An offshoot of the mobile device thread: what would you like your device to do???

Artificial Intelligence Machines Operating at 4-Year-Old Level

It appears that the threat of a worldwide takeover by artificial intelligence machines is not yet a reality, unless you consider 4 year olds an impending threat.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) recently IQ tested one of the "best available" AI systems. As it turns out, it's about as smart as a 4-year-old kid.
ConceptNet 4, an MIT-developed AI system, was put through Pre-K boot camp, running the verbal portions of the Weschsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Test — a standard IQ assessment for young children. According to the UIC, the super-smart computer scored uneven marks across different portions of the test — a red flag for most kids.
"If a child had scores that varied this much, it might be a symptom that something is wrong," Robert Sloan, lead author of the study and the head of computer science at UIC, said in a statement.
While ConceptNet 4 tested well in vocabulary and the ability to recognize similarities, it did dramatically worse than average on comprehension — the "why" questions, Sloan said.



So how will "HAL, Jr." here break through? Maybe by utilizing molecular or quantum power, as opposed to silicon?


Tweaking Moore's Law: Computers of the Post-Silicon Era

Years ago, we physicists predicted the end of Moore’s Law that says a computer power doubles every 18 months. But we also, on the other hand, proposed a positive program. Perhaps molecular computers, quantum computers can takeover when silicon power is exhausted. But then the question is, what’s the timeframe? What is a realistic scenario for the next coming years? Well, first of all, in about ten years or so, we will see the collapse of Moore’s Law. In fact, already, already we see a slowing down of Moore’s Law. Computer power simply cannot maintain its rapid exponential rise using standard silicon technology. Intel Corporation has admitted this. In fact, Intel Corporation is now going to three-dimensional chips, chips that compute not just flatly in two dimensions but in the third dimension. But there are problems with that. The two basic problems are heat and leakage. That’s the reason why the age of silicon will eventually come to a close. No one knows when, but as I mentioned we already now can see the slowing down of Moore’s Law, and in ten years it could flatten out completely. So what is the problem? The problem is that a Pentium chip today has a layer almost down to 20 atoms across, 20 atoms across. When that layer gets down to about 5 atoms across, it’s all over. You have two effects. Heat--the heat generated will be so intense that the chip will melt. You can literally fry an egg on top of the chip, and the chip itself begins to disintegrate And second of all, leakage--you don’t know where the electron is anymore. The quantum theory takes over.

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Originally Posted by Jag_Warrior

My girl has been on my back because I have a very old cellphone (10 years old). She and her sister get new iPhones about every 2 years. From the data I've read, most people tend to get new cellphones or mobile devices about every 18-24 months. But I don't text, FaceBook or tweet. I use my phone to talk and that's it. So I've found no reason to get a smartphone and double my carrier bill. I do carry an iPod Touch, which I use to get real time information when I'm near WiFi. But even it's over 2 years old now. To me, there's just nothing earth shattering about what any of these devices can do right now.

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When I got an iPhone, I ended up with a nice deal that didn't cost me too much more than I would normally spend (something like 16$ a month). The the phone rates here are horrendous, so if I take into account the rise of Viber over the past two years, my international bill is now almost 0 now. I use half the minutes I used 3 years ago and I'm on the cheapest plan available. This is the single most important thing for me. I can call 90% of my friends and family for free. How can this not change one's mind? :)

As for everything else, we'll be there, eventually.

Home automation has existed for what, 20 years?
But how many of us have them installed? Are you willing to spend hundreds of thousands on upgrading your home, appliances and cars to be Wi-Fi connected and compatible to your phone?

I can record TV (Sky receiver, rather) shows I want from my phone, from what it's worth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38

Soon.

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Originally Posted by Koz

As for everything else, we'll be there, eventually.

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I agree. I think all it's going to take is a push for a reliable, secure, comprehensive control system. IMO, that's the missing piece of the puzzle.

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Home automation has existed for what, 20 years?
But how many of us have them installed? Are you willing to spend hundreds of thousands on upgrading your home, appliances and cars to be Wi-Fi connected and compatible to your phone?

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Well, unless one wanted to go ultra-exotic, it wouldn't cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade. A car with blue-tooth doesn't really cost any more than one without it. And it's a standard feature on many new cars now. In fact, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Ferrari, Chevy, Infiniti, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Acura, Opel and Jaguar are set to begin integrating iOS into their cars by 2014. Because of my odd work and travel schedule, I am looking at a Wi-Fi thermostat for my home. Overall cost saving estimates for these systems are in the 30% range. My annual power bill is around $3000/yr. So if I saved around $1000, that would more than cover the cost of the $250 Honeywell unit that I'm looking at. But what it won't do (yet) is adjust itself based on my proximity to my home.

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I can record TV (Sky receiver, rather) shows I want from my phone, from what it's worth.

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Yes, my DirecTV DVR app allows me to do the same. But again, the issue that I have with every system out there is that you have to know what you want to watch or record.

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Soon.

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I hope so. Again, what I'm really driving at with this thread is that while we have many devices and apps that do all sorts of things, thus far there are none that are widely available which are truly "smart". I bought a 3D/HD plasma "smart TV" late last year. While the picture quality is great and it's on my home wireless network, what's "smart" about it??? Combined with my TiVo, it is smarter... but by itself, it really can't do much more than the ancient Samsung that it replaced.

I think we've grown used to calling things smart that really aren't. Even with much of what I'm suggesting, the devices and apps won't be all that smart. They won't be in the same league with the complex (and super expensive) algorithmic trading systems, that independently execute stock, options and futures trades based on news releases, economic reports, prices, volume, money flow, etc.

To make this work, I just don't think it would be so hard to develop a "brain" at the OS level that could control the apps and devices based on our expressed needs, historical wants and conditional instructions. Though far from perfect, I think Siri is a good starting point. Much of this would just rely on basic if/then statements that have been around for many decades. Other functions would rely on observation by the device to determine what we want. This is where it gets tricky. But with connected devices becoming more & more common and inexpensive, the basics would already be in place. All that's needed is a good "brain" to make it happen... without us having to hold its hand every step of the way. That's what we don't have yet. And heck, if the problem is with the lack of horsepower in the mobile OS or the phones, then pipe it through the home based/desktop OS and let it be the brain and the mobile OS would just be the eyes/ears/mouth controller. For instance, why isn't Siri on my iMac??? Seriously! Hey, Tim Cook, slow down with the lawsuits and get to work on what I'm talking about, buddy! Making Siri a true, effective, secure "task master" would be innovation.

I agree, Koz, I think we are in early days here and many or most of these things will be routine and taken for granted in a few years. I'm just impatient and I want it now! :D

I can listen to Wi-Fi radio on my phone. I already use it to type up reasonably blog posts. It makes calls, sends texts and I can do my banking on it. I can play music, games and watch video on it.
What else would I like it to do?... not much. The screen is sort of small to do much else. It's fine as is.

I think we will hit the "wall" with such things in the near future. There are far too many complexities in the average human for any device to really predict much of anything. It would be nice, but no software developer can properly map my brain function... and I'm not claiming that my brain is all that complex either. :)

Interesting...

Apple Patents Home Automation Technology That Adjusts Settings Based On Device Location

Apple has just been granted a new patent (via AppleInsider) which describes a very comprehensive system for controlling connected home devices. The elaborate setup would make it possible for Apple to use location data fed from things like your iPhone and iPad, as well as use of credit cards or RFID badges to inform automated systems of a user’s whereabouts, and do things like turn on or off power, climate control, lights and more.

The system described works very much like geo-fencing does currently with Apple’s own native Reminders app on iOS: Once a user exits or enters a pre-determined location, other actions are triggered. Instead of simply alerting someone of something they wanted to remember, however, the system described can essentially turn an entire household or office off and on, and prepare it for comfortable human occupancy.

It’s a little more complex than simple geo-fencing, however. The patent describes an information-gathering system that would be able to incorporate not only where a user is and where they’re going, but also what activities they’re engaging in along the way. This would make their location predictions more accurate, since they could include estimates about when exactly someone will arrive. The location data is either polled at regular intervals from devices like iPhones, gathered from fixed remote devices like keycard receivers, or when trigger events communicate with software on iOS or Mac devices, such as when they connect to a specific cell tower.

A smart connected home is one thing, but the really desirable goal of all home automation is a system that anticipates your needs and responds without any user input, operating at maximum efficiency. That’s exactly what Apple describes in this system, and it’s done using devices that Apple is already actively selling to users, with the very same capabilities already built-in.

The question here is exactly how much it would take on the user’s side, in terms of time, effort and resources to implement such a system, should Apple decide to make it a feature of its products. Apple certainly has the ecosystem on its side in terms of device-making partners, but it may be another few years before users are at the point where they’re willing or ready to accept the cost of setting up the infrastructure for something like this. Still, it’s a very intriguing route for Apple to explore, and could offer some glimpse at where iOS is headed down the road.


http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/05/app...on-technology/

iron my clothes... by itself of course.

You can do most of those things already, such as putting in a trigger to say "when I leave work turn the heating on", however they require quite a bit of hardware and knowhow so aren't neatly packaged like you might want or expect.

But I already have things at home which are like "1 hour before sunset turn the light on".

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Originally Posted by Mark

But I already have things at home which are like "1 hour before sunset turn the light on".

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I got one of those too - came free when I got married. It's called the wife!!!!!!!

Chuckled myself at that one......

Detect and block annoying calls :p: