The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

Kevin Warwick, Once a Cyborg, Now a Prophet of the Man-Machine Future (video)

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by Aaron Saenz on March 9th, 2010
kevin warwick former cyborg

In 2002, Warwick had his nervous system wired so that he could remotely control a robotic hand.

He has used his mind to control a robotic hand, he has sent his thoughts across the Atlantic and clenched a mechanical fist, and he has even felt, in his own neurons, the signals from his wife’s nerves. Kevin Warwick is a professor at Reading University in England, a pioneer in cybernetics and a former cyborg. In 1998, doors would open and lights would follow his passing due to an electronic chip in his body. In 2002 a 100 electrode array was wired into the nervous system of his arm so that he could remotely control an artificial hand. Now, Silicon.com has a wonderful nine minute interview with Warwick, exploring his work and what the future holds for man and machine. According to the former cyborg, the two will become one. He’s already putting animal brain cells in robots as a control system! Watch the video in its entirety below, and get ready to meet the man who thinks he has experienced the future of humanity and returned to tell the tale.

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Cyborg Insect Spies to Become Nuclear Powered

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by Aaron Saenz on February 1st, 2010
mothra vs godzilla

Nuclear batteries could help power the electronics attached to insect spies...they may also prove effective against Godzilla.

They don’t have the pomp and flair of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but Nuclear Cyborg Insect Spies are still shell-shocking researchers in the world of miniaturized electronics. We’ve already reported on how DARPA funded research teams are using electrodes to control insects in flight to adapt them for surveillance. The associated group at Cornell, however, is trying to solve the problem of getting cyborg bugs to carry heavy batteries. The solution: ditch traditional chemical cells and use light weight nuclear power instead. Amit Lal and his team are adapting a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) that generates electricity from radioactive decay to work with the flying insect project. They recently presented their work at the International Electron Devices Meeting sponsored by IEEE. The nuclear powered MEMS doesn’t use fusion or fission but rather harnesses the natural release of power from an unstable isotope, Nickel-63, as it turns into copper. These MEMS nuclear batteries won’t just power the insect spies of the future, they could provide electricity for all sorts of micro devices, allowing them to run for a hundred years without a recharge.

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Roach Acts As Brain for Robot (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on December 11th, 2009
A giant hissing cockroach guides the RoachBot by moving on top of a trackball.

A giant hissing cockroach guides the RoachBot by moving on top of a trackball.

I’m not a big fan of cockroaches, and that goes double for the giant hissing kind. So I find Garnet Hertz’s RoachBot to be both interesting and revolting. Hertz, working at UC Irvine, built a three wheeled robot with a trackball on top that controlled its movement. On that trackball, he secured a giant hissing cockroach from Madagascar, allowing the insect’s scurrying to guide where the robot moved. The roach, in turn, was guided by lights on the robot that shined in the direction of nearby objects. This primitive cyborg demonstrated how biology and robotics could be combined to form a powerful device capable of navigating dynamic terrain. It also fascinated crowds. Check out the RoachBot video after the break.

The RoachBot project is actually a few years old (2006) and no longer in development. Earlier this month Hertz earned his PhD from Irvine in Visual Studies. That’s right, he’s not a robotics engineer by trade, but rather an artist (and Fullbright Scholar). Hertz’ many projects explore how technology, reality, and creativity merge together. In that way, RoachBot is as much commentary as it is experiment. The cockroach has been an important inspiration in robotics, and engineers mimicked its design in robots like DASH. Likewise, cyborgs have captivated imaginations with the unique molding of biology and machine in a way that often captivates and repulses us. The RoachBot concept has merit as an engineering design – World War II scientists used a similar system to have pigeons guide missiles. More importantly though, RoachBot generates interest in the field of cybernetics with its uncanny and engrossing take on the living machine. Cool stuff…and congrats, Dr. Hertz, on your doctorate.

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Free Flying Cyborg Beetles

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by Aaron Saenz on October 7th, 2009
This is how you make a big bad beetle-borg.

This is how you make a big bad beetle-borg.

In the future, when a spy worries about a room being bugged, she might have to look for actual bugs. Back in March we told you about Michel Maharbiz attaching electrodes to beetles’ brains to get them to beat their wings. Well, Maharbiz and his colleagues at the University of California Berkeley have taken the next step and taken their cyborg beetles out for a wireless flight. The experiment is funded by DARPA in the hopes of eventually creating a fully remote controlled spy insect that could listen in to conversations or possibly find missing people after a disaster. Check out the brief video from New Scientist below.

In the recent experiment shown in the video, the species Mecynorrhina torquata was big enough to handle the necessary electronic devices to allow it to fly wirelessly. Looking at it, you almost can’t tell the beetle is under someone else’s control. Researchers are hopeful that whether or not the insects could be cybernetically enhanced to become spies or rescuers, they will still reveal interesting knowledge about the way the neural systems of insects function.
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Cyberdyne Lets Hal Cyborgs Take a Stroll Through Tokyo

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by Aaron Saenz on August 11th, 2009

The Cyborg revolution marches inexhaustibly forward. Last Monday, the Cyberdyne company had three of its employees strut the streets of Tokyo in their cybernetically enhanced legs. The legs were part of HAL, or hybrid assisted limbs, the cyborg muscle enhancement suit we gushed over a few months back. These things are powerful and efficient. Watch them walk the walk in the NECN video after the break.

HAL suits make a Tokyo street debut

HAL suits make a Tokyo street debut

When you look at the employees walking in the video, notice how the operators seem to be neither leading nor following the exoskeleton. As we’ve said before, HAL is revolutionary because of its ability to read motor neuron impulses through the skin in order to move the exoskeleton with the operators thoughts. That’s right, the suit can determine what muscles you’ll move before the muscles know themselves. HAL is really merging man and machine to provide smooth and continuous movement with little worries for injury.

Cyberdyne is been up to a lot more in the past than taking a stroll down the lane. Personal trainer Takeshi Matsumoto used a HAL suit to carry Seiji Uchida up a Swiss mountain. Uchida, who is a quadriplegic, had long wanted to climb the mountain, and with some help from Matsumoto and HAL, he was able to get within 500 yards of the summit. Matsumoto’s no wimp, but carrying someone up a mountain is something few of us would ever be able to accomplish without HAL’s ability to amplify muscle strength by 2 to 10 times. The next step would be modifying HAL to read Uchida’s motor impulses and allow him to operate the exoskeleton independently.

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Will Your ID Soon Be a Microchip Under Your Skin?

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by Drew Halley on July 2nd, 2009

Yet another sci-fi milestone is upon us: microchips implanted under your skin and used to identify you.

The VeriChip implant. Photo: Business Week

The VeriChip implant. Photo: Business Week

The VeriChip is the first radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchip that’s been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in humans. The chip is the size of a long grain of rice, and can be implanted pretty much anywhere in the body (most commonly along the tricep). Depending on how it’s used, the chip could do anything from telling doctors your medical background to buying you a round at the club.

Outside of human bodies, RFID is already used for a wide range of purposes. If you pay highway tolls electronically, that little box in your car has an RFID tag in it. Lots of folks implant their pets with RFID chips in case they get lost, as animal shelters increasingly scan pets for them. Wal-Mart tracks their shipments with RFID, which has apparently revolutionized supply chain management. Hell, there’s even one in your passport.

But why put one inside your body? As interesting as it might be to have your ID show up on an x-ray, most people would rather suffer a line at the DMV than a rice-injection. Sure, it might make for good conversation at a party. But is that worth the needle? What would it take to get one under your skin?

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Intestinal Implants make Cyborgs out of Diabetics

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by Aaron Saenz on May 19th, 2009

Modern medicine may not have reached the level of the Bionic Woman, but intestinal implants are turning more and more diabetics into low-grade cyborgs. The device in question is Enterra ®, a neurostimulator from Medtronic, that treats gastroparesis. This stomach disorder effects up to 1 in 5 diabetics and basically prevents food from progressing through the GI tract. Non-diabetics can develop the disorder from surgery, medicine reactions, or auto-immune diseases. With the implant, however, most patients can hope to reduce many of gastroparesis’ nastier symptoms like bloating, nausea, and vomiting.

The Enterra neurostimulator implant as seen after installation. Photo from botjunkie.com

The Enterra neurostimulator implant as seen after installation. Photo from botjunkie.com

It takes general anesthesia and surgery to place the Enterra ® device, but afterwards doctors can adjust it externally, using a remote apparatus. Not a bad trick, and one that allows patients to avoid further invasive procedures. While it may take a little more work to install than other implants (did you know that a pacemaker only requires local anesthesia nowadays?) it has benefited from their popularity. Medtronic received special humanitarian device exemption (HDE) from the US FDA for Enterra ®. This means that while the device’s benefits haven’t been proven rigorously, the FDA is willing to let it be placed in patients. All it takes is a facility’s institutional review board to approve the device, and many have already done so.

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Cyberdyne Ready to Mass Produce Cyborgs

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by Aaron Saenz on April 21st, 2009

Nothing transforms scientific gurus into excited SciFi geeks quicker than the mention of a robotic exoskeleton. Iron Man, RoboTECH, Exosquad, Starship Troopers (the book), Neon Genesis Evangelion, Aliens and a thousand other pieces of entertainment have convinced us of one thing: robotic suits = awesome. Professor Yushiyuki Sankai, founder of the Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne, is unabashedly a fan of science fiction, and he now sits on the cusp of bringing that awesomeness into our everyday lives.

Cyberdyne's new Robotic Suit HAL strikes a dashing pose, completely fitting with its Japanese SciFi pedigree.

Cyberdyne's new Robotic Suit HAL strikes a dashing pose, completely fitting with its Japanese SciFi pedigree.

Cyberdyne has developed Robotic Suit HAL, a 50 lb exoskeleton that easily fits over an adult body and augments strength and stability. HAL, short for Hybrid Assistive Limb, completely supports its own weight and balances itself, allowing the user to move freely and lift objects two to ten times heavier than he or she could alone. The glowing discs in the diagram are actually motors providing the necessary forces. Its rechargeable 100 Volt ACDC power source will run for five hours for normal activity. Sensors along joints read motor neuron impulses telling HAL when and how to move. No complicated controls are necessary. This means that anyone can strap on HAL and be walking about in just a few minutes.

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Cyborg Insects Take Flight

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by Keith Kleiner on March 24th, 2009

Insects that can be remote controlled to spy on others?  A completely robotic fly smaller than a penny?  These are just some examples of what is in the pipeline in the world of insect robotics and neuroscience.  In January we reported on the awesome cyborg beetle…now we followup with a small showcase of how the field of cyborg insects continues to blossom.

As a bit of background, even though some of the material below is exciting, readers should keep in mind that cyborg  insects that can be fully controlled in real world surveillance scenarios still have significant hurdles to overcome.  Getting an insect to turn right or left is one thing.  Getting it to land in a particular spot is much harder.

Another problem with cyborg insects is that they are often too small to carry a substantial amount of onboard components, such as a power source (ie. battery) and video or audio capture devices.  Beetles are large enough to combat this problem somewhat as they are able to carry larger payloads.   One idea to overcome the battery problems is to use the insect’s own motion as the energy source, thereby abandoning the need for a battery.  Yet converting kinetic energy into usable stored potential energy at this scale is a serious challenge.

DARPA is funding a good deal of cyborg insect research for surveillance purposes.  DARPA’s goal is to create cyborg insects that can fly at least 100 meters from their controller and land within 5 meters of a target, then stay put until commanded to leave.

Perhaps the most important aspect of cyborg insect research is not the eventual end product, but rather it is what we are learning in the process about insect brains, neurons, and motor capabilities that may be transferable to several other fields.

The highlight of this post is an excellent video from new scientist that showcases some of the top research in the field, so lets get to it:

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Eyeborg – Video Enabled Prosthetic Eye Fuels Privacy Debate

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by Keith Kleiner on March 6th, 2009

When he was a child Rob Spence lost one of his eyes in a shotgun accident.  Now as an adult, Rob is a filmmaker working on a documentary called Eyeborg: a thrilling effort to replace his missing eye with a prosthetic eye equipped with a video camera that can wirelessly record everything he sees.  The project is an exciting journey for the imagination, tempting us with an approaching era where prosthetic components surpass the capabilities of natural human body parts.  More importantly the project joins a series of recent examples that challenge us to contemplate a world where 24/7 surveillance of everything around us is not only possible, but common.

eyeborg_prosthetic_eye_parts eyeborg_prosthetic_eye_closeup

The prosthetic eye features a tiny CMOS camera – 1.5mm square to be exact.  The video signal transmits wirelessly, picked up by an external RF Transmitter smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser. The entire “bionic” package feeds off lithium polymer battery technology, and the data could be sent and recorded to a backback enabled storage device.

To be clear, the eyeborg project is not trying to give sight back to the blind (see the Argus II project for that).  Rather, the objective is simply to create a video recording device that will be implanted into the eye for 24/7 life streaming.  Of course several other projects, notably Justin.tv, already offer this capability.  The Eyeborg project is unique, however, in performing surveillance truly from an individual’s line of sight and also because it explores the implications of a future where our body parts can be augmented to exceed their natural capabilities.

Interestingly it is the privacy implications, not the technology, that may be of most interest to people who encounter the Eyeborg project.  Even though several countries such as Canada and the UK have installed tens of thousands of cameras to monitor their citizens, people categorize surveillance from an individual differently…and they should.

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Army’s Cyborg Beetle Takes Flight

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by Keith Kleiner on January 30th, 2009

Technology review has one of the better reports about the army’s success in creating a remote controlled cyborg beetle in collaboration with the University of California – Berkeley.  From the article:

“The beetle’s payload consists of an off-the-shelf microprocessor, a radio receiver, and a battery attached to a custom-printed circuit board, along with six electrodes implanted into the animals’ optic lobes and flight muscles. Flight commands are wirelessly sent to the beetle via a radio-frequency transmitter that’s controlled by a nearby laptop. Oscillating electrical pulses delivered to the beetle’s optic lobes trigger takeoff, while a single short pulse ceases flight. Signals sent to the left or right basilar flight muscles make the animal turn right or left, respectively.”

This is far from the first success in remote controlled insects.  Flies and moths are other notable examples of other insects that have been “cyborged”.  Check out some awesome pictures of the beetle below and then be sure to follow the link to the technology review video to see the beetle in action:
Cyborg beetle: Shown here is a giant flower beetle carrying a microprocessor, radio receiver, and microbattery and implanted with several electrodes. To control the insect’s flight, scientists wirelessly deliver signals to the payload, which sends electrical signals through the electrode to the brain and flight muscles.Credit: Michel Maharbiz, technology review

 

IEEE Spectrum Special Report on Prosthetic Arms

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by Keith Kleiner on July 29th, 2008

In Feb 2008 IEEE Spectrum released a fantastic special report on some of the latest work being done on prosthetic arms.

The special report covers a lot of ground, but mostly focuses on DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program:

“The program was created in 2005 to fund the development of two arms. The first initiative, the four-year, US $30.4 million Revolutionizing Prosthetics contract, to be completed in 2009, led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., seeks a fully functioning, neurally controlled prosthetic arm using technology that is still experimental. The latter, awarded to Deka Research and Development Corp., Kamen’s New Hampshire–based medical products company (perhaps best known for the Segway), is a two-year $18.1 million 2007 effort to give amputees an advanced prosthesis that could be available immediately “for people who want to literally strap it on and go.” Kamen’s team designed the Deka arm to be controlled with noninvasive measures, using an interface a bit like a joystick.”

Because there are only about 6,000 prosthetic arms needed per year, the market has not been big enough to justify the large investment required to make next generation prosthetic arms. As a result it is amazing to note that commercially available prosthetic arm technology has not changed much in 100 years and is stuck in the “stone age”! Meanwhile prosthetic legs have seen significant investment and are extremely advanced and capable today.

The DARPA funding has literally changed the game by providing the investment necessary to propel prosthetic arms into the current era and beyond. In subsequent posts I will highlight some of the more notable aspects of this report.

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