Artificial Intelligence in a nutshell

Ever tried the voice recognition feature in your mobile or computer? Most of us have!! And I am sure most of you were amused to see how a machine could recognize the language we speak. All this is possible due to Artificial Intelligence and this is a small speck of the enormous potential AI and its application hold with in.

Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims at making machines or software programs that exhibit intelligent behavior like human beings i.e. a machine can perceive their surroundings, analyze and react in the best possible way. The AI involves various other fields like Cognitive Science, Mathematical Logic, computational science to name a few.

The history of artificial intelligence can be traced to 1950 when Alan Turing proposed the Turing test as a measure of machine intelligence. The Turing test   Prof. John McCarthy coined the term Artificial Intelligence at the conference on the campus of Dartmouth College in summer of 1956.Over the time AI has been divided into:

Strong AI :  Strong AI (Very often called as ‘true AI’) refers to AI that inculcates intelligence in the machine that matches or exceeds human intelligence. This has still not come in to existence but finds a place in many of the sci-fi movies like Matrix, Terminator etc.

Weak AI : Weak AI refers to AI that enables machines to only mimic humans based on their programming. This kind of AI just simulates the human thoughts and actions that they are programmed to. AI. The true AI features like independent reasoning, to learn freely and adapt are absent. All current form of AI is weak.

There are many areas in which weak AI already inhabits today’s world and in many cases we don’t even realize that we use Artificial Intelligence. Lets see some of such applications:

• The self-parking technology in cars is based on AI.
• AI is used in monitoring frauds in Banks.
• The voice recognition in mobile phones was made possible using AI.
• The intelligent homes comprising of temperature, passive infrared, electricity and light sensors are AI based.
• Unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous submersibles, unmanned surveillance in shallow water used in Military also involve AI.
• The Computer chess built on AI defeated the world Champion Garry Kasparov in a game.

The dream of making machines that are ‘Truly AI’ does not seem impossible. Companies like Google are aiming at making search engine fully artificially intelligent. In future we will have a search engine that will not be based on ‘just the words we type in without the search engine understanding the meaning’, instead it will exactly understand what we want.

Some Hot Technology trends of 2010

As the economy is recovering, technology holds the key for business expansion. In these days it is difficult to predict future as market economy is volatile, consumer demand is erratic and unpredictable while innovation is reaching new heights.

Technology today will touch your lives digitally some way or the other tomorrow.

Here is just a sneak peek into some tech trends that is expected to create an upheaval in the last year of the first decade of the 21^st century.

Semantic Web

In no time you will find an extension of WWW in the form of Semantic Web. The obvious question that is making rounds is what is semantic web? Internet with a mind of its own is Semantic web. For example if you wish to buy a smart phone, all you do now is Google  your search and you are given top 10 or 20 products with the reviews, price comparisons and flipsides. It is only after reading them that you reach a decision. But with semantic web, the best deal will be presented in front of you by finding and combining data. To achieve this, Metadata will be used and soon tools will be available that will transform the Web into indexed database. The latest buzzwords in the world of semantic web today is Resource Description Format (RDF), data interchange formats such as XML, RDF, Turtle and RDF schema coupled with Web Ontology language. So, World Wide Web will soon take over your life completely.

Cloud Computing

Soon there will be a paradigm shift for business houses as Cloud Computing will rule as the most efficient IT model in the business sector. Computing resources will no longer be in-house; instead it will be used on demand enabling businesses to be more agile and flexible. Businesses will be benefitted as the cost will be greatly reduced. Comanies like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM are all putting their strenths to encash this emerging area. Check out for Microsoft’s Azure Cloud computing services to taste this concept.

4G phone

There is writing on the wall that mobile technology is geared up for many innovations in the coming days. The word G holds special significance in the world of communication.  From 2G in the 90’s where a switch to text messaging and digital format is made to 3G ushering a new wave of faster communication and transmission of data, innovation will not get stopped here. People today are at the threshold of 4G and 2010 will see lot many launches of 4G phones worldwide and you can expect much enhanced versions from current say Apple 3GS.

3D television

Interesting changes will soon catch your attention even when you sit in front of the idiot box. The paramount question is how? Well, did you watch James Cameron’s latest magnanimous $300 billion budget movie Avatar? Yes, I am talking about wearing goggles and feeling the depth of the movie in the Cineplex. Whether Yes or No, don’t get surprised if you soon find that television landscape is walking towards a path of change and soon there will be launch of 3D televisions and you get option of depth as well to choose.

Mobile Banking

The entire financial gamut is looking forward for a change in the coming year. The reason is simple. With advancement in mobile technology, banking is expected to reach out to the masses from depositing funds in the account to creating a fixed deposit through just few text messages.

Augmented Reality

It is the new age reality and tomorrow will be better viewed, seen and heard with Augmented Reality. Soon you will have a device powered by AR that will take a snapshot of the person you are talking to, will process the image and present you with all information by checking out profiles at LinkedIn or Facebook. A huge potential is just waiting to herald a new change.

Enterprise social networking

Tomorrow’s business models will be largely dominated by collaboration. The way business is conducted will undergo a dramatic change soon. Earlier e-mail paved a new era and tomorrow enterprise version of Facebook, Wikis and Twitter will be the competitive method of communication. Business deals will get closed faster, decision making process will be accelerated, consumers will receive quicker resolution and employees will get more empowered.

Social gaming

Don’t you hear too often these days that your friend, colleague or brother has recently bought half a dozen chickens, two tractors and some cows? Yes, am speaking of Farmville by Zynga that has driven a large crowd to Facebook. Its not only Farmville, large section is also hooked on Mafia Wars. You will be also be amazed to know that by the last quarter of 2009, Second Life, another popular social gaming has almost 16 million users. Whether you a mingler or loner, social gaming is the best way to stay connected and social gaming is here to stay and more changes are on its way.

So, overall it will be an exciting year ahead in 2010 and we will revisit the Hot Technology Trends of 2010 to validate how much and how many of such trends can really create an impact to the technology domain.

Keep reading and also don’t forget to Subscribe to RSS Feed to catch my updates regularly.

First, the question is ‘What is Augmented Reality’?

To explain, Augmented Reality is one of the newest innovations in the electronics industry. It superimposes graphics, audio and other sense enhancements from computer screens onto real time environments. Augmented reality goes far beyond the static graphics technology of television where the graphics imposed do not change with the perspective. Augmented Reality systems superimpose graphics for every perspective and adjust to every movement of the user’s head and eyes.

Development of the needed technology for augmented reality systems, however, is still underway within the laboratories of both universities and high tech companies. It is forecasted that by the end of this decade, the first mass-produced augmented reality systems will hit the market.

Now, slowly we will find products coming in this area. Vuzix is generating a lot of buzz over by their booth at this year’s CES with their new Wrap 920AR eyewear – the first augmented reality sunglasses on the market. Complete with a stereo camera pair, users can view the real-world environment and computer-generated imagery seamlessly mixed together; allowing video game characters to jump out of the TV and come to life in your living room, or magazines and books with animated links back to the web in real time.

The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space.

“The Wrap 920AR offers the world’s only sunglass styled Augmented Reality experience” said Vuzix CEO, Paul Travers. “This state-of-the-art video eyewear, offers consumers an AR solution only available in handheld devices to date, merging the real world with the digital in a pair of glasses makes for world changing experiences from industry to gaming,” adds Travers. “With the Wrap 920 AR, Vuzix brings exclusive new capabilities to the consumer.”

The Wrap 920AR’s stereo camera assembly and 6-DoF Tracker will also be available separately for upgrading existing Wrap video eyewear.

Vuzix Wrap 920AR Specifications:

• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X     10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99

Would be interesting to watch, how more and more products come in this area. Keep reading …

Mashups are an exciting genre of interactive Web applications and it comes under the broader picture of second generation of  web or better known as Web 2.0. Mashups are the creative hybrids when created from 2 or more external data sources and finally produces a new innovative product or services. Nowadays, there are various classes of Mashups being created for various consumer and business purposes. With the growing need, innovation and players, more and more Mashups are coming to our Mashups community.

There are many types of mashups, such as consumer mashups, enterprise mashups, data mashups, and business mashups. The most common type of mashup is the consumer mashup, aimed at the general public.
Data mashups combine similar types of media and information from multiple sources into a single representation. Enterprise Mashups are secure, visually rich web applications that expose actionable information from diverse internal and external information sources.

Mashups and portals are both content aggregation technologies. Though Portals represents the older concepts where the dynamic markup languages play the key part and makes different fragments over the web, popularly known as ‘Portlets’ but with Mashups this becomes a more hybrid way to mix multiple applications (rather APIs) to totally transform to a new creation.

There are different set of technologies available now to create such Mashups and out of that worth mentioning the Web 2.0 technology called ‘Ajax’

Ajax – Ajax is an acronym “Asynchronous JavaScript + XML”. Ajax is a Web application model rather than a specific technology. It comprises several technologies focused around the asynchronous loading and presentation of content:

      • XHTML and CSS for style presentation
      • The Document Object Model (DOM) API exposed by the browser for dynamic display and interaction
      • Asynchronous data exchange, typically of XML data
      • Browser-side scripting, primarily JavaScript

Mashups are certainly an exciting new genre of Web applications. The combination of data modeling technologies stemming from the Semantic Web domain and the maturation of loosely-coupled, service-oriented-architecture, platform-agnostic communication protocols is finally providing the infrastructure needed to start developing applications that can leverage and integrate the massive amount of information that is available on the Web.

If you surf the web, maybe you will not be aware that you actually are browsing over such a Mashup application site. These have become extremely popular and many such are based on Google Maps, Flickr and many other popular apps.

Some more examples for you:

Happn.in – Mashup of Google maps and local Twitter trends from Happn.in. This map will show the top 10 trending phrases in over 80+ major cities around the world.

Twitpickr.com – An easy way to upload your TwitPic images to Flickr. Uses APIs from Flickr, TwitPic and Twitter.

Mp32tube.com – Mp32tube allows YouTube users to easily upload mp3s on youtube.com, as YouTube does not allow this feature.

http://f1gmap.googlepages.com/f12009.html – Displays satellite images of all 2008 Formula One Grand Prix Circuits with race results and grand prix information.

Gympost.com – Fitness facility locator that shows gyms, athletic clubs, pilates studios, and other similar places on a Google Map.

Related worth reading could on Rich Internet Application

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a concept phrase coined by O’Reilly Media that refers to a new generation of Internet based services that involve enhanced online collaboration among users.

Web 2.0 provides a new and enhanced makeover for the World Wide Web by providing users with an easier and a faster web. Web 2.0 makes use of the desktop applications at a greater level than the traditional version with static web pages. It makes use of a number of techniques that includes web syndication, AJAX, and public web service APIs. In web syndication, a part of the website is made available to be used by other sites. AJAX is used to create interactive web applications.

Web 2.0 also supports mass publishing like wikis and blogs. Wiki refers to a site that facilitates easy addition, removal and editing of the contents of a site, with or without registration. Blogs are publications of periodic articles on the web. Web 2.0 is often used to describe anything that is new and popular on the World Wide Web.

Technology Infrastructure of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has a developing and complex technology infrastructure. The technology includes the use of content syndication, server software, standards-based browsers that have extensions and plugins, client applications, and messaging protocols. All these advanced technology provides Web 2.0 with dissemination, creation, and information storage capability. There are a number of major techniques that Web 2.0 website uses. Some of them include:

• Rich Internet Application techniques that are unobtrusive like AJAX. The Rich Internet Applications are the web applications having the traditional desktop applications functionality and features.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are used to describe the presentations of documents that are documented in a markup language. CSS describes them in a stylesheet language.
• Semantically valid XHTML markup and the application of Microformats. The Microformats are the markups that permit expression of semantics in an HTML web page.
• Proper aggregation and syndication of data in RSS/Atom. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is mainly used by the news websites and weblogs for web syndication in XML.
• Significant and clean URLs.
• Publishing Weblogs. Weblogs are the web-based periodic publication of articles.
• Mashup, which is a web application or a site that merges content from various sources into an integral knowledge.
• REST or XML Webservice APIs. Representation State Transfer (REST) is a software architectural approach for dispersed hypermedia systems similar to the World Wide Web.

Most of the Web 2.0 websites attach great importance to the visual appeal and aesthetics of the site. To achieve such an effect, they make use of drop shadows, rounded corners, and gradients to make the site more appealing to the eyes.

America’s newest profession- Blogging

Did we know that in US, it’s the bloggers community that is growing rapidly and is considered to be a very powerful niche for fostering changes as well as generating income? Yes, America is a nation of almost 20 million bloggers and it is this one percent of independent-minded population that is growing more than firefighters, programmers and even lawyers. People are passionate about blogging as they can freely translate their emotion and ideas into words and actions. It is also considered as ushering a new era of cultural and social movement. Perhaps, with the rate at which blogging community is grown, days are not far when US will emerge as the most noisy and opinionated land of people in earth 

Out of this 20 million blogging population, it has been estimated that almost 1.7 million earns profit from the time they spend on writing, while for almost 452,000 people; it is the primary source of income.

The areas encompassed in blogging is wide and diverse ranging from arts and fashion to latest political controversies and social movement. You can always present an opinionated view with evergreen content. This has been possible just because the bloggers are quite educated. Statistics indicate that one out of three people who are bloggers are college graduates.

How serious blogging can be source of income?

Various reports indicate that to generate approximately $75,000 a year, 1 lac visitors per month becomes essential. Again, if writing your opinion is your passion, you can be rest assured that for a good post bloggers are paid in the range of $25-$200. Again, bloggers who work for corporate houses are paid in the range of $45,000-$90,000 in a year.

What is the revenue model underlying blogging?

It is on-line advertising that is the revenue model. On the blogging sites there will be ads and if consumers click on them bloggers make money. There are sites that pay writers on the basis of the clicks that is measured mostly be the traffic flow.

Flipside to blogging

Most bloggers are freelancers and what happens if they lose their job or the site is down? Are they subjected to legal suits? Will bloggers be considered as journalists?Again are there any group to rein these opinionated content? So the questions are many. Even people will cry out loud regarding the statistical reports, but then there is no denying the fact that Blogging is a growing niche. It is a micro-trend that will soon see many courses cropping up and institutes mushrooming to streamline and educate the educated ones

The blogosphere is reigning high. So keep blogging …

Rich web experience

Rich-Internet application (RIA) techniques such as AJAX, Adobe Flash and Flex have significantly improved user experience for browser-based web applications. Flash/Flex allows a part of the content of a web page to be altered without refreshing the whole page at the same time.

RIAs typically transfer the processing necessary for the user interface to the web client but keep the bulk of the data (i.e. maintaining the state of the program, the data etc) back on the application server.

RIAs typically:

• run in a web browser
• does not require software installation

Benefits of RIA

Because RIAs employ a client engine to interact with the user, they are:

• Richer.
• More responsive.
• Client/Server balance.
• Asynchronous communication.
• Network efficiency.

These benefits can be explained in detail:

Richer

They can offer user-interface behaviors not obtainable using only the HTML widgets available to standard browser-based Web applications. This richer functionality may include anything that can be implemented in the technology being used on the client side, including drag and drop, using a slider to change data, calculations performed only by the client and which do not need to be sent back to the server (e.g. an insurance rate calculator), etc.

More responsive

The interface behaviors are typically much more responsive than those of a standard Web browser that must always interact with the server.

Client/Server balance

The demand for client and server computing resources is better balanced, so that the Web server need not be the workhorse that it is with a traditional Web application. This frees server resources, allowing the same server hardware to handle more client sessions concurrently.

Asynchronous communication

The client engine can interact with the server asynchronously — that is, without waiting for the user to perform an interface action like clicking on a button or link. This option allows RIA designers to move data between the client and the server without making the user wait. Perhaps the most common application of this is pre-fetching, in which an application anticipates a future need for certain data, and downloads it to the client before the user requests it, thereby speeding up a subsequent response. Google Maps uses this technique to move adjacent map segments to the client before the user scrolls their view.

Network efficiency

The network traffic may also be significantly reduced because an application-specific client engine can be more intelligent than a standard Web browser when deciding what data needs to be exchanged with servers. This can speed up individual requests or responses because less data is being transferred for each interaction, and overall network load is reduced. However, use of asynchronous pre-fetching techniques can neutralize or even reverse this potential benefit. Because the code cannot anticipate exactly what every user will do next, it is common for such techniques to download extra data, not all of which is actually needed, to many or all clients.

There are thousands of companies in the RIA domain providing excellent innovative solutions to clients. Out of them, worth mentioning one company as it stands apart with its solutions, check out these @ Webspiders.com , a RIA based company.