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Robot mastery in the blink of an eye
Michael Phillips has spinal muscular atrophy. He can't move his body, use his fingers, sit up, speak or even eat or breathe unaided.
But from his bed in Tampa, where he has a Mac computer connected to the internet, he has remotely driven a robot around a building, negotiating it through doorways and down corridors, and even racing it against another robot -- all using the frontalis muscle on his forehead.
Despite his severe disability, Mr Phillips can signal with his frontalis at more than nine times per second.
The signal is picked up using an electromyography sensor (EMG), and passed to his computer, which can interpret the timing of these muscle movements as keystrokes.
The system that interprets these muscle movements as key-strokes, called NeuroSwitch, has been developed by former CNN and NBC anchor Peter Ford, who recently adapted it to remotely controlling robots over the internet.
The technology offers a disabled person a virtual, avatar-like presence where they can independently move about, view their whereabouts and interact with people and their location.
The Australian recently reported on the technology, but at that stage no disabled person had used it.
Given that he cannot speak, we interviewed Mr Phillips, a well-known internet blogger and avid gamer, by email.
"I thought it was fun. It was like playing a game, but knowing if you drive badly, you're killing a $10,000 robot and not just some digital jet-fighter or Volvo. In that way, it's totally exciting," he said in an email.
He said driving the robot (from the AnyBots robot factory in California) took him "0.3 seconds" to learn and was "just like controlling any game character".
"Having played World of Warcraft for years and years, driving the robot was easy, probably easier. Zombies weren't trying to eat me," he said.
"Today I just drove around the factory, navigating between tables and pillars, and other robots. I tried taking the tight spaces on purpose, just for kicks.
"I got a tour of the factory from a fellow named Robert DeNeve. I followed him around, hearing about different projects, got to meet his lovely wife," Mr Phillips added.
"Then, yes, I raced Neuro-Switch creator Peter Shann Ford across the room. Again, I think gaming experience came in handy, as I smoked Peter and his dejected robot."
Mr Phillips said he wanted to use the robot to virtually visit the head offices of Apple and Google in California -- and other destinations.
"I think it would be cool to circle the Grand Canyon, or stroll around the Louvre, checking out all the paintings," he said.
"It'd be neat to roll down the streets of New York City, seeing if New Yorkers even gave the robot a second look. That would be fun."
He said technology was how the disabled affected change in the world, communicated thoughts and made one's environment cozy.
"The robot is a new tool for communication, and communication is our best way to affect changes that make life spectacular," he said.
"I love shooting photographs from my Canon T3i tethered to my MacBook Air, love turning on my bedroom lights from my iMac. I love turning my thoughts into blog posts.
"I even love hitting software on my iMac and hearing my surround speakers get so loud my room shakes."
But a virtual experience was not the real thing, and disabled people needed access to physical experiences in the physical world, he said.
"Low expectations from others, and in ourselves, perpetuate the false idea that disabled people, especially severely physically disabled people, should totally love and accept a virtual life, virtual experiences through a robot," he said.
"Supports and services should give us access to the real world, personal assistants to get us to that smoky bar, thumpin' club, swanky restaurant.
"Real experiences are the goal, true independence. My personal assistant is my avatar, in that she gives my business card to a pretty girl, telling her that her next drink is from 'that fellow over there' and not 'that robot over there'."
Mr Ford said the robot race with Mr Phillips was "an exhilarating moment, when a young man more used to immobility in his bed, only escaping when he is carried to his custom wheelchair, suddenly feels like a kid again, able to run to race".
"This is the first of a new era, when people with severe paralysis can project beyond the confines of their bodies and travel, touch, work, at home or on the other side of the planet," Mr Ford said.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/exec-tech/robot-mastery-in-the-blink-of-an-eye/story-e6frgazf-1226476118888
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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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