Underwater welding.

Константин Константинович Хренов or in english Konstantin Konstantinovich Khrenov was a russian electrical engineer who was born in Borovsk, Russia in 1984.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Khrenov

 He is credited with the invention of underwater welding known as hyperbaric welding which is used on ships oil rigs and also pipelines, this is done by putting a flux on the weld at which  the electrodes burn the flux.  For its use in World war II  he was accredited the award of Stalin State prize in 1946.  He finished his schooling in electrochemistry in Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University. Khrenov spent most of his career creating inventions for welding techniques the science behind welding under water a nitrogen or argon bubble is blown.  Some welding techniques only require electrodes.  In his research he understood that the biggest hurdle was because of the sporadic bubbles that flowed under water.  

Wet welding.

Welding circuit.

 In this type of welding the the positive section of the electrode goes positive DC,  there is a quick deterioration of the flux. AC cannot be used because it can travel too easily in water.  The power needs to be around 300 or 400 amps.  Ground must be connected to the ship in order for the electrodes too flow.  A knife switch must be used for safety reasons.

The electrodes must be waterproofed so that the water cannot come into contact with the metal parts.  If the water makes any contact with the metal than it will destroy the ark as the voltage will yield to the metallic conductor.

Underwater wet welding.

Dry welding.

Dry hyperbaric welding  can be preformed at higher pressure the chamber filled with the gas mixture sealed around the structure. Most types of hyperbaric welding suffers as pressure increases. Dry water has been limited to less than 400m.

After the first successful wet weld due too the fact that metal was in such demand in Russia.

3D Printed Implants Save The Lives Of 3 Babies

In my earlier blogs I talked about how 3D printing is saving people lives and making things cheaper, the endless applications of 3D printing never cease to astound. The absolutely marvellous manufacturing technology is being used to produce houses, prosthetic beaks, robotic arms, rocket parts, blood vessels, food, exoskeletons - you name it. Now surprisingly it helped to save 3 babies in the U.S from life threatening condition.  

The infants suffered from a terminal disease known as Tracheobronchomalacia. This is a rare condition in which weakness of the walls of the windpipe causes the airway to narrow or collapse. Therefore it causes breathing problems, many patients experience a harsh collection of other side effects for example heat attacks or the inability to absorb food properly. 

Many children outgrow the condition by the age of two or three after newly developed tissue has reinforced the floppy airways but many children die before they have a chance to become strong enough. This was unfortunately outcome for the 3 young boys who had spent extended periods in intensive care.

 

Back in 2012 the first patient was Kaiba Gionfriddo, senior study author Glenn Green and biomedical engineering professor Scott Holister used 3D printing to create tailored stents for each individual patient as shown above in the picture. These were designed from the CT scan which provided details of the exact size and shape of their trachea. Then those hollow stents were stitched by surgeons on the outside of the trachea so that the weak airway remains open.

 

The implants were designed to be flexible enough to allow movement. The material they used was a cheap and harmless plastic called Polycaprolactone that's slowly breaks down over 3 or 4 years upon exposure to bodily fluids which is then absorbed by the body.  

 

Thankfully the surgery was a success in all 3 boys and has significantly improvement in their lives. The children are now 17 months and 3 years old they no longer have life-threatening airway disease and could go home.

 

“We were pleased to find that all of our cases so far have proven to improve these patients’ lives,” Green said in a statement. “The potential of 3D-printed medical devices to improve outcomes for patients is clear, but we need more data to implement this procedure in medical practice.”

 

 

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/how-3d-printing-transformed-lives-3-babies-life-threatening-diseases

By Ayesha Javaid.

3D printitng is saving lifes

In my earlier blogs I talked about 3D organs. You must be thinking she's is going to repeat the same thing. No, this time I wont bore you by making you read the big long blogs. I am aware of the fact that not all of us enjoy reading. I am linking a YouTube video below just sit back relax and enjoy the video by sipping a cup of herbal tea. Well you don't have to have a cup of herbal tea, coffee will do just fine. I am 99.99999% sure that you'll be amazed after watching this video and most importantly its worth watching it. Now without any further delay here we go. 

By Ayesha Javaid. 

Robots talking like humans

This particular aspect of humanoid robots.This is still in its early stages of development. But in Kagawa university in Japan where they have developed a mechanical robot mouth even thought it looks very creepy

The robots mouth and tongue are made from a mixture of silicone rubber. The nose is made out a plaster which gives it similar characteristics to the human nose.the professor who created it professor Swada had this to say  

'' we've given the robot the score for the song Kagome. its already  learned how to make the sound ''ka'' and it'll retrieve that information from its brain. The robots also learned hot to change a sound's pitch by changing the air flow so it will retrieve that data. In other words, it will use the information already in its brain to make sounds, while estimating speech movements based on the score. So all we are giving it is the words and the pitch''

As the video suggests there are still a lot of work that has to occur.But when it sounds like a human and not like the voices that we have today on robots this will usher in a whole new time for communications with robots. 

By Hayden Smith 

William Gilbert

William Gilbert was born on Mat 24 1544  he was born in Londan England, he is accepted as one of the founders of the electrical age,  the unit of magnetomotive force and also magnetic potential is named after him.  He gained a masters in Cambridge in 1569.  From his magentic studies he came to the conclusion that the earth's center was a large magnet consisting of iron which is the which was the reason that his magnet pointed north.

William Gilbert [1].

He is known as the first person too coin the phrase "electricity. He recognized that the friction created when an object rubs against another as effluvium.
The following is an extract that is translated from the  his book De Magnete.

The electric effluvia differ much from air, and as air is the earth's effluvium, so electric bodies have their own distinctive effluvia; and each peculiar effluvium has its own individual power of leading to union, its own movement to its origin, to its fount, and to the body emitting the effluvium.

—De Magnete, English translation by Paul Fleury Mottelay, 1893 

William Gilbert was an observer more so than an inventor he noticed that the water in the air effected this effluvia. Using two magnets Gilbert knew that they would either attract  or repel.  He observed that iron would always be attracted to the magnet.  Iron then became a permanent magnet in this case when it was put close to the magnet this is because magnetic poles have matched pairs, the  other end of the bar becomes an S pole.

Test of magnets and iron [2]

Gilbert was right about temporary  magnetism when he attempted an original experiment.  With two strings strings, he placed two  iron bars that were above a  terrella, and came to the conclusion that they repelled each other. The terrella caused the iron bars both became a temporary magnet of which were the same polarities, because of this both the magnets repelled each other.

Gilbert also determined that static and magnetic properties were different, that if an insulator rubs off an insulator that it becomes statically charged ie if two nylon bars are rubbed against each other they repel each other.  Two objects with an opposite charge will attract each other.  He suggested that a perfectly spherical lodestone when pointing  in the direction of both the poles the lodestone would begin too spin.  By making this statement he was pointing out that the earth was not at the center of the universe.

The first logic gate.

Nikola Tesla was a gifted inventor and the one who sparked the beginning of the electronic age, a genius in electrical and mechanical engineering he was born 1856 in Smiljan  Croatia,  his father Milutin an orthodox priest who was a very stern man but also a very considerate loving man with a talent for writing poetry, his mother Djuka  a gifted inventor who had a photographic memory, for this reason Nikola credited his ability too absorb knowledge and believed that his mothers photographic memory was hereditory even being passed down to him giving him the ability to learn off many books by heart and to do excellent tasks such as being able to do manners of calculus in his mind of which would lead his teachers too believe that he was cheating.  Also having the incredible ability too see his inventions with intimacy in his mind knowing the exact calculations and measurements before even laying a hand too creating it.
Nikola tesla began his studies in Smiljan in a gymnasium and continued on too Graz university where he studied  in electrical and Mechanical engineering.
Nikola tesla moved too america in 1884 in order too meet Thomas Edison after a dispute they quickly separated ways because of a there inability to work with each other due too different methodology in there designing process.  Thomas Edison largely due to the fact of his informal education was very tedious in his inventions, choosing too use step by step methods to create his inventions this meant that the design process was very slow.
Tesla was the opposite of this he was able too create entire inventions in his mind.  Tesla has over 278 patents but most off his inventions he did not patent and  other ones are missing due too military aerospace and advancement's in technology that could have had implications on economic blocks. The invention that I will be talking about in this blog is the remote controlled boat which was the first use of remote control ever too control a vessel with radio waves.  Created by Nikola tesla in 1898 it was show cased in Madison square garden.  It electrified the crowds in Madison square garden which some decried as magic not believing that such a feat was impossible too do.
The boat was a 4 foot vessel and controlled in an indoor pool.

[1] Picture of Tesla displaying his Remote controlled boat in Madison square garden. 

Using a radio control device he was able too manoeuvre a boat also he was able to turn the two led's on and off by a switch. From his patent in 1898 [2] it is written That "As to that part of my invention which involves the production of suitable waves or variations and the conveying of the same to a remote receiving apparatus capable of being operated or controlled by their influence, it may be carried out in various ways" this represents that the method that he used was by sending waveforms through the air that were recieved at the apparatus and that the boat could read these waveforms and be operated through the use of "electromatic induction" upon a conductor.  Another piece of genius was hidden inside this device by the use of the operation off a technology that was used to determine  hertzian waveforms. The waveforms were picked up by the antenna that was centred at the middle of the boat.  Through the frequency of the waveforms the antenna was connected too two logic gates which were able to determine toggle actions due to different signals.  Take into account that this was in 1898 that this was created 14 years before the date that the first logic gates were said to be invented in 1912.  By use of these logic gates the boat was able to move right or left also the leds were able too be turned on and off.[3]
This is a piece written by Leland Anderson [3]

That said, there is clear evidence that Tesla’s early inventions laid the foundation for the modern computer..according to Leland Anderson and expert in field of engineering and technical patents:

“I am puzzled by the reluctance of some in the computer technology field to acknowledge Tesla’s priority in this regard in contrast to the adulation given to Messrs, Brattain, Bardeen and Shockley for the invention of the transistor which made electronic computers a practical reality.  Telsa’s patents contain the basic principles of the logical AND circuit element.  The simultaneous occurrence of two or more prescribed signals at the input to device element produced an output form the device element.  Thus the subject early Tesla patents, which were designed to achieve interference protection from outside influences in the command of radio controlled weapons, have proved to be an obstacle for anyone attempting a basic logical AND circuit element patent in this era of modern computer technology”  

                                                     [4]  Design of the boat.
The problem is that Nikola Tesla did not write out calculations of his inventions so we do not have exact explanations of how it operated.
                                             
By -Michael Nolan

(BSXinsight) The Sensor Threshold

(BSXinsight) The Sensor Threshold

It let athletes know how far to push themselves. The athletes have to maintain a delicate balance – they want to make sure that they're "giving it everything they've got," yet they don't want to push themselves to the point that they cramp up or drop from exhaustion. It's made to let athletes know how close they're getting to the edge, so they can approach it but not go over.

When we perform any sustained vigorous physical activity, (the base of lactic acid) builds up in our bloodstream. Once those levels get too high, the body simply isn't able to produce the required energy anymore.

The usual method of checking (the base of lactic acid) levels is via finger-prick blood tests. The BSXinsight instead uses light, to provide real-time readings on a paired smartphone or smart watch.

The device consists of a stretchable cuff that's worn on the calf, and an electronic module that can be snapped in and out of a receptacle on the back of that cuff. The module contains an LED array and a light detector. That array emits light into the muscle tissue, some of which is reflected back to the detector. The manner in which that light is reflected is affected by metabolic activity within that tissue. Therefore, by analyzing that light, it's possible to determine the lactate level in that muscle.

Readings are sent via Bluetooth or ANT+ to the user's mobile device. It, in turn, lets them know if they should ease up, or if they can in fact push themselves even harder. The BSXinsight additionally keeps track of parameters such as calories burned and cadence, to further help users track their performance.

By AbdulRahman Mandourah

autonomous extraction system for cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXSJ7dprzf4

An Autonomous Multi-Robot System for Vehicle Extraction and Transportation is the result of the AVERT project research resulting from a collaboration between researchers from Greece, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. the idea behind this is that the current solutions for car removals within confined spaces like indoor parking lots where space is at a premium and there is no room for maneuvering towing trucks or equipment they have come up with a solution to remove cars in confined spaces safely, swiftly and in any direction to a safer disposal point. this technology also could be used in bomb disposal by providing a faster and safer removal capability of suspect cars compared to manual methods currently available.

how it works: the deployment unit as seen above is used to transport the bogie units to the operating point, when the bogies are released the deployment unit then starts to map out the area using on board sensors which include two SICK laser sensors, a Pan tilt Unit(PTU) and a digital camera.the bogie subsystem includes the sensors and actuators which provide the mobile docking and vehicle lifting mechanism for each of the four wheels. the bogie units have intercommunication which enables them to operate as a coordinated group of robots in synchronism  when lifting and extracting the vehicle.

 by David Walsh

3D prosthetic arms

Over 3000 years ago to Ancient Egypt, people thought that our live have finite length, but the after live is eternal so according to the theology of Orisis, the body needed to be complete, because the soul would leave the body every night and come back to replenish its energy in the body and it was extremely important that body be fully complete. There are many instances of prosthetic noses, ears, toes and limbs which were used in Encient Egypt but they were not functional. Hence prosthetic developed from simply being aesthetic aids to actually becoming functional in everyday life. Globally there are 3 million people living without a upper limb. In last 20 years there are remarkable advancement in the development of the bionic limb.

The huge problem with the bionic limbs is the cost, not everybody can afford $20,000 to $100,000 for an prosthetic limb as you are aware that the wealth is unevenly distributed in the world. UCF is bulding an arm which can be used and manufactured much cheaper equivalent to 1% of the actual cost. The arm is completely 3D printed along with the joints between the fingers. There is a cable which runs through the length of each finger and back into the hand which is connected upto servo motor. The idea is to  trigger the motor by the arm of the person who's wearing it. Therefore the person would wear 3 electrodes on their upper arm. When the person who's wearing the arm squeezes their muscle there's little electrical pulse which triggers the motor to pull in 180 degrees. One pulse will close the hand and the other pulse will relax it so that it can open back up.




3D is new tchnology but it provides the low cost solution to print something out and redesign it and print out again. Today the bionic limb can be produced in just $300, thanks to Chuk Hull who invented the 3D prnting. The arm needs to replaced every 6 moths since kids grows, the parts of the arm can be produce on the spot with the advantage of selecting any design. Its amazing how Chuck Hull made things easy and cheaper that everybody can afford it.

By Ayesha Javaid.

It's called a Memristor?

So how exactly does a Memristor work?

Well an analogy that't there for a Memristor is that of a pipe that carries water.

The water itself is analogous to electrical charge, the pressure at the input of the pipe is similar to voltage, and the rate of flow of the water through the pipe is like electrical current. 

Just as with an electrical resistor, the flow of water through the pipe is faster if the pipe is shorter and/or it has a larger diameter. An analogy for a memristor is an interesting kind of pipe that expands or shrinks when water flows through it.  

If water flows through the pipe in one direction, the diameter of the pipe increases, thus enabling the water to flow faster. If water flows through the pipe in the opposite direction, the diameter of the pipe decreases, thus slowing down the flow of water. 

If the water pressure is turned off, the pipe will retain it most recent diameter until the water is turned back on. Thus, the pipe does not store water like a bucket (or a capacitor) – it remembers how much water flowed through it.

Technically though how does it work?

A Memristor is composed of a thin (50 nm) titanium dioxide film between two 5 nm thick electrodes, one titanium, the other platinum. 

http://ej.iop.org/images/0031-9120/48/3/317/Full/ped453020f2_online.jpg

Initially, there are two layers to the titanium dioxide film, one of which has a slight depletion of oxygen atoms. 

     The oxygen vacancies act as charge carriers, meaning that the depleted layer has a much lower resistance than the non-depleted layer. When an electric field is applied, the oxygen vacancies drift towards the non-depleted layer, changing the boundary between the high-resistance and low-resistance layers. causing the low-resistance area to grow and high-resistance area to shrink, lowering the resistance of the device 

     Thus the resistance of the film as a whole is dependent on how much charge has been passed through it in a particular direction, which is reversible by changing the direction of current, when this happens the oxygen vacancies are pushed back up to the top electrode, meaning the boundary has been pushed up creating a greater area of high resistance. 

Shown Below is a sample video explaining the memristor.

By Padraigh Walsh

Asimo now

Ever since asimo was introduced to the world nearly 15 years ago now.It has captured that words imagination. Asimo can now do incredible things from running, going up stairs playing football and many more awesome ability's.The most recent version of asimo was in 2014. here is a video of what he can do now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrUOa6p5NEI

Even though all these ability's are great. what I believe to be its greatest strength is the ability to communicate with humans.He has even meet  president barrack Obama during a recent state visit to Japan he had an encounter with a Honda he met asimo at the Tokyo's museum of science

Obama describe asimo as '' a little scary'' '' too lifelike'' and '' amazing''

By Hayden Smith 

references

http://www.leftlanenews.com/obama-meets-hondas-asimo-receives-soccer-pass.html

 

From Frog Legs to Your Legs: Electronic Muscle Stimulation

From Frog Legs to Your Legs: Electronic Muscle Stimulation

Electronic muscle stimulation (EMS)

Is a process that involves the use of a particular device to stimulate the contraction of the muscles using electrical impulses. The low-level electronic pulses that are sent to the muscles are meant to halt atrophy or reduce spasms. The process is mainly used in hospitals and physical therapy clinics, but has now found favour among commercial fitness enthusiasts. The history of EMS and how it grew and gained the popularity it now enjoys is quite interesting.

History of Electronic Muscle Stimulation

The journey from a simple discovery through to a well-established theory on electrical impulses and their effects on the body’s process is a very interesting one. It is a story that shows the steady development of the process through scientific discovery as scientist from one century to another made their discovery that contributed to what we now know today.

Electricity was first used as a treatment in 2500B.C which was the time of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty. The Egyptians found a fish that gave off electric energy and realized it could be used to treat pain. They did not know the force of energy as electricity as we know it now, but they realized its usefulness.

The First Scientific Proof

Italian scientist (Luigi Galvani) made the connection between the muscle and electrical impulses when his assistant accidentally used a scalpel to brush the sciatic nerve of a frog on which they had just done an experiment. The legs of the frog moved as if it was still alive and that caught the attention of Luigi. The year was 1791 and the physiologist provided the first scientific proof that the muscle can be activated by current.

Benefits of Electronic Muscle Stimulation

Electrotherapy is now mainly used in areas that relate to physical and sports activities where muscle injuries are common and rehabilitation is necessary. It is not only used for rehabilitation, but also for training and recovery. People who suffer from debilitating injuries to the skeletal or nervous system and are unable to move their muscles are in danger of muscle atrophy. This is due to the fact that when muscles do not contract they go through a natural deterioration process. People suffering from those types of injuries have to undergo consistent electrotherapy treatment to save the muscles from atrophy. Patients who are critically ill can wear electrical muscle stimulators to help preserve their muscle mass.

Electronic muscle stimulation has Electronic muscle stimulation has moved on from the frog leg to our legs in a very significant way. Many people benefit from the treatment method that started out with the jerk of a dead frog’s leg. The treatment method and electronic muscle stimulator devices are now widely used to assist people in a number of ways. While the treatment is effective and produces great results as is the case with all medical situations, it is best not to go about it on your own impulse.

By: AbdulRahman Mandourah

Behind the Notes of Ada Lovelace - Note G

This note is by far one of the most intriguing, however it is not of the longest in length. From Note A, this machine had capability of tabulating any function that may ever exist. This was considered by some as perhaps an "intelligent" machine. It was common at the time to overestimate new inventions or subjects, yet underestimate the true value. The note contains a statement on what we know today as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

"The Analytical Engine has to pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths." [1]

This sets straight the proposal for AI, however it is very curious how that subject of AI arose nearly 200 years ago. A few key areas of the writings are below.

Note G
The machine could do the following list of functions:

1. Perform the four operations of simple arithmetic (plus, minus, divide, multiply) on any      numbers.
2. Combine any magnitude or quantity of numbers either arithmetically or algebraically
3. Use algebraic signs according to their proper laws, and develop logical consequences to a calculation
4. Arbitrarily swap and substitute any one formula for another,
5. Provide for singular values. M. Menabrea mentions the passing of values through zero and infinity.
6. Differentiate and Integrate

Numbers four and five as listed above could result in the substitution of   
 for , explained in Note E.

Perhaps the most heavyweight function is the calculus operations of integrating and differentiating. 
The engine could perform this of two ways; either by the user ordering it, or by doing so from any of the columns of variables, by direct substitution. 

The diagram of the computation of the Bernoulli numbers is very large and intricate as seen above! 

The above diagram may be viewed larger here. 

The note also goes onto describe how the program reads and operates based on the cards entered.  A card could be used to simply change the sign of a number, to producing outputs to complex formulas.  [2] 

In summary of these notes, the program could perform highly complex tabulation of data. It could also calculate the answers from simple equations to integration and differentiation of any degree of trouble! This was an amazing program, which sadly never ran on the machine it was built for. The notes Lovelace kept about the machine and the program allow mathematics and engineering enthusiasts today to investigate her work further. This was a truly inspiring set of work done by Lovelace and Babbage, which computers today are still carrying on from!

By Sophie Wicks

References 
[1] http://www.allonrobots.com/ada-lovelace.html
[2] http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html

The First "Skype"

This machine in not part of a sci-fi movie from the 60’s, it was actually a great invention by Bell Labs, but probably too well-ahead for its generation. The name of this piece from the past is Picturephone and it was developed by AT&T in 1964 as an experimental system. It was realized at the New York World’s Fair allowing the public make video-calls to Disneyland even before the parents of “Skype” were born.

The system was able to transmit an image only once every two seconds, but this was not a problem for an enthusiastic team neither was that it turned out people didn’t like it, so AT&T continued working on the developing of the system, totally convinced that it was viable. Six years later, they realized the final product hoping that a million Picturephones would be used by 1980. 

It is said that we also learn from our failures, and I am sure they learnt from this one. Do you want to know why not many know about this? The equipment was too bulky, the controls too unfriendly, and the picture too small, and after 6 years improving the system, it continued being the same. Other fact to be aware of was the excessive price of the video-calls, it could cost around $16-$27 just for 3 minutes.

Anyway, we just had to wait to decades to see how communications could change. Nowadays internet is everywhere and we have a “Picturephone” in our pocket, and this is just one of the many things we can do with our smartphone! What years ago looked useless for many people is today an essential tool for others, thanks to the developments in different fields working together. In this case, it was not that crazy to think about what we enjoy today some decades ago, it is just that the idea needed more time to be working better and more science to make it viable.

Sources and interesting links: 
The First 'Picturephone' for Video Chatting Was a Colossal Failure
Video Conferencing History
The History of Videocalling  
 Wikipedia LINK

 by Carlos Durango, 2015

Behind the Notes of Ada Lovelace - Note D

This post will outline the most significant diagram associated with Note D, published by Lovelace.

Note D
The calculations and tabulations that were undergone by the machine consisted of columns of variables. These variables were divided up into three areas:

  1. Variables on which the data is written, these were named "data variables".
  2. Variables that produce the final results, called "result variables".
 3. Variables that receive temporary data for working with, and not actually storing. This is like information stored in a RAM device in a computer today. These were refereed to as "working variables".

Diagram of the Variables used in the Program

Often, the result variables could be like the nature of the working variables. Sometimes a variable which was to receive a result was the recipient of one or more values in the process. Similarly, the data variables became working variables, or result variables, or even both!

In the case of the current equations the three sets of variables remain separate and independent as expected. [1] 

This is an interesting insight to how the first program dealt with the variables in a function. It was not free of crossing over the variables, however as discussed above. It was an incredible approach to tabulating the functions inputted to the Difference and Analytical engines. 

By Sophie Wicks 

References

[1] http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html

Alan Turing; The father of Computer Science walking to the Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is usually defined as the science of making computers do things that require intelligence when done by humans, not just automatic actions. If the idea of making lifelike robots imitating humans structure and movements sounds crazy -although it could be reached in some decades-, what about making machines think like humans? Alan Mathison Turing, clearly as a man ahead of his time, already asked himself this question. In 1950, at the dawn of computing, he wrote an article named “Computing machinery and intelligence” for the philosophical magazine "MIND" asking what looks as a simple question; "Can machines think?"

Alan Turing, considered to be the father of computer science

In 1935, at Cambridge University, Turing conceived the modern computer. He described an abstract computing machine consisting of a limitless memory and a scanner that moves back and forth through the memory, symbol by symbol, reading what it finds and writing further symbols. This is Turing's "stored-program concept", and it would give machines the possibility of operating for people while they are modifying and improving its own software and programs. All modern computers are now based on these abstracts ideas that are usually called the "Universal Turing Machine".

Later on, during the Second World War, Turing enlisted on a special team working for the Allies at the Government Code and Cypher School. He was the leading cryptanalyst of the team trying to break the German ciphers used by the radio machine "Enigma" that the Nazis developed for making different codes every day, and which cryptanalysts had thought unbreakable. Turing's role in cracking intercepted coded messages enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial battles, although his colleagues at Bletchley Park recall numerous off-duty discussions with him on the fact he gave considerable thought to the issue of machine intelligence in wartime. His machine was actually a success, and part of his history is now shown on the recent film "The Imitation Game", which tries to make people conscious of the importance of Turing's role in History of the Second World War and the computer engineering. Besides, this movie will worth your time! [Watch the trailer]

"The Imitation Game", starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Directed by Morten Tyldum

Turing illustrated his ideas on machine intelligence by reference to chess. In principle, a chess-playing computer could play by searching exhaustively through all the available moves, but in practice this is impossible, since it would involve examining an astronomically large number of moves. Heuristics are necessary to guide and to narrow the search. Ever since, chess and other board games have been regarded as an important test for ideas in AI, since these are a useful source of challenging and clearly defined problems against which proposed methods for problem-solving can be tested. Also, the modern term "heuristic search" is the principle for a heuristic being that cuts down the amount of searching required in order to find the solution to a problem. Programming using heuristics is a major part of modern AI, as is the area now known as machine learning.

Mike Hillyard, one of the volunteers who rebuilt a replica of the Turing Bombe machine

Most of his work for the British Government was burnt, and the importance of his team was hidden after the War for being a national secret operation. Turing kept working on his Artificial Intelligence ideas by creating the first manifesto on AI named "Intelligent Machinery" just before publishing his most famous article on "MIND" magazine; “Computing machinery and intelligence” [I seriously recommend reading some fragments of the article on this LINK]. "The Imitation Game" proposes what has become known as the Turing Test to determine if a machine is capable of thinking. 

This test involves three participants, two answering questions, being one of them a machine, and a human interrogator. The interrogator attempts to determine, by asking questions through a keyboard and a screen, which one is the computer. He may ask questions as penetrating and wide-ranging as he or she likes, and the computer is permitted to do everything possible to force a wrong identification, meanwhile the other person must help the interrogator. What means that this long-range possibility of answering for the computer gives it the chance to answer "No" in response to "Are you a computer?". The idea was that if the questioner could not tell the difference between human and machine, the computer would be considered to be thinking. Nevertheless, no AI program has been even close to pass the test yet.
 

The Turing test does not directly test whether the computer behaves intelligently – it tests only whether the computer behaves like a human being.

 A great example of how it works is given by the sci-fi film "Blade Runner", Ridley Scott's masterpiece, starring Harrison Ford. In that movie, detective Deckard is forced by the police Boss to continue his old job as Replicant Hunter. His assignment: eliminate four escaped Replicants from the colonies who have returned to Earth. The replicants are almost perfect thinking machines, created to work and die for humankind, but all thinking beings can develop feelings... That video is an example of the test asking questions to a replicant who does not know she is.

Sadly, after all his great studies and being considered a genius on technologies and computer fields, he became an objetive for the huge homophobia that ruled many countries, including his own. British government revealed he was gay and sent him to prison for a few time. He was liberated with the condition on taking pills for a treatment of chemical castration. Some years later, he was found dead by his cleaner when she came in on 8 June 1954. He had died the day before of cyanide poisoning, a half-eaten apple beside his bed. His mother believed he had accidentally ingested cyanide from his fingers after an amateur chemistry experiment, but the coroner's verdict was suicide.

Despite the failure of machines to deceive us into believing they are human, Turing would be excited by the remarkable progress of AI. His work as a pioneer and engineer made him become a giant to follow on for the last decades. He became a symbol in computer engineering, although his story was hidden for decades. It was not until 2009 when British Government realized a statement apologizing and describing the treatment of Turing as "appalling" and also giving him the pardon for his conviction of "gross indecency". The Queen Elizabeth II officially pronounced Turing pardoned in August 2014, it was the fourth royal pardon granted since the conclusion of World War II.

It is interesting to know how these investigations have solved problems in the past to help us be in this high-technology age and how the work of Alan Turing has helped on following generations providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation". Besides, it would be a great topic for a discussion how close we are to reach the real Artificial Intelligence and what it would mean; can you even think about the ethical and philosophical -not just engineering- problems could it bring? Many written and filmed works has already talked about it; how would the machines act if they are programmed to think? Would the AI be conscious of its real purpose? Could it feel emotions? What about its infinite possibilities of learning and improving faster than humans? Could they create a revolution? 

Some of my great works about this topic are the book "I, Robot" and other notes by Isaac Asimov, as well as movies like "Metropolis" (Fritz Lang, 1927), "Blade Runner" (Ridley Scott, 1982), "War Games" (John Badham, 1983), "Bicentennial Man" (Chris Columbus, 1999), "The Matrix" (Wachowski brothers, 1999), "Artificial Intelligence" (Steven Spielberg, 2001) and the most recent movies "HER" (Spike Jonze, 2013) -wonderful movie- and -the not as good but interesting- "Transcendence" (Wally Pfister, 2014). Although ahead all of them there is a masterpiece from 1969 filmed by Stanley Kubrick; "2001: a Space Odyssey" has always been the best example of ethical study for Artificial Intelligence.

Quote by the machine HAL9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey"

Sources and interesting links:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18475646
http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/reference%20articles/what_is_AI/What%20is%20AI03.html
http://www.turing.org.uk/bio
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/ai/turing.html
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~shm/Papers/TuringAI_1.pdf

 by Carlos Durango, 2015