Nowadays, healthcare and elder care is a big concern in Japan, whose population is aging more rapidly than their current human-centric infrastructure is prepared to cope with. Companies like Toyota are hoping that robots will be able to pick up a little bit of the slack, and this week they've introduced four new robotic systems designed to help keep people healthy and independent as long as possible.
The first couple system are designed to provide single-leg walking assistance to people who have balance issues, or even people suffering from complete paralysis in one leg. The robotic structure is capable of supporting the entirely of your weight on one leg, and it will swing your leg forward for you as you walk. If you can hold yourself up, the second system will provide you with visual feedback to help you get balance back and start walking on your own.
This is CIROS, a household service robot from the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, and it's going to take that giant knife right there and use it to whip up a big fat cucumber salad for you while definitely not stabbing any human.
Most of people heard of the robot's features might be saying to themselves, "cucumbers and dressing? What kind of crummy salad is that!" After watching the video, you will know that whatever cucumber slicing and salad dressing algorithms this robot is employing have been painstakingly optimized on a supercomputer to result in the best tasting salad ever. Plus, it's made by robot.
According to a KIST official, CIROS is able to recognize common objects as well as kitchen appliances like microwaves, sinks, refrigerators, and dishwashers, and can move intelligently through its environment. eg. It can perform tasks like pouring tea and other drinks for people (without spilling anything), and can even do the dishes.
As
the security issues being discussed these days, some of the Japanese firms
start to rent the Surveillance Drones which can monitor your own priority.
The
light weight tower structure lets users mount diverse payloads and easily
access all electronics. Besides, the users can easily integrate his / her own
individual sensors and process the gathered data directly on board of the flight
vehicle. Here’s the drone in action.
From the video, we can learnt about the
drone It's not designed to do any proactive security, but rather to take on
more of a surveillance role, collecting pictures of unfamiliar people and
vehicles and notifying the authorities. It's not exactly the stealthiest at
doing this, although sounding like a huge swarm of insects may also serve as
something of a deterrent.
Leslie Lin
To find out more! Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/27/secom-offers-a-private-security-drone/
It has come to my knowledge that, in Europe, strokes are the
most common cause of physical disability among the elderly. A group of
researchers from 6 nations came together to develop a robotic system specially
designed to assist the human body recover from a stroke. The name of the
project is called the CORBY'S Project and their ultimate goal is to create a
system to assist past and present patients with training, motivation and
walking.
A part of their project is the mobile robot assisted gait
rehabilitation system which involves physiological data such as a heart rate
and muscle activity measurements to help control the robot involved with the
rehabilitation.
The entire concept is based on assisting patients to move
his/her legs as if the stroke never happened. If a person suffers a stroke, the
area of the body may become partially paralysed; therefore, function of limbs
and body parts in that area of the body becomes useless. The robot has so many
levels and options available. First there is the learning mode then gradually
there is a corrective mode which is at the assistance of a physiotherapist. The
next step after that is the Parameter based adaptation which requires the
patient to wear a cap to measure brain activity. The robot then adapts to the
patient’s movements and then allows the patient the freedom to walk how they
want.
This is an excellent invention to help those who have
suffered a stroke. This is especially important in Europe as their number 1 form of disability is due to strokes. This robot will also play a major role in spreading awareness to
people all over the world that assistance is there if they wish to seek it and with the use of
this technology, patients will be able to regain use of their bodies as if
nothing happened.
Just recently I discovered an interesting topic about a
robot which is able to play baseball. It is a robotic system which acts as a
baseball pitcher and batter. It is named Robot Pitcher. It was made by
Masatoshi Ishikawa from Tokyo University. Robot Pitcher can throw a strike, and
about 9 percent of the time, the robot will challenge the batter into the
strike zone with the ball, which is pretty impressive. It was made in order to
demonstrate the latest advances in high speed industrial robot technology in a
fun way. They used a strategy focused on the superposition of wave patterns.
They also focus on the research related to robots that collaborate
with humans. In their research, they propose a collision avoidance system in
which high speed camera heads are placed on the robot’s manipulator in order to
increase human safety. This is also to see if the robot reacts similar to
humans under different circumstances.
In a presentation I saw, the researchers placed the robot
pitcher around 3.5m away from the mechanical batter. The pitcher’s 40km/h
sidearm throws posed little challenge to the batter, whose 1000 frame per
second camera eyes allow it to see the ball in super slow motion as it
approaches. The robot batter has a near perfect batting average when swinging
at pitches in the strike zone. There is even a 3D shape algorithm that uses
high speed vision with the help of an active light. To further improve this
robot, researchers plan to enable the robot to react to throws of up to
150km/h. Now that would be one awesome robot!
A few days ago, I read some interesting information about brain computer interface simulations and it really fascinated me. It is a direct connection with the brain connected to a simulation computer. The computer transmits data to the participant, reads and understands it and then responds to their desires and actions. Along with the simulated world, this interaction is amazing. It even gives a feedback on the results. The participant may temporarily forget that they are induced into a virtual world but their consciousness is represented by an avatar, which may be slightly different in appearance to the actual participant.
Brain simulations are used in so many ways now due to the latest technology. So I'm sure that we will no longer have to think for ourselves with the assistance of brain simulation. How cool would it be to simulate what your brain will think of in the near future or perhaps simulate a friend's brain just to trick them.
After viewing this short video, you will understand how simple instructions commanded by a person's brain trasnmits into a working hand to open and close. Now the process may be complicated but once everything falls into place, the working hand understands exactly what the person wants it to do.
Few days before, I watched a old movie about robot -
<I,robot>, which is an excellent movie for you enjoying in the world
surrounding with A.I. robots. Though, there may be a situation that A.I. robot
will take revenge on human and rule over us, as shown in the movie, it is
undoubtedly to say that most teenagers, especially boys, had a dream of having
a robot who can speak, talk and interact with them.
However, can you believe that you can now get an expressive
robot face, yet not a whole robot, in an affordable, actually cheap, price? XYZbot
would like to give the public a chance of having a robot by crowdfundingFritz,
an Arduino-powered robot head. Fritz is an “emotional” face on which you can
control everything, like the eyes and jaw to the eyelids, eyebrows, lips and
neck. Also, by adding putting some pre-programmed action, they can respond you like
a human.
Besides, you don`t need to worry about the complex stuffs of
programming and computing – because you simply don`t need. The control over Fritz
is as simple as if you are playing with a 5-year-old child`s toy. What you need
is creative and innovative, so as to make your unique robot!
Have you ever feel annoying when you are stuck at those
stupid traffic lights? Have you ever think it would be better if you control
them by yourself? Yes, I did! I think human can undoubtedly have a better
control on regulating the traffic flow than a machine can do. Recently I saw
news about AI technology is being tested to control traffic lights, and I think
intelligent traffic light is no longer impossible any more!
Have you played traffic-flow controlling, with four traffic
lights, games on your mobile devices? I did, and I got a really high score
actually! However, surprisingly, people are born to be better at controlling
traffic flow; even compared with computers! The research carried out by the
University of Southampton team has used computer games and simulations to
investigate what makes good traffic control. This work has shown that – given
the right conditions – humans are excellent at controlling the traffic and can
perform significantly better than the existing urban traffic control computers
in use today.
Researchers at the University of Southampton are
investigating the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology for
controlling traffic lights. Based on the human brain`s extraordinary capability
of controlling traffic effectively, they are planning to develop a new kind of
software which can improve the efficiency of traffic flow, and in turns
improving road space utilization, reducing traveling times and may be improving
fuel efficiency. For more details, check it out in source.
Have you seen
the movie Real Steel? I just saw it yesterday. It`s great, isn`t? Robot
fighting is always a fancy topic about technology. It is always used in so many movies and
animations, like famous one, Gundam.
However, robot fighting is no longer a dream to us.
Recently, Syfy
channel's newest show, Robot Combat League (RCL), has provided us with a
real-life robot fighting --and the best part is, we get to watch them destroy
each other in gladiatorial fashion. Though RCL is not the first show to have
robot fighting on TV, it is the first time that the robot actually copying, and
learning the movement of the people operating them! It sounds exactly like the
scenes in “Real Steel”! It`s exciting, isn`t it??? I would be definitely
recording the whole TV series once it starts to play!
Mark Setrakian,
who shown in the above picture, is actually the man who designed and built the
dozen robots on the show. It took him 4 months to construct only the prototype
to sell the Syfy channel, and then spent a long period of time and also roughly
$200 a pop for twelve robots. With all of the work that went into building
these bots, you might think that Mark will be upset seeing them destroy each
other. On the contrary, he's behind the scenes cheering and yelling as he is
the one who enjoys the most in this contest! As he says, Fighting robots,
obviously, are awesome. I couldn`t say how much I agree with him! How about
you? Leave your comments below and tell us something about your view for robot
fighting!!!
Google
once again making our life much easier than ever with augmented-reality glass.
This glass offer what a person could do with a smartphone, such as taking a
picture and sending a message. It says that these have indirectly showed us the
glimpse of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system working behind the scenes.
AI
system basically describes a computer system that accommodate human behaviour,
through features such as speech and gesture recognition as well as mimic human
thinking. It could make wearable computers like Google’s Project Glass to
function beyond what we thought and take care of complex tasks, but how does it
feel when we wear it?, To know more about how the glass function and how it help
us in daily life, Google has released a video showing from the wearer’s
perspective. Let’s check it out!
It’s
cool isn’t it. However, just like a proverbial that said, “There is a bad part
of every good thing”. This seems to happen on Google’s Project Glass. How
come??. Well, there is a growing concern about “thing” that has been a problem
all this time, it is Privacy. Recently, there are banning on the use of the
glass in a few place of US. Why?? Let’s think this way, if you are on a place
or doing an activity that you don’t want others to know, but sadly someone who
wear the Project Glass record your activity and shared it, how would you feel?. Other example, when in a museum or concert where taking
picture is prohibited but the visitors can do it without being noticed by the
guard. These are things that made people worried. But for us who would like to get
hold of The Google’s Project Glass let’s just hope the majority of the
politician disagree with the banning.
So a few days back i watched the Academy Award winning movie 'Zero Dark Thirty' by Kathryn Bigelow. The movie summarises and dramatises the decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The movie shows a reconstruction of the top secret military helicopters used in crossing the border from Afghanistan into Abbottabad, Pakistan without being detected by the Pakistani radars. That got me interested into reading more into aerial military stealth technology available and being tested. So i came across this article.
It's about a prototype still under construction, the X-47B (a successor to the widely recognisable B-2 bomber). Now it also comes with the complete stealth capabilities of the B-2 and resembles it in it's design as well, but at the same time looks like a completely different machine. I mean look at this thing!! looks like something straight out of a star wars movie.
It will have the ability to fold it's wings inside, which is ideal for life on the deck of a mammoth aircraft carrier in the open seas. The pilot will be able to hop off the plane and remote control it to 'taxi' (air force term for parking) into position, as navigating a plane as big as the X-47B on an aircraft carrier can be tricky business when done from inside the cockpit. Now for the most exciting part of the technology, it will be completely autonomous that is, it will be able to carry out complete bombing missions on it's own without a pilot, with just the need for a few clicks of the mouse by the pilot on a computer screen. Is this the beginning of drone wars? Keep in mind that these planes come with complete nuclear capabilities. Will the guilt factor of the pilot, sent on a nuclear bombing mission, be out of the question from now on? I am asking these questions because in the case of the famous Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings at the end of the second World War some of the pilots involved with the process were so guilt ridden after the whole affair that a few of them even tried committing suicide, Claude Eatherly a support pilot for the Hiroshima bombings was famous for his erratic behaviour and suicide attempts after the war in this case. Some might say that there is still responsibility involved with sitting on the computer and having to do the clicks for the bombings but we all know that takes a lot away from the experience, to me, essentially, it won't be any different from playing a game of World of Warcraft to be honest. What is your opinion? Please leave a comment below. I have also added a video clip below that demonstrates the X-47B in action, don't forget to check it out.
