Former Googler, Apple Engineer Tackle Educational Robots |  AllThingsD There are apps that teach kids the basics of programming. And then there are robots that get the job done. That’s the vision of a group of four tech entrepreneurs who late last year formed a company with the purpose of creating educational robots for kids. The Bay Area-based company, called Play-i, is still in the early stages of building out its bots and determining their form and functionality. Vikas Gupta, Play-i’s founder and CEO, says the robots will be targeted at children aged 5 to 8, and will most likely work in conjunction with tablets. Using a tablet or other mobile device running compatible software, the child will be able to program his or her robot to perform certain actions.

Former Googler, Apple Engineer Tackle Educational Robots |  AllThingsD

There are apps that teach kids the basics of programming.

And then there are robots that get the job done.

That’s the vision of a group of four tech entrepreneurs who late last year formed a company with the purpose of creating educational robots for kids.

The Bay Area-based company, called Play-i, is still in the early stages of building out its bots and determining their form and functionality.

Vikas Gupta, Play-i’s founder and CEO, says the robots will be targeted at children aged 5 to 8, and will most likely work in conjunction with tablets. Using a tablet or other mobile device running compatible software, the child will be able to program his or her robot to perform certain actions.

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Injectable Microscopic Robots Can Detect Threat Of Blindness - PSFK Oxygen is vital to human life, and while many know of the ramifications that a lack of oxygen may have to our lungs or brains, many are not aware that our retinas also need oxygen to function; without it, permanent blindness – sometimes within mere hours – can occur. Up until now, it has been difficult for doctors to gauge how much oxygen is reaching the eye, but now researchers at Swiss university ETH Zurich have developed miniscule robots that can be injected into the eye and measure the amount of oxygen in the retina.

Injectable Microscopic Robots Can Detect Threat Of Blindness - PSFK

Oxygen is vital to human life, and while many know of the ramifications that a lack of oxygen may have to our lungs or brains, many are not aware that our retinas also need oxygen to function; without it, permanent blindness – sometimes within mere hours – can occur. Up until now, it has been difficult for doctors to gauge how much oxygen is reaching the eye, but now researchers at Swiss university ETH Zurich have developed miniscule robots that can be injected into the eye and measure the amount of oxygen in the retina.

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joshbyard: DARPA Robot Hands Dextrous Enough to Use Tools, Change a Tire The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has a robot that can change a tire, picking up the tire, getting it off and on the (simulated) wheel and using the lug wrench. This may sound pretty simple, but the point isn’t the changing of the tire — it’s holding the tools. Robots that can hold tools are a lot more versatile than those built for a specific task, because then they can adapt to doing whatever is asked of them — instead of a robot that only tightens nuts, it’s possible to ask one to pick up a screwdriver as well. (via Robot Changes Tires So You Don’t Have To : Discovery News)

joshbyard:

DARPA Robot Hands Dextrous Enough to Use Tools, Change a Tire

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has a robot that can change a tire, picking up the tire, getting it off and on the (simulated) wheel and using the lug wrench. This may sound pretty simple, but the point isn’t the changing of the tire — it’s holding the tools.

Robots that can hold tools are a lot more versatile than those built for a specific task, because then they can adapt to doing whatever is asked of them — instead of a robot that only tightens nuts, it’s possible to ask one to pick up a screwdriver as well.

(via Robot Changes Tires So You Don’t Have To : Discovery News)

(via joshbyard)

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Giant Nasa spider robots could 3D print lunar base using microwaves (Wired UK) The first lunar base on the Moon may not be built by human hands, but rather by a giant spider-like robot built by Nasa that can bind the dusty soil into giant bubble structures where astronauts can live, conduct experiments, relax or perhaps even cultivate crops. We’ve already covered the European Space Agency’s (ESA) work with architecture firm Foster + Partners on a proposal for a 3D-printed moonbase, and there are similarities between the two bases — both would be located in Shackleton Crater near the Moon’s south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant due to the Moon’s inclination on the crater’s rim, and both use lunar dust as their basic building material. However, while the ESA’s building would be constructed almost exactly the same way a house would be 3D-printed on Earth, this latest wheeze — SinterHab — uses Nasa technology for something a fair bit more ambitious.

Giant Nasa spider robots could 3D print lunar base using microwaves (Wired UK)

The first lunar base on the Moon may not be built by human hands, but rather by a giant spider-like robot built by Nasa that can bind the dusty soil into giant bubble structures where astronauts can live, conduct experiments, relax or perhaps even cultivate crops.

We’ve already covered the European Space Agency’s (ESA) work with architecture firm Foster + Partners on a proposal for a 3D-printed moonbase, and there are similarities between the two bases — both would be located in Shackleton Crater near the Moon’s south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant due to the Moon’s inclination on the crater’s rim, and both use lunar dust as their basic building material. However, while the ESA’s building would be constructed almost exactly the same way a house would be 3D-printed on Earth, this latest wheeze — SinterHab — uses Nasa technology for something a fair bit more ambitious.

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Video: Next-gen Kinect sensor.

The sensor inside Kinect was created by PrimeSense, who demonstrate the next generation model called Capri in this video.

Capri is 1/10 the size of previous models, and the company says “we have been able to improve on all aspects of the system” in the device, which can be integrated into tablets and smartphones.

Microsoft is actually only one customer using the system, and does not licence it exclusively. Other companies also using the technology include iRobot, Matterport, and Asus. 

(via 8bitfuture)

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BBC - Future - Technology - Tomorrow’s world: A guide to the next 150 years As we begin a new year, BBC Future has compiled 40 intriguing predictions made by scientists, politicians, journalists, bloggers and other assorted pundits in recent years about the shape of the world from 2013 to 2150.

BBC - Future - Technology - Tomorrow’s world: A guide to the next 150 years

As we begin a new year, BBC Future has compiled 40 intriguing predictions made by scientists, politicians, journalists, bloggers and other assorted pundits in recent years about the shape of the world from 2013 to 2150.

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2045: A New Era for Humanity

In February of 2012 the first Global Future 2045 Congress was held in Moscow. There, over 50 world leading scientists from multiple disciplines met to develop a strategy for the future development of humankind. One of the main goals of the Congress was to construct a global network of scientists to further research on the development of cybernetic technology, with the ultimate goal of transferring a human’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier.

[N.B.  Some of this is way out there, and breathlessly speculative. But from everything we know about exponential technological change, the world in 10, 20 or 30 years from is likely to be much more radically different than we can even imagine.]

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Hands-Free Robotic Luggage Is Here, Still Waiting For My Flying Car Hop is a suitcase that follows close behind the user, as he or she moves out of range. It’s named after bellhops, people who are hired — often by hotels — to carry guests’ luggage, according to Hop’s official website. Video after link (via Hop Is a Suitcase That Follows You Around Hands-Free)

Hands-Free Robotic Luggage Is Here, Still Waiting For My Flying Car

Hop is a suitcase that follows close behind the user, as he or she moves out of range. It’s named after bellhops, people who are hired — often by hotels — to carry guests’ luggage, according to Hop’s official website.

Video after link

(via Hop Is a Suitcase That Follows You Around Hands-Free)

(via joshbyard)

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These $10 Robots Will Change Robotics Education | Wired Design | Wired.com When the African Robotics Network announced their $10 robot design challenge this summer, co-founder Ken Goldberg was careful not to share too many expectations, lest he influence contestants’ designs. But he never imagined one of the winning entries would prominently feature a pair of Spanish lollipops.

These $10 Robots Will Change Robotics Education | Wired Design | Wired.com

When the African Robotics Network announced their $10 robot design challenge this summer, co-founder Ken Goldberg was careful not to share too many expectations, lest he influence contestants’ designs. But he never imagined one of the winning entries would prominently feature a pair of Spanish lollipops.

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“The $22,000 robot that Rethink will begin selling in October is the clearest evidence yet that robotics is more than a laboratory curiosity or a tool only for large companies with vast amounts of capital”

Quote from an article in the NY Times titled “A Robot With a Delicate Touch”.  The article discusses Baxter the robot made by startup ReThink. (via horizonwatching)

(via horizonwatching)

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Lasers, 3-D Printers, And Robots: The New Shop Class | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

DARPA is funding the creation of 1,000 Makerspaces in high schools across the country to get American kids interested in making things again.

“We have to move from an engine of bureaucracy to an engine of innovation,” said Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter, announcing this week that at least 1,000 high schools around the country will be opening up Makerspaces over the next four years.

What is a Makerspace, you ask? “It’s a place where you get to do things,” Dale Dougherty, founder of O’Reilly Media’s Make magazine and creator of Maker Faire, told Co.Exist. “I think it’s sort of a mashup of a shop class, a computer lab, an art class, and maybe a bio lab.”

It’s sort of a mashup of a shop class, a computer lab, an art class, and maybe a bio lab.

The national Makerspace project is the brainchild of Dougherty and Saul Griffith, many-tentacled inventor and founder of Squid Labs, Instructables, and Howtoons, and is sponsored by a grant from DARPA MENTOR, the defense department’s research arm related to advancing manufacturing and reviving the nation’s strategic interest in making things; the organization is already sponsoring Makerspaces for adults, so this is a logical extension. There’s some pretty heavy national goals riding on this initiative: getting American kids excited about science, math and technology again and fostering a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. “I feel we’re at this point in time where people are looking for some substantial change in education,” says Dale. “And I want to be that new thing.”

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How artificial intelligence is changing our lives - CSMonitor.com From smart phones that act as personal concierges to self-parking cars to medical robots, the artificial intelligence revolution is here. So where do humans fit in? At iRobot Corporation in Bedford, Mass., a visitor watches as a five-foot-tall Ava robot independently navigates down a hallway, carefully avoiding obstacles – including people. Its first real job, expected later this year, will be as a telemedicine robot, allowing a specialist thousands of miles away to visit patients’ hospital rooms via a video screen mounted as its “head.” When the physician is ready to visit another patient, he taps the new location on a computer map: Ava finds its own way to the next room, including using the elevator. At iRobot Corporation in Bedford, Mass., a visitor watches as a five-foot-tall Ava robot independently navigates down a hallway, carefully avoiding obstacles – including people. Its first real job, expected later this year, will be as a telemedicine robot, allowing a specialist thousands of miles away to visit patients’ hospital rooms via a video screen mounted as its “head.” When the physician is ready to visit another patient, he taps the new location on a computer map: Ava finds its own way to the next room, including using the elevator.

How artificial intelligence is changing our lives - CSMonitor.com

From smart phones that act as personal concierges to self-parking cars to medical robots, the artificial intelligence revolution is here. So where do humans fit in?

At iRobot Corporation in Bedford, Mass., a visitor watches as a five-foot-tall Ava robot independently navigates down a hallway, carefully avoiding obstacles – including people. Its first real job, expected later this year, will be as a telemedicine robot, allowing a specialist thousands of miles away to visit patients’ hospital rooms via a video screen mounted as its “head.” When the physician is ready to visit another patient, he taps the new location on a computer map: Ava finds its own way to the next room, including using the elevator.

At iRobot Corporation in Bedford, Mass., a visitor watches as a five-foot-tall Ava robot independently navigates down a hallway, carefully avoiding obstacles – including people. Its first real job, expected later this year, will be as a telemedicine robot, allowing a specialist thousands of miles away to visit patients’ hospital rooms via a video screen mounted as its “head.” When the physician is ready to visit another patient, he taps the new location on a computer map: Ava finds its own way to the next room, including using the elevator.

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VA Medical Centers Working on Brain-Controlled Leg Prosthesis a team of researchers from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, California have [made] progress with a robotic leg prosthesis controlled by EEG signals. As you might expect, things remain a bit limited at this point — not amounting to much more than the ability to start and stop — but the researchers say they’ve been able to achieve a 100 percent response rate with no “false alarms,” and that the results are promising enough to begin tackling additional degrees of freedom like turning and sitting. …The system has so far only been tested on able-bodied individuals, [but] the researchers hope that it will eventually be able to aid those with spinal cord injuries and aid in rehabilitation. (via Researchers tout progress with brain-controlled robotic legs — Engadget)

VA Medical Centers Working on Brain-Controlled Leg Prosthesis

a team of researchers from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, California have [made] progress with a robotic leg prosthesis controlled by EEG signals.

As you might expect, things remain a bit limited at this point — not amounting to much more than the ability to start and stop — but the researchers say they’ve been able to achieve a 100 percent response rate with no “false alarms,” and that the results are promising enough to begin tackling additional degrees of freedom like turning and sitting.

…The system has so far only been tested on able-bodied individuals, [but] the researchers hope that it will eventually be able to aid those with spinal cord injuries and aid in rehabilitation.

(via Researchers tout progress with brain-controlled robotic legs — Engadget)

(via joshbyard)

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