Baby Meets Big Brother For Science 188
dylanduck writes "A baby is to be monitored by a network of microphones and video cameras for 14 hours a day, 365 days a year, in an effort to unravel the seemingly miraculous process by which children acquire language. I guess that's what happens when your pop works at MIT's Media Lab. Thankfully his parents can switch off the surveillance for 'private' moments and delete short scenes. All the footage is being classified by algorithms."
The mom... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The mom... (Score:1)
Re:The mom... (Score:2)
Re:The mom... (Score:3, Funny)
There is one problem with that joke. Since when did hot models marry (or even date) us geeks, rich or not? Disprove my conjecture, please.
Re:The mom... (Score:2)
Wait this sounds familiar (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wait this sounds familiar (Score:1)
Re:Wait this sounds familiar (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wait this sounds familiar (Score:2)
Videos (Score:3, Interesting)
If you can't see them, there are 9 fish eye cameras mounted at certain points of the house and a day passes in 30 seconds (a la National Geographic plant blooming or Requiem for a Dream old lady on crack).
Each camera seems to have a round piece of paper ready to flip up and down to cover it (possibly via light switch in the room/area) should the family choose it to be necessary.
I think this is a wonderful and innovative idea, my only concern resides in the child's rights. I'm going to say I don't agree with even releasing these short clips to the public. I believe that this footage should be collected, protected & anonymity of the child enforced until the child is 18--at which point they will be capable of releasing the footage under whatever license (GPL even, lol) they deem appropriate. I understand that the parents have full custody, I only hope this child is in no way taken advantage of like so many prodigious children are by their parents.
Re:Videos (Score:2)
Care to enforce that rule with America's Funniest Home Videos as well?
Final Cut (Score:2)
This is going to yield a huge dataset! I imagine a couple CS majors could make a good senior project out of writing the sorting algorithms. I'd be kind of interesting to see a follow-up on how they're going to go about that. The kind of data
Re:Final Cut (Score:2)
Re:Videos (Score:2)
What makes you think an 18 year old will make a decision about the video they won't regret when they are older? Given that, what's the difference between parents making that decision for data in their own house?
Besides, 18 years of age is an arbitrary amount of elapsed life. Why not 16? Or 30? Can the parents skirt the issue by having signs posted around the house saying "video and audio of this room is recorded between xam and ypm."? You don't have copyrights to video of yourself in public when this type o
Re:Videos (Score:2)
Re:Videos (Score:2)
Because as the owner of his own image, the baby can decide when he's older that he made a mistake at 18 and opt to release it to the public.
If the father makes it public now, and the child decides at either 18 or 80 that he does not want this stuff out there -- well, it's too late now, isn't it?
Think of it this way: will this guy ever have a shot at a career in politics?
Re:Videos (Score:3, Interesting)
the 18 year old can still have regrets later...
Re:Videos (Score:2)
Re:Videos (Score:2)
Clearly, the courts will say this experiment is legal based solely on the presence of such signs in the baby's room.
Who cares about the privacy of an infant? (Score:1)
Re:Who cares about the privacy of an infant? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Who cares about the privacy of an infant? (Score:2, Insightful)
I can see how this argument can be made for a 3 or 5 year-old, since they are starting to have personality and make their own choices. But simply observing infants is pretty much all the same - they slee
Re:Who cares about the privacy of an infant? (Score:2)
You are trying to make a rational argument about what is mostly an emotional issue.
No, there is typically no reason to (for example) be scared of most spiders, flying in an airplane or such, yet people are even when understanding why it is unreasonable.
Re:Videos (Score:2)
As for memory going back to birth: I find that pretty unlikely. There's
Re:Videos (Score:1)
Baby's first words (Score:5, Funny)
"beep"
"zzzzZZZZZZzzz"
"click click click click"
Will parents delete first swear word? (Score:2)
Re:Will parents delete first swear word? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Will parents delete first swear word? (Score:1)
This question is like (Score:1)
I really wish we could solve this once and for all and just move on, hopefully this can help.
(cue the jokes about how some slashdotters have the grammar skills of a three-year-old etc).
Re:This question is like (Score:1)
Think of the children!
Re:This question is like (Score:2)
Feral Kidlets (Score:2)
(Feral children covers a broad spectrum - we are not just talking about 'raised by wolves' h
Re:This question is like (Score:1)
If three year olds have more or less perfect grammar by age 3, what the hell happens to adults? Seriously, is it something in the drinking water?
Re:This question is like (Score:2)
Broca's Area (Score:2)
It was this that Carl Sagan wrote of in Broca's Brain when he speculated on our ability to speak and communicate adeptly and sets us apart from animals.
I'd like to see this invetsigated further.
Footage Classifications (Score:5, Funny)
4% Pooping
26% Fussiness
8% Crying
18% Eating
21% Drooling
22% Peek a Boo
1% Language Acquisition
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:1)
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:2)
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:2)
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:5, Funny)
22% Pick a Boob
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Footage Classifications (Score:2)
I hate to tell you... (Score:2)
I call it... The Monroe Box! (Score:1, Redundant)
Grampa: Uh huh. Sounds interesting. How much will it cost to build?
Monroe: Oh, that's the beauty part! It's already built! I need the money to buy a baby to raise in the box until the age of thirty.
Grampa: What are you trying to prove?
Monroe: Well, my theor
No lack of footage... (Score:1)
Ha! (Score:2)
Hell, her still photos could be used as a flipbook.
Baby videos? (Score:1)
Re:Baby videos? (Score:2)
Probably "he touched me here..." while pointing to a doll in the courtroom.
Ever notice that what is easy is hard? (Score:3, Interesting)
Just like it is easy to write a program that can calculate sin but really hard to write one that can follow verbal directions as well as a a four year old?
In other words it is easy to teach a machine what is taught in school.
It is very hard to teach a machine what is taught by parents.
Re:Ever notice that what is easy is hard? (Score:1)
I dunno, in these our modern times sin has become pretty much incalculable.
Re:Ever notice that what is easy is hard? (Score:2)
Get two of the smartest, most well-read and diligent scientists together, and they can design and screate amazing wonders... Yet they still can't create anything even remotely as complex as two of the dumbest fucks (pun intended) in the world can do if they're of the opposite sexes.
If only it were the other way around...
Re:Ever notice that what is easy is hard? (Score:2)
I must have missed that one on the shelf at Fry's. Is there an Open Source version?
Re:Ever notice that what is easy is hard? (Score:2)
call me crazy... (Score:2)
How do they know that this type of intervention/interference at such an impressionable age won't have life altering reprocussions? There are just some things that should be left well enough alone and this is one of them.
Maybe it's just me though.
It can be worst (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonanza [wikipedia.org]
Re:It can be worst (Score:2)
Interaction is the answer. (Score:2, Informative)
The baby will make sounds constantly. More and more sounds as time progresses.
The parents (video camera operators?) will from time to time notice sounds that sound like sounds they understand and respond very positively to these sounds.
OH MY!!!!! I just heard the baby say XX OR XX OR XX OR XX (all references to daddy).
All these will be thought to be something profound concerning the babies actions.
But not due to the baby saying them, but becau
Computational Linguistics (Score:3, Interesting)
What would be better is to develop algorithms that try and mimic the learning process we already have observed in native language acquisition and then continue to refine our algorithms until we have perfected that process. We will only know we have it right when you can take those same algorithms, put them to use by exposing it to a different language and have it still learn it right.
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:1)
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:2)
Someone else above mentioned taking frequeent fMRI's - this would tell us more about what actually is going on.
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:2)
I think that's the point. We know a lot about when certain things occur, but we don't really know how and we're just starting to learn the progression. Infants absorb information constantly, so observing one for a couple of hours a day might provide milestones in development but provide little evidence of how those milestones are reached. That's what this project is getting at
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:2)
As someone who is studying computational linguistics, I am sure you are aware that there are some who argue (Chomsky, Pinker) that the human mind has built-in preconceptions about language, and that language ability is more development than learning?
Can I assume you would argue that language is primarily learned?
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:2)
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:2)
I'm wondering, does anyone working towards self-aware systems consider implementing anything similar to Asimov's 3 Laws? I mean, a true AI with an internet connection could quite easily be the worst thing that ever happens to humanity (or the best, but it's the worst that needs to be prepared for.) I have the sneakin
Re:Computational Linguistics (Score:2)
FYI, in the machine learning community ANNs have mostly been phased out in favor of things like support vector machines [wikipedia.org], which tend to be much less prone to overfitting problems. There's a number of sources of available code, as well as variants of SVMs specialized for linguistics-style problems. I'd heartily suggest checking them out.
Well... (Score:2, Funny)
I did something like this (Score:4, Interesting)
What I found is that the sample size was way too small. Almost every child has vastly different development patterns and to see the big picture you need a bigger sample than one kid. We're talking about a huge effort to collect that much data on many children but I think that is what will be required to even begin to understand how it works.
There's no point in entering anymore... (Score:1)
Proud first words (Score:5, Funny)
I once saw a Mother eating some take-out fast food with her gurgling offspring. The kid was very vocal but couldn't say anything more than "goo" and "ga ga." The mother was doing the traditional "say Mommy, say Mommmmeeeee" thing when the kid pointed at the logo on the paper cup and said, very clearly, "McDonalds."
The mother did not look pleased.
Re:Proud first words (Score:2)
I have a seventeen month old. Her first words were, I believe, Mommy and Daddy, but following very closely behind that was "kitty." Since then, our cat has been a constant source of fascination for her, and prompts a lot of conversations along these lines:
the kid: Kitty!
me: Yes, honey. It's a kitty!
the kid: Lookitda kitty!
me: I know! I see the kitty!
the kid: Mao mao mao!!!!!
Et cetera.
Re:Communist Baby? (Score:2)
(Well, ethnically Russian, but from Ukraine)
Re:Proud first words (Score:4, Interesting)
There's one thing I still don't understand. Sure, I know that McDonalds all pervasive advertising campaign virtually assure brand recognition by age three. I know that McDonalds isn't the only company engaged in this. I know how this works.
No. What I don't understand is why it works. Why do children fixate on McDonalds so much? What is the secret sause here? And it's not just McDonalds. Apparently, brand loyalty can be instilled before the third year.
This perplexes me. What's driving these kids to say McDonalds before Mommy?
Re:Proud first words (Score:2)
Re:Proud first words (Score:2)
For starters you've got the fact that a lot of the brands that go after kids have (you'll note) simple clear logo designs that tend to be in very crisp vibrant colours. If you're looking for something to imprint on a small mind then simple clear lines and bright colours are the way to go.
In practice
Re:Proud first words (Score:2)
First Post!
.
.
.
Oh.
Re:Proud first words (Score:2)
Then again, I don't watch much children's television. It's incredibly easy to influence young children. I bought my nephew some He-Man DVDs for Christmas, and now his favorite toys at Grandma's are my old He-Man toys from the 80s.
Re:Proud first words (Score:2)
Re:Proud first words (Score:3)
This is hardly scientific, but this is what I think:
1) M
Am I the only one (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one (Score:1)
If I had to draw an analogy, I'd say it's kind of like the difference between having a police officer glare at you dissaprovingly and being jailed.
I've Seen This Movie Already... (Score:1, Redundant)
Interesting (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
I wish I had my Child Psych text from college with me. I used to think that, too, but there was a study noted in the text that showed that baby talk actually helped language acquisition. I
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
(Someone had to say it...)
Segfaults? (Score:4, Funny)
Ha! Just imagine what an algorithm would say when it fills its nappy: "Core dump - segfault at location @r$e."
Iterative refinement (Score:3, Insightful)
however some constructive critism by the clients (parents) is offered - eg "Da-da". Baby then adapts the first prototype and re-demos it for the users and clients. And so on.
By the time version 3 (years) is reached baby is still in the iterative refinement design and development mode. For example: "I eated dinner". The user-clients offer "I ate dinner" as a correction that is a new feature in version 3.5.
Re:Iterative refinement (Score:2)
I have a three year old and an 11 mo. old, so we are in both stages right now. It seems to me to be about a constant input-praise-input cycle. My three year old's vocabulary is increasing so rapidly it is amazing to witness, and the young one is trying so hard to communicate (sometimes anyway; others it is just 'can I make noise?').
On the topic of being recorded 14 hrs a day, I sure would not want that. Maybe it is just personal preference w
He is to be commended... (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:2)
The father and mothers friends, family, and neighbors will stop returning their calls after the second time they hear "come see the video of everything junior did today!"
Junior's first girlfriend will die of starvation after 36 straight hours of family videos.
Junior will spend the second 5 years of his live watching what he did for the first 5 years of his life. That 5 year event will be recorded and used to determine how people learn by watching videos of themselves learning.
Be afraid. (Score:2)
...Ye gods, this must be where Hilton sisters come from!!
The kid who stopped talking (Score:2)
At some point, the child became disturbed by this and simply stopped talking.
The psychi
That's fine ... (Score:2)
eh-Widdeh (Score:2)
A language-acquisition researcher recorded her daughter's waking activities continuously for several years as she developed language.
One interesting thing to come out of this was that, as one point (I think about the three-word utterance stage) the kid started using this word that sounded something like "ehWIDdeh". (I don't recall exactly how the researcher spelled it but that's about what it sounded like.) It was never really clear what she mea
worst dinner party EVER (Score:2)
Two things: (Score:2)
Doesn't the ability to cease data collection invalidate any insight that might be provided?
Observation causes change (Score:2)
Just the fact that the parents know there is recording going on is going to modify things. The extra time they take to deal with it and delete things is going to modify how the child learns.
I'm not saying it's not cool, but it's not without some effects (even if small) on the child. S
Re:This has been done before. (Score:2)
Re:Children as science (Score:2)
I believe the proper term for this is a "lab-brat"