PATENT
No. 8977583

Creating machines that mimic the brain:

Super small yet perfectly poised to outthink chip technology as we know it: Patent No. 8977583 is a highly efficient chip that’s not only built to resemble the brain, but to behave in ways like one too.

It all happens through (wait for it) neuromorphic and synaptronic computation – in other words, the actions of a million artificial nerve cells.

With this tiny chip, we’ll be able to cram more cognition and processing power into small devices like phones, hearing aids and watches to make them think better, faster and on-the-fly like humans.

PATENT
No. 9015032

Effective communications at international travel venues:

Attention all monolingual wanderlusters: IBM Patent No. 9015032 is here to make overseas travel a whole lot easier.

How? First by identifying the languages it “hears” from microphones placed throughout the airport, then by translating flight info into these languages for display and PA announcements.

Could this mean the end of mad gate dashes from airport bars worldwide? Probably not. Or should we say, probablement pas, osoraku arimasen, wahrscheinlich nicht, probablemente…

PATENT
No. 9117446

Helping machines understand emotion:

In today’s cognitive era, machines can listen and talk back to us. But can they understand the emotional nuances of our conversations?

You betcha – with IBM’s Patent No. 9117446. This system detects and assigns emotion to text in TTS (text to speech) applications, so machines can read and express emotion in response to what we say, how we say it, our facial expressions and body language.

And we don’t have to wait an age to see it at work. ­Emotion-detecting robots are already serving customers in banks and coffee shops, and keeping nursing home residents entertained – with each robot able to converse with humans and express themselves on an emotional level.

So the next time you say you love technology, it might just love you back.

PATENT
No. 9087304

Giving machines good judgment: