Q: How much does a Skilligent license cost?
A: For pricing information, please contact Skilligent or your local Skilligent distributor.
Q: Is it an open source product?
A: No, it is not. Please contact us if you absolutely must have the source code. In most cases, we are willing to open parts of the source code to certain customers especially in the defense sector.
Q: Are you willing to use a software escrow trustee?
A: Yes.
Q: Does Skilligent use any third-party software such as ... (face recognition, speech recognition, tracking, etc)?
A: No. All the required software is built by Skilligent and comes pre-packaged with the software.
Q: Does Skilligent own any patents?
A: We are hoping to secure several patents soon. The work is in progress.
Algorithms
Q: Is Skilligent based of neural network algorithms?
A: No. Neural networks are a useful design pattern for certain types of tasks. Skilligent uses "traditional" software designs for the components that perform those tasks.
Q: Does it use SIFT image feature detector?
A: No, the computer vision system uses a modified Harris Corner Detector algorithm.
Q: Does Skilligent utilize any of the reinforcement learning algorithms (Q-Learning, TD-Learning ...)?
A: Yes. Skilligent utilizes some special forms of reinforcement learning in the processing and decision making hierarchy. The reinforcement learning algorithms are combined with a set of supervised learning algorithms to create a system which can acquire new skills pretty quickly.
Q: Is Skilligent software makes robots conscious?
A: No, the software is not conscious. The future versions of the software will feature some elements of consciousness; that is an area of special interest for Skilligent team.
Applications
Q: Can it learn how to cook?
A: Yes, it should be able to learn how to cook a particular dish in a particular structured environement (kitchen). Various limitations can be overcome by environmental scaffolding and other methods.
System integration
Q: Can Skilligent use my sensor (FireWire camera, LADAR, GPS)?
A: In general, Skilligent can utilize any sensors that an underlying platform provides. The trickier question is how to convert output of those sensors into a form which the behavior system can handle. Some of the sensors (such as touch sensor or a GPS sensor) don't require any pre-processing and can be used by the system directly through simple drivers. Other sensors (such as a video camera or a microphone) require intensive preprocessing. The product comes with sensor processing layers for a few kinds of sensors (video and audio). The others can be added by a system integrator using Skilligent Development Kit.
