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The beauty of Chinese calligraphy can now be judged by software. Researchers in China and the US have written a program that splits calligraphic characters into individual strokes and analyses each individually. To reach a decision, it compares the strokes on the sample to examples it has been shown of both “beautiful” calligraphy in books and “ugly” characters produced by novices.

Talk about big kids. A walking, talking, karate-chopping, humanoid robot is going on sale in October, aimed at men over 40. Just 16.5 centimetres tall, i-SOBOT is made by Tomy of Tokyo, Japan. The robot can make 200 movements,…

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