Wal-Mart Stores Inc. signage is displayed outside of a store in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on ... [+] Friday, May 15, 2015. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expected to release first-quarter earnings results before the opening of U.S. financial markets on May 19. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
Walmart has been investing heavily in robots, such as for cleaning floors. But the company's efforts have not been without their challenges.
This week Walmart terminated its engagement with Bossa Nova Robotics, which is a developer of robots to track inventory in store aisles. This decision came after testing and using the technology for the past five years (about 500 robots had been in operation).
Many things are taking place:
Robots help seniors learn to use technology in South Korea - UPI.com
The Seoul city government is trying to help bridge the digital divide with a new program that uses specially designed robots to teach seniors how to use smartphones and touchscreen kiosks. The program, which will teach 3,000 participants over the next three months at 17 facilities, launched last week. Advertisement
"Our goal is closing the digital gap between young people and seniors," said Shin Eun-kyong, business outreach manager of the Seoul Digital Foundation, the city agency that is running the program in conjunction with five local district governments.
Disney unveiled a robot with the same gaze as humans - Business Insider
Now, Disney Research has built upon the audio-animatronics human bust by giving it the ability to mimic human-like eye gaze and head movements.
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The copying of these basic functions gives the robot its ability to look human-like without being verbal.
For example, the "read" state is its default and has eye movements that make it appear as if it's reading a book at its torso. Meanwhile, the "engage" state means the robot is looking at a "person-of-interest" with movements in both its eyes and head.
It's time to rethink the legal treatment of robots | MIT Technology Review
A pandemic is raging with devastating consequences, and long-standing problems with racial bias and political polarization are coming to a head. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help us deal with these challenges. However, AI's risks have become increasingly apparent.
Consider the American tax system . AI and people are engaging in the same sorts of commercially productive activities—but the businesses for which they work are taxed differently depending on who, or what, does the work. For instance, automation allows businesses to avoid employer wage taxes. So if a chatbot costs a company as much as before taxes as an employee who does the same job (or even a bit more), it actually costs the company less to automate after taxes.
And here's another article:
Choreographer explores the future of robotic movement - Baltimore Sun
In a messy warehouse, a dancer's silhouetted spine and legs begin to undulate. Illuminated only by a spotlight attached to a machine, she begins to move, tracing shapes with her arms.
But then something odd happens: The spotlight starts to move of its own accord. Responding to the dancer, it finds its own rhythm and sways side to side. It soon becomes unclear who is leading whom. What is clear is that a dance is being made, and that one partner is 9 feet high, more than 500 pounds. Called ABB IRB 6700, it is one of the largest industrial robots in the world.
Robots can now understand what you are saying to follow commands | New Scientist
Telling a robot where to go without having to speak like a robot – that is, with so-called natural language commands – is now a lot easier, thanks to a new model based on how people actually speak when giving directions.
Currently, many robots use simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) to know where they are in a given landscape. They have to concurrently keep track of their location on a map, while constantly updating their knowledge of the environment.
Robots Can Finally Answer, Are You Talking To Me? | Hackaday
Currently, smart assistants use a simple race to see who heard it first. The reasoning is that the device you are closest to will likely hear it first. However, in situations with echos or when you’re equidistant from multiple devices, the outcome can seem arbitrary to a user.
The implementation of DoV uses an Extra-Trees Classifier from the python sklearn toolkit. Several other machine learning algorithms were considered, but ultimately efficiency won out and Extra-Trees was selected. Another interesting facet of the research was determining what facing really means. The team had humans ‘listeners’ stand in for smart assistants.
Artist Sougwen Chung wanted collaborators, so she designed and built her own AI robots | The
NEW YORK — Sougwen Chung looks down at her silent, stubborn collaborator with a mix of affection and mild vexation.
“I need to debug the unit,” says the 35-year-old artist. “It won’t cooperate with me today.” She strokes the silver-and-white contraption as if she’s soothing a child. Clearly, it is more to her than a “unit.” It’s a robotic arm that paints, powered by artificial intelligence.
Meet Doug. Full name: Drawing Operations Unit, Generation Four. Chung uses it and other robots in her performance-based artworks. She and the robots paint together on large canvasses, part team effort, part improvised dance.
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