Intelligent Machines

In 1960, scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline described the idea of an enhanced human being that can survive in alternate or extraterrestrial environments as: “For the exogenously extended organizational complex functioning as an integrated homeostatic system unconsciously, we propose the term ‘Cyborg’”.

The risk of conditions like heart attacks and strokes loom large among certain communities, and the number of cases are only estimated to grow in the near future. In fact, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is currently the leading cause of death in the world, taking about 17.3 million lives per year, as revealed by the American Heart Association in 2015.

The fetal brain grows and develops all the way from the ninth week of pregnancy up until even after birth, and during this time undergoing incredible changes in morphology and function. But preterm infants, those born before the 37-week gestation, are at a risk of brain complications and damage, as found in previous studies.

Whilst many of us can probably remember drifting off at school during a particular lesson where the teacher failed to fully engage our attention, this could possibly become a thing of the past now that researchers have found a way to measure how engaged someone is with computer-based content.

Many of us around the world now have a smart speaker in our homes, but there are also many people who do not fully understand how they work. Here, we take a closer look at the technology behind these new virtual assistants.

The key words Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision for many of us have the meaning of some sort of robot, usually humanoid, which is able to move into some space, talk to us and has sufficient capabilities to understand some tasks we are asking. Something similar to Sophia, the robot that just became citizen of Saudi Arabia.

Stephen Hawking has made a surprise appearance at the opening night of the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Paddy Cosgrave, the CEO of Web Summit, opened the conference last night and invited a number of speakers to join him on stage.

Artificial intelligence has reached unbelievably great heights, going so far as new-age robots can, if not completely take over jobs, at least challenge the human mind and psyche, as some researchers believe.

Many robots and drones take their inspiration from nature, such as those that mimic our hand movements, or those that aim to emulate the athletic capabilities of a mountain goat.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a unique robot that has the ability to move on surfaces like sand and rocks. It is able to walk on different kinds of rough surfaces and it can even overcome obstacles.

Myelopathy, cervical stenosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), dyspraxia and strokes are just some of the reasons for a complete or partial loss of mobility or motor skills in the hands. These affect both in children and adults, but are especially seen in senior citizens. Everyday tasks such as cooking and doing chores can become a challenge, and in certain cases, depression, social anxiety or feelings of dependency also surface.

The increase in domains such as E-learning, Ubiquitous Computing, Ambient Intelligent and the Internet of Things, exposes users to demanding interactive environments on a daily basis, a fact that increases the need for good user experience (UX). Emotional aspects of UX have gained increased interest recently. The main goal of a user emotional experience evaluation is to identify system flaws that trigger negative emotions such as stress.