/ News
Construction of 3D Printed Robot Avatar Begins
You’ve likely seen James Cameron’s 2009, $2.788 billion box office hit, Avatar. The year is 2154 and humans have depleted the earth of its natural resources. Therefore, they are forced to set out to explore and mine another planet called Pandora. Pandora’s atmosphere is poisonous to humans, so the government must rely on genetically matched avatars to do the job. Humans on Earth control the avatars with their own minds, seeing, feeling, and experiencing everything that the avatar does.
Although we are actually still 139 years away from when the movie actually takes place, several groups of individuals are working on a project which certainly has similarities with Cameron’s box office hit. Instead of government agents controlling avatars on a distant plant, one project, called InMoov Robots For Good, is using a similar concept to provide bed-ridden children in hospitals the ability to control robotic avatars as they navigate around the London Zoo.
We initially covered this story back in January of this year when the initiative was first announced. The project relies on the InMoov 3D printed robot, an Oculus Rift, and the Open Wheels segway-inspired people mover, and promises to provide children who are unfortunately confined to their beds at the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London, with something to brighten their spirits.
Well, this weekend the team behind the Robots For Good Project, Wevolver informed 3DPrint.com that they have launched a public workshop for this very project. The open access workshop, located in the prestigious Somerset House in London, is now being used for the construction of the first 3D printed robotic avatar.
“The public workshop has six 3D printers, all printing the parts required to assemble the InMoov robot,” explained Richard Hulskes, one of the co-founders of Wevolver. “Wevolver is encouraging the maker and engineering community to join the team in assembling and coding the robot at the workshop.”
The entire construction and printing of this robot will take an estimated 7 weeks, and should be complete by July 19, at which point the finished product will be shipped off to the London Zoo to commence operations. Despite this rather progressive time frame, the organization is still looking for volunteers with software and Arduino skills to contact them if they are in the area and willing to help out. Contact information can be found here.
The organization is already attracting interest around the tech community. In fact, RedHat, the organization behind Linux, is currently working with them to produce a documentary on the project.
“Our goal is to inspire makers all over the world to start building their own ‘InMoov Robots for Good’ community and make these 3D-printed robots that make a difference in an individual’s life,” explained Hulskes.
If you are in the London area and wish to help out with this amazing project, or just want to stop by and watch the avatar as it’s being printed, no invitation is required. Let us know your thoughts on this incredible 3D printed project in the InMoov forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/71491/robots-for-good-3d-print/
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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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