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

by Aaron Saenz on January 12th, 2010
ces 2010

CES is all about the biggest, brightest, flashiest displays. Kudos to Samsung for its towers of LED TVs.

Integration. Dimensionality. Connectivity. Those were the three key concepts that exhibitors wanted to impress upon me as I walked the floors of CES 2010. The gadgets of this year and next were going to combine previous innovations, bring them into our 3D world, and connect us with people everywhere. The Consumer Electronics Show is the forum for getting your cutting edge technology into the hands of buyers for major retailers all over the world. As such, it’s full of remarkable innovations and cool demonstrations as well as hype and delusions of grandeur. Enjoy the following photo safari through the booths of CES 2010.

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by Aaron Saenz on November 2nd, 2009
The Robot Pet Sitter could be remotely accessed so that you can play with your pets while away from home.

The Robot Pet Sitter could be remotely accessed via the internet so that you can play with your pets while away from home.

Okay, I rarely spend time looking at “concept machines” but this one just made me chuckle enough that I had to share it. In our hectic lives there is one group that constantly suffers from lack of attention: our pets. So what’s the solution – spending more time at home, or giving your pet a backyard, maybe even finding someone to help care for your pet? No, of course, not. That’s not technologically advanced enough. What your pet needs is a robotic sitter, one that you can control from anywhere in the world via WiFi. MintSelect, a technology concept community, has dreamed up their Robot Pet Sitter, a device that will let you speak to, watch, and even play fetch with your animal. Teach your pet to obey its robotic overlord just as it would obey you.

As far as I can tell, the Robot Pet Sitter would function almost exactly as a Rovio. Like that robot, the Pet Sitter would connect to your home WiFi network and allow you to access the device through a web browser. While I can’t speak to whether or not animals will enjoy interacting with robots, I do know that telepresence is a developing trend in technology. Remotely accessing your home, for security or pet soothing, is just the beginning. Once we are able to transmit sensation from a machine to a human (a capability known as haptics) people will feel what is happening to the robot they are operating. In essence, you will be able to interact with distant objects just as if you were there with them. That level of connectivity may make travel obsolete.
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Anthrotronix is letting your hands do the talking. Their new acceleglove is an input device that reads the smallest movements of the fingers to control robots, communicate in American Sign Language, or let soldiers give commands in the field. The intuitive motion capture glove is set to provide a more instinctual and light-weight alternative to traditional robot control mechanisms. Check out the brief demo video with Jack Vice (Anthrotronix founder) after the break.

Did you just call me a Power Glove? Talk to the hand, fool.

Did you just call me a Power Glove? Talk to the hand, fool.

For those of you who can’t help but make comparisons to Nintendo’s ill-fated Power Glove, you should know that the acceleglove is a much more sophisticated device….it’s kind of  like a Wiimote. Seriously, the glove uses many small accelerometers (hence the glove’s name) to measure movements and orientations of the fingers. Those accelerometers are sensitive enough, and tiny enough, that a user feels like they are simply moving their hand in a traditional glove. That’s great news for the intended users.

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Some people approach a keyboard like a Ming vase and some approach it like a punching bag. Now, Microsoft is going to be able to tell the difference. A new prototype from MS’s hardware division is capable of measuring the pressure applied to each key on the keyboard and relaying that information to your computer. Allowing for a whole new degree of freedom in the way you type, Microsoft sees the new keyboard as changing how you spell check, play games, and chat online. They’ve even got a contest to see which students can develop the best applications for the new hardware. Check out the demonstration video after the break.

On the outside it looks like a regular keyboard, but inside it knows how hard you're typing.

On the outside it looks like a regular keyboard, but inside it knows how hard you're typing.

While this keyboard doesn’t provide any feedback to the user’s fingers, it does grant you a whole new way to interact with your software. It’s somewhere, but not quite, on the level of haptics we’ve discussed before. Even with just visual feedback, however, the keyboard would allow a more immersive experience

Where will we see this experience? Well first, most of us make errors when typing, hitting one stray key or double pressing others. By measuring differences in pressure, Microsoft can inform your spell checking software which letters are least likely to be intended by the user. Backspace/delete and arrow keys can have variable meaning depending on pressure. Want to delete a whole row of text? Jam down on the delete key. I can imagine the next generation of MS Office will have a whole series of variable responses based on pressure sensitive keys.

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You know you live in a crazy age when blockbuster movies look like they might come true. Next month marks the debut of the scifi film Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis and adapted from Robert Vendetti’s comic series of the same name. The movie follows a police officer who lives in a future where everyone (including him) is a remote controlled android called a surrogate. You can feel everything that this robot does, but without any worries about danger. Pretty far-fetched, right?

Will the world of Surrogates come true?

Will the world of Surrogates come true?

Well, a new micro-documentary on Wired.com is questioning just how much fiction there is in this science. With commentary from the director and some key experts in the field, The Science-Fact Behind Surrogates is out to show that the technology we have today is laying the foundation for the reality of the film. Watch the micro-documentary video after the break.

Surrogates is set in the year 2054, when everyone stays at home and sends beautiful android versions of themselves out into the world. It’s the ultimate form of telepresence, and futurist Dr. James Canton believes it could happen in the next decade or so. Canton isn’t the only expert weighing in during the documentary. Anybots, which the hub covered previously, make robots that operate through telepresence and demonstrate that humans can already interact through their artificial minions.

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