This article appears in the March/April 2007 issue of Technology Review. Last year, Eric Miller, an MIT-affiliated computer scientist, stood on a beach in southern France, watching the sun set, studying a document he'd printed earlier that afternoon. A March rain had begun to fall, and the ink was beginning to smear. Five years before, he'd agreed to lead a diverse group of researchers working on a project called the Semantic Web, which seeks to give computers the ability–the seeming intelligence–to understand content on the World Wide Web. At the time, he'd made a list of goals, a copy of which he now held in his hand. If he'd achieved those goals, his part of the job was done. Taking stock on the beach, he crossed off items one by one. The Semantic Web initiative's basic standards were in place; big companies were involved; startups were merging or being purchased; analysts and national and international newspapers, not just technical publications, were writing about the project. Only a single item remained: taking the technology mainstream.

The mobile phone has long ceased being a simple two-way communication device: today's handheld is a mini personal computer, complete with multimedia players, maps, and Web browsers. Now researchers at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) want to push the phone farther. They have developed software that turns a phone into a thoughtful personal assistant, one that helps people find fun things to do. The software, called Magitti, uses a combination of cues–including the time of day, a person's location, her past behaviors, and even her text messages–to infer her interests. It then shows a helpful list of suggestions, including concerts, movies, bookstores, and restaurants.

In November 2005, three suicide bombers walked into three hotels in Jordan and blew themselves up, killing 63 and injuring more than 100. While the world is alert to such deadly threats, the challenge remains: how to detect approaching suicide bombers from a safe distance. X-ray machines can obviously see a concealed bomb, but they are dangerous to humans–and a bomber could detonate himself and kill people at the checkpoint. Video surveillance can help, but it requires personnel trained to scan crowds and pick out suspicious individuals. A new radar-imaging technology expected to reach market later this year could solve the problem by directing low-power radar beams at people–who can be 50 yards or more away–and analyzing reflected radar returns to reveal concealed objects.

Peter Norvig, Google's director of research, is an expert ace at building machines that answer tough questions. An authority in programming languages and artificial intelligence, he has written an oft-cited book on AI (Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach), has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California, and was the head of computational sciences at NASA. In 2001, Norvig came to Google to be the director of search quality. Four years later, he became Google's director of research, overseeing about 100 researchers who investigate topics that range from networking to machine translation. Technology Review spoke with Norvig to get a hint of what we can expect from search technology in the years to come.

Teams of researchers are hoping to give life to a six-foot, 330-pound humanoid robot at the the Robotics Challenge in Homestead, Florida on December 20 and 21. The teams are expected to enable the robot--and others--to autonomously walk, use human tools, and drive a car. The event is sponsored by DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of Defense that focuses on advanced research. DARPA said the program at the Homestead Miami Speedway, is aimed at developing robots capable of working hand-in-hand with humans during natural or man-made disasters. "Think of the nuclear plants that were damaged during the tsunami in Japan," said David Conner, a senior research scientist with TORC Robotics, whose team is includes with roboticists from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, better known as Virginia Tech.

A Singapore-based company has launched a new Android app that helps students and adults learn Mandarin on the go. Dubbed iQ-Hub, the app delivers Mandarin lessons based on a proprietary speech recognition technology that assesses your pronunciation through built-in analytics. Learners are offered immediate feedback on their speech accuracy, while parents and teachers can track a student's progress in each lesson. Besides tuition centres and new residents, the company is targeting airlines and the service industry, where frontline staff may be required to learn Mandarin to converse with the growing number of Chinese tourists in Singapore. The app comes with S$0.99 lesson packages aligned with the Singapore Ministry of Education's primary school Chinese curriculum.

King Mu of Chou made a tour of inspection in the west...and on his return journey, before reaching China, a certain artificer, Yen Shih by name, was presented to him. The king received him and asked him what he could do. He replied that he would do anything which the king commanded, but that he had a piece of work already finished which he would like to show him. Bring it with you tomorrow,' said the king, and we will look at it together.' So next day Yen Shih appeared again and was admitted into the presence.

Out on the rocky horizon, the robot has stopped dead in its tracks. "Uh, Dave, I got a big problem out here," a voice crackles over the radio. "OK," David Wettergreen replies carefully, peering off in the direction of the machine. "Big" turns out to be a new part for the robot that doesn't quite fit and so prevents the robot's cameras--its eyes--from turning properly. Back at the laboratory, this would be a quick fix, but the robot, Wettergreen, three geologists, two software engineers, two sociologists, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a biologist are all out in the middle of Chile's vast Atacama Desert, [see map] many hours' drive from civilization. As he strides off to investigate, you get the sense Wettergreen's enjoying himself. For the better part of an hour, he and two colleagues will wrestle with the aberrant part [see photo, " All in a Day's Work"].

Millions of people around the world are tackling one of the hardest problems in computer science--without even knowing it. The logic game Sudoku is a miniature version of a longstanding mathematical challenge, and it entices both puzzlers, who see it as an enjoyable plaything, and researchers, who see it as a laboratory for algorithm design. Sudoku has become a worldwide puzzle craze within the past year. Previously known primarily in Japan, it now graces newspapers, Web sites, and best-selling books in dozens of countries. A puzzle consists of a 9-by-9 grid made up of nine 3-by-3 subgrids.

We recently ran across Alelo (www.alelo.com), The company's very engaging, interactive 3D role playing games teach languages like Arabic and Pashto to troops being deployed to the Middle East. Using speech recognition and other technology, the titles teach foreign languages to players as they go through the game in simulated environments like Iraq. We spoke with Dr. W. Lewis Johnson, CEO of Alelo, about the firm's technology and plans. Ben Kuo: Tell us a little bit about Alelo, and what the company and product does?