This paper describes the recently developed SMVLite speech codec. SMVLite is the reduced complexity variant of the new 3GPP2 (3rd generation partnership project 2) CDMA standard SMV (selectable mode vocoder). SMV provides superior speech quality at low bit-rates compared to other CDMA codecs. However, its computational complexity is significantly higher than other CDMA standards, thereby rendering it inefficient for real-time implementation. We have developed a lower complexity version of the SMV called SMVLite. SMVLite is bit-stream interoperable with SMV and its voice quality is perceptually equivalent to SMV in all modes & conditions of interest. The computational complexity of SMVLite is 25% lower than SMV. The voice quality equivalence of SMV and SMVLite has been conclusively proven in a formal subjective listening test conducted at Dynastat

Within the field of Neuro Robotics we are driven primarily by the desire to understand how humans and animals live and grow and solve every day's problems. To this aim we adopted a "learn by doing" approach by building artificial systems, e.g. robots that not only look like human beings but also represent a model of some brain process. They should, ideally, behave and interact like human beings (being situated). The main emphasis in robotics has been on systems that act as a reaction to an external stimulus (e.g. tracking, reaching), rather than as a result of an internal drive to explore or "understand" the environment. We think it is now appropriate to try to move from acting, in the sense explained above, to "understanding". As a starting point we addressed the problem of learning about the effects and consequences of self-generated actions. How does the robot learn how to pull an object toward itself or to push it away? How does the robot learn that spherical objects roll while a cube only slides if pushed? Interacting with objects is important because it implicitly explores object representation, event understanding, and can provide definition of object-hood that could not be grasped with a mere passive observation of the world. Further, learning to understand what one's own body can do is an essential step toward learning by imitation. In this view two actions are similar not only if their kinematics and dynamics are similar but rather if the effects on the external world are the same. Along this line of research we discuss some recent experiments performed at the AI-Lab at MIT and at the LIRA-Lab at the University of Genova on COG and Babybot respectively. We show how the humanoid robots can learn how to poke and prod objects to obtain a consistently repeatable effect (e.g. sliding in a given direction), to help visual segmentation, and to interpret a poking action performed by a human manipulator.