From the Nike Fuelband to Google Glass, consumers are already seeing hints of the future of wearable devices. They have the possibility to make us more knowledgeable about ourselves and our surroundings, and connect us with each other in an uninterrupted, more intimate way. From DIY wearables to high-tech sensors and smart fabrics, the years ahead will show how technology can impact our lives.
The ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM This curious mechanical device is often described as the World’s first analogue computer was retrieved by sponge divers off the coast of Antikythera in or around 1900AD.
The only strange thing about Carl the bartender is that he’s not quite human.
The humanoid robot mixes drinks for guests at the Robots Bar and Lounge in Ilmenau, eastern Germany.
Guests at the bar can interact with Carl, who was developed and built by mechatronics engineer Ben Schaefer
With a glass in hand. humanoid robot bartender Carl is ready to serve customers at the Robots Bar and Lounge in Ilmenau, eastern Germany
Carl can mix drinks according to customers’ requests and also indulge in small talk, his creator says
Carl helps out another bartender by pouring a shot of a spirit into their cocktail shaker ready to be mixed
The robot is the creation of mechatronics engineer Ben Schaefer, who has spent 23 years working in the field.
He built Carl from the parts of disused industrial robots from the German firm KUKA.
His newest employee helps out his human colleagues by pouring out measures of spirits and adding them to cocktail shakers for mixing.
He can also conduct short conversations with the customers who take up the bar’s nine seats, though they probably don’t sparkle like the drinks because his speech recognition skills and ability to interact are, for the moment, limited.
To make sure the robot does not crash in the small area behind the bar, Carl wears a belt with sensors.
Carl’s creator Ben Schaefer, a mechatronics engineer, has been working in the field of humanoid robots for 23 years
Mr Schaefer interacts with his newest employee as it offers up a glass of spirits to be adding to Mr Schaefer’s own cup
There are only nine seats at the bar for the best view of Carl in action at the Robots Lounge and Bar in Ilmenau
The customers can have limited conversations with Carl who also measures out spirits for another bartender to mix
The belt helps Carl stay upright instead of spilling drinks everywhere and protects his human counterparts.
Another room in the bar, described as a place to encounter technology and future visions, contains a life-size model of a Nasa astronaut.
Writing on the bar’s website, Mr Schaefer said his company aims to make humanity in humanoid robots closer to reality and show that ‘scenes as in science fiction films are quite possible’.
Humanoid robots tend to have limbs and a torso to resemble the human body, while artificial intelligence tries to replicate the way the mind works.
Mr Schaefer said putting Carl to work meant it was easier to see how the design needed improving than trying to figure out problems in a laboratory
Perhaps one day Carl may boast the skills of Tom Cruise in Cocktail, but for now his creator is making him useful by having him measure out spirits
By putting Carl in a real-life scenario, it was easier to test the programming and make improvements than it would be in a laboratory.
‘On this system, you can let your imagination run wild, because each step makes our robot a bit more human,’ Mr Shaefer writes.
For now, Carl will be part-tourist attraction and part test-dummy while Mr Schaefer and his team work out how to shake humanoid robotics out of its ‘stagnant’ state.
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Want Xray vision like the man of steel? A technology that lets you see behind walls could soon be built in to your cell phone. |
MIT professor Dina Katabi and graduate student Fadel Adib have announced WiVi, a demonstration of a technology that uses WiFi to allow a viewer to “see” a person moving behind a wall. (WiVi stands for “WiFi” and “vision.”)
Previous work demonstrated that the subtle reflections of wireless inter signals bouncing off a human could be used to track that person’s movements, but those previous experiments either required that awireless router was already in the room of the person being tracked, or “a whole truck just to carry the radio,” said Katabi.
The new device uses the same wireless antenna as is found in a cell phone or laptop and could in theory one day be embedded in a phone.
The trick is canceling out all interfering signals – Wi-Fi doesn’t just bounce off humans, but also walls, floors, and furniture. And those signals are 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than the reflections off a human body.
Katabi’s wivi sends out two wireless signals, one of which is the inverse of the other. In what Katabi calls “interference nulling,” the two signals cancel each other out unless they hit a moving target – such as a human.
“To silence the noise, we change the structure of the Wi-Fi signal so all the undesired reflections cancel,” she said.
The device is meant to be portable so, for example, a person worried that someone was hiding in the bushes could do a quick scan for her personal safety.
WiVi could also serve as a high tech baby monitor or help Superman – or just cops – catch baddies.
New developments in artificial limbs, blood clotting and wound repair are helping soldiers survive and recover from devastating injuries.
Head wound:
• Memory pill: Research is under way to develop a pill that reduces physiological responses to experiences associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Injected goop to repair damaged faces: A synthetic-organic material is injected just under the skin to help restore missing and damaged portions of the face.
• Face transplants: Research is under way to develop a procedure to help soldiers with severe facial wounds.
Torso/body:
• The Asherman Chest Seal is standard in medic kits, it was designed by a Navy SEAL medic to treat open chest injuries.
Blood loss:
• QuikClot/Combat Gauze version was named one of Army’s top ten inventions of 2008.
• Thawed Plasma and Massive Transfusions programs: The greatly increase the survival rate of severely bleeding casualties.
• HemCon bandage & Chitoflex: Bandage provides a patient with the time needed to reach care or the critical time to clot.
• Dried plasma: Using this ‘portable’ plasma in the field improves the survival of patients.
Limbs:
• Prosthetics: Lighter and stronger materials enable the fabrication of limbs in different shapes for different purposes, such as the robotic, “Luke Arm.”
• Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis: Helps wounded soldiers return to duty faster, resembles prosthetic for existing limb.
Other:
• Suspended animation: Research on lifesaving method involves bringing patients” bodies down to hypothermic temperatures.
• Freezing to save brains: Research is under way to develop a therapeutic hypothermia device to prevent traumatic brain injuries. Cooling the brain after trauma might prevent long-term harm to cognitive and motor skills.
One hundred years from now, will we be living on other planets, teleporting from place to place, communicating to each other telepathically, or even becoming immortal by shifting human consciousness from our biological bodies to artificial ones? These predictions for the distant future seem outrageous and virtually impossible to achieve, yet steps are being made toward them at this very moment. The seeds of the potential future wonders of the world have already been planted, and in many cases, it’s not a question of whether they’ll happen, so much as when.
As PBS’ The Nature of Reality column explains, “Remember that we wouldn’t be moving Kirk’s molecules from one place to another. He would interact with a suite of previously-entangled particles, and when we read the quantum state we would destroy the complex quantum information that makes his molecules into him while instantly providing the information required to recreate his quantum state from other atoms in a distant location. Quantum mechanics doesn’t forbid it. The rules of quantum mechanics still apply whether you’re talking about a system of two particles or human being made of 1027 atoms.”
The verdict? Teleportation is certainly possible, and scientists may soon begin working on attempts to teleport living matter, like viruses. Physicist Michio Kaku believes that the transport of a molecule will happen within the next ten years, followed by DNA, but that teleporting an entire human is probably still centuries away.
The general consensus was that we’ll have AI at the human level or beyond will happen by the middle of the century, or maybe even sooner – but may not surpass humans for a hundred years, if ever.
Supplies would be dropped off first, and then a crew of either humans or robots would construct the base. There are a lot of obstacles, not the least of which is the question of transportation between Earth and Mars, and whether Mars inhabitants could maintain their own food source, rather than relying on interplanetary deliveries.
Will it really happen? it’s hard to say. Private companies with an interest in space colonization are working with some of the same companies that have completed commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station. Lansdorp intends to make the technology developed during its mission available for sale, to fund Mars One and help speed up progress for additional colonies.
Researchers have also developed the first electronic sensor that can be printed directly onto human skin, creating a sort of ‘smart tattoo’ that could theoretically enable people to communicate with each other and our environments with thought commands. The devices, which are thinner than the diameter of a human hair, can detect electrical signals linked with brain waves, communicate wirelessly and receive energy.
Could we live long beyond the lifespan of our natural bodies by transplanting our consciousness into artificial carriers? Immortality seems absurd now, but some insist that it’s entirely possible. Russian mogul Dmitry Itskov has outlined a plan called the Avatar project that would create human cyborgs within the next thirty years. The first step, he says, is to create a robot controlled by the human brain. Next comes transplanting a human brain into a humanoid robot. Finally, he envisions ‘uploading’ a person’s consciousness into a surrogate robot, eliminating the biological component altogether. Phase one of this plan has already been completed, but the other two steps are quite a jump.
Even putting technicalities aside, there are all sorts of philosophical and ethical questions that come up in regards to this concept; where, for example, are the boundaries of self? But it’s fun to imagine us all walking around as robots in another century or two, or maybe just sitting on shelves waiting for new parts when we malfunction.
Thirty-four nations are collaborating to construct the $1.6 billion ITER fusion power project in France in an attempt to work out the bugs. The project took a major step forward in April 2013, gaining approval for the fusion reactor’s ‘blanket’ that will handle the super-heated nuclear fuel. Check out a graphic at The Independent that explains how it works.
Of course, all of this is still so theoretical, it’s hard to imagine it ever actually being a reality. It’ll take a much deeper understanding of physics, far beyond what we’ve already achieved, to make it happen. But that doesn’t mean it won’t.
Article by Steph
Night never comes to this massive complex newly constructed in China. Complete with its own artificial sun (as well as beaches and waves), the world’s largest structure is not a skyscraper but a building both horizontally and vertically vast.
The New Century Global Center in Chengdu, Sichuan, has offices, shops and five-star hotels as you might expect, but it also has simulated exterior spaces with LED screens depicting views of artificial horizons as well as theaters, amusement park rides and an Olympic-sized ice skating rink.
Its square footage is hard to fathom, even in meters (1.7 million square), so its creators have come up with another way to visualize the enormity of the space: you could fit 20 Sydney Opera Houses inside of it, 3 copies of the Pentagon or 329 football fields.
Critics call it boring and massive, but fans admire its relative simplicity and highlight its variegated interior experiences. Though basically minimal overall, a thick and wavy roof line helps define it and provides a way to brand and identify it as both a Chinese structure and potentially iconic symbol.
At six feet and 330 pounds, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Atlas is one of the most advanced humanoids ever made and is the system teams will use to compete in this year’s DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).
Like coaches presented with a new player, each of the teams have just six months to train their robot to perform a series of tasks representative of what might be required in a disaster-response scenario.
Fortunately, the groups are not starting with scratch: thanks to the physical modeling of the DRC Simulator, the software algorithms successfully employed by teams in the previously held Virtual Robotics Competition (VRC) should transfer relatively easily to the ATLAS hardware, according to DARPA officials.
Ultimately, despite its advanced nature, ATLAS is essentially a physical shell awaiting its software brains that, along with the actions of a human operator, will guide the suite of sensors, actuators, joints and limbs through a series of tasks.
In order to accomplish this, the winning teams from the VRC will receive funding from DARPA and ongoing technical support from Boston Dynamics, the developer of ATLAS.
“The Virtual Robotics Challenge was a proving ground for teams’ ability to create software to control a robot in a hypothetical scenario,” said Gill Pratt, program manager for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. “The DRC Simulator tasks were fairly accurate representations of real world causes and effects, but the experience wasn’t quite the same as handling an actual, physical robot.”
“Now these seven teams will see if their simulation-honed algorithms can run a real machine in real environments. And we expect all teams will be further refining their algorithms, using both simulation and experimentation.”
In June, the DRC program management staff visited the teams in order to evaluate their platform design-and-build progress. During this process, the groups presented the details of their designs, hardware components, operator control strategies and, in some cases, completed robots.
At 6ft 2in tall and weighing 330lb Atlas is a formidable figure. And with 28 hydraulically actuated joints and stereo vision, it is one of the most advanced robots ever.
Although the robot, designed by DARPA and Boston Dynamics, is built to help respond to disasters, such as the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan in 2011, it looks like it could easily star in the Terminator films.
Its potential use in war seems more likely considering the team behind it also designed BigDog, the robotic dog due to be used by the Marines.
Cutting edge: Atlas is one of the most advanced robots to have been developed
The robot’s 28 hydraulic joints can replicate most human moves and its hands, provided by iRobot and Sandia National Labs, can surpass them.
A light-based radar stereo camera in Atlas is the same detection system used by autonomous vehicles such as Google’s self-driving car, according to ExtremeTech.
Although it is currently linked to an external power supply the robot has the ability to run off its own power, leaving it free to roam.
This ability will be useful when considering the robot’s main purpose.
Atlas has been designed to be able to go into disaster zones where it would be unsafe to send people. It can handle rocky terrain and the flexibility of its hands will aid rescues.
However, its skills could just as easily be put to use on the battlefield, where they would be stronger and more accurate than a soldier.
Rescue: Atlas has been designed to go into disaster situations where it would be too dangerous to use people
Judgement day: The robot’s ability to enter disaster zones could also be used in war
The only thing the robot is currently missing is a brain, but more than a dozen teams of engineers are preparing to compete for the chance to provide it.
At the DARPA Robotics Challenge, each team will load software into Atlas and test it in a series of disaster response trials.
The team that provides the best software will receive funding from DARPA and the chance to compete in the finals of the contest next year, with a $2 million prize fund.
Terrafugia has announced its plans to develop a vertical-take-off-and-landing flying car, known as the TF-X (Image: Terrafugia)
Although countless small companies have tried to commercially developflying cars over the past several decades, we’re still not seeing Blade Runner-esque vehicles cruising over our rooftops … yet. Terrafugia is one of the groups currently trying to change that situation – a fully-functioning prototype of its Transition fixed-wing “roadable airplane” is currently undergoing flight tests, and was recently cleared for civilian use by the US Federal Aviation Authority. It still requires a runway for take-off and landing, though, which kind of clashes with many peoples’ flying car fantasies. Well, today Terrafugia announced its plans for a hybrid-drive vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) vehicle, known as the TF-.X
Initially, those props will be pointing upwards, allowing them to pull the TF-X up off the ground. Once the vehicle is sufficiently airborne, however, the propellers will rotate forward, allowing it to move ahead. Once the TF-X has gained enough forward momentum, the two wing-mounted propellers (butnot the wings!) can once again be retracted, with a 300-hp internal combustion engine powering a single large rear-mounted ducted prop while cruising. The wing props will be re-engaged as the landing site approaches.
The engine will charge the batteries used by the electric motors, although they can also be charged simply by plugging into an electric vehicle charger when parked.
Before you start picturing yourself flying a TF-X off of your driveway, however, Terrafugia does state that the vehicle will require a clearing at least 100 feet (30.5 meters) in diameter for takeoff. This means that users will most likely drive their vehicle to and from designated landing sites similar to those used by helicopters, and fly between those sites.
That said, unlike the case with a helicopter, the designers believe that it should only take about five hours to learn how to fly the TF-X. This is largely because users will have the option of flying it in automatic mode, in which they just input the location of their destination landing site (along with some back-up secondary choices), then leave the navigation to the vehicle.
It will subsequently travel at a cruising speed of 200 mph (322 km/h), going up to 500 miles (805 km) without needing to refuel or recharge. While cruising in automatic mode, it will be able to automatically avoid other air traffic, along with inclement weather, restricted airspace and tower-controlled airspace (which pilots would require additional training to fly in). It will also automatically land itself at the destination (if weather allows), although the pilot will be able to override that function if they notice any hazards at the chosen landing site.
Should the TF-X just crap out completely in mid-air, the pilot can activate a parachute system to keep it from crashing to the ground. Likewise, if the onboard control system detects that the vehicle is being piloted in an unsafe manner, it will automatically declare an emergency and contact the relevant authorities. Should the pilot be unresponsive to prompts by the system, it will automatically land the vehicle at the closest airport.
All of this is still at least 8 to 12 years away, though, as that’s how long Terrafugia figures it will take to develop a commercially viable product. The only estimate on price is that it could be “on-par with very high-end luxury cars of today.”
The Highlanders 
