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I SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2016

12

Pune Mirror, January 03, 2015 Pp.12

Human-like social robot

Nadine developed
Unlike conventional robots, Nadine has her own personality and emotions. She can be happy or sad, depending
on the conversation. She is also able to remember people she has met and the conversations she had with them
NTU Singapore

NTU Singapore's Professor Nadia Thalmann (right) shaking hands with Nadine, a humanoid robot based on intelligent software similar to Apples Siri
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cientists have developed a humanlike social robot with soft skin and
flowing brunette hair, which is capable of autonomously expressing
emotions and gestures like shaking
hands and conversing.
Nadine is a friendly robot, which smiles
while greeting you, looks at you in the eye
when talking, and will remember your name
and your previous conversation the next time
you meet her, researchers said.
Scientists from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have developed two social robots Nadine and a telepresence robot EDGAR that can be controlled remotely, allowing you to interact at a
conference without physically being there.
Nadine looks almost like a human being,
with soft skin and flowing brunette hair. Unlike conventional robots, Nadine has her own

personality, mood and emotions. She can be

happy or sad, depending on the conversation.
She also has a good memory, and can recognise the people she has met, and remembers what the person had said before.
Nadine is powered by intelligent software
similar to Apples Siri or Microsofts Cortana.
The humanoid can be a personal assistant
in offices and homes in the future. She can be
used as a social companion for the young and
the elderly, the researchers said.
Robotics technologies have advanced
significantly over the past few decades and are
already being used in manufacturing and logistics, said Nadia Thalmann, the director of
the Institute for Media Innovation at NTU
who led the development of Nadine.
As countries worldwide face challenges
of an ageing population, social robots can be
one solution to address the shrinking workforce, become personal companions for children and the elderly at home, and even serve
as a platform for health-care services in fu-

ture, said Thalmann.

Nadines robot-in-arms, EDGAR, is a telepresence robot optimised to project the gestures of its human user, complete with a rearprojection screen for its face and two highly
articulated arms.
By standing in front of a specialised webcam, a user can control EDGAR remotely from
anywhere in the world. The users face and expressions will be displayed on the robots face
in real time, while the robot mimics the persons upper body movements.
EDGAR can also deliver speeches by autonomously acting out a script. With an integrated webcam, he automatically tracks the
people he meets to engage them in conversation, giving them informative and witty replies to their questions.
Telepresence provides an additional dimension to mobility. The user may project his
or her physical presence at one or more locations simultaneously, meaning that geography is no longer an obstacle, said Gerald Seet
from NTU.

New glow-in-the-dark shark species discovered

S
cientists have discovered a new species of
sharks dubbed ninja lanternshark that
glow in the dark and dwell in the depths of
the Pacific Ocean.
The researchers named the new species Etmopterus benchleyi, after Peter Benchley, the
author of the book Jaws and co-author of its
1975 film adaptation.
With the help of a group of school students,
the researchers came up with the common
name ninja lanternshark for the species.
Nearly 40 other species of lanternsharks,
which are marine predators with the ability to
glow, live in oceans around the world, including
the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, said lead
author Vicky Vasquez, a graduate student at the

The species has been dubbed ninja lanternshark

Pacific Shark Research Centre in California.
However, this is the first time a lanternshark
has been found off the Pacific coast of Central
America, said Vasquez.
In 2010, researchers observed eight lantern-

shark species swimming at depths ranging from

0.8 to 1.4 kilometres under the surface.
After a thorough analysis of the traits of the
species they concluded that the sharks indeed
came from a new species of lanternshark.
Researchers have yet to see the new shark actually glow, but it likely gives off a blue light, like
its lanternshark relatives, she said.
It is unclear why lanternsharks glow, but it is
possible that the glowing photophores on their
stomachs mask their shadows, allowing them to
hide from animals swimming below them.
But it could also be that their glowing lights
lure prey, such as smaller fish and crustaceans,
towards the sharks, or serve as a means of communication, the researchers said.
MM

NASA gets $55 mn to

send humans to Mars

he US government wants NASA to speed up

work on sending humans on deep space exploration missions, including Mars, and has instructed the US space agency to spend at least $55
million on a habitation augmentation module.
According to Space.com, the funds will come
from the Advanced Exploration Systems programme, part of the exploration research and development line item in the budget that received $350
million in the omnibus bill.
NASA shall develop a prototype deep space habitation module within the advanced exploration
systems program no later than 2018, the report
states.
In the last few months, NASA has bolstered the
development of a habitation module that could be
tested in cislunar space (lying between the Earth and
the Moon or the Moons orbit) in the 2020s. The
module could then be used for human missions to
Mars.
Bigelow Aerospace has also developed a prototype expandable module that will be installed on
the International Space Station (ISS) in early 2016.
According to Popular Science, it will be challenging to ensure the module is both lightweight and
shields astronauts from radiation.
In a small yet significant step towards sending astronauts to Mars, NASA engineers have already
welded together the first two segments of the Orion
crew module that will fly atop NASAs Space Launch
System (SLS) rocket on a mission beyond the far side
of the Moon.
SLS is one of the most experienced large rocket
engines in the world, with more than a million seconds of ground test and flight operations time.
When completed, SLS will enable astronauts to
begin their journey to explore destinations far into
the solar system.
AGENCIES

Facebook testing multiple

news feeds on mobile
acebook is reportedly testing multiple, topicbased feeds on its mobile app in place of one main
news feed.
According to a report appearing in The Verge, the
new mobile design borrows heavily from the way
Facebooks Paper app works, with the app automatically sorting posts from the people and pages you follow into different sections (and, perhaps, customisable ones) or feeds.
However, the traditional news feed also remains
and is supplemented with secondary feeds like Style,
Travel, and Headlines that are just a swipe away.
The Verge quoted a spokesperson of Facebook as
saying that the general public is keen to have access to
new options to see and to have conversations about
more stories on Facebook around specific
topics theyre interested
in.
He said the feeds are
being tested, and added
that Facebook is also testing a wider rollout of the
Marketplace feature
that its been working on
for a few months.
Known simply as
Shopping, this feature
was tested in October,
but was buried behind
the main section of the
app.
AGENCIES