A world renowned pioneer in social robotics, Cynthia Breazeal splits her time as an Associate Professor at MIT, where she received her PhD and founded the Personal Robots Group, and Founder and Chief Scientist of Jibo, a personal robotics company with over $85 million in funding. While Breazeal's work has won numerous academic awards, industry accolades, and media attention, she had to fight early skepticism in the 1990s from other experts in robotics and AI. At the time, robots were seen as physical and industrial tools, not social or emotional companions. Her first social robot, Kismet, was unfairly called out in popular press as "useless". Breazeal bucked the trend with a very different vision: "I wanted to create robots with social and emotional intelligence that could work in collaborative partnership with people. In 2-5 years, I see social robots helping families with things that really matter, like education, health, eldercare, entertainment, and companionship." She hopes her work and influence will inspire others to create robots "not only with smarts, but with heart, too."

The n-Queens problem is to place n chess queens on an n by n chessboard so that no two queens are on the same row, column or diagonal. The n-Queens Completion problem is a variant, dating to 1850, in which some queens are already placed and the solver is asked to place the rest, if possible. We show that n-Queens Completion is both NP-Complete and #P-Complete. A corollary is that any non-attacking arrangement of queens can be included as a part of a solution to a larger n-Queens problem. We introduce generators of random instances for n-Queens Completion and the closely related Blocked n-Queens and Excluded Diagonals Problem. We describe three solvers for these problems, and empirically analyse the hardness of randomly generated instances. For Blocked n-Queens and the Excluded Diagonals Problem, we show the existence of a phase transition associated with hard instances as has been seen in other NP-Complete problems, but a natural generator for n-Queens Completion did not generate consistently hard instances. The significance of this work is that the n-Queens problem has been very widely used as a benchmark in Artificial Intelligence, but conclusions on it are often disputable because of the simple complexity of the decision problem. Our results give alternative benchmarks which are hard theoretically and empirically, but for which solving techniques designed for n-Queens need minimal or no change.

ARUSHA, Tanzania: Nigerian neuroscientist Oshiorenoya Agabi may have found a way to solve one of life's puzzling dilemmas: how to make air travel pleasant again. What if you could skip tedious airport security lines, while a special device able to sniff out explosives works silently in the background? This is only one of the possible uses of what Agabi says is the world's first neurotechnology device developed by his Silicon Valley-based start-up Koniku and unveiled at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania Sunday (Aug 27). While those in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are working furiously to create machines that can mimic the brain, or - like tech entrepreneur Elon Musk - implant computers in our brains, Agabi has found a way to merge lab-grown neurons with electronic circuitry. As many grapple with the finite processing power of silicon, the 38-year-old said he had looked to the brain which is "the most powerful processor the universe has ever seen."

A technology expert has created a computer chip based on mice neurons that could recognise the smell of explosives. The device could be implanted into the brain of future robots, which could be trained to recognise danger via odours, replacing traditional airport security. The Koniku Kore device is a'world first' that is able to breath in and smell air, meaning it could detect volatile chemicals and explosives or even illnesses such as cancer. The Koniku Kore device is a'world first' that is able to breath in and smell air - meaning it could detect volatile chemicals and explosives or even illnesses such as cancer (stock image) Named the Koniku Kore, the modem-sized device could provide the brain for future robots. Instead of being based on silicon, the Koniku Kore is built using mice neurons.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the face of economic theory and soon this could change the way you invest in the markets. This is according to Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, whose research into the use of AI to make calculations in economic theory found that, where it was used, it significantly reduced the number of purchases and sales made in markets, but made each one more effective, with less risk. The theory of demand and supply, Marwala said, was one of the factors that influenced prices and the value of goods and services. Using artificial intelligence, Marwala's research found that AI engineers were able to build an individual demand curve to be able to individually price goods and service. On the internet, websites like Amazon make it possible to find two prices of a book within five minutes of each other." Marwala's work was premised on the fact that humans are intrinsically bad at making economic decisions, because they are only able to process a limited amount of information at a time, despite unlimited access to data. "When companies are listed on the stock market, their net worth is calculated and part of the company is offered to the public to buy shares of that company … One additional element that comes about as a result of publicly trading shares is that the price of the stock can end up not reflecting the intrinsic value of the shares.

Samsung has confirmed the firm will'soon' release a smart speaker designed to take on Amazon's Echo, Google's Home and Apple's HomePod. DJ Koh, the president of Samsung's mobile division, told CNBC a smart speaker was on the way. 'Maybe soon we will announce it. I am already working on it,' Koh said. 'As I mentioned I wanted to provide a fruitful user experience at home with Samsung devices, and I want to be moving quite heavily on it,' he added.

WHEN the first printed books with illustrations started to appear in the 1470s in the German city of Augsburg, wood engravers rose up in protest. Worried about their jobs, they literally stopped the presses. In fact, their skills turned out to be in higher demand than before: somebody had to illustrate the growing number of books. Fears about the impact of technology on jobs have resurfaced periodically ever since. The latest bout of anxiety concerns the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI).

Amazon's Echo Dot is the most cost-effective way to add voice-activated control to your smart home. There's an Alexa skill for just about every smart-home platform, DIY or custom installed, and second-generation Echo Dot's cost just $50 each. I have six deployed in my own house, connected to a Vivint Smart Home system. The Vaux speaker dock changes that and delivers a bonus: A rechargeable battery that lets you take Alexa all over your house--and out onto the porch, too. The Vaux costs $50, so it and an Echo Dot still cost less than Amazon's own portable Alexa solution, the Amazon Tap. The Vaux's speaker not only sounds better than the Tap, it doesn't force you to press a button to get Alexa's attention like the Tap does.

Farming is, by far, the most mature industry mankind has created. Dating back to the dawn of civilization, farming has been refined, adjusted and adapted -- but never perfected. We, as a society, always worry over the future of farming. Today, we even apply terms usually reserved for the tech sector -- digital, IoT, AI and so on. So why are we worrying? The Economist, in its Q2 Technology Quarterly issue, proclaims agriculture will soon need to become more manufacturing-like in order to feed the world's growing population.

Gamescom, the world's largest video game event, has just taken place in Cologne, bringing 400,000 visitors – including Angela Merkel – to the vast Koelnmesse for a week of hype and hands-on action. Here are the 11 games we most enjoyed amid the chaos. This long-awaited platformer matches its astonishing 1930s cartoon art-style with manic gameplay inspired by classic console titles from the 1980s and 90s. The run-and-gun action is deceptively tricky, thanks to some seriously challenging bosses, but its meticulous detail will keep you in awe while you die over and over again. Gets extra points for its soundtrack, composed by a 10-piece ragtime jazz band (including the occasional tap shoe sound effects).