Old songs are great. Well, not all old songs, but those by great artists stand the test of time. This song first appeared in the 1944 Abbott and Costello movie “In Society” and hit number one when Les Brown and Doris Day took it to the top of the charts in early 1945. It spent seven weeks atop the chart.
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Sounds like Sony and the robot want to take this relationship to the next level.
Sony Eyeing Robot Friend for Game Players
Phys.org / April 20, 2020 /Peter Grad, Tech Xplore
They could’ve put “Friend” in quotes, but whatever.
Computer games are often more fun when friends are there to share the experience. A Sony PlayStation team wants to make sure that at times when players don’t have their buddies around in person, they can turn to a robot friend for companionship.
Players will remember it’s just a robot, right?
Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a patent for a “joint viewing player” that will rejoice in a player’s victories and commiserate when things go poorly. The patent does not specify if the companion will be a physical object or digital avatar. But the specs reveal impressive efforts to make the bond a realistic one.
The robot, or avatar, will utilize a number of sensors to determine the player’s mood and respond accordingly. It might even play games with its human counterparts and make friendly suggestions when a player expresses frustration or appears to be tired.
According to the patent, filed with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, “The inventor has focused on the possibility of utilizing a robot as a joint viewing player who experiences sympathy with a user. It is expected that the user’s affinity with the robot is increased and motivation for playing a game is enhanced by the robot viewing the game play next to the user and being pleased or sad together with the user.”
Sony does remember it’s just a robot, right?
The arsenal of devices monitoring players . . .
. . . Not what you always want in a companion . . .
include microphones, cameras, and biometric and motion sensors. Feedback would be processed to determine emotions such as pleasure, anger and surprise.
The patent refers to a “love index” that will measure a user’s behavior towards the robot.
. . . O-o-o-o-o-hh kay . . . . .
Metrics such as heart rate and perspiration, along with speech recognition, will be assessed to determine a user’s mood. When the robot—also referred to in the patent as a “feeling deduction unit”—receives positive responses, it will more actively support the player, perhaps with helpful tips, advice and words of encouragement. But if the player expresses frustration or rebuffs the robot’s feedback, it will withdraw and restrict further commentary.
The robot will be more than just a game companion. It could provide comforting words when sadness is detected or advise the player when it’s time to go to bed. It can also be a movie companion.
Yup, now you’ve creeped me out.
“Further, regarding not only the game but also a movie, a television program, or the like,” the patent states, “it is expected that the user may enjoy content merely by viewing the content with the robot as compared to the case of viewing it alone.”
We’ll all remember it’s a robot, right?
No matter what supermodel exterior they give it.
Brought to you by The Knights Who Say “NEA”:
“I Just Can’t Do This.” Harried Parents Forgo Home School
AP / Gillian Flacus and Jocelyn Gecker / April 21, 2020Frustration is mounting as more families across the U.S. enter their second or even third week of distance learning — and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last.
Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year.
Others are cramming all their children’s school work into the weekend or taking days off work to help their kids with a week’s worth of assignments in one day.
“We tried to make it work the first week. We put together a schedule, and what we found is that forcing a child who is that young into a fake teaching situation is really, really hard,” said Alexandra Nicholson, whose son is in kindergarten in a town outside Boston.
“I’d rather have him watch classic Godzilla movies and play in the yard and pretend to be a Jedi rather than figure out basic math.”
…
Sarah Karpanty, 44, a mother of two middle schoolers in Roanoke, Virginia, said the reality kicked in last week when spring break ended and home learning began.
“I wanted to get into a fetal position and hide out,” said Karpanty, a professor of wildlife biology at Virginia Tech who is also teaching her own students online.
Scientists Conduct First Census of Viruses and Bacteria Living in Florida Springs
Kristen Kusek, University of South Florida, via Phys.org / 4/17/20
The USF CMS team, whose field and lab work was led by USF PhD student Kema Malki, used an inflatable raft to retrieve samples in May-June 2017 from five springs across northern Florida.
In the raft are Malki and USF St. Petersburg student Paige Boleman taking samples at Ichetucknee Springs. Credit: University of South Florida
Uh-huh. You don’t say.
But they’re really sure this time.
Arctic Summers Ice-Free ‘by 2013’
BBC | 12/12/07 | Jonathan Amos
Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.
Professor Wieslaw Maslowski told an American Geophysical Union meeting that previous projections had underestimated the processes now driving ice loss.
Summer melting this year reduced the ice cover to 4.13 million sq km, the smallest ever extent in modern times. Remarkably, this stunning low point was not even incorporated into the model runs of Professor Maslowski and his team, which used data sets from 1979 to 2004 to constrain their future projections.
In the end, it will just melt away quite suddenly Professor Peter Wadhams “Our projection of 2013 for the removal of ice in summer is not accounting for the last two minima, in 2005 and 2007,” the researcher from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, explained to the BBC. “So given that fact, you can argue that may be our projection of 2013 is already too conservative.”
Real world
Using supercomputers to crunch through possible future outcomes has become a standard part of climate science in recent years.
Professor Maslowski’s group, which includes co-workers at Nasa and the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), is well known for producing modelled dates that are in advance of other teams.
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Video: In 2009 Kerry Said Arctic Could Be Ice-Free in 4 Years. A Decade Later & It’s Still Frozen
The Western Journal – Conservative Tribune | April 12, 2019| Ben MarquisOf all the devotees to the left’s fervent cult-like religious belief in man-made climate change, perhaps none have been more annoying, and provably wrong, than former Secretary of State John Kerry — save perhaps for the climate change cult leader himself, former Vice President Al Gore.
As a top official in former President Barack Obama’s administration, Kerry used his position and clout to further the narrative that human activity was causing devastating damage to the earth’s climate, so much so that drastic action needed to be taken, such as raising taxes and sacrificing freedom and liberty to the government, because of course, that will help save the environment.
You may even recall that Kerry’s devotion to the “science” of climate change led him to declare that it was the changing environment that was somehow inextricably linked to the civil war in Syria, the rise of the radical Islamic State group and the subsequent flood of Muslim refugees into Europe.
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North Pole Soon To Be Ice Free in Summer
University of Hamburg via Phys.org / April 20, 2020The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporarily. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These are the results of a new research study involving 21 research institutes from around the world, coordinated by Dirk Notz from the University of Hamburg, Germany.
The research team has analyzed recent results from 40 different climate models. Using these models, the researchers considered the future evolution of Arctic sea-ice cover in a scenario with high future CO2 emissions and little climate protection. As expected, Arctic sea ice disappeared quickly in summer in these simulations. However, the new study finds that Arctic summer sea ice also disappears occasionally if CO2 emissions are rapidly reduced.
“If we reduce global emissions rapidly and substantially, and thus keep global warming below 2 °C relative to preindustrial levels, Arctic sea ice will nevertheless likely disappear occasionally in summer even before 2050. This really surprised us,” said Dirk Notz, who leads the sea-ice research group at University of Hamburg, Germany.
You keep repeating that name, “Dirk Notz.” Why is that?
