Video Games and the Uncanny Valley

Episode Four in Daniel Floyd's series of video "lectures," made in association with Edge. Co-written with James Portnow, cofounder of Divide By Zero Games. Loosely modeled after Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's Zero Punctuation reviews. (...)

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis regarding the field of robotics. The theory holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness.

The term was coined by roboticist Masahiro Mori as Bukimi no Tani Genshō (不気味の谷現象) in 1970, and has been linked to Ernst Jentsch's concept of "the uncanny" identified in a 1906 essay, "On the Psychology of the Uncanny". Jentsch's conception is famously elaborated upon by Sigmund Freud in a 1919 essay titled "The Uncanny" ("Das Unheimliche"). A similar problem exists in realistic 3D computer animation, such as with the films Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Polar Express, and Beowulf.

Intel "Lunch Room" 2010 Super Bowl XLIV Commercial Ad

Intel's 2010 Super Bowl XLIV spot starring Jeffrey the Robot (...)

Intel Corporation is a technology company, and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word intelligence) and is based in Santa Clara, California, USA. Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.

Intel - Ajay Bhatt Is A Rockstar

Intel just kicks off its multi-year global campaign with the goal of conveying a message that how far the computing industry has advanced with the chip giant's technologies. The first ad that appears on YouTube focuses on the co-inventor of Universal Serial Bus (USB), Ajay V. Bhatt, who holds several patents on the most broadly adopted external bus standard.

The ad begins with him going for a cup of coffee. An adoring fan show his appreciation with his home-made Ajay tee shirt, and several others surround him trying to get an autograph from the Intel Fellow and Chief Client Architect.

Authors@Google: David Friedman

David Friedman visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World." This event took place on September 3, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.

In his brand new work, Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World, the famed economist David Friedman presents a variety of technological revolutions in the next 20 years and their implications. If dead could be brought alive, genes of the unborn could be picked and matched to a perfect combination, and robotic flies are the future of surveillance cameras, then what does this all mean for the traditional values and ideals our society is based on? Our passive consumption of evolving technology could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play.

David D. Friedman is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, California. After receiving a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of Chicago, he switched fields to economics and taught at Virginia Polytechnic University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Los Angeles, Tulane University, the University of Chicago, and Santa Clara University. A professional interest in the economics of law led to positions at the law schools of the University of Chicago and Cornell and thereafter to his present position, where he developed the course on legal issues of the twenty-first century, which led to his writing Future Imperfect.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

"Journeys" are special University Lectures in which Carnegie Mellon faculty members share their reflections on their journeys -- the everyday actions, decisions, challenges and joys that make a life.

Bill Gates Unplugged

Carnegie Mellon was the final stop on Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates' recent tour of several nationally recognized universities.

As founder, chairman and former CEO of Microsoft, Gates revolutionized personal computing in the digital information age. His talk at Carnegie Mellon concluded his farewell lecture tour as he transitions from Microsoft into his new role in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission it is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.

Microsoft is one of the university's top corporate supporters, partnering with Carnegie Mellon in many ways. More than 300 university alumni currently work at Microsoft offices around the globe. Carnegie Mellon is also home to the Microsoft Research-sponsored Center for Computational Thinking, launched in March 2007 in an effort to stimulate collaborative research and educational partnerships. With a lead gift of $20 million, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made possible the Gates Center, one of two groundbreaking buildings that will create Carnegie Mellon's new School of Computer Science Complex.

Tech Talk: Linus Torvalds on git

Linus Torvalds visits Google to share his thoughts on git, the source control management system he created two years ago. (...) Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. He now acts as the project's coordinator.

IBM Linux ad: Prodigy

Linux advertisement from IBM, released in September 2003: "The Future is Open"

Both ads were produced by Ogilvy, but this year's version looks more like continuation of Stanley Kubrick's film "2001" than a series of ESPN highlights. Linux has morphed from being a starting player on the IBM team to being the franchise player. It is portrayed in the new ad as a young boy, a prodigy absorbing knowledge from a variety of masters, and making it available to everyone.

Sylvia Nasar, author of "A Beautiful Mind" advises young Linux that "One little thing can solve an incredibly complex problem." Muhammad Ali instructs him to "Speak your mind. Don't back down." John Wooden, the greatest basketball coach of all time, tells him "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that's teamwork.

Silicon Valley Linux Users Group - Kernel Walkthrough

The Silicon Valley Linux Users Group hosts weekly sessions to walk through the code for the Linux Kernel, allowing newer users and developers to better understanding the operating system.

Asimo Commercial

ASIMO (アシモ, ashimo?) is a humanoid robot created by Honda Motor Company. Standing at 130 centimeters (4 feet 3 inches) and weighing 52 kilograms (119 lbs.), the robot resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack and can walk on two feet at speeds up to 6 km/h (3.7 mph). ASIMO was created at Honda's Research & Development Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center in Japan. It is the current model in a line of eleven that began in 1986 with E0.

Officially, the name is an acronym for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility". As of 2007, there are 46 ASIMO units in existence. Each one costs less than $1 million to manufacture, and some units are available to be hired out for $166,000 per year.

Quantum Cryptography: A Tale of Secrets Revealed Through the Laws of Physics

Perimeter Institute brings great thinkers from around the world to Canada to share their ideas on a wide variety of interesting and topical subjects. These lectures and debates are aimed at non-specialists. No mathematical or scientific knowledge is necessary or assumed. Each event is explicitly tailored for the general public and everyone is welcome to attend. (...)

Daniel Gottesman - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Sensitive information can be valuable to others - from your personal credit card numbers to state and military secrets. Throughout history, sophisticated codes have been developed in an attempt to keep important data from prying eyes. But now, new technologies are emerging based on the surprising laws of quantum physics that govern the atomic scale. These powerful techniques threaten to crack some secret codes in widespread use today and, at the same time, offer new quantum cryptographic protocols which could one day profoundly alter the way we safeguard critical information.

iPod Revolution

Discovery Channel documentary 'The iPod Revolution' goes behind the scenes to uncover how Steve Jobs brought Apple back from the grave to create one of the most popular electronics devices ever made: the iPod.

Putting Weirdness to Work: Quantum Information Science

KITP Public Lecture Series: Putting Weirdness to Work: Quantum Information Science

Quantum physics, information theory, and computer science are among the crowning intellectual achievements of the 20th century. Now, a new synthesis of these themes is underway. The emerging field of quantum information science is providing important insights into fundamental issues at the interface of computation and physical science, and may guide the way to revolutionary technological advances.

The quantum laws that govern atoms and other tiny objects differ radically from the classical laws that govern our ordinary experience. In particular, quantum information (information encoded in a quantum system) has weird properties that contrast sharply with the familiar properties of classical information. Physicists, who for many years have relished this weirdness, have begun to recognize in recent years that we can put the weirdness to work: There are tasks involving the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information that are achievable in principle because Nature is quantum mechanical, but that would be impossible in a less weird classical world. John Preskill will describe the properties of quantum bits ("qubits"), the indivisible units of quantum infor- mation, and explain the essential ways in which qubits differ from classical bits. For one thing, it is impossible to read or copy the state of a qubit without disturbing it. This property is the basis of "quantum cryptography," wherein the privacy of secret information can be founded on principles of fundamental physics.

Revolution OS

Revolution OS is a 2001 documentary film made in the United States, directed by J.T.S. Moore, which traces the twenty-year history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements. It features interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs (and hackers-cum-entrepreneurs), including Richard Stallman, Michael Tiemann, Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Frank Hecker and Brian Behlendorf.

The film begins in medias res with glimpses of Raymond, a Linux IPO, Torvalds, the idea of Open Source, Perens, Stallman, then sets the historical stage in the early days of hackers and computer hobbyists when code was shared freely. Change came soon in 1978 as Bill Gates, in his Open Letter to Hobbyists, pointedly prodded hobbyists to pay up. Stallman relates his struggles with closed-source vendors at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, leading to his departure to focus on the development of free software, and the GNU project.

The First 1000 Days: Cassini Explores The Saturn System

Carolyn Porco Carolyn, leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission at the Google Tech Talks in May 23, 2007

A glistening spaceship, with seven lonely years and billions of miles behind it, glides into orbit around a ringed, softly-hued planet. A flying-saucer shaped machine descends through a hazy atmosphere and lands on the surface of an alien moon, ten times farther from the Sun than the Earth.

Fantastic though they seem, these visions are not a dream. For seven years, the Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens probe traveled invisible interplanetary roads to the place we call Saturn. Their successful entry into orbit a thousand days ago, the mythic landing of Huygens on the cold, dark equatorial plains of Titan, and Cassini's subsequent explorations of the saturnian environment are already the stuff of legend. What they have shown us thus far, and the images they have collected, are being closely examined in the pursuit of precise scientific information on the nature of this very alien planetary system.

This presentation will highlight the findings returned by these emissaries from Earth to the enchanting realm of Saturn.

Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery

On April 24th, 2005 the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will have been in orbit around the Earth for 15 years. In many ways Hubble is the most successful scientific project in the World, and this event is not likely to go unnoticed. The European Space Agency, ESA, has decided to celebrate this anniversary with the production of a Hubble 15th Anniversary movie called Hubble - 15 Years Of Discovery. The movie covers all aspects of the Hubble Space Telescope project: a journey through the history, the trouble and the scientific successes of Hubble.

This portrait of one of the biggest scientific projects of all time contains large amounts of previously unpublished footage in uncompromised quality. With the beautiful backdrop of Hubble’s visual image treasures running as a red line through the movie, the light and dreaming style tells the most interesting stories about our fascinating Universe and about the change of vision that Hubble has brought us. The movie is accompanied by custom-made music that is second to none in quality and aesthetic expression.

Notebook PC Explodes

We intentionally created conditions in which the Li-ON battery pack would explode inside a generic portable. The results are dramatic. There are numerous conditions where these fires can occur in real life. Faulty battery packs (driving the recalls), faulty protection circuits inside the PC, exposure to excessive heat, and blunt force are some of the major ways that this could happen to you.

Craig Ferguson stops the show when computer "crashes"

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

Craig Ferguson stops the taping of The Late Late Show when his touch screen computer "Is broken". It is an easy fix, much to his embarassment.

iPhone spanks Microsoft

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

Craig puts Microsoft through the fire in this tirade.

Craig Venter: A voyage of DNA, genes and the sea

Genomics pioneer Craig Venter takes a break from his epic round-the-world expedition to talk about the millions of genes his team has discovered so far, in their quest to map the ocean's hidden biodiversity. (Quite a task, when you consider that there are tens of millions of microbes in a single drop of sea water.) He updates the TED audience on his discoveries, from the 2,000 photoreceptor genes found in the Sargasso Sea to the thrill of being under house arrest in French waters. After touching on the potential of environmental genomics to monitor the safety of air, water and offshore drilling, Venter ends with his vision for engineered species that can replace the petrochemical industry by creating clean energy.