Robot Baby Learns Words Like A Human Baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLQnTrX0hDM&feature=player_embedded

A robot has learned a handful of simple words in the same general way that infants do: by listening to the speech, and feedback, of human adults.

Human teachers—who ran the gamut in terms of age, occupation, and experience with kids—worked with a humanoid, toddler-sized robot, describing the colors and shapes on a toy block, as seen in the video above and described in a new study in PLoS ONE. The robot babbled back, learning which combinations of sounds are correct based both on what it had heard and on how the human responded, much like babies do when learning to speak. Giving the robot a childlike form, the researchers suggest, let people interact with it more like they would an actual baby, helping it better model language learning than having people talk to a screen or a box.

It’s pretty cool that the robots could pick up words from human-like interactions. But it’s important to keep in mind that we can only build robots to imitate what it looks like when babies learn, because we don’t know exactly what’s going on in babies’ brains when they learn language—and we certainly don’t understand it well enough to build a program that would work just the same way.

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USEFULL WEBSITES

The dead sea

Despite it’s name the Dead Sea which is located between the borders of Israel and Jordan is actually a lake. Sitting in a valley almost 400m below sea level it’s positioned at not only thelowest point on Earth but also happens to be the second saltiest lake in the world (1st saltiest being lake Assal in Djibouti, Africa).

In fact it’s so salty (almost 8 times saltier than regular sea water) that nothing except small plants and salt loving bacteria survive, explaining why it’s called the Dead Sea i.e. nothing in it survives.

Salt Makes You Float ?

Now despite very few things being able to survive one cool thing about the lake is that most things that enter it float. It’s a feature well publicized in both pictures and videos of tourists visiting the lake for it’s health & spa benefits.

The basic theory behind the floating is that salt water is much denser than regular water and it’s this density which makes the water much more buoyant. If you want to float on your back completely unaided whilst reading the newspaper, well that’s not a problem in the Dead Sea because it’s extremely salty!

The Dead Sea is Dieing

Unfortunately due to it’s climatic position almost 7 million tons of water evaporate from the lake every day. In addition to that both Israel and Jordan are tapping into the Jordan river (the Dead Sea’s main water source) for irrigation purposes at a rate which is depleting the lake to dangerous levels.

Combine that further with the recent droughts we’re seeing in the region and it’s quite clear that the famous lake is drying up with many parts already below the point of recovery.

INDIA

• India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization.

• India is the world's Largest democracy.

• India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

• India invented the number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

• When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians establishedHarappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)

• There are 300,000 active mosques in India , more than in any other country, including the Muslim world

• Sanskrit is the mother of all the European Languages . Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magzine July 1987.

• Chess 
(Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.

• India is one of the few countries in the world, which gain independence without violence.

• India has the second largest pool of Scientist and Engineers in the World.

• India is the largest English speaking nation in the world.

• India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indeigenously.

• India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world

• The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways , employing over a million people

• India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.

• The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982

• The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.

• Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.

• Martial Arts
 were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.

• Yoga 
has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.