One of the main goals of Neurdon, since its very beginnings, was to educate readers to tell apart fiction from reality. Nowadays, big companies are diving (or dive-bombing) in the field of neural computing with hyperbolic claims of being able to simulate biological brains, from feline to humans. One of such a claim comes, again, from IBM. This is the truth behind what IBM calls "cognitive computer". Read the rest of this entry »
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IBM Cognizer. Really?
| August 25, 2011 -
“Smart” phones, finally… the Adapteva chip
| June 17, 2011
In a previous post, we described applications of graphic processing units (GPUs) to neuromorphic computing. GPUs are a good fit for simulating neurons, and recent industry trends will most likely increase the appeal of this computing substrate. However, GPUs may not be the only player in attracting the attention of neural modelers. A Lexington (MA) startup company, Adapteva, has recently introduced a chip that looks even more appealing than GPUs. Read the rest of this entry » -
AMD’s gamble
| June 6, 2011
AMD is gambling its future on its Fusion, AMD series of Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), whose adoption (or lack of) in mainstream computing will most likely determine the fate of the company. GPGPU computing will play a central role in this. Wait... what do neurons have to do with this? Read the rest of this entry » -
The future is drying up
| May 21, 2011
A few months ago, a neuromarketing firm, NeuroFocus, announced to the world the first wireless full brain coverage dry EEG cap -- Mynd. The heavens parted and the brain-computer interface (BCI) community bowed before this humble offering of EEG cap which doth not requireth copious amounts of electrode goo. And it was good.
Engadget was one of the first to pick up NeuroFocus' press release, prompting quite the conversation in the comments section with plenty of unnecessarily snark words being written on the topic. Several folks wanted to know what all the fuss was about and how Mynd was any different than the Emotiv Epoc or MindWave headsets. Well, the primary difference is electrode real estate. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Case for Neural Networks with Finance, or NeuroFinance
| May 9, 2011
The term, “Finance,” awakens sentiments of fear and greed. The fear is on how the Wall St fat cats might blow up the system for the rest of us (e.g. cost of bail-outs, taxes, and inflation). The greed is in how to become a very fat cat. These sentiments are ironic given that the derivation of finance incorporates how to model fear and greed. This is the first of a series of posts that illustrate how finance and computational neuroscience and modeling car be (re)combined to provide insight on how people make financial decisions, and how to use neural models as an additional investment tool. Read the rest of this entry »Comments: Leave a comment -
3D chips: power or speed?
| May 4, 2011
An article on the New York Times features a new chip design by Intel, where the company claims that building a key portion of a microprocessor’s transistor above the chip’s surface will eventually lead to faster and lower-power computer chips. Read the rest of this entry » -
Ericsson visits the Neuromorphics Lab
| May 3, 2011
The Neuromorphics Lab is not new to hosting industrial visitors. Historically linked with HP Labs, and recently hosting iRobot in a CELEST Catalyst event, the Lab was visited by a large contingent of managers from Ericsson on 5/3/2011. Read the rest of this entry »Comments: Leave a commentTags: ericsson, neuromorphic technology -
The summer of AI?
| January 7, 2011
A colleague of mine pointed me to this interesting article appeared on WIRED, The AI Revolution Is On. Despite the title, it does present a somehow specular approach to our recent IEEE Spectrum article "MoNETA: A Mind Made from Memristors". Since we advocate par condicio, here it is. -
Who will will the artificial brain race?
| December 3, 2010
Who will be the first to build truly intelligent machines? Would it be a lonely investigator, a modern days Darwin that, in perfect isolation, would sail back from her/his neuroscientific Galapagos with the great truth, or... Read the rest of this entry » -
Watson will beat you at Jeopardy
| June 17, 2010
The New York Times published an article this Monday on I.B.M.'s bid to have their Watson computer system compete in a number of televised Jeopardy! episodes, a move reminiscent of the famous set of chess matches between I.B.M.'s Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov. Reading the entire report may take some time but is definitely worthwhile for anyone who's never heard a description of the set of problems involved in building such a computer system. Read the rest of this entry »