Robot wheelchair finds its own way

MIT invention responds to user's spoken commands

MIT researchers are developing a new kind of autonomous wheelchair that can learn all about the locations in a given building, and then take its occupant to a given place in response to a verbal command.

Just by saying "take me to the cafeteria" or "go to my room," the wheelchair user would be able to avoid the need for controlling every twist and turn of the route and could simply sit back and relax as the chair moves from one place to another based on a map stored in its memory.

"It's a system that can learn and adapt to the user," says Nicholas Roy, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and co-developer of the wheelchair. "People have different preferences and different ways of referring" to places and objects, he says, and the aim is to have each wheelchair personalized for its user and the user's environment.

Unlike other attempts to program wheelchairs or other mobile devices, which rely on an intensive process of manually capturing a detailed map of a building, the MIT system can learn about its environment in much the same way as a person would: By being taken around once on a guided tour, with important places identified along the way. For example, as the wheelchair is pushed around a nursing home for the first time, the patient or a caregiver would say: "this is my room" or "here we are in the foyer" or "nurse's station."

Also collaborating on the project are Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at MIT's AgeLab, and Seth Teller, professor of computer science and engineering and head of the Robotics, Vision, and Sensor Networks (RVSN) group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Teller says the RVSN group is developing a variety of machines, of various sizes, that can have situational awareness, that is, that can "learn these mental maps, in order to help people do what they want to do, or do it for them." Besides the wheelchair, the devices range in scale from a location-aware cellphone all the way up to an industrial forklift that can transport large loads from place to place outdoors, autonomously.

Outdoors in the open, such systems can rely on GPS receivers to figure out where they are, but inside buildings that method usually doesn't work, so other approaches are needed. Roy and Teller have been exploring the use of WiFi signals, as well as wide-field cameras and laser rangefinders, coupled to computer systems that can construct and localize within an internal map of the environment as they move around.

"I'm interested in having robots build and maintain a high-fidelity model of the world," says Teller, whose central research focus is developing machines that have situational awareness.

For now, the wheelchair prototype relies on a WiFi system to make its maps and then navigate through them, which requires setting up a network of WiFi nodes around the facility in advance. After months of preliminary tests on campus, they have begun trials in a real nursing home environment with real patients, at the Boston Home in Dorchester, a facility where all of the nearly 100 patients have partial or substantial loss of muscle control and use wheelchairs.

As the research progresses, Roy says he'd like to add a collision-avoidance system using detectors to prevent the chair from bumping into other wheelchairs, walls or other obstacles. In addition,Teller says he hopes to add mechanical arms to the chairs, to aid the patients further by picking up and manipulating objects -- everything from flipping a light switch to picking up a cup and bringing it to the person's lips.

The research has been funded by Nokia and Microsoft.

MIT research bringing 'smart bikes' to Denmark

Project aims to match sustainability, interactivity

MIT researchers unveiled a major new project on Oct. 10 in Copenhagen aimed at transforming bicycle use in Denmark's largest city, promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city's cyclists.

The project, called SmartBiking, will utilize a novel self-organizing smart-tag system that will allow the city's residents to exchange basic information and share their relative positioning with each other. The project will be implemented citywide in time for the November 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference, which Copenhagen will host.

"One of the most striking aspects of Copenhagen is that it is already a very sustainable city," said Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT's SENSEable City Lab, which is overseeing the Smart Biking project. "A considerable fraction of its energy comes from renewable sources and, unlike a few decades ago, 30 to 40 percent of its citizens use bicycles as their primary method of transportation.

"So our challenge was, 'How can we enhance these dynamics of sustainability? And how can we use technology to make them more widespread?'"

Beyond encouraging Copenhagen's citizens to ride more often, the program aims to help them interact as well.

"We have developed a Facebook application called 'I crossed your path,' which creates a social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections," explained Christine Outram, the principal research assistant on the project.

The smart tags will also allow individuals to monitor the distance they travel while cycling as part of a citywide "green mileage" initiative, which is similar to a frequent-flyer program.

What will the reward for green miles be? "A year of free Muesli," mused SENSEable City Lab's Associate Director Assaf Biderman. "The very act of sharing this information and showing individuals the environmental impact of their actions could be very powerful. Research has shown that behavioral change is one of the most powerful forces to tackle climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions."

Ultimately, fine-grained monitoring of urban activities could allow cities such as Copenhagen to enter carbon-trading schemes. Cities could obtain funding for sustainable city services in exchange for their efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The impact could be considerable, as cities account for approximately half of the world population, but are responsible for a much larger share of carbon emissions.

Finally, as part of the project, a prototype of a smart bicycle is being developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Group at the MIT Media Lab, directed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W Dreyfoos (1954) Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences. This hybrid bicycle uses a regenerative motor to harvest the energy created when braking and release it while cycling, in a manner similar to hybrid cars. Everything, including the battery, is packed in the rear wheel, which becomes a self-contained element that could be retrofitted on most existing bicycles.

The Smart Biking Project is developed by the SENSEable City Laboratory, an MIT research group focused on technology and urban planning that is a part of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, together with the MIT Design Lab. In addition to professors Ratti and Mitchell, the team comprises Assaf Biderman, Francesco Calabrese, Michael Lin, Mauro Martino and Outram.

Google-Yahoo ad deal off, Microsoft in the wings?

The Google-Yahoo advertising deal that was a relic of Yahoo’s defense against a Microsoft takeover has been abandoned because of an inability to satisfy the concerns of US regulators:

Google Inc. has scrapped its Internet advertising partnership with struggling rival Yahoo Inc., abandoning attempts to overcome the objections of antitrust regulators and customers who believed the alliance would give Google too much power over online commerce.

The retreat announced Wednesday represented another setback for Yahoo, which had been counting on the Google deal to boost its annual revenue by $800 million and placate shareholders still incensed by management’s decision to reject a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp. six months ago.

Google backed off after the U.S. Justice Department said it would sue to block the Yahoo deal to preserve competition in the Internet’s rapidly growing advertising market.

“The arrangement likely would have denied consumers the benefits of competition — lower prices, better service and greater innovation,” said Thomas Barnett, an assistant attorney general who oversees the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Without Google’s help, Yahoo now may feel more pressure to renew talks with Microsoft and ultimately sell for a price well below the $33 per share that Microsoft offered in May. Yahoo shares traded Wednesday morning at just $14.05, gaining 70 cents in a move reflecting investor hopes that Microsoft might renew its pursuit.

So will Microsoft try again at a much lower price? There are a lot of good buys in today’s depressed stock market, but is Yahoo one of them?

Cell phones—The new cigarettes? (3)

Robot surveillance dragonfly takes flight
Researchers at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands earlier this week unveiled a small, remote-controlled aircraft weighing just 0.11 ounce (3.1 grams) and with a four-inch (10-centimeter) wingspan—just large enough to accommodate an onboard camera. The DelFly "micro air vehicle," which flaps its wings and looks like a dragonfly, can fly for about three minutes at a speed of 16.4 feet (five meters) per second. The team hopes the DelFly Micro—Delft's third-generation robot flyer (after the 0.81-ounce, or 23-gram, DelFly I in 2005 and the 0.56-ounce, or 16-gram, DelFly II a year later) will capture images from nooks and crannies that bigger cameras cannot reach. The DelFly II's camera transmits TV-quality images, allowing it to be operated from a computer using a joystick and giving the person controlling the mechanical insect the feeling of being inside the cockpit of a miniature aircraft. The researchers are hoping to further develop the DelFly Micro's camera so that it can be used the same way. They are also working to give it DelFly II's ability to hover (like a hummingbird) and fly backward. Next on the agenda: the DelFly NaNo, projected to weigh a single gram and have a two-inch (five-centimeter) wingspan. In addition to making ever-smaller robots, the researchers want to add image-recognition software that will let the DelFlys zoom on their own without getting tangled in a tree or crashing into a wall.

Lime-aid: Acid oceans, warming globe? Just add lime
By adding lime to seawater, scientists hope to slow or even reverse some of the worst effects of climate change by cutting the acid in oceans caused by the excess carbon dioxide released by an industrialized world. When the world's seas—which absorb the greenhouse gas—become acidic, coral and other shelled sea life suffers. But by adding lime (derived from the stone formed from billions of dead coral), the acid is neutralized and even more CO2 can be absorbed without upsetting marine denizens—or so goes the theory. First proposed in the 1990s by ExxonMobil, the plan was dismissed because of the hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs, along with the CO2 that would have been emitted in the process of making and transporting the lime. But researchers backed by another oil giant—Shell—now believe they can get over those hurdles by producing the lime in areas that are rich in limestone and have readily available cheap electricity, such as solar. "There are many such places," says management consultant Tim Kruger, the brains behind this renewed idea. "For example, Australia's Nullarbor Plain would be a prime location for this process, as it has [2,400 cubic miles] 10,000 cubic kilometers of limestone and soaks up roughly 20 megajoules per meter squared of solar irradiation every day." Of course, that wouldn't even put a dent in the 7.7 billion tons (7 billion metric tons) of greenhouse gases that the U.S. alone emits. And no one knows what the other consequences of adding that much lime to the ocean might be.

Back to the Future?: 14-million-year-old fossil reveals a warmer Antarctic
Was the Antarctic once a balmy place? Researchers report in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that a fossil of a tiny crustacean offers proof that it had a relatively toasty clime as recently as 14 million years ago. The rocks in eastern Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys region yielded the fossil of an ostracod—a shrimplike crustacean that lived in an ancient lake. The tiny crustaceans need liquid water to survive—unavailable in today's Antarctic where temperatures average –13 degrees Fahrenheit (–25 degrees Celsius), but possible eons ago when the climate there was more like Alaska's. The living progeny of the ancient critter don't get any closer to Antarctica than the surrounding seas, but the fossil indicates that the bone-dry landscape, often compared to that of Mars, once was warm enough to have liquid water. What it doesn't reveal is what caused the shift to a colder climate, a process that may be reversing itself at present.

E-squire? Men's mag cover to feature electronic ink news ticker
Esquire magazine plans to give its readers both the written—and digital—word in its October issue, which will feature so-called electronic ink. E Ink, the company that supplies the technology for Amazon's popular Kindle and the Sony Reader e-books, is behind the devices—paperlike display cells that will allow black-and-white words and images to crawl news ticker–style across the cover. A tiny battery will power the display for about 90 days before it runs out of juice. (The issue will also include a foldout ad on the back cover that will also use electronic ink.) Only 100,000 issues of the mag (circulation: 720,000) will feature the snazzy technology; these coveted few will be delivered via refrigerated vehicles designed to preserve the batteries. Esquire editor David Granger told The New York Times that he wants to shake up the world of magazines, which have looked basically the same for the past 150 years. He hopes that in several years the budding technology will have advanced enough that this first attempt will look like "cell phones did in 1982."

Cell phones—The new cigarettes? (2)

Climatic Conundrum: Could wildfires chill the warming Arctic?
Alaskan residents who watched as wildfires claimed a record 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) of land in 2004 may take cold comfort in the fact that the choking smoke endured during wildfire season could blunt some of the effects of global warming. Researchers from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) analyzed the short-term climatic impact of smoke from wildfires that swept Alaska and western Canada in 2004, burning 22,000 square miles (57,000 square kilometers) in total. They report in the Journal of Geophysical Research that the billowing clouds may have a cooling effect on the Arctic, where dwindling ice sheets have researchers worried about the potential for sudden climate changes to come. They say that smoke carried north on the wind absorbs some of the sun's rays and perhaps lessens the impact of global warming for weeks or months at a time, to a degree that depends on the soot's thickness, the sun's elevation and the brightness of the ice or water surface. They note signs that the 2004 wildfires had atmospheric effects as far north as Greenland and the islands above Norway and down south to the Gulf of Mexico. The only hitch: Particles that land on snow or ice might actually cause it to melt faster. Still, , NOAA says, it is possiblethe Arctic might benefit if wildfires intensified—a distinct possibility as global warming leads to drier summers up north.
http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/News/Fire04.html

Meet Makemake, the fourth dwarf planet
Astronomers have upgraded a distant body discovered in 2005 to the category of dwarf planet, the controversial designation created two years ago by the Paris-based International Astronomical Union (IAU) to deal with planetlike bodies far out in the solar system. The IAU decided at a meeting last week that the object formerly known as 2005 FY9 (or unofficially, "easterbunny") will henceforth be known as Makemake (pronounced MAH-kee MAH-kee) for the Easter Island Polynesian god of fertility and creator of humanity. That makes it the fourth dwarf planet, joining Ceres, Eris and Pluto, and the third "plutoid," or dwarf planet beyond Neptune. (Ceres resides in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.) Slightly smaller than Pluto and nearly as bright, reddish Makemake is one of the largest transneptunian objects in the solar system. Its discovery, along with that of Eris and similar specimens, precipitated the IAU's decision to create a separate category for round objects in the solar system that have not swept clear their regions of competing debris. This new criterion robbed Pluto of its prior status as a planet.

Not lost in space: NASA plans GPS-like system for return to the moon
NASA has coughed up $1.2 million for a navigation system that will help astronauts find their way around the lunar surface when they return in 2020. The Lunar Astronaut Spatial Orientation and Information System (LASOIS) is designed to function much the same way as a global positioning system (GPS). The major difference: the moon version will rely on signals from lunar beacons, stereo cameras and orbital imaging sensors instead of from GPS satellites to map coordinates. A group of The Ohio State University (O.S.U.) researchers are working with NASA Glenn Research Center, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, to develop the LASOIS. This is old hat for Ron Li, an O.S.U. professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science heading up the project, who was part of a team that developed software that helps NASA scientists guide the Spirit and Opportunity rovers as they roam the Martian landscape. NASA mapped portions of Mars by comparing images taken by a high-resolution imaging science experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with those snapped by Spirit and Opportunity on the Red Planet's surface. Li explained how the system works this week during a conference held at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.: Images taken from space will be combined with surface shots to create maps of lunar terrain; motion sensors on lunar vehicles and clipped onto the astronauts' spacesuits will help computers pinpoint their locations; signals from lunar beacons, the lunar lander and base stations will give astronauts a picture of their surroundings similar to what drivers see when using a GPS device on Earth.

Cell phones—The new cigarettes? (1)

There has been a raging debate over whether cell phones—or more specifically electromagnetic radiation that they emit—up a person's cancer risk. The latest chapter: Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, this week warned consumers to limit exposure to cell phone radiation—and alerted parents to beware of possible effects on their kids' developing brains. Although the evidence remains controversial, he is convinced that the radiation poses a risk to human health. As he pointed out, a number of countries, including France, Germany and India, have already issued such warnings to their citizens. Herberman outlined 10 ways to reduce exposure. Among them: reduce cell phone use, use a hands-free earpiece, switch ears while chatting to limit radiation concentration in one spot, and avoid using mobile phones in public places to limit second-hand radiation. In particular, he cautions parents about the possible effects of cell phone radiation on children. He indicates that kids should only be allowed to use these devices in cases of emergency, as their developing brains are more likely to be susceptible to possible side effects. He said recent studies indicate that "living tissue is vulnerable to electromagnetic fields within the frequency bands used by cell phones." Worried? Perhaps you should be. But that doesn't mean you should hang up altogether, Herberman says. As he noted in his memo: "Our society will no longer do without cell phones." But he says there's enough biological data to indicate that consumers should take precautions. Herberman also called on the cell phone industry to improve current technologies to limit radiation risks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not respond to requests for comment, but the agency says on its Web site that no clear link exists between cell phone usage and cancer. Soy vey! Does eating tofu lower sperm count?
Do real men eat soy? Perhaps. But if they want to become fathers, they may want to limit their tofu intake. A new study shows that downing soy products may lower sperm count. The reason, according to the research published in the journal Human Reproduction (pdf): soy beans contain high amounts of phytoestrogens, organic compounds that mimic the female hormone estrogen in the human body and, in animal studies, have been shown to reduce testosterone levels. Lead study author Jorge Chavarro, a research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, and his colleagues found that men who ate at least half a serving a day of soy had, on average, 34 million fewer sperm per milliliter than those who skipped it. But Chavarro doesn't recommend you give up the soy burgers—at least not yet. He notes that the study was limited (99 men) and that more research is needed to prove that tofu actually reduces male fertility.

Found: FDA officials link salmonella outbreak to Mexican-grown jalapeño
Forget tomatoes. At least for now. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a direct link to hot peppers as a culprit in the salmonella poisoning that has sickened 1,250 people in the U.S. and Canada since April. FDA investigators announced Monday that they found a strain of salmonella that matched the one in victims in a single jalapeño pepper grown in Mexico. The contaminated pepper was uncovered at the Argricola Zaragoza, Inc., packaging facility in McAllen, Tex., a town near the border. The firm has recalled all jalapeños distributed since June 30. The product is known to have shipped to customers in Georgia and Texas. Still unknown: whether the pepper was contaminated on the farm where it was grown, in the packaging facility or while it was being transported from one to the other. FDA officials say that tomatoes were not necessarily blameless in the salmonella outbreak, which landed some 200 people in the hospital. But they insist they are okay to eat now. Jalapeños, however, are still a no-no. The FDA yesterday warned people to steer clear of raw jalapeños. (It says that the elderly, infants and people with compromised immune systems should also avoid closely related serrano peppers.) FDA investigators plan to retrace the route of the tainted jalapeños from the packing plant back to the farm in Mexico where they were grown, to determine the contamination point. They also plan to check out distributors of peppers packaged at the Texas plant to determine if they played a role in the salmonella outbreak.

How to "Tune Up" Your Windows Based Computer

This editorial contains simple procedures for optimizing the performance of your Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME based computer. These simple tricks of the trade will open up system resources for programs so that your programs will start faster run smoother and be a little more reliable. These procedures are not difficult and only require a minimal amount of computer savvy to accomplish.

Cleaning Out the StartUp Folder
If you are running Windows 98, 98SE or ME this is a very simple procedure to gain back system resources lost to programs that automatically "StartUp" when Windows boots up. This procedure will not remove the programs from the computer but will keep them from automatically starting so you can use them when they are needed but they will not be running all the time in the background taking up valuable resources that could be used for programs that you wish to run right now.

Using Windows 98, 98SE and ME simply click on the "Start" button and then choose "Programs". Find the Folder titled "StartUp" and double click on it to open it in a window. All the icons you see here are merely shortcuts to the actual programs. Highlight the icon you wish to remove by right clicking on it (all can be safely removed without any problems). Choose "delete" from the drop down menu that appears. That's all there is to this procedure. If you are using Windows 95 you will have to open the "Taskbar Properties" window. To get maximum efficiency from your computer it is recommended to remove all icons from the StartUp folder.

For Windows 95 users, right click on the Start bar (not the Start button but a blank space on the bar next to it). Choose properties from the drop down menu that appears. You now have a window open that is titled "Taskbar Properties". There are two tabs at the top of this window labeled "Taskbar Options" and "Start Menu Programs". Click on "Start Menu Programs" and you will then see a list of folders that appear on your "Programs" menu when you click the Start button. Find the folder labeled "StartUp" and click the + next to it to open the list of shortcuts inside it. Click on a shortcut you wish to remove so that it is highlighted and then click remove at the bottom right of the window. You will have to repeat this procedure for all the programs you wish to remove from the StartUp folder.

Locking Down the Swap File and Defraging
Windows operating systems all use virtual memory or a Swap File located on the hard disk to help run programs and for basic operating system tasks. By default, Windows will set the swap file on the C: drive and allocate a minimum of "0" MB and a Maximum of "No Maximum", which means Windows will use any and all empty areas of the hard disk to store the swap file. This can hinder performance of your computer when the swap file becomes fragmented among all the other files on the hard drive. Locking down the swap file to a set size will keep it located in one area and help to keep it from becoming fragmented among other files on the drive.

To lock down your swap file, right click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and choose properties from the drop down menu that appears. This opens a window titled "System Properties". There are four tabs at the top of the window. The fourth (last) one to the right is labeled "Performance", click on this tab. At the bottom of the window you will now see three buttons, the one to the right is labeled "Virtual Memory", click on this button. You will get a new window titled "Virtual Memory" and the first paragraph will warn you that these settings can adversely affect system performance and should be adjusted by advanced users. Don't let this discourage you, you're almost done.

Note: If you follow these instructions you will have no problems and will have better performance.

By default, Windows is managing the swap file but if you click the radio button that says "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings", you can change the amount of disk space used by the swap file. If you have plenty of space on the C: drive, set the settings to "Minimum 256" and "Maximum 256". This will keep the swap file the same size so it won't fluctuate and keep it in a specific location on the hard drive so it won't intermix with other files. Do not disable virtual memory or Windows will crash and cause you many headaches. Now click "OK" and Windows will prompt you asking you to confirm virtual memory settings and ask, "Are you sure you want to continue?" Click "Yes". When you close the window, Windows will ask you if you want to reboot, choose yes. That's all for this procedure.

Defraging
The way your computer writes information to the hard disk is in bits and pieces. It will write the information in any free space available. This is also how it writes information in the swap file. Therefor a file can be written in fragments anywhere there is an empty space and virtually take up more room than it actually needs. By defragmenting the hard disk at regular intervals you will keep the file system in order and help the computer run to it's optimal performance. To defrag your hard drive, simply click the "Start" button and choose "Run". In the blank field type "defrag" and hit the enter key. Defrag will start and ask which drive you wish to defrag. Choose C: first and if you have more than one hard drive or more than one partiton, you can defrag the others when C is finished. Click "OK" to start defraging. This procedure may take a while to complete if you have a large hard drive or a slow processor. Be patient and let the operation finish before doing any other tasks.

Setting the Primary Role of Your Computer
Most people are using their computer at home for simple internet access, games, music and word processing. Some may even use personal finance software or data base programs but most people do not think of their computer as a server. The primary role of your computer may be a desktop PC but when this is the setting in Windows your computer uses resources a little more freely than if your primary role is set to a network server. When the primary role is set to "Network Server" your computer uses less resources and uses them in a stricter fashion. This opens up resources for your programs to use and consequently runs them better.

To set the primary role of your computer, right click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and choose properties from the drop down menu that appears. This opens a window titled "System Properties". There are four tabs at the top of the window. The fourth (last) one to the right is labeled "Performance", click on this tab. At the bottom of the window you will now see three buttons, the one to the left is labeled "File System". Click on the "File System" button and simply scroll the choices down or up until you see "Network Server" and choose this option. Under this you will see the control for "Read-ahead optimization", make sure this is set to "Full". Click "OK" and then click "OK" again on the previous window. Windows will now prompt you to reboot, go ahead and reboot. That's all for this procedure.

Doing only one of these procedure will not improve your performance that much, and may not even be noticeable but if you do all three you will see a significant system performance increase of about 6 to 8% in speed and programs will start faster and run smoother. You only have to do these procedure once unless you upgrade your operating system or format your hard drive. The only exception is defraging. Defraging should be done at least every week to keep your hard drive in top condition.

There are many more ways to help get the most out of your PC but this editorial is intended for people who may not have a lot of computer savvy or money to spend on utility software but wish to optimize their computing experience. I wanted to keep this as simple as possible so that anyone could take advantage of these procedures to increase their computers performance.