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Computers & Robotics Stalking: Not a good habit to be into, but stalking has something in common with fighting bushfires, tracking cyclones and monitoring our environment. All these things are made easier with remote sensing and satellite imagery. You can see whole landscapes, or zoom into houses. We'll show you this technology in action. Ones and zeros and everything in between. Make sense? Not to many people! But we'll have a go at explaining the super computer of the future. Not only that, we'll tell you about computers with artificial intelligence. Something that a computers have now been programmed to do is to recognise emotions from people's facial expressions. Some people are designing emotion sensing computers that will know how to be friendly. We all know about video games that use those weird visors and gloves but have you heard of there.com?... where you and your friends can interact in a virtual world...even talking to each other in real time. Or Augmented Reality, combining virtual reality with the real world. Or the Haptic Virtual Reality Surgery where surgeons can get some practice in without hurting a real person? How about virtual taste? We even have a mind switch that uses your thoughts to control your computer or a model car! The power of the mind is also being used in a new game called Mindball. Robots that can guard your house and bluetooth technology to remove all those annoying wires. Have you ever thought about the engineering behind robotics? Who gets to control what an autonomous robot can and can't do? Space research involves some of the most hi-tech equipment you can think of. Recently NASA have used an advanced space probe to collect information about the sun and our solar system. There's a lot you can do with computers but many people believe that the next step that computing is going to take is not to get better computers but to start having closer links between computers and people, to the point where we might get cyborgs, people with computer parts. But do they already exist? Or maybe, all you want when it comes to computers is an easier, faster way to send text messages. We can help you with that too, presenting the virtual keyboard. Some of the latest work in robotics is being inspired by plants and animals. In England, a robot called EcoBot II is being developed. It can power itself on insects, like some carnivorous plants. A series of very groovy robots called 'Whegs' have recently been designed in America, and they mimic the way cockroaches and beetles run around, also a robot inspired by a fish has been developed in the UK and is on show at the London Aquarium. Information about study & careers in robotics. Two young South Australians have figured out a clever new way to make games playable on different mobile phones. They have started their own company called Monkey Physics. As part of NASA’s Centennial Challenge, teams must build robots capable of digging moon dirt, and transferring it to a container. The competition is called ‘Regolith Excavation Challenge’. Get ready to throw away the mouse on your computer. Researchers have made a prototype "Mental typewriter" which uses your brain activity to move the cursor on the screen instead of your mouse. Ever just had one of those days? Your brothers or sisters are driving you crazy and your list of chores seems to be never ending? Well check out what Cogniron the robot could do for you! Or find out about Asimo the first robot in the world to get a job. He greets customers, serves coffee and can push a load of 10kg. Mechatronics, sometimes called robotics, is all about combining mechanical things with electronic things. Read about how a Western Australian researcher is using mechatronics to help deaf and blind people or how another Western Australian researcher is using mechatronics to help people with mobility issues by creating a mechatronic arm. Read about some young Australians studying and working in an area of science called Bathymetry, these studies are being used to predict things like tsunamis. How about a clock that is designed to help you wake up in the morning by running away and hiding from you when the alarm goes off. Clocky as he is known, forces you to get up out of bed and find him therefore waking yourself up. Does being able to change your television channel with a wave of your hand seem like something out of a science fiction movie? Well, welcome to the future with the new Hand Gesture Remote. Background Notes A brief synopsis of each of the computing and robotics items in our shows and links to our references.
A team at the University of Technology, Sydney is developing mind switches that can control model cars and TVs by remote control. It uses electric currents generated deep inside the brain…these are called alpha waves. We're talking hands free remote control. Has application for people with disabilities. Can also be applied in a different way to monitor fatigue and give warnings before accidents occur. Reference
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robotic dogs replace real pets? The Sony Aibo and Sanyo Banryu
are new advances in robotic technology. Aibo is small and can be trained
to do anything like dance, follow you around the house, talk to you
using .wav files, etc. The new generation Aibo's can even detect when
they are low on batteries and find their recharge point to recharge
themselves. The Banryu is more a 'Guard Dragon' than pet it
has infrared cameras for eyes and wanders around the house when you
are either not there or asleep and can detect intruders where it photographs
them and emails or mms the information to you. It also has a smoke detector
in its 'nose' and can send the same information to you or the fire department
if your house is on fire. Australian Aibo division World Robocup
team have been world champions three times in a row. Return to top. King Harald Bluetooth, was a ruthless Viking in the year nine hundred and something, in his reign he… yes keep reading, this is still about cutting edge science and technology. He united Norway and Denmark, and ate far too many blueberries turning his teeth blue.
The Bluetooth of the future is a little bit less fearsome and instead of uniting countries, we unite electrical devices with Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a cable replacement technology and has many applications. The possibilities are almost endless, we have Bluetooth phones that communicate with e-mail programmes, pens that record your handwriting so that you can write on your computer with your own handwriting font, internet refrigerators and so much more. Bluetooth technology works with radio waves, and because of this, devices can communicate with each other from up to ten meters away, and the devices don't have to be in direct line of site. The applications for this are endless and it is gunna be up to young innovators to come up with new ways to use Bluetooth to their advantage. See if you can come up with a Bluetooth use. Write to us and tell us! Reference
Return to top. The National Information and Communication Technology Australia, NICTA, in Canberra are busy creating machines that learn in similar ways to children, rather than having to be programmed. Say, for example, you want a computer to be able to pick whether a person in a photo is male or female. With a regular computer, you would have to programme it; basically tell it what a man and a woman looked like. To be perfectly accurate your description would have to cover every person in the world; otherwise the computer wouldn't know what to do if you showed them a picture that didn't match either of your descriptions. An artificially intelligent machine would not have this problem. Rather than needing programming, these machines learn in a similar way to how living things, including people, learn. They figure out what they think is true, but if something comes along to disprove this, the come up with a new theory that incorporates this new information. Rather than telling it what a man is, you would show it hundreds of photos and say 'these are all men', but not tell it why they are men. You then do the same with hundreds of photos of women. The computer then decides for itself what makes a man different to a woman. It could be completely different to how we tell them apart. This way, any new photos it sees, it can judge for itself whether it thinks they are a man or a woman. This can still lead to confusion, if you don't show the computer enough examples. Say all the pictures of men had dark skin, or tans, while all the pictures of women had light skin. The computer could assume that if you had dark skin, you were a man. The good thing is that if you correct them and say 'no, that dark skinned person is a women' then the computer adapts, incorporating this new piece of information. In this way, an intelligent machine can continue learning from anything it experiences. This will make it far easier to have a computer operating on its own, unsupervised by a human controller. The big problem with a pre-programmed computer is that it doesn't know how to deal with anything it hasn't been told to expect. Basically, they can't think for themselves. An artificially intelligent computer, when faced with a new situation, can decide what to do based on everything it has experienced previously. They could even eventually perform completely unpredictable activities, like driving in traffic. A well-known test as to whether a machine is truly artificially intelligent is called the Turin Test. To pass this test, a person has to have an entire conversation with a computer, through typed text, without ever realising that they were talking to a machine and not a person. Reference
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So cyborgs of a sort have been around for a while but now cyborgs as we more commonly think of them are starting to appear too. Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading in England has had computer chips of one sort or another in him since back in 1998. The original chip that Kevin had implanted sent a signal to a computer in his building that could be programmed to open doors and turn on lights as Kevin approached. Since this time Kevin has had another chip placed in his arm, this time connected to his nervous system. This chip can be used to control external systems such as an artificial hand. The chip can also measure the nerve signals that that travel along Kevin's arm and these sensations can be artificially generated in Kevi's arm at a later date. If the information of how something feels is stored Kevin can simply play back that feeling later. Reference
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It might be a while before the glasses are available but augmented reality is being used in medicine (with haptic technology), computer games and just for fun! Some people have even suggested that this technology could be used to show information about other people when you look at them through the glasses. Is this ethical or is it an invasion of privacy? References
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More recently, something called haptic virtual reality has started to become more common. Basically, haptic means touch and several groups are now using gloves that allow the wearer to feel everything in the virtual world just as though it were real. You can read more about haptic virtual reality above. A group at the University of Tsukuba in Japan has taken virtual reality to the next level; they have designed a device for virtual taste. The food simulator mimics the taste, feeling and even sounds of eating. The sound of eating is transmitted via a bone vibration microphone and the feeling of chewing is simulated according to the texture and consistency of the food being mimicked. Finally, the sensation of taste is made using a mixture of the five basic elements of taste, sweet, sour, salty, bitter and the more recently identified 'unami'. The necessary chemicals are deposited onto the tongue causing the sensation of taste. At this rate it won’t be long before we can experience everything in the virtual world that we can in the real world, but why stop there? Reference
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Now, someone has solved that problem by designing a 'Virtual Keyboard'. The virtual keyboard uses lasers and infra-red technology to project a full size, fully functioning, keyboard onto any flat surface. The system uses lasers to project the keyboard onto any surface and infra-red technology is used to create an invisible circuit that works out which keys the user is pressing. The keyboard has even been designed to give feedback in the form or realistic clicking noises when each key is pushed. The keyboard has recently been released in the United Kingdom and can be used with a number of different mobile phones and palm top computers. Reference
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Mindball matches two players against each other in a game of virtual soccer played, not using their feet but their brain waves. Each player straps on a biosensor headband that uses electrodes to pick up alpha and theta brain waves coming out of the players head. These brainwaves are those released, primarily by people who are relaxed. The more “relaxed” brain waves you release the more the ball moves towards your opponent’s goal. Therein lies the challenge of Mindball, how to stay relaxed when you’re just about to win, or how to stay calm when your opponent has the ball right outside your goal. Mindball doesn’t have to be a challenge to be the mot relaxed, it can also be reprogrammed such that the headbands detect beta brainwaves, or those that are more often at high levels when a person is excited, alert or energetic. Reference
Return to top. It is possible to play all kinds of games on mobile phones. Luke Beard and Brian Doidge from Adelaide have found a way to make programming and downloading all kinds of games easy. Still in their early twenties, they have started a company called Monkey Physics, selling their programs. When they started out people from the industry told them it could not be done, but their technology is very successful. It goes to show that if you can see a new way to do something better or more easily, give it a go! References
Return to top. As part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges, teams must build robots capable of digging moon dirt, and transfer it to a container. Moon dirt is actually quite different to earth dirt. Moon dirt has had billions of years to settle, so it’s very compact, which makes it very challenging. This competition is called the ‘Regolith Excavation Challenge’, which will be held around the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007 on earth with volcanic ashes similar to moon dirt. This is just one of the many different challenging competitions out there at the moment. The robots built must not be remote controlled, or require a driver to sit inside to drive it. It must be autonomous, which means it must be able to think for itself. It has to be able to analyse the environment that it’s in, and make its own decisions. Very challenging, but it can be very fun as well, especially if you win because the prize is $250,000. References
Return to top. The most amazing and probably the most obvious thing about the future is that it’s going to be different to now. But just how different it is going to be is a matter of debate. Recently a researcher named Ray Kurzweil from the UK has published some future predictions regarding super computers in the future and his message is that it is not that far away. Amongst Ray’s predictions is that it will be less than 20 years before our computers can process as much information as our brains can and it will be as little as thirty years before we all start upgrading our brains, or biological computers, with electronic ones. Reference
Return to top. If you went to the London Aquarium, you’d get to see more than just fish, this aquarium is now the home to a robotic fish developed by Essex University. They are completely autonomous robots capable of making their own decisions about what to do and how to react. They are capable of hunting out their ‘food’ just like regular fish, except these are locating their recharging stations. One day they could be used to explore the sea-bed. Reference
Return to top. Cogniron is a project based in Europe that’s trying to create a robot that will not only do all your chores for you, but can also be your friend. The Cogniron robot is being created by scientists across 6 European countries, in 8 universities, and is due to be finished by 2007. The robot will be able to use your facial expressions and actions to ‘check your mood.’ If you’re feeling sad Cogniron will bring you some chocolate and settle down for a chat. They will then move off to clean your room, cook your dinner and do the washing up. Pretty exciting, right? Reference
Return to top. Have you ever looked at someone and you can’t tell how they’re feeling? Are they happy, angry, or just bored? It can be hard to tell. Well, researchers have actually created an emotion-recognition program that can tell how a person is feeling. This program looks at factors such as how curvy the lips and the crinkles around the eyes are, and compare that to an average “neutral” expression from a database of the same sex and similar age. Reference Return to top. Imagine you’ve just had the worst day you’ve ever had in your whole life, you’ve just arrived home and you have to finish off an assignment. The last thing you want to do is to stare at a computer screen typing up your work. You’re stressed, you’re angry, and you can’t concentrate. On top of that, you can’t get the computer to do what you want it to do, no matter how user friendly the software is. Reference Return to top. Finding the right employee for the job can be difficult at times but at Honda they have found a solution to this problem. They just build the right employee. Asimo, a humanoid robot, is starting work in April 2006 as a receptionist at the Honda office in Wako, a region north of Tokyo. Asimo’s special job skills include greeting and guiding guests to meeting rooms, serving coffee on a tray and pushing a cart with a load of up to 10 kilograms. Asimo can also run at six kilometres per hour in circles and zigzag, which may be a helpful skill if the job gets too stressful. Reference
Return to top. Imagine waking up in the morning, and feeling like having toast for breakfast and by the time you get to the kitchen, the toast is ready for you to eat. Yikes, the toaster can read your mind! Well, we’re not really there yet, toasters can’t read our minds, but researchers are working on a computer that can do just that. Reference
Return to top. There are many forms of communication, whether it verbal, body language or sign language for deaf people. But have you ever thought about how deaf-blind people communicate? There are a few methods, the most common being a touch based sign language. The problem is that if other people who don’t know this language are immediately cut off from being able to communicate with the deaf-blind. So this is where mechatronics is currently lending a hand….literally! References
Return to top. Helping hand for electric scooters If you’ve ever had trouble reaching something on a supermarket shelf, imagine how difficult it is reaching stuff from a wheelchair or an electric scooter. A mechanical engineer at Curtin University has found a way to help. What’s going on? Who’s doing it? How do I get into it? Reference Curtin University Media Release Mapping the surface of the seafloor can help predict the effects of tsunamis before they happen, potentially saving thousands of lives. What’s going on? These maps can be used to plan for tsunamis, using computer models. By reconstructing what happened during a tsunami, like the Boxing Day tsunami, the effect of the seafloor can be worked out. Who’s doing it? How do I get into it? Return to top. Clocky the walking alarm clock Let’s face it, some days it’s a lot harder to get out of bed than others, so we press that snooze button just to get a little but of extra sleep…then we press it again….and again and don’t get out of bed until the very last minute. Massachusetts student Gauri Nanda has designed an alarm clock to combat this common problem both speedily and cunningly. When the snooze bar is pressed, Clocky runs off the bedside table using its wheels and shock-absorbing materials and finds a place to hide. So Clocky plays hide and seek in the morning in order to get his sleepy-eyed owner up and out of bed in the morning. As an added twist, a built in microprocessor randomly programs the clock’s speed, distance and routes so that Clocky never hides in the same spot twice. Who’s doing it? 25year old Gauri Nanda was inspired to design Clocky for an industrial design class at university. She identified a problem with the well known alarm clock- the snooze bar-that allows people to oversleep. Gauri says that she has been known to press the snooze button for up to two hours and has received numerous emails from people who claim to press it up to 6hours! Gauri was inspired to come up with a solution to this problem for a university project in her industrial design class. She has now founded her own company that aims to create extraordinary products from ordinary problems. How do I get into it? There are loads of ways you can get into innovation and Design. Gauri studied Media arts and science at the Massachusetts institute of technology and came up with the idea in a Industrial design Class. Loads of universities in Australia have this degree including Queensland University of technology. However if you want to get your original idea up and running now, why not check out the Questacon Smart Moves Invention Convention. ReferencesCheck out Gauri’s homepage to check out Clocky Return to top. No more lost televisions remotes.The experience of the annoyance of the missing remote control, and having to search the living room to find it a fairly common problem. Does this sound a little too familiar? Luckily, turmoil due to the lost remote is going to become a thing of the past as technology steps in. New Australian technology designed by a man called Prashan Premaratne can convert simple hand gestures into electronic commands able to control devices such as TVs, video recorders and set top boxes. It works by using a small camera which captures am image of the gesture and matches it to a pre-defined command that instructs the device to do what it is told. Different hand gestures such as a closed fist, or an open palm can relay the users instructions to turn machines on and off from standby mode, change channels and volume level. This technology has been in progress for two years, beginning as a university project. What’s going on? Dr Prashan Premaratne has developed technology that replaces the remote control. A small camera captures an image of and can convert simple hand gestures into electronic commands able to control devices such as TVs, video recorders and set top boxes. It works by using a small camera which captures an image of a gesture and matches it to a pre-defined command that instructs the device to do what it is told. University of Wollongong researchers have operated a TV and VCR using a working prototype and have operated both devices using a suite of ten different hand controlled devices. This technology Dr Premaratne hopes will be included in devices such as set top boxes incorporating a hard disc drive within three years and says it would add less than $50 to the of a unit. Who’s doing it? Dr Premaratne is a lecturer at the University of Wollongong at the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, and worked on the project with his former student Quang Nguyen. He graduated for the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Engineering doing Honours in Electrical and Electronics. He is originally from Sri Lanka, but his excellent grades at school got him a Scholarship at the University of Melbourne. He did his PhD at the National University of Singapore. When he was at high school he always wanted to be a professor of engineering, and he uses his family who are not engineers to help inspire him to create technology that people would find useful. How do I get into it? Doing Engineering at University is the best pathway for getting into this career. Most Australian universities offer Bachelor of Engineering, and you can pick what you want to major in, for instance electronics or mechanics. At high school, it would be of use to take high level Maths and Physics classes. ReferencesDr Premaratne Media Release Return to top.
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