Watching “Plant Machete” in action is a little surreal. The multi-jointed robotic arm pivots and rotates, the blade swinging to and fro in a threatening manner. The plant appears to be fighting back against humans that approach it, warning us that it’s no longer defenseless. Skeptics might immediately wonder whether this disturbing display is actually controlled by a computer program, but it’s the result of EEG sensors translating the electrical signals inside the plant into movements.

The system uses an open-source Arduino micro-controller connected to the plant to read these signals across the plant’s leaves. Bowen’s custom software maps them in real time to the movements of the joints in the arm wielding the machete. This basically makes the plant the “brain” of the installation. Bowen mounted the plant to the wall and filmed the results in all their glory.

Another recent project by Bowen called “Plant Drone” gave a plant the unlikely ability to fly. As with Plant Machete, this project translated the real-time variable resistance data collected from a live on-board plant into movements: left to right, forward to reverse, up and down. That allowed the plant to pilot the drone, with a mounted LED light creating long exposure drawings in the night sky and tracking its path.

Similarly, “Fly Revolver” tracks the movements of flies inside an acrylic sphere with a target backdrop, processing them with custom software and outputting them to a robotic device that aims a revolver. Collectively, these projects might induce a feeling of unease in the viewers. What if plants and animals really could use our own weapons against us? What would that say about our accountability to them, and the consequences of our actions?

“Using intersections between natural and mechanical systems, I produce unique relationships within my sculpture and installations,” says Bowen in his artist statement. “With robotics, custom software, sensors, tele-presence, and data, I construct devices that are set in motion to interface with the physical, virtual, and natural world. The devices I construct often play the roles of observer and creator, providing limited and mechanical perspectives of dynamic situations and living systems. These devices and situations create a dissonance that leads to an incalculable changeable situation resulting in unpredictable outcomes.”

It may seem absurd to imagine that plants have the capability to communicate with us, but scientists have found evidence that they speak to each other in languages we simply don’t register or understand. UK-based computer scientist Andrew Adamatzky recently published a study in which he compared electrical signals in mushrooms to human language, finding that their patterns can be interpreted as up to 50 different words. In another study, ecologist Suzanne Simard demonstrated how trees “talk” to each other by sending each other nutrients via a network of fungi buried in the soil.

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Toi Labs founder and CEO Vikram Kashyap became obsessed with the smart health toilet as a result of his own struggle with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes colon sores, bloody diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and abdominal pain. As he sought to understand this uncurable condition, he worked with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco to analyze his own stool samples as part of a four-year study. After the results were published in Science magazine in 2010, Kashyap started his own company to make valuable health data more available, especially for the elderly.

Building his Toi Labs company in San Francisco, he and his team got to work on the TrueLoo, a smart toilet that uses sensor technology to evaluate human waste to identify a variety of urinary and digestive disorders. It can be installed in just a few minutes like a bidet, and its optics-based urine and stool measurements can aid in detecting dehydration, viral infections, and urinary tract infections — an especially common ailment for seniors.

The concept of testing urine and feces for disease proved very valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because people could be asymptomatic while carrying COVID, many municipalities around the world began tracking COVID markers in city wastewater to get a better picture of it local prevalence.

Other studies have confirmed the efficacy of urine and stool analysis for discovering various health issues. Researchers Joshua Coon and Ian Miller at the University of Wisconsin, Madison tested over 100 of their own urine samples in 10 days and found that using advanced technology, waste monitoring could detect not only things like glucose levels, viral and bacterial infections, signs of kidney disease, and cancer, but also measures of caffeine-consumption and exercise levels. Of course, the type of machinery they used are not yet compatible with smart toilets, but Kashyap’s sensor models are a good jumping-off point.

Some senior care communities are already incorporating these smart toilets in their facilities to provide better health care for their residents. The Legacy Senior Communities in Dallas and Plano, Texas installed the TrueLoo in their private residences to more easily collect important health data. This can be especially helpful with assisted living and memory support occupants, who may not be able to describe their physical ailments as well.

“The TrueLoo smart toilet enables us, in a dignified and valuable manner, to better monitor and follow up when important changes to output are identified. This expedites our response and increases the accuracy and timeliness of important data,” said Legacy Senior Communities CEO Melissa Orth in an interview with a local news outlet.

Kashyap chimed in on the added efficiency his smart toilets provide these facilities, noting: “TrueLoo technology provides a higher level of wellness for residents while better leveraging the time of care staff.”

After the pandemic forced people around the world into lockdown, millions of people suffered from other diseases and infections because they had no access to their doctors for months. Home healthcare monitoring options like the TrueLoo make sense for avoiding similar situations in the future.

“I think at the end of the day, we’re increasingly moving towards a world where people are going to be making their own health care choices themselves and having the data that can be generated from themselves,” Kashyap said in an interview with Onezero. “I think it’s going to just completely shift the power in health care and the way consumers engage with the healthcare system.”

The post These Smart Toilets Can Tell if You’re Sick first appeared on Dornob.

To solve these problems, tech companies like Virtuix and Kat have introduced first-stage omnidirectional treadmills, while companies like Cybershoes have created wheeled footwear that can approximate the movement of running while swinging the legs in a seated position. These are all on the right track generally, but none have actually been able to mimic the real-life motions of walking while in a game. Enter the Ekto One VR boots.

While still in the prototype phase, the Ekto One are individual shoes with motorized wheels that can track the users’ movements and propel them backwards each time they take a step forward. Each boot is essentially a mini treadmill, but because they attach to the feet, the user can theoretically move in any direction while still remaining in the designated play space.

This feat is achieved by attaching a pair of Vive visual trackers to each shoe to monitor the user’s position in real-time. While it may look strange to an outside observer, the wearers feel enveloped in their game or training without any accompanying nausea.

Some reviewers who have tried out the beta shoes report that there are certainly a lot of kinks to work out. For starters, they take a full five minutes to attach. Users keep on their normal footwear and slip them into the adjustable Ekto Ones, cinching them down for a snug fit. Then extra ankle sensors are attached and properly positioned.

Reviewers also complain about the weight and clunkiness of the boots. Because of their bulk, just walking around in them for 20 minutes can be a workout, especially as the user has to be careful not to let the shoes bump into each other to avoid falling.

On the other hand, users did like that that the shoes’ soles are divided into two moveable parts, providing more flexibility in walking than just a solid piece of plastic.

Currently, the company is selling the Ekto One shoes for between $15,000 and $20,000, a less-than consumer-friendly price tag. The VR footwear is being marketed to businesses right now in hopes of securing enough funding to further develop and scale the product to make it more affordable for the masses.

The Ekto Ones go way beyond gaming, too. Businesses can utilize the boots for industrial training purposes for things like VR simulations of complex and hazardous environments. Theme parks and museums can also purchase them to provide commercial VR experiences for their visitors.

With more funding from corporations and venture capitalists, the shoes should eventually become lighter and nimble enough to simulate natural movement. While the Ekto One VR boots may not be the complete answer to turning our world into Ready Player One just yet, they’re certainly a step in the right direction.

The post VR Boots Give Users a More Immersive Metaverse Experience first appeared on Dornob.

Today’s social and economic climate make this device especially attractive. According to a study from the American Psychological Association, Americans are more stressed out than ever, with 47 percent of adults reporting feelings of anxiety, 44 percent feeling sad, and 39 percent feeling extreme anger. No wonder a mind-trainer that pledges inner tranquility and relief from brain fog is in high demand.

And lots of people are apparently excited and ready to supercharge their brains, as the project met its crowdfunding goal within three hours of its campaign posting on Indiegogo. With 24 days left to go at the time of writing, backers have already raised over $655,000, 2,184 percent of the original $30,000 goal.

“We believe that through Sens.ai, anyone can finally have access to world-class neuro-optimization technology in the comfort of their own home and at an approachable cost,” says Paola Telfer, CEO and founder of Sens.ai. “One of the many benefits of Sens.ai is the ability to reduce stress and increase happiness. Many people struggle to reduce stress levels quickly and long term. This is where Sens.ai comes into play, utilizing personalized HRV and neurofeedback training technology, it empowers people to quickly summon calm when they feel stress and more importantly, train calm as a long-term, substance-free habit.”

The headset features sensors that can take in data from the brain and body and use it to provide audiovisual feedback. Its Gamma-grade sensors can read the fastest brainwaves, while the Pulse Oximeter sensor monitors heart signals thousands of times per second, measuring heart rate variability and allowing the Sens.ai to tailor a training program to increase heart coherence, an indicator of a balanced nervous system.

Sens.ai also incorporates photobiomodulation, a type of infrared light therapy used to stimulate the gray matter. LEDs strategically placed in the headset send out light energy that is absorbed by photoreceptors in the brain, initiating metabolic processes that improve circulation and oxygen utilization. The company says the result is an “energy lift” and an “accelerated ability to learn.”

Pairing with a phone app, users will be able to access 20 different brain-enhancing courses, each lasting eight to 12 weeks. Some are aimed at cognitive speed, others include mindful meditations, and others still endeavor to increase things like memory retention and concentration. Users can also access programs to help with better sleep, resilience, creativity, or clarity.

During the training programs, the user’s brainwaves are converted into lights and sounds on the phone app. The lights get higher and the sounds get louder and more frequent when the user is doing well and in “the training zone.” The headset sensors will also sense when the wearer needs a neuro boost and activate the LED lights for an immediately felt state change. The results can be tracked on the app afterwards and monitored for progress.

The Sens.ai team of cognitive experts says it built the device on decades of neurotechnology research. With several patents pending, they claim that their headset is the most comprehensive brain training solution offered at home. It can produce results with just 20 minutes of use, three times a week.

“The most exciting technology revolution is not outer space, it’s the exploration of inner space,” the company says on its Indiegogo campaign page.

The base-model Sens.ai is currently on offer for $999 on Indiegogo, with the brain-training devices expected to ship out in the second quarter of 2022.

The post The Sens.ai Headset Promises a Sharper, Faster, Better Brain first appeared on Dornob.

The engineers say they’re the smallest ever human-made flying structures, and they could be dropped like “swarms” from various altitudes to assess air pollution or monitor the effects of chemical spills. That raises the question of how they could possibly be cleaned up again after their use, especially if they manage to spread far and wide in the wind. No problem, says the team at Northwestern University. They can be made of materials that will dissolve in water over time, so they naturally degrade and disappear.

“Our goal was to add winged flight to small-scale electronic systems, with the idea that these capabilities would allow us to distribute highly functional, miniaturized electronic devices to sense the environment for contamination monitoring, population surveillance, or disease tracking,” says Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, who led the device’s development. “We were able to do that using ideas inspired by the biological world. Over the course of billions of years, nature has designed seeds with very sophisticated aerodynamics. We borrowed those design concepts, adapted them, and applied them to electronic circuit platforms.”

The team took inspiration from maple seeds and other aerodynamic plant seeds, which have bladed wings to catch the wind and fall in a slow rotating movement. The mechanisms of children’s pop-up books were also consulted to fabricate wing shapes that buckle in a controlled way when bonded to a slightly stretched rubber substrate. It’s growing increasingly common for engineers to copy elements of nature to create objects that behave in certain ways within certain environments, a concept called “biomimicry,” but the Northwestern University engineers are ready to boast that they’ve taken their designs even further than evolution could.

“We think that we beat nature,” Rogers says. “At least in the narrow sense that we have been able to build structures that fall with more stable trajectories and at slower terminal velocities than equivalent seeds that you would see from plants or trees. We also were able to build these helicopter flying structures at sizes much smaller than those found in nature. That’s important because device miniaturization represents the dominating development trajectory in the electronics industry, where sensors, radios, batteries, and other components can be constructed in ever smaller dimensions.”

If you caught that “population surveillance” part and felt creeped out, you’re not alone. Photos show the microfliers dwarfed by tiny spiders, looking almost indistinguishable from grains of sand. Shown on a human fingertip, they’re hardly more than flakes of glitter. The idea that we could someday face surveillance technology so tiny it can barely be seen by the human eye is more than a little disturbing (because yes, our phones are already surveilling us, but at least we can shut them away in a drawer when we want to). The researchers don’t elaborate on exactly what kind of surveillance they’re envisioning, but they do go into more detail about how these tiny creepsters work in a story at Northwestern University’s news site.

The post Tiny Flying Microchips Could Be Used for Surveillance and Tracking Diseases first appeared on Dornob.

“I can visit with people and brighten their day with social stimulation… but can also do talk therapy, take bio readings, and help healthcare providers,” Grace told Reuters in a demonstration at Hanson Robotics’ Hong Kong workshop, standing alongside her older “sister,” Sophia (who famously became the first robot to be granted citizenship by any country.)

The prototype robot’s facial features are inspired by anime characters, with large eyes and a neutral, friendly expression. Hanson Robotics founder David Hanson says Grace is able to simulate the action of more than 48 facial muscles thanks to a proprietary nanotech skin called Frubber. “A human-like appearance facilitates trust and natural engagement because we are wired for human face-to-face interactions,” he adds.

Hanson Robotics envisions Grace as a way to support overloaded medical staff as well as elderly patients and those isolated by COVID-19. Capable of taking patients’ pulses and temperatures with an integrated thermal camera, Grace is also designed to mimic the kind of interaction you’d get from a human care provider, and speaks English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Her behavior can also be tweaked according to her context, simulating either Asian or Western customs as needed. Naturally, Grace won’t be able to replace medical professionals altogether, but she can step in to perform routine tasks and socialize with patients when human staff aren’t available.

The company says it will begin mass-producing its robots, including both Grace and Sophia, by the end of 2021. Grace will be fully deployed next year in medical facilities in Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, and Korea. Though the cost of a single humanoid robot is currently close to $100,000 USD, that price is expected to come down as the company manufactures them in larger quantities.

Public acceptance of humanoid robots like Grace will likely vary according to cultural differences. Social robots are already in common use in Japan, and throughout the world, more people are considering their value as companions for lonely seniors. But a recent study found that most people still experience the creeped-out “uncanny valley effect” when robots resemble sentient beings, and questions remain about whether social robots will deepen an overarching loss of human contact as technology evolves.

In the U.S., the pandemic is still raging, and hospitals are facing deepening staff shortages complicated by the new federal vaccine mandates. It’s clear that we need a diverse array of solutions in the face of an aging Baby Boomer population and potential future pandemics, and that robotics have a role to play. Of course, helping medical students afford increasingly outrageous tuition, hiring more staff, and properly compensating medical caregivers would also go a long way.

The post Robot Nurse “Grace” Will Soon Be Caring for Isolated COVID Patients first appeared on Dornob.

Albert Zhang, founder and CEO of AiTreat, began his career as a trained TCM physician. He quickly found that delivering treatments was “tedious and repetitive.” He began formulating the idea of EMMA as a way for doctors to use their time more efficiently.

“One physician can only see one patient at a time, but with EMMA, the physician can operate two robots and see up to four patients simultaneously,” he told CNN.

While he doesn’t intend for robots to replace professional masseuses, Zhang says they can do the majority of the massage therapy, allowing their human counterparts to “focus on the 10 percent highly skilled part” and saving them from the exhausting strain on their muscles throughout the day.

“By using Emma to do the labor-intensive massages, we can now offer a longer therapy session for patients while reducing the cost of treatment,” said Zhang in the Robotics Business Review, adding that “the human therapist is then free to focus on other areas such as the neck and limb joints, which EMMA can’t massage at the moment.”

And EMMA can replicate human touch in her massage movements quite convincingly. Using sensors and 3D vision technology, the machine measures muscle stiffness and identifies pressure points. Having been programmed with thousands of data points like various body shapes and sizes and massage types, the AI machine can develop a custom regimen tailored to each patient’s meridian and acupoints. EMMA’s robotic arm also moves extremely methodically, with soft touch treatment modules warmed to a comfortable range of 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

“The principle of traditional Chinese medicine is all about personalized treatments,” Zhang explains, stressing that his smart machine is “highly flexible and customizable.”

As an added safety measure, the force exerted by EMMA is limited to a maximum of 100 Newtons, or “an impact that will feel no more painful than getting struck by an [elevator] door (commonly 150 Newtons),” the company website assures. And patients always have complete control over the robot during the massage. They can adjust the strength of the movements as well as stop the treatment immediately at any point.

Zhang’s massage robot has been operating for over four years now, with 11 functioning versions of EMMA at eight different clinics in Singapore. To gain widespread acceptance of the AI masseuse, he is planning to conduct clinical trials in Germany, China, and Singapore to test her medical efficacy. He is already seeing great interest from practitioners in China and the US.

“I think it’s only the beginning,” says Zhang. “I can see that with support from the physicians, from different countries, the robot will be better and better, and more and more people will benefit from this robotic technology.”

The post This Robot Uses AI and Sensors to Deliver Perfectly Personalized Massages first appeared on Dornob.

“For IKEA, the smart home is not about gadgets. It’s about making life and home better through combining our solid home furnishing knowledge with digital solutions and technology,” says Henrik Telander, Product Owner at IKEA of Sweden, adding that “That’s why we explore the possibility of integrating the function of purifying air and technology to provide good experiences for customers at home. STARKVIND is a high-performing air purifier. When designing it, we also wanted it to have a modern design which can be adapted to changing lifestyles. People can choose based on their needs and preference.”

Available in a blonde wood or dark brown-black finish, the $189 STARKVIND air purifier table features a three-filter system with a pre-filter to eliminate big particles like hair and dust, a finer particle filter to capture 99.5 percent of smaller airborne particles like pollen, and a gas cleaning filter for odors and pollutants like formaldehyde and other VOCs. It does have physical knobs, though, so it can be used with or without the $35 TRADFRI smart home gateway, which gives you the ability to control it from your smartphone. Even without the smart capabilities, you can choose between five fan speeds or select “Auto “mode, which uses a built-in air sensor to adjust the speed based on the air quality in the room.

The STARKVIND air filter is also available in freestanding form, if that’s what you’d prefer, at a lower price point of $129. That model looks sort of like a circular floor fan, sitting on two triangular legs. Yet another option is the $59.99 FÖRNUFTIG air purifier, a more compact 12 x 18-inch gadget that can either be placed on the floor with an included stand or hung on the wall vertically or horizontally. No word just yet on the cost of STARKVIND replacement filters, but they’ll probably be fairly similar to the ones for the FÖRNUFTIG, which range from $5.99 to $12.99. All three options are expected to become available at IKEA stores worldwide in October 2021.

Back in July, IKEA released the $199 SYMFONISK picture frame and $189 SYMFONISK table lamp with built-in Wi-Fi speakers as part of their collaboration with electronics brand Sonos. Both items really level up the ability to disguise speakers as decor instead of just dealing with how ugly they usually are. The table lamp combines two functions to save space and looks cool, too, but the new picture frame is extra handy thanks to its compact dimensions. Measuring 16 X 22 inches with a depth of just two, the picture frame speaker can hang flat on a wall and even be paired with an LED light panel to create a unique light and sound experience. Both speakers are available in light and dark colors, can be grouped together for fuller sound, and connect with all major music streaming subscription services.

If there’s one caveat to these new IKEA offerings, it’s the fact that they really only blend into homes with modern decor, so hopefully more manufacturers will start offering gadgets like these in the near future.

The post New IKEA STARKVIND Air Purifier Disguises Itself as Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

In the wake of the COVID-19 social distancing protocols, the fashion artist fine-tuned her “Proximity Dress,” which uses ultrasonic sensors to inflate at the hips if someone gets too close for comfort, creating a larger personal bubble for the wearer. She originally unveiled a prototype of the outfit back in 2012 but has since added 3D-printed elements everywhere, as well as noise-free sensors.

“I haven’t made dresses for myself in a long time,” she wrote, “and I got a bit fed up with people in public not considering the current distancing suggestions, so this one I’m keeping…”

The white “smart dress” appears unassuming enough when in resting position, but when the thermal sensors around the neck detect a stranger within a defined space around the wearer’s body, the built-in robotic 3D-printed hip mechanisms activate, and the skirt expands on either side. The effect is a little like a pufferfish swelling up when threatened.

One of her previous interactive creations, the “Spider” dress, has arachnid-like arms that extend in a defensive position when outsiders come too close. That 3D-printed design garnered acclaim around the world, being included in fashion shows in Amsterdam, Russia, and China.

Wipprecht explains that her “designs are based on the Proxemics Theory of Edward T. Hall. This defines four spaces around the body, each with their own characteristic distances. Whereas Hall had to measure the space between people using a wooden stick, I have been working since 2007 to translate these concepts into the digital domain, in order to measure the spaces between people up to a range of 25 feet.”

To accomplish this goal, the sensors on the Proximity Dress provide readings from high-output acoustic power with real-time waveform signature analysis and automatic calibration. And don’t worry, the suit doesn’t record any video imagery for its motion detection, so no one’s privacy is being violated during the detection process.

Wipprecht got her start in fashion while still in high school. “I was really fascinated by the notion that the people really express themselves through basically the things that they wear,” she says.

As time went on, however, her designs began to feel stale. “I started to notice that the garments that I was creating were ‘analog.’ They were not doing anything. They were not sensory. They were not changing.” Since that time, she’s worked to incorporate technology, including artificial intelligence, into every piece of clothing, allowing her pieces to move, breathe, and react to the environment around them.

Her next focus is on clothing that can visually gauge the wearer’s anxiety and depression levels. Her “Pangolin” prototype requires the use of a headset that can track the brain’s electrical signals and display them on the outfit. When someone is feeling calm, the outfit’s lights turn a soothing shade of purple.

When stress levels rise, the lights flicker and the motorized “scales” flap rapidly. “We live in a time and age [when] negative emotions start to take over,” Wipprecht notes, adding that “a lot of people start getting into more depressive modes, maybe not wanting to speak about it… So, [the Pangolin dress] might even create a situation that these things become more discussable.”

The post COVID-Inspired Proximity Dress Warns People When They Invade Your Personal Space first appeared on Dornob.

On Twitter, some users were weirded out by the display, comparing CUE5 to murderous movie robots and AI technology like Skynet, the self-aware computer system from the Terminator movies that was hell-bent on eradicating humanity. Others, like Elon Musk, commented approvingly, impressed by the spectacle. It’s hard not to find it at least a little bit creepy, given its appearance: a metal body that kind of looks like it was crafted from an enormous cheese grater, comically large hands (modeled on Shaquille O’Neal’s), and a small head with a single glowing eye.

This robot isn’t taking any basketball player’s job anytime soon. Though its accuracy is dead-on thanks to AI-enhanced aim and a host of sensors on its torso that measure distance, the CUE5 took a full 15 seconds to set up its half-court shot, and it can’t jump or dribble. Still, some people couldn’t help but get in a few digs at certain players, implying that the robot could eclipse them in overall performance at any moment.

Toyota developed the first CUE robot just for fun in 2017. Since then, they’ve gone through multiple iterations, improving each one a little bit more. CUE3 appeared on court during the halftime show at Alvark Tokyo’s home match on November 16th, 2019, managing to move just a few meters. At the time, the development team promised Alvark’s fans that the next version, CUE4, would attempt a three-point shootout later in the season. Leveling up the robot’s performance was a challenge, but they pulled it off in January 2020, when CUE4 sank 11 shots in front of a live audience at Japan’s B League All-Star Game.

Toyota hasn’t spelled out exactly what makes the CUE5 different from the 4, but project leader Tomohiro Nomi says it can shoot “almost 100 percent” on 15-foot free throws, 98 percent on three-pointers from the 22-foot international line, and 60 percent on half-court shots. That means it outshoots the NBA’s best players, with only Stephen Curry coming close as competition.

Even if Toyota’s creepy basketball robot manages to get a lot more fluid in its movements, advancing the potential for robotic sports games of all kinds, does that actually sound like fun to watch? Near-perfection in a human can be wondrous to behold, but we expect it from robots, so it’s not as impressive. Plus, there’s always that undertone of horror about what the future of artificial intelligence might bring for all of us meat-sacks. Honestly, why do they always make these things look so terrifying?

The post Toyota’s Creepy Basketball Robot Stunned Viewers of the Tokyo Olympics first appeared on Dornob.

As part of an award-winning graduate project at the Royal College of Art, designer Dani Clode invented a mechanical “Third Thumb” to see if the human brain could incorporate a bonus digit. The idea got her invited onto a neuroscience research team at University College London, where the theory was put to the test.

The 3D printed, customizable Third Thumb was worn on the hand next to the pinky finger. It was controlled via pressure sensors attached to the wearer’s feet, under the big toes. Using Bluetooth technology, the sensors wirelessly connect to the extra digit, sending directions that vary based on subtle pressure changes from the toes.

Over the course of a week, during which wearers got several hours of daily training in a lab and several more hours of at-home practice, the study revealed that users easily learned to control the extra thumb, using for it for things like holding mugs, carrying multiple balls, and even blowing bubbles from a container one-handed.

Participants adapted so well they were even able to use the Third Thumb while multitasking, like building a wooden block tower while doing a math problem.

“Our study shows that people can quickly learn to control an augmentation device and use it for their benefit, without overthinking,” Clode explains. “We saw that while using the Third Thumb, people changed their natural hand movements, and they also reported that the robotic thumb felt like part of their own body.”

Taking fMRI brain scans before and after the training, researchers found that subtle changes had been made in the way the brain represented the augmented hand in the sensorimotor cortex. A week after the study concluded, more fMRI scans were taken showing those changes had reversed back to their original scans, suggesting the brain adaptations are reversible.

The implications of the Third Thumb research could be life and even species-altering.

“Body augmentation could one day be valuable to society in numerous ways, such as enabling a surgeon to get by without an assistant, or a factory worker to work more efficiently,” says Paulina Kieliba, study co-author and researcher at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. “This line of work could revolutionize the concept of prosthetics, and it could help someone who permanently or temporarily can only use one hand, to do everything with that hand. But to get there, we need to continue researching the complicated, interdisciplinary questions of how these devices interact with our brains.”

Clode hopes that her design will help people change their perception of what prosthetics are and can facilitate.

“The Third Thumb instigates a necessary conversation about the definition of ‘ability’. The origin of the word ‘prosthesis’ meant ’to add, put onto’; so not to fix or replace, but to extend,” she writes on her website. “The project is inspired by this word origin, exploring human augmentation and aiming to reframe prosthetics as extensions of the body.”

The post “Third Thumb” Experiment Suggests Human Brains Can Handle Extra Fingers first appeared on Dornob.

Companies everywhere have been sampling various automation systems to speed up the flow of goods while improving employee safety, but the infrastructure behind them is often bulky and expensive. Stretch is marketed as an adaptable plug-and-play solution that can move in any direction, navigate obstacles, ascend ramps, and identify boxes using “computer vision technology.” Its gripper has embedded sensors to handle a variety of package types while operating at high speeds, and its arm features seven degrees of freedom to reach extra-high shelves. High-capacity batteries keep it moving all day long, though it can also be plugged in for continuous operation.

Boston Dynamics is currently seeking customers to pilot test Stretch in real-world scenarios like truck unloading before releasing it to the public.

“Warehouses are struggling to meet rapidly increasing demand as the world relies more on just-in-time delivery of goods,” said Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics. “Mobile robots enable the flexible movement of materials and improve working conditions for employees. Stretch combines Boston Dynamics’ advancements in mobility, perception, and manipulation to tackle the most challenging, injury-prone case-handling tasks, and we’re excited to see it put to work.”

Boston Dynamics was inspired to create “Stretch” after demonstrating what its humanoid “Atlas” robot could do on YouTube.

“When we released our first Atlas ‘Next-gen’ video, there was a part of that video that showed Atlas moving boxes, and we got a big reaction from people in the warehouse space,” says Kevin Blankespoor, Boston Dynamics VP of Product Engineering. “They wanted Atlas to come work at their warehouse. We thought, ‘Well, Atlas is probably a bit complicated to actually go work in a warehouse, but we could design a robot that’s much more simple that has the same attributes.'”

Last year, Boston Dynamics announced their first foray into the commercial market in the form of “Spot,” a $74,500 robot dog that can stand in for humans in a variety of potentially dangerous scenarios, from doctors in the midst of a pandemic to inspectors at oil and gas facilities. Spot was used throughout 2020 as a mobile telemedicine platform that allowed healthcare providers to remotely triage patients using an iPad and two-way radio.

Experts expect that robotics and intelligence will be a big part of daily life by 2025, according to the Pew Research Center. Just about every industry will be affected, but some of the biggest implications will be seen in transport and logistics, customer service, health care, and home maintenance. It’s unclear exactly how this will impact employment. About half of experts interviewed in 2014 expected robots and digital agents to displace significant numbers of both blue and white-collar workers, while the other half believed new jobs and industries would rise to create additional ways to make a living.

The post New “Stretch” Robot by Boston Dynamics Accelerates Warehouse Automation first appeared on Dornob.

The “Social Mask,” created by Romania-native Burzo Ciprian, is one of the winners of the #Reimagine Masks challenge from MIT Pandemic Response CoLab and MilliporeSigma. The contest asked scientists, designers, researchers, engineers, companies, and individuals to “to develop actionable solutions for challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“A global challenge like the pandemic necessitates global solutions,” says David Kong, director of the MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative and co-founder of the CoLab platform, on the MIT website, adding that the company hopes to “channel the creativity and innovation of diverse communities all around the world toward addressing the myriad challenges we face arising from the pandemic.”

For his winning concept, Ciprian, an industrial engineer and designer, invented a clear mask with a 3D-printed frame that incorporates biosensors and air vents. Their data can then be linked via Bluetooth to mobile technology.

“Connecting the mask with our smartphone is a real option for the future,” he says. “We should know who is infected in our area and get informed on our smartphone about what the biosensor has detected based on surrounding particles. These are just a few of the options that will surely feature in the mask of the future.”

The cheek thermometer on the Social Mask provides real-time readouts for all to see, allowing others to steer clear if the wearer has a fever. The biosensors can also monitor the presence of germs and other pollutants in the air. All the data is then sent to the user’s smartphone, sending alerts if hazardous airborne pathogens are indeed detected.

If the masks were to gain widespread use, the app could generate maps of the air in surrounding areas within a quarter-mile radius. Based on wearer temperatures and particle collection, the app will utilize an algorithm to calculate the percentage of possible COVID-19 infections, pinning them on the maps. Even the infections of asymptomatic people could be “seen” with a smartphone.

For easy and effective cleaning, the mask front is a modular device (containing the sensor, Bluetooth, and filtered ventilation) that can be removed and sanitized.

To reduce the stigma of masks, Ciprian employed a “modern, minimalist design using various color palettes” for his smart face covering. “They look nice, futuristic, and smart,” he adds. And for those with allergies or skin sensitivities, the mask can be also manufactured in various materials like polycarbonate and polypropylene. Ciprian estimates a cost of $30 to produce each Social Mask, and he’s even offering to do the app development for free. In this way, he hopes the app will also be free for all users.

The MIT/MillliporeSigma challenge awarded two other winners as well. The first, contributed by Katelynn Salmon and Moses Zeidan, is a design for low-cost medical-grade gowns, constructed of PET polyester, sourced from single-use plastic waste in African landfills. The second, submitted by Monica Berger, is a fashionable, exercise-friendly face-mask scarf, made from sustainable fabric, that integrates biosensors and a removable charcoal filter.

“Maintaining today’s mask and PPE functionalities while increasing their wearability and creative sourcing is the most scientifically sound method to prevent viral transmission and increase adoption,” said MilliporeSigma judge Beattie. “We look forward to helping move the finalists’ ideas forward to potentially become the next pandemic response solutions.”

The post “Social Mask” Makes COVID-19 Transparent to All With Sensors, Smartphones first appeared on Dornob.

While getting an allergy barrier to seal your mattress and pillows definitely helps, as does washing your bed sheets at least once a week, germophobes and those with lowered immune system responses might want to consider taking even more extra steps.

A new offering among robotic home gadgets will automatically sterilize your bed for you. The ROCKUBOT is basically like a Roomba for your bed, except it uses UV light and ultrasonic vibrations to eliminate the germs, bacteria, mites, and more that lurk in the space where you spend nearly a third of your life.

Ultrasonic waves prevent mites, bed bugs, and other pests from sleeping, feeding, and reproducing, and they’re completely inaudible to humans and pets. The ROCKUBOT’s creators say they’ve tested their product against E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans, as well as 900 living mites. When disinfection was complete, all of the mites were dead, and 99.99 percent of the other contaminants were eliminated.

The bot’s Kickstarter page reads: “UV-C light has been used successfully as a germicide and bactericide for decades. It can kill or disable the growth of micro-organisms like bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens, and it provides a chemical-free alternative to other disinfection methods, like using chlorine. Due to its effectiveness and advantages, UV-C is being used for an increasing range of applications.”

“It is used, for example, for disinfection in wastewater treatment plants, laboratories, air-conditioning systems, and even pools and aquariums, as well as in various stages of food and beverage industrial processes. UV-C is also used in medical and hospital settings to sterilize instruments, work surfaces, and the air.”

The bot features 24 smart sensors and a navigation system to keep it from falling off the edge of the bed, and it can even roam around underneath the blankets with ease. You can use it to clean toys, phones, and other objects in manual mode, too. To top it all off, the ROCKUBOT also plays music with Bluetooth 5.0, and doubles as a power bank so you can charge your devices as it works its magic.

No matter how many stars a hotel might have, or how fancy their bedding, they’re probably not deep-sanitizing the beds after each guest checks out (wouldn’t that be nice, though?). The ROCKUBOT offers peace of mind, and who knows, it might just improve your health, too. If you get sick often or suffer from allergies, it would be interesting to see whether you started feeling better after regular use. Would you be tempted to take one along the next time you travel, or use it daily in your own home?

The ROCKUBOT is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, with early bird rewards offering a complete kit for $119, 54 percent off the expected MSRP of $259.

The post This Music-Playing Cleaning Robot is Basically a Roomba for Your Bed first appeared on Dornob.

A prototype currently being perfected by a team at Michigan State University, the device in question uses wind for power and includes two sensors that measure carbon monoxide and temperature, respectively. The team plans to add several other sensors to the final design, including a transmitter that will send continual updates on on all vital measurements with respect to the burn.

The device would be a crucial step in early detection, especially in remote areas. It works similar to a smoke detector in the home, except it’s powered by wind movement rather than a battery or other electrical source. This is an essential element since replacing batteries on tens of thousands of forest smoke detectors is both inefficient and wasteful. Instead, study leader and mechanical engineer at MSU Changyong Cao says the device will “generate electricity from the slightest swinging of tree branches.” Using a triboelectric generator, those motions are then converted into power. Cao went on to explain that although the device does require a breeze, fires always create air currents that provide the needed power, even if Mother Nature doesn’t.

In the study, originally published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the explanation of how the device works reads a bit like a MacGuyver episode but still translates into basic science. The soda can-sized contraption has cylinders in the top and bottom, one coated with Teflon and the other with a copper film. The two connect with a rubber band while an added weight at the bottom facilitates the swinging motion as the tree branch moves up and down. When the cylinders rub against each other, energy is released.

Durability is key to the success of the project, so the device also has to be both fire and waterproof. It hasn’t undergone actual field tests yet, so there’s still the potential for unforeseen issues with wildlife or natural elements that lead to disruption. Nonetheless, the team hopes the unit can provide detection where current systems have limitations. For example, one commonly used technology is satellites. Satellites provide outstanding and useful imagery when it comes to combatting wildfires, but they’re constantly in motion, which means they can’t hover over a specific area. This makes information intermittent rather than constant. On top of that, satellite imagery can be blocked by cloud cover or a smokescreen created by a raging blaze.

Since this device doesn’t rely on imaging, it’s impervious to those complications. Plus, it can be adapted to serve other purposes, like monitoring air quality and identifying toxic gases. Cao’s team hopes this solution will offer fast, efficient, and inexpensive fire detection that results in saving both forests and homes.

The post New Wildfire Detector Runs on the Swaying of Trees first appeared on Dornob.

Google has a novel solution: an Android phone-powered earthquake alert system. Most of us are already carrying potential sensors in our pockets, making the general population a big untapped resource for detecting potential earthquakes as they happen. That’s because the accelerometers in our smartphones, paired with location data, are sensitive enough to detect the P-wave: which is the first wave that comes out of an earthquake and usually much less destructive than the S-wave that follows.

“If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred. The server then combines information from many phones to figure out if an earthquake is happening. We’re essentially racing the speed of light (which is roughly the speed at which signals from a phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake. And lucky for us, the speed of light is much faster!”

Because the technology already exists in our phones, all Google had to do to activate it was build earthquake detection into the operating system. WHen it’s up and running, the Android Earthquake Alerts System will become “the world’s largest earthquake detection network,” giving users a minute or so of warning before the quake hits. That may not sound like much, but it could be all you need to get out of a high-risk location, get to your children from across the yard, or find the sturdiest furniture in your house to hide under.

Distributed through Google Play Services for every Android phone running 5.0 and up, it’s now active on 94 percent of 2.5 billion Google Play Android devices. All you have to do to use it is turn on the Google Location Services switch in the Android settings.

In California, this feature will work with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to send the alerts via the existing ShakeAlert system, which traditionally uses signals from more than 700 seismometers installed across the state. That means all Android users in the state will soon become millions of new sensors providing data and receiving alerts.

In other places that don’t have sophisticated ground networks of seismometers, the system will act as an earthquake watch system. “To start, we’ll use this technology to share a fast, accurate view of the impacted area on Google Search. When you look up ‘earthquake’ or ‘earthquake near me,’ you’ll find relevant results for your area, along with helpful resources on what to do after an earthquake.”

Feeling left out as an iPhone user? Make sure you’ve turned on emergency and government alerts under Settings > Notifications. ShakeAlert is continuing to expand with new partners in states like Oregon and Washington, and maybe Apple will jump in with a similar system of its own sometime soon.

The post Google is Turning Android Phones Into a Global Earthquake Detection Network first appeared on Dornob.