Many great minds at companies like Google and Tesla have been laboring towards creating a self-driving car system. Millions of dollars have gone into the research, resulting in expensive prototypes and costly components. Nineteen-year-old Romanian student Ionut Budisteanu took the top prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for developing an autonomous system that would only cost $4,000 and safely guide a car through the streets.

Read the rest of Romanian Teen Designs Autonomous Car System that Would Cost Just $4,000

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: artificial intelligence, autonomous driving system, Google, intel international science and engineering fair, ionut budisteanu, radar, romania, safety, self-driving, teenager, tesla, vehicle

“Which is your Brass Voice?” is an art installation which employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital media to create an engaging, interactive sensory experience for the audience. Designed for the International Brass Festival 2012 in Durham, this sound and LED light piece is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between IT Architect and Researcher Dr Claudio Benghi and Artist Gloria Ronchi. The installation invites people to discover their brass voice by speaking, singing, shouting or whispering into microphones Each of the five microphones represents a specific brass instrument: Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Muted Trumpet and French Horn sounds are generated capturing the individual nuances of volume, pitch and the intonation of people’s voices. Hear the (loud) results after the jump.

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

Read the rest of Aether and Hemera’s LED Installation Uses Artificial Intelligence to Transform Human Voices into a Brass Band Light Show

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: aether and hermera, art installation, artificial intelligence, brass band music, Claudio Benghi, Gloria Ronch, international brass band festival, LED art, led installation, light show, synesthesia

Scientists from the UK Universities of Sheffield and Sussex have been collaborating on an ambitious project to produce the first accurate computer models of a honey bee brain. The project is designed to help us advance our understanding of Artificial Intelligence, and how animals think. The UK team will build models of the systems in the brain that govern a honey bee’s vision and sense of smell – and then they will use the information to create the first flying robot able to sense and act as autonomously as a bee.

Read the rest of UK Scientists Developing Autonomous Flying Honey Bee Robots!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: artificial intelligence, bees, drones, flying robots, honey bee brain, honey bees, robots, university of sheffield, university of sussex, virtual systems

Image via Shutterstock/click ahead to see a video of the actual robot

European scientists from BTH Zurich Bio-Inspired Robotics have created a robot that is capable of fashioning its own tools in order to complete a specific task. It is a fairly staggering achievement, not least because only a select number of creatures on the planet, such as ourselves and chimps, use tools.

Read the rest of European Scientists Create a Robot That Builds Its Own Tools

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, BTH Zurich Bio-Inspired Robotics, HMA robot, robot, robot creates tools, robot glue gun

It might be hard to imagine a scenario where the blind could drive safely, where distractions on the road would not be an issue, and even where fuel consumption could be lowered by a computer-operated car which could stop and go more efficiently than a human driver – but Google’s autonomous driving technology could make all of that possible. Google has seven cars (six Priuses and one Audi TT) equipped with radars, lasers and access to a sophisticated database of road information, which have now amassed a combined 200,000 miles of on the road! To celebrate this milestone Google has released a video which introduces us to Steve Mahan, a man with 95% vision loss, as he runs errands in one of their “driverless” cars.

Read the rest of Blind Man Test-Drives Google’s Amazing Self-Driving Car

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: artificial intelligence, autonomous car, driverless car, google car, google search, GPS technology, green transportation, greener cars, intuitive computer, marissa mayer, sebastian thurn, self-driving car, steve mahan, toyota prius