Is it time to use artificial intelligence to identify, count, describe wild animals ??????????????

A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports how a cutting-edge artificial intelligence technique called deep learning can automatically identify, count and describe animals in their natural habitats.

Photographs that are automatically collected by motion-sensor cameras an then be automatically described by deep neural networks. The result is a system that can automate animal identification for up to 99.3 percent of images while still performing at the same 96.6 percent accuracy rate of crowd sourced teams of human volunteers.

"This technology lets us accurately, unobtrusively and inexpensively collect wildlife data, which could help catalyze the transformation of many fields of ecology, wildlife biology, zoology, conservation biology and animal behavior into 'big data' sciences. This will dramatically improve our ability to both study and conserve wildlife and precious ecosystems," says Jeff Clune, the senior author of the paper. He is the Harris Associate Professor at the University of Wyoming and a senior research manager at Uber's Artificial Intelligence Labs.

The paper was written by Clune; his Ph.D. student Mohammad Sadegh Norouzzadeh; his former Ph.D. student Anh Nguyen (now at Auburn University); Margaret Kosmala (Harvard University); Ali Swanson (University of Oxford); and Meredith Palmer and Craig Packer (both from the University of Minnesota).

Deep neural networks are a form of computational intelligence loosely inspired by how animal brains see and understand the world. They require vast amounts of training data to work well, and the data must be accurately labeled (e.g., each image being correctly tagged with which species of animal is present, how many there are, etc.).

This study obtained the necessary data from Snapshot Serengeti, a citizen science project. Snapshot Serengeti has deployed a large number of "camera traps" (motion-sensor cameras) in Tanzania that collect millions of images of animals in their natural habitat, such as lions, leopards, cheetahs and elephants. The information in these photographs is only useful once it has been converted into text and numbers. For years, the best method for extracting such information was to ask crowd sourced teams of human volunteers to label each image manually. The study published today harnessed 3.2 million labeled images produced in this manner by more than 50,000 human volunteers over several years.

"Not only does the artificial intelligence system tell you which of the different species of animal is present, but it also tells you how many there are and what they are doing. It will tell you if they are eating, sleeping, if babies are present, etc.," 

Construction Robots to Beat Worker Shortage

                       Robots that can weld, lift and bolt are being developed to help bridge labor shortages at Japanese construction sites, though their use will be limited to night shifts when no human workers will be nearby due to safety and regulatory concerns.

Major Japanese construction company Shimizu Corp. showed off several robots Monday, including one already in use at construction sites that picked up a big pile of boards and took them into an elevator.The Robo-Welder and Robo-Buddy, with twisting and turning mechanical arms, will be deployed at construction sites later this year, the company said.

Japan's construction sector is booming but contractors are struggling to fill labor shortages — a problem playing out in other parts of the world, including the U.S.The robots demonstrated at a Shimizu test facility in Tokyo can reduce the number of workers needed for each of the tasks they carried out to about a third or a fourth of what's required today.

But construction work is so varied, delicate and complex that the robots are able to handle just 1 percent of overall construction work.Trying to raise that to even 10 percent is a major challenge and might be too costly.Robotics are common in manufacturing sites, such as auto plants, but those machines are stationery and carrying out the same task over and over, often in sterile and enclosed environments.

Shimizu says it is developing its own artificial intelligence systems, using robots made by Kuka Robotics of Germany.If they work successfully, the robots could help reduce safety risks and long hours for construction workers.It that, in a typical task, a worker must use one arm — and his helmeted head — to hold up a board and hold bolts in his mouth while using his other arm to bolt a board in place using a hand-held machine.

Robo-Buddy made that look easy. It used suction cups to pick up a board and sensors to place it exactly where it belonged as a mechanical arm swerved around and bolted the board in, moving from spot to spot.Using robots makes sense in urban construction, where buildings are high-rise and the same work is repeated on each floor.

In Japan, where the birth rate has been declining for years, the workforce has also begun to shrink. Many construction workers are older, and contractors are having a hard time attracting young people.There were about 3.4 million construction workers in Japan in 2014. That's expected to shrink to 2.2 million by 2025.Most work on robotics has focused on entertainment and companion robots, such as SoftBank Corp.'s Pepper and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Kiribo Mini. But officials have made developing robots for other uses a national priority.

Toyota also is working on robots that might be used for construction, such as the human-looking T-HR3 and a scooting human-support robot.In the U.S., Construction Robotics has developed a bricklaying robot.

An overview of Robotic process automation.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.

Any company that uses labor on a large scale for general knowledge process work, where people are performing high-volume, highly transnational process functions, will boost their capabilities and save money and time with robotic process automation software.

Just as industrial robots are remaking the manufacturing industry by creating higher production rates and improved quality, RPA “robots” are revolutionizing the way we think about and administer business processes, IT support processes, workflow processes, remote infrastructure and back-office work. RPA provides dramatic improvements in accuracy and cycle time and increased productivity in transaction processing while it elevates the nature of work by removing people from dull, repetitive tasks.

The technology of RPA can be applied specifically to a wide range of industries.

Process automation

Technologies like presentation-layer automation software – a technology that mimics the steps of a rules-based, non-subjective process without compromising the existing IT architecture – are able to consistently carry out prescribed functions and easily scale up or down to meet demand. Process automation can expedite back-office tasks in finance, procurement, supply chain management, accounting, customer service and human resources, including data entry, purchase order issuing, creation of online access credentials, or business processes that require “swivel-chair” access to multiple existing systems.

IT support and management

Automated processes in the remote management of IT infrastructures can consistently investigate and solve problems for faster process throughput. RPA can improve service desk operations and the monitoring of network devices. Separating scalability from human resources allows a company to handle short-term demand without extra recruiting or training.

Automated assistant

As in voice recognition software or automated online assistants, developments in how machines process language, retrieve information and structure basic content mean that RPA can provide answers to employees or customers in natural language rather than in software code. This technology can help to conserve resources for large call centers and for customer interaction centers.

Will our next best friend be a Robot????????

             This is the world of developments.Nothing is impossible today with the technologies we posses.So is it possible to the robots our best friend in the future??

Human relationships will never go out of style. But as robotics technology and artificial intelligence (AI) advance, and robots gain greater "social" abilities, we humans will form relationships with our robot helpers. We may even come to feel as though they are our friends.

Is that really something we want? It's hard to imagine that having a robot as a friend is a future many of us would desire. But human nature may pave the way for these relationships. And it may be inevitable.

A big reason is practical: People are living longer and there's an expanding demographic bulge of people over 65, many of whom will need some form of care as they age. Elder-care experts foresee a shortage of human caregivers to meet ever-growing demand. Robots of some form will be necessary to fill the gaps. (Should you have the misfortune of being bedridden, a robotic bear might lift you to give your human aide's back a break, for example.)

A number of initiatives around the world are underway to create robots that act as health care aides or personal "butlers." It's not just that technology is advancing and it's now possible to create cool ,socially adept robot helpers. In the years ahead, there will be a real demand for them.

The Health Care Aide of the Future?

What will this robot helper be like? Perhaps like the Care-O-bot being developed in Germany, a funky looking wheeled robot with arms and a round screen as a head. It might be a bit more human-like, as with the Pepperpersonal robot from Softbank Robotics, with its cartoonish head and a screen on its chest. Pepper's claim to fame is its ability to "perceive emotions." ("Pepper is the first humanoid robot capable of recognizing the principal human emotions and adapting his behavior to the mood of his interlocutor," according to the company's website.)

Or maybe it will be more like Zenbo, the smaller household robot that its maker, Asus, describes as "Your smart little companion," who can turn on the TV and read recipe instructions while you cook, but can't actually make a meal or load the dishwasher.

Care-O-bot and Pepper bring to mind the robot helper in the 2012 film Robot & Frank. Aging jewel thief Frank is given a health care robot so Frank can remain living alone in his home even though he has mild dementia. Robot cooks meals, reminds Frank to take his medications, does the gardening and (oh, yeah) assists in Frank's brief return to burglary. Robot has a range of skills that are years away from being possible, but this charming fiction rightly suggests how robots will help keep some older adults who need assistance from having to move from their homes.

The upcoming Robotics Trends

 Industrial robots used to be dumb, somewhat inflexible, and mostly blind – but also fast, precise and very efficient.  As the cost of components, sensors and vision systems has been dropping, vision-enabled robots are becoming more prevalent and capable, and the industry is dramatically changing.

For the past 50+ years industrial robots have picked the low-hanging fruit of manufacturing by handling the dull, dirty and dangerous tasks. But today, as consumers want more personalized products, and want them faster, and as costs have dropped and executives have pushed for greater productivity through automation, mobile and vision-enabled robots are emerging and being deployed in many new application areas, particularly for SMEs and in logistics, but also in government, agriculture, surveying, construction and healthcare.

The startups are now focused on industrial robotics and  address new areas of robotics such as: unmanned aerial, land and underwater devices for filming, marketing, delivery, surveillance, security, surveying, and for the military, science and oil and gas industries (25%); robotics for the agriculture industry (6%); mobile robots as platforms for various uses (7%); personal service bots (3%); professional service bots (7%); medical, surgical and rehabilitation robots (7%); consumer products such as for home cleaning, security, remote presence and entertainment (9%); educational and the hobby market (5%)

Collaborative Robots

Much has been said about the fast-growing market for collaborative robots. The most current are articles describing car companies replacing old-style industrial robots with a combination of humans and co-bots assisting humans to gain needed flexibility. The websites of Universal Robots (UR) and Rethink Robotics both contain numerous video use-cases in a variety of application areas. Bottom line: this is a viable and growing segment of the robotics industry started by UR but with competition coming from Kuka, ABB and others.

The major benefits of these new co-bots are their flexibility, safety, ability to be rapidly deployed, and ease of training. Improvements on each of these benefits will keep pressure on pricing as can be seen by the new low-cost Franka robots and the forthcoming rebranded Roberta robot. Also, at AUTOMATICA, held in Munich this June, every robot manufacturer was touting their safe collaborative robots even when, by any stretch of the imagination, they didn’t really have one.

Turning co-bots into a commodity may not be good for profits but it is good for businesses, particularly those wanting to take their first step into using robots.

Logistics and materials handling

Better and lower cost vision systems, particularly low-cost 3D vision, navigation and mobility are enabling a variety of existing and startup companies to offer enhanced material handling methods for factories, warehouses and distribution centers. During the financial crisis, capital expenditures for logistics were put off because existing systems seemed to be able to handle the load. But all that changed as we came back from the crisis and consumers wanted their products faster and warehouses couldn’t keep up without massive investments in new tech, new methods and, in many cases, new vendors. Further, these new technologies had to accommodate existing facilities and systems; few companies are building new warehouses; they are instead, changing their methods and systems.

Upstarts like Amazon and startups like MiR, Clearpath, Aethon, and Fetch are joining established companies like Swisslog, Grenzebach, FMC and many others as they attempt to bring new tech to help speed up the picking process and the movement of picked items to the packing/shipping stations.

The Need and Benefits of Home Automation

     The idea of home automation was relatively unfamiliar to most people. However, as more products and technologies become more easily accessible, homeowners across the country are upgrading their homes.

As this is the world of technologies every new technology that can help humans have a very good future.

So what is home automation? Simply put, home automation puts control of basic home systems and appliances into the hands of the homeowner and provides access from a remote point – like a smartphone app, or at a centralized unit inside the home. Just like some of the futuristic technology seen on television in shows like “The Jetsons” or “Star Trek”, it’s now possible to control things like your home temperature, lighting, and even security systems with the touch of a screen, the swipe of a finger and the sound of your voice.

If the idea of a smart, automated home sounds too “techy or tricky” for your tastes, or you think these kinds of products probably cost an arm and a leg, think again. The future is now and it’s completely accessible. Plus, there are a lot of hidden benefits to automating your home that you might not have thought about before.

The home automation are going to have a great deal of benefits in our life.So lets take a look about it.

                   6 Benefits to Home Automation

1. Security

The foremost benefit of home automation is the amount of security it provides.Tap your finger to turn on the lights when you get home so you worried about what’s hiding in the shadows, or in your pathways. Or automate to turn on when you aren’t home to look like you are to ward off potential robbers. Door locks are another automated home product that can increase your home security.

Worried that the kids didn’t lock the doors before they ran off to play? Or that someone will discover your not-so-secret hiding place for the extra key? Take control of your home safety from a simple app. With some products, you can even get an alert every time someone enters your home.

2. Energy Efficiency

Now a days the need for the conservation of energy is more.Increase your home’s energy efficiency by remotely powering off systems and appliances when they aren’t in use. In addition to the standard home automation products that give you active control, some products actively monitor systems and arm the homeowner with knowledge, insight and guidance to achieve greater control and energy efficiency.

3. Savings

Home automation literally pays off. When you are able to use home systems and appliances only when needed, the savings will be apparent in the first utility bill. No more wasting money on lights left on when you aren’t home, or spending money on gas to drive home because you forgot to lock the door. Monetary savings are apparent, but you’ll also be saving time. No wasted trips home, no running through the house turning everything off, no time spent worrying about what was or wasn’t turned off.

4. Convenience

Don’t you hate having to rely on neighbors to watch your house when you’re gone? With home automation, convenient control of your home is at your fingertips. You don’t have to trust someone else with your most valued possessions.

5. Comfort

Ever leave for work in the morning when it was a comfortable 68° outside only to come home to a sweltering house because the temperature shot up to 90°? Connected home products will conveniently adjust your home temperature from the mobile app so your family is always comfortable.

6. Peace of Mind

One of the biggest hidden benefits that comes with home automation is peace of mind. No more worrying if you turned of the lights, locked the door or turned off the television. For people who have a lot on their plates, being able to easily check these items off the to-do list and stop the obsessive worrying, home automation is reassuring and definitely worth the investment.

MACHINE VISION

Machine vision (MV) is the technology and methods used to provide imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry. Machine vision is a term encompassing a large number of technologies, software and hardware products, integrated systems, actions, methods and expertise. Machine vision as a systems engineering discipline can be considered distinct from computer vision, a form of computer science. It attempts to integrate existing technologies in new ways and apply them to solve real world problems. The term is also used in a broader sense by trade shows and trade groups; this broader definition also encompasses products and applications most often associated with image processing.

The need for safer, more reliable and robust automobiles to justify price points is pushing automakers to adopt machine inspection. And Machine Vision (MV) helps them fulfil this need by providing an automated internal machine inspection method.

And Automotive was one of the earliest industries to have adopted MV to carry out its imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis for automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance. Also termed “computer vision,” MV is a mother lode of a large number of high-end technologies, software and hardware products, integrated systems, and of course, expertise.

This technology works as the eye of the automotive production process using imaging processes including conventional imaging, hyperspectral imaging, infrared imaging, line scan imaging, 3D imaging of surfaces, and X-ray imaging.

Smart camera or smart sensors with frame grabbers are used along with interfaces such as Camera Link to record or capture images of the surface to be inspected. Digital cameras capable of direct connections to a computer via FireWire, USB or Gigabit Ethernet interfaces are also used by several companies. These cameras capture images of the surface of the automobile component to be inspected (say, the body or fins of an engine). And these images are then analysed and processed by specialized analysis software, which mostly use the principle of Finite Element Analysis in their working. MV helps automakers save money, justify price points and emerge as strong competitors.

The primary uses for machine vision are imaging-based automatic inspection and sorting and robot guidance. The overall process includes planning the details of the requirements and project, and then creating a solution.