/ News
Human-Plant Interaction – and More – at SIGGRAPH 2012
The annual SIGGRAPH conference, which recently concluded in Los Angeles, always draws an eclectic bunch of developers, artists, filmmakers, scientists, academics and students from around the globe.
This year was no exception – SIGGRAPH reported that 21,212 attendees from 19 countries roamed the exhibit hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There were also more than 1,200 speakers/contributors who participated in an array of panels, screenings, tutorials and presentations.
One of the most interesting exhibits was a human-plant interaction that added capacitive touch to ordinary plants. As reported by engadget, Walt Disney’s development arm, Disney Research, unveiled a project called Botanicus Interacticus.
engadget said the project is centered on a custom-built capacitive sensor module, which pipes a low current through a plant, then senses when/where you touch (bit creepy).
“Assuming your body is grounded, the device uses more than 200 frequencies to determine exactly where you’ve grabbed hold of a stem, reported engadget. “Then, depending on how it may be programmed, the sensor can trigger any combination of feedback, ranging from a notification that your child is attempting to climb that massive oak in the yard again, to an interactive melody that varies based on where your hand falls along the plant.”
Besides new things to do with house plants, a section of the floor was devoted to Emerging Technologies – there were more than two dozen innovations submitted from the U.S., China, Hungary, Japan, Singapore, and other nations worldwide.
SIGGRAPH featured a number of them in pre-conference announcements. Three of these included:
TELESAR V – Created at Tokyo University, it enables users to bind with a dexterous robot and experience what it feels with its fingertips when manipulating/touching objects remotely.
MIT Media Lab - Demonstrated ‘Tensor Displays: Compressive Light-Field Synthesis Using Multilayer Displays with Directional Backlighting.’ In plain English, glasses-free 3D displays that are viewed from any angle. Very cool.
Gocen – From Tokyo Metropolitan University. It’s a small optical musical recognition device that detects musical notation from handwritten notes. When connected to a MIDI instrument (Musical Instrument Digital Interface; a communications protocol/hardware standard that enables electronic musical instruments and computers to communicate), it plays the notes as the Gocen sensor bar is traced over them.
Next year SIGGRAPH heads south to Anaheim. I’m thinking of bringing along some of my house plants so they can enjoy the show too.
Source: http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/08/11/human-plant-interaction-%E2%80%93-and-more-%E2%80%93-at-siggraph-2012/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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