The approach is emerging as a way to enable machines to perform complex tasks while consuming far less power.
Web services standards -- developed by industry and academic computer scientists -- seek to enable machine-to-machine communication, allowing corporate and personal databases to transport information seamlessly.
Legged locomotion is an important goal in robotics because it will enable machines to cover uneven or treacherous terrain and enter buildings designed for humans.
"The idea is that you can enable machines to recognize our emotions so they can interact with us at much deeper levels," says graduate student Fadel Adib.
A classic example is the field of artificial intelligence (AI), defined as the quest to enable machines to do things that would require intelligence if performed by a human.
Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Baidu are all investigating how deep learning can enable machines to understand language, and perhaps even converse with us (see "Teaching Machines to Understand Us").
In the 1970s CNC systems, controlled by dedicated mini- or microcomputers, were developed to enable machine tools to be readily adapted to different jobs by altering the control program, or software.
Another is to enable machine operators to solve the problem themselves, thereby avoiding the delay until maintenance staff is sent from different locations.
Prof Nando de Freitas, Prof Phil Blunsom, Dr Edward Grefenstette and Dr Karl Moritz Hermann from Dark Blue Labs will focus on research to enable machines, be they computers or robots, to better understand what users say and are asking of them.
We're still a long way from erasing the difference, but my long-term goal is to enable machines to reach human-like capabilities in language understanding and decision making.
