Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

oadbandTechnically, broadband refers to the carrying of multiplecommunications channels in a single wire or cable. In thebroader sense used here, broadband refers to high-speeddata transmission over the Internet using a variety of technologies(see data communications and telecommubroadband57ficial skin and an array of 32 separate motors, Leonardo’sfacial expressions are much more humanlike than Kismet’s.Body language now includes shrugs. The robot can learnnew concepts and tasks both by interacting with a humanteacher and by imitating what it sees people do, startingwith facial expressions and simple games.Breazeal’s group at MIT is currently investigating waysin which computers can use “body language” to communicatewith users and even encourage better posture. “RoCo”is a computer whose movable “head” is a monitor screen.Using a camera, RoCo can sense the user’s posture andemotional state.Breazeal has also created “responsive” robots in newforms, and for venues beyond the laboratory. In 2003 theCooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New Yorkhosted a “cyberfloral installation” designed by Breazeal. Itfeatured “flowers” of metal and silicone that exhibit behaviorssuch as swaying and glowing in bright colors when aperson’s hand comes near.Besides earning her a master’s degree (1993) and doctoraldegree (2000) from MIT, Breazeal’s work has broughther considerable acclaim and numerous appearances in themedia. She has been widely recognized as being a significantyoung inventor or innovator, such as by Time magazineand the Boston Business Forward. Breazeal is one of 100“young innovators” featured in MIT’s Technology Review.Further ReadingBar-Cohen, Yoseph, and Cynthia Breazeal. Biologically InspiredIntelligent Robots. Bellingham, Wash.: SPIE Press, 2003.Biever, Celeste. “Robots Like Us: They Can Sense Human Moods.”San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2007. Available online. URL:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/06/ING9GPK9U51.DTL. Accessed May 7, 2007.Breazeal, Cynthia. Designing Sociable Robots. Cambridge, Mass.:MIT Press, 2002.Brooks, Rodney. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us.New York: Pantheon Books, 2002.Dreifus, Claudia. “A Passion to Build a Better Robot, One withSocial Skills and a Smile.” New York Times, June 10, 2003, p.F3.Henderson, Harry. Modern Robotics: Building Versatile Machines.New York: Chelsea House, 2006.Robotic Life Group (MIT Media Lab). Available online. URL:http://robotic.media.mit.edu/. Accessed May 1, 2007.Brin, Sergey(1973– )Russian-AmericanEntrepreneurCofounder and current president of technology at Google,Sergey Brin has turned the needs of millions of Web usersto find information online into a gigantic and pervasiveenterprise.Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, on August 21, 1973to a Jewish family (his father, Michael, was a mathematicianand economist). However, the family immigratedto the United States in 1979, settling in Maryland. Brin’sfather supplemented his education, particularly in mathematics.Brin graduated with honors from the Universityof Maryland in 1993, earning a bachelor’s degree in computerscience and mathematics. Brin then went to Stanford,receiving his master’s degree in computer science in 1995.Along the way to his Ph.D., however, Brin was “sidetracked”by his growing interest in the Internet and World WideWeb, particularly in techniques for searching for and identifyingdata (see also data mining).Search Engines and GoogleThe year 1995 was pivotal for Brin because he met fellowgraduate student Larry Page (see Page, Larry). Pageshared Brin’s interests in the Web, and they collaboratedon a seminal paper titled “The Anatomy of a Large-ScaleHypertextual Web Search Engine.” This work (includingthe key “PageRank” algorithm) would form the basis for theworld’s most widely used search engine (see Google andsearch engine).In 1998 Brin took a leave of absence from the Ph.D. program.The fall of that year Brin and Page launched Google.The search engine was much more useful and accurate thanexisting competitors, and received a Technical ExcellenceAward from PC magazine in 1999. Google soon appearednear the top of many analysts’ lists of “companies to watch.”In 2004 the company went public, and Brin’s personal networth is now estimated to be more than $16 billion. (Brinand Page remain closely involved with Google, promotinginnovation such as the aggregation and presentation ofinformation including images and maps.)Besides Google, Brin’s diverse interests include moviemaking(he was an executive producer of the film BrokenArrow) and innovative transportation (he is an investor inTesla Motors, makers of long-range electric vehicles). In2005 Brin was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 mostinfluential people. In 2007 Brin was named by PC World asnumber one on their list of the 50 most important peopleon the Web.Further ReadingBrin, Sergey, and Lawrence Page. “The Anatomy of a Large-ScaleHypertextual Web Search Engine.” Available online. URL:http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html. AccessedSeptember 3, 2007.“The Founders of Google.” NPR Fresh Air interview, October 14,2003 [audio]. Available online. URL: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1465274. Accessed September3, 2007.Sergey Brin’s Home Page. Available online. URL: http://infolab.stanford.edu/~sergey/. Accessed September 3, 2007.“Sergey Brin Speaks with UC Berkeley Class” [video]. Availableonline. URL: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7582902000166025817. Accessed September 3, 2007.