connectome...

now in nyt, connectome is getting more attention... :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/science/28brain.html

in addition to the questions stated in the article, i got some more... 

1. structure at one point to functions? 

2. embodiment? each brain is connected to its own body... so probably we might

have to slice all the body... otherwise, the difference from different brain structure 

may be from different sensory input or different environment... 

3. overfitting? each brain has too many millions neurons and we can have "some" data 

(like a few data points in a very high dimensional space)...

consciousness meter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21consciousness.html

this is awesome if we could measure the degree of consciousness like temperature...
they try to measure it based on the information amount in the subject's brain.
if lots of information flows, the brain is very conscious, otherwise, not so much.
i guess this idea or approach is closely related to Dr. Olaf Sporns' research,
which is to make a map of the brain network based on information flow.

anyway, recently, i see a lot of application of information theory to brain science
or even psychology...

maybe i am on the right track... ^^

Autonomous Vehicle Driving from Italy to China

Autonomous Vehicle Driving from Italy to China
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/autonomous-vehicle-driving-from-italy-to-china

a very interesting article about an autonomous vehicle testing...

but, do you believe that we are going to have a real autonomous vehicle in, say, 10 or 20 or years?
or even in your life time? or even in your grandchildren's life?

i am sorry but without a big break through from a super genius, i respectfully doubt that....

prosthetic fingers...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/business/11novel.html
artificial hand... (prosthetic fingers). pretty cool!

R.I.P. Sam Roweis

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/sam-roweis-nyu-professor-_n_421500.html

What a tragic loss to us all in machine learning including manifold learning.

Rest In Peace... Dr. Roweis....

Bees can recognize faces?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/02bees.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

They say bees can recognize human faces... Can you believe it? :)

I am not sure about it, but as Dr. Forsyth said, we definitely have to have animal studies

on face recognition research. That's for sure.

- H. Choi

"Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/science/08monkey.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Monkey is actually speaking!!! ???

interesting...

one more interesting point would be,

we analyze all the video/audio input and speak a lot about the understanding,

while other animals can analyze a lot of input but speaking not so much about it...

is it because their understanding is worse than ours? or just syntax is not enough?

or their memory system is worse?

think about "a dog never barks about yesterdays' burglar." (it might be not so true though)

- H. Choi

Statistics also rules!

yeap!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html?hp

- H. Choi

machine learning rules!!!

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/03/0143233/IBM-Releases-Open-Source-Machine-Learning-Compiler

machine learning in future will be like computers today.

almost everywhere, there are computers.

now, computers are not just for computer scientists

who btw i don't think "scientists" though even i am a computer science student. :(

likewise, within decades, machine learning will be everywhere.

machine learning will rule :)

- H. Choi

superintelligence

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/22/singularity-robots-computers-opinions-contributors-artificial-intelligence-09_land.html

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/18/superintelligence-humanity-oxford-opinions-contributors-artificial-intelligence-09-bostrom.html

when computers get smarter than us in every thing, it seems to me the end of the world...

computers will get better (or at least same as the before) every single seconds...

and computers will never take a rest.... and they are supposed to be much faster than us...

so, once they get to have the human-level intelligence,

they will be able to prove every theories pretty soon and invent every possible machines...

so that there will be no more questions....

there is no more adventure... no more struggle, no more curiosity...

every stock market will be controlled by computers... every research will be done by computers...

computers will be much better entertainers, so that human entertainers will get fired...

basically, all the work will be done by computers... all the people will get fired...

all that we are going to do is just for fun...

but unfortuately, computers know better way how to make our pleasure...

so we will just sit and eat...and push a button for pleasure...

finally, we will be like pets to computers...

they will feed us with food and pleasure... and they do all the real fun stuff like adventure, research and enterainment...

even though they won't feel that way working on those stuff as we are not feeling fun when we work.

it means ending "the world" and starting a new world where there is no more fun... no more pain... just like a timeless space...

- H. Choi

mirror neurons and motor theory

"Thus, to this point, whereas the exact nature of the link between speech production and perception remains to be discovered, existing evidence strongly indicates that perceptual systems have a much stronger influence on production than motor systems have on perception."

"We conclude that, rather than providing support for MT, mirror neurons are actually inconsistent with MT and are unlikely to have a central role in speech perception."

from A. J. Lotto, G. S. Hickok and L. L. Holt, "Reflections on mirror neurons and speech perception," Trends in Cognitive Sciences Vol.13 No.3, 2009. pp 110-114. 

so, how about other perception tasks rather than speech? 

still motor theory is attractive for perception at least to me, and mirror neuron theory seems like a bridge between motor theory and perception. 

- H. Choi

Brain-Computer Interface...

Recently, all the media all over the world are talking about World Science Festival on Wednesday, especially about brain-computer interface, which is so fascinating if we have.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/05/29/mind-control-festival-tech-science-cx_ag_0529mind.html
According to this linked article above, basically the results are from invasive ways, which are relatively so easy...

Anyway, it is going to be amazing if we can control a computer or a car with just thinking. Someday, it will be...

- H. Choi