| GM, Carnegie Mellon Team Up for DARPA Robot Car Race
A self-driving Chevy Tahoe now being built by General Motors, Carnegie Mellon University, and other partners will compete in the DARPA 2007 Urban Challenge competition on 3 November. GM's robot car will be equipped with radar, lasers, and cameras for "situation assessment." The computer-driven vehicle will have to navigate a 60-mile urban race course in less than six hours, contending with stop signs, intersections, and merging traffic with no remote guidance. GM is presenting its participation in the DARPA race as an opportunity to show its progress in developing self-driving "connected vehicles" for eventual production. Here's Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and strategic planning: Imagine a world where there are no car crashes and very little traffic congestion.
Nokia buys patent for Ipod dictionary from DTU-student
PhD-student Morten Proschowsky from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has developed an intelligent dictionary for mobile phones and music players, which identifies the user's letter pattern. Nokia has bought the patent from him. The dictionaries in today's mobile phones can identify the whole word that the user is about to write on the small keyboard. Therefore, the text which the user sees is changing all the time during the writing. However, Morten Proschowsky's technology instead identifies letter combinations. It estimates which letter will most likely be the next and makes it easy for the user to select it. The letters already written do not change. The technique uses artificial intelligence to identify systems and language patterns.
Global contest links students
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -Chris Fitzhugh plans to spend spring break building a copper and PVC-pipe model to show how temperature differences in the ocean can be used to generate electricity.
It's not just a personal quest.
The 17-year-old from Peacham and his teammates - two in Mexico, one at St. Johnsbury Academy - are competing in the Global Challenge, a Vermont-based contest aimed at improving American students' math and science skills.
During the school year, 58 teams of American students coupled with students from China, India and Japan have been tackling technological solutions to global warming. They chat online, divide jobs based on skill, consult with advisers, and now, in the final grueling weeks, write a professional business plan.
"The most important goal is to engage U.S students in international collaboration using science and technology," said David Gibson, executive director of the Global Challenge and a research assistant professor in computer sciences at the University of Vermont.
Tuning in to your moods...
One recent Saturday afternoon, while answering e-mails, I was interrupted by a call from the credit card company. It was the third `gentle' reminder to pay my bills. I had paid them and the bank too had acknowledged debiting my account. I was furious and gave them "a piece of my mind". Slamming the phone down, I returned to continue typing the e-mail. The computer did not allow me. All the keys were locked and nothing worked. A few seconds later, I heard, "You are not in a good mood. This is not the time to type these emails. Relax, Calm down and come back". What! Was that a voice from heaven or my inner voice? Well!........ Neither!. Enter the world of Affective Computing. Much like my own parental advice and admonition, "Never reply or respond when angry", the computer sensed my mood and barred me from sending an ill-phrased e-mail.
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