ISS loads up HAL

[Steve]

Not quite, but an eerily similar application has been loaded onto the International Space Station. "Clarissa" is a voice operated computer assistant which will start life helping the astronoughts onboard ISS test the onboard water supplies.

"The idea was to have a system that would read steps to them under their control, so they could keep their hands and eyes on whatever task they were doing," says Beth Ann Hockey, a computer scientist who leads the project at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, US.

That capability "will be like having another crew member aboard", says Fincke.

There's some clever voice recognition software in software in use designed to help distinguish between commands and general conversation and to also allow users to correct Clarissa when she misinterprets a command.

"No, I DIDN'T mean vent the air lock while he was still in it..."

Rest assured, Clarissa is nothing like HAL (so they tell us.) New Scientist has the full story. Thanks to Lee for the news tip.