GLIMPSES OF THE
FUTURE |
World's First Robot Census It is we humans who anthropomorphise non-humans - we do it to pets, and now we're starting to do it to robots. For example: the world's first robot census is being undertaken by Heather Knight, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. She decided to check on how many robots were on the campus and she found there were 547 (that number doesn't include the population in the secret government lab) That's just the beginning: as word spreads through the effort's Twitter feed, Ms Knight plans to take the world's first robot census as far as it will go, eventually canvassing as wide a swath of the home-brew and university robotics efforts as possible. Here they come.... Unbreakable Umbrella Weapon Ever seen a 19th Century sword walking stick? Now a company called Real Self Defense is offering umbrellas that can also withstand the weight of an adult man and are hand-crafted in Europe from high quality materials in limited quantities. Buyers can choose from a handle-crook or straight knob and all are supplied with a fabric sheath. Not only can this umbrella render a man unconscious, it can also withstand rain and severe wind as you'd hope to expect from any umbrella costing US$189.95. Augmented Reality Heads-Up Display Arrives As we all get ready for the real environment around us to start feeding us with electronic overlays offering everything from discounts off pizzas to potted histories of cathedrals, DoCoMo of Japan has shown a prototype of a tiny display that clips onto a pair of eyeglasses and provides navigation services or information about local shops. The prototype system, called AR Walker, includes a gyro sensor that can detect which way the wearer is facing to provide directions. It connects wirelessly to a mobile phone, which runs the software and provides the GPS data. Here we go... Being Too Early Is As Bad As Being... A quarter-of-a-century ago I founded a company called Personal Technology Applications to develop micro body monitors for personal healthcare. The concept was far too early for the technology available and it had to be abandoned. Now, BodyMedia of Pittsburg has launched an armband that communicates via Bluetooth with smartphones (why won't that word 'phone' go away?). The BodyMedia armband opens the door to allowing a person to monitor a collection of the 9,000 variables — physical activity, calories burned, body heat, sleep efficiency and others — collected by the sensors in a BodyMedia armband in real-time, as the day goes on. Huge opportunity to improve monitoring and health care. Giving Your Heart Its Own IP Address And, as the last item indicates, the time is now ripe for even more body monitoring. Dutch research organisation IMEC, based in Eindhoven, has demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network (BAN). Dubbed the Human++ BAN platform, the system converts IMEC's ultra-low-power electrocardiogram sensors into wireless nodes in a short-range network, transmitting physiological data to a hub – the patient's cellphone. From there, the readings can be forwarded to doctors via a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. They can also be displayed on the phone or sound an alarm when things are about to go wrong, giving heart patients a chance to try to slow their heart rates and avoid an unnecessary strain. Eventually all of our hearts may be nodes on a network. And...Our 'Smartphones' Can Double As A Spectroscope A university of Illinois chemistry professor has developed a method using a few basic, inexpensive supplies and a digital camera to build a spectrometer into a smart phone. A spectrometer is an important basic chemistry instrument and spectrophotometry is one of the most widely used means for identifying and quantifying materials in both physical and biological sciences.
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Wearable Camcorder And Social Sharing System LaunchedProfessor Ted Nelson, one of the true digital pioneers, used to turn up at conferences twenty-five years ago with a shoulder-mounted camcorder permanently recording everything that happened during his day. People used to ask him why, and he'd say, 'Because that's what everybody will be doing in the future.' Now a company called Looxcie (pronounced 'look-see', get it?) has launched a small, lightweight, always-on, Bluetooth-enabled camcorder that links up with a smartphone app to offer users easy upload to social networking video sites. Slip it over the ear and switch on to begin documenting your life. When it's not recording everything in front of you, it can be used to take calls with a talk-time claimed to be around ten hours. By 2015 we'll all be doing it. Knowing Where You Are (And Which Way Up) Researchers at Tel Aviv University's School of Physical Engineering have developed nano-sized optical gyroscopes that can fit on the head of a pin - and, more usefully, on an average-sized computer chip - without compromising the device's sensitivity. These gyroscopes will have the ability to pick up smaller rotation rates, delivering higher accuracy while maintaining smaller dimensions. In short, almost every mobile device will soon include a gyroscope. Singing Robot Makes Her Debut A new humanoid, singing robot, the HRP-4, has been unveiled in Japan. The robot, nicknamed 'diva-bot', has learned to sing by mimicking a human singer, enabling 'her' to sound natural and to sing with more expression than any previous robot. A research team from the media interaction group at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tokyo used a new technology called VocalListener to observe a real singer in action and synthesize the appropriate notes of the song with the help of Yamaha’s existing voice synthesizing software, Vocaloid 'Diminished Reality Software Removes Objects From Videos Researchers at Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany have developed 'diminished reality' software that can automatically delete an object from live, full-motion video. The software first reduces the resolution of the object, removes the image, and improves the result (similar to using a smudge tool in Photoshop), then incrementally increases the resolution, improving the result, until the original resolution is restored. No Need To Be Embarrassed About That New Yacht Having an environmental conscience has made it very difficult to own a megayacht - until now. U.S. company International Battery and Electric Marine Propulsion (EMP) is partnering up to build a hybrid power train for the world’s largest plug-in, hybrid electric boats and yachts. The partnership has resulted in one of the world’s largest plug-in hybrid sailboats, a Tag 60 catamaran christened Tang, that was launched last month. It is a 60 ft (18m) carbon-fiber speedster that can be powered by the wind, even when the wind isn’t blowing. Electrified Nano Filter Could Mean Cheap Drinking WaterResearchers at Stanford University, have invented an inexpensive water filter that is very resistant to clogging, and uses much less electricity than systems that require the water to be pumped through them. It also kills bacteria, as opposed to just trapping them, which is all that many existing systems do. The inventors started with a basic cotton filter, as the material is cheap, widely-available and robust. Next, they covered it with sub-microscopic silver nanowires, as silver nanoparticles are well-known for their antibacterial qualities. They then added a layer of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to increase the filter’s electrical conductivity, as electricity is also known to be lethal to bacteria. Finally, they experimented with running various strengths of electrical currents through the device, eventually settling at 20 volts. The researchers are now investigating how effective the material is at killing other microorganisms, and whether or not trace silver and CNT residue in the filtered water is cause for concern. They are also looking into using the filter for purifying air, foods and pharmaceuticals. Back issues of 'Glimpses' are archived here. |