Abstract: Described is a robotic control device for manipulating a gripper-held tool. The device includes a robotic gripper having a plurality of tactile sensors. Each sensor generates tactile sensory data upon grasping an tool based on the interface between the tool and the corresponding tactile sensor. In operation, the device causes the gripper to grasp a tool and move the tool into contact with a surface. A control command is used to cause the gripper to perform a pseudo-random movement with the tool against the surface to generate tactile sensory data. A dimensionality reduction is performed on the tactile sensory data to generate a low-dimensional representation of the tactile sensory data, which is then associated with the control command to generate a sensory-motor mapping. A series of control commands can then be generated in a closed-loop based on the sensory-motor mapping to manipulate the tool against the surface.

Abstract: This invention describes an intelligent water heater controller that can use many inputs to learn the behavior of user over time. The controller is then able to predict when hot water is required and is able to turn the water heater on or off intelligently or to increase or reduce the water heating element so that the hot water is available when needed while reducing the energy consumption. User is able to communicate with the water heater controller via smart phone, tablet or computer remotely and change and parameter or configuration of the controller. The controller is also able to communicate events to the user's smart phone, tablet or computer.

Abstract: This invention describes an intelligent water heater controller that can use many inputs to learn the behavior of user over time. The controller is then able to predict when hot water is required and is able to turn the water heater on or off intelligently or to increase or reduce the water heating element so that the hot water is available when needed while reducing the energy consumption. User is able to communicate with the water heater controller via smart phone, tablet or computer remotely and change and parameter or configuration of the controller. The controller is also able to communicate events to the user's smart phone, tablet or computer.

Abstract: This invention describes how a panoramic view can be created in real-time using multiple ordinary video cameras by splicing the video frames in real-time. It also describes how a subset of that panoramic view can be viewed on customer screen and how a customer can smoothly shift and scroll or zoom the customer view in real-time to view the other parts of the panoramic view using a remote control device. This invention also describes how all this can be achieved economically by using a cloud service such as assigning a Virtual Machine to each customer and using hardware acceleration engines in the data center such as high-end video cards.

Abstract: Systems and techniques are described for distributed control and coordination of autonomous agents in a system. A protocol for distributed control allows autonomous agents to negotiate a group task for the agents, such as locomotion or self-reconfiguration in a robot application, and to synchronize individual agent actions to effect the group task. A protocol for adaptive communication allows autonomous agents, such as physically coupled self-sufficient robot modules, to continuously discover changes in their local topology. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: discovering a local topology, which includes a type of a communication connection to autonomous agents in the reconfigurable network topology, and determining an action based upon a received control message and the determined local topology.