News
Georgia Tech is using its PR2 to develop software and user interfaces for robots that could assist elderly people living at home. “They have been a key facilitator of collaborative infrastructure for robotics,” says Henrik Christensen (Interactive Comp). “We have to figure out how this can be continued.” Source: Technology Review
A similar strategy is part of Courteous.ly, which sports the tagline: “if they only knew how much email you have.” This service (which is part of a larger research project by Eric Gilbert (Interactive Comp)) connects to your Gmail account and counts how many messages you receive. Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
As technology continues to transform the business of news dissemination, what role does computation play in the practice of journalism—both today and in the future? Last week, the Georgia Tech College of Computing tried to answer that question through the second “Computation + Journalism Symposium,” held Jan. 31-Feb. 1.
"We have developed algorithms that allow a robot to determine whether it should deceive a human or other intelligent machine and we have designed techniques that help the robot select the best deceptive strategy to reduce its chance of being discovered," said Ronald Arkin (Interactive Comp). Source: Design News
Simon is a humanoid robot being developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the purposes of exploring intuitive ways for people and machines to live and work alongside one another. Source: The New York Times
During a presentation on Monday, Henrik I. Christensen (Interactive Comp) sharply criticized a recent “60 Minutes” saying that, while automation may transform the work force and eliminate certain jobs, it also creates new kinds of jobs that are generally better paying and that require higher-skilled workers. Source: The New York Times
Growth in the Atlanta area’s mobile industry can be attributed in part to the presence of academic institutions where mobility is a focus, including Georgia Tech, and to corporations that are active in the mobile space. Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
IEEE TV featured Georgia Tech's Blair MacIntyre (Interactive Comp) and the Augmented Reality Lab. Source: IEEE TV
"To paint advances in technology as just taking jobs is very one-sided," stated Dr. Henrik Christensen (Interactive Comp). "Studies have shown that 1.3 better, higher paying jobs are created in associated areas for every one job that may be insourced. Source: Herald Online
Such a piece on the guns, video games and violence debate (if in fact it’s even fair to qualify it as a debate) was published in The Atlantic late last week, titled “How the Video-Game Industry Already Lost Out in the Gun-Control Debate,” written by video games researcher Ian Bogost (Interactive Comp). Source: Time
Ian Bogost (Interactive Comp) has been designing and blogging about newsgames for several years. His own studio, Persuasive Games, creates titles for public policy makers, educators and corporations, dealing with current affairs and issues. Source: The Guardian UK
There also appears to be some truth to the idea that, as Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost (Interactive Comp) has put it, MOOCs are just marketing for elite colleges. Source: The Atlantic
Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to," Blair MacIntyre (Interactive Comp) told Wired in 2012. "It's going to generate ideas in people and expectations that might not match." Source: U.S. News & World Report
Professor Ronald Arkin (Interactive Comp) and his team reviewed biological research results from squirrels showing how they gather acorns and store them in specific locations. Source: Forbes
“There are quite vigorous debates about whether quantum computers will ever actually be built,” said Chris Peikert (Comp Sci). “But that’s a separate question from whether quantum techniques or quantum algorithms can help you solve problems in new ways.” Source: Scientific American
“What does it mean to be a quality university in this age of explosive innovation?” asked Richard DeMillo, director of Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Center Universities. “Colleges can’t convince themselves that things will be the same in five years.” Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To Shimon's creator, robotocist and musician Gil Weinberg (Interactive Comp), the robot is a way of creating new kinds of music we'd never hear otherwise. Source: Wired
Ian Bogost (Interactive Comp) says the increasing use of games is little more than a fad promoted by marketing hucksters. Source: The New York Times
ATLANTA – Dec. 12, 2012 – For the second straight year, the College of Computing's Holiday Gift Guide decks the halls with some of the more inspired, ambitious and definitely digital “gifts” ever placed under the virtual tree. Source: Office of Communications
In a 2007 study, researchers from Georgia Tech's College of Computing looked at the ways in which Roomba owners bonded with their gadgets. Source: Yahoo! News
None of the leading mobile browsers have security that's up to snuff, according to researchers at Georgia Tech. "We found vulnerabilities in all 10 of the mobile browsers we tested, which together account for more than 90% of the mobile browsers in use [in the U.S.]," Patrick Traynor (Comp Sci). Source: Mashable
Ronald Arkin (Interactive Comp) and his grad students programmed a similar strategy into some wheeled robots, and the tactic worked--the decepticon deceiving robot lured a “predator” to false locations. This could have great practical value in military situations, the researchers say. Source: Popular Science
ATLANTA – Dec. 5, 2012 – How unsafe are mobile browsers? Unsafe enough that even cyber-security experts are unable to detect when their smartphone browsers have landed on potentially dangerous websites, according to a recent Georgia Tech study. Source: Office of Communications
Using deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The research is funded by the Office of Naval Research and is led by Professor Ronald Arkin, who suggests the applications could be implemented by the military in the future. The research is highlighted in the November/December 2012 edition of IEEE Intelligent Systems.
Georgia Tech has been selected by DARPA to perform research in the area of scalable analytics and data-processing technology. The Georgia Tech team will focus on producing novel machine-learning approaches capable of analyzing very large-scale data. Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle
