Essay Finished

Joasia’s essay is now completed and handed in… Meep, dont have to worry abou that anymore. That bloody thing sucked dry all the time I had. And now we are back to euphoria. Ill upload the essay to my site, if anyone gives a crap.

Augmented Reality thoughts

Glasses wont be involved… but how about contact lenses. It seems that this is the only way I can get round having a chip implanted into the brain, Ghost in the Shell rules!!! but according to the lecturer this has been done before?!?!?!

Anywho, I have been doing some research into the possibilities of having a bionic contact lense, but first my research stems from this handy article…

          “The UW engineers used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to create a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with imprinted electronic circuits and lights. If used by human beings, a pair of contact lenses with circuits and lights would be the perfect display for augmented reality systems.” – the full article is viewable at: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1409

I have scribbled down some possibilities for the Bionic contact lense:

Car - speedometer and other helpful information is viewable.
Mobile phone display – Caller ID appears, video chat.
Video chat on msn – like ghost in the shell.
Gaming capabilities – submersive world.
Photographic/surveillance – zooming, clarity.

AI Illuminated (First chapter) – Coppin Book

Some notes on the above book:

1.1 – Introduction
 To be able to understand AI, it is useful to have an understanding of the background of primarily philosophy, linguistics, psycology and biology.

AI – Ability to deal with new situations
- Ability to solve problems
- To answer questions
- To devise plans

1.2 – What is Artificial Intelligence
Approximate definition:
“AI is the study of sysmem that act in a way that to and observer would appear to be intelligent.”
Another Definition:
“AI involves using methods based on the intelligent behaviour of humans and other animals to solve complex problems”(this definition takes into account of more prosaic problems…)

There are two different types of AI supposedly:
Strong AI:
Followers belive that giving a computer program enough processing power and providing it with enough intelligence it will think and is conscious in the same way that a human is conscious.
Weak AI:
Is the view that intelligent behaviour can be modelled and used by computers to solve complex proglems. This argues that a computer behaves intelligently does not prove that it is actually intelligent in the way that a human is.

1.3 – Strong Methods and Weak Methods
There are also two different methods:
Weak Methods:
Weak methods in AI use systems such as logic, automated reasoning, and other general structures that can be applied to a wide range of problems that doesnt always have to have any real knowledge about the problem that maybe being faced.
Strong Methods:
Strong method problem solving depends on a systems given a great deal of knowledge about its world and the problems that it might encounter.

1.4 – From Aristotle to Babbage
Aristotle, a philosopher from ancient Greece, who lived from 384 to 322 B.C. and who studied under Plato during that time. The wrintings of Aristotle have formed the basis for a great deal of our modern scientific thinking.
He invented the idea of the syllogism, which he defined as follows:
“A discourse in which certain things having being stated, something else follows of necessity from their being so.”

Charles Babbage invented the worlds first computer-the analytic engine, he never managed to build it. However, his designs were used to build a working model although it was loosely based on Babbages model.

1.5 – Alan Turing
One of the great figures in AI is Alan Turing. He famously worked in Bletchley Park, helping to solve German codes. He released the first paper written on this subject – Computering Machinery & Intelligence.

In 1956, the term Artificial Intelligence was first used by John McCarthy at a conference in Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire.

1.6 – The 1960’s
In the most recent decades, the study of AI has flourished. Areas of particular importance include the following:
- Machine Learning
- Multi-Agent Systems
- Artificial Life
- Computer Vision
- Planning
- Playing Games (Chess in particular)

1.7 – Philosophy
In the 17th century, the great philosopher René Descartes was a strong believer in Dualism, the idea that the universe consists of two entirely seperate things: mind and matter. He believed that dualism did not extend to animals.
Descarte’s view was that the mind (or soul) was entirely separate from the physical body and not constrained by it in any way.

1.8 – Linguistics
The study of the human language has a vital role to play in AI. Noam Chomsky, proposed the theory of Syntactic Stuctures in the 50’s, this was a formal theory of the structure of human language. His theory also attempted to provide a structure for human knowledge, based on the knowledge of language.

1.9 – Human Psychology and Biology
Ai is related to Cognitive psychology, which is based on the idea that the human brain uses knowledge or information that is capable of processing in order to solve problems, make decisions, draw conclusions and carry out other intelligent acts.
This form of psychology was in contrast to behaviourism, which prevailed for much of the first half of the 20th century. Behaviourism relates behaviour directly to stimuli, without taking into account knowledge or information that might be contained in the brain. This is the kind of psychology that Pavlov was demonstrating with dogs.

1.10 – AI programming Languages
General programming languages such as C++ and Java are often used because these are the languages with which most computer scientists have experience. There also exists to programming laguages which are useful for AI projects, these are PROLOG and LISP.

PROLOG (PROgramming in LOGic):
- Is a language designed to enable programmers to build a database of facts and rules.

LISP (LISt Programming):
- Resembles C++ and PAscal
- Name suggests that it handles lists of data.

Meeting with Joasia

I had a meeting with Joasia earlier. I wanted a lil’ bit more direction for my essay. It was a very helpful meeting shame it was only 15 mins long… I have written around 2500 words but now i’m going to re-do most of it and structure it around a slightly different approach to the brief.

E-learning first lecture

We had our first E-learning lecture today. Some reading material… Why study education psycology? (cant remember authors name) HCI for kids – A, Bruckman. The lecture made me think of the Panopticon (Dream Building) and how the way social learning is though of.

We were told about the assignment, me and Suzie have paired up for it, we have some awesome ideas already. My first thought was to have a grand piano in 3D and the camera pans over and looks down on the keys, where the top of the piano is that would be where the information about the task would be. The user would be prompted with a piece of music which they would have to play by pressing the correct keys on the piano.

 If the wrong key is pressed then the user is alerted with both audio and visual ques likewise if its correct. There would be different levels to the task, for example if there was a user who could read music very well then they can turn off help.

E-Learning Brief

“In pairs, you are required to investigate, design and produce an interactive multimedia product which is informed by some aspects of the theories of human learning and following the design methods which are taught on this module.
We will be looking for designs which go beyond what is possible with conventional media and which have incorporated the lessons of the psychology of learning.
• Proposal (5%)
– One page per group outlining learning activity of your choice – which gives scope for an imaginative product taking full advantage of the capabilities of interactivity.
[Deadline: Thursday 31st Jan. email: katina.hazelden@plymouth.ac.uk]
• Design Presentation (10%)
– Group
[Deadline: Friday 29th Feb. In class.]“

This module looks like it will be alot of fun. I will be working with Suzanne for this one, we already have a few ideas, but its a secret…

2nd Java test

Had the 2nd Java test today. I thought it went ok, it was stupidly similiar to the mock test. Not really sure if that was the plan but I was finished fairly quickly. Let’s hope I done well…

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a good new year… Jack Daniels helped me enjoy mine while being caned at Scene It! on the Xbox 360. just me being smug but i’ve always been curious of other cultures so I thought i’d find out the date for a few of them…

Gregorian:	Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Mayan:	Long count = 12.19.14.17.4; tzolkin = 8 Kan; haab = 12 Kankin
French:	12 Nivôse an 216 de la Révolution
Islamic:	22 Dhu al-Hijjah 1428
Hebrew:	23 Teveth 5768
Julian:	19 December 2007
ISO:	Day 2 of week 1 of 2008
Persian:	11 Dey 1386
Ethiopic:	22 Takhsas 2000
Coptic:	22 Kiyahk 1724
Chinese:	Cycle 78, year 24 (Ding-Hai), month 11 (Ren-Zi), day 23 (Geng-Zi)
Julian day:	2454467
Day of year:	Day 1 of 2008; 365 days remaining in the year
Discordian:	Sweetmorn, Chaos 1, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3174

hehe, fairly sad but oh well. I have been busy sort of, i’ve started sketching out the introduction for joasias essay, a little more time and I should have a fairly good direction for it.