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#10 Avatar Technology Digest / Brain-controlled bionic legs, artificial lenses, robot BRETT etc.
Welcome to #10 Avatar Technology Digest. As always we bring you the latest news on Technology, Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence from the most trusted sources. And here are the top stories of the last week.
1) A brain implant that can decode what someone wants to do has allowed a man paralyzed from the neck down to control a robotic arm with unprecedented fluidity – and enjoy a beer at his own pace for the first time in 13 years.
When the 34 year old Erik Sorto was shot in the back 13 years ago, he was left instantly paralyzed from the neck down.
So its one of the latest attempts at creating mind-controlled prosthetics to help disabled people gain more independence.
Previous research targeted a region of the brain known as the motor cortex, which controls movement.
The new technology of American scientists works by focusing on recording signals from a different brain region that usual – the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). The signals in the PPC are more related to movement planning - what you actually intend to do - rather than the details of the movement execution. Surgeons implanted a pair of small electrode arrays in two parts of the PPC of a Sorto. The arrays were connected by a cable to a system of computers that processed the signals. They decoded the intent of the subject, and controlled output devices that included a computer cursor and a robotic arm.
2) Brain-controlled bionic legs are finally here. Now amputees can control their bionic prosthetic limbs with their minds, thanks to tiny implanted myoelectric sensors (IMES) developed by Icelandic orthopedics company Ossur and surgically placed in a patient's residual muscle tissue.
Ossur implanted tiny sensors in the residual muscle tissue of two amputees that they say trigger movement in the prosthesis via a receiver. Ossur President & CEO was due to announce in Copenhagen last Wednesday that the two amputees are the first world-wide to be able to control their lower-limb prostheses subconsciously.
The Implanted Myoelectric Sensors (IMES) measure 5 millimeters (mm) long and 3mm wide and were provided by the United States-based Alfred Mann Foundation, which develops medical technology for use in patients. Patients’ bodies continue to adapt to the prosthetic limbs more each day, allowing them increased control of it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/20/us-iceland-mind-controlled-limb-idUSKBN0O51EQ20150520
3) An optometrist Garth Webb in British Columbia claims to have invented an easily implantable bionic device that provides its wearer with vision "three times better than 20/20" for life.
This device appears to be very similar in structure to the conventional artificial lenses employed in cataract surgery. The eight-minute installation procedure is reportedly painless. It involves injecting the folded lense into your eye where it unfurls to replace your natural lense and correct your vision. There's also an added benefit in that with these artificial lenses in place, you'll never develop cataracts.
Once it has unravelled - within about 10 seconds - the vision is corrected and Dr Webb claims it is 'three times better than 20/20' аnd he continued it was 'as painless and gentle' as cataract surgery.
Elsewhere the lens is made of 'inert biocompatible polymeric materials that do not cause biophysical changes within the eye.
4) In our last video, wed like you to pay close attention on Berkley’s robot BRETT demonstrating human-like learning abilities and learning from his mistakes.
Berkeley researchers crated a robot that can learn and get smarter all by itself after performing tedious tasks over and over again. Brett gets better at tasks after trying for a few minutes.
It does appear like it could be a human kind of learning, how to move its joints for the first time. In fact, the researchers have all sorts of video of Brett solving simple problems all by himself. "All you have to do is define what is good and the robot will learn how to achieve good performance," say researchers.
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/05/21/deep-learning-robot-masters-skills-via-trial-and-error/
TV Presenter: Olesya Yermakova
Editor: Alexander Sokolkov
Resources: www.newscientist.com, www.ria.ru, www.dailymail.co.uk, www.russian.rt.com, www.popsci.com, www.geektimes.ru, www.engadget.com, www.hi-news.ru, www.newscenter.berkeley.edu, www.abc7news.com, www.nplus1.ru
Keck Medicine of USC, Reuters, Aging Reversed, The Canadian Press, UC Berkeley Campus Life
Thanks Delight Studio for the help with shooting www.delightstudio.ru
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tasaaHD_Q44
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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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