Miniature Humanoid Robot That Lives On Your Shoulder

You have heard of the little devil or angel on your shoulder, well how about a Japensese Telepresence Miniature Humanoid Robot? The emerging field of telepresence and telerobotics has produced some fairly out-there forms to carry out their functions, and researchers at Yamagata University in Japan don’t seem to have any problem pushing that envelope. Their concept: a telepresence robot that quite literally is that voice in your ear, that angel (or devil) on your shoulder. The MH-2 (for “miniature humanoid”) is a remotely controlled robot that lives on your shoulder and conveys a person’s gestures and movements from a distance.

The idea here is that the wearer may want to share an experience--travel or a party or whatever--with someone who can’t be present at the time and place. With the MH-2, that person can stand in front of a 3-D immersive display (or, more likely, a television screen) outfitted with a motion capture device (like a Kinect) and remotely embody the robot on the user’s shoulder.

What the robot sees, the remote user sees on his or her screen. Likewise, his or her speech and gestures are translated back to the robot, which uses it’s remarkably plentiful degrees of freedom--seven for the arms, three for the head, and two for the body, plus one for realistic breathing (yes, breathing)--to recreate the remote user’s persona, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. The idea, according to the researchers, is something like the vision below.

The limiting factor here, at least for now, is the huge backpack full of servos and such that enable all those degrees of freedom. Presumably that will shrink as the researchers polish their finished product.

Above us, Below us, inside us and now on our shoulders as well like little angels or devils whispering in our ears. Think about it...

 The idea, according to the researchers, is something like the vision above

Dream A Little Dream

What would you do if you could control your dreams? It is a question that has tantalized sages and philosophers for ages. Now, two researchers of Bitbanger labs  have created a mask that will put you in the driver’s seat of your own lucid dream.

Well Duncan Frazier and Steve McGuigan, the 30-year-old founders of Bitbanger Labs, claim that Remee is “the world’s first “comfortable affordable, lucid dreaming mask.”

They say “the key to lucid dreaming is recognizing when you’re dreaming.”

While asleep, a person will usually cycle through the five stages of sleep multiple times, with the REM (rapid eye movement) stages getting progressively longer.

Working on an adjustable time delay, six red LED lights embedded in the mask “glow, sweep and blink” over one’s eyelids. The duo claims that once a sleeper slips from non-REM to REM sleep (where dreams usually occur) a microcontroller will flash a series of customizable light patterns for 15 to 20 seconds, with a second delay of 15 minutes between each signal.

As the lights bleed into your dream, they present a “perfect chance to become lucid.”

They say that while not bright enough to wake the user up, the lights will appear as anomalies in a person’s dreams, alerting the sleeper that they are dreaming.

As with similar masks, Remee cannot guarantee seamless lucid dreams with the blink of a light.  But if the mask actually delivers on its promise, then the (vanilla) sky may no longer be the limit.

Do you have the urge to control your dreams? Most people have a hard time remembering their dreams much less being in control of them. Why have we always wanted to control and manipulate our dreams? Maybe dreams provide a means to being free, an alternate place for our minds to escape. Do we crave the control there in that realm because we don't have it while we are awake? Well with the morpheous mask controlling our dreams is that much more of a "reality".

Farming with Laser Death Rays

Lasers used in both military and civilian applications are on certainly on the rise as laser technology advances. Have you ever considered lasers being used for farming applications? Well Weed killers and herbicides must be toxic enough to kill the weeds they target. Thus, toxicity concerns -- ranging from protecting the workers using the chemicals to groundwater contamination -- confront any user of herbicides.

Researchers at the Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, may have an answer: weed-killing lasers.

Farming with Laser Death Rays Sounds like a great idea? But If the lasers used have too little energy, weeds like it. Laser lights of the wrong intensity make the unwanted plants grow like weeds, only more so. The Leibniz team has worked to determine the optimum laser intensity to kill the weeds rather than encourage growth.

The second major obstacle is recognizing which plants to target with the laser death rays. The researchers have developed a system of cameras that film the field, and software that measures the contures of every plant. Algorithms have been developed for recognizing many different types of weeds.

The researchers are currently considering whether robots or drones can bring the equipment into position precisely enough over large areas to effectively recognize and blast the weeds with the laser death ray while leaving the desired cash crop unharmed.

Could we be seeing lasers shooting across the skies soon? From this story it appears that answer will be yes. This story is also a great example of how tracking and laser technology could actually have a beneficial use on society and not just an oppressive one. Though one has to wonder isn't this how these forms of technology are always accepted, by providing a benefit at first? Some also may think using lasers versus pesticides may not be more cost effective at first but is it safer for the environment? That is the key component in the development of this laser technology. Yet another "benefit" think about it...

Self Driving Cars

On Mind Set Daily recently I reported on flying cars well how about a "smart" car that drives itself?! Nevada is the first state to adopt driverless cars and the governor signed a law last year requiring the state to come up with regulations by which to authorize autonomous vehicles. They did, and now the first license to test autonomous vehicles in the state has been awarded to Google’s robotic car.

Google who takes the first licensed test run comes as no surprise, not only because their sensor-laden, robotic Toyota Prius has been the most visible robotic car over the past year and a half, but also because the licenses are largely a result of Google’s own lobby pushing for them. And some of the car’s 200,000 miles have been logged on freeways and neighborhood streets in Carson City, Nevada and – you guessed it – the Vegas Strip.

After reviewing Google’s system functions, safety plans, employee training, and accident reporting mechanisms the Nevada DMV’s Autonomous Review Committee gave Google its license. The license requires two humans to be in the car at all times, with one behind the wheel to take over in case something goes wrong.

So if you live in Nevada be on the lookout. Autonomous cars will have Nevada license plates with red backgrounds and an infinity symbol, to make them easy to spot by citizens and police officers. If all goes according to plan and the test vehicles perform as hoped, the vehicles will be made available to the public, green plates will replace the red, but the infinity symbol will remain.

The Nevada DMV said in a press release that Google may have been the first, but other auto manufacturers have also indicated their interest in filing license applications. So it seems that this is just the beginning, and if all goes well, public acceptance of robotic vehicles is sure to increase dramatically.

Isn't that what all this new technology counts on? Public acceptance? If the technology provides society a benefit and perhaps makes our lives easier than it is more likely to be accepted. Also from this story can you see where things may be headed? A more automated and "connected" society where robots and computers do everything for us including driving us around. These new self driving cars also could perhaps one day work very well with the "smart cities" that we reported on springing up around the globe recently. Regardless of where the technology and our society are headed in this case you don't need to worry, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Rise of the "Smart" Cities

A better quality of life is something everyone aspires to, and for city dwellers of the future that will mean a heavy reliance on the benefits of technology. We are only 30 years into the age of the personal computer, and yet the changes that computers have made in the way we live are extraordinary. However, one thing we can confidently predict is that city planners are going to be looking to technology to help enable Smart Living for future city dwellers. The focus will be on the use of information and communications technology to create smarter and more sustainable cities, and to help improve overall quality of life. It is projected that by 2050 70% of the world's population will live in cities consuming the vast bulk of the world's resources. This trend is already underway, with new generations of sensor networks in public and private managed physical spaces being developed.

Well get ready for the connected city as London’s Greenwich peninsula is to be the test bed for Urban OS, a ‘smart city’ operating system that’s been developed by Living Plan IT. The main idea behind Urban OS is that buildings, street lights and city systems will all be interlinked and connected. Traffic lights will ‘know’ where pile-ups might emerge and will be able to manage traffic more effectively. Similarly, street lights, monitoring traffic will dim their lights if a road isn’t busy and sensors in buildings will be able to help out in emergency situations such as a fire.

To be launched in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games, a Greenwich’s smart city test bed will feature a cable car, a dock for cruise ships alongside new connected homes and businesses. Living Plan IT Chief Executive Steve Lewis said "We are entering a phase when everything becomes connected, from healthcare to transportation. This is about connecting things that previously never did." Imagine being directly connected to your surroundings for example, There’s potential for smart ‘vests’ that could monitor your heart rate and other life signs and smart heating and cooling systems connected to the Urban OS could come online when your house ‘knows’ you’re coming home.

Another example of this "Urban OS", built on a technology developed by the Formula One team McLaren, and unveiled at a recent conference by the Portuguese company Living Plan IT. They, along with partners such as Cisco and Microsoft, are constructing a futuristic settlement in Portugal to test the viability of the new technology. The aim is to build a city run by one big computerised system. It's a bit like how the operating system on your PC works, but on a giant scale, and with enormous volumes of data being handled. There could potentially be billions of interacting devices in a typical city, and the city being built to test the Urban OS will have around one million high-tech sensors embedded in it. They will monitor all activity and effectively eliminate the need for human management of many areas that affect the quality of daily city living.

Of course, the longer-term goal will be to have smartphone technology interacting with the city-level systems, bringing the possibility of handheld manipulation of home-based systems that manage appliances, heating, lighting, safety equipment, and so on.

Time will tell how well the new urban-style OS might work, but whether people are for or against increased computerisation, it is certain that technology will form the basis of future city management. Cities worldwide are looking for technology solutions to ensure their citizens can work and live smarter, and here some innovations that IBM predicts most cities will be using in the near future:

Disease control: Better IT systems will allow public health officials to predict, manage and control disease outbreaks far more effectively.

Water management: Smarter water management systems will reduce water waste by up to 50%, through avoiding pollution of rivers and lakes, and by increasing drinkable water supplies through improved purification processes.

Green credits: Citizens will be rewarded with tradable online credits for reducing their carbon footprint, thus providing incentives to get involved in efforts to improve the environment.

Emergency responsiveness: Cities will use state-of-the-art systems to collect and share data in real time to improve emergency prevention and response mechanisms.

Of course, one obvious potential barrier to the effectiveness of all these new smart technologies is whether or not city-dwellers will have the necessary skills to make use of them all. As we enter the age of the knowledge-based economy, cities will become more and more reliant on their human capital, the knowledge and skills of individuals, if they want to be successful. So technology awareness and training are likely to feature strongly in the minds of future city planners. It is a clear from this story that our society is becoming more connected with technology all the time. Is this the natural course of human kind and the future of cities? Of course the benefits are countless of being "connected" and integrated into our environments, but how much of a slippery slope are we on? Do the pros out weigh the cons in a smart city? Well we are surely to find out in the not to distant future, that's for sure!

Nanochips in Soldiers

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (D.A.R.P.A.) has announced plans to create nanochips for monitoring troops health on the battlefield. As you might have guessed, this plan has raised a little bit of controversy with the fear that this could turn the Earth into the likes of such movies like "Total Recall".

The sensors would be injected into soldiers and aim preventing illness and disease.  It would be more effective to track them if they got lost. Though it seems like a simple and efficient way to keep soldiers alive and healthy, a number of opponents have come out the woodwork claiming this could be the beginning of computer chips for everyone. The question is, how long will it take governments and big pharma to immerse nano-microchips inside of vaccines to tag and surveil global populations?

All these nano technological advances raise many issues and concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nano materials, and their potential effects on medicine, global economics, as well as speculation about government surveillance.

In the popular video game series Metal Gear Solid, many characters and soldiers in general, have "nano machines" in their bloodstream, and are used to block pain, allow members of fire teams/patrols to share sensory information, heal bodily damage, as well as manipulating viruses central to video game's plot line.

Through the use of special effects and computer-generated imagery, several blockbusters including The Matrix Trilogy and The Day the Earth Stood Still, have dramatized how nanobots could effectively take control of their organic and inorganic targets. Regardless of the recurring themes of nanobots in video games, sci-fi shows and movies, nanotechnology is a reality, and nano-microchips are well on their way to being utilized in ways which may be detrimental to human health and freedom on a global scale. Are we simply being conditioned for it? Through video games and movies alike?

The development of nano-microchips are a major thrust of governments and pharmaceutical industries who want the ultimate power and leverage over global populations for more profit and more control. Although nanotechnology manufacturing is currently available on a global scale, before biotech companies are able to initiate mass production and testing of nano-microchips inside of vaccines, they will likely sell the idea to the public. Through various "health enhancement scenarios" they will encourage participation and publicly announce regulatory approval from the same policies and regulatory agencies they helped create. When our brain functions are already connected to supercomputers by means of radio implants and microchips, it will be too late for protest. Think about it nanochips in soldiers today, nanochips in you tomorrow...