Research into artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about many pluses over the last 20 years.

Most of them thanks to the lower-level cognitive sciences that involve fuzzy logic, neural networks and pattern recognition technologies. These are established disciplines that allow machines to recognise objects and make simple decisions.

Today, all these technologies have made their way into many routine products in the home, said Dr Wlodzislaw Duch, a senior visiting fellow with Nanyang Technological University's School of Computer Engineering.

For example, many car parks use character recognition technology to remember car licence plate numbers so that they know how long you stayed in the lot, while call centres use pattern recognition systems to direct callers to the right departments.

Here are two applications of AI in daily lives.

Good driver or good car?

Today's automatic cars are programmed to recognise your driving habits and its gears adjust themselves to shift up or down according to your style.

SM Motors technical manager Niklas Viiala said: 'Artificial intelligence built into adaptive automatic transmissions systems 'learn' your driving habits - whether you are a pragmatic fuel economy-minded driver or a sporty hard-revving type - and adapts the transmission shift parameters to suit your driving style.'

This improves the response of the car. For example, aggressive drivers will find that the gears will upshift quicker for better acceleration. Over time, this also minimises abrupt gearshifts and improves passenger comfort.

New technology built into cars like the upcoming Volvo S40 claims it will even reduce traffic accidents. Ho

Sensors in the car constantly monitor road and car conditions like the roll, wind velocity and car speed. If these parameters exceed a certain limit, then the onboard computer will temporarily shut down all possible distractions to allow you to concentrate on driving.

Say, you are driving on a windy, winding road. The car will hold incoming calls to the car phone and unimportant alerts like insufficient wiper water supply until you are past that dangerous stretch.

Washing well

Modern washing machines automatically determine the optimum settings to get your clothes clean with the use of fuzzy logic. That's the 'skill' that gets machines to make 'best case' decisions based on incomplete information.

Previously, washing machines were manually set. You had to make trial-and-error decisions on the amount of washing detergent, the size of the load, and the length of washing time. A fuzzy logic controller, comprising sensors, microchips and software algorithms, mathematically works out the amount of dirt and type of dirt on the clothes with the help of an optical sensor, which measures the transparency of the water.

When the clothes are loaded into the washing machine and water added, the sensor checks to see how dirty the water is - dirtier clothes mean dirtier water, naturally. It also checks the type of dirt on the clothes by how fast the water gets saturated by the dirt. With this input, the fuzzy logic controller determines how soiled the load is, decides how much detergent is needed and how long it must wash the clothes.

SMART MACHINES

Other products that use artificial intelligence include: