This is Part 2 of a two-part article and discusses issues of tort liability and the use of computers in the courtroom. [The legal dimensions of topics covered in this part are given comprehensive attention by the author in Tort Adjudication and the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence Software, 21 Suffolk University Law Review 623 (1987)]. Part 1 of this article, which appeared in the Spring 1988 issue of AI Magazine, discussed steps that developers of AI systems can take to protect their efforts, and the attendant legal ambiguities that must eventually be addressed in order to clarify the scope of such protection. Part 2 explores the prospect of AI systems as subjects of litigation.

The capabilities for representing and reasoning about three-dimensional (3-D) objects are essential for knowledge-based, 3-D photointerpretation systems that combine domain knowledge with image processing, as demonstrated by 3- D Mosaic and ACRONYM. Three-dimensional representation of objects is necessary for many additional applications, such as robot navigation and 3-D change detection. Geometric reasoning is especially important because geometric relationships between object parts are a rich source of domain knowledge. A practical framework for geometric representation and reasoning must incorporate projections between a two-dimensional (2-D) image and a 3-D scene, shape and surface properties of objects, and geometric and topological relationships between objects. In addition, it should allow easy modification and extension of the system's domain knowledge and be flexible enough to organize its reasoning efficiently to take advantage of the current available knowledge. We are developing such a framework -- the Frame-based Object Recognition and Modeling (3-D FORM) System. This system uses frames to represent objects such as buildings and walls, geometric features such as lines and planes, and geometric relationships such as parallel lines. Active procedures attached to the frames dynamically compute values as needed. Because the order of processing is controlled largely by the order of slot access, the system performs both top-down and bottom-up reasoning, depending on the current available knowledge. The FORM system is being implemented with the Carnegie-Mellon University-built Framekit tool in Common Lisp (Carbonell and Joseph 1986). To date, it has been applied to two types of geometric reasoning problems: interpreting 3-D wire frame data and solving sets of geometric constraints.

We propose an approach for meeting real-time constraints in AI systems that views (1) time as a resource that should be considered when making control decisions, (2) plans as ways of expressing control decisions, and (3) approximate processing as a way of satisfying time constraints that cannot be achieved through normal processing.

The Computing Research Laboratory (CRL) at New Mexico State University is a center for research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Specific areas of research include the human-computer interface, natural language understanding, connectionism, knowledge representation and reasoning, computer vision, robotics, and graph theory. This article describes the ongoing projects at CRL.

The Computing Research Laboratory (CRL) at New Mexico State University is a center for research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Specific areas of research include the human-computer interface, natural language understanding, connectionism, knowledge representation and reasoning, computer vision, robotics, and graph theory. This article describes the ongoing projects at CRL.

We propose an approach for meeting real-time constraints in AI systems that views (1) time as a resource that should be considered when making control decisions, (2) plans as ways of expressing control decisions, and (3) approximate processing as a way of satisfying time constraints that cannot be achieved through normal processing. In this approach, a real-time problem solver estimates the time required to generate solutions and their quality. This estimate permits the system to anticipate whether the current objectives will be met in time. The system can then take corrective actions and form lower-quality solutions within the time constraints. These actions can involve modifying existing plans or forming radically different plans that utilize only rough data characteristics and approximate knowledge to achieve a desired speedup. A decision about how to change processing should be situation dependent, based on the current state of processing and the domain-dependent solution criteria. We present preliminary experiments that show how approximate processing helps a vehicle-monitoring problem solver meet deadlines and outline a framework for flexibly meeting real-time constraints.

Citing the confusing statements in the AI literature concerning the relationship between branch and bound (B&B) and heuristic search procedures were present a simple and general formulation of B&B which should help dispel much of the confusion. We illustrate the utility of the formulation by showing that through it some apparently very different algorithms for searching And/Or trees reveal the specific nature of their similarities and differences. In addition to giving new insights into the relationships among some AI search algorithms, the general formulation also provides suggestions on how existing search procedures may be varied to obtain new algorithms.

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An important task in postal automation technology is determining the position and orientation of the destination address block in the image of a mail piece such as a letter, magazine, or parcel. Analysis of physical characteristics of mail pieces indicates that in order to automate the address finding task, several different image analysis operations are necessary. Some examples are locating a rectangular white address label on a multicolor background, progressively grouping characters into text lines and text lines into text blocks, eliminating candidate regions by specialized detectors (for example, detecting regions such as postage stamps), and identifying handwritten regions. Described here are several operations, their utility as predicted by statistics of mail piece characteristics, and the results of applying the operations to a task set of mail piece images.

In the restaurant script, notated as $RESTAURANT, the roles might directly to the United Press International Yale researchers explored intentionality include customer, waitress, and cook; news wire and could skim news One of the earliest programs to the props could be a menu, table, and stories in dozens of different domains, embody goals and plans within the silverware; the locations could be the and produce summaries in several languages. CD paradigm was Jim Meehan's bar, dining area, and kitchen; and the On the DEC-20 (which by TALESPIN, which made up stories events would include arriving, seating, 1978 had replaced the PDP-101, similar to the fables of Aesop.