Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

Information is scare, but it looks like a cool chat bot style application. It appears the bot will perform tasks for you. There is a desktop version which runs on most OS and a pocket/phone version coming soon. A developer’s kit looks to be coming as well. Interestingly Lua is the language for the kit. I don’t know much about Lua but it is hitting my radar screen more frequently. It is an open source scripting language.

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technologies, code named “SILVIA”, Cognitive Code Corporation has developed a cross-platform runtime for business and consumer applications. “Desktop SILVIA” delivers conversational computing for Windows (2K, XP, Vista), Mac OS-X, Linux, BSD, and Solaris operating systems.The new technology platform gives SILVIA-enabled applications the ability to understand and react to users based on the contextual cues during conversational interactions, and to extract meaning from free-form spoken or text input. SILVIA applications can also easily interact with and manipulate files, operating systems, and other software in order to do practical things for users based on conversational interactions.

Over the past several months, the SILVIA techology has evolved into a robust, full featured software development and training environment for intelligent applications, giving Cognitive Code the ability to begin product development using the platform and tools.

Cognitive Code plans to release the “Desktop SILVIA” runtime core as part of the SILVIA Developer’s Studio, due in Q4, 2007. [ read more Cognitive Code]

More information:
Engadget, Cognitive Code shows off SILVIA artificial intelligence platform
Lua
IBM article on Lua

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 13 (UPI) — Google is offering $20 million for the first lunar robot paid for with private funds, The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported Thursday.The company also offered a $5 million prize for the runner-up and $5 million bonuses for finding ice on the moon and other discoveries, the newspaper said.The competition is being conducted through the X PRIZE Foundation of Santa Monica, Calif.To win, a robot must do more than simply get to the moon. The terms of the competition require it to travel at least 500 meters on the lunar surface and transmit high-definition video images and data to Earth. . . . [read more Google offers $20 Millions for lunar robot ]

More information:
Wired Magazine: Google offers $20 Millions X Prize to put robot on the moon
Wired: How to win $20 million
Lunar Robot – Google Video

Surrounded by buzzing robots that end the session by performing in an orchestra, James McLurkin, a PhD student at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, talks about distributed robotics and swarm behavior to a packed house. His work has its roots in “swarm intelligence”—the study of collective behavior in decentralised, self-organised systems. Think of ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herding, fish schooling, and many other examples in nature.During the last few hundred million years, nature has perfected such interactions. Now, scientists such as McLurkin want to get a better understanding of how these biological processes work and apply this knowledge to programming robots for doing complex tasks in groups. Perhaps, this is the ultimate interpretation of the Wisdom of Crowds thesis: individuals don’t have to be smart to produce very smart group outcomes. Did somebody mention Wikipedia? . . .
[ more Robot Swarms Invade Kentucky ]

More information:
Particle Swarms
Ant Algorithms
James McLurkin personal website
Distributed Algorithms for Dispersion in Indoor Environments using a Swarm of Autonomous Mobile Robots ( pdf )
Using Cooperative Robots for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (pdf )

See also:
Airjelly ( water based jellyfish like robots ) wow crowds in Germany

In a room the size of a small kitchen, three researchers work amid a crush of computers, wiring, books and papers. At the centre of the room is what looks like the head and torso of some modern Frankenstein’s monster with the skin removed: a mass of wiring drooping off a skeletal structure, with wheels instead of legs and feet. The contraption at the computer science department at the University of Essex bears little resemblance to the sleek industrial robots familiar from films and factories; but it is one of the world’s most advanced automatons.And the researchers, led by Professor Owen Holland, are addressing a question as fundamental as any posed at the multi-billion dollar particle accelerator at Cern: can a machine be conscious?. . . [ more The Zombie engima ]

More information:
Cronos Robot Project
YouTube Video of Cronos Robot

A zombies best friend turns out to be Microsoft and ISPs (Internet Service Providers). It works like this. Three months ago, the American FBI announced that Operation Bot Roast had identified over a million compromised PCs, in scores of botnets. The FBI tried to get in touch with as many of these computer users as possible, and direct them to organizations and companies that can help them clean the zombie software out of their computers. Help can be had for free, although many of the compromised PCs were found to be clogged with all manner of malware (illegal software hidden on your machine to feed you ads or simply track what you do). But most of these PC owners could not be reached, or otherwise were unable to fix their computer. [ read more Information Warfare: Bot Roast Turns on its Master]

The FBI asked Microsoft to issue patches to these computers. Microsoft claimed it was too much trouble, the risk of breaking things on users computers was too great.

More information:
Researchers infilterate and ‘pollute’ Storm botnet
FBI ‘Bot Roast II: 1 million infected PCs, $20 million in losses and 8 indictments
FBI Operation Bot Roast
FBI Over 1 Million Potential Victims of Botnet Cyber Crime