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Think Artificial

Wikitude AR - Augmented reality on Google AndroidOctober 27

It’s been a while since the last post and I’m afraid it’s going to be like that for some time, mainly due to business, school and of course our dreaded economic uncertainties. It’s rare that I simply sit down and post, I usually mull over things for a few days and read up on the subject. But between the upcoming US elections and Iceland’s economic canary-in-the-mine situation, there hasn’t been much left to fuel my writing. So for now we’ll have to settle for slim posts.

Now, the Wikitude AR Travel Guide, created by Mobilizy, is an augmented reality application for the G1/Google Android. Judging from the video demonstration, the graphical overlay is quite a few notches smoother than Enkin.

Cockroach inspired robot from CWRU’s biorobotics lab (fantastic)October 3

This fantastic robot is the third in a series of robots designed at Case Western Reserve University’s biorobotics lab. Make sure you have a look at their site which contains more information and pictures.

When opportunity knocks with a bionic armSeptember 21

Some time ago I came across an article reporting on a new robotic arm that was so powerful it might have to be downgraded to serve as a “safe” prosthetic.

As prostheses become more affordable and powerful—how soon can we expect people that want to replace their biological arm with one that doesn’t tire, can lift twice as much and for twice as long?

Or, perhaps a more credible scenario; of those that get one out of need, how many will be content with human dexterity when super is an option?

The Scotsman reports the i-Limb, an artificial arm that the creators say is “better than the actual thing”.

The researchers say their new arm is capable of repeatedly lifting a weight of 10kg up above head height and could do so all day, compared with the average human being who would tire within minutes. The wrists could rotate 360° and anyone using it could perform hundreds of push-ups.

However, the sheer power of the limb means its creators are faced with the problem of deciding which patients could be trusted to use it safely, as it has the potential to be used as a weapon.

A weapon. How about marketing it in the U.S.? Dangerous cyber-enhancements could be taken up under the wing of the Second Amendment. A second-and-a-half amendment emerges proclaiming the people’s right to bare super “arms”.

[John German with an i-Limb]

Imagine a support call to a support line in the near future: “I’m sorry sir, we can’t replace your broken arm … it says right here on page 5 in the manual that any tampering voids the warranty. And we’re going to have to remove your current one. Could you come in around six thirty?”

What about the legalities? Would a tuned up arm void the warranty? Could a handicapped individual be denied a limb because he longed to be better, stronger?

The i-LIMB Hand offers a unique, highly intuitive control system that uses a traditional myoelectric signal input to open and close the hand’s life-like fingers. Myoelectric controls utilize the electrical signal generated by muscles in the remaining portion of a patient’s limb. This signal is picked up by electrodes that sit on the surface of the skin. Users of existing, basic myoelectric prosthetic hands are able to quickly adapt to the system and can master the device’s new functionality within minutes.

[via medGadget]

Close to bionic superiority

All jokes aside, the potential of a better-than-biological limbs is becoming increasingly likely. A recent and real example was Oscar Pistorius and the Olympics; a runner athlete with two bionic leg prostheses who was almost barred from trying out. The lack of meat was temporarily considered an unfair advantage because, for example: (a) they are longer and allow a greater stride, and (b) bionic prostheses don’t require oxygen/aren’t subject to lactic acid build-up. Below is a video of Pistorius competing in a 400 meter race in 2007; well worth the watch.

The real life Doctor ManhattanSeptember 8

I thought many of you might enjoy this little gem I came across while digesting my daily dose of science. It turns out that Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen seems to have a real life counterpart.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Watchmen is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Gibbons. It’s the only graphic novel to receive sci-fi’s most prestigious award, Hugo Award, and the only graphic novel to make the NY Time’s 100 best English-language novels. Those of you who’ve read it, read on for the real life Dr. Manhattan. For those of you who haven’t read it fetch yourselves a copy, enjoy some great sci-fi, and then come back to this post. If you don’t the writing style of this entry won’t make sense to you.

In the novel, Jon Osterman, scientist with a Ph.D. in atomic physics, accidentally gets locked inside a test chamber for removing “intrinsic fields” of objects (a made up concept). In a blue glow of fury, Osterman is torn to shreds and—as you know since you read the novel like I asked you to—later reconstructs himself to become the worlds onl

Ubiquity for FirefoxSeptember 1

If you’re a Firefox user and live on the web like I do, neck deep in trying out new features and beta services, then you should give Mozilla Lab’s Ubiquity a try. It’s an experimental plugin for FF that reminds me a lot of the desktop application Quicksilver.

By a key combination you bring up a command-line interface that let’s you write natural language instructions. For example, selecting text on page, bringing up the window and then typing “email this to xyz@something.com“. A similar example is translation; i.e. translate this to French. I’ve recently been migrating many of my desktop activities to web applications, including moving entirely from desktop email to Gmail, and a big plus for me is that Ubiquity works with Gmail right out of the box.

Here’s a recap of the initial features, as stated in the Ubiquity prototype announcement:

Ubiquity 0.1

• Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more. Ubiquity “command list” to see them all.