Applied COIN LabAnatole Gershman, Alan Black, Louis Van Ahn
TA: Mehrbod SharifiAugust 26, 2008
Who are we?
Alan W Black
Luis von Ahn
Anatole Gershman
Mehrbod Sharifi
Why are we teaching this class?
This class is about inventing Applications
People don’t use computers – they use applications
In your future jobs you’ll be building applications
What kinds of applications will we see in the future?
Future applications will:
Sense the world through networks of sensors;
Think by making sense out of massive amounts of information; and help us
Act in the real world
Example:
Your smart phone senses that you are at the airport; it checks your schedule and concludes that you are there to take flight 123 to Chicago; it acts by displaying the departure gate
Is a smart phone a product or a service?
The distinction between physical products and services will largely disappear:
most services will be provided through physical products
most physical products will become conduits for services
Applications will combine physical products and servicesThey have to be designed together
What will you be doing in this class?
You will be inventing and building applications that combine physical products and services and can sense think and act
You will work in small groups or individually
We will provide project ideas, tools and advice
We expect you to submit:
a project proposal
a project design and mock-up
a working demo
a project report
We expect to hear from you on a weekly basis
Class Schedule
8/28/08 First Class
9/4/08 Proposal + Groups (1-3)
9/11/08 Mockup (Specs and PPT)
9/18/08
9/25/08 Final Plan and starting work
10/2/08
10/9/08
10/16/08
10/23/08
10/30/08 Mid Point Milestone
11/6/08
11/13/08
11/20/08
11/27/08 No class - Thanksgiving
12/4/08 Project presentations
12/11/08 Project presentation + final report
Deliverables
1. Project proposal (1-2 pages) due next Thursday
What will the prototype do?Why is this interesting and important?What kinds of tools and equipment will be necessary?Who will be the team members?
2. Mockup and preliminary specs of the system due 9/11
A sequence of Power Point slides depicting a demo scenarioPreliminary architecture and specsPreliminary selection of tools and equipmentPreliminary assignment of roles and responsibilities
3. System specs and work plan due 9/18
Architecture and design decision justificationsTools and equipmentRoles, responsibilities, schedule
Deliverables (cont.)
4. Weekly progress reports
One page summary of the last week accomplishments and goals for the next week
5. Final working prototype
A 10min demonstration, explaining what it does, why it is important and how it does it
6. Final report due 12/11
A 5 page paper describing:Project goalsSystem designUse scenarioPotential applicationsLessons learned
Project ideas: Smart Online Cabinet
How would the cabinet know what’s inside?
RFID tags and reader
How would it recognize the user?
camera, voice?
What other sensors should it have?
What services should it provide?
How do we communicate with it?
When and what should it say and when should it remain silent?
Project ideas: Smart Mobile Assistant
Your smart phone or PDA knows where you are and can record and play back snippets of information in the right context
For example, while meeting someone new, you might record a snippet of the introduction when you say:
“Hi John, nice to meet you”Later, you would be able to ask:
“Wednesday, noon, cafeteria”Your assistant will play the snippets recorded at that time in that location
Project ideas: Smart Objects
If this plant could talk, what should it say?
What services might it provide?
What about the door to your house or your office?
Project ideas: Interactive Picture
Remember pictures on the walls of Hogwarts School of Magic?
We already have the software and the hardware to track your position in front of the picture
What applications would be interesting and useful?
Project ideas: Tricorder
Or the remote control to the world
Scan the environment to see what’s controllable
Provide standard control interfaces
Example:
Point the tricorder at an interesting car in the street, click the “copy” button then find the nearest big screen, get a search engine and “paste” the car into it.
Project ideas: Speech Eliza
Joseph Weizenbaum, MIT 1966
20Q A.L.I.C.E. and AIML Chatterbot Dr. Sbaitso ELIZA effect Jabberwacky List of Chatterbots Loebner prize PARRY Racter Simulated consciousness Turing test Virtual Woman
Project ideas: Smarter Virtual Worlds
A school yard in Second Life
Robotic kids have internal states and behaviors governed by rules
They can sense each other location and behavior and engage in conversations
Verbal combat between characters
Tools and equipment
RFID kitsPDAsSmart Phones
Bluetooth beacons
Laptops Webcams Headsets and speech kits
Sensor kits
Questions?
Coin.scribblewiki.com
All course information will be on Scribble Wiki
1. Project proposal (1-2 pages) due next Thursday
What will the prototype do?Why is this interesting and important?What kinds of tools and equipment will be necessary?Who will be the team members?
2. Mockup and preliminary specs of the system due 9/11
A sequence of Power Point slides depicting a demo scenarioPreliminary architecture and specsPreliminary selection of tools and equipmentPreliminary assignment of roles and responsibilities
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