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AI Game Programming Wisdom Approximately 70 articles by Artificial Intelligence programmers discuss the skills and concepts needed to apply AI to game development. More information at Amazon US UK |

Robots Everywhere Rivals, Afghanistan Testing, and Coexistence
Robots Everywhere The this may be one of the things to watch out for in Robotics for 2003. The technology is not be very complicated at all, but the idea is new and the well marketed! Fundamentally, a few physiological sensors are placed on human volunteers and the robots can tell their mood based on this information. Wired - Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It ABC News - Automatons Acting on Attitudes The NY Times has a two page report of the robotics company born out of MIT: iRobot -- Making Robots, With Dreams of Henry Ford. Things such as testing the robots in extreme conditions (Afghanistan), a busy 2002 year, and the increase in popularity of home robotics are discussed. News.com has an article about their rivals: Evolution Robotics; Robots for the Masses. Basically, they devised the new navigation system which is extremely cheap. The key is a new localisation process which typically requires expensive sensors to be precise enough. ER's approach uses very cheap WebCams -- powered by new technology: visual simultaneous localisation and mapping. If it does half what they claim, it's still an improvement! They also sent along this press release with two other major news announcements: A landmark licensing deal with Bandai Co., the third largest toy company in the world The debut of the ER2 personal robot, and information regarding the Evolution Robotics Software Platform (ESRP) The Daily Yomuri has also been busy. The Japanese government is apparently dishing out funding indirectly for Afghanistan -- Govt to Help Develop Robot Mine Hunters. There is also a New Year's special about the coexistence of humans and robots: Nation Adjusting to Robots, and Robots Offer Learning Opportunity. The Japan Times is taking a more rhetorical approach -- Humanoid Robots: Companions or Just Costly Toys? Definitely costly toys! To finish on a low note from the San Mateo County Times, an A.I. Research Pioneer Dies at the age of 85. The man was Charles Rosen, know for his Shakey robot, the first mobile robot that could reason about its actions. "In 1966, Shakey was equipped with a television camera, range finder, collision detectors, and a reasoning program that allowed it to execute simple tasks such as moving a box around a room." Condolences go out to his friends and relatives. | NewsCaster 79 posts. Friday 10 January, 11:09 Reply