Component 1

      Artificial Intelligence, (AI), is defined as the ability of a computer or other machine to perform those activities that are normally thought to require intelligence. Even since the ancient Greeks, who wrote myths about robots that could imitate human functions; people have envisioned such intelligence and are intrigued by the possibility of beings that could carry out human-like activities.
      In 1950, a British mathematician interested in computers named Alan Turing devised a test, known as the “Turing test”, which compared a computer’s abilities with a human’s. When word spread of Turing’s theory, the first AI conference was held and an AI laboratory was started at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since then, scientists involved with AI have directed their efforts to two major issues: research into how the human brain works, and the technological development of computers that mimic human thoughts and actions.
      AI has expanded into many fields of research including medical diagnosis, voice and face recognition, language translation, and information processing. AI supporters hope to expand this technology further into fields like airport security, SPAM protection, medical diagnosis, and even special computer games. Most recently, scientists have created a silicon chip that processes information much like our brain’s nerve cells. This is the closest approximation to AI. Even with advances like these, they remain skeptical as to whether or not true human thought can be reproduced. Even the simplest functions that humans consider so easy take thousands of commands and long hours of programming to be carried out by a machine. More research into the function of the human mind is needed to fully understand how our brains process and carry out information.

      The technology we are proposing that should be developed will take the place of current machines and their human counterparts. These machines will have to recognize objects that they observe using some type of visual sensors. Just to get infrared images takes a great amount of technological advances, but that is not where the artificial intelligence is used. The actual images will be analyzed by a computer system that will use a great deal of Artificial Intelligence to recognize dangerous shapes and objects. Building a computer system that can effectively analyze the images from an infrared scanner will only be possible with some of the latest advances in computer vision and artificial intelligence. Computers will be doing the work is today done by trained screening professionals. The computers systems will be able to do it faster and more accurately than the humans currently can.

This site was developed in response to the Internet Science and Technology Fair.
Ossm Autrytech Physics Class © 2004-2005, All Rights Reserved
Website Template from Steve's free web templates