Human-Robot Interactions

From Grauniad of the UK

"The level of interaction we seek is not when I fall in love with the humanoid robot, but when the humanoid robot falls in love with me," explained Prof. Adolf Frankenstein of the University of Linz, in Austria.

BM

PS If you haven't seen it, Ex Machina is a gripping film showing us what is in store, with Alicia Vikander playing the part of a sophisticated robot who is increasingly unhappy about its (her) existence.

_________________

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/05/human-robot-interactions-take-step-forward-with-emotional-chatting-machine-chatbot

Human-robot interactions take step forward with 'emotional' chat-bot

www.theguardian.com

Researchers describe the ‘emotional chatting machine’ as a first attempt at the problem of creating machines that can fully understand user emotion

VUID Toolkit

Of Interest to Chat BOT developers:

The Voice User Interface Designers Toolkit is an open-source project that supports designing and maintaining a text or voice user interface.    

https://sites.google.com/site/ivrdesigngroup//vuid-toolkit

Courage to Resist

From the (University of) Michigan Engineering Magazine:

https://medium.com/@UMengineering/courage-to-resist-ddb84e3a2f0

Life Immitates Art

From the Inc. magazine - 

"The Best Show on Television Just Provided the Best Definition of a Great Business"

"What is it you do that you're the best in the world at? You offer a service you didn't invent, a formula you didn't invent, a delivery method you didn't invent. Nothing about what you do is patentable or a unique user experience. You haven't identified an isolated market segment, haven't truly branded your concept. You need me to go on?

So why would an investment bank put serious money into it? I all but told you that ahead of time, but you wouldn't listen. Now you've heard it, but it's too late. You. Weren't. Ready."

I add also that "only the paranoid survive" per the sage advice of the late Any Grove, the former Chairman of Intel.

Why IoT Sucks (And Why That's Good for Partners)

From the April 2017 issue of the Redmond Channel Partner magazine:

https://rcpmag.com/articles/2017/04/01/why-iot-sucks.aspx

Amazon Echo tells you what to wear

From Grauniad of the UK -

The real question being: why does one need to take 'selfies'?

I want my fridge to tell me what I should eat. My hoover to tell me where the most dust is to be found in my flat. My kettle to choose for me whether I should have tea or coffee.

I want my life run by Amazon.com.

___________________________

https://lnkd.in/eMW3QwE?


Amazon unveils Echo Look, a selfie camera to help you choose what to wear
www.theguardian.com
Hands-free, voice-powered smart selfie camera takes photos and videos on command while its virtual assistant Alexa gives fashion advice

Hacking Sensors By Sound

Cyber-security News:

How to hack sensors via their acoustic resonant frequencies:

http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/24664-sonic-cyber-attack-shows-security-holes-in-ubiquitous-sensors

Sensor Fusion Tools

When building sensor-based systems we have to deal with the fact that some sensor inputs are sometimes inaccurate and incomplete, making the extraction of useful information difficult.

There is an approach called sensor fusion in which each sensor, with its own strengths and weaknesses, is  leveraged with some other sensors to offset its weaknesses; thus increasing accuracy and expanding functionality of the entire sensor network.

The tools below purport to support the development of sensor fusion algorithms:

•    MEMS Industry Group’s AIC library - http://github.com/memsindustrygroup/Open-Source-Sensor-Fusion
•    NXP/Freescale - http://nxp.com/products/sensors/nxp-sensor-fusion
•    PNI Sensor Corp - http://pnicorp.com/
•    Analog Devices - http://analog.com/
•    InvenSense - http://invensense.com/sensorstudio
•    Baselabs Create - http://baselabs.de/data-fusion-algorithm-design

Azure AD Connect

Evidently, to support Active Directory in Azure – for security and access control requirements – one  has to obtain, install, and configure the Azure AD Connect software on a Windows server (could be a VM) on one’s premises.

See please below the 2 technical notes:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect-prerequisites

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect-select-installation

This step requires someone that has global AD Admin. Rights – someone from IT Network Infrastructure.

This tool then acts as a proxy between the site-specific AD and the Azure AD.

Azure AD does not support multiple forests, there is no concept of Forests in Azure AD. It is completely flat.

I also read that the Azure AD Connect does not support LDAP.

While I think setting up a Web application within Azure is not overly complex, I think a full turn-key implementation is more complex as the functionality of the on premise IT Infrastructure needs to be investigated, mapped, and connected to Azure’s capabilities.

In case of multi-site organizations with many sites within the United States and also many sites externally in UK, Germany, Singapore, Angola – each with its own AD Forest – one has 2 choices available to oneself; either leverage Federation or flatten the organization into one Azure AD tenant.

AD Connect is pretty great if you use it for what it was designed for and it supports many different topologies. If it does not fit the customers requirements for some reason then,  "yes", federation using ADFS to Azure is another option.

More Reading:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect-topologies

Nonprofit Under Attack

Nonprofit Under Attack: A Cyber Defense Case Study:

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2017/04/01/defense-in-depth.aspx

NASA Software Catalog

Among all these US restricted, US Government restricted, and publicly available software, there must be some hidden gems.  Look for them @  https://software.nasa.gov/

Require registration.

Worth reading: "Software Testing and the Human Factor"

http://sdtimes.com/industry-watch-software-testing-human-factor/

Man Marries Robot

From Grauniad of the UK

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/chinese-man-marries-robot-built-himself

Chinese man 'marries' robot he built himself

Zheng Jiajia had grown tired of pressure to get married so he turned to Yingying, a robot spouse he constructed last year.

EU-U.S. Data Flows and Privacy Shield

From the Center for Strategic and International Studies:

https://www.csis.org/events/eu-us-data-flows-and-privacy-shield/?block2

زیباترین تزیین سفره هفت سین برای سال ۹۶

Birthday of Dame Vera Lynn - - born 20 March 1917

I should like this opportunity to wish Dame Vera Lynn a comfortable and pleasant birthday on her 100-th anniversary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNB8VbFmlOY

TargetLink

TargetLink is a software system that generates production code (C code) straight from the MATLAB®/Simulink/Stateflow graphical development environment.  Find it @ https://www.dspace.com/en/inc/home/products/sw/pcgs/targetli.cfm

Old Developers Learn New Tricks

http://sdtimes.com/old-developers-can-learn-new-tricks/

Language Server Protocol

The Language Server Protocol is used between a tool (the client) and a language smartness provider (the server) to integrate features like auto complete, goto definition, find all references and alike into the tool.

Learn more about it @ https://github.com/Microsoft/language-server-protocol

Sarah's Broad-band Provider Journey

Lovely & Excellent:

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1-broadband-provider-journey-large-opt.jpg