A computer that learns the rules of a game by watching you play – from ExtremeTech.com by Sebastian Anthony

Excerpt:

A Parisian researcher has created a computer system that can learn the rules of games by watching you play — and then beat you at it.

Tagged with:  

“Learning from the living room” — Part I [Christian]

Learning from the living room -- a component of our future learning ecosystems -- by Daniel S. Christian, June 2012

 

 

Legal size PDF here

 

 

Addendum on 7/3/12 from an article I wrote for EvoLLLution.com (for LifeLong Learning):
Establishing better collaboration between the corporate world and higher education [Christian]

In the near future, perhaps we could have second screen-based activities whereby corporate leaders are giving TED-like presentations or expressing the current issues in their worlds via a program on Smart TVs, and the students are communicating and collaborating about these presentations via tablets or smart phones.  Perhaps there will be electronic means whereby students could submit their ideas and feedback to the presenting companies (and whereby selected ideas could be rewarded in terms of free products or services that the company produces).

Beyond Siri - A report regarding the future of Virtual Assistants -- from VisionMobile -- June 2012

 

Contents

  • Virtual assistants: four generations in 20 years
  • The evolving VA technology landscape
  • The VA Competitive landscape
  • VA business models: Revenue share rather than paid app downloads
  • Leaders and challengers in the VA value chain
  • Beyond Siri: What’s in store in the VA market

Behind this report

  • Lead researcher: Marlène Sellebråten
  • Project lead: Michael Vakulenko
  • Marketing lead: Matos Kapetanakis
  • Editorial: Andreas Constantinou

 

Six things to know about the robots in your future — by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A.

Excerpt:

Accordingly, we’re about to be surprised, for real robots and their non-physical counterparts, computer intelligences, are about to enter our lives in a very real way. And initially at least, our reactions to them are likely to be that they are either creepy, or infuriating. Let’s start with the ways in which we are likely to encounter robots and computer intelligences, and then let me move on to where the evolution of robots is headed.

Also see Richard’s The Innovation Revolution

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

We are standing at the edge of the next revolution, one that will shake the foundations of the corporate world. It will both create and destroy jobs, and build and decimate organizations, and at speeds that will catch people – and organizations – by surprise. The winners will be those who foresee what’s ahead, think clearly about how to take advantage of these emerging trends, and act decisively. We are witnessing the end of “business as usual” in any sense of the phrase.

In the corporate world, we tend to think of innovation as a corporate process. It typically involves a team looking for improved ways of doing things the organization already does, then implementing them to increase the corporation’s profitability, or competitive advantage, or both.

Yet, one long-term trend is clear, undisturbed, and will be markedly disruptive: power is devolving from large organizations to individuals and small groups.

Tagged with:  

Automated grading software in development to score essays as accurately as humans — from singularityhub.com by David J. Hill

See the iphone – Diorama piece at mike-ko.com

Beam me up Scotty: Life-size hologram-like telepods revolutionize videoconferencing — from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University

Disney Research invents amazing new touch sensing tech — from DVICE.com

A smart city

.

When we think of computer networks, we think of routers and servers and fiber optic cables and laptops and smartphones — we think of the internet. In actuality, though, the visible internet is just the tip of the iceberg. There are secret military networks, and ad hoc wireless networks, and utility companies have sprawling, cellular networks the track

 

30 specialist (and super smart) search engines — from thenextweb.com by Adam Vincenzini

The home 3-D printer is more real than ever–and costs as much as an iPad — from fastcompany.com by Kit Eaton

A ride on MIT Media Lab’s digital bandwagon — from CNET.com by Martin LaMonica
Digital technologies are reaching deeper into the physical world, opening up new ways for people to interact with their surroundings, say researchers at MIT’s Media Lab.

 

 

Barriers to adoption of online learning systems in U.S. Higher Education - May 1, 2012

 

Excerpt from the preface:

Digital technology has already changed the way colleges and universities function, but no matter how significant those changes feel today, real transformation is just beginning. Every day, a new program in online learning is announced, and on the horizon is the promise of using new adaptive learning technologies —or what we have come to call Interactive Learning Online—to educate more students than ever before at lower cost and with similar or even better learning outcomes.

This Ithaka S+R report is the first in a series that will provide leaders in higher education insight into what has been learned from online learning efforts to date and new research to help them move forward with the development and deployment of more advanced systems in the future.

Many of the lessons in this report can readily be applied locally; that is, they will help leaders make sound decisions for their own institutions. We have also identified two critical issues that if addressed at a system-level, will lead to better outcomes for all: the need for open, shared data on student learning and performance tracked through interactive online learning systems, and the need for investment in the creation of sustainable and customizable platforms for delivering interactive online learning instruction. We hope this report will help to stimulate discussion and planning among leaders on these important topics.

 

Also see:

  • Tempering the Rise of the Machines— from insidehighered.com by Steve Kolowich
    Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
    The report, called “Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education,” was co-written by Lawrence S. Bacow and William G. Bowen, the former presidents of Tufts and Princeton Universities, respectively, along with several Ithaka analysts. It was bankrolled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The report contained little advocacy one way or another; rather, the authors appeared to strive for a dispassionate analysis driven by a general sense that the rise of machine learning is inevitable and universities should be prepared. Their findings were based on interviews with senior administrators at 25 public and private, four-year and two-year colleges, including “deep dive” analyses at five of them.

IBM’s Watson Hired by Citigroup — from pcmag.com by Mark Hachman

ibm watson

Excerpt:

But Citigroup said late Monday that it had agreed to form an exploratory partnership with IBM to use the Watson technology to help advance customer interactions, using the deep “content analysis and evidence based learning capabilities” that the IBM Watson technology uses.

Watson’s strengths, that of parsing a question asked using natural language and then returning relevant results, will presumably be used to facilitate customer interaction with Citi automated banking systems.

IBM Watson heads to Wall Street — from extremetech.com by Sebastian Anthony

Excerpt:

After conquering Jeopardy, battling patent trolls, making inroads into medical insurance claims, and threatening to replace customer service representatives, IBM’s Watson is now looking to take its first foray into Wall Streetesque financial services. Working with Citigroup, IBM has entered into an “exploratory agreement” that will cover everything from streamlining the banking experience for customers, through to “empowering financial professionals to make better business decisions.” In other words, watch out stock traders: Watson’s coming.

The next big UI challenge is making big data human — from gigaom by Stacey Higginbotham

Excerpt:

IBM’s Jeopardy-playing supercomputer Watson is now getting a gig in the retail banking sector as part of an IBM partnership with Citi. This is in addition to its position as a diagnostic assistant for doctors. But the many careers of Watson aren’t just a fun story for the tech press; they illustrate a very big technological and business opportunity for companies like IBM and Microsoft — the rendering of big data into human scale.

VizWiz.org

Also see:

  • Yes folks, it’s artificial artificial artificial intelligence
    This is about using what The Economist calls artificial artificial intelligence (like Mechanical Turk, which uses people as artificial computers) to enhance (artificially intelligent) machine vision
    The idea is that the disabled can finally turn the tables on disability. They’re getting involved in developing tools to help the rest of us help them.

    Real-Time Crowd Support for People with Disabilities
  • VizWiz.org

— I originally saw this at Steve Knode’s December 2011 newsletter

From
http://www.lifewithsiri.com/siri-links

Also see:

What is Siri? — from Apple.com

Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. But Siri isn’t like traditional voice recognition software that requires you to remember keywords and speak specific commands. Siri understands your natural speech, and it asks you questions if it needs more information to complete a task.

Siri uses the processing power of the dual-core A5 chip in iPhone 4S, and it uses 3G and Wi-Fi networks to communicate rapidly with Apple’s data centers. So it can quickly understand what you say and what you’re asking for, then quickly return a response.

Siri is currently in beta and we’ll continue to improve it over time.

 

 

 

Also see:

Voice Control Will Disrupt Living Room Electronics — from techpinions.com by Patrick Moorhead
Excerpt:
In what seems to be a routine in high-tech journalism and social media now is to speculate on what Apple will do next. The latest and greatest rumor is that Apple will develop an HDTV set. I wrote back in September that Apple should build a TV given the lousy experience and Apple’s ability to fix big user challenges. What hasn’t been talked about a lot is why voice command and control makes so much sense in home electronics and why it will dominate the living room. Its all about the content.

 

 

Next on TV: Data driven programming — from wired.co.uk by Matt Locke

Excerpt:

Quiz shows such as The Million Pound Drop Live on Channel 4 use real-time data from hundreds of thousands of online players to feed interesting stats and observations to host Davina McCall. [From DSC: What if this related to an online-based learning exercise/class/module/training session?]

This is the real revolution that is about to hit TV production — data is moving off the servers and in front of the cameras. With this comes a new generation of creative talent — data storytellers for whom the spreadsheet is as important as a script when it comes to content. TV is no longer stuck behind the screen — around 60 per cent of people in the UK watch with a “second screen” (a mobile or laptop) at the same time, and a lot of them are talking online about what they’re watching. TV is now back in the crowd, and if you make, commission or distribute content right now, you’d better learn to love data, and fast.

Also see:

  • What comes after Siri? A web that talks back — from gigaom.com by Stacey Higginbotham
    Siri may be the hottest personal assistant since I Dream of Jeannie, but Apple’s artificial intelligence is only the tip of the iceberg as we combine ubiquitous connectivity, sensor networks, big data and new methods of AI and programming into a truly connected network.
  • Ball State University Center for Media Design to Host Workshop Session — from thetvoftomorrowshow.com
    Entitled “Researching the Second Screen and Social Viewing: Two Recent Studies,” the workshop will see CMD researchers summarizing the findings from: 1) an eye-tracking study of viewers’ distribution of visual attention between the TV and second screen during use of two commercially released second-screen apps; and 2) a study of show-specific Twitter traffic rates during programming and ad pods for multiple episodes of three shows from different genres.

Growing U.S. Jobs Challenge - McKinsey Quarterly -- June2011

Also see:

  • Future of Work Survey Findings: Focusing on the Future?– from thefutureofwork.net
  • How Technology Is Eliminating Higher-Skill Jobs — from NPR.org by Chris Arnold
  • Difference Engine: Luddite legacy — from economist.com
    Excerpt:
    There is a good deal of truth in that. But it misses a crucial change that economists are loth to accept, though technologists have been concerned about it for several years. This is the disturbing thought that, sluggish business cycles aside, America’s current employment woes stem from a precipitous and permanent change caused by not too little technological progress, but too much. The evidence is irrefutable that computerised automation, networks and artificial intelligence (AI)—including machine-learning, language-translation, and speech- and pattern-recognition software—are beginning to render many jobs simply obsolete.
    This is unlike the job destruction and creation that has taken place continuously since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, as machines gradually replaced the muscle-power of human labourers and horses. Today, automation is having an impact not just on routine work, but on cognitive and even creative tasks as well. A tipping point seems to have been reached, at which AI-based automation threatens to supplant the brain-power of large swathes of middle-income employees.

 

Addendum on 11/22/11:

IBM sends Watson supercomputer to business school – from wired.com by Eric Smalley

 

IBM's Watson takes on Harvard and MIT students.

Excerpt:

There have been four waves of technological innovation that disrupted the labor market over the last two and a half centuries starting with the Industrial Revolution, and we’re beginning the fifth, said IBM Chief Economist Martin Fleming. “We’re now beginning to enter into, in my view, a period where the economy is beginning to open up opportunities for the deployment of very significant innovation … We’re going to see many new industries get created, radical new technologies being deployed, but being deployed in the context of new business models,” he said.

“This will have significant implications from an income and income distribution point of view.”

The MIT economists generally agree that we’re at the beginning of a technology-driven shift in the economy and ultimately the labor market will adjust. But no one had any good news for workers in the middle of economy during the transition. “The future is already here in many ways, in terms of what technology can do,” Brynjolfsson said. “But right now the benefits are not very evenly distributed.”

SingularitySummit.com — conference website

Excerpt:

The Singularity Summit is the premier dialog on the Singularity. The first Singularity Summit was held at Stanford in 2006 to further understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress. It was founded as a venue for leading thinkers to explore the subject, whether scientist, enthusiast, or skeptic. The goal of the Summit is to improve people’s thinking about the future and increasing public awareness of radical technologies under development today and of the transformative implications of such technologies understood as part of a larger process.

Singularity Summit 2011 — from the nextbigfuture.com

Singularity Summit 2011 videos — from the nextbigfuture.com

What you missed at Singularity Summit 2011 — from technoverseblog.com

Excerpt:

  • David Brin (scientist and sci-fi novelist)
  • Ray Kurzweil (inventor, restless genius, and author of The Singularity is Near)
  • Stephen Wolfram (physicist, developer of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha, genius)
  • Dimitry Itskov (founder of Russia 2045)
  • Michael Shermer (contrarian and founder of Skeptic magazine)
  • Riley “Red Balloons” Crane (post doctoral fellow at MIT Media Lab and winner of DARPA’s balloon challenge)
  • Sharon Bertsch McGrayne (writer, author of “The Theory That Wound not Die”)
  • Tyler Cowen (economist, George Mason University)
  • Jaan Tallinn (founder of Skype)
  • Ken Jennings (Jeopardy champion and loser to Watson)
  • Dan Cerutti (IBM executive charged with marketing Watson)

 

Addendum on 10/20/11:

Living Actor™ Presenter is a new Web platform developed by Cantoche, an international company well known for its unique expertise in 3D avatar technological innovations.

Various benefits depending upon the solution that you go with:

  • Enhance your presentations with a Talking Avatar
  • Animate you avatar using simple online tools
  • Reduce your multimedia production expenses
  • Access the largest library of 3D Talking Avatars
  • Get an immediate preview of your animations
  • Embed your virtual presenter in any software: Adobe Captivate or Presenter, Articulate Presenter, Microsoft PowerPoint…
  • Create immersive simulations for your trainees
  • Get the best of 50+ 3D Talking Avatars for your scenes
  • Produce the scenes yourself with simple tools
  • Reduce your multimedia production expenses
  • Get an immediate preview of your animations
  • Embed your simulations and scenes in any software: Adobe Captivate or Presenter, Articulate Presenter, Microsoft PowerPoint…
  • Offer a unique user experience for your visitors
  • Increase the transformation rate of your audience
  • Produce the scenes yourself with simple tools
  • Reduce your multimedia production expenses
  • Get an immediate preview of your animations
© 2024 | Daniel Christian