AI Is Making Robots More Fun
The market size of physical and interactive social and entertainment robots is expected to hit US$3.7 billion by 2023.
Tag: robotics
Playstation “Father” Ken Kutaragi Becomes CEO of Tokyo-Based Robotics Startup
Former Sony executive Ken Kutaragi, known to be the “father” of PlayStation, has been named CEO of Ascent Robotics.
Cheetah Mobile Deploys 8,000 Shopping Mall Robots Boosting Offline Retail
Cheetah Mobile has successfully deployed 8,000 AiM Robots (AiM: Attract, interact and Mindset) in 962 shopping malls across 33cities in China.
Nigerian Government to Set Up the Nation’s Centre for AI and Robotics to Empower Students
The Nigerian government announced a plan to establish the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Nigeria (CFAIR).
CUHK & Facebook Demonstrate SOTA Monocular 3D Hand Motion Capture Method ‘FrankMocap’
Researchers from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Facebook Reality Labs, and Facebook AI Research have unveiled a state-of-the-art monocular 3D hand motion capture method, FrankMocap, which can estimate both 3D hand and body motions from in-the-wild monocular inputs with faster speed and better accuracy than previous approaches.
Semantic Segmentation Boosts Kiwifruit-Harvesting Robot Performance
Facing a shortage of seasonal workers and rising labour costs, kiwifruit growers may get some relief from robots equipped with a new AI-powered fruit detection system.
AI Startup Covariant.ai Building ‘Universal AI for Robots’
Covariant last month secured a US$40 million Series B funding round led by Index Ventures to push its total funding to US$67 million.
‘ClearGrasp’ Helps Robots See and Grasp Transparent Objects
Google teamed up with researchers from Synthesis AI and Columbia University to introduce a deep learning approach called ClearGrasp as a first step to teaching machines how to “see” transparent materials.
Meet the Living Robot; PigeonBot With Real Feathers; DeepMind Introduces AlphaFold; PyTorch 1.4 Released
Synced Global AI Weekly January 19th
CES 2020 Roundup: Tech Giants, Future Mobility, Smart Home and More
Synced Global AI Weekly January 12th
Robot Arms Selling Huawei Phones in New Unmanned Store
In a scene that looks like it came from a science fiction movie, a pair of robot arms twist and turn overhead as they serve shoppers in Huawei’s new SOTA staffless Wuhan Optics Valley retail outlet.
2019 in Review: 10 AI Failures
Synced 10 AI Failures of 2019
Japanese Scientist Insists His Robot Twin Is Not Creepy
In an exclusive interview with Synced, the 56-year-old professor shared his thoughts on humanoids, human nature, human-robot interaction, knowledge and intelligence.
A Researcher Is Sheathing Smart Devices in ‘Skin’
A new paper from researchers at the University of Bristol, Telecomm ParisTech and Sorbonne University introduces a multi-layer, silicone “SkinOn” membrane that mimics the layers of human skin.
Running an Industrial Robotics Software Startup Is Not Getting Easier
After running the industrial robot operating system startup “Cobot” for three years, founder Miao Li has decided to axe 98 percent of the company’s “fancy services” and just focus on drug logistics and sorting mushrooms.
Get a Grip! MIT Boosts Robot Grasping
The MIT researchers’ novel method can speed up the grasp-planning process from more than 10 minutes to less than a second.
Robots to Handle Rubik’s Cube, Push Stuff Around, Build a Lunar Base
Synced Global AI Weekly October 20th
OpenAI Robot Hand: Today Rubik’s Cube, Tomorrow the Real World?
We’ve lost the brain race, but humans still have unmatched dexterity, right? Wrong. OpenAI’s humanlike five-fingered gripper Dactyl just single-handedly solved a Rubik’s cube.
Free (Robot) Hugs! An Embracing Multimodal Dataset
In an attempt to unlock the science behind hugs, a team of researchers from Arizona State University slapped wearable sensors on 33 humans and collected data on their more than 350 huggings with the humanoid remote-controlled robot “Baxter.”
IEEE Ranks Robot Creepiness: Sophia Is Not Even Close to the Top
Based on users’ votes, IEEE Spectrum also compiles rankings of today’s Top Rated, Most Wanted, and Creepiest Robots. Join Synced as we take a stroll through the uncanny valley and meet the world’s top-three creepiest robots.
Why AI Is Reading Your Resume and What Can You Do About It
Artificial intelligence can help companies navigate a global human resource market that is projected to reach US$30 billion by 2025, due in large part to technological proliferation.
Robot Masters String Puppetry
A group of researchers from ETH Zurich have introduced a robotic system that can perform animation of real-world string puppets, aka marionettes.
AI x Global 500 Healthcare Companies | Drug Supply, Wearables & Glucose Monitoring
In the late 2000s Fortune Global 500 healthcare companies ramped up AI deployment in the industry, from in-hospital diagnosis and treatment to drug supply chain and out-of-hospital scenarios.
AI Visionary Nils Nilsson Dies
Respected AI pioneer and visionary Nils John Nilsson passed away early this morning at age 86.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot Toughens Up, Hauls a Truck
In a YouTube video released today, Spot looks a lot more like a workhorse, harnessed up and hauling a box truck up a hill.
Humans Call GG! OpenAI Five Bots Beat Top Pros OG in Dota 2
After eight-months of development efforts, the “Open AI Five” exacted their revenge today against one of the world’s top teams in a highly anticipated best-of-three 5v5 Dota 2 showdown in San Francisco.
Robots Vs Robocalls
Robots pitching politics, charities, sales, surveys, and scams of every stripe and in every tongue. Increasingly that’s the voice on the other end of a global citizen’s next incoming telephone call.
MWC 2019: Spotlight on AI & Robotics Innovations
Synced Global AI Weekly March 3rd
Spotlight on AI & Robotics Innovations at MWC 2019
Every year as the calendar turns from February to March, the world’s leading electronics and telecommunications companies, startups, inventors, and a herd of tech journalists and analysts head to the Mobile World Congress.
After Mastering Go and StarCraft, DeepMind Takes on Soccer
Having notched impressive victories over human professionals in Go, Atari Games, and most recently StarCraft 2 — Google’s DeepMind team has now turned its formidable research efforts to soccer. In a paper released last week, the UK AI company demonstrates a novel machine learning method that trains a team of AI agents to play a simulated version of “the beautiful game.”
AI Gaming Gets Physical: MIT Robot Plays Jenga!
There’s a lot more to a friendly game of Jenga than meets the eye. Strategies are informed by a complex set of tactile and visual stimuli — by touching a block and observing the tower, we not only see but also feel our actions and their consequences. The MIT Jenga robot thus marks an important step in AI’s transition to the physical world.
The Weird & the Wacky at CES 2019
Every January, thousands of companies head to Las Vegas to launch new products at CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the world’sContinue Reading
AI Biweekly: Smarter Responses from Amazon and Google; Innovations in Robotics
In the past two weeks, news related to the field of human-computer interaction and voice interaction has been focused on technology giants Amazon and Google. Amazon upgraded its Fire TV Cube and the Amazon Music system, which enhances the diversity of voice interactions.
2018 in Review: 10 AI Failures
Last December Synced compiled its first “Artificial Intelligence Failures” recap of AI gaffes from the previous year. AI has achieved remarkable progress, and many scientists dream of creating the Master Algorithm proposed by Pedro Domingos — which can solve all problems envisioned by humans.
Fei-Fei Li’s Stanford Team Is Crowdsourcing Robot Training
Sorting a bunch of differently coloured toy trucks and action figures seems like child’s play, right? Unfortunately this remains a challenging task in the world of machine learning. So why not have humans simply show the machines how to do it?
Watch This Boston Dynamics Robot Performs Incredible Parkour
The robotics star company Boston Dynamics today posted a Youtube video of its humanoid robot Atlas doing parkour. It was a wow moment when Atlas smoothly jumps over the log and leaps up steps (40 cm step height) without breaking its pace.
Get a Grip! Berkeley Targets Dexterous Manipulation Using Deep RL
UC Berkeley researchers have published a paper demonstrating how Deep Reinforcement Learning can be used to control dexterous robot hands for complicated tasks. Learning Complex Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Demonstrations proposes a low-cost and high-efficiency control method that uses demonstration and simulation techniques to accelerate the learning process.
Brown University Paper Shows Research Robot Vulnerability
Google Brain Research Scientist Ian Goodfellow has tweeted an alarm about IoT hacking of a particularly nightmarish type, after Brown University security researchers were able to remotely access and control a robot in a university research lab. The research also showed that many robotic labs worldwide may be vulnerable to such a takeover technique.
Remaking Human Skin: Neurobotics at Gordon Cheng’s ICS Lab in Germany
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) had lured Cheng from a Japanese research institute. At TUM he founded the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS). With eight employees in a central office on Karlstraße 45, Cheng set to work on his arduous task: recreating the complexities of human skin and wiring it all to a brain.
JD Unveils HD Maps for Robotics and Autonomous Driving
At the Big Data & Spatial Information Expo in Changsha city today, Chinese Internet giant JD demonstrated a series of intelligent technology applications, including Drones, Delivery Robots and Routing Inspection Robots, etc. The company also unveiled a new set of HD Maps.