In one of my previous blog posts, we discussed about measuring computer’s intelligence and how we can use the Turing test for it. After Turing proposed that test, a lot of people realized its importance and started working on it. People really wanted to believe that machines are indeed capable of thinking. We need a way to determine if a computer is thinking on its own. The biggest obstacle here is that this is a very subjective topic. Given the knowledge that something is indeed a machine, how do we ascertain that the machine is capable of thinking? Continue reading “Robot Vs Turing”
Category: Human-Computer Interaction
Near Field Communication (NFC)
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a form of contactless communication between devices like smartphones or tablets. Contactless communication allows a user to wave the smartphone over a NFC compatible device to send information without needing to touch the devices together or go through multiple steps setting up a connection. This is very fast and convenient. NFC technology is popular in parts of Europe and Asia, and is quickly spreading throughout the United States. It is very useful to people who are buying things at a grocery store, businesses looking for faster and secure payments methods for customers, friends touring some unknown place, etc. So what exactly is the technology behind NFC? Is it any different from bluetooth? Continue reading “Near Field Communication (NFC)”
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) has been one of the most exciting fields to have come into prominence in the last few years. Back when people starting working aggressively on computer graphics, great innovations took place. Today, we have 3D movies with high end computer graphics, but it is still on the screen inside our machines. People then started to think how to pull the graphics out of the screen and integrate them into real world. The result of this effort was augmented reality. It tries to blur the line between what’s real and what’s virtual. It enhances our perception of reality. You can take a look at this video to see what I’m talking about. How does this technology work? How does it track the marker? Continue reading “Augmented Reality”
Connecting With Kinect
If you haven’t experienced Kinect yet, do yourself a favor and just go do it! For people who have just landed on earth, Kinect is a motion sensing device for Microsoft XBox 360 video game console. You can check out the video here. Instead of using buttons or controllers to play video games, this device enables you to use your body. Your movements will be captured and the video game character will move accordingly. When Kinect first came out in 2009, it took the world by storm! How is it possible to capture our body movements so accurately without using any wires? How does it recognize our gestures? Continue reading “Connecting With Kinect”
Peeking Into The Third Dimension With 3D Glasses
Instead of directly explaining it, I will take a different route this time. Let’s take a look at this conversation between Walter and Michael. In case you are not familiar with them, Walter is a mathematician and Michael is his friend who refuses to acknowledge that humans need complex mathematical models. This attitude of Michael doesn’t sit well with Walter and hence they are constantly at loggerheads over this issue. They were once walking along and they came across a multiplex. Continue reading “Peeking Into The Third Dimension With 3D Glasses”
Touch Me Not
We are increasingly moving towards touchscreen technology. Every new mobile gadget that’s coming to the market has a touchscreen. Most of us interact with touchscreen technology on a daily basis. I’m sure you would have gotten curious some time or the other to know how it actually works. What happens when you touch the screen? How does it know where you touched the screen? All of us deserve to know how it works, especially when we use it so often. Continue reading “Touch Me Not”
Looking Into The Future With Google Glass
Unless you shut down all your gadgets and hid yourself in a dark alley with absolutely no connection to the rest of the world, you would have heard that the Google I/O conference started on June 27. It is one of the most exciting events in the realm of tech innovation. Google came up with a couple of new devices – A 7-inch Android Jelly Bean tablet called Nexus 7 and a social media streaming device called Nexus Q. But that’s not what this blog post is about. I want to talk about the insanely cool Google Glass demo that they presented in the conference. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can see it here. This reminded all of us why we love and adore Google. The technology falls in the category of Wearable Computing. When they started it out a few years ago, it sounded very futuristic, but not anymore. It’s here and we just saw it! Continue reading “Looking Into The Future With Google Glass”
Oblivious Machine, Thou Shalt Learn
Why do we want machines to learn? What do we want to them to “learn” exactly? There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the concept of machine learning. Is machine learning just robots learning how to walk and talk? Is it just machines learning how to do a particular fancy task? Not exactly. I thought I should just try to explain it in plain simple terms. Think about the following: How do search engines provide the best possible search results? How does multi-touch work on your smartphone or tablet? Continue reading “Oblivious Machine, Thou Shalt Learn”
Perpetual Enigma 