How about a software that can predict and perhaps stop terrorism, hmm I  bit quite skeptical about it, since even the US cannot stop the terrorism, but perhaps this software can be a new tool to predict and analyze the terrorism.

Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) , have build a SOMA Terror organization portal or STOP, that making analyst can study and learn the behavior of terrorist organization, and forecast the behavior and action based on the rules, and connect with other analyst to examine and exchange the result.

So basically this software using a logical-statistical reasoning framework that use a numerous data from past behavior to learn and predict the probability of an organization, community or person. It already generated up to ten of thousand rules behavior from 30 groups.

Well, if this software really can predict the terrorism, perhaps another goal is to cure world hunger.

One of the challenging field in Artificial Intelligence is Face recognition,  People can recognize the emotion others by looking at other faces, and not more than a second it will know whether it's angry, happy, or sad. But not with a computer, it need a complex algorithm to know whether the image contain happy faces, sad or else.

So when someone come with other ideas about Face Recognition surely it make one step closer to make a really smart computer (software).  That's happen  not so long ago, Researchers  At Department of Artificial Intelligence (DIA) of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s School of Computing (FIUPM) have, in conjunction with Madrid’s Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has developed an algorithm that make a software capable of processing 30 images per second to recognize a person's facial expressions in real time, and categorize it into six prototype expression, anger, disgust , fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.

This software although it can process a sequence of images, and recognizing the expression,  even still a prototype, it can be run on desktop computer or even a laptop. But of course it won't run on our pentium 166 Mhz.

The prototype analyzes the face of person sitting in front a camera connected to a computer, then the system analyses the person's face  through several boxes, each “attached” to or focusing on part of the user’s face. These boxes monitor the user’s facial movements until they manage to determine what the facial expression is by comparison with the expressions captured from different people (333 sequences) from the Cohn-Kanade database.

So far it has 89% success chances, not bad for a prototype.

One thing that comes to mind is this software has a really good chance to adopt in video chatting to analyze whether our chatting friend is happy or not, or perhaps got to do with e-commerce solutions, and also put that in front of the cashier store, to check the people and analyze whether the customer happy or feel bad after they do some shopping.

The results of this research were published in the January issue of Pattern Analysis and Applications in an article authored by Luis Baumela and Enrique Muñoz, of the DIA, and José Miguel Buenaposada, of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid’s College of Computer Systems Engineering. http://www.springerlink.com/content/q075h33723m475k1/?p=d626d623f4294fde878ed45706cd3971π=2

Computers can do many things, and of course they can perform some jobs better than human, but this kind of software really increase our hope against Alzheimer disease. According to research published in journal Brain, Computers are able to diagnose Alzhemer's disease faster and much more accurate than experts. They can diagnose up to 96% accuracy.

Alzheimer's is caused by the build up in the brain of plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (tangles of brain tissue filaments), leading the brain to atrophy. Definitive diagnosis is usually only possible after death, but Alzheimer's is usually diagnosed using a combination of brain scans, blood tests and interviews carried out by a trained clinician. The tests are time consuming, and distinguishing the disease from other forms of dementia can be difficult. The accuracy of diagnosis is only about 85%

Now, a team of researchers led by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, has shown that scans of patients with Alzheimer's can be distinguished from those of healthy individuals and patients with other forms of dementia. Computers can identify the characteristic damage of Alzheimer's disease with an accuracy as high as 96%.

"The advantage of using computers is that they prove cheaper, faster and more accurate than the current method of diagnosis," explains Professor Richard Frackowiak from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. "The new method makes an objective diagnosis without the need for human intervention. This will be particularly attractive for areas of the world where there is a shortage of trained clinicians and when a standardised reliable diagnosis is needed, for example in drug trials."

The new method, developed by Professor Frackowiak’s team, works by teaching a standard computer the differences between brain scans from patients with proven Alzheimer’s disease and people with no signs of the disease at all. The two conditions can be distinguished with a high degree of accuracy on a single clinical MRI scan. This could be especially useful for centres where facilities for extensive diagnostic workup are unavailable. One use might be to reassure the worried elderly well with mild memory problems that they are not suffering from early Alzheimer’s.

The research tested scans from the US and the UK, from community and from academic hospitals. The method was shown to be valid by testing it on scans from people who had their status proven by pathological examination – the gold standard. The results were uniformly encouraging. The computer could be taught the distinction between normal and Alzheimer’s with one set of scans and then used to correctly "diagnose" scans from another set. In all cases the results were better than the 86% correct diagnostic rate of best clinical practice. The researchers also found they could distinguish Alzheimer’s better than clinicians from a similar disease called fronto-temporal dementia.

Professor Frackowiak emphasised that as symptoms from these diseases come on after a considerable amount of damage has already occurred in the brain, so it is important to make an accurate diagnosis early to improve the chances of effectively preventing deterioration.

It's a fun thing, when we can do a big thing with one click, for example a remote, so NXP Software recently demonstrated what they called a 'one-click' video editing for mobile phone at Mobile World Congress 2008.  It offers a fun experience for user to transforming a personal content become a pro looking clips quickly by one click, and also offers theme to make a change your personal videos.

The software which called LifeVibes VideoArtist  has an advance features  edtiting capabilities within one click, User can simple shoot the video then select a pre-defined theme to enhance the quality, and add an audio track, whoala,  the clips is ready. They also has a 'wizard' feature to add intro texts, animatied frame and transitions between frame.

"LifeVibes VideoArtist and VideoArtist Lite enhance the fun of video on mobile by producing professional-looking results in a really quick and simple way. This added fun and ease of use is a strong differentiator and will help drive uptake of mobile user-generated content services. And with opportunities to offer custom downloadable themes, it's exciting for everyone - users, handset vendors and operators," states Peter van de Berg, Marketing Director, NXP Software.

Software obviously has become one important tool in Sports world. Many sports people including manager, coach and athlete are using software to improve their times, their strength and others. We all know how Jose Mourinho using software to analyze Chelsea games.

Recently there are a new software the will definitely improve swimmer times.  This software can improve some important aspect of swimmers technique and effectively improve swimmer speeds.  This software which is based on mathematical model,The software provides instant, in-depth feedback on a swimmer’s glide technique. Swimmers glide following starts and turns, when a swimmer is not moving their arms or legs but is just using their momentum to travel through the water. As well as supplying data on head position, body posture/alignment etc, the software actively suggests ways a swimmer can improve their posture to minimise resistance and pinpoints the optimum moment to begin kicking.

Ultimately, the result will be faster times in races. Gliding more efficiently, with less ‘drag’, can cut vital fractions of a second from a swimmer’s time. The difference between winning an Olympic title and finishing out of the medals is often measured in hundredths of a second, so this innovative software could give British swimmers a valuable edge in their quest for glory.

The software is being developed by sports scientists at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Aquatics Research and Education (CARE) with additional input from Sheffield Hallam University, and funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in collaboration with UKSPORT. Once tested and validated, it should be available to swimmers throughout the UK within around 12 months. First, the swimmer is marked at their body joints using water-resistant markers. The swimmer is then videoed in action using underwater and poolside cameras, with the images fed into a computer equipped with the software.

 The software tracks the movements of the markers and runs the digitised position data through an innovative, highly sophisticated mathematical model developed at the University of Edinburgh by Dr Roozbeh Naemi. A replay of the swim then instantly appears on a plasma screen at the poolside, overwritten with graphs and data on different technical aspects of the glide. “Both the speed and accuracy of the feedback will add to the value of the advice that coaches give their swimmers,” says Professor Ross Sanders, who is leading the project. “Another important benefit is that the alterations to technique suggested by the software are customised exactly to suit each individual swimmer.”

The software firstly will be tested by a bunch of swimmers from Edinburgh and Warrender swimming clubs.

The source is from :  http://www.epsrc.ac.uk