/ News
Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality
Companies inventing things to do with virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, which launches next year, mostly use them to transport you into imaginary worlds. Tatsuki Adaniya has a different idea—teleporting you into the body of a robotic teddy bear.
Adaniya has built software that lets you strap on an Oculus Rift headset and peer out through the bear’s eyes. You can talk to people near the bear through its speaker and hear them through its microphone, allowing for a two-way conversation with you in the role of a stuffed animal.
When you turn your head, so does the bear, thanks to a movement-recording sensor attached to the headset’s strap. An Xbox controller can be used to move the bear’s arms. “We’re broadcasting human body language,” Adaniya says.
Adaniya thinks children and some adults will be interested in taking on the persona of a stuffed animal—such as a bear, cat, or dog—for fun, or as an unusual way to stay in touch with distant friends or relatives. His company,Adawarp, just went through a startup incubator focused on virtual reality companies called River, which invests at least $200,000 in each company in its program. Adaniya’s project began after he broke up with a long-distance girlfriend and thought about what could have helped them communicate.
I tried out Adaniya’s creation in a tiny conference room. When I pulled on the Rift headset I was transported across the table into the body of the bear. Fluffed-out fur rimmed the edge of my vision as I peeked out at Adaniya and, to his left, my own body.
The uncanny sense of being outside myself subsided surprisingly soon. My former body now felt like just a passive observer in the room. Being able to turn my robotic head helped give the feel of a normal conversation by making it possible to maintain a semblance of eye contact. Adaniya helped by focusing his attention on the bear.
Cameras in the bear’s eyes are used to feed stereo imagery to a person wearing a virtual reality headset.
“The impression of the word ‘robot’ is scary and big,” Adaniya told me. “I don’t want to feel like this is a robot. I want to feel this is an animal, or a new spirit.” My joystick-controlled arms looked a little bit robotic, but Adawarp plans to eventually capture arm movement directly with a motion-sensor.
By the end of 2016, Adaniya aims to ship a version of his robot with a plain plastic body priced at $200 or less. That version will be aimed at encouraging hardware developers to build their own bodies for it. He is also working on making it possible to control the robot without a virtual reality headset, by panning a mobile phone around. The consumer version will come after and bring back the fur. Adaniya thinks versions that look like cats, dogs, and bears could all be popular.
Cindy Bethel, director of the Social, Therapeutic and Robotic Systems Laboratory at Mississippi State University, says that Adaniya’s idea has some potential but will also face challenges. Children are likely to prefer seeing the face of a parent via video chat to interacting with them in bear form, she says. But the ability to touch or hug a tangible figure could be beneficial, says Bethel.
Having a person take the form of a robot might be a boon in situations where a child needs to talk with an unfamiliar adult, such as a therapist or tutor, says Bethel. A small, cuddly bear could feel less threatening and be easier to open up to than a stranger.
However, Bethel also notes that having a robot take on the role of a person risks the effect known as “uncanny valley,” where an artificial creation tries and fails to be human-like, creating a sense of revulsion instead. “If for some reason it doesn’t move naturally, that could be kind of creepy to people,” she says.
Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/542741/inhabit-this-teddy-bears-body-using-virtual-reality/
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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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