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July Meeting: July 9, 2008
Date and Time
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Wednesday, July 9, 7:00PM Pacific
at 7:00, 5-minute business meeting
at 7:05, speaker presentation
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Title
Sun SPOT and its Applications
Speaker
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Roger Meike, Sun Microsystems
Arshan Poursohi, Sun Microsystems
Randall (Randy) Smith, Sun Microsystems
Stephen (Steve) Uhler, Sun Microsystems
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Abstract
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The Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (SPOT)
is a small, wireless, battery powered experimental
platform. It is programmed almost entirely in Java to
allow regular programmers to create projects that used
to require specialized embedded system development
skills. The hardware platform includes a range of
built-in sensors as well as the ability to easily
interface to external devices. Both the hardware
and software are open sourced.
This talk describes the Sun
SPOT and its applications. |
Biographies
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Roger Meike:
Roger Meike is Senior Director, Area 51 and Director
of Operations, Sun Microsystems Laboratories. His
background is in cognitive science and his career has
lead him back and forth between new start companies
and large research organizations. While his
background is mostly in software, he also enjoys
consorting with hardware folks. He has been
accused of being many things including photo enthusiast,
sailor, ham radio operator, musician and
techno-geek/nerd.
Arshan Poursohi:
Arshan Poursohi is a Researcher for Sun Microsystems
Laboratories, working on the Sun Small Programmable
Object Technology (Sun
SPOT) project.
His research interests include Advanced Network
Applications, biologically-inspired computing,
Distributed Systems, Intermittently-connected devices,
Linux, Mobile Computing, Multi-user cooperative
environments, Networking, Peer to peer, practical
automated reasoning and Multi-Agent Systems.
He grew up near a farm outside of New Zealand, at an
early age he learned to use tools and speak using words.
Following that he went on to develop systems for
locomotion and chemical digestion of organic matter.
Then he worked on various models social interaction in
small and large groups, which he continues to use today.
sometimes.
Stephen Uhler:
Stephen Uhler is the Principal Investigator of the
Enterprise PDA project. Before Enterprise PDA, Uhler was
the PI for the Brazil project, which included an
experimental web application development environment
ideal for web-enabling devices, aggregating content from
other web applications, and building personal web
portals that filter and modify aggregated content.
Prior to that, Uhler was the creator of the
reverse-proxy, a key component of the sun.net product,
the architect and designer of the supplier.net secure
supply chain integration system, and a member of the
SunLabs TCL project, where he pioneered the TCL embedded
web server technology.
Randall B. Smith:
Randy Smith is a Senior Staff Engineer at
Sun Microsystems
Laboratories, where he has been principal
investigator in several areas, including projects in
visualization technologies and radio frequncy ID tags.
He previously worked on the
Kansas
project, a 2D virtual world for creating mutli-user
simulations. Kansas was part of the world's
largest study of distributed synchronous small group
learning, another research project he lead. He was
formerly co-leader of the
Self
project. Before joining Sun, he worked at Xerox PARC for
eight years, where he developed a virtual world
programming environment called the Alternate Reality
Kit, and, with David Ungar, designed the Self language.
His Ph.D. is in theoretical physics from the University
of California at San Diego.
His hobbies include playing trumpet and jazz
piano. He is the trumpet player in the jazz octet
Octobop, whose
recent CD is available online.
Randy recently represented Sun at the
Santa Fe Institute's
Complex Systems Summer School where he worked on a model
of migrating computational agents. Here are some
photos.
He is proud winner of the
Bottle Of TESCO Champagne Award for best essay at
the 1997 UNESCO Workshop on Learning Environments!
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URLS:
http://www.sunspotworld.com/
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Workshop on SunSPOT: July 19, 2008
Date and Time
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Saturday July 19, 8:30am Pacific
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Title
Workshop on Sun SPOT
Speaker
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Roger Meike and team of Sun Microsystems
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Abstract
This is a workshop on
programming the Sun SPOT on sensor and motor control applications.
Fee is $300, which includes a SunSPOT kit. A
personal laptop is required. Only checks are
accepted. If no SunSPOT kit is needed, you may
audit the workshop for free.
The Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (SPOT)
is a small, wireless, battery powered experimental
platform. It is programmed almost entirely in Java to
allow regular programmers to create projects that used
to require specialized embedded system development
skills. The hardware platform includes a range of
built-in sensors as well as the ability to easily
interface to external devices. Both the hardware
and software are open sourced.
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August Meeting: August 6, 2008
Date and Time
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Wednesday, August 6, 7:00PM Pacific
at 7:00, 5-minute business meeting
at 7:05, speaker presentation
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Title
Cognitive Memory - Pattern recognition and memory are
intertwined in living systems. Learning from nature leads to a
new memory architecture that allows computers to deliver
superior performance for pattern recognition and adaptive
control of complex plants.
Speaker
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Dr. Bernard Widrow, Professor of Electrical
Engineering, Stanford University
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Abstract
| Regarding the workings of the human
mind, memory and pattern recognition seem to be
intertwined. You generally do not have one without the
other. Taking inspiration from life experience, a
new form of computer memory has been devised. Certain
conjectures about human memory are keys to the central
idea. The design of a practical and useful "cognitive"
memory system is contemplated, a memory system that may
also serve as a model for many aspects of human
memory. The new memory does not function like a computer
memory where specific data is stored in specific
numbered registers and retrieval is done by reading the
contents of the specified memory register, or done by
matching key words as with a document search. Incoming
sensory data would be stored at the next available empty
memory location, and indeed could be stored redundantly
at several empty locations. The stored sensory data
would neither have key words nor would it be located in
known or specified memory locations. Sensory inputs
concerning a single object or subject are stored
together as vectors in a single "file folder" or "memory
folder." When the contents of the folder are retrieved,
sights, sounds, tactile feel, smell, etc., are obtained
all at the same time. Sensor fusion is a memory
phenomenon. The sensory signals are not fused, but
they are simply recorded together in the same folder and
retrieved together. Retrieval would be initiated by a
prompt signal from a current set of sensory inputs or
patterns. A search through the memory would be made to
locate stored data that correlates with or relates to
the present real-time sensory inputs. The search would
be done by a retrieval system that makes use of
auto-associative artificial neural networks.
Applications of cognitive memory systems have been made
to visual aircraft identification, aircraft navigation,
and human facial recognition. Other applications to
speech recognition and control systems are being
explored. |
Biographies
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Dr. Bernard Widrow:
Bernard Widrow received the S.B., S.M., and Sc.D.
degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1951, 1953, and 1956,
respectively. He joined the MIT faculty and taught
there from 1956 to 1959. In 1959, he joined the faculty
of Stanford University, where he is currently Professor
of Electrical Engineering.
He began research on adaptive filters, learning
processes, and artificial neural models in 1957.
Together with M.E. Hoff, Jr., his first doctoral student
at Stanford, he invented the LMS algorithm in the autumn
of 1959. Today, this is the most widely used learning
algorithm, used in every MODEM in the world. He has
continued working on adaptive signal processing,
adaptive controls, and neural networks since that time.
Dr. Widrow is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow
of AAAS. He received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984,
the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 1986, the IEEE
Signal Processing Society Medal in 1986, the IEEE Neural
Networks Pioneer Medal in 1991, the IEEE Millennium
Medal in 2000, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal for
Engineering from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia
in 2001. He was inducted into the National Academy of
Engineering in 1995 and into the Silicon Valley
Engineering Council Hall of Fame in 1999.
Dr. Widrow is a past president and currently a member
of the Governing Board of the International Neural
Network Society. He is associate editor of several
journals and is the author of over 100 technical papers
and 18 patents. He is co-author of "Adaptive Signal
Processing" and "Adaptive Inverse Control," both
Prentice-Hall books. A new book, "Quantization
Noise," has been published by Cambridge University
Press, June, 2008.
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