3D Scanner Digitally Immortalizes Invaluable Masterpieces in Five Minutes

Last year, the Smithsonian opened a virtual museum. With Smithsonian X 3D Explorerusers can take a virtual tour of (and even 3D print) high-definition digital models of artifacts like Lincoln’s life mask or the Wright Brother’s plane. It’s a brilliant concept. Once digital, artifacts can be easily accessed and explored in detail by researchers,…

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Patients tell more secrets to Virtual Humans

Ellie the virtual human “medical screener” Virtual human “Ellie” gave participants a sense of anonymity, making them more willing to disclose personal information in a private setting without fear of criticism. Patients are more willing to disclose personal information to virtual humans than to actual ones, likely because computers don’t…

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What does it mean to be human?

What does it mean to be human? That’s the question being asked in a thought-provoking new exhibition of stunningly lifelike androids, which also suggests that maybe the singularity could be closer than we think. On June 25, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, more commonly known as the Miraikan, will…

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Unlike Samantha in the movie HER, Artificial Intelligence will have a body

The recent movie, Her, chronicles the romantic relationship between a man, Theodore Twombly, and an intelligent operating system named Samantha in the year 2025. Samantha is not just smart, she’s empathetic. She’s not static, she’s adaptive. Samantha, in short, is strong artificial intelligence in every sense. But there’s a problem, says Ray Kurzweil, the…

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