will be concentrated on an Integration and Entrepreneurial Center and it will house start-ups in robotics.

            This three-phase project is a 71 million dollar investment.

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              Is Megan Fox a humanoid?

              Thursday, June 17th, 2010

              Megan Fox

              The pretty actress, Megan Fox, is on the cover of the July 2010 edition of “Interview.”

              Interview is an American magazine devoted to celebrities and was created by Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga in 1969.

              The beauty appeared looking almost perfect.

              A face with the plastic beauty reminiscent of a humanoid robot.

              And if Megan Fox was actually an android?? :-)

              What’s more, if you notice, the title is ‘The Double Life of Megan Fox.”

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                Heartland Robotics hires Scott Eckert

                Friday, June 4th, 2010

                Heartland Robotics

                A company founded by Rodney Brooks (who founded iRobot), Heartland Robotics, just hired Scott Eckert as CEO.

                Scott Eckert is a former executive of Dell, and a guru of online sales.

                He also founded and directed Motion Computing.

                Scott Eckert

                He will replace Patrick Sobalvarro at Heartland Robotics.

                Heartland Robotics is supported by Jeff Bezos (the founder of Amazon) and Charles River Ventures.

                The start-up company, which specialized in industrial robots, raised 7 million dollars in 2009.

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                  Structures built by robots

                  Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

                  In the future, will complex constructions and buildings build themselves?

                  It’s conceivable according to the video below produced by Shimizu Corporation (Japan).

                  The robotic nanotubes would allow structures to self-interlock and certain other parts of the construction could be assembled by humanoid robots.

                  An undeniable advantage to the safety level of workers but also and especially because Japan lacks a qualified labor force.

                  Workman robots:

                  via pp

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                    BeetleCam by Burrard-Lucas photography of African wildlife

                    Friday, May 7th, 2010

                    Beetle Cam

                    BeetleCam is a remote photography project of African wildlife by Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas.

                    The two brothers have placed a Canon 400D DSLR camera with two flashes on a robotic mobile base which is controlled remotely.

                    The images reported are superb.

                    However, there was a small incident with lions that decided to have fun with the robot and have a bite of the camera’s viewfinder.

                    Fortunately, the Burrard-Lucas brothers were able to salvage the memory card and it would even seem that the lions continued to take photos!

                    More information on the BeetleCam Project: blog.burrard-lucas.com/beetlecam/

                    Lion Beetlecam

                    Burrard Lucas

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