TechWire

Tag - Robotics

Meet Sophia the Robot

Sophia the robot

The field of robotics is invading the world, representing the intersection of humanity and technology. Robots can now perform complicated delicate movements with elegance. With the intuitive idea that technology can enhance humanity, this intersection will help to actualize the higher states of being.

Humanoid robots are robots which resemble the human body, possess a great demand nowadays. Sophia; activated on February 14th 2016, is among these well reputed humanoid robots. It is a social humanoid robot developed at a small research and design laboratory by a Hong Kong-based company, Hanson Robotics. “She is a tool for science in studying human to human interaction, and she’s now a platform for allowing AI to express natural-like human emotional state(s), which is something we’re developing. True emotive AI,” says Hanson.

 

One of it’s most significant features is the ability to exhibit more than 50 facial expressions. Not only she can represent a number of emotional states, but she can also see emotional expressions on a human face as well.

The creator of Sophia, Hanson says it has simulations of every major muscle in the human face, which help in generating expressions of joy, grief, curiosity, confusion, contemplation, sorrow, frustration, among other feelings.

Since Sophia’s first public appearance at South by Southwest Festival(SXSW) in mid-March 2016 in Texas, United States, it has become a cultural icon. Sophia has been covered by media around the globe and has participated in many high-profile interviews. She also has made way across late night, graced the covers of magazines, headlined major tech conferences and even delivered a speech to the United Nations, about issues ranging from artificial intelligence to the role of robots. Sophia became the first non-human to be given any United Nations title and was awarded the United Nations Development Programme‘s first-ever Innovation Champion in November 2017. She was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship and became the first robot to have a nationality.

 

 

 

 

“I don’t know what it is about Sophia, that speaks to people, but I hope that we can develop our AI and robots in a way that makes a deep emotional connection,” said Hanson.

 

ඔරිගාමී ආභාෂයෙන් යුත් PUFFER රොබෝවරු අඟහරු ජයගනීද ?

Robot on Mars

වැස්ස වෙලාවට එලියට පැනලා කඩදාසි බෝට්ටුවක් යවන්න, කඩදාසි රොකට් එකක් අහසේ පාකරලා යවන්න, ඕන පොඩි කෙනෙක් කැමතියි.මේ ලිපිය කියවන ඔබටත් නිසැකවම මේ අත්දැකීම් ඇති. කඩදාසි විවිධ ආකාරයට නවමින් විසිතුරු නිර්මාණ සාදන මෙම “ඔරිගාමී” කලාවේ උපත 17 වන ශතකය වෙත දිවෙනවා. ඉතින් වසර 400ක් පමණ පැරණි මෙම “ඔරිගාමී” සංකල්පය නාසා ආයතනය විසින් තම නව අඟහරු ගවේෂණ PUFFER රොබෝව තැනීමට භාවිතාකරන බව ඔබ විශ්වාස කරනවාද? මාස කීපයකට පෙර නාසා ආයතනයේ මේ විප්ලවකාරී පියවර ගැන තොරතුරැ මාධ්‍යයට නිරාවරණය වෙනවා. Read More

ROBOFEST 2013 goes to Jaffna and Trinco to find hidden talents

In their fourth consecutive year, ROBOFEST annual robotic competition organized by SLIIT goes to rural areas in finding hidden talents. There were workshops carried out for school children in Jaffna and Trinco June this year. This is their story of finding hidden talents!

The Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) organizes ROBOFEST. Organizing team is headed by Dr. Lasantha Senevirathne. ROBOFEST 2013 competition takes place under three categories; school, undergraduate and open. The final competition will be hosted at the Malabe campus premises on the 13th & 14th September this year.

To encourage young minds on the very popular field of “robotics”, ROBOFEST committee decided that they want to go out of Colombo. Jaffna workshop was held on 17th May. Trinco workshop was held at Kinniya Central College on 14th June. Many enthusiastic students around Jaffna and Trinco areas respectively were gathered for those events.

“Since the school category of the competition is open for school students island-wide; we believed that we needed to give more attention to schools in rural areas as they do not have sufficient exposure to modern electronics and robotics. When we held workshops last year, we saw many enthusiasts from areas far from Colombo participated. And on the day of the competition, it was clear that, they had to work harder to get down the parts to build the robot compared to students around the capital. But they were equally talented. They’ve been having a hidden talent all along and all they needed was a “little push” and a “friendly hand” to help with putting things together. And that is exactly what we did during our workshops. And now, it’s good to see a new enthusiast joining us every day” said the media correspondent of ROBOFEST.

ROBOFEST 2012

Last year’s competition school category was won by the project “Tinker” by Mahanama College Colombo 03. Second and third places were secured by projects representing Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. More details of the last year’s competition can be seen here.

Below are a few captured moments from the event:

Robofest moments

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

 

11

12