A group of US researchers has developed a super-intelligent robotic ‘brain’ that is able to learn new skills by browsing millions of web pages.
The Robo Brain, as it is referred to, is designed to acquire new skills and knowledge from information that is available publicly on the internet. After acquiring the information, it shares it with other robots across the world to help then perform daily tasks.
In Europe, a similar project referred to as RoboEarth is being developed. RoboEarth was demonstrated by researchers at Einhoven University in the Netherlands early in the year. It has been described as the world wide web for robots.
Both Robo Brain and RoboEarth are aimed to become global storehouse of information that other robots can access. But Robo Brain will be superior to RoboEarth since it will be able to “learn” from the information it gets from the internet rather than depending on human programmers.
This new project has support from companies including Microsoft and Google and is a result of collaboration between the US universities of Stanford, Cornell, Brown and California. Robo Brain has been chewing the information from the internet is the past one month.
According to the researchers, Robo Brain is going through around a billion, 100 million how-to documents, 120,000 YouTube videos and appliance manual.
The developers have set up a website for the project detailing some knowledge that it has acquired so far. They include the ability to understand how items such as microwave and umbrellas are used, and also the ability to recognize chairs.
Robo Brain is not limited to just recognizing objects, it will be able to understand how they are used, as well as more complex concepts like human behaviour and language.
It will even know when you are watching television so it doesn’t get in the way. Expect Robo Brain in your home in the next 10 years.
