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Here is some news from my very own University of Missouri - Kansas City where I am a senior working on a Communications Studies with emphasis in Film and Digital Media Production degree.
Crews have been working on a giant robotic system to retrieve books from a space much smaller than it would have been to house them traditionally. They are the ONLY library to use a hybrid shelving/bin system.
It might cost less to digitize them and make them available to students via login account but I suppose it’s good to keep good ol’ paper around in case of a solar storm that knocks out all electricity on Earth! I don’t even want to imagine that happening…
Robots are not just for building cars and repairing underwater oil spills anymore. Robots are the librarians of the 21st century.
The Miller Nichols Library invested $20 million in a robot of its own. Three cranes, four rows of either shelving or bins and the operating computer comprise the heart of the four-story giant.
“It’s fully installed and operational. At this point we have loaded 187 thousand materials with a goal of 800 thousand,” Bonnie Postlethwaite, Associate Dean of Libraries said. “We are making good progress.”
The addition of the robot enables the library to house its catalog in one-seventh of the space previously required. To protect the quality of the materials they are kept in low humidity at 65 degrees. more>>>
By Antoni Slodkowski Antoni Slodkowski – Thu Jul 29, 6:27 am ET
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – Robots that can chat, find misplaced glasses, draw aeroplanes and play with your children are attracting thousands of visitors during an expo in Tokyo as Japan adapts to changes in society.
Robots, such as the sound-sensitive Chapit, answer simple questions and even joke with people to help the solitary fight loneliness and stay alert in old age.
“Many older people in Japan live alone and have no one to talk to,” said Kazuya Kitamura, a representative of the expo organiser. “Communication robots accompany people and don’t mind listening to the same stories over and over again.”
While Chapit, a relatively simple robot, managed to attract a corporate partner, many researchers, such as Kiyoshi Matsumoto, a professor at the University of Tokyo, struggle to attract sponsors for more expensive projects.
Matsumoto’s “Personal Mobility Robot,” equipped with four cameras and a sensor to recognise the user’s centre of gravity, is designed to help elderly move around without pressing buttons, using joysticks or rotating wheels as in traditional wheelchairs.
The robot can also help find misplaced spectacles by identifying them with a sensor. more>>>
Kevin Warwick is an internationally renowned Professor and researcher in the field of Cybernetics from the University of Reading, England. His work in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, human control functions, robotics and cybernetic organisms presented here shows how implant and electrode technology can be used to create biological brains for robots, to enable human enhancement and possible therapeutic effects for neurological illness.
In any case, the end goal is human enhancement, or “transhumanism”, which inevitably stirs up many social, ethical and philosophical questions.
On Friday April 23, 2010 the first Trans-oral endoscopic surgical procedure using a DaVinci Robotic System was performed in the Department of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery by Dr. Lisa Shnayder. Dr. Shnayder and her team are the first Head and Neck surgeons in the region to use the DaVinci robot technology for the treatment of benign and small cancerous tumors (T1 and T2).
Endoscopic instruments are carefully inserted through the mouth, without making any outside incisions. The use of a 3D camera provides a highly magnified view of the operating field, allowing the surgeon to remove cancer with a precise margin of a healthy tissue. This gradual technique preserves healthy tissues of the mouth and throat as well as their function including swallowing, breathing and voice production.
These are some of the benefits of the transoral robotic surgery which have been confirmed by 5-year-long research trials in human patients:
* Significantly less blood loss
* No visible scars
* Fewer patients require tracheotomy
* Eliminate or decrease the dose of radiation therapy
* Shorter hospital stay
* Fast recovery and return to normal speech and swallowing
By achieving an optimal approach with robotic mechanisms, studies are moving closer to robots that could take on dangerous missions in the military, create prosthetic limbs for humans that work much better, or even help some people who use wheelchairs to gain “walking” abilities.
The newest findings from the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at OSU are being presented at two conferences, including the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation. The OSU research program has received a new $750,000 grant for its work from the Human Frontiers Science Program, administered through the National Science Foundation. Work to actually build a robot with some of the newest features should be completed by this summer, Hurst said.
“Researchers have been working toward robot locomotion for a long time based mostly on experience and intuition,” said Jonathan Hurst, an assistant professor of robotics and mechanical design at OSU. “What we’ve done is taken a step back to analyze the fundamental dynamics of the mechanical system, what behavior is really possible for a given robotic system. A rock can’t fly, no matter what software you write for it. more>>>
“The QB is an extension of you,” Bob Christopher, chief operating officer of Anybots told Wired.com. “It removes the barriers between people and work so people can teleport themselves to the office space”…
Click here for the complete article found on the Wired website.
Click here for more information on telepresence robots.
Michio Kaku is the co-founder of String Field Theory and is the author of international best-selling books such as Hyperspace, Visions, and Beyond Einstein. Michio Kaku is the Henry Semat Professor in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York.
Click herefor more information from and about Dr. Michio Kaku.
Researchers at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) are taking part in a European project aimed at creating an intelligent system comprising a robot and smart sensors that can support independent living for elderly people…
Click here for the entire article found on the Science Daily website.
In August 2007, Le Trung invented Aiko, a Yumecom, or “Dream Computer Robot.” Although it took only a month and a half to build Aiko’s exterior, the artificial intelligence software has been a work in progress ever since. Recently, Le Trung has demonstrated his most recent improvements to the software, called BRAINS (Bio Robot Artificial Intelligence Neural System).
In the video below, Le Trung demonstrates Aiko’s internal operating system, which gives the robot many abilities, including the ability to speak two languages (English and Japanese), solve high school math problems, communicate the weather forecast, understand more than 13,000 sentences, sing songs, identify objects, focus on objects or people of importance, read newspapers and other materials, and mimic human physical touch.
As Le Trung explains, in some ways the BRAINS software is even more powerful than a human brain because it can link to infinite sources of data. Similar to a human brain, the software is designed to interact with the surrounding environment, process it, and record the information in its internal memory. Once the internal memory is at full capacity, the information can be transferred into a server database. The information can then be shared with current and future robots.
With the BRAINS software, Aiko (whose name means “beloved one”) has the potential for many applications. For example, in the home, Aiko could help elderly people by reminding them when to take their medicine and helping them read the newspaper. It could also help kids with their math homework. In work and public environments, the robot could be used at information desks, where it could give directions and inform people when and where events take place. Le Trung also suggests that, with Aiko’s ability to detect 250 faces per second, it could be useful in airports to quickly scan and filter faces, as well as answer questions regarding flight times and gate locations. In addition, Aiko’s sensitivity sensors and humanlike appearance offer the potential for its use as a companion robot.
“The most recent improvement with Aiko is the BRAINS software,” Le Trung said. “I have just finished re-architecting the BRAINS software to have triple threads, which will make the software run a bit smoother and process about 15% faster for 3D recognition. As a result, Aiko can distinguish the difference between a $20 Canadian bill and $20 American bill. Aiko also has new improved facial expressions with 21 recognition points. Aiko will know when you are angry, happy, etc. Finally, the BRAINS can now process newspaper reading much faster and more accurate.”
Le Trung, whose background is in microbiology and chemistry, was originally inspired to build Aiko after watching “Chobits,” a Japanese manga that explores the relationships between humans and personal computers. While he hopes to continue to improve Aiko’s software, he currently faces a hardware limitation, as the CPU is currently at 99% capacity. Le Trung hopes to raise funds to upgrade the CPU.
In the future, Le Trung hopes to enable Aiko to achieve further skills, such as making tea, coffee, and a breakfast of eggs and bacon; cleaning a human’s ears with a Q-tip; giving a neck massage; writing; and cleaning windows, shelves, and bathrooms. He also hopes that, one day, he will be able to mass produce sister copies of Aiko for an estimated cost of about $17,000 – $20,000.
“Future improvements include making the voice with more emotions and feelings when speaking, improving the silicone material on her face so that she can do facial expressions like humans, and redesigning the body and arm system to move more naturally and carry heavier things,” Le Trung said.
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