Hi all,
Sorry about the last post, I sent it too soon. Anyway, saw this msg
on another list, thought it would be interesting to folks here.
Ann P.
Reading machine for blind wins inventor prize
Updated 8:41 AM ET April 26,
2001
by Charles Cooper, ZDNet News
Raymond Kurzweil's 35-year track record of
inventions was rewarded with the $500,000
Lemelson-MIT prize.
Raymond Kurzweil was going through the 20-odd messages left on his
answering
machine when his ears pricked up upon hearing the voice of
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology professor Lester Thurow.
"My first thought was, 'What the heck does he want?'" said Kurzweil,
who created
the first reading machine for blind people. In short order, the
peripatetic inventor
learned he was $500,000 richer, the recipient of the Lemelson-MIT
prize.
The prize, which will be presented to Kurzweil on Wednesday in
Washington, D.C.,
recognizes his 35-year track record inventing technologies in areas as
diverse as
pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and speech reading.
"It's great to be recognized where there aren't a lot of real rewards
for inventing," said
Kurzweil. "It's particularly gratifying to be recognized by peers."
The Lemelson prize is named after Jerome Lemelson, a former toy
industry executive
and inventor famous for filing patent infringement lawsuits against a
wide variety of
defendants. Velcro darts, medical equipment, VCRs, cassette tape
decks, fax
machines, Hot Wheels tracks, semiconductor manufacturing equipment,
industrial
robotics and wiper blades were but some of the inventions Lemelson
claimed
infringed his 500 plus patents.
Few cases went to trial, but lawsuit settlements totaled in the
millions of dollars,
according to legal experts.
Beginning in 1976, when Kurzweil created a reading machine to give
voice to any
written text--a system first used by songwriter Stevie Wonder--the
inventor had
already founded and sold four companies.
Kurzweil has authored a couple of books about the future of
technology, charting out
his views on the blurring distinction between human and machine and an
emerging era
where scientists will be able to routinely send microscopic
"nanobots"--cell-sized
robots--into our bloodstreams to repair damage.
More recently, he has concentrated on work in the field of virtual
reality.
Some of Kurzweil's predictions have triggered controversy. He and Bill
Joy, chief
scientist at Sun Microsystems, have been involved in a yearlong debate
about the use
and abuse of technology and its potential impact on civilization. In a
piece he wrote a
year ago, Joy outlined what he saw as the danger posed by technologies
such as
robotics and genetic engineering.
Still, in an earlier interview, Kurzweil struck an optimistic chord
about the future,
saying prescriptive vigilance by responsible practitioners is the best
safeguard.
Kurzweil plans to donate a portion of the prize money to a foundation
he has set up
for blind students. The rest will go toward his research.
Reflecting on the importance of the prize, Kurzweil said he hoped to
be remembered
for making contributions to the field of pattern recognition.
"There has been a lot of attention to artificial intelligence over the
decades but not that
much to pattern recognition, which in my opinion, is the real key to
human
intelligence," he said.
"What's gratifying is making that leap from dry formulas to making
transformations in
people's lives," he added. "If I get a letter from a blind student who
credits our
machine with getting his information, that's a very exciting thing."
==========================================
DakotaLink Equipment Recycling Program http://dakotalink.tie.net/eqcon
DakotaLink Home Page http://dakotalink.tie.net/
DakotaLink Assistive Technology Listserv - Email
[log in to unmask], type "subscribe dlserv" in body without quotes.
--
Ann K. Parsons
email: [log in to unmask] ICQ Number: 33006854
WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp
"All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT
|