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UCSD's robot baby Diego-san appears on video for the first time
A new android infant has been born thanks to the University of California San Diego's Machine Perception Lab. The lab received funding from the National Science Foundation to contract Kokoro Co. Ltd. and Hanson Robotics, two companies that specialize in building lifelike animatronics and androids, to build a replicant based on a one year old baby. The resulting robot, which has been a couple of years in development, has finally been completed – and you can watch it smile and make cute faces after the break.
Diego-san, as it's called, is actually much larger than a standard one year old – mainly because miniaturizing the parts would have been too costly. It stands about 4 feet 3 inches (130 cm) tall and weighs 66 pounds (30 kg), and its body has a total of 44 pneumatic joints. Its head alone contains about 27 moving parts. Hanson Robotics, which sells a line of expressive robots called Robokind, is responsible for Diego-san's head. You may recall the company's earlier work, such as their replicant of Philip K. Dick, or Albert Einstein – the latter a collaboration with KAIST's Hubo Lab. As a result of this expertise, Diego-san's face is much more realistic than other expressive robots like IURO.
The robot was designed as a research platform for studying the cognitive development of infants. This will involve UCSD's work with natural communication, such as reading and mimicking facial expressions, which is why the robot has such a realistic face.
Understanding brain development
"Its main goal is to try and understand the development of sensory motor intelligence from a computational point of view," explains Dr. Javier Movellan, who heads the UCSD Machine Perception Lab. "It brings together researchers in developmental psychology, machine learning, neuroscience, computer vision and robotics. Basically we are trying to understand the computational problems that a baby’s brain faces when learning to move its own body and use it to interact with the physical and social worlds."
Dr. Javier Movellan, UCSD Machine Perception Lab, poses with an incomplete version of Diego-san at Kokoro Co. Ltd. in Japan
Dr. Movellan's group has worked with children and robots for years. Previously, he was part of the RUBI Project, which had toddlers interact with the Sony QRIO (the ill-fated humanoid counterpart to the company's robotic dogs). It was found that children treated QRIO as if it was a living thing, and even tucked him in with a blanket when he laid down to "sleep" – though actually, his batteries simply needed recharging. Diego-san differs in that it will be mainly attended to by researchers as they would a child.
Kokoro Co. Ltd. designed and built Diego-san's intricate body, and they have some experience in this area, having previously designed and built the android infant CB2 for Osaka University. They were able to take what they learned from that robot and improved it with Diego-san, making it one of the most realistic android infants ever built.
"Diego-san was developed to approximate the complexity of a human body, including the use of actuators that have similar dynamics to that of human muscles," Dr. Movellan said.
Diego-san may be the first robot baby of the new year, but with Roboyscheduled for completion in a few months, and other android infants in progress, it won't be alone in the world for long. It remains to be seen if any of them can escape the dreaded Uncanny Valley.
Source: UCSD Machine Perception Lab via David Hanson (YouTube)
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/ucsd-robot-baby-diego-san/25681/
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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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