An undated photo from the Campus Bio-Medico di Roma shows Pierpaolo Petruzziello's amputated hand linked with electrodes to a robotic hand.
(Credit: Campus Bio-Medico di Roma)European scientists have successfully built a brain-controlled bionic hand that could be used to kill or maim hundreds of humans in the coming robot versus humans' civil war. Or, far more admirably, allow amputees to feel hand sensations and manipulate their limb--via the brain--as if it were still there.
Pierpaolo Petruzziello--who lost his arm under the elbow in a car crash several years ago--has done just that, Italy's University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome announced Wednesday.
(Credit:
Campus Bio-Medico di Roma)
The biometric hand was developed at Pisa's Valdera Polo Sant'Anna School and surgically attached to Petruzziello's nervous system via electrodes implanted into the remaining part of his left arm, meaning the robotic body part was actually like an extension of his body. After the surgery at the University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome in November 2008, it took Petruzziello just days to start using the device.
During the LifeHand trial, which lasted a month, Petruzziello, 26, was able to experience sensations when grasping, making a fist, and apparently flipping the bird. No really. (There's nothing science can't do.)
The responses from the hand to commands sent from the brain were 95 percent correct, Paolo Maria Rossini, head of neurology for the project, said Wednesday. That's more than I can say for some of the people I know.
The next step, which is still at least a couple of years away, is to work out a more long-term experiment that would hopefully lead to cybernetic arms like the LifeHand as a viable option for amputees. The EU has spent $3 million and five years on the project so far, but in the end, if the experiments prove successful, we may be living with people with Luke Skywalker-style arms in just a few short years. I will outfit mine with a place to hide my flask.
Osaka, Japan-based Eager Co. is developing recyclable cardboard robots to work as mannequins that show off clothing in retail display spaces.
Eager showed off the female D+ropop mannequins at the recent 2009 International Robot Exhibition (iRex) here in Tokyo. They're billed as the world's most environmentally friendly robots because they're made of corrugated cardboard.
The mannequin bots only have a few servomotors but can still move their arms and heads gracefully. Each weighs about 13 pounds and is nearly 6 feet tall. They can also be painted and printed with logos for other advertising purposes.
The dummy bots will go on sale this month in Japan, priced at $5,400 and up. They can be rented for about $1,800 per week.
Eager envisions them being used in storefronts, and at events and other venues to attract attention. The company apparently aims to capture 1 percent of the global retail mannequin market, not easy for an obscure start-up in this economy.
But who knows? If Old Navy can cause a stir with its SuperModelquin mannequins, there's hope for the D+ropop gals.
Researchers in Japan are developing robotic roller skates as a new form of personal mobility.
(Credit:
Tim Hornyak)
Toshinobu Takei of Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) demonstrated his "Unit-type Micro-Mobility" device at the 2009 International Robot Exhibition (iRex) in Tokyo this week.
We haven't seen too many gadgets like these, but what with the plethora of prototype personal vehicles like Honda's U3-X unicycle in Japan lately, they aren't surprising.
The prototype skates are actually mechatronic versions of "takeuma," which are old-school bamboo stilts that kids used to play with in Japan before their lives were consumed by cell phones and video games.
The aluminum skates move automatically when the user leans forward, but the attached poles must also be grasped. Users can roll or step forward with them.
Each skate contains a wheel, three accelerometers, and gyroscopes, and weighs about 11 pounds, according to Takei, part of AIST's Field Robotics Research Group.
Top speed is about 2.5 mph.
Takei said the skates are still in development, but added they are less bulky than a Segway.
Could they spark a new roller disco boom? Everyone would dance The Robot, of course.
The autonomous Audi TTS makes test runs on salt flats.
(Credit: Volksagen)The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) conducted its autonomous vehicle races, the Grand Challenge and the Urban Challenge, in 2005 and 2007, but Volkswagen is still researching the technology. A combined effort with Volkswagen's Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL), Stanford University's Dynamics Design Lab (SDDL), and Sun Microsystem's resulted in the autonomous Audi TTS. The group working on the car is considering a run up the 12.4-mile Pikes Peak Hill Climb course in 2010 to demonstrate the capabilities of its driverless technology.
This new robot car is based on a 2009 Audi TTS, the sport version of the TT coupe. This car has Quattro all-wheel-drive and is motivated by a turbocharged, direct injection, 2-liter, four-cylinder engine producing 265 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. ERL fitted this car with the sensors, servos, and drive-by-wire equipment necessary for computer control, while SDDL developed the programming so the car can respond appropriately to sensor data. Sun built the computer platform to run the car.
Past autonomous cars from Volkswagen, developed by Stanford, have been a Touareg SUV and a Passat wagon. A video promoting the new Audi TTS shows the technology has progressed so that it can handle drifting and cross-turning the wheels, maneuvers necessary for any speedy run up Pike's Peak.
While this technology could lead to commutes and long freeway trips where you could sit back and let the car do the driving, the point of the current research is developing new safety technologies.
It even looks good.
(Credit: Withings)You take a scale. You give it Wi-Fi. And then you let it log in to your Twitter account to tell the world how much you weigh each morning. That's what this is: the Wi-Fi Body Scale.
At first it sounds silly, but the more I think about it the more I like the idea. If I'm trying to lose weight, this is a good way to force me to watch what I eat lest I embarrass myself in front of my Twitter followers. If it shows me blowing up like a whale instead of dropping pounds then I don't just know I'm doing something wrong, my peers do, too. Shame can be a powerful tool.
The $159 scale already records the user's body weight, lean and fat mass, and calculated body mass index (BMI) to a secure Web site accessible by the user. The Twitter integration, though, is a new feature. The Twitter feature is being called "peer motivation" by Withings, the scale's maker, and they're right. I'd call it "weight loss by fear as motivation," but I'm just some blogger.
You've probably heard of or even owned a computer that automatically turns off its hard drive when it senses shock or heavy vibrations. That is an example of sensitive human-machine intimacy. Another example I like is tilting the iPhone to use it as the driving bar for my racing games. Well, that nifty human-to-computer interaction is about to go to whole new level.
HP announced Thursday a new inertial-sensing technology that enables the development of digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers that are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than those in high-volume products currently available.
A MEMS accelerometer is a sensor that can be used to measure vibration, shock, or change in velocity. When implemented, this allows the device to "feel" the environment it is in.
According to HP, the new sensing technology--the result of HP's 25 years of nano-sensing research--includes multiple detectors as part of a complete sensor network and therefore is capable of real-time data collection, management evaluation, and analysis. This information enables users to make better, faster decisions, and take subsequent action to improve safety, security, and sustainability.
... Read more
(Credit:
Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET)
Say salam wa aleikum to an Arabic-speaking android developed at United Arab Emirates University and billed as the first of its kind in the world. It could enter mass production to help people at shopping malls.
The Ibn Sina robot, named after an 11th century philosopher, can recognize faces, converse with people by speaking in classical Arabic, connect to the Internet, and retrieve information. As seen in the video below, it can also exchange kisses with people.
Software for Ibn Sina was developed by a team led by computer science assistant professor Nikolaos Mavridis, with the mechanics by Hanson Robotics. Mavridis says some companies have approached his lab and asked about using the turban-wearing, bearded bot in shopping malls or as a receptionist.
Doubtless Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in English, would have been pleased.
A wireless digital 'plaster' that monitors vital signs is being tested on patients and volunteers at Imperial College London.
(Credit: Toumaz Technology)When you go to the doctor and you get your heart rate or blood pressure taken, the resulting data is narrow, since the measurements are taken of you doing just one thing: sitting still. True monitoring throughout someone's typical daily activities has until now been something of a pipe dream.
All that could be about to change.
A range of vital signs, including body temperature, heart rate, and respiration, is currently being monitored--continuously and remotely--by a small strip of digital plaster affixed to a patient's chest, neck, and/or arm.
... Read more
(Credit:
Michigan State University)
Michigan State University researchers are spawning robot fish to monitor the quality of lake water and the effect of harmful algae.
The prototype fish resemble other robot fish, such as those being developed at MIT to check for pollutants in water.
An electric charge in the 9-inch MSU prototype causes its polymer fins to bend so the robotic perch can maneuver. Designs call for onboard sensors to record temperature, oxygen, pollutant, and algae data, which would be relayed to a docking station when the fish surfaces. GPS systems and infrared sensors could be developed to aid navigation.
The fish are designed to be low-cost for applications such as monitoring aquafarms and water reservoirs. Compared with water sampling by humans, the robo-fish would provide a more regular data feed by communicating with each other and their docking station.
The MSU researchers hope to make the robot more robust so it can swim through currents. Currently it can only move through calm water.
If Japan-based NEC has its way, people who act as language translators could one day be replaced with head-mounted displays that project translations onto a retinal display. Come again?
(Credit:
NEC)
The Tele Scouter system is composed of an eyepiece with a front-mounted camera and a mic that picks up conversations and sends the data to a small computer worn on the user's waist.
The computer then transmits information to a remote server, which does the heavy processing work converting the foreign speech to text, translating it, and wirelessly sending it back to the tiny eye display for viewing. That seems like a whole lot of work to get to, "He said, 'Welcome to my country!'" but we'll roll with the idea for now.
Truth is we could use a translator to help us make complete sense of the English on NEC's product page, but we do know the TeleScouter isn't ready to show up at the U.N. just yet (or maybe ever).
Instead, NEC initially plans to market the device as a wearable hands-free display that could be used to show engineers and on-site and off-site technicians high-resolution user guides and manuals while they install or repair equipment.
In another workplace use, it could let a single expert simultaneously deliver text, video, and audio messages to multiple personnel--in real time.
NEC says it expects to start shipping the Tele Scouter next year, with a system that could serve a staff of 30 costing around 750 million yen ($8.16 million). Despite such exorbitant pricing, the company is aiming to sell 1,000 systems in three years.
How do you say, "We're intrigued, but we'll believe all this when we see it" in Japanese?
(Credit:
NEC)
(Via Gizmag)
