intelligent

GDC: What's next for video game AI?

SAN FRANCISCO--Despite video games allowing players to do things they would never be able to do in reality, next-generation artificial intelligence is still striving to be distinctly human. Even if that means being boring.

Three next-gen AI demos at Wednesday's Game Developer's Conference showed off things that would seem like every day occurrences. But if their creators can get them to work, this distinct mundanity is a crowning achievement.

Richard Evans of Maxis and EA fame was the AI lead on the Sims 3. His demoed two new types of AIs, the first--called "Sim Tribe" allows developers to create their own societies. These societies can work on the same social rules as real cultures, meaning that if a player ventures into a different location, the other nonplayable characters (NPCs) will change their habits accordingly.

In terms of the demo, this paradigm shift was with eating, which became a social taboo. This acted out comically as characters could not eat until everyone else was outside of viewing distance. Evans joked that you could also reverse the rules so that going to the bathroom in public became an every day activity. What made the entire system more interesting was that there were also societal punishments built in, so that if players or other NPCs alike disobeyed the social norms, it would change how other characters interacted with them.

Evans' second demo was something equally ambitious that gave NPCs "very long term plans." The idea is that developers can give NPCs hundreds of actions that the characters can (and want) to do in their every day lives. This is as opposed to the three to four actions Evans said most developers will program out for an NPC. … Read more

Government warns of looming cyberthreats

White House Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair says the U.S. is severely under the threat of greater cyberattacks but believes we can rise to the challenge.

Blair appeared before a Senate panel on Tuesday to deliver the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community (PDF). A statement of Blair's remarks to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was released for the record. While he focused mostly on non-cyberterrorism and similar threats, he led off with a stark report on the growing dangers and challenges of cyberwarfare.

Seeing the recent attacks against Google as a "… Read more

Suzuki Burgman scooter runs on fuel cell

LONDON--A new hydrogen-powered fuel cell hybrid electric scooter will enable city commuting ease without harming the environment, the chief executive of Intelligent Energy said at the bike's launch here.

The Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter, made by clean power systems company Intelligent Energy and Suzuki Motor, will be tested in Loughborough from this month, with further road tests planned for London later this year.

"We see a market pull for more energy-efficient products and there is a real drive to bring hydrogen vehicles to market en masse by 2015," Henri Winand, Intelligent Energy's chief executive, told Reuters in an interview Wednesday.

Motorcycle manufacturers face a clampdown on air pollution and climate-warming emissions in the European Union, and the industry says it is ready for pan-European rules.

Climate officials of the 27-country bloc have put transport emissions at the top of their agenda for 2010 as the EU pursues its goal of cutting carbon dioxide to a fifth below 1990 levels over the next decade.

Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels but one of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fueling stations.

The Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter is fueled by a cylinder of hydrogen, which reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. A lithium-ion battery and fuel cell provide the vehicle's power and the only gas emitted through the exhaust is water vapor.

Unlike other fuel cell vehicles, the battery does not need recharging. It can recharge itself when accelerating or decelerating and continues to produce power as long as it has hydrogen and oxygen. … Read more

Friday Poll: Perfect date with Roxxxy the sex robot?

This week our collective hard drives (ahem) were titillated by news of Roxxxy, a life-size, artificially intelligent, and fully functional sex robot billed as the first of its kind in the world. Roxxxy comes with five preset personalities with names such as "Wild Wendy," "Mature Martha," and "Frigid Farrah."

New Jersey-based inventor Douglas Hines of True Companion says Roxxxy can converse about topics including soccer and can sense when she's being touched, thanks to her tactile sensors. She's also wirelessly linked to the Internet, and users can customize her personalities and share … Read more

How world's first sex robot will change your life

I am moved beyond earthly distractions to discover that the world's most practical intellects, as we first told you earlier Monday, have conjured up a fully functioning sex robot.

On its Web site, True Companion declares quite forcefully that Roxxxy "knows your name, your likes and dislikes, can carry on a discussion, and expresses her love to you and be your loving friend. She can talk to you, listen to you, and feel your touch."

I can feel so many of you, frustrated with your current emotional and pheromonal situation, already logging on to this site (please be of age. I'd hate to see you get into trouble) before I have given you any more details.

But you need to know more details. Roxxxy has dark hair. She wears a negligee. And her skin allegedly feels like, well, skin.

Wait, wait. She is 5-foot, 7-inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, and has five personalities. Yes, she is just like that girl who ignored your deft humor in Bar Italia last Friday, but better. Because Roxxxy is customizable.

If you don't like dark hair, you can make her blond, or ginger or, please try this, bald. You can change her race and even the dimensions of her cleavage.

The Telegraph quoted Douglas Hines, Roxxxy's Dr. Frankenstein, as saying, "She can't vacuum, she can't cook but she can do almost anything else if you know what I mean."

Do you know what he means? I fear I do. I fear you do.… Read more

MIT MAV jockeys: We don't need no stinkin' GPS

Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) may be small, but they're costly, so researchers have devised ways for them to fly in GPS-denied urban and indoor environments where they could otherwise get lost or crash.

Existing highly-precise, non-GPS navigation units are too large, heavy, and expensive to install on an MAV. But the Robust Robotics Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory addressed this problem by developing algorithms that allow a miniature robo-quadrocopter to estimate their relative position, identify a clear path and then fly through dense air space.

"The size, weight, and budget limitations of … Read more

EcoFactor pings thermostats to save energy

Start-up EcoFactor is looking at home energy management as a big math problem.

The Silicon Valley-based company on Tuesday is formally launching and is announcing that the largest utilty in Texas, Oncor, has signed on with EcoFactor's residential energy-management service for three years.

There are several companies developing Web-based software or displays to show consumers, in more detail than a monthly bill, how much energy they are using.

EcoFactor's software, by contrast, works behind the scenes by gathering data from a two-way thermostat and then analyzing the information to optimize heating and cooling systems, which often account for … Read more

Mouse costs more than a laptop (almost $1,200)

Great. So you sprang for an uber-expensive laptop the likes of the Sony Vaio X or Dell Adamo. But what's this? You dare put your el cheapo $50 mouse next to that gorgeous and overpriced portable?

If you do not want to be arrested by the fashion police, then only this wireless mouse by Dutch firm Intelligent Design will do. To quote from the press release, the ID Mouse is made from "grade 1 titanium and high-quality plastic resin" and has a neodymium scroll wheel. Using the standard Bluetooth protocol, it requires two AAA-size batteries to power … Read more

Strange puzzle game

Random Intelligence Test will seem like a joke to most users since it is an intelligence test that didn't tell us how intelligent we are. Its frustrating design and lack of direction ensures this game is a flop.

This program was one unintelligent headache after another, starting with its lack of a Help file and any direction as to how the game should be played. We tried moving the multicolored balls around the gridlike game board for several minutes without understanding why our scores kept changing. Eventually, we realized that linking up same-colored balls earned points. However, we never … Read more

British Telecom picks Jaspersoft for analytics

If you need further proof that open-source applications are ready for prime time, take today's news from open-source business intelligence company Jaspersoft, which announced that British Telecom is using its business intelligence suite to support more than 8 million voice mail subscribers.

BT and Unisys, a longtime Jaspersoft partner, say they chose Jaspersoft for its modular design, which reduces maintenance and cost and gives them customization abilities that improve capacity planning.

The deal with BT also represents how important a solid channel strategy is for open-source software companies.

Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile has in the past mentioned that the … Read more