Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Peyri Herrera/Flickr
deep learning

What happens when a robot doesn't know something? It just goes on the internet

The Robo Brain system will allow robots to use the internet to learn about objects and how they’re used, along with human language and behaviour.

BEFORE NOW, ROBOTS were either programmed to carry out tasks or taught what to do through learning algorithms, but in the future, they may just learn what to do from the internet instead.

Robo Brain is a large-scale computational system that learns from publicly available resources from the internet. The system was developed by researchers at Cornell, Stanford and Brown universities and the University of California, Berkeley.

According to Phys.org, the system is currently downloading and processing about one billion images, 120,000 YouTube videos and 100 million how-to documents and appliance manuals.

This data is being translated and stored in a robot-friendly format that robots will be able to draw upon when they need it. Robo Brain will process images to pick out the objects in them, and by connecting images and videos with text, it will learn to recognise objects and how they’re used, along with human language and behaviour.

This is all done through a process called “structured deep learning” which helps robots classify what objects are and how they’re interacted with. As Phys.org explains:

The system employs what computer scientists call “structured deep learning,” where information is stored in many levels of abstraction. An easy chair is a member of the class of chairs, and going up another level, chairs are furniture. Robo Brain knows that chairs are something you can sit on, but that a human can also sit on a stool, a bench or the lawn.

One of the examples given is that of a coffee mug. If Robo Brain sees this, it can learn that not only is it a mug, but liquids can be poured into it, you can use the handle to hold it and it must be carried upright when full.

Robo Brain will also have teachers, where its website will display things it has learned. Visitors will be able to view this information and make additions and corrections where required, although what they will teach them remains to be seen.

apala734 / YouTube

Read: Google tests its self-driving cars in a ‘Matrix-style’ virtual simulation >

Read: Here’s how you can give your Android device an extra layer of security >

Your Voice
Readers Comments
9
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.