Anki, blessed by Apple, takes AI and robotics to consumers
When Apple turns over part of its oh-so-important Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address to an unknown startup, you can be sure Tim Cook and Co. think they're dealing with some very cool technology.That was very much the case with Anki, which was handpicked for a coveted slot as the poster child for what unknown developers can do with iOS. During its time onstage, Anki showed off what at first appears to bea simple toy car racing game, but what in reality might be the most advanced intersection of consumer-grade artificial intelligence and robotics ever. This content is rated TV-MA, and is for viewers 18 years or older. Are you of age?YesNoSorry, you are not old enough to view this content.PlayIn an interview in San Francisco a few hours after the keynote address, Anki co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman told CNET that Anki -- the company's name comes from the Japanese word for learning by heart -- is in the business of bringing AI and robotics, a combination that has long been the exclusive province of the defense industry, to consumers.Apple clearly loved what Anki is doing with iOS: Users who buy the approximately $200 product starting this fall will use their iPhones or iPod Touches to control a little physical race car stuffed full of things like optical sensors, wireless chips, motors, and microcontrollers. Sofman said that he thinks of the technology much like a video game come to life, with the cars taking on the characteristics of video game characters, except in the physical world.Anki founder Boris Sofman shows off one of the AnkiDrive cars.Screen shot by CNETAt the core of AnkiDrive -- which came out of the founders' desire to bring to the consumer level what they learned working on $600,000 autonomous vehicles at Carnegie-Mellon -- is a system built to process real-time positioning, reason, and execution by "analyzing hundreds or even thousands of actions across four dimensions," Sofman said. In the racing game, that means that players can control a car, and race it against another, and each vehicle roars around a track taking into consideration thousands of scenarios, all while pursuing a specific mission. Anki isn't saying yet what the missions will be -- beyond winning a race -- but during its onstage demo at the WWDC keynote event, Sofman showed off a situation where three people controlled individual cars, while a fourth, autonomous, and faster and smarter, weaved through and around them.More from WWDCMeet iTunes Radio, Apple's long-awaited streaming music service CNET Editors' Take: Apple's long-awaited, Pandora-like streaming radio service is finally here Apple gives the iPhone a user interface face-lift with iOS 7 Editors' Take: iOS 7 gets a new look and several new features The fresh new look of Apple iOS 7 (pictures) Apple unveils new MacBook Air, gives Mac Pro sneak peek Editors' Take: Apple updates MacBook Air New MacBook Air boasts all-day battery life (pictures) Editors' Take: A bold new look for the Mac Pro desktop Mac Pro sneak peek (pictures) Editors' Take: Apple Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks Getting to know Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (pictures) WWDC 2013: Full coverage"It behaved how you would expect an intelligent driver" would drive, Sofman recalled, "but then we told the three to block the fourth." And that's when the fun began.As the thousands in the room for the keynote address, and hundreds of thousands who watched it online experienced it, the fourth car zigged and zagged its way through the other three, and then used a "weapon" to "shoot" the others, which, when hit, would fly off the track, just as they would if they'd been hit by a real projectile. None of this was pre-programmed.Sofman said that Anki's toy cars race at the equivalent (if they were full-size cars) of 250 miles an hour, and move with a precision of a 10th of an inch. That's possible, he said, because of components built in that check their driving logic 500 times a second, and convey positioning information to the wheels every two milliseconds.For now, Anki isn't showing anything but its racing game, and won't say how many cars users will get for their $200. But Sofman made it clear that what Anki is showing today is merely the beginning of a new consumer AI/robotics industry, something that was never possible before due to the prohibitive price of the necessary components.But because Anki's hardware incorporates nothing but inexpensive commodity parts, consumers will finally be able to get their hands on this kind of technology, Sofman said. What Anki is bringing to the table is the software, five years in the making, that controls it.Thanks to its relationship with Apple and lead A-round investor (and board member) Mark Andreessen -- Anki has $50 million in the bank with which to develop AnkiDrive and whatever its next products are. And with Apple's blessing, it will sell its cars in Apple stores around the world and online, as well as on its own Web site.Are big things ahead for Anki? Andreessen thinks so. On his blog, the Andreessen Horowitz partner said that the company is "the best robotics startup I have ever seen."
iPad your screenplay- FDX Reader vs. GoodReader
iPad your screenplay: FDX Reader vs. GoodReader
I've written a screenplay or two in my life. When the iPad was released more than a year ago, I imagined that it could eventually be a killer tool for reading and editing scripts, saving a trip to a printer or laptop. Well, so far, the iPad's been great for a lot of documents and publications...but a little slow on the uptake when it comes to the complicated formats of screenplays.For my last screenplay revision, I actually saved my script to PDF format using Final Draft, then opened up GoodReader to check out my work. iBooks has its own PDF reader, too, but GoodReader adds a surprisingly robust set of annotations for marking up your draft.For those who require native readability of screenplay formats, Celtx Script and Scripts Pro currently support some basic writing and editing functions, but have their ups and downs. Celtx works with its own software, whereas Scripts Pro works with FDX and Celtx, but doesn't have the best script viewer. Final Draft is supposed to be making its own app, but it's been indefinitely delayed.GoodReader reads PDF versions of scripts, but can also mark them up.Until Final Draft's official app debuts, there's the new-on-the-scene FDX Reader, which reads pesky Final Draft 8-created files (.fdx) natively, saving the extra step of having to make a PDF version. It also works with Dropbox, or imports via an e-mailed attachment or iTunes. The app is minimalist: the parchmentlike paper background is softer than a white PDF, and text sizes can be adjusted unlike a PDF. Pages turn more like they do on Amazon's Kindle app than the way they do on iBooks. FDX Reader also works in landscape mode, but doesn't offer two-page viewing, instead offering an odd full-page landscape view.FDX Reader ($8), created by screenwriter John August (his screenplay for Big Fish is included for free with the app purchase) will break down the script with dotted lines to indicate "actual" script pages, and includes scene numbers, but doesn't show revision markings. It also can't be used for edits, revisions, or annotations. That's pretty limited stuff for an $8 app, but producers or script readers who possibly get hundreds of scripts a month could find this reader pretty helpful. It's clearly priced for Hollywood.For the rest of us, GoodReader (currently $5) is a more versatile option. And, of course, iBooks offers plain PDF reading for free, and that's not bad, either.For comparison purposes, take a look at screenshots of both apps. Honestly, PDF viewers will do the trick for most of us until a true Final Draft editing/annotating program becomes available. GoodReader's markup capabilities stay glued to the PDF, but they effectively work as well as pen marks on a printout: they're useful note-taking tools in a pinch. But, if you're buried in FDX files somewhere in Studio City, give FDX Reader a whirl--or wait for a sale.
I've written a screenplay or two in my life. When the iPad was released more than a year ago, I imagined that it could eventually be a killer tool for reading and editing scripts, saving a trip to a printer or laptop. Well, so far, the iPad's been great for a lot of documents and publications...but a little slow on the uptake when it comes to the complicated formats of screenplays.For my last screenplay revision, I actually saved my script to PDF format using Final Draft, then opened up GoodReader to check out my work. iBooks has its own PDF reader, too, but GoodReader adds a surprisingly robust set of annotations for marking up your draft.For those who require native readability of screenplay formats, Celtx Script and Scripts Pro currently support some basic writing and editing functions, but have their ups and downs. Celtx works with its own software, whereas Scripts Pro works with FDX and Celtx, but doesn't have the best script viewer. Final Draft is supposed to be making its own app, but it's been indefinitely delayed.GoodReader reads PDF versions of scripts, but can also mark them up.Until Final Draft's official app debuts, there's the new-on-the-scene FDX Reader, which reads pesky Final Draft 8-created files (.fdx) natively, saving the extra step of having to make a PDF version. It also works with Dropbox, or imports via an e-mailed attachment or iTunes. The app is minimalist: the parchmentlike paper background is softer than a white PDF, and text sizes can be adjusted unlike a PDF. Pages turn more like they do on Amazon's Kindle app than the way they do on iBooks. FDX Reader also works in landscape mode, but doesn't offer two-page viewing, instead offering an odd full-page landscape view.FDX Reader ($8), created by screenwriter John August (his screenplay for Big Fish is included for free with the app purchase) will break down the script with dotted lines to indicate "actual" script pages, and includes scene numbers, but doesn't show revision markings. It also can't be used for edits, revisions, or annotations. That's pretty limited stuff for an $8 app, but producers or script readers who possibly get hundreds of scripts a month could find this reader pretty helpful. It's clearly priced for Hollywood.For the rest of us, GoodReader (currently $5) is a more versatile option. And, of course, iBooks offers plain PDF reading for free, and that's not bad, either.For comparison purposes, take a look at screenshots of both apps. Honestly, PDF viewers will do the trick for most of us until a true Final Draft editing/annotating program becomes available. GoodReader's markup capabilities stay glued to the PDF, but they effectively work as well as pen marks on a printout: they're useful note-taking tools in a pinch. But, if you're buried in FDX files somewhere in Studio City, give FDX Reader a whirl--or wait for a sale.
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