Saturday, October 8, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Like in the Movie “ALIEN”, Exoskeleton Robotics Add To Human Abilities.
By: Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
I trust that you have watched the movie Alien. One of the notable scenes is where the character “Ellen Ripley”, played by Sigourney Weaver, climbs into a robotic power-walker exoskeleton and subdues the Alien. With the added strength provided by the suit, she is able to toss the creature out of the bay doors of the spaceship. Way cool. If you haven’t purchased a robotic exoskeleton, I highly recommend that you do.
Now back to reality. A couple of years ago, the U.S. Army revealed its XOS Exoskeleton, which weighs195lbs, and is made by defense systems firm Raytheon. You might see XOS used in military operations within the next five years. XOS Exoskeleton gives the wearer 17 times the strength of a normal human being. Holy crap Ripley!
The XOS Exoskeleton works by pumping warmed hydraulic fluid through the metal frame which 'takes over' the weight from the human body.
Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon-Sarcos, said: ‘Rather than using machinery to pick up, haul and place materials, having the human element involved can make work more precise and cut down on time to bring in cranes or other devices.’
Such computerized suits would allow Air Force and Navy aviation workers to load bombs onto the undercarriage of aircraft or place munitions into storage or onto trucks for shipment. The full exoskeleton gives a worker the strength to pick up in each hand and handle, all day long with minimal fatigue.
The military refers to these suits as “powered armor” for their “future soldiers.”
Think of it like this, whatever the human wants to do, the XOS makes him stronger.
A lighter weight XOS2 suit is under development, but might only have ½ the power. Perhaps operators should be forewarned not to pick their nose?
Technological issues remain a stumbling block related to powering the super suits. Not to fear, Robert Downey Junior’s character figured it out in the first “Ironman” movie, and I plan to send Raytheon-Sarcos a DVD.
And the average cost to become a real life Iron Man? Perhaps a mere $6-10 million each, once full scale production begins?
I trust that you have watched the movie Alien. One of the notable scenes is where the character “Ellen Ripley”, played by Sigourney Weaver, climbs into a robotic power-walker exoskeleton and subdues the Alien. With the added strength provided by the suit, she is able to toss the creature out of the bay doors of the spaceship. Way cool. If you haven’t purchased a robotic exoskeleton, I highly recommend that you do.
Now back to reality. A couple of years ago, the U.S. Army revealed its XOS Exoskeleton, which weighs195lbs, and is made by defense systems firm Raytheon. You might see XOS used in military operations within the next five years. XOS Exoskeleton gives the wearer 17 times the strength of a normal human being. Holy crap Ripley!
The XOS Exoskeleton works by pumping warmed hydraulic fluid through the metal frame which 'takes over' the weight from the human body.
Fraser Smith, vice president of operations for Raytheon-Sarcos, said: ‘Rather than using machinery to pick up, haul and place materials, having the human element involved can make work more precise and cut down on time to bring in cranes or other devices.’
Such computerized suits would allow Air Force and Navy aviation workers to load bombs onto the undercarriage of aircraft or place munitions into storage or onto trucks for shipment. The full exoskeleton gives a worker the strength to pick up in each hand and handle, all day long with minimal fatigue.
The military refers to these suits as “powered armor” for their “future soldiers.”
Think of it like this, whatever the human wants to do, the XOS makes him stronger.
A lighter weight XOS2 suit is under development, but might only have ½ the power. Perhaps operators should be forewarned not to pick their nose?
Technological issues remain a stumbling block related to powering the super suits. Not to fear, Robert Downey Junior’s character figured it out in the first “Ironman” movie, and I plan to send Raytheon-Sarcos a DVD.
And the average cost to become a real life Iron Man? Perhaps a mere $6-10 million each, once full scale production begins?
Monday, March 7, 2011
Transhumanism Potential
By: Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
As I sit at my cluttered desk this morning, I have begun to wonder about our transhumanism potential.
Put religion aside for a moment, and ponder with me.
What I mean by that is simply this; might it be someday possible to transfer our very essence into a silicon or even carbon-silicon bio-bot of sorts. Imagine for a moment that such a transentience might perhaps be a stage of our evolution. Will a robot someday hold a human skull, and ponder the possibility of it as a stage in his probable evolution?
A question I propose to you is, "What really defines a person's essential essence?" And could this defined essence be reduced to a code of sorts and transferred precisely enough to literally convey one's essential being into a more durable artifice?
What is the true texture of your life that you may wish to capture? Is it you preferences, your unique character or your memories? All of these might readily be defined. What is it that truly makes you... well, YOU?
And do you feel that we are emotionally of contemplating such a radical pursuit of legacy and desire to remain within this physical constraint we refer to as life? What would become of our relationships? How would our goals, purposes and emotional attachments to the physical change? What of sex? Would we still deem it necessary to produce flesh and blood offspring to convert into our transhuman architecture? And if so, at what point would we begin the transformation? Would it make sense to tolerate a slow bootup process through infancy, or would we simply encapsulate the life form into its durable structure and then download the desired archive files and programmed performance.
Add back in our belief systems to the mix for a moment, and what might the consequences of such an intentional transentience and interference with the Creator's design? If we did proceed in this direction, would the resulting life forms be, "happy?"
So many questions remain....
Saturday, March 5, 2011
As Technology Advances, Will We Digress to Simplicity In Other Areas of Our Lives?
By: Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
I have pondered for quite some time now, a simple premise. I seriously wonder, as technology rockets ahead at break-neck speed, will we somehow chose to digress to simplicity in other areas of our lives?
This hypothesis might seem silly to you. But have you ever felt overwhelmed by technology? Have you ever felt like you are always on the go? Can you live without your cell phone or internet connection? How does this affect your ability to relax?
My personal belief is that when a device becomes overly complex to use, a certain anxiety develops and the devices usefulness comes into question. Our world is full of gadgets. And at the speed at which innovations are brought to market, one barely has time to learn a new device before it becomes obsolete. We are so connected that I have to wonder if it is now societally progressing to a point of burgeoning upon mass mental illness. This perplexes me, and should concern you as well.
Because my vocation deals with extremely complex computer code and high technology daily, I find myself adjusting other things in my life to compensate. My father resolved a portion of his life's unwanted distractions by purchasing 10 blue suits and 10 white shirts. He only owned black socks. He had 10 Red ties, 5 pairs of black Italian Loafers and 3 black belts. He claimed that by creating a wardrobe that reflected his favorite attire, he always looked good and never spent a second worrying about what to wear. As my life becomes more complex, I am beginning to see the wisdom in his simplification of the mundane.
Along those thoughts, I have developed a theory. I believe that as technology complicates our lives, our human psychology will seek balance by choosing to simplify the most basic elements of our existence. How far will it go? I'm not quite sure. I can certainly imagine a preference to a quaint, earth friendly cave with a thermal efficient solar glass front wall, simple sturdy furniture and a simple 96" high def. 3D flat screen with the audionics resonating through the natural stalactites; to that of my congested city apartment.
I want to know how you feel about this topic.
I have pondered for quite some time now, a simple premise. I seriously wonder, as technology rockets ahead at break-neck speed, will we somehow chose to digress to simplicity in other areas of our lives?
This hypothesis might seem silly to you. But have you ever felt overwhelmed by technology? Have you ever felt like you are always on the go? Can you live without your cell phone or internet connection? How does this affect your ability to relax?
My personal belief is that when a device becomes overly complex to use, a certain anxiety develops and the devices usefulness comes into question. Our world is full of gadgets. And at the speed at which innovations are brought to market, one barely has time to learn a new device before it becomes obsolete. We are so connected that I have to wonder if it is now societally progressing to a point of burgeoning upon mass mental illness. This perplexes me, and should concern you as well.
Because my vocation deals with extremely complex computer code and high technology daily, I find myself adjusting other things in my life to compensate. My father resolved a portion of his life's unwanted distractions by purchasing 10 blue suits and 10 white shirts. He only owned black socks. He had 10 Red ties, 5 pairs of black Italian Loafers and 3 black belts. He claimed that by creating a wardrobe that reflected his favorite attire, he always looked good and never spent a second worrying about what to wear. As my life becomes more complex, I am beginning to see the wisdom in his simplification of the mundane.
Along those thoughts, I have developed a theory. I believe that as technology complicates our lives, our human psychology will seek balance by choosing to simplify the most basic elements of our existence. How far will it go? I'm not quite sure. I can certainly imagine a preference to a quaint, earth friendly cave with a thermal efficient solar glass front wall, simple sturdy furniture and a simple 96" high def. 3D flat screen with the audionics resonating through the natural stalactites; to that of my congested city apartment.
I want to know how you feel about this topic.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
EmoLogic and the Future of Search Engines
By: Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
Applications for the Emotiv technology and interface span an amazing variety of potential industries, everything from gaming to interactive television, everyday computer interactions, hands-free control systems, smart adaptive environments, art, accessibility design, market research, psychology, medicine, robotics, automotive, transport safety, defense and security. According to a spokesperson from Emotive, the company plans to introduce Emotiv into these and other broad realms through established developers and researchers in over 70 countries; which are already working with the technology. For more details, please see: http://www.emotiv.com/corporate/.
Allow me to boldly outline my vision of the evolution and progression of technology over the next 5 years related to the evolving emotional intelligence and the future of search engines.
I have coined a term for my concept, and lovingly refer to it as emologic responsive search indexing.
In brief, I believe you can reasonably expect search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and about 1200 of their affiliated partners, will evolve into a hybrid emotional intelligence based algorithms. I believe that emologic is emerging at a breakneck pace, and that developments such as Emotiv Brain Wave computer interface will someday soon change our computer search engines forever.
Based on the latest developments in neuro-technology, Emotiv has developed a revolutionary new personal interface for human computer interaction. Emotiv is a neuroengineering company that has brought to market a breakthrough interface technology for digital media taking inputs directly from the brain. This technology utterly transforms the way we interact with computers. Emotiv's vision is to revolutionize human-computer input in the same way the graphic user interface did 20 years ago.
Applications for the Emotiv technology and interface span an amazing variety of potential industries, everything from gaming to interactive television, everyday computer interactions, hands-free control systems, smart adaptive environments, art, accessibility design, market research, psychology, medicine, robotics, automotive, transport safety, defense and security. According to a spokesperson from Emotive, the company plans to introduce Emotiv into these and other broad realms through established developers and researchers in over 70 countries; which are already working with the technology. For more details, please see: http://www.emotiv.com/corporate/.
Because the Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset, which uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect user thoughts, feelings and expressions and connects wirelessly to most PCs; I believe my future view to be reasonable. I postulate that this type of technology platform will create an emergence of an emotional indexed response to everything we encounter on the net. What a consumer thinks or feels about a product or service, will be indexed in real-time.
Imagine the accuracy that may be possible in consumer satisfaction feedback about everything. Not only would it be likely to be reliable, it will also be real time. This will change sales and marketing as we know it. The Emotiv EPOC system allows you to control your computer with brain waves. In video games, this allows the game program to read your emotional response and provide experiences that are more pleasing to you. Online gaming is big. So is the desire to think-type, etc. These two areas alone would yield a tremendous user base.
How might “emologic” change social media in general? Will we think and tweet? How will we parse our politeness in conversation? Will we have to buy a modified software package to allow us to be disingenuous?
Will dating sites become a quick battery of emotional neural imprints that are indexed in a nano second against the true nano print of another subscriber’s profile? Maybe online dating, which now accounts for about 1/7th of all permanent relationships, will yield a permanent mate on your first visit. Maybe you won’t have to worry about scrolling through endless profiles and cyber courting. Instead, you will be neuro-paired and ready for marriage by the end of your brief logon session. What a relief. I’m sure the system will be advanced enough to notify all of your family and friends of your certified cyber match, and perhaps even send out wedding invitations.
I remember watching a documentary on a mind reading seed in ancient Egypt. The flax-like seed was said to impart telepathic powers upon simple ingestion. It is said that the Pharaoh finally ordered the crop to be burned because of all of the social problems that resulted from everyone being able to read each other’s minds. The ancient government started having trouble managing its citizens, as they could instantly determine falsehoods perpetrated by their leaders. Perhaps we should test out these devices on our politicians first. If that goes well, then we can distribute them to the masses.
Social media is already affecting how retailers and manufacturers market their products. Can anyone truly respond to consumer demand at the speed of thought? Perhaps not, but one thing is sure; the future is going to be exciting. And the major search engines and social media platforms that we love and depend on will be forever changing to meet consumer demand and expectations.
I’m interested in your thoughts on this subject, and how you see emologic affecting search engines and social media.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Robotic Sentinel by Tom Macon, PhD.
Welcome to the Robotic Sentinel. I decided to blog about my passion for robotics.
As a robotic futurist, I will try to share with you my unique insight into where I think we might be headed in the very near future. I encourage you to comment and share information concerning robotics, and engage in lively discussions related to the science and psychology I jointly refer to as, "Robocology"
I am simply fascinated with the many possibilities that await mankind as we begin more borg-like in our integration with machines.
A perfect example can be viewed at: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/06/53302#
In the aforesaid referenced article by "Wired", they discuss, "A wireless receiver can be implanted into your tooth with the aid basic dental surgery. The implant can allow a person to receive digital signals from radios and mobile phones, from the privacy of their own head." I know the article was dated 2002, but it is an interesting read. Follow the link yourself and think about what other integrations we may consider.
Have you ever wondered if we might evolve to the point of combining living carbon tissue and silicon? I recall at least one article about the subject: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Intel-May-Combine-Silicon-with-Carbon-Nanotubes/
Best of luck, and remember, our future is what we make it!
Sincerely Your,
Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
As a robotic futurist, I will try to share with you my unique insight into where I think we might be headed in the very near future. I encourage you to comment and share information concerning robotics, and engage in lively discussions related to the science and psychology I jointly refer to as, "Robocology"
I am simply fascinated with the many possibilities that await mankind as we begin more borg-like in our integration with machines.
A perfect example can be viewed at: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/06/53302#
In the aforesaid referenced article by "Wired", they discuss, "A wireless receiver can be implanted into your tooth with the aid basic dental surgery. The implant can allow a person to receive digital signals from radios and mobile phones, from the privacy of their own head." I know the article was dated 2002, but it is an interesting read. Follow the link yourself and think about what other integrations we may consider.
Have you ever wondered if we might evolve to the point of combining living carbon tissue and silicon? I recall at least one article about the subject: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Intel-May-Combine-Silicon-with-Carbon-Nanotubes/
Best of luck, and remember, our future is what we make it!
Sincerely Your,
Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
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