No amount of observations of white swan can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan can refute that conclusion. – David Hume (1711-76)

Was reading “What the Dog Saw” by Malcolm Gladwell and came across this quote which I found pretty enlightening.

From my perspective, things are unpredictable, especially human nature. Its also similar in a certain sense to the quote on “What will go wrong will go wrong”. I guess I am the type that will prepare for the existence of the black swan than continue hoping that all swans remain white.

Cheers.

Apple Ipad vs Rock

Think I’ll skip the Apple Ipad. i dunt need a bigger iphone. I’ll stick with my Itouch till something better comes out.

Based on my previous post,

heres the video..

My verdict is.. its decent.;)

FYP – Natural Langauge Processing in Social Robotics from wee young chua on Vimeo.

Sorry guys.. been busy the last few weeks.. especially with my FYP – natural language processing in Social Robotics. But im finally done and later, i’ll upload a video on it.

Continuing from my other post on training-acoustic-model, i have developed a workflow for my FYP.

basically. its on using a sentiment analysis engine to develop emotions realtime and parsing values to text to speech (TTS) system and a machine servo for head expression through serialization.

and here is it.
Overall Work Flow

Taken from cnet,  Himawari, which means “sunflower” in Japanese, exhibits a lifelike, if slightly eerie, quality when moving slowly. A group of 48 white LEDs in the head twinkle in response to detected movement. Eighty actuators that use shape memory alloy move other parts of the flower for added effect.

Why build a robot plant? Nakayasu has apparently been influenced by the charmingly absurd creations of Dutch artist Theo Jansen, whose skeletal kinetic sculptures also seem slightly alive, but his message seems to be communication.

“That movement of the flower stem and the blossoming towards the sun seems to communicate a message,” Nakayasu writes. “(The robot’s) slow, weak and slender movements interact with human motion, trying to communicate, the same way a sunflower communicates with the morning sun.”

Here’s a video on it: