Technology is a tool, it has always been a tool. However, there have been some technologies that have shaped evolution and actually prompted evolution. The very first technologies (stone cutting -extracting and shaping-, bronze smelting, and iron/steel production) gave the name to entire epochs. More recently we have had use …
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Executable Knowledge Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving a keynote at the EIT Manufacturing 2021 Summit Event and I focussed on the trend towards executable knowledge in machines and its impact on the work and factory. Here’s the text of my talk. ======== Smarter Factories, Smarter People Over the …
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MIT has just announced the establishment of a new research centre, the Lisa Yang Centre for Bionics, focussing on the fusion of human body and advanced technology aiming at overcoming disabilities. This includes use of exoskeletons and brain computer interfaces. The centre start with an initial funding of 24 M$ …
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Millions of people have lower-limb paralyses limiting their movement possibility and affecting the life of their families (in addition to limiting their possibility to find a job). The Toyota Mobility Foundation set up a 4 million $ challenge in 2017 to come up with effective devices that could overcome this …
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I have touched upon seeing, hearing and touching applied to human to whatever interface. There are three more, smell, taste and proprioceptors (these latter provide a sense of position and acceleration) but I’ll skip these for now since they are not used, nor are likely to be used in isolation …
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The goal of augmenting human capabilities has always been there, for as far as we can tell. The control of fire was a tremendous augmentation that had deep consequences on our species. Cooking food opened up new ways of nourishment and made our species more adaptable to hostile environment and …
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Enhanced strength We have learnt to enhance our strength centuries, millennia, ago first with lever then harvesting hydraulic and then steam power. Today we have a tremendous array of machines that multiply ur strength. Our body strength has also improved since our ancestors, we have grown taller (10 cm in …
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In 2017 we saw Birdly, a VR flying simulator on which you can lay down an feel like a bird flapping its wings over Manhattan or in a tropical jungle. Movement involving your whole body, a fan blowing air in your hair and a VR goggle providing immersive vision all …
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Back at CES 2011 Cyberdyne presented a lower limbs exoskeleton that would help in relieving stress and fatigue from the lower limbs by shifting the weight from the limbs to the exoskeleton. A few years have gone by, this exoskeleton has found application in a number of industries in Japan …
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Prosthetic limbs have reach such a sophistication that can be seen as operating in a symbiotic relation with the person having them. And in a few cases the person’s perception has fully integrated the prosthetic limb. Newer version have embedded intelligence, able to predict what it will be expected from …
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IEEE Future Directions