Recommended Robot and AI Reads This Week

Honda Using Experimental New ASIMO for Disaster Response Research
The robot writers at IEEE Spectrum have an interesting piece about an effort by Honda to develop a humanoid robot that could help in disaster situations. Apparently inspired by the events in Fukushima, the robot is capable of some impressive feats, including climbing ladders and moving quickly from a two-legged gait to a four-legged one.

Thought Process: Building an Artificial Brain
The Washington Post looks at Paul Allen’s ongoing effort to decode the human mind. The effort is notable for its focus on both reverse-engineering the brain and using new methods—such as machine learning—in an effort to re-create intelligence.

IBM’s New Unit Bets on Boom in Artificial Intelligence
Big Blue is creating a consulting division, called Cognitive Business Solutions, focused on advising companies about ways to apply AI techniques. Seems like a smart move, given the growing interest in applying machine learning to all sorts of business problems.

Swipe, Smoothie and the Great Photo-Sharing Startup Frontier
An old story from Re/Code is good background reading on Perceptio, an image-processing startup acquired recently by Apple. The company’s technology could allow an iPhone to identify people by learning from video footage.

Watch this Robot Navigate with Help from Its Very Own Drone
A Swiss company demonstrates a way for crawling and flying robots to coöperate. The project mainly highlights the way robots will likely share information, such as mapping data.

A Peek Inside Google’s Efforts to Create a General-Purpose Robot
BusinessWeek pulls together a few clues to Google’s robot ambitions.