Robots

The idea may scare some, but Intel predicts that by 2050 machines could surpass the peak of human intelligence.

So predicted Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at the chip maker, in a presentation at the Intel Developer Forum which examined how technology is expected to bridge the gap between man and machine.

The vision included sensitive robots and shape-shifting materials.

“There is no question that one of the most likely things that will happen in the next 40 years is that machine and human intelligence will come much closer together,” Mr Rattner told the BBC.

“The ability of humans to communicate with machines and for machines to communicate with humans will get so much better.”
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Engineers send code 93,000,000 miles through space daily in search for life on Mars

Scooping up soil samples and searching for elements that could support life on Mars isn’t just an adventure for the Mars Lander and the robotic arm doing the scooping.It’s also an adventure for the approximately 30 engineers and programmers at NASA who are tasked with writing and testing 1,000 to 1,500 lines of software code and then beaming it about 93,000,000 miles away — every day.

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(AP) — Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays tennis and skis when time allows.
Rex Jameson stretches in a robotic soldier suit that can multiply its wearer’s strength and endurance.

But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds — that is, until he steps into an “exoskeleton” of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times. (more…)

Robots are competing in Germany this week to traverse a maze that simulates the aftermath of a natural disaster (see video, right).

It is part of the largest warm-up event, the German Open, for the annual RoboCup, held in China this July. The main Robocup event has been running for 11 years and pits teams of soccer robots against each other, with the goal of having a robotic team beat the human world soccer champions at their own game by 2050.

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