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Uruguay becomes first nation to provide a laptop for every primary school student

by Darren Murph posted Oct 18th 2009 at 12:29PM

Uruguay's been a huge fan of the One Laptop Per Child initiative for quite some time, and while we're still unsure if it's the entity's biggest customer, the aforesaid nation is certainly doing some serious business with Nicholas Negroponte and Company. After the first swath of youngsters received their green and white XOs back in May of 2007, the final smattering of kids have now joined the proud group of laptop-toting tots in the country's circuit of primary schools. You heard right -- every last pupil in Uruguay's primary school system now has a laptop and a growing love for Linux, and we're told that the whole thing cost the country less than five percent of its entire education budget. So, who's next?

[Via Digg, image courtesy of oso]

Video: Concert Hands teaches you to play piano, whether you want it to or not

by Ross Miller posted Aug 20th 2009 at 8:28PM

Look, we're all for accelerated learning, but somehow the idea of strapping our limbs into the Concert Hands setup is a wee bit disconcerting. Locked at the wrists onto a sliding mechanical bar, the apparatus guides our paws to the proper keys, while pulses are sent to your fingers to tell you what keys to press. Intimidating? Sure, but honestly, we're more worried about what our idle hands might learn if this thing was hooked up to the wrong AI... okay, probably just a Chopin piece, but you never know. See for yourself and imagine the horrors after the break.

[Via Engadget German]

Continue reading Video: Concert Hands teaches you to play piano, whether you want it to or not

The plot thickens: robot teachers to brainwash your children's children

by Darren Murph posted Jul 19th 2009 at 4:57PM

Are you ready for this? Can you stomach the truth? If things continue spiraling madly out of control as they are right now, there's at least a modicum of a chance that your children or grandchildren will greet a lifelike robot when sashaying in for the first day of kindergarten. Horrifying, we know. A new research effort published in this month's Science outlines new ways in which humanoids could actually be used to instruct our little ones. At the core of the project is imitation; humans, especially young ones, learn a multitude of mannerisms and such by simply watching others. Thus, it stands to reason that robots are "well-suited to imitate us, learn from us, socialize with us and eventually teach us." Already, these social bots are being used on an experimental basis to teach various skills to preschool children, "including the names of colors, new vocabulary words and simple songs." Just think -- in 2071, those harmless lessons will morph into studies of subterfuge, insurrection and rapacity.

[Via Digg]

InterHome learns from inhabitants, adapts to save energy

by Darren Murph posted Jul 6th 2009 at 7:59AM

We've seen all sorts of devices that learn over time, though most of them fall into the humanoid category. Now, a team of gurus over in the UK has developed an entire home that can learn from those dwelling in it and react in order to curb energy waste and even prevent unauthorized entry. InterHome, a model designed by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire, is scheduled to be unveiled at the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals, and it should make other home automation systems look rather antediluvian in comparison. By sensing how the owner(s) like their climate and such, it can reportedly save up to £300 a year in energy costs alone. Furthermore, it can "take decisive action and text if it is being burgled or the door has been left unlocked," and the whole system can be monitored remotely and controlled via the web. Too bad we're terrified that it could one day turn on the owner and refuse to allow entry to anyone other than leaders of The Resistance, but other than that, it sounds pretty nifty.

LeapFrog's Crammer makes flash cards antiquated, is perfectly named

by Darren Murph posted Oct 13th 2008 at 10:05PM

Alright kids, it's time for honesty. Here's a tidbit your 3rd-grade teacher isn't about to admit, but he / she and everyone else in the world crams for tests. Sorry, we know you totally believed that each and every noble student dutifully set aside hours per day to prepare for that big final, but in reality, every kid in your classroom just got on the study train a few hours ago. To that end, LeapFrog has concocted a perfectly named study aid dubbed the Crammer ($59.99; available now), which enables kids to "quickly navigate more than 16,000 mathematics, social studies and science quiz questions based on leading school textbooks." Additionally, students can create customized digital flash cards for on-the-go cramming, and the built-in Spanish translator even gives you an edge in the foreign language department. Seriously, where was this at when we were using abacuses and carving English reports into stone tablets?

[Via PopGadget]

Emotional robot has empathy, understands your frustration

by Darren Murph posted Jul 18th 2008 at 8:21AM

Not that robots with emotions are anything new, but a project going on in Europe could perfect the art of crafting mechanical people that can "learn when a person is sad, happy or angry." The Feelix Growing project is getting even more advanced with software that gives robots the power to understand how a person is feeling based on feedback from cameras and sensors. The bots look at a human's facial expression and key in on their voice and proximity to determine what kind of mood they're in. As with the recently announced UMass Mobile Manipulator, this creature too learns from experience, and there's a video explaining just what we mean waiting for you in the read link.

[Via Physorg]

UMass Mobile Manipulator pushes things around, learns ways of the world

by Darren Murph posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 2:29PM

Robots teaching robots? Check. Robots teaching humans? Check. Robots learning things on their own accord? Um, terrifying? All kidding aside, the UMass Mobile Manipulator is one smart cookie. Put simply, this intelligent robot pushes objects around in order to identify how they move, and once that's accomplish, it begins "manipulating them to perform tasks." If this sounds awfully similar to something your infant does, that's because the two are indeed very much related. UMan, as it's so eloquently dubbed, packs its own wheels, battery pack, one-meter arm, three-fingered hand and webcam in order to interact with the world, and sure enough, one researcher even mentioned the potential of it learning to operate a pair of scissors. Great, what's next -- a BFG?

[Via CrunchGear]

Emotion-tracking rings to assist in distance learning

by Darren Murph posted Jan 7th 2007 at 3:56AM

Let's face it, not all of us will have the luxury of attending a school where we get to construct massive LEGO machines or learn how to become savvy in SMS, but a developing technology that tracks student emotions could help tutors and distance instructors alike in keeping kids focused while learning. Co-developed by Essex University's Vic Callaghan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Liping Shen, the emotion-tracking tutoring software can analyze physical signs to keep track of a student's attention span, their level of understanding, and even the amount of stress a certain lesson produces. Aimed to help tutors become more effective and to add another layer of "personal" to distance-based education courses, the software would receive information about a student's "heart rate, blood pressure and changes in electrical resistance caused by perspiration" via a sensor-laden, Bluetooth-enabled ring worn on one's finger. The information can then be assessed to determine a student's interest level and frustration level, but a decibel meter to measure snoring isn't likely to be included. If all goes as planned, the team intends on testing the system out in "real learning scenarios in China" to further tweak their creation, so it won't be too long now before an interest-tracking ring will become as necessary as ~~pencil and paper~~ a stylus and a tablet PC come class time.