Google developing Star Trek computer interface to rival Siri - VR-Zone

Google is developing a new computer interface inspired by technology seen in Star Trek, which could offer a more sophisticated alternative to Apple's Siri software.

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The jack of all trades company is working on what it called ?ubiquitous computing,? similar to the gadgets seen in Star Trek, which respond to user commands and questions.

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On the surface it might sound a lot like the personal assistant software Siri, but the key difference is that Google wants to push things beyond smartphones, so that users can simply ask a question at home and the answer will display on their Google Glasses screen, TV display, or even on a screen built into their refrigerator.

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?Why should someone stop their conversation because they're missing a tiny piece of information that you need to take that conversation further?? said Amit Singhal, VP and Senior Engineer of Search at Google. ?You have to pull out your phone. You have to unlock the phone. You have to type. Already you have lost valuable seconds and the conversation has become unnatural and awkward.?

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He predicts that within three to five years we will have ?a Star Trek assistant? and that Google has built ?baby steps? towards this reality. The company has been working hard on its Glasses project for many months, which will effectively be a smartphone built into a pair of glasses that can display content, make calls via voice commands, and present a more engaging computer experience without taking the user out of the everyday world. Building on this so that users are communicating with computers throughout their home or office will be a major step in computing and might bring science-fiction that bit closer to fact.

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The problem for such gadgets, and for Siri and its software rivals, is that computers often have a hard time understanding human commands, especially when they are phrased in a colloquial way or with an accent. Until this is addressed widespread adoption of such technology will always be a challenge.

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Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/google-developing-star-trek-computer-interface-to-rival-siri/17547.html

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IEEE RAS News - IROS 2012 Award Winners Announced

Posted on October 22, 2012

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IROS Harashima Award
Christian Laugier - Research Director, INRIA
For his contributions to Embedded Perception and Driving Decision for Intelligent Vehicles, and his leadership in?IROS conferences

NTF Award for Entertainment Robots and Systems
Winner:
Integration of Sound Source Localization and Separation to Improve Dialogue Management on a Robot -?Maxime Frechette, Dominic L?tourneau, Jean MarcValin, Francois Michaud

Finalists:
Learning a Projective Mapping to Locate Animals in Video Using RFID -?Pipei Huang, Rahul Sawhney, Daniel Walker, Kim Wallen, Aaron Bobick, Shiyin Qin, Tucker Balch
Towards Learning of Safety Knowledge from Human Demonstrations -?Philipp Ertle, MichelTokic, HolgerVoos, Dirk S?ffker
Psychological Experiments on Avoidance Action?Characteristics for Estimating Avoidability of Harm to Eyes from Robots -?Takamasa Hattori, Yoji Yamada, Shuji Mori, Shogo Okamoto, Susumu Hara

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JTCF Novel Technology Paper Award for Amusement Culture
Winner:
Synergy?based Optimal Design of Hand Pose Sensing -?Matteo Bianchi, Paolo Salaris, Antonio Bicchi

Finalists:
Listen to Body?s Message: Quadruped Robot That Fully Exploits Physical Interaction between Legs -?Dai Owaki, Leona Morikawa,Akio Ishiguro
Armrest Joystick -Mechanism Design and Basic Experiments -?Hiroaki Ishida,Tetsuo Hagiwara, Koji Ueda, Shigeo Hirose

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RoboCup Best Paper Award
Not presented this year

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IROS CoTeSys Cognitive Robotics Best Paper Award
Winner:
Learning Concurrent Motor Skills in Versatile Solution Spaces -?Christian Daniel, Gerhard Neumann, Jan Peters

Finalists:
DART: A Particle-based Method for Generating Easy-to-Follow Directions -?RobertGoeddel, Edwin Olson
Fuzzy Optimisation Based Symbolic Grounding for Service Robots -?Beisheng Liu, Dayou Li, Renxi Qiu, Shuang Gu
Global Structure Histogram -?Marianna Madry, Carl Henrik Ek, Renaud Detry, Kaiyu Hang, Danica Kragic
Iteratively Learning to Classify Objects by Touch with Online Spatio-Temporal Experts -?Harold Soh,Yanyu Su,Yiannis Demiris
I?ll Keep You in Sight: Finding a Good Position to Observe a Person -?Jens Kessler, Daniel Iser, Horst-MichaelGross

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ICROS Best Application Paper Award
Winner:?
Robust Acoustic Source Localization of Emergency Signals from Micro Air Vehicles -?Meysam Basiri, Felix Schill, Pedro Lima, Dario Floreano

Finalists:
Design of TELESAR V for Transferring Bodily Consciousness in Telexistence - Charith Lasantha Fernando, Masahiro Furukawa, Tadatoshi Kurogi, Sho Kamuro, Katsunari Sato, Kouta Minamizawa,?Susumu Tachi
''Open Sesame!'' Adaptive Force/Velocity Control for Opening Unknown Doors -?Yiannis Karayiannidis, Claes Christian Smith, Francisco Vina, Petter Ogren, Danica Kragic
Experiments in Quasi-Static Manipulation of a Planar Elastic Rod -?Dennis Matthews, Timothy Bretl?
6D Workspace Constraints for Physical Human-Robot Interaction using Invariance Control with Chattering?Reduction -?Melanie Kimmel, Martin Lawitzky, Sandra Hirche

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IROS 2012 Best Video Award (Special Award)
Winner:
Intrinsically Elastic Robots: The Key to Human Like Performance -?Sami Haddadin, et al.

Finalists:
SFly: Swarm of Micro Flying Robots -?MarkusW. Achtelik, et al.
Spatially Targeted Communication and SelfAssembly -?Nithin Mathews, et al.

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IROS 2012 Best Jubilee Video Award
Winners:
Ultra High-Speed Robot Based on 1kHz Vision System -?M. Ishikawa et al.
Variable Impedance Actuators: Moving the Robots of Tomorrow -?B. Vanderborght et al.

Finalists:
The Power of Prediction: Robots That Read Intentions -?E. Bicho et al.
Video: RoboCup Robot Soccer History 1997 ? 2011 -?P. Stone et al.
Development of Robotic Hands: The UB Hand Evolution -?G.Palli, et al.
10 Years in the Cooperation of Unmanned Aerial Systems -?A.Ollero et al.

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IROS 2012 Best Student Paper Award
Winner:
Movement of Artificial Bacterial Flagella in Heterogeneous Viscous Environments at the Microscale -?Kathrin Eva Peyer?

Finalist:
Robust Acoustic Source Localization of Emergency Signals from MicroAirVehicles -?Meysam Basiri
Online Learning of Concepts and Words Using Multimodal LDA and Hierarchical Pitman?-Yor Language Model -?Takaya Araki
Design of TELESAR V for Transferring Bodily Consciousness inTelexistence -?Charith Lasantha Fernando
6D Workspace Constraints for Physical HumanRobot Interaction Using Invariance Control with Chattering Reduction -?Melanie Kimmel
Learning Concurrent Motor Skills in Versatile Solution Spaces -?Christian Daniel
A New Kinect-Based Guidance Mode for Upper Limb Robot-Aided Neurorehabilitation -?Claudio Loconsole
Biologically Inspired Reactive Climbing Behavior of Hexapod Robots -?DennisGoldschmidt

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IROS 2011 Best Paper Award?
Winner:
A High-Accuracy Visual Marker Based on a Microlens Array -?Hideyuki Tanaka, Yasushi Sumi, Yoshio Matsumoto

Finalists:
Bio-Inspired TauPilot for Automated Aerial Docking and Landing of Unmanned Aircraft Systems -?Farid Kendoul, BilalAhmedArain
Vision-Based Autonomous Mapping and Exploration Using a Quadrotor MAV -?Friedrich Fraundorfer, Lionel Heng, Dominik Honegger, Gim Hee Lee, Lorenz Meier, Petri Tanskanen, Marc Pollefeys
Learning Concurrent Motor Skills in Versatile Solution Spaces -?Christian Daniel,Gerhard Neumann, Jan Peters
Biologically Inspired Reactive Climbing Behavior of Hexapod Robots -?Dennis Goldschmidt, Frank Hesse, Florentin W?rg?tter, Poramate Manoonpong
Classification with Probabilistic Targets -?Asher Bender, Stefan BernardWilliams, Oscar Pizarro
Human-Humanoid Haptic Joint Object Transportation Case Study -?Antoine Bussy, Abderrahmane Kheddar, Andr? Crosnier, Fran?ois Keith
A High-Accuracy Visual Marker Based on a Microlens Array -?Hideyuki Tanaka, Yasushi Sumi, Yoshio Matsumoto
A Resonant Electrostatic Induction Motor with Piezoelectric Elements as Inductors Connected to its Slider Electrodes -?Ryosuke Saito, Takuya Hosobata, Akio Yamamoto, Toshiro Higuchi
Exploiting and modeling local 3D structure for predicting object locations -?AlperAydemir, Patric Jensfelt

Source: http://www.ieee-ras.org/news/iros-2012-award-winners-announced.html

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Bullying May Be Linked to Mental Disorders - Health News and ...

MONDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) ?
Children with mental health disorders are more likely than other kids to be bullies, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed data from children ages 6 to 17 included in the 2007 U.S. National Survey of Children?s Health and found that more than 15 percent were identified as bullies by a parent or guardian, and that children with mental health disorders were three times more likely than their peers to bully other children.

The researchers also focused on the link between specific mental health disorders and bullying. Depression was associated with a three-fold increased risk of being a bully, while a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder increased the risk six times.

The study was scheduled for presentation Monday at an American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in New Orleans.

?These findings highlight the importance of providing psychological support not only to victims of bullying, but to bullies as well,? study author Dr. Frances Turcotte-Benedict, a Brown University master?s of public health student and a fellow at Hasbro Children?s Hospital in Providence, R.I., said in an AAP news release.

?In order to create successful anti-bullying prevention and intervention programs, there certainly is a need for more research to understand the relationship more thoroughly, and especially, the risk profile of childhood bullies,? she added.

Bullying was defined as repetitive aggression involving a difference of power between the victim and perpetrator.

A 2011 nationwide survey found 20 percent of U.S. high school students were bullied during the preceding 12 months. It is well-established that victims of bullying are at increased risk for mental health illness and suicide, but few studies have examined the mental health status of bullies.

Data and conclusions presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

You can learn more about bullying at stopbullying.gov.

? Robert Preidt

SOURCE: American Academy of Pediatrics, news release, Oct. 22, 2012

Last Updated: Oct. 22, 2012

Copyright ? 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.health.com/2012/10/22/bullying-may-be-linked-to-mental-disorders/

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Mr. Lid, Storage Containers with Lids Attached Review

These sturdy, BPA-free plastic containers come with attached lids so you will never lose them. Once you fill a container, close the lid and make sure it is secure. That?s it. Your items are now sealed up in an airtight container. This helps keep your food fresh and prevents messy spills in your home (or lunchbox!).

This container has a?middle cup for you can put your dip in.?

The cup is also?removable?if you?don't?wish to use it.

Want to bring a salad with you to work for lunch? No problem! Mr. Lid has that covered with this container.

pour some dressing in the middle cup put salad around it and snap the lid closed. ?You?re?dressing with be safe and sound in the cup for use when your ready. ?Mr. Lids airtight containers are unlike?other containers where the dressing leaks all over your salad making it no good.

This is a Mr. Lid container open you can see how the lid stays attached.?

Durable and long lasting this Mr Lid is a must have!

I pulled and pulled and Mr Lid stayed attached to its container.

Patented attached lid design Mr. Lid.

Mr Lid is Dishwasher, and?Microwave?safe which is a must for our family of 5. ?were always on the go. Camping,?picnicking, Girl Scouts?etc.? ?Because of this not every night are we able spend at home around the dinner table. But Mr. Lid makes food on the go easy and portable with out spilling or making a mess. ?Mr Lid?doesn't?leak either so when we are on a camping trip and the ice starts to melt we?don't?have to worry about our food becoming wet and ruined.?

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company. I did not receive financial compensation for my post but did receive the product(s) mentioned above free of charge from the manufacturer or PR Agency and was under no obligation to write a positive review.

Source: http://www.bethannshelpfulsavings.com/2012/10/mr-lid-storage-containers-with-lids.html

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Republican Party gives Romney financial advantage over Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney held a financial advantage over President Barack Obama heading into October thanks to strong fundraising by the Republican Party that will allow its candidate to spend more on the last stretch toward the November 6 election.

Campaign finance disclosures show the Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee and the fund they use jointly had $183.1 million in cash on hand at the end of September, more than Obama and the Democratic Party, who had $149.1 million.

Obama's campaign on its own has dwarfed Romney's in the money stakes in recent months, raising $136.2 million in September, according to a Reuters tally of latest reports. The Romney campaign alone raised much less: $76.1 million, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

But when taken together with the RNC, Romney had more to spend on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts as the campaign entered its last lap with the two men running neck and neck in polls.

September was one of the toughest months for Romney as he lagged in the polls and suffered from the release of a secretly taped video showing him make remarks that 47 percent of the population who receive government benefits are "victims."

Nonetheless, he continued to grow his small-donor base in September and raised nearly a third of his money from checks of less than $200, Saturday's filings showed.

The FEC filings do not account for what the campaign said was a big uptick in online donations after Romney's strong performance in the first presidential debate on October 3.

Romney also has an advantage in support from "Super PACs" and other outside groups such as Republican strategist Karl Rove's nonprofit Crossroads GPS, which funds anti-Obama advertisements.

Republican-aligned groups spent $84.1 million on ads from September 10 through October 18, while pro-Democratic groups laid out less, $23.1 million, despite a strong fundraising month by pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action, according to Reuters analysis of spending disclosures to the FEC.

The lynchpin of Obama's fundraising effort has been the campaign's ability to collect donations on its own as opposed to the Democratic National Committee or outside-spending groups.

Campaign finance experts say Obama's more direct control of money offers greater flexibility in how to use it. Parties have limits on how much they can coordinate with a candidate's campaign on spending and TV stations promise campaigns - not outside groups or parties - the lowest prices on ads.

However, the ad barrage of the 2012 campaign has boosted prices on precious advertising time in crucial swing states and local TV station managers say campaigns are paying little attention to how much an ad costs as long as it airs in the little time left before Election Day.

Obama's campaign spent a whopping $111.4 million in September, the vast majority of that on the production and airing of ads, according to Reuters analysis of FEC filings. Romney's campaign, by comparison, spent $54.7 million, also mostly on advertising.

SMALL DONOR CHASE

Obama this week released a list of "bundlers" - people raising $50,000 or more for his re-election effort - indicating that so far in this campaign, they helped him with at least $180.1 million. Romney has not disclosed his bundlers.

Romney held his last fundraiser in Florida on Saturday and the Obama campaign had its last one earlier this month.

Obama's prowess with small donors remained on a level with his record-setting 2008 White House bid as he relied on people giving $200 or less for more than a third of his cash this year.

Dollar-to-dollar, Romney's small-donor haul was at least $12.4 million versus $49.5 million for the president, according to a Reuters analysis of data provided to the FEC.

Small donor enthusiasm for Romney lagged through the summer months as he struggled to coalesce the party after the Republican primaries, said Bill Allison, editorial director at the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for campaign finance transparency.

"Republicans are much more excited about him now," Allison said. Republican small donors include many evangelical conservatives and "they have become the forgotten group in the 2012 campaign," he said.

The RNC had $82.6 million in September, trouncing its Democratic counterpart, which had $4.6 million after taking out a $10.5 million loan.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Florida; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republican-party-gives-romney-financial-advantage-over-obama-033402439--sector.html

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Young farmers struggle to buy Michigan farmland | Capital News ...

By ANJANA SCHROEDER

Capital News Service

LANSING ? Young farmers don?t always have the opportunity to buy or rent suitable land nor have the capital to acquire enough land to be profitable, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Educational programs help young farmers face these challenges.

Tom Nugent, director of field operations for Michigan Farm Bureau, said its Young Farmers program, started in 1935, is designed to give beginners a solid foundation for a future in farming.

The program consists of 18-35 year-olds but new farmers older than 35 are able to participate, Nugent said.

The USDA defines a young farmer as one with 10 years or less experience operating farms.

Ryan Vanderwal of Lake City went through Farm Bureau?s Young Farmer program and now owns his own dairy supply company, Star City IBA.

Vanderwal said he joined Farm Bureau because it was an organization that had a political voice for the agriculture industry.

Nugent also said family dynamics can be a challenge for some young farmers. He said, ?Families need succession planning so they know who and how the family business will continue.?

The director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jamie Clover Adams, said 97 percent of farming is family-owned.

For brothers Herb and Greg Herbruck, farming is what they grew up doing on the
Herbruck?s Poultry Ranch in Saranac. ?Dad was a gifted and godly man who gave us a lot of opportunity and we learned we all liked working together.?

Not all five siblings chose to work for the family business, Herb said. The oldest brother, Stephen, is the president, Greg is the executive vice president and the youngest, Herb, is vice president of operations. ?We have a very similar vision for how we want to do business and how much risk we want to take.?

The brothers said they can appreciate how hard it could be for a young person to say I want to go and start in the agriculture business. Farmers need ?millions of dollars of start-up capital,? Greg said.

Herb said their experience on the farm and the reputation of Herbruck?s Poultry Ranch has really helped them succeed. ?We grew up doing it. It was engrained in us. We do it now because it?s the only thing we know.?
Some young farmers might start producing crops for the large established farms.

Herbruck?s farm has an egg production contract for farmers who produce eggs for it. Through this contract, Herbruck?s provides supplies for egg handling, management training and support, marketing, technical training and more and the farmer produces eggs based on itsspecifications.

Rob Vanderzwagg of Hamilton raises chicks for Herbruck?s, about 10 percent of what he does.

Vanderzwagg said he used to work for a farmer down the street from him in high school and eventually bought his farm and expanded.

Nugent said some members of the Young Farmers program are already a part of their family operation but want to carve out their own niche. Others don?t have a family farm but want to be farm owners.

Nugent said the program offers benefits and resources young farmers need to create a business plan and take steps to owning their own farm.

Having a business plan is very important. If a young farmer is starting off and has a good business plan, Farm Credit lenders will give young farmers a loan, Nugent said, which can help them face the challenge of having enough capital to buy land.

Vanderwal said the program, ?helped a lot with networking and knowing people within the agriculture industry.?

The program offers ?networking opportunities with other young farmers who are going through the same struggles, opportunities to connect with the resources they need for their own business and create a business plan,? Nugent said.

Source: http://news.jrn.msu.edu/capitalnewsservice/2012/10/19/young-farmers-struggle-to-buy-michigan-farmland/

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You Are Old Now, Says GOG?s Massive Interplay Games Sale, But That?s Okay

GOG (formerly known as Good Old Games) is having a huge Interplay sale that gives you 32 games for $34.99 (or more), or anywhere between $13.95 and $34.99 for 20 titles, or 8 games for whatever you want to pay under that. This is an amazing deal that will get you some classic titles you may well have grown up with. And that could make you feel old, but maybe good also. Nostalgia.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/L2gTV5IbHBQ/

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