Meeting the pioneers of Japan's coming robot revolution

Meeting the pioneers of Japan's coming robot revolution

On a rainy September morning at an old people's home south of Tokyo the residents are going through their morning routine. They slowly stretch their arms up in to the air, and then down again.

Standing on a table at the front of the room is their instructor - a diminutive robot called Palro. Palro is about 40cm tall. His makers describe him as a "humanoid companion robot". He can be programmed to dance and sing, and to hold basic conversations.

Basic is the operative word here. My attempts to get Palro to tell me the weather forecast rapidly confused the little chap. Maybe it's my poor Japanese.

But humanoid robots like this are only the beginning of what developers say is a coming revolution.

The cutting edge of that revolution is located in a nondescript business park outside the city of Kyoto in western Japan. It is home to some of the spookiest humanoid robots anywhere on the planet.

Sitting on a stool in the middle of a room I am introduced to Erica. It doesn't quite come across in photos, but when you're standing in the room with her, Erica is uncannily human-like. When I walk around her she turns to look at me. She blinks her eyes as if she's trying to focus on me.

I am handed a microphone and told to ask her a question.

"What should I ask her?" I say.

"Anything you like," I am told.

Actually that's not quite true. I later find out there are a list of around 20 subjects that Erica is currently conversant in, from her favourite hobby, to what type of animals she likes, to her favourite movies.

"I like Chihuahua dogs" she tells me "how about you? Do you have a dog?"

When I tell her I do she sighs with apparent satisfaction, content it seems that we share a love of animals.

A few minutes later I notice my companions are giggling at Erica's answers. Apparently she finds my poor Japanese funny and is making fun of me.

All this is quite disconcerting.

Erica's creator is Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro. He laughs when I tell him about her making fun of me.

"Did you try some negative conversation with her?" he asks.

"No," I answer.

"Oh you should have," he says, "she will get very angry. We have that kind of program, then we can feel very strongly human-like emotions, we totally forget that she is a robot."

Professor Ishiguro's ambition for Erica is to make her as human-like as possible. He says there are good practical reasons for doing so.

The best "interface" for a human, he says, is another human.

"Today in Japan we already have rice cookers that speak to you. It is like Alice in Wonderland - a rice cooker that's speaking. But people accept that technology because we have a brain that accepts a voice interface."

To Mr Ishiguro, humanoid robots are the logical extension of a technological revolution that began when cavemen started making stone axes.

"A human is an animal plus technology. Humans have two ways to evolve - one is genetic - the other is through technology. We are changing the definition of humans as we develop this new technology. We cannot separate human and robots. We will exist in this world together.

That vision of a world populated by intelligent human-like androids will scare some. But what about a world in which old people will no longer need wheelchairs, or stair-lifts, and where people with spinal injuries can learn to walk again? At another non-descript business park north of Tokyo that is the vision being developed by Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai. The company he has set up is called Cyberdyne Inc - the same name as the company that made The Terminator in the James Cameron movies.

"It's just a coincidence!" Mr Sankai insists.

This softly spoken engineer has spent the past 15 years developing Hal (hybrid assistive limb), the world's first robotic exoskeleton that is controlled by the wearer's own brainwaves.

I am initially sceptical. But then Mr Sankai shows me a remarkable series of videos.

In the first one a polio victim is shown with a wasted leg. He has been unable to move it for 50 years. The robot limb is strapped to his leg and sensors are placed on his skin at the base of his spine. The sensors pick up what Mr Sankai calls "intention commands" sent from the brain down the spinal cord. Those are used to command the robotic limbs to move.

The next video clip shows the polio victim three days later moving the robot leg just by thought commands.

How did he react when he saw his leg moving?

"He cried," responds Mr Sankai.

Could this be used for paraplegics, or amputees?

Mr Sankai chuckles and brings up another video on his laptop

"This man had his leg amputated above the knee" he says "you can see using our robotic legs he is able to walk very smoothly.

He is. In another video he can be seen climbing up and down stairs completely unaided.

This technology is only in its infancy. The next generation of Hal will be light enough to be worn by children. Meanwhile, Mr Sankai is working on stem cell technology that could allow severe spinal injury victims to also use his robotic limbs. It is a truly remarkable vision of the near future. One in which the bionic man, and woman, are no longer science fiction.

Source by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC Japan

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Poker players focused via card-viewing malware

Poker players focused via card-viewing malware

Online poker players are being focused by a PC infection that spies on their virtual cards.

The product imparts the cards to the infection's makers who then join the same amusement and attempt to downy the casualty.

The slippery malware has been discovered sneaking in programming intended to assist poker with fansing play better, said the security firm that discovered it.

The product likewise targets other helpful data on a casualty's PC, for example, login names and passwords.

Card counter

The malware targets players of the Pokerstars and Maximum capacity Poker destinations, said Robert Lipovsky, a security scientist at Eset, in a blogpost.

When it contaminates a machine, the product screens the PC's action and springs to life when a casualty has signed into both of the two poker destinations. It then begins taking screenshots of their action and the cards they are managed. Screenshots are then sent to the assailant.

The pictures demonstrate the hand the player has been managed and additionally their player ID. This, said Eset, permits the aggressor to look the destinations for that player and join their diversion. Utilizing data around a casualty's hand gives the assailant a critical point of preference.

"We are uncertain whether the culprit plays the diversions physically or in some robotized way," composed Mr Lipovsky.

Eset discovered the Windows malware hiding in some surely understood document sharing applications, PC utilities and also a few broadly utilized poker adding machines and player databases.

Eset said the spyware had been dynamic for a while and most casualties were in Eastern Europe, especially Russia and the Ukraine.

Source by bbc

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Its a well known fact that China is the biggest holder of U.S. obligation

Its a well known fact that China is the biggest holder of U.S. obligation

So ought to Americans be worried that China has begun dumping some of its Treasury possessions?

All things considered, it brings up difficult issues about whether China will continue loaning Washington cash to help fund the government deficiency later on.

However, at this time, China is offering in light of the fact that it's in desperate need of money. As of late, it unleashed numerous moves to bolster its business sectors and keep its cash from a freefall, while in the meantime attempting to invigorate the economy.

China yanks record whole from war mid-section

China claimed $1.3 trillion of U.S. Treasuries as of June, making it the greatest holder of U.S. obligation.

Be that as it may, China's outside trade stores dove by a record $94 billion in August, as indicated by the nation's national bank, abandoning it with a war mid-section of $3.6 trillion. Examiners say it's exceptionally sheltered to trust a major piece of that decay happened because of a lessening in U.S. Treasury possessions.

The offering and the potential that China won't be purchasing U.S. obligation soon brings up issues on its capability to expand America's obtaining expenses.

Some of this may as of now be going on, in any event at a little scale. At the point when securities exchanges are turbulent, financial specialists normally race to the wellbeing of U.S. Treasurys and yields fall. Then again, in spite of August's compelling stock instability, rates on Treasurys really climbed marginally in late August.

A piece of that move is likely because of Divider Road wagering the Central bank may raise premium rates one week from now. Be that as it may, advertise members additionally suspect the bizarre activity in the security business sector was driven by China dumping Treasuries.

China is raising heaps of money

This time, Beijing is removing its Treasury property of a debilitated position as it tries to fight off more decreases in its money. China is likewise propping up its securities exchange, which lost a large portion of its quality in the compass of only a couple of months this late spring.

"Capital surges have soar in China and the yuan is under extreme offering weight. The main thing they could do is offer Treasuries to purchase their own coin," said Walter Zimmerman, boss specialized investigator at United-ICAP.

China isn't attempting to sink the U.S. economy

There have long been worries that China could sink the American economy by dumping its tremendous property of Treasuries, sending acquiring expenses soaring.

Thankfully, those doomsday apprehensions don't seem, by all accounts, to be at play here yet.

"On the off chance that China's U.S. Treasury stock is an atomic bomb, moderate deals to balance offering weight on the yuan are unrealistic to set off a blast," Michael McDonough, boss financial analyst at Bloomberg Insight, wrote in a late report.

Yet, moves could raise getting expenses here

Still, China's deals could make Treasury yields higher than they would regularly be. That is of concern in light of the fact that Treasury rates are utilized as a benchmark that set the expense of obtaining for things like Visas and home loans.

While it's "not the apocalypse," SkyBridge Capital senior portfolio administrator Troy Gayeski said higher yields could prompt a "log jam in the lodging recuperation."

What's key is the amount of money China at last needs to raise to shield its coin and securities exchange. Nobody, not even China, realizes that figure.

China may go on a U.S. obligation diet

As such, the American security business sector is by all accounts taking the China move in step.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is at present sitting at 2.22%, about unaltered from a month prior.

Interest for U.S. obligation is solid now particularly when contrasted with the ultra-low, or even negative rates in other monetary powerhouses like Germany and Japan.

Policymakers in Washington ought to trust that pattern proceeds. Now that China's economy is in disorder, America may not have the capacity to depend on its No. 1 moneylender to eat up U.S. obligation like before.

"China's surplus is abating. That gives them less capability to amass Treasuries," said Thomas Urano, overseeing chief at Sage Counseling.

Read More : Currency Names and Symbols, by Richard Krivo, Trading Instructor

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Overweight pup gets additional opportunity at life

Overweight pup gets additional opportunity at life

Corpulent, unfortunate and grieving the loss of his proprietor, Vincent was surrendered to an area creature cover in Houston two weeks prior. His prospects didn't look great.

He tipped the scales at 38 pounds, twofold the sound weight for a 7-year-old dachshund. He had elevated cholesterol and his back plunged from the additional weight, putting him at danger of nerve harm. Mary Tipton, the admission facilitator for K-9 Heavenly attendants Salvage, and an individual from the top managerial staff for Harris Region Creature Asylum, happened to be at the sanctuary for a meeting when she spotted him.

"Vincent was simply gigantic," Tipton said. She took a photo and presented it on Facebook on discover him a temporary parent. Inside of 15 minutes, dachshund rescuer Melissa Anderson volunteered to take Vincent in.

Vincent's case is compelling, however weight influences a ton of pets. In 2014, an expected 52.7% of U.S. mutts were overweight or fat, as per the National Pet Corpulence Appreciation Day Overview.

Presently Anderson is gradually taking Vincent back to wellbeing.

The principal week wasn't simple for either Vincent or his non-permanent parent. At the point when leaving the vet with such a vast pooch, Anderson said she felt fat-disgraced by somebody strolling on the walkway.

"They let me know, 'Now that is simply mishandle,' and acted like they needed to make a special effort to stroll around Vincent," said Anderson. "A few individuals simply don't know other individuals' stories. They simply show up."

When she took him home, Vincent got wiped out, both regurgitating and miracle entrails, when he ate the solid puppy nourishments she gave him. Anderson could tell he was discouraged.

"I am not certain what the past proprietor sustained him, but rather I think it was all fast food. He was truly detoxing the first week," she said.

Anderson said when she went to a Starbucks drive-through one day, Vincent got truly energized by the radio's sound. "He bounced on my lap and stuck his nose outside the window, simply sniffing endlessly."

In any case, after only two weeks, Anderson said Vincent is well on his way to a healthier way of life.

Vincent eats an extraordinary canine nourishment; Anderson offers him green beans or carrots as "treats" however he hasn't generally gone for those yet.

He's on a really thorough activity administration, taking an interest in water high impact exercise five times each week and playing with her others mutts in the yard. The water high impact exercise assist bring with compelling off Vincent's strained joints. Besides, with the 100-degree climate in Texas, it offers a pleasant cool-down for both Vincent and Anderson.

At in the first place, Vincent would simply glide in his life coat. In any case, his continuance is developing. Vincent can now paddle in the pool for around 15-20 minutes, five days a week. Some time recently, he could just waddle around the yard with alternate puppies. Presently he finds himself able to run.

"He is truly more content now than he was," said Anderson. She said he keeps an uplifting disposition and appears to know they are attempting to help him.

K-9 Heavenly attendants Salvage is wanting to get him to a solid weight so he can be prepared for selection, however they aren't against him being received in his present condition.

"We take selections case by case. In the event that there was an immaculate home that needed to assume control over his weight reduction venture we may mull over that," said Tipton. "We are in no rush to dispose of him however there are different puppies at the haven that are prepared to be spared."

Presently, Fat Vincent is en route to wind up Thin Vinnie. He was 38-pounds and after two weeks tips the scales at 35.2. His weight reduction will be a moderate process however with the assistance of K-9 Holy messengers Salvage he is en route to his new life.

Read More :  What is Leverage by Jeremy Wagner, Head Forex Trading Instructor

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Sex-trafficking survivors utilize new ink to recover their lives

Sex-trafficking survivors utilize new ink to recover their lives

Jennifer Kempton is an in number lady. She's seen - and experienced - the most exceedingly terrible of individuals and broken free from an existence of sexual bondage and dependence.

In any case, Kempton said, each time she looked in the mirror, she was helped to remember her past.

That is on account of she had been marked by her previous pimps. "Marking" is the point at which a pimp tattoos a lady with an imprint to connote she is his property - like dairy cattle.

Four tattoos on Kempton's body were a day by day indication of what she had been through.

In the same way as other casualties of sex trafficking, Kempton's inconveniences started in adolescence, where she was mishandled and disregarded.

She said the tipping point was the point at which she was assaulted by a companion's sibling when she was 12. That drove her down a risky way of constrained prostitution and medication fixation in the place where she grew up of Columbus, Ohio.

Kempton put in over five years in the city. She persevered through rehashed beatings and was compelled to have intercourse with several men. In April 2013, after the most savage assault she had ever continued, Kempton chose she had enough.

She put a noose around her neck, wanting to end her life. The rope broke, and at that point, she discovered motivation to live.

"God came to me and identifies with me and he said I have a reason for you and it's not to kick the bucket in the cellar of a break house," Kempton said.

Recuperation from medication habit has not been simple, and Kempton said she backslid more than once. To some degree, the brandings were a consistent indication of what she had been through. She couldn't overlook it.

Kempton at long last sufficiently earned cash to get another tattoo to cover one of her brandings.

"It was so freeing to take his name off of my body and have what I need there," Kempton said, "The adoration I had been looking for my entire life, I got it with that tattoo."

Kempton made them brand secured with a tattoo of an intricate cross with "Affection" and "1 Cor 13 4:13." The Scriptural verse starts with the surely understood quote, "Adoration is patient, affection is thoughtful," and closes with the line, "And now these three remain: confidence, trust and adoration. In any case, the best of these is affection."

Kempton said the new ink changed the way she took a gander at herself, however regardless she had three different brandings. There was one on her neck, one on her back and one right over her crotch that said "Property of Salem," a trafficker who assumed a noteworthy part in bringing Kempton into the life she had now deserted.

She enlightened a human trafficking supporter concerning the "property of" tattoo. The backer reached a relative who consented to pay for her to have whatever is left of her brandings secured.

This was the start of Survivor's Ink.

Kempton needed different survivors to encounter the opportunity she had discovered, so she began a charitable association that pays for trafficking survivors to have their marking tattoos secured by new tattoos of their picking.

"It all that much so is a mental type of servitude," Kempton said. "It binds you to those recollections and it binds you to those emotions that you felt when you persuaded that and to have the capacity to be free of oppression and afterward to settle on a dynamic decision of, 'This is the thing that I need on my body, not this present man's name or this current posse's image, I need my girl's name, I need an excellent blossom, I need a religious sacred text, I need a butterfly to demonstrate that I have wings, and I can fly.'"

As the physical scars go away, the mental scars can recuperate, as well.

"It began when I got the one on my neck concealed and the following morning when I took a gander at myself in the mirror and I wasn't reminded that I worked for posses and I was a piece of that sort of life, to have this lovely blossom opening and sprouting, it was just, gave me an entire new breath of life," said Kempton.

Since beginning Survivor's Ink in September 2014, Kempton has helped numerous ladies cover their brandings, including Angela Ritter.

Ritter looks at her initial life to June Knife, "You know, room-mother, group mother, simply included in everything my children did; truly regarded in my group," she said. In any case, when she turned 30, her life took a dim turn and she twisted up, in her words, "a dependent road walker."

Ritter put in 13 years under the control of traffickers. She was dependent on medications and said she was compelled to engage in sexual relations with a larger number of men than she can tally.

"I simply came to a point where I felt passing on me, I mean, truly felt demise on me each and every day," she said, "it's similar to God was simply shouting at me that on the off chance that I didn't get assist and with getting out now, that I was going to bite the dust there."

Knowing her pimp wouldn't enthusiastically give her a chance to leave, Ritter let him know she was simply setting off to the store, yet she said when she was outside of anyone's ability to see from his window she ran.

Like Kempton, Ritter has recovered her life, and like Kempton, she has lived with a steady indication of her previous life: a brand by the group that trafficked her for sex. She regularly wears a Band-Help on her upper arm to cover what she calls "a major range of dull disgrace" on her body. The tattoo peruses "Dark's Excellence," with a dollar sign.

"Well that says I'm some person's 'ho,'" Ritter said. She couldn't bear to have it concealed until she got some answers concerning Survivor's Ink.

"Who might have ever imagined that there would be somebody willing to commit their time, their materials, you know, to liberating us from a pitiable, dull past, you know? In any case, I express gratitude toward God for Jen, I say thanks to God for Survivor's Ink, I say thanks to God for the opportunity to be that survivor," Ritter said.

Tattoo craftsman Mike Prickett gives his opportunity to Survivor's Ink, and he has seen firsthand the effect the brands have on ladies.

"I think with anything, particularly tattoos on the grounds that they're so lasting, certain things are going to keep you away from doing the things that you need or consistent indications of something negative that you did or that transpired," he said, "Having the capacity to wash that away and begin crisp, I imagine that is a risk that everybody merits."

Together, Ritter and Prickett thought of an important configuration that Ritter will be pleased to hotshot.

"At long last, will be me once more. I'm not going to fit in with anyone but rather God, and that is the way it should be," Ritter said. "Not everyone persuades an opportunity to be a survivor, and there are young ladies out there at this moment that don't even realize that they're casualties. ... However, perhaps, quite possibly, they'll see one of us and they'll hear one of us and they'll realize that there is help, there is trust and there is an exit plan."

Read More :  Marked The stunning existence of a sex-trafficked young lady

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Marked: The stunning existence of a sex-trafficked young lady

Marked: The stunning existence of a sex-trafficked young lady

It's similar to a medication. It lifts you up and afterward it crushes you on the ground. While you're into it, everything is skewed.

You are advised your life will be extraordinary. You are let you know will carry on with the high life loaded with excellence and allure, cash and more deference than you can stomach. It is energizing.

You are acquainted with ladies who are more established than you, and they are lovely. They wear splendid, lovely garments, their hair is flawless, their mani-pedis shimmer. They appear to be delightful. They are all having a ton of fun in Los Angeles.

You need to be them. Certain, guaranteed, and they let you know they're profiting. This is the life, you contemplate internally. No tenets. Just fun.

At that point you start. It's somewhat unnerving at first. This isn't your normal employment. Once in a while it includes men who are inebriated and grimy. Now and again they frighten you. In some cases they undermine to murder you. At times they hold blades to your gut. Once in a while it's a firearm to the head.

You figure out how to quiet them down notwithstanding when you are panicked. You are just 13. In any case, you are told everybody who isn't in your profession is misleading themselves.

The general population society esteems as ordinary are slaves, as well, they simply don't have any acquaintance with it. They are "squares" that don't get it. They'll never get you. Before you know it, you have faith in that.

You trust you will never fit into a typical life as a wife with a minding spouse. You can't envision that even exists. You choose this life is better. It is all the more energizing. You get the opportunity to do what you need.

All things considered, with the exception of when your trafficker doesn't get the cash he has requested. At that point you get beaten and censured. You choose you will be the best there ever was at this. You will work 24 hours a day on the off chance that you need to make his standard. You are doing it. You are adulated for your diligent work. You are remunerated with visits to the salon.

This is the life you have picked, you let yourself know.

Infrequently he treats you like a girl. Once in a while a significant other. Some of the time an article. Relies on upon his state of mind. He generally needs you to demonstrate your reliability, demonstrate you're worth, demonstrate your adoration. You are presently 14.

He says the most ideal approach to demonstrate the majority of that is to put something lasting on your body to tell everybody you are his. It's sort of like a wedding band, he lets you know.

It's his epithet, in dark ink tattooed on your body. You aren't the main young lady who has been inquired. At first every one of the young ladies say no. You do, as well.

In any case, then you choose you need to be his "base bitch," the person who will do everything and anything for him. It implies you can lead over his different young ladies. I'll do it, you say. You need to be extraordinary.

You're in a house. It is grimy. There is a bedding on the floor. The stench of sweat and sex fills the air. There's a tattoo firearm. Some ink. There's a man staying there. He's your trafficker's sibling. Is the needle clean? You ponder. You don't inquire. You take a seat.

He starts to jab away at your skin. It takes a while. Your skin is hot and swollen. The letters "CREAM" blast from you're mid-section. They have an importance. "Money Tenet Everything Around Me."

That is the thing that your manager passes by. That is the thing that has quite recently been tattooed on you're mid-section. You pillar with pride. Somebody asserts you. This is your new gang. You have a place. He takes a gander at you diversely now, you think. It's actual he does. He has recently denoted his property. Presently everybody will know you are his.

After four years, you are as yet doing likewise. You are not free. You are not loaded with happiness. You are not carrying on with the fabulous life you were guaranteed. Not yet. It will happen, you let yourself know.

One day you meet somebody who used to be similar to you yet 20 years more seasoned. Her teeth are thumped out. Her fingernails are grimy. Her hair tousled. The more youthful young ladies call her grimy prostitute and split head, however not you. On this day, you choose to stop and converse with her in light of the fact that business is moderate.

You ask who she is. She recounts to you her biography, at any rate the most sensational parts. She was really, much the same as you, once upon a time. She was the everybody's indisputable favorite on the strip. She could do no off-base. She could make more than any of alternate young ladies.

In any case, one day she got grabbed by the wrong client. He crushed her teeth out. Abandoned her wounded and battered by the street. She felt monstrous. She required something to cover the hurt, the disgrace and the self-hatred.

She began taking medications. The medications began to lead her life. It didn't take long until she couldn't discover out. The avenues turned into her eternity home. There was no backpedaling.

You wake up. You quit having confidence in the fantasy you were guaranteed four years prior when you were 13. You know you need to get out.

You don't know how. You are still dependent on "the life," however you aren't dependent on medications. Presently you are not certain which one is more regrettable.

The medications are more awful, you let yourself know. That is the reason you decline to take them. Be that as it may, the passionate dependence on "the life" is likewise capable.

Your withdrawals are simply diverse. You feel the agony of forlornness, disgrace, uncertainty and incoherence, at the same time a few days.

You are so used to being on caution, from the hazardous fellow, or the beatings by the man who is your new "father" in the city. You can't quiet down sufficiently long to feel safe regardless of where you are.

You need to begin your life once again, yet there are an excess of alternatives. Which one do you pick? Will the world acknowledge you as something else, another person?

You have spent your young years offering yourself, demonstrating your sturdiness, your magnificence, your value in dollars and pennies. All you truly need is affection, however you didn't know how to name it in those days.

Your heart continues getting broken, many times. Be that as it may, it won't quit breaking. You are in modest pieces and choose that every piece will have a name. For every piece, you make an alternate persona. This is the manner by which you adapt.

You lift yourself up, dry your eyes and retreat out. Some of the time it happens in an auto, some of the time in an inn room, once in a while in a condo. Now and then it makes your skin slither. Some of the time it's alright on the grounds that he's decent. It pays well, at times.

Source by CNN.com

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