Robotic Exoskeleton Demo
By john | February 4, 2008
Found an interesting demo of a robotic exoskeleton that’s currently under development. Seems like there’s a lot of this type of working going on these days, particularly for military applications, even though the exoskeleton has many other uses. This concept has been used often in science fiction, such as the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and the computer game Crysis, where the exoskeleton was used as a solider suit, or the movie Aliens, where it was essentially used as a forklift. I’m looking forward to the day in the future when I put on one of these suits and I’m able to run 60 mph, leap 50 feet in the air, and lift a car over my head.
Topics: bionics, exoskeleton, mod | No Comments »
Contact Lens Displays
By john | February 3, 2008
I’m a little late in posting this, but a few weeks ago there were a number of stories out about bionic contact lenses being developed at the University of Washington. These are something that have been common in science fiction for some time now, but it’s great to see this becoming reality. I will certainly be the first to sign up to get some of these once there’s something available for humans.
I’ll be interested to see how these “bionic” contact lenses end up being used. Clearly they’ll be used as a heads-up display and for augmented reality, but it will be amazing to see other uses that arise. I’m also interested in how the engineers working on this will overcome several technical challenges. In my mind, these include the following:
- Power. The article states that the devices will be power by a combination of RF power and solar cells. In my mind, that’s certainly easier said than done. Would be nice if somehow you could “recharge” them by moving your eyes, or power them through the body’s liquids (such as tears) in some way.
- Communications. How do you transfer data wirelessly to/from the lenses? Beats me
- Heat. How do you keep the lenses from heating up and impacting the wearer’s eyeball?
- Interface. How do you control what is displayed? Clearly you would ideally have some sort of mind control, but that’s a ways off. A multi-modal input using voice and gesture recognition would is probably most likely.
Topics: bionics, mod | No Comments »
Bionic bluetooth legs
By john | January 27, 2008
Interesting story here about the new bionic legs that an Iraq War veteran is learning to use. While mechanical prosthetic legs are nothing new, the key idea is that the leg developers are now using bluetooth wireless signals to allow the legs to talk to each other about what they’re doing. I can see where this would be a huge advantage in controlling the legs, as this is usually a function handled by the nervous system. Since the user has no idea of the position of the legs while walking, it must be extremely difficult to develop a normal gait. Inter-leg communication should help with this by providing more communication and coordination between the legs, although not really to the user. Hopefully this is just an interim measure, as the ultimate method for the legs to communicate would be through a direct link to the nervous system, just like a normal pair of legs.
Topics: bionics | No Comments »
medgadget
By john | January 8, 2008
Just added a new website to my “related sites” sidebar: medgadget. This is pretty interesting site that focuses (obviously) on various emerging medical technologies in the news. Definitely worth mining for some body hacks in the future. I’ll be adding articles from this site to my link blog going forward.
Topics: general | No Comments »
Cause of Aging: Inflammation?
By john | January 1, 2008
Just finished reading an excellent article here about a potential huge cause of aging: inflammation. From the article:
“Inflammatory factors predict virtually all bad outcomes in humans,” says Russell Tracy, a professor of pathology and biochemistry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, whose pioneering research helped demonstrate the role of inflammation in heart disease. “It predicts having heart attacks, having heart failure, becoming diabetic; predicts becoming fragile in old age; predicts cognitive function decline, even cancer to a certain extent.”
And this:
So why should our own immune system rely on such an apparently dangerous mechanism? The answer lies in the fact that infectious disease has historically been the number one killer of human beings, and responding to this threat has profoundly shaped our biology. Possessing a fierce and ferocious immune response primed to keep us alive long enough to reproduce was an evolutionary no-brainer.
My takeaway from the article is this: the less you get sick, the less inflammation, and the longer you might live. Just another reason to eat healthy and exercise regularly, in particular to keep inflammation from occurring in your body
Topics: aging | No Comments »
Protect your Body
By john | September 21, 2007
When I was much younger, I pushed my body very hard trying to improve my physical performance for sports. I’d lift too much weight, not get enough sleep, eat whatever I wanted, use bad form, etc. I ended up hurting myself a few times lifting weights, and I achieved a much lower level of performance than what I could have achieved. Given my experiences, one of the key tenets that I have come to live by is this: “protect your body”. This means that whatever you do, keeping your body healthy trumps all other goals. It’s always better to give up a little bit of absolute performance if you can guarantee long-term performance. It’s hard to continually improve yourself if you can’t train and compete.
Here are some tips to use to protect your body at all times:
- Always use perfect form in whatever activity you do, whether lifting weights, running, standing up, etc. You’ll save yourself a lot of potential pain later
- Understand generally how the body works. You can make much better performance, fitness, and nutrition decisions if you understand how the inputs affect your outputs
- When lifting weights, stay well below the maximum weight you think you can do. Always better to be safe, and you really don’t need to use maximum weight to improve yourself
- Never run on concrete, as it destroys the knees and hips. Make sure you run on soft ground, always
- Always warm up well, and then stretch before physical activity. You significantly reduce your chances of hurting yourself if you do this.
- Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day, and don’t skip meals. Helps greatly with keeping your energy level up all day, and keep you from putting on weight
- Don’t put trash food into your body. I have found the saying “you are what you eat
to absolutely be true. If you eat trash, you’ll feel like trash and perform like trash. Always be cognizant of the value of the food that you’re eating
These are just some of the things I have learned throughout my athletic career. I’ll post more as they come to mind.
Topics: training | No Comments »
Possible Solution for Powering Implantable Devices
By john | July 23, 2007
Interesting story here about “nanogenerators” that could draw power from human blood to power implantable devices. A technology like this will be key if we’re ever able to implant technology into the human body. We need a method to power these devices, preferably thorough biological means such as this. Having to remove a device to recharge it, or even having a power interface sticking out of your body to do the recharging, probably won’t be acceptable.
Topics: bionics, mod | No Comments »
Dean Kamen’s Robotic Arm
By john | May 20, 2007
Just saw an amazing video of a new 14 degree-of-freedom robotic arm developed by Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) and team. I met Dean while I was in grad school at MIT, and he continues to amaze with his inventions. It’s great to see him pushing forward with his background in robotics into bionics. Hopefully he’ll continue to push the technological envelope to have viable limb replacements for soldiers.
Topics: bionics, mod | No Comments »
Bluetooth Watches
By john | October 2, 2006
Interesting (but short) article about a new product from Fossil: a bluetooth watch that can display caller ID from your phone. From the article and website, you can receive caller ID info, the watch will vibrate when calls or messages are received, and you can mute the ringer or reject calls just by pushing a button on the watch. This is a nice example of pushing ubiquitous technology and communications into people’s lives by creating a “personal area network”. This will be better when you can push a button on your watch and your bluetooth headset picks answers the call, and even better when you can get the messages delivered to and controlled by you headworn display!
Topics: interfaces, mod | 1 Comment »
Interactive Bionics Tour
By john | September 26, 2006
Wired has an interesting “Interactive Bionics Tour” posted on their blog, which walks through some of the latest developments in the world of bionics. Check it out!
Topics: bionics, mod, enhance | No Comments »
Regeneration
By john | September 23, 2006
Nice article on Wired about the research into the regeneration of limbs. It’s good that DARPA has become involved and is pushing the research, as it should accelerate the rate of progress in the scientific community. Once scientists understand how regeneration works, I wonder if limbs and tissue can be regenerated with different properties, or even redesigned with different features? We’ll have to watch this research closely.
Topics: biology, enhance | No Comments »
Bionic Arms and Legs
By john | September 22, 2006
A couple of interesting bionics stories:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,71785-0.html?tw=rss.technology
http://digg.com/health/World_s_First_Bionic_Woman_move_over_Lindsay_Wagner
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/09/14/bionic.arm.ap/index.html
Topics: bionics, mod | No Comments »
Ideas from “Accelerando”
By john | August 20, 2006
Just finished reading the book Accelerando by Charles Stross. In a nutshell, it’s a sci-fi novel involving 3-generations of a family, and follows them from pre-singularity earth through a post-singularity universe. Why I don’t think it’s his best book (it’s actually a collection of previously-published short stories), I was particularly impressed with some of the ideas about the future. We really need people with imaginations like Charles Stross to come up with ideas for where we can go with technology, and this book is loaded with them. Below are just a small list of his characters’ usage of technology that I believe are particularly in line with my interests and this blog, and should be achievable in the next 10-20 years (if not sooner):
- Using a wearable display as the primary means of interacting with his computing and information devices
- Carrying a tiny 64-node computing cluster in his jacket
- Recording a person’s life and memories, and storing them to a remote, encrypted backup
- The metacortex: “a distributed cloud of software agents that surrounds him in netspace, borrowing CPU cycles from convenient processors…is as much a part of [the character] as the society mind that occupies his skull; his thoughts migrate into it, spawning new agents to research new experiences, and at night, they return to roost and share their knowledge.
- Using the metacortex to assimilate gigabytes of data daily to stay on top of the ever-increasing world developments
- The ability to map the entire brain to make a digital copy of a person, and then uploading that person onto the Internet
- Being able to spawn copies of yourself to go investigate new experiences, and then integrating those copies back into yourself
Topics: singularity, enhance | No Comments »
Wearable Displays in Popular Science Magazine
By john | August 20, 2006
The September issue of Popular Science has a “What’s New | Gadgets” one-page article (unfortunately no link) about the current, soon-to-be, and future tech of personal wearable displays. Unfortunately, the author focused on the use of these devices for playing movies and videos, rather than what I think will be the real use of these devices, which is personal computing, a heads-up display, and augmented reality. Below is my summary of the tech in the article:
- Current: Icuiti DV920 Eyewear - this is a nice wearable display targeted for use with the video iPod. Essentially provides a personal 42″ screen for watching movies and videos. Blocks the user’s field of vision, so cannot be worn while walking/moving
- Soon (2007): Lumus PD-20 Series - this is a nice technology that doesn’t block the user’s vision. An LCD microdisplay magnifies the input image and reflects it directly into the side of the lens. These light waves are then reflected off embedded mirros that enlarge the image and direct it into your eyeball. Will be available in a mono, 2-D version and a stereo, 3-D version. I contacted Lumus directly, and they confirmed that the product will likely be available about a year from now.
- Later (2015): True 3-D Technology from the University of Washington - somewhat similar (in my opinion) to the Lumus tech, except this technology adjusts the focal point of each dot of light so that it appears to come from a real object at the appropriate depth. Thus, more realistic 3-D technology. Tech like this will certainly make augmented reality very enticing.
It’s good to see that the technology is progressing to provide useful, functional, light-weight wearable displays. I think the time has come to start obtaining and experimenting with some of these devices, so look for future updates.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Singularity Discussion on NPR
By john | July 23, 2006
Found a nice NPR discussion with Vernor Vinge and Cory Doctorow about the singularity. An interesting, short listen.
Topics: singularity | No Comments »
Ray Kurzweil Net Q&A
By john | June 21, 2006
Came across an interesting net Q&A with Ray Kurzweil today, where he covers all kinds of topics about the future of technology. Everytime I read something Ray says, I get really excited about the what’s in store for the world. Hopefully his predictions will come true, as that will be a great future.
Topics: singularity | No Comments »
Another Wearable Display
By john | May 29, 2006
Another company has announced that they’ll be selling head-worn displays (a.k.a video display in glasses). The company, Mirage Innovations, promises that its technology will “revolutionize the price and performance of personal display devices”. They also claim that their technology claims eliminates “cyber-stress” from the viewing experience (e.g. nausea, dizziness, etc.) that can be common from other HWD’s, by making the display one complete piece, instead of splitting it into 2 pieces (one for each eye) that must be kept in sync. From reading the website, the glasses/display are targeted toward video playback for devices such as a video iPod. Can’t really tell if it can connect to other devices, but it might be worth checking out if they sell at a reasonable price.
If only someone would come up with a reasonably mobile input device to be use with HWD’s, these diplays would really be useful. I’m expecting/hoping that will become the next big area of innovation.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Current State of Bionics
By john | April 17, 2006
Two interesting accounts here and here of the “The $6 Billion (Hu)Man” symposium at the Experimental Biology 2006 Conference. The innovation in the field of bionics appears to be accelerating, and it’s only a matter of time until someone is outfitted with Steve Austin-like capabilities. The bionic revolution is growing closer and closer…
Topics: bionics | No Comments »
Catching Up
By john | March 28, 2006
I’ve had a number of emails in my inbox for while, which I sent to myself as a reminder of things to blog. Since I’m finally getting around to it now, I’ll just post the links with short summaries here.
- Non-invasive neuroprostetics - reading brain signals with a skull cap
- Neural interface via implanted chips
- Wearable wrist computer — not sure how “wearable” a device is when you just strap it to your wrist
- Implantable chip that controls the release of medicine into the bloodstream
Topics: interfaces, infotech, brain | No Comments »
Neuro Chips
By john | March 28, 2006
Nice story about work being done to integrate neural cells and silicon. While the useful implementation of the technology is still a ways off, this is just another step toward enhancing one’s brain the power of machines.
Topics: brain | No Comments »
Vision of the Future: NYC2123
By john | February 26, 2006
I found a very interesting online graphic comic series called NYC2123 the other day via iGargoyle, which is worth a read for anyone interested in this website, cybernetics, or science fiction. The story called “Dayender” is set in New York City in 2123, and presents an interesting technological vision which I believe could be possible in the not-too-distant future. I won’t go into details on the story, but plot devices include cybernetic implants, genetic engineering, and human-machine interfaces. I read issues 1-5 on Saturday, and am eagerly awaiting the release of subsequent issues.
Topics: general | No Comments »
0wnz0red
By john | February 15, 2006
For today’s post I thought I’d mention a sci-fi short story that I read last year called “0wnz0red”. It was written by Cory Doctorow and originally published by Salon, and later included in his collection of short stories titled A Place So Foreign and 8 More. The story is a creative sci-fi account of a concept which I call “body tuning”: manipulating the human body’s operation and performance by interfacing with technology. Certainly a good read for anyone interested in cyberbonic technologies and what may be possible with them in the not-too-distant future.
Topics: body tuning | No Comments »
Super Vision
By john | February 8, 2006
Nice article today on Wired about high-tech glasses that offer the possibilty of giving people better than 20/20 vision. From the article:
Thanks to technologies created for astronomical telescopes and spy satellites, aberrometers can map a person’s eye with extreme accuracy. Lasers bounce off the back of the eyeball, and structures in the eye scatter the resulting beam of light.
Software reads the scattered beam and creates a map of the patient’s eye, including tiny abnormalities such as bumps, growths and valleys. The pixelated eyeglass lens is then tuned to refract light in a way that corrects for those high-level aberrations.
This *should* be a nice development that can greatly enhance people’s vision. Hopefully this will then lead to contact lenses wil the same features, which also allow the wearer to adjust them manually as well.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Transparent OLED’s
By john | February 6, 2006
Nice article this week about an important new technology: transparent OLED’s. In particular, this could pave the way for low-cost, low-power wearable displays, particularly for heads-up displays, media player applications, and augmented reality. Certainly a technology to watch.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Is NeuroSky for Real?
By john | February 1, 2006
While reading some blogs last week, I came across some coverage of the Entrepreneur27 technology symposium. At this event, a company called NeuroSky was a presenter, and reading about them piqued my interest. From their website:
NeuroSky, a fabless semiconductor/module company, has developed a non-invasive neural sensor and signal processing technology that converts brainwaves and eye movements into useful electronic signals to communicate with a wide range of electronic devices, consoles, and computers.
Basically, the company claims it has a device that allows the user to control machines with thought. Obviously any such device, particularly one that can be used non-invasively, would have enormous economic potential in many areas. This is a perfect example of a cyberbonic device, one that provides an additional communication layer and interface between humans and machines. Another nice article describing the company’s technology can be found here.
With all that being said, I wasn’t able to find any real information about the technology, when something like this would be available, or any demos of it in action. This leads me to ask the question: is this real, or is it vaporware? This is definitely a technology worth tracking, and I’ll post more information here as I investigate.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Voice Recognition for the Car
By john | February 1, 2006
Nice article this week from news.com that discusses the current and future states of voice recognition interfaces in cars. The main point of the article is that all of the car companies are investigating voice recognition in order to reduce the amount of attention drivers need to divert to other tasks while driving, such as changing music or looking for directions. In particular, natural-speech recongition (speaking conversationally with machines) will be important, as it will allow users to easily accomplish tasks without having to memorize specific words or menu items to accomplish a task.
Natural-speech recognition (or natural language processing), once ready for prime time, will be a huge boost for any human-machine interface, as it will allow humans and machines to interact in a more natural way. This will be extremely important for any cyberbonic-type system, as it will allow for a more robust and accessible multi-modal input for control over ,and interaction with, other devices in the system.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Myu Personal Media Viewer
By john | January 18, 2006
While reading press releases and product reviews from CES, I ran across this story about a new personal media viewer from MicroOptical. The details seem pretty sketchy so far, and I haven’t seen any mention of the pricetag yet, but I’m hoping this is one step closer to a more practical application for wearable displays. It seems to me that a device like this is required to make small video-player devices even remotely worthwhile, as I really don’t see who would want to hold the device in front of their face for several hours just to watch some video. The form factor is nice, and hopefully the price will be small to match
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Interesting Blog: Biosingularity
By john | January 2, 2006
Happened upon an interesting blog today (it was on the Wordpress “Hot Blogs” list) called Biosingularity. From the author’s About page:
The convergence of biology with nanotechnology and information technologies will soon create an unprecendent ability to understand and manipulate biological systems. I have coined the term Biosingularity to define a time when we will be able to engineer new biological systems and have complete molecular control in manipulating existing life forms.
As we approach biosingularity, we will first eliminate all diseases, then slow and eventually stop aging. At the point of biosingularity we will be able to reverse the aging process and amplify human intelligence and capabilities beyond imaginable levels.
I started this blog to chronicle the remarkable advances in biological systems and hopefully also to provide a conceptual framework to discuss reverse engineering biological systems and its profound ramifications for the future of humanity.
This blog has a LOT of excellent information and commentary on medical, biological, and technological advances, and is a very interesting read. I agree with the author’s take on the future of biological systems, and look forward to being a regular reader of the blog.
Topics: singularity | No Comments »
Skin Displays
By john | November 28, 2005
Found an interesting “Headline from the Future” in Popular Science this month titled 2029: Google Your Vitals with Skin Displays. The short article presents the concept of having a “dermal display” beneath the skin that can relay health statistics about the body to the user. Nanobots in the body monitor the body’s health and relay that information to “pixelbots” that display the information on the skin.
This is certainly an interesting concept, but just scratches the surface of the possibilities of what could be done with nanobots and pixelbots. I would expect both of these types of bots to be controlled directly by the users’ brains, so that nanobot warnings could be sent directly to the user, and the user could instantly access the nanobot info directly just by thinking about it. It would also be interesting if the user could directly control the pixelbots at will to display whatever the user wants (like tattoos). Of course, I’m sure my ideas are only scratching te surface as well, but there is a lot of potential in these types of cyberbonic technologies.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Bionic hand Coming Soon?
By john | November 28, 2005
Found an article today via Slashdot about the Cyberhand project, which “aims to hard- wire the artificially created hand into the nervous system, allowing sensory feedback from the hand to reach the brain, and instructions to come from the brain to control the hand, at least in part.” The most interesting aspect of this project is the human-machine interface, how it will handle the flow of sensory information beween the bionic hand and the nervous system, and how it will physically interface with the human body . There’s not a whole lot of information on the project’s web page, but I plan to investigate this further, as it has the potential to really push forward the concept of the cyberbonic system.
Topics: bionics | No Comments »
‘The Singularity is Near’
By john | October 25, 2005
Just received my copy of Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near the other day, and have anxiously started reading it. I have found the concept of the singularity fascinating ever since I started reading about it last year, and Ray is one of the top thinkers/futurists on this topic. Joel Garreau wrote a whole chapter on Ray’s views in Radical Evolution, and while his views seem almost utopian at times, I must say that I agree with most of what he says. Looking for some new insights from Ray where our world is heading…
Some interesting quotes from the first few chapters of the book:
“There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality.”
“…within several decades information-based technologies will encompass all human knowledge and proficiency, ultimately including the pattern-recognition powers, problem-solving skills, and emotional and moral intelligence of the human brain itself.”
“…I began to use my models to project and anticipate future technologies, innovations, that would appear in 2000, 2010, 2020, and beyond. This enabled me to invent with the capabilities of the future by conceiving and designing inventions using these future capabilities.”
Topics: singularity | No Comments »
Useful Exoskeletons: Coming Soon?
By john | October 11, 2005
Found a nice article this week in the IEEE Spectrum titled The Rise of the Body Bots”, which gives a nice summary and discussion about the current state of wearable exoskeletons. I’ve been tracking the developments of this technology for several years, and am glad to see the second generation of exoskeletons coming out. I can definitely see useful heavy lifting/constructiorun applications resulting from this research in the near future (a la the movie Aliens), but I think it will be a while longer (~20 years or more) until the technology advances sufficiently to be truly useful for military and personal applications.
I have to wonder, though, which will win out in the long run: wearable exoskeletons or integrated bionics?
Topics: exoskeleton | No Comments »
Mind Power
By john | August 5, 2005
Interesting Wired article from a few weeks ago about how the mind may affect machines. The results of the experiments mentioned in the article sound a little questionable, but it does raise some interesting questions about the power of the mind. Is there really some effect that a person’s brain (or a group of people’s brains) can have on their environment? If so, is there some way to develop this ability? Is it stronger in some moreso than others? Is it genetic? Watching the developments from this line of research will be very interesting to follow in the future.
Topics: brain | No Comments »
Bluetooth Headset Sunglasses
By john | July 26, 2005
Motorola announced that they will be releasing the “Razrwire” (picture), which is a pair of sunglasses that has a “built-in” bluetooth headset. This is a nice-step towards more wearable and integrated communications, although since it’s being offered with Oakley sunglasses I’m sure it will be way too expensive to buy. Hopefully more manufacturers will follow suit and make headsets that can be attached to any pair of glasses instead of the ear.
Topics: interfaces | No Comments »
Bionic Knee
By john | July 25, 2005
Nice article here about a new bionic knee that “intelligently” adapts to the user’s walking style, and is especially useful for an active lifestyle. Just more evidence of the revolution that is coming.
Topics: bionics | No Comments »
Bionics becoming more common and accepted
By john | June 26, 2005
Nice news.com article on “robo-legs” and how bionics and the convergence of man and machine are becoming more common as well as socially acceptable. As the article states, there are “a new generation of people who are not only embracing all types of breakthrough technologies but also incorporating them into their bodies.” Now is the time that technology REALLY becomes exciting!
Topics: bionics | No Comments »