Scientists create robot which registers human emotions

In their quest for creating a human-like robot, scientists have edged closer to their goal -- they have designed one that can display several human emotions - from fear, amazement, disgust to happiness.
Roboticists from the University of Pisa, Italy, drawing on 30 years of research, built one that uses 32 motors in 'her' face to simulate different expressions, to the point where a robot looks almost realistic enough to pass for a human.
It has been aptly named FACE.
The university team, led by doctoral student Nicole Lazzeri from Pisa, modelled the robot on one of the team's wives - and the team say 'it's very realistic', the Daily Mail reports.


The team used software called Hybrid Engine for Facial Expressions Synthesis (HEFES), which has been built up over the last 30 years to mimic human emotional responses.

It tells the motors how to respond in order to recreate a look, and the software can mix the various emotions on a sliding scale, for instance a smile tinged with sadness, or a laugh mixed with unease.

This last expression might be apt for those people who get trapped in the 'uncanny valley'. The principle of the valley is that people do not have an issue with humanoid robots when they do not look human - for instance, when they have metallic faces or expressionless faces.

And if a robot is undetectable as a robot, then the illusion is not broken, and people can interact with the robot.

But if the robot looks very close to human, yet is given away by tell-tale signs, it makes most people startled and very uneasy - which, if you plot on a graph of human reactions to robots, create the 'uncanny valley'.

The research team reportedly asked five autistic and 15 non-autistic children to identify a set of expressions performed by FACE, and then the same expressions performed by a psychologist.

Both groups could identify happiness, anger and sadness, but they struggled more with fear, disgust and surprise.

Extracted from Mathrubhumi

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I just got lucky, says SRK on 20 years in B-Town

On this day two decades ago a new Hindi film superstar emerged: Bollwood's all-time favourite romantic hero Shah Rukh Khan, who debuted with 'Deewana'. On completing 20 years, SRK says he just 'got lucky' and admits he has made mistakes all along.

'Twenty uninterrupted years of serving. Not enough talent or looks or game plan. Thank you all. I guess I got lucky, lucky to be working all the time,' tweeted Shah Rukh, who entered filmdom with 'Deewana', which released June 25, 1992.


Superstardom, disappointment and controversies - Delhi guy SRK has seen it all in his celebrityhood.

For Shah Rukh, it's been two decades in Bollywood, but his tryst with showbiz began in 1988, the year he started his journey with TV series 'Fauji', after being trained at The Barry John's Acting Studio. Next year he featured in another successful show 'Circus' and 'Doosra Keval'.

If people loved his act on small screen, he won hearts as a crazy lover in 'Deewana', in which he was competing with none other than Rishi Kapoor in the lead role. But lady luck was smiling on him and audiences loved his chemistry with late Divya Bharti. The song 'Aisi deewangi dekhi nahin kabhi' picturised on them became a chartbuster.

'Deewana' turned out to be a huge hit at the box office, and won SRK a Filmfare best male debut award.

There was no looking back thereafter - only more films, more hits, and more awards for Shah Rukh. His success earned him titles like - King Khan and Bollywood Badshah.

He redefined the romantic hero in Hindi cinema with films like 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge', 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', 'Mohabbatein', 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna', 'Kal Ho Na Ho' and 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi'.

His work profile is eclectic - he has played an obsessive lover in films like 'Darr' and 'Anjaam', a villain in 'Baazigar', a warrior in 'Asoka', a modern day patriot in 'Swades', a superstar in 'Om Shanti Om', a don in 'Don: The Chase Continues' and 'Don 2: The King Is Back', and a superhero in his mega-production 'Ra.One'.

At the peak of his career he choose to go back to his roots - TV - in 2007 to host the third season of game show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'. He also hosted 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain' (2008). He was last seen on small screen as the host of 'Zor Ka Jhatka' in 2011.

After making it big in showbiz, he turned businessman by launching his production house Red Chillies Entertainment and later by investing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), whose victory at the fifth IPL season was a silver lining for the star this year as lately, he has been a part of controversies.

He got embroiled in a brawl with director Shirish Kunder and has been banned from entering Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium for five years over his alleged misbehaviour with security personnel and MCA officials.

But later he admitted his mistake and apologised too.

'Made mistakes, still continue to do so. A little madness. A bit of solitude. Too silly to realise it's impossible and maybe that's why it gets achieved.

'Mom said to only feel and say positive things. 'Your Farishtey (angels) are always listening and fulfil your words.' My Farishtey work overtime,' wrote the 45-year-old.

Now, one of the most lovable Bollywood actor is set to return to his lovey-dovey avatar with Yash Chopra's next directorial venture. He will be seen romancing Katrina Kaif in it.


Extracted from Mathrubhumi (25 June 2012)

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'The Amazing Spider-Man' poorly executed reboot

A desperate battle for survival. How else does one describe 'The Amazing Spider-Man', the reboot of a franchise that began hardly a decade back and which, despite its best intentions has only regressed the original story?

The familiar story of Spiderman's beginnings has undergone only cosmetic changes. His father is shown to have been working for Oscorp before he disappeared. His girlfriend is Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) who is his first love in the comic books and not Mary Jane and her father is a cop.


Spider man inadvertently creates the monster he later fights. And Peter Parker/Spiderman (Andrew Garfield) lets both his girlfriend and her father know his secret identity.

It is hence fun finding out why this film was made. Here are six probable reasons:

1) Peter Parker in the original franchisee got married and it was time to send him back to school. 2) If comic books can reboot from a 'Spider man' to 'The Amazing Spider-Man', why can't a film. 3) To help the Titanic of a sinking studio, stay afloat. 4) If kids can like 'Transformers', they will like anything that has special effects. 5) Girls hate lizards so every time the lizard guy comes up, girls will jump on the lap of their boyfriends who will create a word of mouth buzz. 6) The studio found a director, whose last name was had some connection with spiders - Webb.

At its core level, one can describe this film as the template of the original Spider man mixed with few scattered elements taken from various films e.g. introduction of the concerned father of the girlfriend like in 'Twilight' or have him make his own gadgets like 'Batman'.

There are too many problems with the film to narrate. Firstly, the story itself does not have any emotional pull or the engagement of the original Spider man. The characterizations are not handled properly and even Gwen ends up becoming just a pretty face without a mind or aspiration of her own.

Even the hesitant, love angle between Peter Parker and Gwen is not handled well. And many characters are left hanging without a conclusion, most notably that of Irrfan Khan. Despite being a brilliant actor, he hardly suited his blink-and-miss role where he fumbles with his ascent.

One department where 'The Amazing Spider-Man' does not fail is its special effects. Considering the state of commercial cinema emanating from Hollywood, one can safely assume that this would be reason enough for the film to make a billion dollars globally.

The film gets an early release in India. It is not hard to imagine why. Demographically India not only has the world's largest number of teens, but also the world's largest concentration of them, teens who have grown up loving the brainless 'Transformers' series.

The Indian angle with the presumably last minute introduction of Irrfan Khan is also meant to woo Indian audiences.

If reboot is what Hollywood was looking for, they could have done something much more interesting and fun.

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Rajesh Khanna, the man who brought superstardom to Hindi films

Rajesh Khanna epitomised a range of emotions on the big screen--from melancholy to romance--with a rich bouquet of lilting songs like 'Zindagi ek safar hai suhana' and 'Mere sapno ki raani' making his movies and characters immortal.

Bollywood's first superstar, the 69-year-old actor's mannerism, his unique style of dancing, dialogue delivery, disarming smile and the signature nod of his head added to his onscreen persona that made many a young woman's heart skip a beat.
Despite his heartthrob status as a romantic hero, Khanna essayed a variety of roles--the terminally ill Anand in the Hrishikesh Mukherjee film, a romantic airforce officer in 'Aradhana', a chef in 'Bawarchi', a lonely husband in 'Amar Prem' and a poor medical student in 'Safar'.

Khanna, popularly called Kaka, generated hysteria among fans like never before. At the peak of his career, he would be mobbed during public appearances as fans kissed his car, which would be covered with lipstick marks. They lined the road, cheering and chanting his name. Female fans sent him letters ritte in blood. His predecessors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar broke hearts in their time no doubt, but the hysteria connected with Khanna was unprecedented. Nicknamed 'Kaka', Khanna shot up like a meteor.

Khanna also had a brush with politics after he stopped acting from early nineties. He won the Lok Sabha seat from New
Delhi constituency in the 1991 elections. A series of emotional tragedies in which he acted — Anand, Safar and even Aradhana, though the tragic protagonist of that film was Sharmila Tagore rather than Khanna — gave his career a certain weight. Many of those who remember Khanna and his films actually remember the songs in those films with some songs remaining evergreen four decades after they kept the audience hooked to them.

Extracted from Mathrubhumi 

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State awards Kerala: Dileep best actor, Swetha actress, Indian Rupee best film

The state film awards 2011 was announced on Thursday. Indian Rupee directed by Renjith was selected for the best film. Actor Dileep won the best actor award for the film`Vellaripravinte Changathi' and Swetha Menon the best actress for the film `Salt and Pepper'. Blessy, who directed Pranayam, is the best director.
Salt and Pepper directed by Ashik Abu is the best popular film. Ivan Megharoopan directed P Balachandran is the second best film. Sheri, who directed by Adimadhyandam, is the best debutant director.
The jury headed by noted Tamil director and actor K Bhagyaraj selected the winners.

Fahad Fazil was selected as the second best actor for his performances in films including Chappa Kurishu. Nilamboor Ayisha is second best actress for the film `Oomakkuyil Padumbol'.
The awards were announced by minister KB Ganesh Kumar. There were 41 films in the competition, 6 documentaries and one short film.

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Reading is dead, long live reading.

Reading is dead, long live reading. This adaptation of the famed expression “The King is dead. Long live the King”, comes to one’s mind when one walks into the 154-year-old Nilgiri Library in Ooty particularly when its Book Club members are in deep discussion.

Into its second year, the Book Club has gained firm roots and its strength is steadily going up. Attributing the growing popularity of the Club, notwithstanding the current status of reading, to many factors, library president Geetha Srinivasan told The Hindu here on Tuesday, “There are still a large number of people who feel that nothing can replace the pleasure of curling up with an interesting book”.

Adding to this is the Victorian ambience of the library especially it’s Wardrop Room which hosts the book club discussions.

Stating that the activities of the club are helping in promoting the habit of reading and espousing the charm of walking into a library, she said that it triggers intellectual exchanges.

Book Club Members. Photo:The Hindu

Adverting to the imposing structure which houses the library and the facilities it provides, she said that one should make optimum use of them.

“The success of the Book Club has spurred us into contemplating the formation of related bodies like a Film Club”, Ms. Srinivasan said and added that the objective is to make the institution as lively as possible without violating its ethos.

Pointing out that the Book Club members are aged between 20 and 80 years, the library secretary Ramakrishna Nambiar said that they meet once a month.

Stating that at some of the sessions even students participate, he said that many of the invitees are now members. Participants even come from places like Coonoor and Kotagiri.

Club Coordinator R. Kamala said that the books for the discussions are chosen two months in advance by the respective anchors. It gives them enough time to thoroughly analyse the books. Pointing out that the authors also are intimated, she said that many of them respond in different ways. At a recent discussion on ‘Innovate Happily’ by Rekha Shetty the author was present.

-Extracted from The Hindu by Mr.D.Radhakrishnan

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Cocktail : Movie Review

The heart has its reasons, the mind its methods. When the two are sought to be yoked together on Bollywood’s big romcom canvas, the result can be touch-and-go. One misstep either way could mean a hopeless nosedive either into mushy drivel or pretentious claptrap.

But no such worries here. For the most part, Cocktail, directed by Homi Adajania and scripted by Imtiaz Ali (a sort of high priest of the genre), steers clear of the pitfalls and delivers an eminently watchable love story that breaks the mould.

A gullible Delhi girl, Meera (Diana Penty), steeped in desi values, is trapped in a hoax marriage and gypped of her savings by an artful dodger, Karan (Randeep Hooda).
Left high and dry in London, the dainty damsel in distress is forced to shack up with a free-spirited girl, Veronica (Deepika Padukone), who is diametrically her opposite, temperamentally and sartorially.

Sugar and spice, fire and ice, Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper… the ladies are as far apart as two poles can possibly be. Yet they become best friends.

Veronica’s pad is plastered with in-your-face posters that make no bones about what she really wants out of life: come in, we’re open; beer will change the world; please adjust your dress before you leave. Meera fits in without a fuss but sticks to her old-world ways.

The cocktail is complete when the essential alcoholic spirit is added to the heady mix in the form of an incorrigible skirt-chaser, Gautam (Saif Ali Khan), who ambles into the living space occupied by the two girls.

Sure enough, an explosion of love and lust happens, bringing in their wake a host of tricky situations. The boy doesn’t believe in love at first sight but his mom (Dimple Kapadia) is bent upon finding him a good Indian bride.

Veronica, the poor little rich girl with a troubled past, loves Gautam, but the latter falls for the staid Meera, just the kind of woman he can take home to mom. Troubles erupt as innocuous fun gives way to intense feelings.

With the friends are in danger of turning into frenemies, the heart- and-mind equations come to the fore and the dialogues bubble with effortless energy and a healthy abhorrence for the clichés of Hindi cinema.

"I have never seen a man like Gautam," Veronica tells Meera when she realizes she is about to lose him, "and trust me I’ve seen many."

Gautam playfully berates Meera for going into "Shakuntala mode", while, in another sequence, Veronica asks her gal pal: "Aur thoda melodrama ka scope hain?"Adajania, on his part, harmonizes melodrama and mirth to near-perfection.

The first half of the film is reserved for lively sweet nothings and comedic moments triggered by the unannounced arrival of the boy’s mother from Lajpat Nagar; the second half gets down to unfolding the larger business of the heartbreaks, hard knocks and eventual emotional salvation that follows.

Riverdale High was peopled by 17-year-olds. In Cocktail, the girls are in their 20s, the guy is thirty-something. While it is aimed essentially at the youth segment, it is filled with enough wry wit to be worth a watch for those that might have left their flighty days behind.

As you would have guessed by now, there isn’t the slightest semblance of novelty in this ménage a trois – this is exactly how it has been ever since the advent of the Archie comics in the early 1940s – but Adajania manages to impart a veneer of freshness to the sparkling broth.

He serves up the familiar ingredients of a romantic comedy. The incurable flirt, the perky butterfly who does not give a damn and the timorous waif whip up quite a cocktail and the director plays bartender with skill and style.

Seven years is a long time in a filmmaking career, but Adajania shows no signs of rustiness as he makes the transition from the dark, quirky world of 2005’s Being Cyrus to the flashy, frothy, up and about universe of Cocktail.

He marshals the wafer-thin narrative resources just as successfully as he had done in his infinitely more complex and unconventional debut film, tweaking his style only for the sake of the levity that is required to make this one hit the right notes.

Saif Ali Khan trades the firearms of Agent Vinod for the foibles of a brash lover boy who believes that no relationship is for keeps until the heart decides otherwise. The role fits him like a glove and he makes the most of the opportunity.

As the two girls in the rigmarole, Deepika Padukone (first-rate) and debutante Diana Penty (pretty good), make a fair fist of the job of getting an array of emotions across during breaks from cavorting through the streets of London and having a good time on the beaches of Cape Town.

Cocktail has just the right mix of fizz and flavour to allow the occasional and inevitable crinkles of triteness to flow well below the surface. It is definitely worth a visit to the multiplex. 

-Extracted from NDTV

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