The recently released Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game is raising some very interesting questions regarding Cyborgs, bionic implants (or augmentations as they are referred to in the game). The documentary below explores the similarities between the fictitious augmentations and the current state of the art in bionic technology. Not only does this 12 minutes documentary feature some of the most advanced cyborgs out there, it is presented by a cyborg.
Via Singularity Hub.
What happens when a 14 year old Formula 1 enthusiast emails Mercedes-Benz asking for a contribution for a new 58 000 $ bionic arm? If Matthew James (from Woking , UK) serves as a reference: he gets it.
Matthew was born missing part of his left arm and hand and is now the owner of a very advanced “iLimb” bionic hand. When he mockingly offered Mercedes-Benz to post sponsor logos on the limb in exchange for financial help, the car manufacturer was touched by the request and actually helped him raise the funds. Then they partnered with Touch Bionic to make a custom fitted robotic hand.
PR2 from Willow Garage is now able to help people with disabilities to perform everyday tasks such as manipulating objects shaving and more. The video below illustrates the scope and the results of the Robots for Humanity project that Willow Garage, the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, and Henry and Jane Evans are pioneering.
Via Willow Garage.
The Da Vinci surgical robot created by Intuitive Surgical is a 1.3M $ surgical robot that can conduct complex non invasive operations. This robot is incredibly precise and dexterous as you can see in the video below as it operates on humans and test dummies.
We know that surgical interventions are a serious matter, but we are glad to see that this robot has a sense of humor as shown in the out-takes below.
Although this robot may look menacing, it can dance along with humans and even help humans play the very complex board game “Operation”.
Finally, this very capable robot can even be used for origami as demonstrated by a Japanese surgeon who made a very tiny origami crane with its help.
Via Hizook.
After defeating Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings at Jeopardy!, Watson, the robot by IMB, went on to become a physicians helper.
What would be the most suitable job for a robot that can quickly search trough an immense database and find the answer to a question? We do not know. But diagnosing illness and effectively becoming a physicians helper is certainly a good fit.
As shown in the video above, Watson can read and understand all medical literature and then use the data to diagnose illnesses according to the symptoms described by a patient. Of course, IBM is not willing to completely replace human physicians just yet. The main goal is to assist them and to prevent common diagnosis errors.
Via Singularity Hub
A paper presented by a group of computer engineers from Vanderbilt University at the Humanoids Conference in Nashville describes how robots can be used to diagnose and treat emergency room patients.
Medical Droid from Star Wars (scifitv.com.au)
While human would still take care of the most serious patients, the robots will be able to diagnose and sometimes even treat the other patients. For now, the TriageBot will simply collect personal information and vital signs in order to provide humans doctors with the information.
Via JSOnline
Panasonic has a new robot dedicated to washing human heads. The idea is to use this robot in hospitals and with the elders. The robot is able to scan the head to be washed and plan the most optimal way to wash it. The video below shows more details on the robot and the washing process.
Via BotJunkie.
Octomag Eye Surgery Robot
The Octomag, a giant but friendly electromagnets arrangement, is able to control a very small surgery robot with 5 DoF (degrees of freedom) in free space. This means that the tiny robot can be moved and rotated in free space in every possible way. It is capable of passing trough a needle and could be injected into a human eyeball, for instance, and operate completely untethered. The tiny robot can be controlled in such a precise way that it could clear blood clots present in the human eye blood vessels.
The video below shows the giant and tiny robot working in tandem. Attentive viewers will also note that the SpaceExplorer is used to control the position and orientation of the robot in space.
Via BotJunkie.
Rex Robotic Exoskeleton
Rex Bionics, a New Zealand company has developed a set of robotic legs that enables paraplegics to walk again. With the Rex robotic exoskeleton paraplegic can walk on hard surfaces, turn, go up the starts and more…for a 150 000 $ price-tag.
Although the concept is interesting, the kiwis will need to drop the price a little (or preferably a lot) and improve the motion speed which is rather slow at the moment. Regardless, we are not in a position to judge how much walking would cost for a disabled person (even at low speeds).
The video below illustrates Rex capabilities:
Via Singularity Hub.
Georgia Tech has been developing a Lizard Robot that can bury itself under the sand (or a sand analogue) and navigate its way into hard to reach places. Very much like a sandfish, the robot is covered by a smooth skin (made out of sexy spandex) and can freely move its (aluminium) body segments in order to bury itself deep under the sand. Unlike the lovely lizard, the robot’s goal is not to escape the desert heat by seeking the freshness of the deeper soil. Its main task will be to rescue disaster survivors by wiggling itself into the rubble and searching for them. Once the target is found they are programmed to stay nearby and tell humans rescuers where to dig.
In the video below (courtesy of New Scientist), the similarities between the robot and its animal counterpart are very nicely depicted. It is possible to see that the robot is not as swift as the sandfish…yet. The Gerorgia Tech researchers reassure us that they are going to improve the the sign in order to make it faster, and more flexible.
We are looking forward to hear more about the project at the upcoming 2010 Robotics: Science and Systems conference in Zaragoza (Spain).
Via Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
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