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An Exoskeleton That Boosts Biceps Wins James Dyson’s $45,000 Prize
Elysium proved that even doughy dudes like Matt Damon could be futuristic action heroes with the help of a high-tech exoskeleton. That may have been science fiction, but there’s still hope for the rest of us. The Titan Arm, a breakthrough upper-body exoskeleton developed by a group of students at University of Pennsylvania, offers a very real taste of Hulk-like super strength. Even more usefully, though, the device stands to totally change the way we think about physical therapy.
Today, the Titan Arm was announced as the winner of this year’s James Dyson Award, the serial innovator’s annual student competition. an annual competition held by the serial innovator. The University of Pennsylvania team, made up of Elizabeth Beattie, Nick McGill, Nick Parrotta, and Niko Vladimirovm, will get $45,000 (with another $15,000 or so going to their school) and an avalanche of publicity for their project. They’re the first American team to take the top prize in the competition’s 9 year history.
It’s certainly not the first working exoskeleton, but in many ways it’s the first of its kind. Development started last year when the students were fishing around for something “sufficiently complex” to for their undergraduate senior project. Research started by taking a close look at what was out there. The tea found that there were many lower body exoskeletons, designed to help with locomotion, and several full body devices for augmenting strength but far fewer that focused specifically on rehabilitating the upper body. “There were a few that existed, but they were in the research phase,” McGill explains.
One of those was a project out of a lab in Tokyo that used pressurized air to drive the super-strength poweres. That, however, required that the exoskeleton was tethered to a pneumatic pump–severely limiting both the rehabilitative and world-saving potential. The students started thinking about the benefits of a totally independent exoskeleton–something that was battery-powered, and thus could be worn freely. A device, for example, that could allow a patient to do their physical therapy in their own home, even if it were in the countryside. With the goal settled, they got down to work.
In its current form, the Titan Arm focuses on one mechanized joint–the elbow–giving the user roughly a 40-pound boost in strength. The team settled on a cable drive system which works similarly to the brakes on a bike. The main advantage was that it let the arm draw from a battery pack that could be worn on the back, thus allowing for the mobility they’d set out to achieve. What’s more is that they did it all with just $2,000 or so in components.
“We loved the way it had been executed,” Sir Dyson himself says of the design. “The previous versions of this thing were mounted on the necks and shoulders, or the lower back, but utilizing the whole back was a great step forward. We liked the fact that they’d actually made it work. And the fact that they know how to make it much cheaper than existing exoskeleton arms is really important. I gather this kind of thing isn’t usually covered by medical insurance.”
Indeed, even in their early prototyping phases, emails started to trickle in to the team from people who’d caught wind of the work. For individuals who have suffered from a stroke, for example, something as simple as cooking with a cast iron skillet can be too burdensome. With the Titan Arm come the promise of rebuilding strength in their own home–and even in their own kitchen.
McGill says the team will use the prize money to continue development on project. The powered elbow can already offer a rehab patients a crucial boost in strength, but adding a second powered joint could open up all sorts of exciting options. With two points of actuation, for example, the team could measure resistance to see how those joints are being used–in effect quantifying the process of recovery. That would be a huge step forward for this sort of rehab, for both doctors and patients alike. “Some people don’t know they’re even improving,” McGill says.
Dyson was impressed with the project’s ambition, but he wasn’t surprised. Young designers and engineers are instinctively inclined to build things that help people, he says. “Students naturally want to do projects that are worthy. And I mean that in a very positive way. The first three winners this year were all people trying to help other people. I think that’s a great characteristic of all student projects. They’re people who want to change the world and make the world a better place. Often they’re not thinking commercially. Which is great, because companies think commercially. Students don’t.”
Source: http://www.wired.com/design/2013/11/a-breakthrough-exoskeleton-wins-james-dysons-45000-student-prize/
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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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