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Posted 12 October 2007 - 04:44 PM
The Netherlands's Maastricht University has awarded a British scientist his doctorate for a paper predicting that humans will someday marry robots.
In his thesis entitled Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners which earned him his PhD. David Levy wrote stated that the "trends in robotics and shifting attitudes on marriage are likely to result in sophisticated robots that will eventually be seen as suitable marriage partners."
bad guy
Posted 12 October 2007 - 05:12 PM
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 05:35 PM
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 06:20 PM
A research team led by Jun'ichi Ushiba of the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory has developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) system that will allow a user to walk an avatar through Second Life by thought alone. This is very close to what cyberspace cowboys can do in works like Vernor Vinge's Portal and William Gibson's Neuromancer.
To control his avatar on the screen, the user simply thinks about moving different body parts. To move forward, the user thinks about moving his own feet. To turn right or left, the user imagines moving his left or right arm.
A headpiece monitors the motor cortex; an EEG machine graphs the data and forwards it to the BCI, which interprets the user's intended movements. A simple keyboard emulator then sends the appropriate keystrokes to Second Life. The end result: the user's avatar walks around in the virtual world without any keyboard interaction at all.
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 06:26 PM
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 06:41 PM
Hi Drano, great to hear from you, you're right on target.The real value of this will come when they are able to use this technology to help people with spinal cord injuries and other debilitating conditions. Think "Bionics" but for real.
I described such an application in one of my invention ideas that I entitled, "Brainwave Control Of A Computerized Wheelchair." That was more than a decade ago. Note, I included applications that included bypassing damaged spinal chord areas and directly stimulating motor neurons via self-generated brainwaves using an interactive command and control system. Edited by Bob-C, 12 October 2007 - 06:48 PM.
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 06:58 PM
Yeah, but it will solve the problem of who does the vacuuming and lawn mowing, if the tools are built in to the robot.Human-Robot Marriage? LOB!!!
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 07:50 PM
Wow, impressive, Bob.
My hope is that they will be able to come up with braces and implants that will work that way, so that people with debilitating conditions will be able to gain at least some self-sufficiency and mobility. I had a friend with Lou Gehrig's disease.
That would have been a blessing. And it's not as far off, or as far out, as peole think. Cochlear implants are already helping many people, and there are very promising experiments with artificial vision using a tiny camera.
I'm sorry to hear about your friend who suffered with Lou Gherig's disease, aka; ALS and MND. FYI, click on the link to read an uplifting and hopeful article from www.als-options.com concerning ALS. Read about this exciting stem-cell research breakthrough from stemcell.targana.net entitled, "First Central Nervous System Stem Cell Transplant In Cuba." In addition, nanotechnology research holds great promise for curing diseases and repairing damaged parts of the human body.
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Posted 13 October 2007 - 12:30 AM
Hi Rogerdodger, nice to hear from you.Bob, You're a day late on this story: Link
Fantastic stuff is coming!
Thanks for pointing that out and for posting "Humans to wed robots..." on Thursday-sorry I missed it. Thanks also for all your informative and fun-filled posts! Keep up your good work!
