keep evolving

We've all heard of Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Well, since this issue covers human computation, let's have a look at our own biological hardware. How are we doing compared to a previous model? Keep evolving, folks...

—James Stanier

Human Creativity in hardwares

You can't imagine how much I was excited when I saw this in ACM tech news. The title of this, is:

New Psychology Theory Enables Computers To Mimic Human Creativity at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute



Could you imagine a computer which is able to answer questions need creativity?
like this question:

A dealer in antique coins gets an offer to buy a beautiful bronze coin. The coin has an emperor’s head on one side and the date “544 B.C.” stamped on the other. The dealer examines the coin, but instead of buying it, he calls the police. Why?

Ron Sun and Sèbastien Hèlie in their recent paper (appeared in the July edition of Psychological Review) introduced “Explicit-Implicit Interaction Theory,”
Sun has developed CLARION computer program(like a cognitive system) based on this theory.
Comparing the performance of the CLARION model with results from previous human trials – including tests involving the coin question was amazing:

Clarion, answered these kinds of questions with a great accuracy correctly in several aspects of problem solving.

The researchers say the theory, which explains how humans solve problems creatively, could provide a blueprint to building AI systems that perform tasks like humans.

If you remember, one of my recent posts was about moral judgment: "killing one to save five". ClARION is a very useful software for simulating these kind of tasks, I can't wait to see the results. I am eager to know how much CLARION's moral judgment is like ours.

You can see the RPI news about this, here.

:) wireless technology and the future of birds

it's a bit freaky with this wireless technology!

killing 1 to save 5?

Would you kill 1 to save 5?
Assume there are 2 railroads, five workers are working on line 1 and one worker is working on line 2.
suddenly a train ()()()() appears on line 1, This train definitely will kill 5 workers on line 1. You are watching this in a control room, you can direct the train to line 2 by pushing a button.
pushing the button means killing the worker on line 2 and saving 5 workers on line 1.
What would you do?

line1 =()()()()======1=2=3=4=5====
....................\\................................
line2 ===============1========


Nowadays scientists are simulating the process of making these kind of decisions on computers.(actually different versions of this question)
It looks interesting. Doesn't it?
I will post more about these simulations later.

The McGurk Effect

Interesting! Brain change sounds to what he/she likes(eyes have seen). it is called McGurk effect:

The roots of plant intelligence

Bad news for vegetarians: Plants behave in some oddly intelligent ways. Can we think of them as actually having a form of intelligence of their own? Italian scientist; Stefano Mancuso, find brain-like cells in the root of plants.
The signals that is produced by a few hundred cells in a special region of the root are as same as neuron's signals of our brain, They are used for exchanging information. This less than one millimeter region has the highest consumption of oxygen in the plant.
By watching this nice Ted lecture you can be aware of the whole story and comparison of a plant roots with Internet, and their similarties as well.


Veges! If you concern not eating things with brain and you believe him, Don't worry! you won't die of hunger. Today I went to Zaeem flower shop, There were some plants without roots, hope they don't have brains in their leaves so you can eat them and staying alive and keep being a good man.

Interent is a brain? Is it intelligent?

About 10 years ago I heard an idea from professor Caro Lucas. I think it's good to tell you about this unique idea:

When we have a lot of connections in a system, This system will be intelligent, such thing is happened in our brain."We don't know why, but the result of these connections is intelligence."Lucas said.(It's a long time and maybe I forget some part of this idea)

I was thinking if this idea be true, something strange is happenning:
Nowadays we have systems with a lot of connections like internet: netwoks of networks; so Internet is intelligent? If yes how can this newborn baby show it's intelligence to us. how much it's IQ is? Can it help us? (Ouch! My mind said.)

I search the web to know more about these ideas: I found this site, Jeff Stibel has written an article which is started with these sentences :
The Internet is a brain. There, I said it. It has taken me far too long to publicly utter those words. And not because I don't believe them, but for fear that people will think I am crazy.

I like to work on this topic for my bachelor theses, differece and similarity between brain and internet but when I asked about this, Many stare at me in a strange way and implied: What do you say? Are you crazy!

I will be thankful if you tell me about your ideas

some useful links about this idea:
BBC News : Brain works more like internet than 'top down' company
Wikipedia: about Wiered for thought book

The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone TED

Fabian Hemmert: The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone | Video on TED.com

Nao, a good boy who learns by experiment

Nao is a robot who learns by experiment. In his website, there are four videos of his curiousness. In the first video, after a nice nap he wakes up to find himself in a new place. He takes a walk and he himself explains what he is doing in his robot like voice, then he learns many things like: it is impossible to put a cube on a ball or some boxes are movable and some are not.

He predicts what will happen and if his prediction is wrong he tries to find out why.

a weblog about brain

Hi everybody

A new born weblog that is about brain is now ready to be studied :)

This is My friend, Sepideh's blog.

you can see it here. ^_^

Researcher Builds Machines That Daydream

An effort to develop algorithms that would enable computers to think freely and convey emotions was discussed recently at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia. Murdoch University professor Graham Mann says intelligent systems should have emotions built into them before they can function.

"I believe that it is possible--if we start to model the way human beings reason about things--to achieve much more flexible processing of storylines, plans, even understanding how human beings behave," he says.

The machine freely associated three stories: The Thirsty Pigeon; The Cat and the Cock; and The Wolf and the Crane.

When queried on the association, the machine responded: "I felt sad for the bird.".

full article

My blog in persian

My blog in Persian, it's mostly about Brain and anything related :

www.brainfever.blogfa.com

Hope you like it.

^_^

Why human see in color? Changizi's idea

Mark Changizi , director of Human Cognition at 2AI Labs; answer to "Why we see in color?" in these interviews.

90 seconds:

8 minutes:

He says that the human eye evolved to s

ee colors in part to glean what another person feels by detecting subtle color changes in their skin. The brain really cares about seeing the small differences of skin color.

You can discern a lot about what’s going on in their brains, what their mood is, what their state is, what their current emotion is. Changizi added that being able to see colors can also clue people in to the health of others.

Wondering if you should skip class today?

This calculator was designed to help college students decide if skipping class is a smart move :)

I tested it and the answer was:

DON'T EVEN BOTHER PUTTING ON PANTS THIS MORNING:

IT IS SAFE TO SKIP CLASS.

Prof isn't even going to notice you were gone! If they do then just bust out one of those excuses in your back pocket.

((-:-)) AWESOME ((-:-))

A running tiger

-

-

-

an interesting idea.

-

-

-

Brain knows how to use Diversity

Like snowflakes, no two neurons are exactly alike, But it’s not the size or shape that sets one neuron apart from another, it’s the way it responds to incoming stimuli. Carnegie Mellon university researchers discovered that diversity is vital to comprehensive brain function. Their research published in Nature Neuroscience.
Typically neuroscientists average to obtain their results, assuming that the variability is a “bug of biology"
“When we think about computer chips, variability in hardware clearly can be very destructive. Manufacturers spend a lot of time and expense making sure each processor on a chip is identical,” Urban said. “The brain is considered to be one of the most sophisticated computers there is. We were intrigued by the idea that the brain might make use of the messy, complex nature of its biological hardware to function more efficiently.”
Full Article

colored words and Mark Changizi's idea

I found out using colored words in a text make it much easier to read. Maybe it's because of Mark Changizi's finding: for understanding emotions, we are able to see in color not for finding fruits.
So colored words will help us to read and understand a text by involving our emotions. ;)

we see the future?

Amazing! In this video, Mark Changizi explains why we can see things that happen 0.1 seconds later and how this idea explains optical illusions.
I believe it's all related to mirror neurons. A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Therefore, I believe that if we encounter a person with mirror neuron damage or possibly little children with no complex mirror neurons, they won't be able to predict the future like others can. :?

To Him we shall return

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels bless'd; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones,
To Him we shall return.

Rumi

For Blind Soccer Stars, Field of Vision Is Overrated

Do you think it is possible for a blind to play soccer. The ball has a ring and each team has someone calling out instructions from behind one of the goals. players can call each other either by name or by shouting “Yeah!” And when you’re approaching to engage another player to steal the ball, you must shout “Voy!”.
I enjoy blind soccer plays very much!


from wired.com

What is a PhD?

here there is a fantastic view of a PHD. so fun.

Play a computer game and help scientists

There is a game here. playing this game will help Bio-informatics scientists to solve problems easier. They believe humans can do much better than computers so they have designed this game.
Ive downloaded it. Yet I haven't learn how to play so I don't have any idea how fun it can be!
maybe thinking of solved science problems make if fun.

Reading P300 Brain Waves to Predict Terrorist Attacks

wow!
Imagine technology that allows you to get inside the mind of a terrorist to know how, when and where the next attack will occur.
That’s not nearly as far-fetched as it seems, according to a new Northwestern’s Weinberg University study.
Say, for purposes of illustration, that the chatter about an imminent terrorist attack is mounting, and specifics about the plan emerge, about weapons that will be used, the date of such a dreaded event and its location.
Full article

TEDLikia

Today I got TEDLikia :) I have watched 4 videos up to now.

The first one was about robots and their emotions, David Hanson the lecturer brought Einstein face robot to the scene. It was fun, Einstein smile and frown to David. At first I thought David is working on brain-like algorithms but he didn't mention anything so I thought he might not use them.


second video was about Prakash institute in India. I like it very much. Parkash is trying to cure blindness of some children and then during their recovery study children's brains to realize how brain learn to see. At first, cured children were able to determine a square and a circle separately but if they saw a circle covered with part of a square they couldn't recognize neither square nor circle. amazingly after recovery children's brains could see things correctly.
their study about how brain learn to see is published in Nature magazine.



The third video was interesting, it was about hallucination. It happens to 10% of people who have visual or hearing loss. The type of hallucination is called Charles Bonnet syndrom. People with this syndrome hallucinate shapes, objects, faces etc... around them. FMRI studies show their Fusiform Gyrus in the temporal lobe becomes active so they see such things. A person of note who has this syndrome is lecturer Oliver Sacks.


Forth one was about brain computer interface. The lecturer showed the ability of her program and headset. A boy came to the stage and his brainwaves(thoughts) move an object in computer.

IBM on Mapping the Human Brain and the Future of Cognitive Computing

Our simulation is a cartoon of reality Modha said.
Full article.

joking computer

************
what do you call a spicy society ?
a hot club .
************
Is it a good joke? I think your judgment about this joke will be changed if you know about a computer which has made this joke.
Yes, A computer.
this computer program is available online here.
I couldn't understand some jokes of this program, I don't know it's because of my poor English knowledge or the jokes were not jokes :)
I checked joke making algorithms I only have found 3 or 4 simple rules.
This program that is called joking computer is designed to help children who suffer some brain diseases and they are not able to communicate with other people easily.
I hope it becomes helpful for them.

My adventures with a rubik cube.

Today, while finally cleaning my desk, I found my Rubik Cube under tons of everything you can imagine. After seeing this cute object, I realized that there doesn't exist a more important thing than reaching my old dream (such as I had when I bought it.) So, happily and energetically, I started to solve it. After an hour, except for one side, there was no success. Following my dream, I decided to search the web for some help. I found a really helpful website and started to climb the ladder of success very quickly. I passed step #5 and was extremely happy; the cube was almost complete. When I scrolled down for the next step, I found that the next two steps were for making money. $2.95 for both of them. As you know, in Iran paying money is impossible. Heeeeee heeeeee heeeeeee! ( it's a loud crying sound.)
So, it became a lesson for me; first, study things accurately from beginning to end, then start doing it. ^_^
after this,Reza ;my old brother, tried to cheat he followed a Youtube video instruction: he removed small cubes to add them together one by one. you can see the result:

He just could removing them :)

I want my cube mmmmm. :(

Project Success Stories--Brain Wave Hits Computer Science Research

European researchers working on the Daisy project studied the human brain's neocortex with the hopes of ushering in a new era of computer science research. The researchers wanted to acquire a deep understanding of the functioning of neocortical daisy architectures to inspire new approaches to computer design. The ability to build a general-purpose, adaptive computer architecture based on a better understanding of the cortex can change the nature and scope of computer applications, says Daisy project lead researcher Rodney Douglas, director of Zurich's Institute of Neuroinformatics. The project sought to characterize daisy architectures, determine what type of processing they support, and develop hardware and software to emulate cortical processing. "It definitely goes in the direction of saying that we should see the cortex as one big continuous sheet probably with a very fundamental underlying structure, which is modified locally to carry out specific operations," Douglas says. The project made important advances in neuroscience and neuroanatomy, developed a working hypothesis for cortical processing, and created demonstrators to show that hypothesis could be replicated in hardware.
you can see full article here.

neurons and neurotransmitters

A good video about Neurons & Neurotransmitters :

Caro Lucas

Yesterday I was preparing a text about Randy Pausch for the blog ;A great computer scientist who passed away two years ago because of cancer, unfortunately today I heard something that I should add to this post, death of professor Caro Lucas; Iranian robotic father ,A person I love, here you can see enormous number of his articles. I think he died of cancer too.
I always wish to be his student :(
Although we(world) have lost one of the most valuable people, I am sure way of his thinking will stay alive for ever.
Scientists! please, please find a way to cure cancer, It is killing somebody we love.

How a Computer Program Became Classical Music's Hot, New Composer

University of California, Santa Cruz professor David Cope has developed Emily Howell, a music-composing program that generates its own compositions by following musical rules that Cope has taught it. The program is only fed music composed by an earlier program of Cope's, Experiments in Musical Intelligence. Critics say that Emily's music, while impressive, lacks the ability to trigger emotional reactions in listeners. A 2008 University of Essex study determined that the human brain has a stronger emotional reaction to music played by humans than by machines, even when the listener does not know the source of a performance. Cope says that Emily and other programs capable of artistic creation offer an opportunity for collaboration with human artists, rather than replacing them. "Computers are there [for us] to extend ourselves through them," he says. "It seems so utterly natural to me. It's not like I taught a rock to compose music."
full article

Stanford brain tutorial

here you can find a tutorial about brain, it looks good for fast learning . It's Stanford university present :)
Good Luck

motif finding softwares

Motif-finding softwares:

1-Gimsan cornell university Gibbs
2-scope used algorithms:BEAM ,PRISM, SPACER Dartmouth College
3-PLACE Affrit Japan
4-IBM Computational Biology Center watson.ibm
5-Elm eu.org
6-improbizer uc santa curze
7-FIRE princeton university
8-ModuleMaster tuebingen university
9-MotifVoterNational University of Singapore
10-WebMotifs MIT university
11-MiniMotifFinderuniversity of Connecticut
12-The MEME SUITSan diego supercomputer center
13-blockMaker Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
14-Gibbs motif sampledeveloped by Eric C. Rouchka and others
15-phylogibbsuniversity of Basel
16- Pscan University of Milan
17-Multi Finder Harvard university
18- amadeous algorithm:Allegro TelAviv university
19-YMF find short motifs, algorithm:A Statistical Method for Finding Transcription Factor Binding Sites, university of Washington
20-SOMBRERO algorithm:a neural network algorithm called the "Self-Organizing Map",Article, National University of Ireland Galway
21-motif tool manager university of Memphis
22-GLAM2 GLAM2 will analyze your sequences for gapped motifs, San Diego supercomputer center
23- MEME MEME will analyze your sequences for similarities among them and produce a description (motif) for each pattern it discovers.
24-GLAM2SCAN submit a GLAM2 motif to GLAM2SCAN to be used in searching a sequence database. San Diego supercomputer center
25-http://meme.sdsc.edu/meme4_4_0/cgi-bin/gomo.cgi submit motifs to GOMO. GOMO will use the DNA binding motifs to find putative target genes and analyze their associated GO terms. A list of significant GO terms that can be linked to the given motifs will be produced. San Diego supercomputer center
26-FIMO submit motifs to FIMO to be used in searching a sequence database. San Diego supercomputer center
27-MCAST ,motif cluster alignment and search tool ,San Diego supercomputer center
28-tomtom motif comparison tool,TOMTOM will rank the motifs in the target database by the q-value of the similarity score ,San Diego supercomputer center
29-MAST motif alignment and search tool, ,San Diego supercomputer center

The MEME Suite(software that is mentioned from 24 to 29) allows you to:

* discover motifs using MEME or GLAM2 on groups of related DNA or protein sequences,
* search sequence databases using motifs,
* compare a motif to all motifs in a database of motifs, and
* associate motifs with Gene Ontology terms via their putative target genes

30-motif cluster allows you to analyze motifs in a set of protein sequences, relating them to the alignment, phylogeny, and (where available) the 3D structures. It is useful for detecting remote homologies between protein families, for understanding which proteins are most likely to share functions, and for identifying residue changes that might be important for the evolution of new enzyme activities. It's article university of Colorado
31-NestedMICA works by optimizing a probabilistic model which treats the input data as a mixture of interesting motifs and background sequence. NestedMICA uses a new and robust inference technique called nested sampling ,Sanger institute
32-mochiview Johnson lab
33-Consensus Use a greedy algorithm to iteratively build up motifs by adding more and more pattern instances.Washington university in St.Louis
34-phyloGibbs PhyloGibbs, our recent Gibbs-sampling motif-finder, takes phylogeny into account in detecting binding sites for transcription factors in DNA and assigns posterior probabilities to its predictions obtained by sampling the entire configuration space. university of Basel
35-Phylogibbs Onlineuniversity of Basel

We have limitations?

Hello guys
last week I saw an article with this title "Limitations of human brain mean we may never understand the secrets of universe, says Britain's top scientist", I was surprised how this can be possible, we have limitations but our equipments do not have limitations and also we are able to add extra memory, processor's and so on to our brains who said we can't.
I hope this guy with this nice smile have answers for these issues.

Do you agree with me?

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

G.K.Chesterson

Researchers predict human visual attention using computer intelligence for the first time

Queen Mary, University of London scientists have developed a computer-based model to better understand change blindness--the inability for people to see obvious changes to scenes around them. "The biologically inspired mathematics we have developed and tested can have future uses in letting computer vision systems such as robots detect interesting elements in their visual environment," says Queen Mary professor Peter McOwan. As part of the study, participants were asked to spot the differences between pre-change and post-change versions of a series of pictures. To eliminate bias, the researchers developed an algorithm that enabled the computer determine how to change the images that study participants were asked to view. In addition to being able to predict change blindness, the research showed that the addition or subtraction of an object from the scene is detected more often than changes in the color of the object. The researchers say the model will be useful in designing displays for road signs, emergency services, security, and surveillance to draw attention to a change or part of the display that requires immediate attention.
Full article

Today I've seen newscientist's brain website. I've found it very delicious. don't miss it.

beauty

Beauty is not something on the face, It's something that happens a few centimeters behind the face.