For the past few months, a “very large fraction” of the millions of queries a second that people type into the company’s search engine have been interpreted by an artificial intelligence system, nicknamed RankBrain, said Greg Corrado, a senior research scientist with the company, outlining for the first time the emerging role of AI in search. RankBrain uses artificial intelligence to embed vast amounts of written language into mathematical entities — called vectors — that the computer can understand. If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with, the machine can make a guess as to what words or phrases might have a similar meaning and filter the result accordingly, making it more effective at handling never-before-seen search queries. READ MORE: Google Turning Its Lucrative Web Search Over to AI Machines | Bloomberg
Tag Archives: Google
Clinical Trial Will Test if #GoogleGlass Can Help #Kids with #Autism | WIRED #assistive #tech #gadgets #devices #disabilities #learning
For Voss, Wall, and their colleague Nick Haber, a Stanford post-doc, the idea is that their Glass software will help autistic children recognize and understand facial expressions and, through them, emotions. It operates like a game or, as Voss calls it, an “interactive learning experience.” Through the Google Glass eyewear, children are asked to, say, find someone who is happy. When they look at someone who is smiling, the app recognizes this and awards “points.” The system also records what the child does for later review. “You can plot, as they wear the glasses, how they’re improving, where they’re improving,” Wall says. “You can look at video to understand why.” READ MORE: Clinical Trial Will Test if Google Glass Can Help Kids with Autism | WIRED
Making Sense of #Data Course | Google #courses #free
Do you work with surveys, demographic information, evaluation data, test scores or observation data? What questions are you looking to answer, and what story are you trying to tell with your data?
This self-paced, online course is intended for anyone who wants to learn more about how to structure, visualize, and manipulate data. This includes students, educators, researchers, journalists, and small business owners.
Prerequisites: Course completion requires an internet-enabled desktop or laptop computer. Course participation requires a Google account. Knowledge of statistics is not required. Basic familiarity with spreadsheets and comfort using a web browser is recommended. Knowledge of statistics and experience with programming are not required. THE COURSE: Making Sense of Data | Google
@Google Translate’s App Now Instantly #Translates Printed Text In 27 #Languages | TechCrunch #apps #tech
One of the most intense experiences you’ll ever have is visiting a country that speaks a language different than yours. There’s a host of tools you can use, but Google’s Translate product has leapfrogged just about everything out there over the years.
Its most handy, and impressive, tool is the six-month-old instant translation feature, using the goodies from the acquired Word Lens, that lets you point your camera at something written in another language, say a sign, and it’ll translate into your language with ridiculous accuracy in almost real-time.
Today, that feature is expanding today from seven languages to 27 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. The update is rolling out over both iOS and Android.
READ MORE: Google Translate’s App Now Instantly Translates Printed Text In 27 Languages | TechCrunch.
Google’s Dream Robot Is Running Wild Across the Internet | Gizmodo #images #algorithms #visualizations
Remember a few weeks back, when we learned that Google’s artificial neural network was having creepy daydreams, turning buildings into acid trips and landscapes into Magic Eye pictures? Well, prepare to never sleep again, because last week, Google made its “inceptionism” algorithm available to the public, and the nightmarish images are cropping up everywhere.
The “Deep Dream” system essentially feeds an image through a layer of artificial neurons, asking an AI to enhance and build on certain features, such as edges. Over time, pictures can become so distorted that they morph into something entirely different, or just a bunch of colorful, random noise.
Now that the code for the system is publicly available, anyone can upload a photo of their baby and watch it metamorphose into a surrealist cockroach, or whatever. If you need some inspiration, or an excuse to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over your face, and wait for the world to end, just check out the hashtag ‘DeepDream’ on your social media platform of choice. READ MORE: Google’s Dream Robot Is Running Wild Across the Internet | Gizmodo.
Also See: DeepDream – A Code Example for Visualizing Neural Networks | Google Research Blog
What Happens When You Talk About #Salaries @Google | WIRED #women #genderequality #sexism #tech #compensation #pay
Google’s Guide To Designing With #Empathy | Co.Design #design #accessibility #tech #UX
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people worldwide have a disability. To Astrid Weber and Jen Devins, Google’s resident accessibility experts, that stat should be stamped on the back of every designer’s hand, because it means that one out of every seven people on the planet is potentially left behind by thoughtless design decisions. At this year’s Google I/O conference in San Francisco, I sat down with the two UX experts and asked them what designers could do to make their apps more accessible. The key, they told me, was using your imagination and having a little more empathy. Here are six ways designers can reach that extra billion.
READ MORE: Google’s Guide To Designing With Empathy | Co.Design | business + design.
B.C. Court of Appeal Upholds Global Deletion Order Against @Google | Michael Geist #search
The B.C. Court of Appeal has released its decision in Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack, a closely watched case involving a court order requiring Google to remove websites from its global index. As I noted in a post on the lower court decision, rather than ordering the company to remove certain links from the search results available through Google.ca, the order intentionally targets the entire database, requiring the company to ensure that no one, anywhere in the world, can see the search results.
READ MORE: B.C. Court of Appeal Upholds Global Deletion Order Against Google | Michael Geist
How Google Designed An E-Book Font For Any Screen | Co.Design #fonts #typography
In January of 2014, a Pew study showed that nearly a third of American adults had read an e-book in the last year, and 50% of adults owned some kind of tablet or e-reading device. Many of these readers are using the wide variety of Android devices on the market, which can present a problem for those trying to create a standardized experience for e-book readers. Google faced this challenge while designing their new font, Literata, which will replace Droid Serif on Google Play Books. READ MORE: How Google Designed An E-Book Font For Any Screen | Co.Design | business + design.
3 Google Cardboard Articles | WIRED, Engadget, TechCrunch #GoogleCardboard #virtualreality @googlecardboard #makerspaces
Google Cardboard is VR’s Gateway Drug | WIRED
There’s no reason not to try Cardboard now. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it works with your phone. It’s still a million miles away from the best VR demos out there; Oculus, HTC’s Vive, and Project Morpheus all blow Cardboard out of the water—which they should, because they’re not made of cardboard. But Cardboard more than accomplishes what it’s supposed to: It transports you.
Google’s Cardboard Design Lab teaches VR with (what else) VR | Engadget
Google debuted its larger and more robust Cardboard VR headset at I/O yesterday, now it needs some apps that actually run on it. However, designing a program in a virtual 3D environment is quite different than designing one to run on a 2D touchscreen. That’s why Google has also released the Cardboard Design Lab, an app that teaches you the basics of VR design from within a VR environment. The program runs through 10 fundamental design aspects — from “Using a Reticle” and “Keeping the User Grounded” to “Guiding with Light” and “Gaze Cues” — all from within the confines of the Cardboard headset. It won’t transform you into an VR hacking wizard overnight (as it’s not designed to) but CDL will give neophyte coders a solid overview of what they’re getting themselves into. And while the lessons learned here can just as easily be applied to designing for the Rift as Cardboard, the app is currently only available on Android.
Google’s Cardboard VR Now Works (Very Well) With iPhone | TechCrunch
Google’s Cardboard VR app first appeared last year at I/O 2014, but the initial version was somewhat limited in terms of device support. A new version released this year works with devices with screen sizes ranging up to 6 inches, but the more exciting news for many might be that it now also works with iPhone.
The new Cardboard for iOS app is available in the U.S. store now, and includes the same demo apps, as well as the same QR-code based pairing process to make sure it’s optimized for whichever generation of headset you have. Cardboard for iOS is a free download, and works with iPhone 5 and up.
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