Latest Alan Turing Stories

Comparing ultra high-resolution photographs from the past and the present could hold the key to restoring Hastings' fire-damaged pierOn the 5th October 2010 the historic Hastings Pier was set on fire, destroying 95% of the Grade II listed building, leading to concerns over its future. Now scientists from the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) are helping to show that the future of the pier is more positive than expected.Prior to the fire, NPL, the UK's National Measurement Institute, had...

The prestigious Alan Mathison Turing Award was awarded to a Harvard University professor whose machine learning research helped to create an IBM computer that defeated two human competitors on a recent "Jeopardy!" tournament. Leslie Valiant, a computer science and applied mathematics professor, was honored for his "contributions to the development of computational learning theory and to the broader theory of computer science," the Association for Computing Machinery said on Wednesday. The...

The National Heritage Memorial Fund has saved an archive of WWII papers from the United Kingdom's most famous code-breaker, Alan Turing, in an 11th-hour bid that kept the collection of scientific papers from going to a private buyer. Turing, one of the founding fathers of modern computing and a key figure in breaking the German Enigma code, will now have his work kept in its "spiritual home," Bletchley Park, which was the center of Britain's top secret code-breaking effort during the war. The...

A Microsoft Corp. researcher won one of technology's most coveted prizes on Tuesday after he designed and built what is widely considered the first modern personal computer. The $250,000 Turing Award went to Charles Thacker, who led the hardware development at Xerox Corp.'s famous Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, in the 1970s.  He took part in developing innovative display and other technologies there that helped inspire future generations of computers. Thacker also co-invented the...

NEW YORK, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery today named Charles P. Thacker the winner of the 2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his pioneering design and realization of the Alto, the first modern personal computer, and the prototype for networked personal computers. Thacker's design, which he built while at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), reflected a new vision of a self-sufficient, networked computer on every desk, equipped with innovations that are...

While computers can replicate many aspects of human behavior, they do not possess our ability to recognize distorted images, according to a team of Penn State researchers."Our goal is to seek a better understanding of the fundamental differences between humans and machines and utilize this in developing automated methods for distinguishing humans and robotic programs," said James Z. Wang, associate professor in Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology.Wang, along...

MONTREAL, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- North Side Inc., of Montreal, will unveil a prototype of its Bot Colony(TM) title (www.botcolony.com ) at GDC in San Francisco on March 25 - 27 (booth 5016 NH). Bot Colony(TM) is the first game ever where the player can converse with the characters in English. The language used is completely unrestricted: the player simply speaks and the characters answer naturally using speech, asking questions, seeking clarifications or offering comments in return....

Scientists convened at the University of Reading on Sunday to take part in an annual experiment aimed at gauging the levels of artificial intelligence of computers. A dozen scientists typed at split-screen terminals, carrying out two conversations at once: one with a chat program, the other with a human. After five minutes, they were asked to say which was which. Some were not sure who - or what - they were talking to."There was one time when I was speaking to the two, and there was an...

A government lab in Teddington has taken on its biggest sample for analysis to date "“ a 14 ton foot-bridge.The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading center of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate measurement standards, science and technology. For over 100 years it has been the UK's National Measurement Institute and provides highly accurate measurement and analysis for public and private sector benefit alike. The "sample" was a 14 ton footbridge...

Computer power will match the intelligence of human beings within the next 20 years because of the accelerating speed at which technology is advancing, according to a leading scientific "futurologist". There will be 32 times more technical progress during the next half century than there was in the entire 20th century, and one of the outcomes is that artificial intelligence could be on a par with human intellect by the 2020s, said the American computer guru Ray Kurzweil. Machines...