[Nfbf-l] Ray Kurzweil to join Google

[Alan Dicey]

Dear Friends,
I have not seen his name mentioned for quite a while, but he is always on my 
mind, each time I use my scanner to read my mail, bills mostly (smile).!
We the Blind or Visually Impaired People in this world owe so much to this 
gentleman!
Anyone remember those first  Kurzweil  /  Xerox machines, Or was it Xerox / 
Kurzweil   ?
They were larger than a large desk and cost $50,000 each.
The UPS Center in Miami donated one to the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, 
and only a very few people were permitted to even be around that big 
machine, as it was well, expensive!
 An incredible gentleman, and surely one of those that made a difference for 
us!
With Best Regards,
Alan
Miami, Florida

Ray Kurzweil to join Google
The noted artificial intelligence expert will become director of engineering
By Martyn Williams
December 14, 2012 07:25 PM ET

IDG News Service -
Well-known American inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil is joining Google.
The 64-year-old, whose work includes computer and machine intelligence, 
neuroscience and virtual reality, revealed the move on his blog on Friday.
Kurzweil said his work at Google would focus on new projects involving 
machine learning and language processing. The job begins on Monday, when 
Kurzweil will take the title director of engineering, he wrote.
"I've been interested in technology, and machine learning in particular, for 
a long time: when I was 14, I designed software that wrote original music, 
and later went on to invent the first print-to-speech reading machine for 
the blind, among other inventions. I've always worked to create practical 
systems that will make a difference in people's lives, which is what excites 
me as an inventor," he wrote.
"In 1999, I said that in about a decade we would see technologies such as 
self-driving cars and mobile phones that could answer your questions, and 
people criticized these predictions as unrealistic. Fast forward a decade --  
Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking 
questions of their Android phones. It's easy to shrug our collective 
shoulders as if these technologies have always been around, but we're really 
on a remarkable trajectory of quickening innovation, and Google is at the 
forefront of much of this development," he wrote.
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general 
technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter 
at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams at idg.com