[4eyes] Another interesting free webinar

[Saiph Savage]

Another interesting free webinar related to user models:

https://csail.adobeconnect.com/_a999979575/e1t9ejv3brf/event/registration.html


*IAP Virtual Meeting*

*MIT* COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY



*SHARING MENTAL MODELS WITH MACHINES *

*     *

*Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012*

*Time: 12:30-1:30pm EDT*

*CSAIL PI: Professor Seth Teller  *

* *


Robots have permeated every aspect of our lives. They play a role in
manufacturing, medicine, military operations, bomb defusing and disposal,
space exploration, deep ocean activities, inside nuclear operations, and in
disaster relief. As robots become even more embedded into our lives, CSAIL
researcher Seth Teller is working to answer the question:****

*How can we build robots to work effectively alongside people in ordinary
environments without any special preparation?*

* *

A key aspect of Professor Teller's approach has been the development of
interactive methods with which people can convey, to robots, their
knowledge of the world and how it works. This process is called "sharing
mental models," and it is organized around "affordances" in the world.


An affordance is any latent possibility for action in the robot's
surroundings: a path (to walk), a doorknob (to turn), a button (to push), a
gauge (to read), etc. Using speech, gestures, and other interface methods,
the human indicates affordances, and the robot reflects its interpretation,
until the human is sufficiently confident to grant the robot permission to
proceed autonomously with the task at hand.

This factoring of the overall task into a part for the human and a part for
the robot is an example of so-called sliding or variable autonomy, as it,
in principle, enables coupled adjustment of either party's workload.
Professor Teller will sketch applications of the proposed mechanism to
several task domains, including:

   - *voice-commandable* semi-autonomous pallet handling
   - explosive *ordnance disposal*
   - *disaster relief* (e.g., at the Fukushima nuclear plant) as part of
   the recently-announced DARPA Robotic Challenge
   - *assistive technology *for blind and low vision individuals and
   individuals living with paralysis




*Speaker:*



*Seth Teller*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Jotpmwk4kltljBnOSaHlkj78Yk90QNB3rmoZ48xALEIaAAnt2xXU8-IcE4FLr75TBBWn9TepgVAaWiyBjdSeHBz2cDC-Jbn1Rt7ERQ_lGdPhPJn3AYd8991vrt6_cU1M>,
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

After a PhD in Computer Science at Berkeley, and postdoctoral stints at
Hebrew University and Princeton, Seth Teller joined MIT's Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science Department Department (EECS), and its
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in 1994.
There, his group develops machines that work closely alongside people in
health-care, military, civilian, and disaster-relief settings. His recent
projects include: wearable devices that provide task-salient information
about nearby terrain, objects, text and people; a self-driving car; an
unmanned semi-autonomous forklift; a voice-commandable robotic wheelchair;
and a humanoid robot that performs dangerous tasks while people help from a
distance.
-- 
Saiph Savage
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