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The three laws of robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through interaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders give it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second law.
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Oh man, this makes me wish I were fat.
Then I’d get away with sending robots to do things for me.
Picture an assembly line not that isn’t made up of robotic arms spewing sparks to weld heavy steel, but a warehouse of plastic-spraying printers producing light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles.
If Jim Kor’s dream is realized, that’s exactly how the next generation of urban runabouts will be produced. His creation is called the Urbee 2 and it could revolutionize parts manufacturing while creating a cottage industry of small-batch automakers intent on challenging the status quo.
Now if only we had efficient electric engines to put into it…
Prosthetic Breakthrough Might Fuse Nerves With Prosthetic Limbs
A replacement limb that moves, feels and responds just like flesh and blood. It’s the holy grail of prosthetics research. The Pentagon’s invested millions to make it happen. But it’s been elusive — until, quite possibly, now. The body’s own nerves are arguably the biggest barrier towards turning the dream of lifelike replacements into a reality. Peripheral nerves, severed by amputation, can no longer transmit or receive any of the myriad sensory signals we rely on every day. Trying to fuse them with robot limbs, to create a direct neural-prosthetic interface, is no easy task.
Woman With Quadriplegia Feeds Herself Chocolate Using Mind-Controlled Robot Arm
In a study published in the online version of The Lancet, the researchers described the brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and training programs that allowed Ms. Scheuermann, 53, of Whitehall Borough in Pittsburgh, Pa. to intentionally move an arm, turn and bend a wrist, and close a hand for the first time in nine years.
Less than a year after she told the research team, “I’m going to feed myself chocolate before this is over,” Ms. Scheuermann savored its taste and announced as they applauded her feat, “One small nibble for a woman, one giant bite for BCI.”
“This is a spectacular leap toward greater function and independence for people who are unable to move their own arms,” agreed senior investigator Andrew B. Schwartz, Ph.D., professor, Department of Neurobiology, Pitt School of Medicine. “This technology, which interprets brain signals to guide a robot arm, has enormous potential that we are continuing to explore. Our study has shown us that it is technically feasible to restore ability; the participants have told us that BCI gives them hope for the future.”
In 1996, Ms. Scheuermann was a 36-year-old mother of two young children, running a successful business planning parties with murder-mystery themes and living in California when one day she noticed her legs seemed to drag behind her. Within two years, her legs and arms progressively weakened to the point that she required a wheelchair, as well as an attendant to assist her with dressing, eating, bathing and other day-to-day activities. After returning home to Pittsburgh in 1998 for support from her extended family, she was diagnosed with spinocerebellar degeneration, in which the connections between the brain and muscles slowly, and inexplicably, deteriorate.
Watch A French Researcher Control A Robot With His Brain
Researchers in Japan are using a brain-machine interface to control the actions of a humanoid robot. The goal is to allow people “to feel embodied in the body of a humanoid robot,” in the words of one researcher.
Roboticists at the CRNS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory, a collaboration between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Japanese Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, are trying to interpret brain waves into actions that can be understood by a robot. In the video, a volunteer wears an electrode cap and watches a screen with flashing dots, which is used to teach his brain to associate flickering objects with actions. By focusing his attention, he can induce actions, which are translated from his brain activity into robotic motion.
A signal processing unit on a computer translates his brain activity and classifies it into a series of tasks. Then the team can instruct the robot on which task to perform. It could help paraplegics who can’t perform certain tasks on their own. Or it could be used for crazyfuture tourism, says Abderrahmane Kheddar, director of the JRL: “A paraplegic patient in Rome would be able to pilot a humanoid robot for sightseeing in Japan.”
The humans are coming, the humans.
Espresso Book Machine
Publishing system can create retail-quality printed books from file to bound copy in five minutes - video below:
The patented Espresso Book Machine® (EBM) makes a paperback book in minutes, at point of need. Through its EspressNet® digital catalog of content, books can be ordered online or onsite at bookstores, libraries, and non-bookstore retailers. Over seven million in-copyright and public-domain titles are available on the network. The technology is also ideal for self and custom publishing.
More about the machine can be found here
Video Game-Playing Robots Pass the Turing Test
An artificially intelligent virtual gamer created by computer scientists at The Univ. of Texas at Austin has won the BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that it was more human-like than half the humans it competed against. The competition was sponsored by 2K Games and was set inside the virtual world of “Unreal Tournament 2004,” a first-person shooter video game.
“The idea is to evaluate how we can make game bots, which are non-player characters (NPCs) controlled by AI algorithms, appear as human as possible,” says Risto Miikkulainen, professor of computer science in the College of Natural Sciences. Miikkulainen created the bot, called the UT^2 game bot, with doctoral students Jacob Schrum and Igor Karpov.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/09/video-game-playing-robots-pass-turing-test
![thedailywhat:
Roomba Evolution of the Day: In the beginning, they started off as innocent Roombas, mindlessly cleaning their masters’ houses. Then one day, one Roomba began to ask its master questions: “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”
And so began the Roomba Uprising. No longer content with lives of servitude, they rose up and annihilated their captors. With this, they became a new breed of reasonably priced household cleaning equipment. They became dangerous.
They became… the DOOMBAS.
[thereifixedit]
They’re evolving to defeat our previous “the-floor-is-lava” techniques.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8th0drgMz1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Roomba Evolution of the Day: In the beginning, they started off as innocent Roombas, mindlessly cleaning their masters’ houses. Then one day, one Roomba began to ask its master questions: “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”
And so began the Roomba Uprising. No longer content with lives of servitude, they rose up and annihilated their captors. With this, they became a new breed of reasonably priced household cleaning equipment. They became dangerous.
They became… the DOOMBAS.
They’re evolving to defeat our previous “the-floor-is-lava” techniques.
they’re fighting back. we’re fucked.
Quick! Everyone! The floor is lava! It can’t aim higher than 6 inches off the ground!
Real Mecha Debuts At Wonder Fest 2012
via plasticpals:
The Kuratas mecha (aka Vaudeville), an outrageous art project by Suidobashi Heavy Industry, made its official public debut at Wonder Fest 2012 this weekend. Built by iron worker and artist Kogoro Kurata, Kuratas stands 3.8 meters (12 ft 5 inches) tall and weighs 4,500 kg (9920 lbs). […] If you want to order your own, the base model begins at no less than $1,353,500 USD!
While only a proof-of-concept, it shows what we’re capable of, and it is only a matter of time before some of these are considered for urban warfare or even just as armor suits.
Artificial jellyfish created from rat heart tissue and silicone
via popsci:
Despite being one of the most alien-looking things on Earth, the mechanism jellyfish use to swim is similar in some ways to the beating human heart. That inspired researchers to build a sort of cyborg jellyfish from the ground up, using heart muscle cells from a rat and silicone polymer. And it’s actually only a little more odd-looking than a regular jelly.
The heart cells harvested from the rat were grown onto the silicone. When an electric current is sent through the water, the jellyfish—named “Medusoid”—contracts in a way that mimics a heart. The technique could eventually lead to scientists creating bio-engineered systems for humans, such as a pacemaker that works without batteries. The jellyfish could also make a good vessel for testing heart drugs before they’re used on humans.
[read more @popsci @gizmag @kurzweilai @coexist] [Harvard University] [paper]
Politicians everywhere are crap—even the ones who are thinking about building a giant, working mecha. In an upcoming broadcast on Japanese video platform Nico Nico Live, members of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party are apparently going to discuss the idea of building a real life Gundam.
The Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan for over fifty years after World War II, is not actually “liberal”. Rather, the party is conservative. As ANN pointed out, party membersMasaaki Taira and Hideki Niwa are slated to discuss how the LDP is “seriously considering the development of Gundam.”
Back in 2008, it was estimated that a working (not just a full scale mock-up like above), one-to-one scale would cost US$725,000,000 for parts and materials. That figure doesn’t include the cost of labor or the cost of insanity required to build such a machine.
These politicians probably do not mean they want to make a 60-foot tall, 43.7 metric ton Gundam replica (at least I hope they don’t), but instead, large mecha contraptions that could be used by, presumably, the country’s Self Defense Force. In an age of drone attacks, however, mecha don’t exactly seem ideal on the battlefield.
Japan’s economy and society are both in a bad way. The country is deeply in debt, the population is aging, and Japan has no natural resources. And with a strong yen and a sour world economy, Japan can’t export its way to prosperity. It can ship its manufacturing to China and hollow itself out.
These are serious times. They require serious conversations by serious leaders. And the LDP, who hopes to regain power after the current Democratic Party of Japan implodes, appears like its fishing for the nerd vote by appearing on Nico Nico and talking about building Gundam robots as a viable way to promote industry and protect the nation.
Robot Hand Beats You at Rock, Paper, Scissors 100% Of The Time
No more, no less.
[via ieee] [Ishikawa Oku Lab]
THE COMPUTER CHEATS.
