On July 4th, 1997, which also happened to be the Independence Day of the United States, the Mars Pathfinder successfully landed on Mars. It made history because it was:
The third lander (since the two Vikings) successfully landing on Mars.
The first time a bouncing air bag landing mechanism was used for a lander.
The first time a robot rover was successfully deployed.
The first time a space mission was broadcasted on the Internet live.
After the successful landing, images of the mysterious red planet from the planet surface was broadcasted "live" on the Internet. This event had profound and extraordinary impacts on the public interests in space exploration, robotics technology, and web technologies, and inspired a generation of potential roboticists.
The Mars Pathfinder consisted of a lander and lightweight wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner (named after a a nineteenth-century black feminist and campaigner for the abolition of slavery). It was wrapped in large airbags. After entering the Martian atmosphere, a parachute was first deployed to slow down the falling of the capsule. Then a self-inflating airbag system in the shape of a tetrahedral was released, which "soft" landed on the terrain surface of Mars and rolled and bounced up and down all over the place. After the tetrahedral finally stopped rolling, the airbags were deflated and the lander unfolded itself, letting lose of the robotic rover. It is simply mind-boggling to see how the lander and the rover survived such vigorous movements, especially when one would have expected the scientific equipments on board to be very delicate devices. The video below shows some animations and footage of the landing process.
The main objective of the mission was to demonstrate it is possible to perform extraterrestrial exploration with low cost. As added benefit, the Mars Pathfinder also conducted some scientific experiments with a cameras, atmospheric structure instruments, and a spectrometer on the rover. The rover had six independently-controlled wheels and performed rock analysis as it roved about not far from the lander. The video below shows some footage of the rover moving about.
Roughly three months later, the mission control lost contact with the Pathfinder, but the mission had exceeded its goals just during the first month. Although still visible from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter up high in the Martian sky, the robot (system) had become fully autonomous and just wondered about like a lonely ghost. Just like its name suggests, it had finally broken free from its human masters and became a free, uh, robot!
When I interned at NASA Ames in California in 2009, I was very fortunate to spot a prototype of the Sojourner Rover at the Intelligent Robotics Group (see pic on the left). I am strong believer in space colonization because we must "spread the seeds of human civilization" before we totally destroy our planet earth. And to make space colonization possible, we totally need robots that can build habitats for us. I wish the government would spend more on robotics and space exploration instead of sending troops to other countries to torture their citizens under the name of spreading "democracy" and "freedom".
Anyway, if you want to find out more about the Mars Pathfinder, you can watch "The Pathfinders" Documentary on YouTube.
Picture of the Day:
Photo of a meteor taken by astronaut from the International Space Station.
Since my dissertation will be a paper-based dissertation, I need to publish a bunch of papers. My advisor has asked me to think about a schedule and a plan for where to submit my papers. There are many AI robot related conferences and journals out there. However, only some of them are quality ones. In this blog post I'll list some of the top ones, discuss what each conference is about, and identify paper submission deadlines. So if you are also thinking about publishing papers in the AI robot field, look no further. I've already done the homework for you.
Top Conferences
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AAAI -- Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
AAAI is a top-tier multi-track conference held yearly. It is a prestigious conference with an acceptance rate roughly between 25% and 30%. A very wide range of AI topics are covered at the conference including multi-agent systems, machine learning, computer vision, knowledge representation and reasoning, natural language processing, search and planning, integrated intelligence, robotics, and etc. The conference also includes many tutorials, workshops, consortium, exhibitions, and competitions.
The AAAI conference is devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines. It also aims to increase public understanding of artificial intelligence, improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions.
I have been fortunate enough to attend the AAAI conference twice (2007 in Vancouver, BC and 2010 in Atlanta, GA, USA) and published a paper at the 2010 conference under the Integrated Intelligence track. I was also invited to present a poster for the same paper. In that same conference, I watched and blogged about the Robot Chess Competition.
The next AAAI conference AAAI-12 (the 26th) will be held at Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Conference Dates: July 22-26, 2012
Submission Deadline: February 8, 2012 (roughly)
IJCAI -- International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
IJCAI is also a top-tier multi-track conference held biennially in odd-numbered years. The acceptance rate for this conference is roughly between 20% and 26%, which makes the it even more selective than many AI journals. It also covers a wide range of AI topics such as multiagent systems, uncertainly in AI, and robotics and vision. One difference between AAAI and IJCAI is that IJCAI is more of a real international conference with paper submissions from all over the world.
One thing great about this conference is that all proceedings of the papers are free to all from their web sites. They also provide video recordings of each session at the conference, so you don't have to be present at the conference and can still watch all the presentations as if you were really there. This is very rare for AI robotics conferences as far as I know and it is a wonderful service they are providing!!
I have not had a chance to submit anything to IJCAI. If possible, I'd really like to give it a try for the next one, and if you read the next line, you'll know why.
The next IJCAI conference IJCAI-13 (the 23rd) will be held at Beijing, China.
Conference Dates: August 3-9, 2013
Submission Deadline: January 25, 2013 (roughly)
We found this very friendly black poodle wandering on the street, so we took her home while we looked for her owner. She was such a wonderful little thing and our entire family loved her. Luckily the owner saw our posts online and contacted us. My daughter was very sad to see her go, but we are very happy that she could finally go home! So if you have a pet, make sure you have a tag with your address and phone number. Could be real handy at times!
If you have studied Artificial Intelligence before, you probably already know who Thrun and Novig are. For those who have no idea, let me first introduce the two prominent researchers in the AI community.
Sebastian Thrun is a Computer Science professor at Stanford University. He also works for Google at the same time. His most famous achievement was to lead the team that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition where unmanned cars had to cross the Nevada desert fully autonomously. He also helped develop the Google self-driving car, which has been secretly driving all over California freeways and local streets (I am not really sure if this is legal of not). He is also the co-author of a wonderful book, Probabilistic Robotics, which should be, in my opinion, a must read for robotics researchers. I have had the pleasure of meeting him briefly at a AAAI conference.
Peter Norvig, who had worked for Sun and NASA before, is now director of research at Google. He is the co-author of the most famous AI textbook, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, a book any AI researcher should have in his/her collection. This book was also my textbook when I took the Intro to AI course at BYU. I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation Dr. Norvig gave at Carnegie Melon Ames Campus and asked him many questions (maybe too many). His current research interest lies in data-driver approaches to solving AI problems, which should comes to no surprise since he works for Google.
So here's the great news!! The two will be teaching the course Introduction to Artificial Intelligence at Stanford during the Fall Semester of 2011 and have decided to open the course to everyone for free. This means not only all the course materials will be publicly available, including videos of the course in 15 minute chunks for your convenience (lecture runs 75 minutes long), you can also do all the homework/course assignments/quizzes and take exams just like a real Stanford student. They will be graded and if you pass the course, you get a certificate of completion from the instructors. You can also compare your grade to the grades of the real Stanford students.
Anyone can sign up for the course for free at this web page up to September 10th. Many of my friends have already signed up. The Intro to AI class I took at BYU is one of my favorite classes ever in my entire life. I am sure the one offered at Stanford will be just as fun. I, however, don't plan to do any of the assignments or take any of the exams, :) and will only enjoy the videos of the lectures.
I think it is wonderful that people are offering their teaching and knowledge to the entire world for free, because of their love and passion for the subjects. In the past, MIT has offered free courses online and there is, of course, the famous and wonderful Kahn Academy. If we all contribute a little to the world without thinking about what we get in return, we can make the world a better place every day!
Picture of the Day:
I was at the little restaurant called The Italian Place enjoying lunch when I found this on my computer. Is this because of the Italian connection?
Clocky is a robot alarm clock created by Gauri Nanda, a graduate from the MIT Media Lab. Unlike other stationary alarm clocks, this R2-D2 or Droid-like little robot rolls off your nightstand when it's time to wake up, and rolls all over your room while making cute noises. This also means, in order to stop the alarm, you can't just keep hitting the snooze button and have to really get up to chase down Clocky in order to turn it off. What a great idea!! In fact, this idea is so great that after graduation, Nanda started her own company, Nanda Home, to commercialize the product and have already made millions.
This is yet another one of those innovative ideas of using simple robots to solve real world problems. Clocky is not a complicated robot at all. In fact, it doesn't really have any navigational capabilities or make any intelligent decisions. It just runs around randomly, looks cute, and annoys the hell out of you. But you have to admit, it does get the job done. The only possible downside is that you might be so mad after waking up and want to throw it out of the window. Although it's build to withstand falls from your tables or nightstands, but it probably won't survive free fall from anything higher than the second floor. The robot sells for around $49, and you can find many with different colors from places such as Amazon. I must admit, this little robot makes a great gift idea. So if you ever plan to send me a gift...cough...you know...
Last year, the company made Clocky a cousin and named it Tocky. Tocky rolls around like a ball, can also play MP3 files, and is $20 more expensive. So pick the one that's easier to catch for you.
I really wonder if someone will make another robot that will chase Clocky down and shuts it off, so we can go back to our sweet dreams uninterrupted. I can imagine how hard it is to develop such a robot, because you probably have to understand concepts such as Kalman Filter or Particle Filter.
If it has a wiki page, it's worth something! (Now someone creates a wiki page for me please! :)
Video of the Day:
Check out Flying Alarm Clock. At first I thought this is Clocky moving in 3D. But I was wrong!
There were no stars or moon, only dark clouds and intense winds.
But the courtyard was well lit by many lights and there was even a table of feast.
The middle-aged scholar was crooning an indiscernible song with lengthened tones as he served wine for himself. Out of the blue, he suddenly raised his wine cup toward a large banyan tree outside of the courtyard and smiled.
“I’ve long heard that Chief Miao has a wonderful wine tolerance that can hold an entire river. Since you are already here, why not come down and join me for a drink?”
Owl-like laughter quickly resonated from within the thick shades of the banyan leaves. A shadow shot down and landed on the ground like a shooting arrow, except that the landing was so delicate as if what just landed was no more than a four-ounce cotton ball.
The man had a pug nose, a wide mouth, and a head full or bright red hair. Three large golden rings hung from his left ear. Although he had landed squarely on the ground, the golden rings still jingled. He was indeed the highest chief of the Red-Haired Gang, “God of Fire”, Miao Shaotian[1].
He stared right into the middle-aged scholar’s eyes, so intense as if there were flames burning inside his own eyes.
“You must be Branch Captain Gongsun of the Green Dragon Clan.”
“That is right. I am Gongsun Jing.” The middle-aged scholar stood up and cupped his hand in front of his chest in a solute[2].
“Indeed a worthy figure of the Green Dragon Clan! Very keen eyes!” Miao Shaotian praised, and then followed with his owl-like laughter.
Sounds of hoof beats suddenly rose like stormy raindrops in rapid successions and quickly approached.
“Little Zhang San is here, too. Not slow at all,” said Miao Shaotian as he knitted his pair of flame-like think eyebrows.
The hoof beats suddenly came to an abrupt halt, and a clear voice rose together with loud laughter.
“Who dares to be late for a meeting with an underboss of the Green Dragon Clan?”
Amidst the loud laughter, a man leaped in over the walls. The man had a suit of snow white short robe. The front pieces of the robe were intentionally left open, baring the burly and muscular chest, yet the chest skin was even whiter than the robe.
“What a fine ‘White Horse Little Zhang San’! Haven’t seen you for a few years. How come you look even younger and more handsome now? If Lao Miao[3] had a daughter, I’d for sure let you be my son-in-law.” Miao Shaotian gave a thumb up and burst into loud laughter.
“Even if you really had a daughter, no one would dare to take her,” White Horse Zhang San said calmly.
“Why?” Miao Shaotian stared at him with bulging eyes.
“Look at your own face. I am sure your daughter can’t be any better,” replied White Horse Zhang San.
Miao Shaotian’s eyes bulged even bigger. After a long stare, he finally said, “We are here to do business today. There’s no hurry to start a fight.”
“How about a drink?” asked White Horse Zhang San.
“That, we’d better hurry! Come! Let’s start by toasting three cups to Branch Captain Gongsun!” suggested Miao Shaotian, his face immediately turning into a big smile.
“My wine capacity is no good. How about I toast a cup first for you three?” Gongsun Jing grinned.
“Three?” Miao Shaotian knitted his brows again.
A man’s voice crowed from the ridge of a neighboring house in reply.
“Since both the East-Bank Red Hair and the West-Bank White Horse have showed up, how dare I be late for the party?”
But he didn’t have to wait for an answer, because he had already seen a bright saber, a sharp saber!
The saber did not have a scabbard.
The bright saber was directly fixed to his red waist band.
The man wore a green arrow suit with a green handkerchief on his forehead. His red waist band looked even brighter than Miao Shaotian’s hair, a perfect match to the blood-red silk attached to the saber’s handle.
But Gongsun Jing’s gazes were as sharp as the man’s saber and glanced across the three men’s faces.
“The Green Dragon Clan sent out twelve invitations, but only three came. Are the other nine not coming?” he spoke slowly.
“Right on! Straight to the point!” said Zhao Yidao.
“I am sure the three of you didn’t come such a long way just to listen to nonsense,” said Gongsun Jing.
“Not at all,” said Zhao Yidao.
“As for the rest of the nine guests, at least three of them are not coming,” said Miao Shaotian with a nasty grin.
“Six,” corrected Zhao Yidao.
“I took care of those from the Green Bamboo Gang, the Iron Ring Clan, and the Li Family of Taiyuan[6],” declared Miao Shaotian.
“Our three friends from the Twelve-Wharf Coalition, the Yangtze River Gang, and the Guan Family Style Fists from Chenzhou[7] suddenly caught some odd deceases on their way here and all had terrible headaches, so…,” added Zhao Yidao.
“So…what?” asked Miao Shaotian.
“They don’t have headaches no more!” said Zhao Yidao.
“Who cured them?” asked Miao Shaotian.
“I did,” said Zhao Yidao.
“How?” asked Miao Shaotian.
“I chopped their heads off,” answered Zhao Yidao. He then added casually, “Nobody will still have a headache if his head is chopped off.”
“Great idea! Simple and effective!” Miao Shaotian guffawed.
“I am afraid the two senior masters of the Ten-Thousand Bamboo Villa and the Flying Fish Pond won’t be coming either,” White Horse Zhan San suddenly added.
“Oh?” exclaimed Miao Shaotian.
“They all fell asleep, very deep sleep,” said White Horse Zhan San.
“Where are they sleeping at?” asked Miao Shaotian.
“Bottom of the Dongting Lake[8],” replied White Horse Zhan San.
“Wonderful!” Miao Shaotian chuckled. “That’s a cool place to sleep at, and they’ll never be disturbed either.”
“I always take good care of seniors in the Martial World,” White Horse Zhang San said indifferently.
“All those that should be here are here already, but where’s the merchandise promised by the Green Dragon Clan?” Zhao Yidao asked.
“Excellent, straight to the point,” Gongsun Jing said with a smile.
“I am sure the Branch Captain didn’t invite us here just to listen to nonsense,” said Zhao Yidao.
“Of course not,” Gongsun Jing nodded slowly.
“Branch Captain, are you waiting to hear our prices first?” Zhao Yidao asked.
“Not yet,” replied Gongsun Jing.
“What are you waiting for then?” asked Zhao Yidao.
“This merchandise was not easy to come by. Of course we’d prefer more bidders for a higher price,” said Gongsun Jing.
“Is the Branch Captain still waiting for someone?” Miao Shaotian glared at him.
“Don’t forget that there were going to be nine more guests, but you only finished off eight,” said Gongsun Jing.
“Who’s the last one?” asked Miao Shaotian.
“A person who neither has a headache nor fall asleep,” Gongsun Jing beamed.
“Frankly speaking, the Red-Haired Gang WILL get the merchandise one way or another. Whether there’s someone else or not, it makes no difference,” Miao Shaotian sneered.
“The Green Dragon Clan is always fair when it comes to business. If your Red-Haired Gang offers the highest price, this merchandise of course will go to the Red-Haired Gang,” White Horse Zhang San also sneered.
“Are you saying you are bidding more?” Miao Shaotian roared sternly.
“Why else am I here?” retorted White Horse Zhang San.
Miao Shaotian jumped onto his feet and stared at him with squinted eyes, the golden rings hanging from his ear jingled again from his sudden movement.
Sounds of rattling wagon parts and horse neighing suddenly echoed as a six-horse drawn extravagantly magnificent carriage arrived at the gate. Four burly, corky, and husky fellows leapt off the carriage shaft and then bent over to open the carriage door.
After a good while, a pale-faced, beardless, and obese man finally stepped out of the carriage panting. Only after three steps, he was already gasping for air as hard as an ox.
Behind him was a tall and thin man in a black robe that followed him like his shadow. This man had a sallow face, on which the two eyes sank in deeply like a sick man, yet his footsteps were nimble and swift. Along his waist hung a pair of shinny things, and a closer inspection showed that they were a pair of arc-shaped swords.
Such rare type of weaponry was not only difficult to learn, but also tricky to craft. Very few people in the Martial World would wield this kind of weapon, but for those who do, nine out of ten were outstanding Kung Fu masters.
Miao Shaotian, Zhao Yidao, and White Horse Zhang San immediately fixed their sharp stares onto the pair of arc-shaped swords.
“Who is he?” White Horse Zhang San asked first with a frown.
“Young Master Zhu from the Ten-Thousand Gold House of Suzhou,” Gongsun Jing replied.
“How about his bodyguard?” White Horse Zhang San asked again.
“Might just be a bodyguard,” Gongsun Jing said with a smile.
White Horse Zhang San pondered for a second and then suddenly turned to Zhao Yidao.
“Didn’t he come from your way?”
“That sounds about right,” replied Zhao Yidao.
“How come he didn’t have a headache?”
“Even if he did, I can’t cure it.”
“Why not?”
“His head is too big,” said Zhao Yidao in a light tone.
By then, Young Master Zhu had already sat down, although he kept wiping his sweats, panting incessantly.
He had only walked about thirty steps at most, but appeared as though he had just climbed seven or eight mountains.
The man in black stood behind him like his shadow, never more than a step from his side. The man’s pair of eagle-claw-like bony hands also kept a close distance from the pair of arc-shaped swords by his waist.
His deep sunken black eyes seemed to carry a strange ridicule, as if mocking those in front of his eyes for wasting their time on the trip.
The lanterns of the Wind-Cloud Inn swayed in the wind; the golden rings hanging off Miao Shaotian’s ear also tinkled.
White Horse Zhang San seemed to feel a chill and quietly pulled the covering of his coat closer.
Meanwhile, Zhao Yidao fixed his glance at the wine cup atop the table as if pondering upon a difficult dilemma.
No one said anything further as hostility brewed among the people present.
Gongsun Jing apparently quite enjoyed the air of animosity. He let out a long sigh and then spoke again with a smile on his face.
“The four of you do not know each other, but surely you have all heard of each other’s names. I’ll just spare the introduction.”
“There’s no need,” said Miao Shaotian.
“We didn’t come here to make friends,” said White Horse Zhang San.
“Even if we were friends, we no longer will be for the sake of the merchandise.” Miao Shaotian rolled his eyes and cast a side glance at him.
“Chief Miao has always been a sensible man,” White Horse Zhang San sneered.
“Now that everyone is here. Where’s the merchandise?”
“The merchandise is alright, but…,” Gongsun Jing said.
“But what?” asked Miao Shaotian.
“The Green Dragon Clan always follows well-established rules when we do business. We only do fair trade, and cash only,” Gongsun Jing said.
“Fine!” agreed Miao Shaotian.
He clapped his hands, and the nine red-haired weirdoes in hessian tunics suddenly emerged from the darkness, each carrying a hessian sack of quite some weight.
Sound of heavy footsteps also came from the doorway, and soon the curly bearded brawny man strode in holding a large iron chest in each hand. His iron-like black muscles were pumped up, and a deep footprint appeared in the ground with each step he took.
“Golden ring wedged in the wall, and white horse neighing in the wind. As soon as I saw those, I knew that the Red-Haired Nine Champions and the Giant Warrior had all arrived,” Gongsun Jing said, beaming.
“Don’t forget the eight sabers fluttering in wind,” White Horse Zhang San added.
Zhao Yidao finally lifted his head with a forced smile.
“East-Bank Red Hair and the West-Bank White Horse are both of abundant wealth and great power. Our Fast Sabers of Taihang certainly is not in the same league to compete. I guess our Taihang brothers are giving up the bid on the merchandise.”
“Excellent! Chief Zhao is very clever indeed!” Miao Shaotian guffawed wildly.
But his laughter suddenly came to a halt as he glared at Young Master Zhu with his burning glances.
“What about the young master of the Ten-Thousand Gold House? What are your thoughts?”
Young Master Zhu’s heavy breathing had finally ceased and was appreciating his hands like how a young man would appreciate his first love’s hands. But he still responded.
“Are you asking me what my thoughts are?”
“Humph!” snorted Miao Shaotian.
“I don’t have any thoughts. I am too lazy to think,” said Young Master Zhu.
“No thoughts? Got any gold?” Miao Shaotian asked with an angry face.
“Sure!”
“How much did you bring?”
“You want to see?”
“The rule here is cash only.”
“But you’ve seen it.”
“Where?”
“My words are as good as cash.”
“So whatever you say counts?” Miao Shaotian’s face turned solemn.
“Correct!”
“So if I offer ten-thousand, you’ll just say ten-thousand and one hundred?”
“You are very clever indeed,” Young Master Zhu replied.
Miao Shaotian suddenly turned his gaze toward the pair of arc-shaped swords. The nine red-haired weirdoes in hessian tunics had quietly surrounded Young Master Zhu. But Young Master Zhu kept staring at his own hands as if there was nothing else in the entire world worthy of his look except his own pair of hands.
Miao Shaotian’s hands suddenly shot toward the arc-shaped swords, fast and accurate, accompanied by a clear clanking sound from the golden rings on his earlobe clashing with each other.
But he would never have imaged that another pair of hands could be even faster than his, a pair of round and well-maintained hands.
Before his hands even reached the arc-shaped swords, this pair of hands had already pulled the golden rings off his earlobe.
Another clanking sound echoed when the golden rings clashed.
Miao Shaotian flipped his body backward and landed twenty feet away.
The man in black still stood behind Young Master Zhu like a shadow, not moving an inch.
Young Master Zhu still stared at his own hands in same position, except that a pair of golden rings astonishingly appeared in his hands.
White Horse Zhang San’s faced also changed color.
Zhao Yidao glanced at the wine cup in front of him and suddenly heaved a sigh.
“Now do you know what I mean?”
“What?” asked White Horse Zhang San.
“Even if he did have a headache, I can’t cure it.”
“Right, his head is indeed too big.” White Horse Zhang San couldn’t help but sigh too.
“Since everyone has brought their money, we might as well go see the merchandise,” Gongsun Jing let out another smile.
Miao Shaotian gazed at Young Master Zhu, his eyes bloodshot.
Young Master Zhu agreed leisurely, “Right! It’s a good idea to see the merchandise first. Who knows? I might not even want to make an offer.”
Putting the golden rings down on the table, he took out a snow white handkerchief, and after carefully wiping his hands, he finally stood up slowly.
“Please, please lead the way.”
“Please, please follow me,” said Gongsun Jing.
He walked toward the inn, leading the way. Young Master Zhu followed behind him slowly as if he was going to pant again. The man in black still followed him closely, but now White Horse Zhan San finally understood why there was that strange ridicule in his eyes.
He was not mocking anyone else. He was mocking himself.
Because only he understood that the man he was protecting did not need his protection after all.
Ever wanted to have a back massage but couldn't find anyone to do it for you (for free, to be more precise)? Now there's an answer to your prayers: WheeMe, your personal massage robot developed by DreamBots. For only $49 apiece, WheeMe can massage not only your back, but also your tummy, your chest, or even your behind.
The palm-sized robot operates on three AA batteries and can move at 4.5 cm per second. It has four wheels, or "Fingerettes", which can tickle you wherever it goes. With intelligent sensing capabilities, basically accelerometers, it knows not to fall off your body, and then with random moving patterns, such as rolling back and forth or spinning in circles, it tricks you into thinking it's actually giving you a quality massage. And don't roll if you ever falls asleep, because you might severely crush damage your personal massage assistant and also scratch your back.
Okay, enough sarcasm, this is definitely an innovative way of using robots to solve everyday problems. And the price tag of $49 is really not very expensive for a robot. And to be honest, other than my robot, who's going to give me a massage for free? I haven't had the chance to try it because it's not available on the market yet, but you can pre-order from DreamBots web site and get one some time around the first quarter of 2012. It certainly makes a very unique Valentine's Day present!!
Since my creative juice is flowing right now, let me throw out some ideas. Wouldn't it be nice if the robot is also capable of:
Playing some soothing music while giving you a message to put you to sleep.
Acting as an alarm clock to wake you up when needed.
Having a video camera so you can see through the eyes of your personal robot (maybe using a goggle display of some sort) and look at your own back?
Having basic navigation skills, so you can put a leash on it and walk your robot "pet".
Having Internet access, so it can read latest news to you.
Transforming into a mobile phone so you can talk to your friends while getting massaged.
Can post updates to your Facebook, twitter, Google+ accounts via voice commands.
Well, one thing for sure, if it's capable of all those things, you won't get it for $49. Anyway, glad to see creative ideas with simple mechanism being put into real cool products. I am off to massaging my own tummy now.
Women estimate time like programmers. You have to double or triple the time when they say: "I'll be back in an hour."
With the possibility of graduation actually within the horizon, I thought it might be a good idea to start a new topic in my blog: Robotics Jobs. This will help me research on what kind of robotics jobs are out there since I don't plan to be a professor and stay in Academia. It is encouraging to see more and more robotics jobs in the industry emerging and start to make a difference for people's lives, although most of them are small start-up companies. Hopefully this series of blog posts will be interesting and helpful for other people who are also searching for the right robotics related jobs. I see a new great era of robotics applications just about to knock on our doors, and it is great to be a part of this effort to transform new technologies developed at university research labs into the real world and change the world! Good luck to me and all robotics job hunters out there! And I'll start the series with the positive news that U.S. President Obama is allocating funding to create more robotics jobs!
Obama Giving a Speech at Carnegie Mellon
(Credit: White House)
In a recent visit to Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center, Obama announced a new National Robotics Initiative seeking to advance "next generation robotics." The new initiative will provide $70 million per year to fund new robotics projects, focusing on robots that can work closely with humans. The funding will be squeezed out from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and the Department of Agriculture.
Obama Meeting Japaneses Android (Credit: AIST)
Obama loves robots (see photo on the left) and has a strong belief that advancing technology makes US companies more competitive and creates more jobs. But in order to help the economy grow, one important factor is how technology can be transitioned from research labs (the Academia) into the business world (the industry). Therefore, it is likely the money will be spent on research projects that are in a sense more applied than fundamental research, and private companies working in collaboration with university research labs will also have access to this funding and the money can be spent on developing real commercial robots -- really creating more robotics jobs!!
In the past, private robotics companies have had opportunities to get funding from the government mostly through military agencies to develop robotics weapons. Some also get a bit of money through the program called Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR). The new initiative focuses on how humans and robots can work as a team where humans can supervise and advice robots using human expert knowledge. This is very different from programming an industry robot to perform dull repetitive tasks that required precision and speed, for example, in a food processing plant. This is especially good news for me because my research focuses on how human can better manage AI/robot autonomy leveraging their rich experience and domain expertise in dynamic tasks and environments. The program solicitation states:
This theme recognizes the emerging mechanical, electrical and software technologies that will make the next generation of robotic systems able to safely co-exist in close proximity to humans in the pursuit of mundane, dangerous, precise or expensive tasks. Co-robots will need to establish a symbiotic relationship with their human partners, each leveraging their relative strengths in the planning and performance of a task. This means, among other things, that for broad diffusion, access, and use (and hence, to achieve societal impacts), co-robots must be relatively cheap, easy to use, and available anywhere. As the US population ages and becomes more culturally and linguistically diverse, these co-robots may serve to increase the efficiency, productivity and safety of individuals in all activities and phases of life, and their ubiquitous deployment has the potential to measurably improve the state of national health, education and learning, personal and public safety, security, the character and composition of a heterogeneous workforce, and the economy, more generally.
I applaud Obama's effort in advancing robotics technology and creating more robotics jobs! Although the funding is still very small compared to, for example, the $20 billion per year the government is spending in air conditioning for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially when robots are expensive (e.g., a Honda UAV Copter costs $300K and a humanoid robot costs $300K-millions). But it is certainly a good start. Let's hope whoever gets elected as the next president will keep such initiatives alive!
Obama's speech about robots and technology.
You can listen to Obama's entire speech (above) if you are bored. You can also check out the IEEE Spectrum article for more details. The speech mentioned about Obama's visit to a local company called RedZone Robotics, who makes robots to explore water and sewer pipes. Guess I'll have to check this company out and then post a blog about it next time. Enough for this one. Ciao!
Ever wondered how a shirt or dress looked good on you when YOU wear it? Mirrors in fitting rooms don't really tell you the entire story. And things get worse if you are buying from a catalog by phone or order one online. Thanks to robotics technology, your wish might be coming true. Before I say anything else, check out this video below.
The robot is the female version of the FitBot, a shape-shifting robot mannequin created by Fits.me, an online clothing store. The company also has a male version.
In many past occasions, we have been lured into buying dresses from catalogs or online stores because the dresses looked wonderful in the pictures but turned disastrous when we put the actual clothes on. What was the problem? The answer is simple: we are no models. That's why those beautiful models get paid big $$$s to put these clothes on and look beautiful in the pictures. But we had to jump through all kinds of hoops to return the dresses and get refunds. We are not alone.
Wouldn't it be nice if I could see how the dress would look on me, not that beautiful model? Wouldn't it be nice if I could see how the dress looks like when I walk around and get into different body postures with the dress on? The answer to the problem: robot! Using servo motors, the FitBot can actually change its shape into your body shape based on your own body measurements.
Now before you get all excited about the many possibilities, that's not how the robot is used at the present time. The retailer actually enumerates all the possible (humanly possible, that is) body shapes with the robot with each dress and then take many photos. These photos are made available through the web site, so after you enter your body measurements, the photos with those body measurements would be shown to you so you know how the clothes would look like if you had worn it.
Well, don't get too disappointed, this is at least a step closer. I could almost envision how it works in the future: After you log into your account with the online store, the system automatically loads your body shape measurements into one of the waiting mannequin robots. Then the robot will retrieve the dress you are interested in, put it on, and then get into various poses for you. You can probably even pose yourself, and a camera on your computer will recognize the pose and send that to the robot to imitate. The robot can slowly rotates around so you can see the full 360 degrees view. There might even be an added benefit: when you see how gross you look no matter what pose your use and what clothes you put on, you might have more incentive to get off your ass, walk away from your computer and try to get rid of some of those fat.
Anyway, glad to see another innovative way of using robotics technology to solve real-world problems. You can read this article for more details if you like. I am going to get off my lazy ass, walk away from my computer to do some exercise now! Ciao!
I am so glad drinking coke is not against the Honor Code of the university.
[Ignore the date stamp. I just have a lot of blogging to make up for...]
I love Kung Fu; I am very passionate about Artificial Intelligence; and I like playing the game of tetris. What happens if I put all three things together?
Here, I proudly present to you: Kung Fu Tetris!
If you can't view the video above, try this or this or this or download video here.
So what do you think? If you think this is fun and want to do it in your home, read on. It's probably much simpler than you expected. In this blog post I will explain to you step-by-step how you can set this up yourself. Everything is pretty much off-the-shelf, except a small configuration file, which you can download from my blog.
Required Components:
The first thing you need is a Microsoft Kinect. Microsoft developed this depth-sensing device for Xbox game console. Thanks to the open source community for writing the drivers, now you can connect it directly to your computer and there's no need for an Xbox. You can buy Kinect from local electronics stores or order it from Amazon for $139. And if you are a student like me, you can get it shipped to you in two days for free.
You also need to have a computer to connect Kinect too. It can be your desktop computer or your laptop computer, as long as it has a USB port. I used an Acer Aspire One netbook, which I bought for $179. Even with a netbook's slow processor and limited memory, Kinect runs just fine.
It also helps if you have a large TV/monitor, so you can see the game better while not standing next to the monitor. Most large screen LCD TVs let's you connect your computer to it like it's an external monitor. I used a VGA to VGA cable (just like connecting to a regular LCD monitor) and set the LCD to RGB mode. Your miles may vary.
Next thing you need is a bit of space in front of the TV/monitor. Because the game of Kung Fu Tetris requires the tracking of your full body, you have to stay a good distance away from Kinect so it can cover your entire body. Besides, I am sure you don't want to accidentally smash your nice TV with your fierce kicks. So a living room is a better environment than your study.
You also need the tetris game to run on your computer. I just use free online flash version of the tetris game.
In order to use Kinect with your computer, you need to install the Kinect driver and the following three Open Source Applications: OpenNI, NITE, and FAAST.
Lastly, you need to create a small configuration file for the keyboard command and body gesture mapping. You can just download my version.
Step-By-Step Instructions:
1. Buy Kinect if you don't already have it. Amazon sells it for $130. No need to buy Xbox.
2. Connect your computer to a big monitor or TV.
3. Download and install the Kinect driver. Extract the msi file from the zip file and then double click the msi file to start the installation.
4. Download and install the latest version of OpenNI (NI stands for Natural Interaction). You can find the latest versions on this page. Unstable versions are just fine. The current latest 32-bit version v1.1.0.41 can be downloaded from this direct link. It's an msi file, so you can double click the file to install. Note that if you are running Windows 7, then you need the 64-bit version.
5. Download and install the latest version of PrimeSense NITE. You can find the latest versions on this page. Unstable versions are just fine. The current latest 32-bit version v1.3.1.5 can be downloaded from this direct link. Again, just double click the msi file to install. During NITE installation, use this free license key: 0KOIk2JeIBYClPWVnMoRKn5cdY4= when prompted.
6. Download and install the latest version of FAAST (Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit). You can find the latest version on this page. The current latest version 0.08 can be downloaded from this direct link. It's a zip file. All you have to do is to extract the zip file to a location on your local hard drive. Later, you just need to run the FAAST.exe file inside the folder. No other installation required.
7. Now plug the Kinect adapter into a power outlet.
8. Connect Kinect to your computer by plugging it into the USB port. You will be prompted to install three devices: Kinect Camera, Kinect Audio, and Kinect Motor. Since you have already installed the drivers, the system should automatically find the driver files for the installation. However if it fails to find the drivers, you can point to folder c:\Program Files\PrimeSense\SensorKinect\Driver\x86 (use \amd64 for 64-bit systems).
9. Sometimes the driver might not install Kinect Motor or Kinect Audio correctly. You can try the CL NUI Platform driver instead. The latest version can be found on this page. The current latest version v1.0.1210 can be downloaded from this direct link. The file is an exe file so you just have to double click to install. Drivers are installed to this folder c:\Program Files\Code Laboratories\CL NUI Platform\Driver.
10. Test if Kinect is working correctly by running the NiViewer program inside All Programs - OpenNI - Samples - NiViewer. 11. Open FAAST by running the FAAST.exe file. Click the Connect button to start the device. You should now see human shapes on screen.
12. Stand in front of the Kinect device and then hold a ‘Psi’ pose for several seconds until a stick figure appears, as shown in the image on the right.
13. Open a browser window and position it so it is side-by-side next to the FAAST application. Load the tetris game by going here (or here). I linked the flash file directly so you don't have to deal with the annoying flash ads on those web sites.
14. Right-click and then select save to download my configuration file from http://www.lannyland.com/download/KungFuTetris.cfg, and save it to a location you remember (such as your desktop).
14. In FAAST application, click Load button and then browse to where you saved the configuration file and load that file.
15. Click Start Emulator button, then select your tetris game so your browser is the active window. You might have to recalibrate by doing that ‘Psi’ pose again.
16. Start the tetris game and then start kicking. See if you can move the pieces. Remember the controls are: 1) front kicks rotate the pieces 2) side kicks move the pieces left or right 3) jump does fast drop.
Be aware:
1. Do your warm up routines before playing this game. I AM SERIOUS! Otherwise you risk injuring yourself.
2. Don't stand too close to anybody/thing, because you might kick that body/thing and cause damage to him/her/it.
3. Kick with good speed and good form, otherwise weird things might happen.
4. Jump sometimes doesn't work too well. Just jump more. It's good for your heart.
That's it! Leave some comments if you find this helpful. Hope you get it working and start kicking! Enjoy!!
Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible if you
1) smash your TV/monitor with your fierce kicks,
2) injure yourself because of excessive or improper kicking,
3) become so addicted that you stop doing your share of the housework and irritate your better half, or
4) develop a habitual involuntary kicking syndrome and find yourself always throwing kicks at people near you.
By the way, the Chinese character on the back of my t-shirt is Tao, as in Taoism, meaning the way of life. So here's the Tao of the day:
Workout should be fun and enjoyable instead of torturous. And playing tetris can be productive too!
Videos of the Day:
I thought these two videos are very appropriate for today's Videos of the Day! You really have to finish watching the first video to really appreciate the humor in the second one.
Seven Weapons is another great book written by Gu Long. The book consists of seven individual stories, each describing a specific type of weapon. However, at the end of each story you will find out that the real weapon the author wanted to discuss is not the one named at the beginning. In this book, Gu Long showed his mastery of depicting the spirit and soul of the characters. This is not a book about weapons, it is a book about humanity.
Nine eccentric looking men suddenly appeared on the stone slated street, all wearing yellow hessian tunics, hemp shoes, and a bowl-sized golden ring hung from each man’s left earlobe. All of them had a head full of disheveled hair in bright red that spread across their shoulders like burning flames. Among the nine were people of various heights and ages. Though they had different body features, their faces all carried the same emotionless countenance, the kind normally found on dead corpses. And the way they walked, without ever moving their shoulders or bending their knees, closely resembled zombies.
They slowly marched along the long street, silencing the surroundings wherever they passed through. Even the sounds of crying children halted abruptly from because of fear.
At the end of the street, four giant lanterns sat atop a thirty feet long flagpole.
Bright red lanterns with pitch-black words that read, “Wind-Cloud[2] Inn.”
The nine red-haired weirdoes walked all the way to the front door of the inn and then halted. The leading man took off the golden ring from his ear and waved his hand. With a loud thump, the golden ring shot into the stone wall next to the pitch-black painted gate.
Sparks flashed everywhere as the golden ring actually wedged into the stone.
The second man grabbed a bundle of red hair from his shoulder with his left hand and then swiftly chopped using his right palm, which easily cut thorough the hair as if it were a sharp blade.
After tying the bundle of hair to the golden ring, the nine men marched on, their bright red hairs fluttered in the wind like blazes, and soon faded into the boundless twilight.
Right at that moment, eight sturdy horses came galloping out of the twilight. The sounds of hooves hitting the stone slated street echoed like raindrops hitting the window and battle drum beating like thunders.
All the riders uniformly wore green arrow suits with green handkerchiefs on their foreheads, flat toe Kung Fu shoes, and puttees wrapped around their calves, looking bold, vigorous and nimble.
As the eight horses sprinted pass the gate of the Wind-Cloud Inn, the eight riders waved their hands in unison.
Reflections of blades flashed like lightning. Another loud thump resonated as eight shinning steel sabers embedded into the large-bowl-sized flagpole.
The handles of the sabers still vibrated as the red silk piece attached to the handles puffed from the throw. Moments later, the eight riders vanished into the dark horizon.
The darkness of the evening had thickened when more hoof beats suddenly rose in the street, only faster and more intense than the previous eight riders.
But this time there was only one horse, a pure white horse without a single strand of colored hair from head to toe.
When the horse approached the gate of the inn, it suddenly let out a loud neigh and halted, rearing up on its hind legs.
Only by then could people distinguish the rider on horseback, a shirtless brawny man with wild curly beard whose dark-skinned muscles were as study as steel.
After the hefty man reined in the horse, he spotted the red hair tied to the golden ring by the gate and the eight sabers embedded in the flagpole. The man suddenly sneered and quickly jumped off the horse. Holding a horse leg with each hand, he let out a thundering roar and raised the horse high in the air until it reached the eaves of the gate.
The white horse let out another loud neigh. Although its manes danced in the wind, its four legs seemed to have been nailed into the eaves above the gate, not moving the slightest bit!
The bearded man laughed loudly and then strode away. Only moments later, he was already gone, leaving the white horse standing in the west winds under the nightfall sky all alone, making up an eerie scene with ineffable oddity.
The long street was completely desolate by now. All households and shops had shut their doors.
The Wind-Cloud Inn was completely silent. Inn guests had quickly slipped away through the back door when they saw the golden ring and the eight sabers by the gate.
The white horse, however, remained still in the west winds as though it had turned into a stone statue.
On the silent long street, a middle-aged, lean-faced scholar suddenly appeared. Wearing a blue long robe and white pants, he slowly strolled by. His face appeared to be very relaxed, but his pupils shined with wits.
Folding his hands behind his back, he slowly walked to the front of the inn gate, and cast a glance up.
“What an excellent horse! Excellent indeed! It’s a pity that your owner is so ruthless and brought grievance upon you,” he sighed.
He suddenly waved an arm behind his back, and the flying long sleeve swiftly created a wave of strong wind.
The white horse was startled. Letting out a long neigh, it sprang off the gate eaves.
The middle-aged scholar reached out his hands and somehow caught the falling horse by its stomach. He gently placed the horse on the ground and gave it a light pat in the stomach.
“Go back to carry your owner here. Just say a good friend of his is waiting here.”
The white horse seemed to actually understand these words, and immediately galloped away.
The middle-aged scholar casually pulled the golden ring out of the stone wall by the gate and began entering the inn. He gave a gentle smack to the flagpole as he walked by. The eight sabers immediately fell down at the same time.
The middle-aged scholar swept his long sleeve again, which caught and wrapped around the eight sabers.
“Where’s the Flag-Master?” he asked solemnly.
All of a sudden, a thin and small figure darted out from inside the inn and climbed atop the flagpole like a monkey, reaching the top of the flagpole within seconds.
A large flag suddenly spread out from the tip of the flagpole.
On the snow white flag embroidered a rampant jet-black dragon, so lively as if it would break through the clouds and fly away any moment.
[1]The first four lines in a long poem written by Li Bai (701-762), a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty.
[2] Wind-Cloud implies unpredictable and unstable situation. It is often used to describe the trend of the times.
Now support the translator Lanny by following my blog and leaving comments! :)
Video of the Day:
To demonstrate how durable their SD cards are, Samsung dropped paper airplanes from the space with the SD cards embedded. Read more at the project web site.
