Blog Assignment #6

Throughout this semester, I learned a lot of technical writing and documents such as memorandums, technical descriptions and recommendation reports. In the beginning, I didn't know what all those kinds of documents were about and I didn't even know how to cite or do a research. I think I have improved myself in many ways, in my style of writing and being more interest in blogs that specialize to talk about technology and engineerings. I used a lot the class blog and the research links, I think they helped me a lot not only in this class but also for other classes because I had to do research papers for chemistry and lab reports for engineering lab and chemistry lab. So it was an useful tool that taught me not to rely only on whatever comes first on google (specially wikipedia) but find more trustful sources that would support what I'm showing in my papers. I gain more knowledge on how to do a research and how to cite in my papers. I also learned that internet and many social medias such as blogs and tweeters are really useful to communicate and keep updated of the new technology and stuff that comes out every second. Basically every class was a good experience because I could learned something new and also in the presentations, the topics were amazing and catch my interest in other fields of engineering. And last one, when I started talking about arc welding robots, I think it was a topic where I gained more knowledge and made me take the decision of pursuing in studying in the field of robotics. It was an amazing class. Thanks professor Dragan.

Blog Assignment #5

Toshiba Kirabook review:

The Kirabook is a thin ultrabook that's made of magnesium alloy which is stronger and better than the Macbooks' aluminum body. There are two models, the $1,599 and the $1,990, and the thing is that the most expensive comes with a touch screen. This laptop has a 13.3 inch display with a high resolution of 2,560x1,440-pixel, Toshiba calls it the PixelPure. It is also commented in this review that the design of the laptop is not something amazing because people want a better design when it comes to pay that amount of money. This laptop is mostly compared to the 13 inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display. There are many differences such as the display of the Kirabook is much better than the Macbook's, but on the other hand, the battery life of the Macbook is better because it can last 7 hours while the Kirabook only can last to 5 hours. The author says that it is hard to decide whether the Kirabook is something that you must have. I think this review is more based on an opinion and hands-on testing because they ran many test to see the features of this laptop in comparison to others, specially the Macbook Pro. The most important criteria of this review is more about the price because is really high and the design, because if you pay a lot of money for a laptop, you expect it to have a better design and not the same as those that have a price of $500 to $700.

"High-end specs, and a price to match". By Dan Ackerman

Panasonic TC-PVT60 series review:

The VT60, it's an Smart TV from Panasonic which maybe has the best image quality in comparison with Pioneer Kuro and Samsung F8500. This TV has a camera include which has to function, the Skype and face-recognition 

functions. The sound quality it is also amazing, the author of this review he really 

recommends to listen to music with this TV. But on the other hand, he also argues about the price of this tv because it is really high ($2,200) even though its image quality is far better in comparison to the ST60. Most of the criteria that the writer of this review express is the features of the tv that are really amazing and he also says that it is one of the best tv panasonic could have come up for this year. He performed a hand-on testing for the 60 inches serie but he says that all the features is more likely to be the same for all the series of the VT60. The final 

verdict for this product (even though it has some issues) is that it is a great TV and it's succesful in many ways.

"This plasma picture finally challenges Kuro". By Ty Pendlebury

Blog Assignment #4


Nao robot's Video Clip - "Via Continum Synchronized Dance"


This video shows some capabilities that the Nao robots have like equilibrium, synchronization, listening skills, human appearance in the way how it moves its hands and legs, and many others. This video is optimistic of the capabilities of the Nao robots by showing it how make a synchronized dance. The creator's channel on Youtube for this videos is TheAmazel and all his videos are about the Nao robots' capabilities. The description for the video doesn't say a lot of the Nao robots, just some specification of what song the robots danced. Looking others video, I found some that has a better description and also the link page of the Aldebaran Nao robot and a forum. But in this video, the description should have more technical information. This video is not actually an advertisement and doesn't say a lot about the Nao Robots' technical description, they just show what the robots can do specially the ability of synchronization.


But we have to ask ourselves the question "what is a robot or artificial intelligence?" and understand what is all about. As an encyclopedia article says, "Artificial intelligence is a subfield of computer science that seeks to remedy this situation by creating software and hardware that possesses some of the behavioral flexibility shown by natural intelligences, both human and animal"("Artificial intelligence", 2008. p. 326). As the definition of this encyclopedia's articles's quote says, robots are made to behave in a same way as humans and animals do, so the Nao robots. We can see the Nao robots moving like humans, how they move they arms and legs at the rhythm of music but this is obviously thanks to their software. ("Via Continum Synchronized Dance", 2013). There is a way in the movement of their parts that make you feel those robots feel. it is really important because what make us different of objects is the emotions that we have, of course it's impossible that artificial intelligence can produce emotion but they can simulate it and act like they are having emotions. that's what it's artificial technology, the creation of these kinds of software that make robots and in this case the Nao robots simulate emotions.


Comparing the Video with a technical descriptions of the Nao robots, we can conclude that the technical description is more appealing than the video. Of course the video shows the actions and how the robot acts and works but does't specify why the robot can perform in that way. With the technical description, you can say things like the Nao robots can be controlled by softwares that send the information via wifi. (Lallee et al., n.d.). In the video you can see that the robots are dancing synchronously but you don't know what makes them to do those actions. That is an advantage of the technical description. on the other hand the video can show you how a robot can perform different task which is important because sometimes people that don't know the language of the technical description can understand it but with the video they can see more about the robot.

Reference

Via Continum Synchronized Dance [Online Video]. (2013, April 3).YouTube. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktk8Lzwn3Z0&list=UUkgMk84XS7fAUJbgA6Uzd5Q&index=1

Artificial intelligence. (2008). In K. L. Lerner & B. W. Lerner (Eds.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Science (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 326-330). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2830100190&v=2.1&u=cuny_laguardia&it=r&p=GVRL.Science&sw=w

Lallee, S., Jouen, A., Petit, M., Madden, C., Boucher, J.D., Weitzenfeld, A., Dominey, P.F.. "Cooperative Human Robot Interaction with the Nao Humanoid: Technical Description Paper for the Radical Dudes". INSERM U846 Stem Cell and Brain Research Institut, Robot Cognition Laboratory.

Blog Assignment #3

"Robots will increase the improvement of quality and reliability of our products, they also will reduce the amount of waste that is used because of their better accuracy than human welders. Those robots can work faster than human workers and can get the job done quickly because they have a faster welding cycle time. Human workers will need time for a break but robots won’t, which will lead us to a better productivity."

As you can see, my scenario is with robots because I'm interested in robots and it was the the only topic I found more easy to solve. My solution was to buy refurbished robots that can be really cheap to save more money. Also, to opt for a robot from ABB which specialize in making robots for building high - precision automobile parts. ABB has robots that are really amazing because they have a high accuracy and precision, it has a better welding durability, they are fast, flexible and have a long service life.

At first it wasn't easy to find relevant information such as the cost of the robots but I found a lot of information about the benefits of having robots than humans. So I started to do like a brainstorm and a table where I compared the cost of the human and robot's work so I could see what it was better to save more money. When it came to write the memo I didn't know how to start but then I realized that the key was imagination, I tried so hard to imagine that situation so the ideas came easily. At the end, the shown solution solved three problems that were assisting human workers, making the company safer, and saving more money. Writing memo was something different from others kinds of writing I have ever done because it's divided by sections such as summary, discussion and recommendations. These things are new to me and it was very helpful to learn how to write a professional memo.