Facebook investing in "telepathy" technology that can
http://bit.ly/2jLegdX
Friday, February 3, 2017
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Army Funds ‘Synthetic Telepathy’ Research
Originally shared by Ortaiηe Ðeviaη
Army Funds ‘Synthetic Telepathy’ Research
wired.com
08.18.08
The Army has given a team of University of California researchers a $4 million grant to study the foundations of "synthetic telepathy." But unlike old-school mind-melds, this seemingly psychic communication would be computer-mediated. The University of California, Irvine explains:
The brain-computer interface would use a noninvasive brain imaging technology like electroencephalography to let people communicate thoughts to each other. For example, a soldier would "think" a message to be transmitted and a computer-based speech recognition system would decode the EEG signals. The decoded thoughts, in essence translated brain waves, are transmitted using a system that points in the direction of the intended target.
All across the military, there’s interest in translating thoughts into computer code, and vice versa. Darpa-funded researchers have taught monkeys how to control robotic limbs with their thoughts. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman is building binoculars that tap the unconscious mind. Honeywell has built a system that monitors pre-conscious nueral firings, to help pick out targets in satellite imagery. The JASONs, the Pentagon’s premiere scientific advisory board, has warned of the dangers of enemies implanted with brain-computer interfaces. And the Defense Intelligence Agency just released a report, saying the military needs to spend more on neuroscience – up to and including "mak[ing] the enemy obey our commands."
https://www.wired.com/2008/08/army-funds-synt/#previouspost
Army Funds ‘Synthetic Telepathy’ Research
wired.com
08.18.08
The Army has given a team of University of California researchers a $4 million grant to study the foundations of "synthetic telepathy." But unlike old-school mind-melds, this seemingly psychic communication would be computer-mediated. The University of California, Irvine explains:
The brain-computer interface would use a noninvasive brain imaging technology like electroencephalography to let people communicate thoughts to each other. For example, a soldier would "think" a message to be transmitted and a computer-based speech recognition system would decode the EEG signals. The decoded thoughts, in essence translated brain waves, are transmitted using a system that points in the direction of the intended target.
All across the military, there’s interest in translating thoughts into computer code, and vice versa. Darpa-funded researchers have taught monkeys how to control robotic limbs with their thoughts. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman is building binoculars that tap the unconscious mind. Honeywell has built a system that monitors pre-conscious nueral firings, to help pick out targets in satellite imagery. The JASONs, the Pentagon’s premiere scientific advisory board, has warned of the dangers of enemies implanted with brain-computer interfaces. And the Defense Intelligence Agency just released a report, saying the military needs to spend more on neuroscience – up to and including "mak[ing] the enemy obey our commands."
https://www.wired.com/2008/08/army-funds-synt/#previouspost
Amazing #VitaminEBenefits that You Should Not Ignore!
Originally shared by StylEnrich
Amazing #VitaminEBenefits that You Should Not Ignore!
The Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin also known as “tocopherol”. Vitamin E benefits are extensive and play a significant role in keeping us healthy by maintaining a good immune system, glowing skin, silky hair, and bright eyes.
You can read the complete benefits to click the link below - https://stylenrich.com/vitamin-e-benefits/
https://stylenrich.com/vitamin-e-benefits/
Amazing #VitaminEBenefits that You Should Not Ignore!
The Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin also known as “tocopherol”. Vitamin E benefits are extensive and play a significant role in keeping us healthy by maintaining a good immune system, glowing skin, silky hair, and bright eyes.
You can read the complete benefits to click the link below - https://stylenrich.com/vitamin-e-benefits/
https://stylenrich.com/vitamin-e-benefits/
Neuroimaging Of Brain Shows Who Spoke To A Person And What Was Said
Originally shared by Ortaiηe Ðeviaη
Neuroimaging Of Brain Shows Who Spoke To A Person And What Was Said
sciencedaily.com
November 10, 2008
Scientists from Maastricht University have developed a method to look into the brain of a person and read out who has spoken to him or her and what was said. With the help of neuroimaging and data mining techniques the researchers mapped the brain activity associated with the recognition of speech sounds and voices.
In their Science article "'Who' is Saying 'What'? Brain-Based Decoding of Human Voice and Speech," the four authors demonstrate that speech sounds and voices can be identified by means of a unique 'neural fingerprint' in the listener's brain. In the future this new knowledge could be used to improve computer systems for automatic speech and speaker recognition.
Seven study subjects listened to three different speech sounds (the vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/), spoken by three different people, while their brain activity was mapped using neuroimaging techniques (fMRI). With the help of data mining methods the researchers developed an algorithm to translate this brain activity into unique patterns that determine the identity of a speech sound or a voice. The various acoustic characteristics of vocal cord vibrations (neural patterns) were found to determine the brain activity.
Just like real fingerprints, these neural patterns are both unique and specific: the neural fingerprint of a speech sound does not change if uttered by somebody else and a speaker's fingerprint remains the same, even if this person says something different.
Moreover, this study revealed that part of the complex sound-decoding process takes place in areas of the brain previously just associated with the early stages of sound processing. Existing neurocognitive models assume that processing sounds actively involves different regions of the brain according to a certain hierarchy: after a simple processing in the auditory cortex the more complex analysis (speech sounds into words) takes place in specialised regions of the brain. However, the findings from this study imply a less hierarchal processing of speech that is spread out more across the brain.
The research was partly funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): Two of the four authors, Elia Formisano and Milene Bonte carried out their research with an NWO grant (Vidi and Veni). The data mining methods were developed during the PhD research of Federico De Martino (doctoral thesis defended at Maastricht University on 24 October 2008).
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081110071240.htm
Neuroimaging Of Brain Shows Who Spoke To A Person And What Was Said
sciencedaily.com
November 10, 2008
Scientists from Maastricht University have developed a method to look into the brain of a person and read out who has spoken to him or her and what was said. With the help of neuroimaging and data mining techniques the researchers mapped the brain activity associated with the recognition of speech sounds and voices.
In their Science article "'Who' is Saying 'What'? Brain-Based Decoding of Human Voice and Speech," the four authors demonstrate that speech sounds and voices can be identified by means of a unique 'neural fingerprint' in the listener's brain. In the future this new knowledge could be used to improve computer systems for automatic speech and speaker recognition.
Seven study subjects listened to three different speech sounds (the vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/), spoken by three different people, while their brain activity was mapped using neuroimaging techniques (fMRI). With the help of data mining methods the researchers developed an algorithm to translate this brain activity into unique patterns that determine the identity of a speech sound or a voice. The various acoustic characteristics of vocal cord vibrations (neural patterns) were found to determine the brain activity.
Just like real fingerprints, these neural patterns are both unique and specific: the neural fingerprint of a speech sound does not change if uttered by somebody else and a speaker's fingerprint remains the same, even if this person says something different.
Moreover, this study revealed that part of the complex sound-decoding process takes place in areas of the brain previously just associated with the early stages of sound processing. Existing neurocognitive models assume that processing sounds actively involves different regions of the brain according to a certain hierarchy: after a simple processing in the auditory cortex the more complex analysis (speech sounds into words) takes place in specialised regions of the brain. However, the findings from this study imply a less hierarchal processing of speech that is spread out more across the brain.
The research was partly funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): Two of the four authors, Elia Formisano and Milene Bonte carried out their research with an NWO grant (Vidi and Veni). The data mining methods were developed during the PhD research of Federico De Martino (doctoral thesis defended at Maastricht University on 24 October 2008).
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081110071240.htm
Musk Is Preparing to Release “Brain Hacking Tech,” And He’s Not Alone
Originally shared by Ortaiηe Ðeviaη
Musk Is Preparing to Release “Brain Hacking Tech,” And He’s Not Alone
futurism.com
January 25, 2017
Today, Elon Musk stated that updates regarding his neural lace, which is meant to augment the human mind, are coming next month. In October, Bryan Johnson announced a $100 million investment to put computers in our brains. And so, a race is on to hack human intelligence.
The age of the machine is well underway, and there is a very good chance that humanity will be left behind. Artificial intelligence is beating us at poker. It is beating us at Go. It is saving lives by identifying diseases when human doctors fail. It is running our grocery stores. It is driving our cars. AI is even making other AI.
Soon, very soon, our computers will surpass us in every skill imaginable.
This fact concerns a number of individuals, as artificial intelligence is predicted to outpace humanity at an unprecedented rate, which may result in AI looking at us as nothing more than house pets (or maybe even doing away with us entirely).
This fear has pushed Elon Musk to suggest something rather unconventional and almost controversial: the neural lace. In short, the neural lace is a device that is intended to grow with your brain. Its primary purpose is to optimize mental output through a brain-computer interface, allowing the human brain to effortlessly access the internet and, thus, keep up with (and someday merge with) artificially intelligent systems.
Musk asserts that the neural lace could push our cognitive performance to levels that are comparable to that of AI. He has teased updates before, and now, we may finally be getting something solid.
The Race to Beat AI
However, Musk isn’t the only one working to ensure that humanity can keep up with AI. Braintree founder Bryan Johnson is investing $100 million to make a neuroprosthesis to unlock the power of the human brain and, ultimately, make our neural code programmable.
Johnson outlines the purpose of his work, stating that it’s all about co-evolution:
Our connection with our new creations of intelligence is limited by screens, keyboards, gestural interfaces, and voice commands — constrained input/output modalities. We have very little access to our own brains, limiting our ability to co-evolve with silicon-based machines in powerful ways.
He is working to change this and ensure that we have a seamless interface with our technologies (and our AI).
Yet, Johnson’s company, Kernel, wants to do more than just allow humans to interface with machines. His neuroprosthesis is intended to also repair our cognitive abilities, which will allow it to combat neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s, and other conditions that destroy our brains…and our lives.
This is just the beginning. Such advancements could allow us to literally program our neural code, which would allow us to transform ourselves in ways that we can’t even imagine. We could literally program ourselves into the people that we want to be.
It sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is based on remarkable scientific work.
In short, the devices under development works by replicating the way that our brain cells communicate with one another. The tech envisioned is based on 15 years of academic research that was funded by the NIH and DARPA.
So get ready. Human superintelligence is only a matter of time. Of course, the possibilities to misuse this technology are endless.
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-set-to-release-plans-about-the-neural-lace-next-month/
Musk Is Preparing to Release “Brain Hacking Tech,” And He’s Not Alone
futurism.com
January 25, 2017
Today, Elon Musk stated that updates regarding his neural lace, which is meant to augment the human mind, are coming next month. In October, Bryan Johnson announced a $100 million investment to put computers in our brains. And so, a race is on to hack human intelligence.
The age of the machine is well underway, and there is a very good chance that humanity will be left behind. Artificial intelligence is beating us at poker. It is beating us at Go. It is saving lives by identifying diseases when human doctors fail. It is running our grocery stores. It is driving our cars. AI is even making other AI.
Soon, very soon, our computers will surpass us in every skill imaginable.
This fact concerns a number of individuals, as artificial intelligence is predicted to outpace humanity at an unprecedented rate, which may result in AI looking at us as nothing more than house pets (or maybe even doing away with us entirely).
This fear has pushed Elon Musk to suggest something rather unconventional and almost controversial: the neural lace. In short, the neural lace is a device that is intended to grow with your brain. Its primary purpose is to optimize mental output through a brain-computer interface, allowing the human brain to effortlessly access the internet and, thus, keep up with (and someday merge with) artificially intelligent systems.
Musk asserts that the neural lace could push our cognitive performance to levels that are comparable to that of AI. He has teased updates before, and now, we may finally be getting something solid.
The Race to Beat AI
However, Musk isn’t the only one working to ensure that humanity can keep up with AI. Braintree founder Bryan Johnson is investing $100 million to make a neuroprosthesis to unlock the power of the human brain and, ultimately, make our neural code programmable.
Johnson outlines the purpose of his work, stating that it’s all about co-evolution:
Our connection with our new creations of intelligence is limited by screens, keyboards, gestural interfaces, and voice commands — constrained input/output modalities. We have very little access to our own brains, limiting our ability to co-evolve with silicon-based machines in powerful ways.
He is working to change this and ensure that we have a seamless interface with our technologies (and our AI).
Yet, Johnson’s company, Kernel, wants to do more than just allow humans to interface with machines. His neuroprosthesis is intended to also repair our cognitive abilities, which will allow it to combat neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s, and other conditions that destroy our brains…and our lives.
This is just the beginning. Such advancements could allow us to literally program our neural code, which would allow us to transform ourselves in ways that we can’t even imagine. We could literally program ourselves into the people that we want to be.
It sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is based on remarkable scientific work.
In short, the devices under development works by replicating the way that our brain cells communicate with one another. The tech envisioned is based on 15 years of academic research that was funded by the NIH and DARPA.
So get ready. Human superintelligence is only a matter of time. Of course, the possibilities to misuse this technology are endless.
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-set-to-release-plans-about-the-neural-lace-next-month/
Software Is Called Capable of Copying Any Human Voice
Originally shared by Ortaiηe Ðeviaη
Software Is Called Capable of Copying Any Human Voice
nytimes.com
JULY 31, 2001
AT&T Labs will start selling speech software that it says is so good at reproducing the sounds, inflections and intonations of a human voice that it can recreate voices and even bring the voices of long-dead celebrities back to life. The software, which turns printed text into synthesized speech, makes it possible for a company to use recordings of a person's voice to utter things that the person never actually said.
The software, called Natural Voices, is not flawless -- its utterances still contain a few robotic tones and unnatural inflections -- and competitors question whether the software is a substantial step up from existing products. But some of those who have tested the technology say it is the first text-to-speech software to raise the specter of voice cloning, replicating a person's voice so perfectly that the human ear cannot tell the difference.
''If ABC wanted to use Regis Philbin's voice for all of its automated customer-service calls, it could,'' said Lawrence R. Rabiner, vice president for AT&T Labs Research.
Now, aided by the declining cost and increasing speed of microprocessors, far smoother sentences are possible, Dr. Rabiner said. He said that the speech team at AT&T Labs, led by Dr. Juergen Schroeter, an expert in speech synthesis, had created a more refined form of the concatenative technique by breaking a person's voice into ''the smallest number of units possible.''
A demonstration of the technology will be available on the Web beginning today at www.naturalvoices.att .com, said Michael Dickman, a spokesman for AT&T Labs.
Still, many engineers are skeptical of claims of a completely simulated voice that is almost indistinguishable from that of a human. ''The methods and algorithms that we know of, they still need a lot more work,'' said P. S. Gopalakrishnan, the manager of the pervasive speech technologies group at I.B.M. Research, which competes with AT&T Labs in the field.
Now the pressure is on to perfect the technology. Analysts at McKinsey & Company, a management cosultant, have predicted that the market for text-to-speech software will reach more than $1 billion in the next five years. In addition to customers like call centers and manufacturers of automated voice systems, the software could also be used by publishers of video games and books-on-tape and automobile manufacturers whose cars are equipped with software that gives driving directions. In the near future, engineers expect that people will want high-end speech technology that enables them to interact at length with their cell phones and Palm organizers, instead of typing on and squinting at a tiny screen.
AT&T Labs' speech technology will be the first product that is actually sold by the laboratory, which is typically a research and development division. So far, the laboratory has hired three actors -- two male and one female -- to provide the voices that it will sell separately from the ''custom voice'' option. Mr. Dickman said that the company planned to recreate other voices, too, such as that of a child and a grandmother. Spanish-language voices are expected in a few months.
One of the voices is based on that of an African-American actor from New Jersey. (He and AT&T have requested that his name not be published because a clause in his contract stipulates that his identity is a company secret based on years of research and auditions.) He said the experience of being a ''voice donor,'' as he called it, was both stimulating and unsettling.
''It's been for me exciting because I know there is an end product that will have my voice carried on forever,'' he said. At the same time, he said, ''I have a lot of dread, or at least concern, of whether I'm contributing to the demise of the live actor.''
Even Mr. Fruchterman, one of AT&T Lab's potential first clients, said he wondered what the new technology might bring.
''Just like you can't trust a photograph anymore,'' he said, ''you won't be able to trust a voice either.''
Potential customers for the software, which is priced in the thousands of dollars, include telephone call centers, companies that make software that reads digital files aloud, and makers of automated voice devices.
Continue reading the main story
James R. Fruchterman, the chief executive of Benetech, a nonprofit organization that uses technology in social-service projects, tested the software along with a dozen people who evaluate technology for blind people, and they were impressed. ''Natural Voices gets into the gray area,'' he said, ''where there is plausible deniability that it is a machine.''
Dr. Rabiner said he was excited about the possibility of resurrecting renowned voices, like that of Harry Caray, the Chicago Cubs announcer who delivered rousing play-by-play broadcasts. ''There are probably hours of recordings in archives,'' he said. Wouldn't it be great, he asked, if Harry Caray's voice could again be broadcasting in Wrigley Field?
The advances raise several sticky issues. Who, for example, owns the rights to a celebrity's voice? (Dr. Rabiner predicts that new contracts will be drawn that include voice-licensing clauses.) With virtual characters already appearing in place of real ones in some movies, will synthesized voices compete with those of live actors as well? And although scientists say the technology is not yet good enough to perpetrate fraud, could the synthesized voices eventually be capable of tricking people into thinking that they were getting phone calls or digital audio recordings from people they know?
For now, technical limitations may temper any worries that a person's voice could be lifted without permission. To build the software that recreates unique voices -- which AT&T Labs is calling its ''custom voice'' product -- a person must first go to a studio where engineers record 10 to 40 hours of readings. Texts range from business news reports to nonsense babble.
The recordings are then chopped into fragments of sounds and sorted into databases. When the software processes a text, it retrieves the sounds and re-assembles them instantly to form entirely new sentences. In the case of long-dead celebrities, archival recordings could be used in the same way.
Other companies and research centers, like I.B.M. Research and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, are also experimenting with this technique -- which is called concatenative speech synthesis -- to improve the quality of text-to-speech software. It is a big step up, engineers say, from the speech engines that were built from whole words that had been pre-recorded. And it is also a vast improvement, some say, from the entirely computer-generated and therefore robotic sounds that are used in many versions of text-to-speech software now on the market.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/31/business/software-is-called-capable-of-copying-any-human-voice.html
Software Is Called Capable of Copying Any Human Voice
nytimes.com
JULY 31, 2001
AT&T Labs will start selling speech software that it says is so good at reproducing the sounds, inflections and intonations of a human voice that it can recreate voices and even bring the voices of long-dead celebrities back to life. The software, which turns printed text into synthesized speech, makes it possible for a company to use recordings of a person's voice to utter things that the person never actually said.
The software, called Natural Voices, is not flawless -- its utterances still contain a few robotic tones and unnatural inflections -- and competitors question whether the software is a substantial step up from existing products. But some of those who have tested the technology say it is the first text-to-speech software to raise the specter of voice cloning, replicating a person's voice so perfectly that the human ear cannot tell the difference.
''If ABC wanted to use Regis Philbin's voice for all of its automated customer-service calls, it could,'' said Lawrence R. Rabiner, vice president for AT&T Labs Research.
Now, aided by the declining cost and increasing speed of microprocessors, far smoother sentences are possible, Dr. Rabiner said. He said that the speech team at AT&T Labs, led by Dr. Juergen Schroeter, an expert in speech synthesis, had created a more refined form of the concatenative technique by breaking a person's voice into ''the smallest number of units possible.''
A demonstration of the technology will be available on the Web beginning today at www.naturalvoices.att .com, said Michael Dickman, a spokesman for AT&T Labs.
Still, many engineers are skeptical of claims of a completely simulated voice that is almost indistinguishable from that of a human. ''The methods and algorithms that we know of, they still need a lot more work,'' said P. S. Gopalakrishnan, the manager of the pervasive speech technologies group at I.B.M. Research, which competes with AT&T Labs in the field.
Now the pressure is on to perfect the technology. Analysts at McKinsey & Company, a management cosultant, have predicted that the market for text-to-speech software will reach more than $1 billion in the next five years. In addition to customers like call centers and manufacturers of automated voice systems, the software could also be used by publishers of video games and books-on-tape and automobile manufacturers whose cars are equipped with software that gives driving directions. In the near future, engineers expect that people will want high-end speech technology that enables them to interact at length with their cell phones and Palm organizers, instead of typing on and squinting at a tiny screen.
AT&T Labs' speech technology will be the first product that is actually sold by the laboratory, which is typically a research and development division. So far, the laboratory has hired three actors -- two male and one female -- to provide the voices that it will sell separately from the ''custom voice'' option. Mr. Dickman said that the company planned to recreate other voices, too, such as that of a child and a grandmother. Spanish-language voices are expected in a few months.
One of the voices is based on that of an African-American actor from New Jersey. (He and AT&T have requested that his name not be published because a clause in his contract stipulates that his identity is a company secret based on years of research and auditions.) He said the experience of being a ''voice donor,'' as he called it, was both stimulating and unsettling.
''It's been for me exciting because I know there is an end product that will have my voice carried on forever,'' he said. At the same time, he said, ''I have a lot of dread, or at least concern, of whether I'm contributing to the demise of the live actor.''
Even Mr. Fruchterman, one of AT&T Lab's potential first clients, said he wondered what the new technology might bring.
''Just like you can't trust a photograph anymore,'' he said, ''you won't be able to trust a voice either.''
Potential customers for the software, which is priced in the thousands of dollars, include telephone call centers, companies that make software that reads digital files aloud, and makers of automated voice devices.
Continue reading the main story
James R. Fruchterman, the chief executive of Benetech, a nonprofit organization that uses technology in social-service projects, tested the software along with a dozen people who evaluate technology for blind people, and they were impressed. ''Natural Voices gets into the gray area,'' he said, ''where there is plausible deniability that it is a machine.''
Dr. Rabiner said he was excited about the possibility of resurrecting renowned voices, like that of Harry Caray, the Chicago Cubs announcer who delivered rousing play-by-play broadcasts. ''There are probably hours of recordings in archives,'' he said. Wouldn't it be great, he asked, if Harry Caray's voice could again be broadcasting in Wrigley Field?
The advances raise several sticky issues. Who, for example, owns the rights to a celebrity's voice? (Dr. Rabiner predicts that new contracts will be drawn that include voice-licensing clauses.) With virtual characters already appearing in place of real ones in some movies, will synthesized voices compete with those of live actors as well? And although scientists say the technology is not yet good enough to perpetrate fraud, could the synthesized voices eventually be capable of tricking people into thinking that they were getting phone calls or digital audio recordings from people they know?
For now, technical limitations may temper any worries that a person's voice could be lifted without permission. To build the software that recreates unique voices -- which AT&T Labs is calling its ''custom voice'' product -- a person must first go to a studio where engineers record 10 to 40 hours of readings. Texts range from business news reports to nonsense babble.
The recordings are then chopped into fragments of sounds and sorted into databases. When the software processes a text, it retrieves the sounds and re-assembles them instantly to form entirely new sentences. In the case of long-dead celebrities, archival recordings could be used in the same way.
Other companies and research centers, like I.B.M. Research and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, are also experimenting with this technique -- which is called concatenative speech synthesis -- to improve the quality of text-to-speech software. It is a big step up, engineers say, from the speech engines that were built from whole words that had been pre-recorded. And it is also a vast improvement, some say, from the entirely computer-generated and therefore robotic sounds that are used in many versions of text-to-speech software now on the market.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/31/business/software-is-called-capable-of-copying-any-human-voice.html
Free Energy Device for Sale: Is It a Real Overunity Generator?
Originally shared by The Event Handbook
Free Energy Device for Sale: Is It a Real Overunity Generator?
http://www.theeventchronicle.com/media/informational/free-energy-device-for-sale/?utm_content=buffer1468e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Free Energy Device for Sale: Is It a Real Overunity Generator?
http://www.theeventchronicle.com/media/informational/free-energy-device-for-sale/?utm_content=buffer1468e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)