Clara Labs' product, dubbed Clara, is a virtual assistant that when looped in on email conversations is able to schedule appointments based on the requests in those emails. SAN FRANCISCO – As with many tech company epiphanies, Maran Nelson had hers in the wee hours of the morning. It was 2 a.m., and Nelson had scheduled herself to call an important potential investor in Singapore. But her time zone calculation was off. She missed the call and the sale.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon could be able to listen in on voice communications in difficult environments and then quickly translate and transcribe them for use by intelligence analysts and combat troops by 2017, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Newly released DARPA documents show it is continuing the next two stages of its Robust Automatic Transcription of Speech program, which is aimed at separating speech from background noise, determining which language is being spoken and then isolating key words from that speech for analysis. The Air Force, DARPA says, is testing the third phase of the program in the field now, while "the research division of a government agency will be testing the speech activity detection algorithm to incorporate into their platform." References to "a government agency" usually refer to a part of the intelligence community, such as the CIA or National Security Agency. So far, DARPA has spent $13 million on RATS.

Ford's Mike Levine demonstrates of the features of the updated infotainment system Michael Kofsky, USA TODAY Ford's Sync 3 communications and entertainment system is displayed during a Ford Motor Co. press event for CES 2016 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on January 5, 2016 in Las Vegas (Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images) As we become more reliant on our smartphones, car companies that do a good job integrating them into vehicles' communication, audio and navigation systems have a huge advantage. It shouldn't be asking too much to get into a car, turn the radio on and tune to a station without reading the owner's manual, but frequently it is. So automakers are trying to make their systems as simple as possible, drawing inspiration from the maker of toys for toddlers. "We talk about the Fisher-Price approach: simple design, really big buttons and really large type," said Gary Jablonski, product development manager for Ford's Sync system. Sync drew raves when it debuted as the auto industry's first voice recognition system in 2007.

At CEATEC 2012, we had an opportunity to try the conversation mode at CEATEC, and it worked quite well. The concept is simple: two people speaking different language can communicate on a turn-by-turn basis, and the Docomo app translates each phrase in both visual and audio form in real-time. At any given time, each party can easily see if their phrase had been properly translated as every phrase always appear in both languages (see above). While this app may resemble Google Translate (Android version) on the surface, the Docomo translator user interface is much better tuned for a two-person use, while Google Translate really works OK for a single person. I found the interaction with the Docomo app to be quicker and more natural than with Google Translate.

Today's computer processors and displays will also support tele-immersive environments. Handling and transporting all that time-sensitive data, however, is still a stretch for ordinary desktop operating systems and the Internet. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of California at Berkeley have developed software, dubbed Tele-immersive Environments for EVErybody (TEEVE), that aims to bridge this gap. The system captures and coordinates video streams from three or more sets of four cameras, each of which generates a stream of three-dimensional video data. The system generates macro video frames made up of the frames from all of the cameras at one time interval, and sends them over a network in a way that evenly distributes the data so that it does not overload the network.

DNA patterns DNA is a versatile molecule with many potential technological applications because it can organize itself into all manner of useful patterns. Researchers from Duke University and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science have expanded on their DNA grids by giving them the ability to organize other molecules. The DNA grids are made from DNA tiles, or combinations of DNA strands that form rigid structures. The grids can incorporate different types of molecules at specific points, including molecules that could be used to make electronic and optical components. The grids are more than 60 times smaller than a red blood cell and are part of an ongoing project to build computer chips using DNA to assemble components such as carbon nanotubes into logic circuits.

In conventional electronic control systems, the output of the process under control is converted into an electrical signal output which is compared to a reference input signal. The difference or error signal actuates the controller to generate a control action signal. When the control signal is proportional to the error signal at a given moment, the output can take on any value between zero and one (fully off and fully on). If the control signal varies as the cumulative value of the error signals up to that moment, the control action is integral. It is also possible to have a control signal that depends upon the rate of change of error giving a derivative controller.

If your idea of surgery comes mainly from TV-doctor dramas, you'll find this operating suite at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit a bit disorienting. There's a major surgery in progress that's what they tell you, anyway but you can't see a patient. For that matter, you can't see the surgeon. There must be a scalpel wielder here somewhere, but all you can see is people sitting at machines in near darkness. The largest of the machines is a weird behemoth in the center of the room, spiderlike, shrouded in plastic sleeves and protective drapery.

In the 1950s, science fiction writer Isacc Asimov, who wrote the Law of Robotics and I Robot, seriously put forward the idea of pursuing the development of AI ("cybernetics"), saying: "Cybernetics is not just another branch of science. It is an intellectual revolution that rivals in importance the earlier Industrial Revolution." In 1950, Turing published his landmark paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, which questioned whether machines could think, or possess intelligence. Turing pointed out that the definition of'intelligence' was debatable, and reasoned that if a machine could appear to think just like a human it could be considered intelligent. The Turing test was born.

Deep in the heart of Imperial College, London, a computer is learning how to play Pac-Man. Like many humans, it struggles to get the hang of the classic 1980s video game at first. With time though, experience helps it decide which manoeuvres will allow it to evade the clutches of a relentless gang of animated ghosts. This is just one of dozens of artificial intelligence (AI) projects slowly transforming the UK into the global hub for a technology that elicits fascination and fear in equal measure. The point of teaching a computer to master Pac-Man is to help it "think" and learn like a human.