LDF wrote:Looks like you missed the big Nvidia conference.
GPUs are used in AI, voice recognition, and in self driving vehicles, among other things.
If you've ever noticed what's on the computer monitors next to the folks doing all the work in advanced love dolls, you'll also notice there's a lot of 3D modelling going on (graphics processing).
IMHO:
GPUs make sense for Androids. They can model the Androids "Bones", the environment (through recognition apps), and they're great at speech processing. If you ever want your Sexbot to dance for you, it's going to need a GPU.
It's true, I did miss the "big Nvidia conference," but it didn't really change my opinion. I did learn some things though. It was rather lengthy, but I watched it at work and got paid to do so. One thing I found interesting was the way the Nvidia speaker described their version of Image recognition. Using cameras and sensors, the AI builds a virtual world, much like NVidia's "Holodeck" which I also found fascinating, then figures out what to do in the virtual world before doing it in the real world. That's a big shift from the way it is currently being done. They've also made a lot of progress on self driving cars. Did you notice how many times they mentioned Fanuc robots? One thing I was not aware of was that the speaker said they had partnered with Fanuc as of October. That should yield improvements in robot surgeons and other delicate jobs robots will soon be doing.
As I've said before, there are dozens of robots in the factory I work. The vast majority of them are Fanuc, arguably the leaders of industrial robot technology. Do they have GPUs? No. CPUs? No. They are controlled exclusively by PLCs, as I suggested above. Fanuc actually makes their own proprietary PLC, and that's what's in them. Most of ours are 2 to 4 axis, with some type of "gripper" mechanism attached to the "arm." Yep, I'm talking about these, and so was the Nvidia speaker. Sex dolls were not mentioned.
https://www.fanucamerica.com/
However, in order to create walking/talking sexbots, IR and VR must improve drastically. The speaker claims Nvidia is leading the way in those areas, and I will not argue that. They may very well be. But keep in mind, this highly touted "volta" GPU works "in conjunction with a supercomputer." I suggested a quantum computer, which is the direction super computers appear to be heading. So I was NOT wrong. One thing I definitely agree with the speaker on, is that software must write software. It has become too complicated and huge for error prone humans to write.
Obviously, the stationery robots that we (the engineering department in my plant) maintain are a far cry from a sex bot. They are blind and deaf, with no need for a GPU. The Graphics Processing Unit renders graphics. It can crunch mind-numbing numbers at incredible speeds, but it doesn't control I/O (inputs, outputs, motors, valves, etc.) to create movement. This is where the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) is king and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Sure, a raspberry pi can do some I/O, and some PLC systems use a computer to control their I/O, but they pale in comparison to an Allen-Bradley PLC such as a ControlLogix system.
http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Progra ... ntrolLogix
These PLCs (and others like Fanuc) are the brains behind modern industrial machines. They command the actuators and receive the input from the sensors, prox switches, light curtains, switches, etc. Yes, they can be slaves to a computer, server, or other remote device, but when it comes time to move something, with a motor, cylinder, or other actuator, the command nearly always comes from a PLC. As long as we are using actuators, and not some type of artificial muscles, that's how I expect it to be driven. I've been in this field a very long time, and have seen our machines evolve from old relay panels with miles of wires, to the robot infested high tech machinery we have today.