Softbank’s Aldebaran Robotics

The Sad Story of Softbank’s Aldebaran Robotics and its Emotionally Intelligent Robot

The first sign came from within, namely that, following the public announcement that Softbank had acquired Aldebaran (there were rumors of the deal in 2012, when the company acquired 75-80% of Aldebaran), turnover of early employees showed signs that things were changing.

CEO & Founder Bruno Maisonnier

Respected in his field, Maisonnier has been criticized as having his heads in the clouds with respect to Human-Computer Interfaces (HCI), focusing more on the possibility of humans becoming friends with robots than on the practical applications of humanoid robots.

“I’ve never seen a company so big with such little organization.”

Artificial Intelligence: Friendly or Frightening?

People often think of artificial intelligence as something akin to the being from the film "I, 

Robot" depicted here, but experts are divided on what the future actually holds. 

When people think of artificial intelligence (AI) — the study of the design of intelligent 

systems and machines — talking computers like Eugene Goostman often come to mind. But most AI researchers are focused less on producing clever conversationalists and more on developing intelligent systems that make people's lives easier — from software that can recognize objects and animals, to digital assistants that cater to, and even anticipate, their owners' needs and desires.

But several prominent thinkers, including the famed physicist Stephen Hawking and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, warn that the development of AI should be cause for concern.

 For more Details:-----> Click here

Hand motion-capturing device

Virtual reality for your HANDS

'Motion-capture' exoskeleton lets you touch and move objects in computer games.

It may look like a hi-tech instrument of torture, but this strange gadget is an exoskeleton for the hand.
The device can be used to control robots as well as with virtual reality headsets to make video games more immersive.

The exoskeleton uses haptic feedback to allow wearers to feel the size of a visual object they are touching on screen. 

This device called Dexmo -- available in classic and F2 variants -- can be used as a virtual reality or a robot controller. 

the F2 version even has haptic feedback, letting you feel the size of the virtual object you've picked up on screen. The classic version, on the other hand, is purely an input device. In robotics, it can be used to control mechanical hands and arms, even ones designed for dangerous and sensitive tasks like bomb disposal.

Dexmo can be used to mix music or even control remote-controlled cars and smart lighting, among many other things.

HOW DOES DEXMO WORK?

->The Dexmo exoskeleton is designed to be worn on the hand.

->It comes in two versions - the classic and F2 - both of which can be used to control robots or with a virtual reality headset, in order to play games.

->The F2 exoskeleton uses haptic feedback to allow wearers to feel the size of a visual object they are touching on screen.

->It does this thanks to two contraptions - joint gear-disk braking mechanisms - positioned on the index finger and thumb of the exoskeleton.

->When contact with an object is detected, either by a programme or a pressure sensor, a signal is sent to the device, activating the actuators and the joints to lock the exoskeleton.

->This action prevents the finger from bending further inwards - creating a force on the user's fingertip.

->The device can be used in a number of ways, including to control lighting, play a virtual piano and used as a tool to make music and paint in computer programmes.

Xiaomi is Changing the Smartphone Industry

Xiaomi, Not Apple, Is Changing the Smartphone Industry

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Determining which customer to target first is one of the most critical decisions in the entrepreneurial process. Customers that are relatively less risky and more predictable can make it easier for new to firms gain a market foothold. One such set of customers is the nascent middle class in emerging economies.

Why? First, as their financial situation improves they are anxious to buy new things. Not quite able to afford the top brands, they’re nevertheless willing to pay a little more for something they perceive might be close. Second, because they can’t yet afford the high-margin top brands, they’re not all that attractive to incumbents worried about generating enough cash to cover their high fixed and variable costs. So they exist in a sweet spot from an entrepreneur’s point of view: rich and numerous enough to fuel a start-up’s growth and also poor enough not to spur incumbents to respond.

Xiaomi, the four-year-old Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has found just such a sweet spot, and as a result is taking the smartphone industry by a storm. Pundits claim that Xiaomi is just a Chinese copycat of Apple, and not without some reason. Some point to Xiaomi’s product introductions, which are eerily just like Apple’s. Others point out the strong similarities between Xiaomi’s operating system (named MIUI) and Apple’s iOS. What’s more, Xiaomi’s products rank among the best in the industry in terms of performance. All these cues might lead us to believe that it is competing head to head with the leading smartphone manufacturers.

However, looking at the full extent of Xiaomi’s business model reveals just how different – and how disruptive — it is. For starters, unlike Apple, Xiaomi is not targeting premium customers; it’s mostly teens buying those high-quality phones, and hardly at a premium, since Xiaomi’s prices are at least 60% lower. A neat trick. How does Xiaomi pull that off?

To sell high-quality cell phones at so low a price, Xiaomi keeps each model on the market far longer than Apple does. On average, a new version of a phone is launched every 265 days in the industry – down from 345 days in 2009. But Xiaomi doesn’t renew its product for two years. Then, rather than charge high prices to cover the high cost of state-of-the-art components, Xiaomi prices the phone just a little higher than the total cost of all its components. As component costs drop over the two-year period by more than 90%, Xiaomi maintains its original price, and pockets the difference. So essentially its profit formula is the opposite of Apple’s, which collects its highest profits with the introduction of each model and needs to come up with new model after new model to keep those margins up.

When you consider how much easier it might be to profit from plummeting component prices than from continual new feature development (which sooner or later will likely overshoot the needs of most cell phone customers in any event), the disruptive potential of the model becomes clear.

One might worry that other low-end competitors could easily copy this clever model, and to forestall that, Xiaomi has devised a creative way to create some of the mystique Apple is so justly noted for. Essentially it markets its phones to its price-constrained but status-conscious teen base in much the same way that rock band promoters sell concert tickets. Through an online retailer called Flipkart, potential buyers preregister for a short sales window. They’re required to stay online for at least two hours before the sale starts, and then only the first 20,000 lucky buyers get the opportunity to purchase. Human nature being what it is, after this awful experience, buyers end up wanting the phone even more.

Xiaomi is close to meeting its target of selling 60 million phones in 2014 with a business model well suited to expansion into other developing economies. In a classical reaction to disruptive innovation, the largest smartphone manufacturers were at first not motivated to seriously challenge Xiaomi, since they could not be profitable at the price these customers are able to pay. Now that Xiaomi is becoming a significant competitor, the incumbents are still barely reacting, launching simplified versions of their mature flagship products, as Apple did with the iPhone 5c. But these are perceived as outdated, as newer models, like the iPhone 6, are introduced amid great fanfare in wealthier markets, and often end up being discontinued.

So far from being a copycat, Xiaomi presents a knotty disruptive challenge to the largest smartphone manufacturers. As it continues to expand in developing economies by marketing to the emerging middle class, it remains sheltered from the competition by its margins and the way it makes products profitable. Sooner rather than later, as it continues to propagate its new business model, this disruptive competitor is going to change how this industry works.

For more news:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/how-xiaomi-beats-apple-at-product-launches/
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/can-chinese-smartphone-darling-xiaomi-compete-in-western-markets/

Kilobots robot

Kilobots robot swarm coordinates to form shapes

The Kilobots are told by the researchers via an infrared transmitter to do a certain job. The robots then do it collectively without further input from a human being.

They look vaguely like miniature hockey pucks skittering along on three pin-like metal legs, but a swarm of small robots called Kilobots at a laboratory at Harvard University is making a little bit of history for automatons everywhere.

Researchers who created a battalion of 1,024 of these robots said on Thursday the mini-machines are able to communicate with one another and organize themselves into two-dimensional shapes like letters of the alphabet.

Much smaller groups of robots have been able to carry out similar tasks, but never a group this size.

The Kilobots are told by the researchers via an infrared transmitter to do a certain job. The robots then do it collectively without further input from a human being.

In a study published in the journal Science, they formed themselves on a large tabletop into the shapes of the letter "K," a star, a solid square and a wrench.

It may be a step forward for collective artificial intelligence, although the researchers acknowledge the Kilobots are not exactly thinking deep thoughts.

Rubenstein said the research anticipates a day when people may send many robots acting as a single entity to perform a task — perhaps to a destination like Mars — instead of humans or a single robot.

A "collective" may better handle an unknown environment — for example, forming into a snake shape to navigate sand dunes or like a ball to roll down a hill. He said a "collective" also is "fault tolerant" — if a single robot among 1,000 breaks down, plenty are left to do the job.

The Kilobot name is a play on the word kilobit, meaning 1,024 bits of digital information. But to some it might sound menacing — as in "killer robot" — as if it belongs in a movie like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

"I tell people that these robots are not very dangerous. The only way that they could hurt you is if you try to eat one. They can't even go over a piece of paper. So they're kind of stuck where they are," Rubenstein said.

Link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/kilobots-robot-swarm-coordinates-to-form-shapes-1.2737414

Ebola virus disease

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
• EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
• The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
• Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
• Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.

-11 April 2014: Genus Ebolavirus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus.

-17 August 2014: There are conflicting reports over the fate of 17 suspected Ebola patients who vanished after a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital was looted.

Details:

Ebola virus

Ebola virus (EBOV, formerly designated Zaire ebolavirus) is the sole member of the Zaire ebolavirusspecies, and the most dangerous of the five known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus.

The virus and its species were both originally named for Zaire (now theDemocratic Republic of Congo), the country where it was first described, and was at first suspected to be a new "strain" of the closely related Marburg virus, the virus (but not its species) was renamed to "Ebola virus" in 2010 to avoid confusion.The Zaire ebolavirus species is also the type species (reference or example species) for ebolavirus. Its natural reservoir is believed to be bats, particularly fruit bats, and it is primarily transmitted between humans and from animals to humans, through body fluids.

Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.

Genus Ebolavirus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus. Genus Ebolavirus comprises 5 distinct species:

• Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV)
• Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)
• Reston ebolavirus (RESTV)
• Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV)
• Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV).

BDBV, EBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large EVD outbreaks in Africa, whereas RESTV and TAFV have not. The RESTV species, found in Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, can infect humans, but no illness or death in humans from this species has been reported to date.

Transmission

Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.

Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.

Among workers in contact with monkeys or pigs infected with Reston ebolavirus, several infections have been documented in people who were clinically asymptomatic. Thus, RESTV appears less capable of causing disease in humans than other Ebola species.

However, the only available evidence available comes from healthy adult males. It would be premature to extrapolate the health effects of the virus to all population groups, such as immuno-compromised persons, persons with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and children. More studies of RESTV are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn about the pathogenicity and virulence of this virus in humans.

Signs and symptoms

EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.

People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. Ebola virus was isolated from semen 61 days after onset of illness in a man who was infected in a laboratory.

The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.

Diagnosis

Other diseases that should be ruled out before a diagnosis of EVD can be made include: malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, meningitis, hepatitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.

Ebola virus infections can be diagnosed definitively in a laboratory through several types of tests:

• antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
• antigen detection tests
• serum neutralization test
• reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
• electron microscopy
• virus isolation by cell culture.

Samples from patients are an extreme biohazard risk; testing should be conducted under maximum biological containment conditions.

Vaccine and treatment

No licensed vaccine for EVD is available. Several vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use.

Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.

No specific treatment is available. New drug therapies are being evaluated.

Natural host of Ebola virus

In Africa, fruit bats, particularly species of the genera Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris torquata, are considered possible natural hosts for Ebola virus. As a result, the geographic distribution of Ebolaviruses may overlap with the range of the fruit bats.

Ebola virus in animals

Although non-human primates have been a source of infection for humans, they are not thought to be the reservoir but rather an accidental host like human beings. Since 1994, Ebola outbreaks from the EBOV and TAFV species have been observed in chimpanzees and gorillas.

RESTV has caused severe EVD outbreaks in macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) farmed in Philippines and detected in monkeys imported into the USA in 1989, 1990 and 1996, and in monkeys imported to Italy from Philippines in 1992.

Since 2008, RESTV viruses have been detected during several outbreaks of a deadly disease in pigs in People’s Republic of China and Philippines. Asymptomatic infection in pigs has been reported and experimental inoculations have shown that RESTV cannot cause disease in pigs.

Prevention and control

Controlling Reston ebolavirus in domestic animals

No animal vaccine against RESTV is available. Routine cleaning and disinfection of pig or monkey farms (with sodium hypochlorite or other detergents) should be effective in inactivating the virus.

If an outbreak is suspected, the premises should be quarantined immediately. Culling of infected animals, with close supervision of burial or incineration of carcasses, may be necessary to reduce the risk of animal-to-human transmission. Restricting or banning the movement of animals from infected farms to other areas can reduce the spread of the disease.

As RESTV outbreaks in pigs and monkeys have preceded human infections, the establishment of an active animal health surveillance system to detect new cases is essential in providing early warning for veterinary and human public health authorities.

Reducing the risk of Ebola infection in people

In the absence of effective treatment and a human vaccine, raising awareness of the risk factors for Ebola infection and the protective measures individuals can take is the only way to reduce human infection and death.

In Africa, during EVD outbreaks, educational public health messages for risk reduction should focus on several factors:

• Reducing the risk of wildlife-to-human transmission from contact with infected fruit bats or monkeys/apes and the consumption of their raw meat. Animals should be handled with gloves and other appropriate protective clothing. Animal products (blood and meat) should be thoroughly cooked before consumption.
• Reducing the risk of human-to-human transmission in the community arising from direct or close contact with infected patients, particularly with their bodily fluids. Close physical contact with Ebola patients should be avoided. Gloves and appropriate personal protective equipment should be worn when taking care of ill patients at home. Regular hand washing is required after visiting patients in hospital, as well as after taking care of patients at home.
• Communities affected by Ebola should inform the population about the nature of the disease and about outbreak containment measures, including burial of the dead. People who have died from Ebola should be promptly and safely buried.

Pig farms in Africa can play a role in the amplification of infection because of the presence of fruit bats on these farms. Appropriate biosecurity measures should be in place to limit transmission. For RESTV, educational public health messages should focus on reducing the risk of pig-to-human transmission as a result of unsafe animal husbandry and slaughtering practices, and unsafe consumption of fresh blood, raw milk or animal tissue. Gloves and other appropriate protective clothing should be worn when handling sick animals or their tissues and when slaughtering animals. In regions where RESTV has been reported in pigs, all animal products (blood, meat and milk) should be thoroughly cooked before eating.

Controlling infection in health-care settings

Human-to-human transmission of the Ebola virus is primarily associated with direct or indirect contact with blood and body fluids. Transmission to health-care workers has been reported when appropriate infection control measures have not been observed.

It is not always possible to identify patients with EBV early because initial symptoms may be non-specific. For this reason, it is important that health-care workers apply standard precautions consistently with all patients – regardless of their diagnosis – in all work practices at all times. These include basic hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, the use of personal protective equipment (according to the risk of splashes or other contact with infected materials), safe injection practices and safe burial practices.

Health-care workers caring for patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus should apply, in addition to standard precautions, other infection control measures to avoid any exposure to the patient’s blood and body fluids and direct unprotected contact with the possibly contaminated environment. When in close contact (within 1 metre) of patients with EBV, health-care workers should wear face protection (a face shield or a medical mask and goggles), a clean, non-sterile long-sleeved gown, and gloves (sterile gloves for some procedures).

Laboratory workers are also at risk. Samples taken from suspected human and animal Ebola cases for diagnosis should be handled by trained staff and processed in suitably equipped laboratories.

WHO response

WHO provides expertise and documentation to support disease investigation and control.

Recommendations for infection control while providing care to patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola haemorrhagic fever are provided in: Interim infection control recommendations for care of patients with suspected or confirmed Filovirus (Ebola, Marburg) haemorrhagic fever, March 2008. This document is currently being updated.

WHO has created an aide–memoire on standard precautions in health care (currently being updated). Standard precautions are meant to reduce the risk of transmission of bloodborne and other pathogens. If universally applied, the precautions would help prevent most transmission through exposure to blood and body fluids.

Standard precautions are recommended in the care and treatment of all patients regardless of their perceived or confirmed infectious status. They include the basic level of infection control—hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment to avoid direct contact with blood and body fluids, prevention of needle stick and injuries from other sharp instruments, and a set of environmental controls.

Table: Chronology of previous Ebola virus disease outbreaks

Year	Country	Ebolavirus species	Cases	Deaths	Case fatality
2012	Democratic Republic of Congo	Bundibugyo	57	29	51%
2012	Uganda	Sudan	7	4	57%
2012	Uganda	Sudan	24	17	71%
2011	Uganda	Sudan	1	1	100%
2008	Democratic Republic of Congo	Zaire	32	14	44%
2007	Uganda	Bundibugyo	149	37	25%
2007	Democratic Republic of Congo	Zaire	264	187	71%
2005	Congo	Zaire	12	10	83%
2004	Sudan	Sudan	17	7	41%
2003 (Nov-Dec)	Congo	Zaire	35	29	83%
2003 (Jan-Apr)	Congo	Zaire	143	128	90%
2001-2002	Congo	Zaire	59	44	75%
2001-2002	Gabon	Zaire	65	53	82%
2000	Uganda	Sudan	425	224	53%
1996	South Africa (ex-Gabon)	Zaire	1	1	100%
1996 (Jul-Dec)	Gabon	Zaire	60	45	75%
1996 (Jan-Apr)	Gabon	Zaire	31	21	68%
1995	Democratic Republic of Congo	Zaire	315	254	81%
1994	Cote d'Ivoire	Taï Forest	1	0	0%
1994	Gabon	Zaire	52	31	60%
1979	Sudan	Sudan	34	22	65%
1977	Democratic Republic of Congo	Zaire	1	1	100%
1976	Sudan	Sudan	284	151	53%
1976	Democratic Republic of Congo	Zaire	318	280	88%

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For more information contact:

WHO Media centre
Telephone: +41 22 791 2222
E-mail: mediainquiries@who.int

External link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus