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Video: Micro-Robots Made of Bubbles That Are Powered by Lasers
Roboticists make robots out of all kinds of things, but Aaron Ohta at the University of Hawaii at Manoa makes them out of thin air. While we usually think of robots as mechanical, Ohta’s lab has devised a way to make robots out of bubbles of air powered by lasers, IEEE Spectrum reports.
Using nothing more than a fine-tipped syringe filled with air and saline solution, Ohta and his colleagues in the U.H. Department of Electrical Engineering have created a system that uses a 400 mW infrared laser to propel bubbles around their environment. The laser is shone straight through the bubble, where it heats the far side. The solution that the bubbles are in then naturally tries to shift away from the heated side of the bubble toward the cooler side. This transfer of fluid creates a kind of thrust that pushes the bubble in the direction of the heated side.
As such, the bubbles can be used as tiny, micromechanical machines that can perform tasks at extremely small scales. The velocity of the bubbles correlates to the intensity of the laser, so speed can be manipulated by dialing the laser up or down. The spherical nature of the bubbles offers 360-degree control, and because they are literally just bubbles of air in a solution, their size can be adjusted easily and the researchers can make as many as they like.
Unlike other micromechanical machines, which are often controlled by magnetic fields, they are also independently steerable--each bubble simply requires its own laser source. Where a swarm of microbots controlled via magnetism would tend to clump together as they respond to a common magnetic field, the laser-controlled bubble-bots can be steered separately with an array of infrared lasers.
All that allows for finely tuned manipulation at even very small levels. The image above depicts an array of glass beads arranged at a sub-millimeter scale to spell out the University of Hawaii’s initials. With the work completed, cleanup is easy enough: just pop the bubble. You can always make a new machine whenever you need one.
Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-05/building-micro-robots-made-bubbles-are-powered-lasers
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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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