Cool guys of our time ..

On this first day of this new year, I am here at my home and I had to suddenly switch on the heater this morning for the first time this winter (my home is barely into  the tropics). Just 5 days back, I used to sleep in my balcony under the winter sun with the fan on in the bedroom.This sudden change of weather and so much nostalgia in  the newspapers today (because the journalists don't want to work on new year's eve) makes me wonder what the coming year and and the years later that (if we reached  there at all (remember, the world might end in 2012 )) would look like.

Over the past year, I have passed most of my time watching these American TV serials (which I often regret) which fed to my interest in psychology ('Lie to Me') ,  Medicine ('House MD') and technology (all of them).. And I guess, these in-turn inspired me to watch these serials even more. In our hostels, where we don't have free  access to these TV shows legally and where we don't have any respect for copyright (yes, I said it!!); we sit in our rooms watching these serials with ear-phones and  isolation and concentration.. Without anyone realizing, it becomes more studying than watching them .. And often unconsciously than otherwise, we are learning a hell lot  about the society, the technology, the human behavior, the medicine than any person alive.. Seldom, they get transformed into action, desires and opinions.. I took a  lab course in psychology after watching(mightbe,Studying) 'Lie to Me' just to know more about Cal Lightman (Paul Ekman)... On visiting the lab, I saw a poster  describing the 6 micro-expressions and it felt like going to a famous museum .. That's Smooth !!

So last month, when I came home from Delhi, the warmth made me feel like spring.. And I decided to finish off a long pending sherlock holmes book.. I had not even  finished the first chapter when I realized that I have already been familiar with these characters .. Holmes and watson; House and Wilson, Lightman and his pretty  partner, all have been constant with the only variable : Context.. A smart guy with little regards for rules accompanied by a less smart guy who is with him for the sake  of adventure but protects and resists him when he is in a face-off with rules (a bit contradictory, isn't it?).. I guess this arrangement appeals to the smarter guy in  everyone .. We can go about analyzing this as a sort of conspiracy theory for validating similar arrangements in the real world or excusing the mistakes of people  responsible for them; but there is another important and common contribution of these serials ..

Sci-Fi has always been a boring researcher's more creative cousin .. The wow!! moment for me was when I was watching an episode of 'The Big Bang Theory - S05E04 @ 10  minutes' when sheldon finds out why the Large Hadron Collider was yet to find out the Higg's boson (god particle) .. Well, the episode was about 2 months old because  there have been signs of it's existence (reported by LHC) last month .. So, not only these TV shows put down the 'objectives' for the geeks in the labs, it educates the  'others' about the challenges and current trends in Research ..  geeks are cool!!

Another instance is where Dr. House wants to see what a hallucinating person is seeing.. Though this step itself is questioned by diagnosticians (a discipline which  does not exist in reality, but House is the HOD at his hospital ) .. The CogSci Lab in the basement of his teaching hospital has an equipment which roughly does this ..  Though this might seem like a Sci-Fi movie to be released in 2020 (again,assuming we reach there) , Neural Network theorists have developed Self-Organised Maps which  replicates the biological circuitry in vision .. Though Chase expects this technology to be useful on a wider scale only in 50 years, I think the actual time scale is  much lesser ..

And then comes MI4, as always, Tom Cruise uses some of most best tools he can .. Taking the security of the networks for granted, he jumps and climbs in Dubai and  Mumbai .. But the most impressive part of the movie for me are those lenses, which add relevant information to the incoming scene. It explains the reason for research  in making chips on flexible substrates as the lens must change the shape according to shape of the eye .. It must reduce and dissipate the heat generated efficiently to  protect the most delicate externally exposed organ of the body .. And then, it can either do processing on chip or have a good communication system and do all the  computation off chip .. Now, that is what I am talking about!! (Gossip : Apple has bought a large number of equipments which are useful in making chips on flexible  substrates)

Hence, from Neuromorphic chips which mimic nature to purely synthetic products like seeing inside the brain .. they are like post-modern aeroplanes and lasers .. and  something to look forward to while watching these TV serials ..Be it from Silicon Valley or Bangalore, the future is just round the corner!!

Quotes iLike 2

From the movie 'Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind':

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd

Alexander Pope, "Eloisa to Abelard"



From Ep 14 of 'The White Collar' :

"We feel free when we escape,
even if it be but from the frying pan into the fire." 

Eric Hoffer

You can see me here.. but only sometimes..

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Hey, I am there above..

Autism Connects

Hi,
I saw about this competition which demands ideas regarding developing technologies that help kids with autism communicate. I gave an Idea and so, I present it here.

Idea:

In autistic kids, certain regions of brain are over working which results in their over-active nature and fascination for patterns.

In neurofeedback , what is done is that their brain activity is displayed to the subject seconds later they take place and the subject tries to consiously reduce the activity of that part. This sort of neurofeedback methods have been shown to work in the case of autistic patients. But the subjects need to be old enough to comprehend what the display means and what change is required. Also, in many cases, there is learning inability associated with autism which increases the difficulty of the above method even more.

A typical characteristic of autistic kids is their peculiar nature of social communication and obsessional difficulties. If a tool can be provided which can help them in communicating, this would greatly increase their integration in the society. Also, this tool must be easy to use and relevent even in small kids.

The diagonisis of autism can be made as early as 18 months but the therapy with neurofeedback can be given only when the kid is atleast 4.5 years old (and even later if the kid has learning difficulties). So, here I might try to suggest a method of communication which can be used as early as possible and which is based on neurofeedback methodology.



First the activity of brain is recorded using some attractive caps to which the kid does not hesitate (for this, give the kid time to get habituated to).

After that, the activity of the brain is recorded . Now, it has to be displayed in some form which the child is - 1.) Attracted to and 2.) knows which shape/state of the display is more favorable and which is less. For this, I would like to suggest an example of display .. As the autistic kids have a fascination for patterns and aligning colors and shiny objects, we can do like this .. whenever, the activity of the brain is reduced (As is the goal of the neurofeedback), we can display a pattern which autistic kids prefer. And we display change and unfavorable patterns whenever the kid is not trying and the activity of brain is not as desired. This way, we use the natural preference of autistic kids to describe the goal to them in neurofeedback.

Eventually, as the kid grows, he/she might develop liking towards something and that object's image, etc. can be used in the display.

Now, the goal is to use this for using this for social interactions.

One of the problems of autistic kids is that they do not hear and are unresponsive to names, etc. So, weather a child is listening or not can be determined by studying the activity in brain or by the behaviour . Either way, this can be reflected in the display described above combined with the level of brain activity.

Another problem is the problem that they do not recognise humans and do not make eye contacts (or quick strange eye gazes). This problem can also be targetted in a way similar to the above method..

Sometimes, they get irritated by the changes.. So, during the changes, the pattern displayed must be unusually (like the most prefereable ever) so that the change is compensated as much as possible. I doubt that this will work or not, and also, if it works, if it is advisable for learning or will it make the kid more and more dependent on the machine rather than improving his/her condition.

Sometimes, there is preference for some voices over others.So,there must be a feature to speak using other's voices or in voices similar to a known voice to the kid. This can be a great help for a complete stranger in communicating.

Autistic kids are known to merely imitate sounds in language rather than form their own sentences. The same holds for someone else's actions also. I am not sure if the kid might just merely replicate earlier behaviour to get desired display. This might be a problem if the display is only 'behaviour' based. So, taking brain activity into account might be useful for this case.


.......................................................................................
One can also find the idea at the competition web page (and comment there also) :
Autism Connects

One of the best poems ever and my favorite...

Poem by Robert Frost (1874–1963).

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Bon Nuit!!!

Hi,

This is the first time I am writing directly on the blog and not pasting it from a notepad draft. [perhaps because its 3 in morning here in Nancy and I might be a bit tired].

So, today was a strange day for me. I had realisations for my actions of last week, I had realisations about myselves and the best part of the day [ Actually early morning of the next day] was my refreshing talk with Alexandre at 2 in morning on the road.

So, it all started with the irritating friends doing planning for the holidays of Toussants and the more irritating Skype. By the way, I noticed that the first person on your list is always highlighted in a group call. So, Skype makes him responsible for the White Noise. How Clever!! So, 8 hours of course in day and rain and chilling cold and the great above mentioned Amis.. And triggered by my actions of last week and the 'one thing' that had been on the back of my mind the whole week..

And the never shutting brain of mine.. Just yesterday I realised that my brain can shut also as I dint know when I slept and had a 'pure' dreamless night afterall . But the next day, Prof. Patney and Prof. SD Joshi came into my afternoon nap to remind me of the crimes I had participated in 2nd year..

And so, as the darkness of the night approached, I thought more and more and didn't know of what!!

So, here I go on the road at 1 in night to think of the things I was thinking.. So, I do the thinking walk which I had lost in college but well known at my home.. And I found many solutions [not exactly, but atleast categerosied the problems ] as the excuse I should give my professor why I didn't do the required thing in my project [that I dont agree with your Idea and I dont do things which I dint agree - lets hope I dare to say that!!] .. And how I tend to generalise things from single events and how this reflects well in forming my habits [because I dont try much] and also my project at LORIA .. But the thing at the back of the mind was still not satisfied..

And so, when I was trying to feel my fingers of legs to see if they are still hanging out there, I found this amazing stranger on the road 'which called himselves' (the direct translation of 'qui s'apple' ) Alexandre. He also was a distressed soul like me wandering on the lonely streets of Nancy. He was doing his PhD in BioChem (Why do I always find maggu people ??) from Strasbourg and he was here for his holidays at his parents. And the pradox - the guy wanted fresh air in 2 in morning in holidays - imagine his 'parents' !!.. Anyways, so we talked about many things .. from which french poodle he had .. to Why he should Visit India.

But the best thing happened when he asked, "Why are you here??" .. I said to 'Think' .. "And You?" .. He said, "Everything except thinking.." .. That's when I had this great realisation that I am not the only one in this crap-bag, but I am the only one who is not getting used to it.

And trust and hope that the best answer to the 'thing' at the back of mind would come only if I let time to give me the answer. Sometimes, you can't do anything about something but just leave it to take it's natural course.

So, with deep fresh air in my lungs and calmness of mind [And exitement to write this blog..] .. I left Alexandre without any contact whatsoever for future. Perhaps it was like the stories of Leo Tolstoy when god himself comes when you are lonely and deserted , or not.. But that guy was the same [functionally - [damn, ma tete]] , for me... I might not meet the guy again as it will soon be snow here and streets more lonely..

And so, with this, for my friends in IIT - "Enjoy the Rendezvous", for my friends in India, "Good Morning" , for the 'thing' at the back of my mind, "Hope you are sleeping well" ..and for me, "Bon Nuit!!"

PS: I hope this blog written live over the night is as revolutionary for me as was such a blog for Mark Zukerberg [the founder of Facebook, when he created an illegal site FaceMash] ..

Simulating the Brain

Brain has always been a very interesting in difficult domain of Neurosciences and Biology. I currently chose a project course work on modelling the structure of Brain using the the currently proposed Re-inforced Driven Dimensionality Reduction (RDDR) model at LORIA-INRIA a computer science Research lab at Nancy, France.

So, while studying for the project, I realised one thing which the engineers are often not advised (i think) to do - reverse engineering. And this was exactly what I was doing. The brain given to me, a final functioning object (philosophically, created by Lord) was studied from different perspective to create a model of the thing and with the ultimate aim, of course, to replicate and improve it.

So, why this method?

We could have a more constructive approach. I mean, can we recreate the whole evolutionay history or simulate evolution? This way, starting from the different theories of origin of life, to the different theories of evolution and the development of brain, I can attack all the areas.

The main question is, but how do I model all this things?

So, there are three parties- the organism(s), the resources and the nature. And each have the Darwin's law which helps it function. The characterisitc of organisms is to have Variation and the motivation to produce 'plusiers' offsprings. The natural resources need to be limited and the nature has the respnsibility to do Natural selection by the survival of the fittest. But the characterisitcs which are transmitted to the next generation must be seen carefully so that it is not lamarkism (or even test lamarkism).

The main challenge is to define the above actors mathematically.
A world is defined with the initial natural resources.
An organism is a function that can sense, utilise, modify and produce natual resources (even fight wars!!) .
An organism (function) can reproduce other many (tendency to reproduce more) organisms (functions) with minor change in parameters (Variation) from which many functions will die young.
The growth function of organisms can also result in Variations.
The death function is executed by the nature (using Survival of the fittest).
The 'Competition' is realised by the nature by managing the resources which indirectly affect the organisms [Thats why people in developing world are 'better' than developed world].

This, I guess seems very similar to the Cellular Automata thing. So, can we make the cellular automata approach real world using parameters? And in this path, if we discover 'chaos' [by feeding in the numbers back like the MIT scientist in 1962], we need to change completely the nature we look at many parts of the world.

This is well, but what about the brain?

Well, one approach I think can be used is to reflect all the things at the level of brain and using the same 5 rules of evolution at different levels of brain (for example, between neurons to between brains) can we evolute brain?

We can have the resources for brain and the motivation is to aquire resources and expand itself and increase its population. The same for a neuron also. So, this is a two step thing - first decide the world for every level (world is the natural resouces and the acting nature at that level) and then give the laws of evolution to each of the actors of that level. And reflect this at all levels. This can be done for all the different systems, I guess.

Also, as there are cooperative and mutually benficiary groups forming in the nature, this thing can also be found at other levels , for example neurons where a group of neurons can combine to perform a particular function.

One assumption if of infinite computing power which I guess our computer scientists will be glad to give.

I hope we can solve many questions with this method of constructive analysis carrying onwards from the already done reverse engineering analysis (Darwin's laws and many other things). This is the way designers solve problem. Let's see if we have two world wars in this simulation also.

I found this video, I think it might be interesting to watch:

Here's another interesting link. The video is a bit long but after 17mins, the only thing you can say is: 'WOW'