自然, 景色, 動物, ヒューマニズム, ユーモア 写真 映像 7
This photos is quoted from https://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollection .
この写真の出処はhttps://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollectionです.
IT Story, English Diary, Japanese Diary
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Nature, Landscape, Animal, Humanism, Humor photo video 7, 自然, 景色, 動物, ヒューマニズム, ユーモア 写真 映像 7
Nature, Landscape, Animal, Humanism, Humor photo video 7
自然, 景色, 動物, ヒューマニズム, ユーモア 写真 映像 7
This photos is quoted from https://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollection .
この写真の出処はhttps://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollectionです.
自然, 景色, 動物, ヒューマニズム, ユーモア 写真 映像 7
This photos is quoted from https://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollection .
この写真の出処はhttps://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollectionです.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Artificial intelligence: Job killer or your next boss?
This is quoted from http://www.zdnet.com/artificial-intelligence-job-killer-or-your-next-boss-7000012404/ .
By Nick Heath | March 11, 2013
Artificial intelligence: Job killer or your next boss?
Summary: As software automates an
increasing number of tasks, is it time to reassess traditional workplace
roles and create an office that suits both man and machine?
Could information technology become an engine of unemployment, automating roles that once used scores of human workers?
Some writers and academics argue this is already the case, blaming communications technologies and automation for the falls in both wages and the number of men finding jobs in the US over the past 40 years. The problem of workers being displaced and wages being driven down will continue to get worse, they argue, as increased computing power and better software empowers computers and robots to take over more roles in factories and offices.
The net result, argues MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson, could be a widening of the already sizeable gap between the earnings of employees and employers, and between college graduates and the less educated.
A sensible response to this shift, Brynjolfsson says, is to reassess workplace roles to find tasks particularly suited to people, and have humans and computers work alongside, rather than against, each other to complete them.
The power of man and machine working in unison was at the heart of a speech about intelligence augmentation by Ari Gesher, engineering ambassador with Palantir Technologies, at the recent Economist Technology Frontiers 2013 conference in London.
"The idea is to have a very well defined division of labour between the computing machines and the humans," he said, spelling out the complementary skills of men and computers.
"Most of AI is statistics. Any time you need to do this kind of statistical processing - be it figuring out how to target an ad, give recommendations to someone on Amazon or figuring out how to segment a voting population - computers are magic. They can really come up with very good robust answers to those kind of questions. These statistical methods basically depend on the characterisation of data remaining the same.
"We [also] know what humans are good at. It's making hypothesis, writing poetry, dealing with things like incomplete data. Recognising patterns that are similar to other patterns that have been seen before but are not the same."
The online game Foldit provides an example of how to exploit the relative strengths of humans and computers when it comes to information processing, he said. In the game players fold computer models of proteins to help scientists gain insights into their real-world structure. Computers can take the brute force statistical approach but human pattern recognition skills enabled by the brain's visual cortex has allowed people to devise solutions to Foldit tasks that computers have been unable to match.
By being aware of these relative abilities, and matching people and machines to the right tasks, you can outperform machines or people acting on their own, Gesher said.
"The idea is to do everything you can to remove the friction at the boundary between man and machine. Offload as much as possible onto the machines and bring in the injection of human insight into the system."
"They understood the problems of chess well enough to know how to communicate with the computers to get them to do all the right work," said Gesher.
In this instance the deciding factor in who was victorious wasn't the ability of the individual humans or computers to play chess, but how effectively the human and computer chess players were able work alongside each other, he said.
"The grandmasters knew a lot about chess but they didn't know how to use the computers as effectively as possible, how to leverage them to win."
The reason that perfecting the interface between man and machine can pay such dividends is that that increases in computing power have outpaced our ability to exploit them, Gesher believes.
"In 1960, $1,000 would get you one calculation per second. Today that number is somewhere around 1010, so you're talking about nine orders of magnitude in 50 years," he said.
"What's special about this? It's never happened before. This exponential growth inside two or three human generations is completely unprecedented in human history. We're still figuring out how to use those machines' effective power.
"[Therefore] small changes in the friction at the interface boundary, in how we offload work to computers, can lead to huge gains in the work that we do."
Some writers and academics argue this is already the case, blaming communications technologies and automation for the falls in both wages and the number of men finding jobs in the US over the past 40 years. The problem of workers being displaced and wages being driven down will continue to get worse, they argue, as increased computing power and better software empowers computers and robots to take over more roles in factories and offices.
The net result, argues MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson, could be a widening of the already sizeable gap between the earnings of employees and employers, and between college graduates and the less educated.
A sensible response to this shift, Brynjolfsson says, is to reassess workplace roles to find tasks particularly suited to people, and have humans and computers work alongside, rather than against, each other to complete them.
Intelligence augmentation
This notion of intelligence augmentation dates back to the early days of computing, when engineer Vannevar Bush coined the term to describe an intellectual symbiosis between man and machine. In 1945, Bush wrote about a future where an associative store of all books, records and communications called the memex would aid human recollection, a concept that today is embodied by the World Wide Web.The power of man and machine working in unison was at the heart of a speech about intelligence augmentation by Ari Gesher, engineering ambassador with Palantir Technologies, at the recent Economist Technology Frontiers 2013 conference in London.
"The idea is to have a very well defined division of labour between the computing machines and the humans," he said, spelling out the complementary skills of men and computers.
"Most of AI is statistics. Any time you need to do this kind of statistical processing - be it figuring out how to target an ad, give recommendations to someone on Amazon or figuring out how to segment a voting population - computers are magic. They can really come up with very good robust answers to those kind of questions. These statistical methods basically depend on the characterisation of data remaining the same.
"We [also] know what humans are good at. It's making hypothesis, writing poetry, dealing with things like incomplete data. Recognising patterns that are similar to other patterns that have been seen before but are not the same."
The online game Foldit provides an example of how to exploit the relative strengths of humans and computers when it comes to information processing, he said. In the game players fold computer models of proteins to help scientists gain insights into their real-world structure. Computers can take the brute force statistical approach but human pattern recognition skills enabled by the brain's visual cortex has allowed people to devise solutions to Foldit tasks that computers have been unable to match.
By being aware of these relative abilities, and matching people and machines to the right tasks, you can outperform machines or people acting on their own, Gesher said.
"The idea is to do everything you can to remove the friction at the boundary between man and machine. Offload as much as possible onto the machines and bring in the injection of human insight into the system."
How to beat a chess grandmaster
The power of human-machine collaboration was demonstrated by two unranked amateur chess players in 2005, he said. The pair took part in a Playchess.com freestyle chess tournament, where individuals can team up with other people or computers. Using custom chess software running on three laptops to analyse play these amateurs were able to win a competition that featured the Hydra supercomputer and several grandmasters."They understood the problems of chess well enough to know how to communicate with the computers to get them to do all the right work," said Gesher.
In this instance the deciding factor in who was victorious wasn't the ability of the individual humans or computers to play chess, but how effectively the human and computer chess players were able work alongside each other, he said.
"The grandmasters knew a lot about chess but they didn't know how to use the computers as effectively as possible, how to leverage them to win."
The reason that perfecting the interface between man and machine can pay such dividends is that that increases in computing power have outpaced our ability to exploit them, Gesher believes.
"In 1960, $1,000 would get you one calculation per second. Today that number is somewhere around 1010, so you're talking about nine orders of magnitude in 50 years," he said.
"What's special about this? It's never happened before. This exponential growth inside two or three human generations is completely unprecedented in human history. We're still figuring out how to use those machines' effective power.
"[Therefore] small changes in the friction at the interface boundary, in how we offload work to computers, can lead to huge gains in the work that we do."
Friday, March 1, 2013
Dutch Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology
This is quoted from http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344 .
- See more at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.ve5jMIke.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
To date,
the D-shape concept has been restricted to ‘printing’ two storey
buildings with an area of up to 1100 square metres from a mixture of
sand and mortar. The proposed Möbius house represents an ambitious
attempt taking 3D printing a few steps closer to being just another
construction method.
- See more at:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
Dutch Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology
4
To date,
the D-shape concept has been restricted to ‘printing’ two storey
buildings with an area of up to 1100 square metres from a mixture of
sand and mortar. The proposed Möbius house represents an ambitious
attempt taking 3D printing a few steps closer to being just another
construction method.
- See more at:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
Dutch Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology
3
2
12
1
Google +2
A Dutch architect hopes to use 3D printer
technology to ‘print off’ a futuristic 12,000 square feet ‘endless’
house. Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture aims to complete
construction of his concept 'Landscape House' in 2014.
The futuristic house uses the principle of the one-sided Möbius strip,
the mathematical conundrum of a strip of paper twisted on itself. To
the eye, a Möbius strip clearly has two sides but tracing a finger along
its surface confirms the ‘impossibility’ of a uni-dimensional object.
The architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of the Dutch company Universe Architecture is collaborating with artist mathematician Rinus Roelofs and Enrico Dini. It was Dini who is credited with inventing the D-shape,
sometimes called a three-dimensional (3D) printer. The D-shape is a
machine capable of constructing three dimensional objects by placing
layers of sand, or some other suitable building material, on top of each
other combined with a glue or binder to hold the structure together.
The new project, which the architectural and mathematical team have
named ‘Landscape House,’ aims to construct a genuine 3 D structure using
3D print technology.
To date, the D-shape concept has been restricted to ‘printing’ two
storey buildings with an area of up to 1100 square metres from a mixture
of sand and mortar. The proposed Möbius house represents an ambitious
attempt taking 3D printing a few steps closer to being just another
construction method.
Speaking to Pursuitist.com, Ruijssenaars said,
“We started to ask the question if a building can be like the landscape, in order to make a building that would not harm the landscape, or at least learn from the landscape.” “We analysed that the essence of landscape is that it has no beginning or ending, so it’s continuous, not only the fact the world is round but also water goes into land, valleys into mountains, it’s always continuous.”On the Möbius strip concept, he continued,
“you have to make a strip and then bend it in order to make this Möbius strip. But with a 3D printer, even a small model, we could make the whole structure from bottom to top without anyone seeing where it is beginning or ending,”According to Business Insider, the entire project would cost an estimated $5.3 million (€4 million). It's estimated that Landscape House would take at least 18 months to complete. The team designing the Möbius 3D house hope to present their new building at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition to be held in Venice from June 7 to November 23, 2014. Further photos of the Landscape House concept can be found on Universe Architecture's Facebook page.
A Dutch
architect hopes to use 3D printer technology to ‘print off’ a futuristic
12,000 square feet ‘endless’ house. Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe
Architecture aims to complete construction of his concept 'Landscape
House' in 2014.
- See more at:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
A Dutch
architect hopes to use 3D printer technology to ‘print off’ a futuristic
12,000 square feet ‘endless’ house. Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe
Architecture aims to complete construction of his concept 'Landscape
House' in 2014.
- See more at:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
A Dutch architect hopes to use 3D printer
technology to ‘print off’ a futuristic 12,000 square feet ‘endless’
house. Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture aims to complete
construction of his concept 'Landscape House' in 2014.
The futuristic house uses the principle of the one-sided Möbius strip,
the mathematical conundrum of a strip of paper twisted on itself. To
the eye, a Möbius strip clearly has two sides but tracing a finger along
its surface confirms the ‘impossibility’ of a uni-dimensional object.
The architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of the Dutch company Universe Architecture is collaborating with artist mathematician Rinus Roelofs and Enrico Dini. It was Dini who is credited with inventing the D-shape,
sometimes called a three-dimensional (3D) printer. The D-shape is a
machine capable of constructing three dimensional objects by placing
layers of sand, or some other suitable building material, on top of each
other combined with a glue or binder to hold the structure together.
The new project, which the architectural and mathematical team have
named ‘Landscape House,’ aims to construct a genuine 3 D structure using
3D print technology.
To date, the D-shape concept has been restricted to ‘printing’ two
storey buildings with an area of up to 1100 square metres from a mixture
of sand and mortar. The proposed Möbius house represents an ambitious
attempt taking 3D printing a few steps closer to being just another
construction method.
Speaking to Pursuitist.com, Ruijssenaars said,
- See more at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf“We started to ask the question if a building can be like the landscape, in order to make a building that would not harm the landscape, or at least learn from the landscape.” “We analysed that the essence of landscape is that it has no beginning or ending, so it’s continuous, not only the fact the world is round but also water goes into land, valleys into mountains, it’s always continuous.”On the Möbius strip concept, he continued,
“you have to make a strip and then bend it in order to make this Möbius strip. But with a 3D printer, even a small model, we could make the whole structure from bottom to top without anyone seeing where it is beginning or ending,”According to Business Insider, the entire project would cost an estimated $5.3 million (€4 million). It's estimated that Landscape House would take at least 18 months to complete. The team designing the Möbius 3D house hope to present their new building at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition to be held in Venice from June 7 to November 23, 2014. Further photos of the Landscape House concept can be found on Universe Architecture's Facebook page.
Dutch
Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology - See more
at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
Dutch
Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology - See more
at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344344#sthash.8aXpcrpf.dpuf
Dutch Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology
Dutch Architect plans 'endless' house using 3D printer technology
3
2
12
1
Google +2
A Dutch architect hopes to use 3D printer
technology to ‘print off’ a futuristic 12,000 square feet ‘endless’
house. Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture aims to complete
construction of his concept 'Landscape House' in 2014.
The futuristic house uses the principle of the one-sided Möbius strip,
the mathematical conundrum of a strip of paper twisted on itself. To
the eye, a Möbius strip clearly has two sides but tracing a finger along
its surface confirms the ‘impossibility’ of a uni-dimensional object.
The architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of the Dutch company Universe Architecture is collaborating with artist mathematician Rinus Roelofs and Enrico Dini. It was Dini who is credited with inventing the D-shape,
sometimes called a three-dimensional (3D) printer. The D-shape is a
machine capable of constructing three dimensional objects by placing
layers of sand, or some other suitable building material, on top of each
other combined with a glue or binder to hold the structure together.
The new project, which the architectural and mathematical team have
named ‘Landscape House,’ aims to construct a genuine 3 D structure using
3D print technology.
To date, the D-shape concept has been restricted to ‘printing’ two
storey buildings with an area of up to 1100 square metres from a mixture
of sand and mortar. The proposed Möbius house represents an ambitious
attempt taking 3D printing a few steps closer to being just another
construction method.
Speaking to Pursuitist.com, Ruijssenaars said,
“We started to ask the question if a building can be like the landscape, in order to make a building that would not harm the landscape, or at least learn from the landscape.” “We analysed that the essence of landscape is that it has no beginning or ending, so it’s continuous, not only the fact the world is round but also water goes into land, valleys into mountains, it’s always continuous.”On the Möbius strip concept, he continued,
“you have to make a strip and then bend it in order to make this Möbius strip. But with a 3D printer, even a small model, we could make the whole structure from bottom to top without anyone seeing where it is beginning or ending,”According to Business Insider, the entire project would cost an estimated $5.3 million (€4 million). It's estimated that Landscape House would take at least 18 months to complete. The team designing the Möbius 3D house hope to present their new building at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition to be held in Venice from June 7 to November 23, 2014. Further photos of the Landscape House concept can be found on Universe Architecture's Facebook page.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
How to build a bionic man
This is quoted from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/jan/30/build-bionic-man .
How to build a bionic man
Rex the bionic man shows how close technology is to catching up with – and exceeding – the abilities of the human body
A television company
asked Dr Bertolt Meyer – who has a prosthetic arm – to rebuild himself
in bionic form. Photograph: Channel 4
He cuts a dashing figure, this gentleman: nearly seven feet
tall, and possessed of a pair of striking brown eyes. With a fondness
for Ralph Lauren, middle-class rap and sharing a drink with friends, Rex
is, in many ways, an unexceptional chap.
Except that he is, in fact, a real-world bionic man. Housed within a frame of state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs is a functional heart-lung system, complete with artificial blood pumping through a network of pulsating modified-polymer arteries. He has a bionic spleen to clean the blood, and an artificial pancreas to keep his blood sugar on the level. Behind the deep brown irises are a pair of retinal implants, giving him a vista of the crowds of curious humans who meet his gaze.
He even has a degree of artificial intelligence: talk to him, and he'll listen (through his cochlear implants), before using a speech generator to respond. Although, like us, he sometimes stumbles over his words, memorably describing his idol Eminem as a "well-known crapper", before quickly correcting himself.
Created by Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP, the TV company behind Touching The Void and Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections), with the help of robotics experts Shadow Robot Company, the bionic man was conceived as a literal response to the question: how close is bionic technology is to catching up with – and even exceeding – the capabilities of the human body?
DSP got in touch with Dr Bertolt Meyer, a charismatic young researcher from Zurich University and himself a lifelong user of prosthetic technology, and invited him to, essentially, rebuild himself in bionic form. The result can be seen in How to Build a Bionic Man, to be broadcast on Channel 4 on 7 February. The Bionic Man himself will then reside in the Science Museum's Who Am I? gallery from 7 February until 11 March.
Richard Walker (left), chief roboticist, and Dr Bertolt Meyer
(right) at the Body Lab. On the table is an iWalk BiOM ankle.
Photograph: Channel 4
Build yourself in bionic form … it's not the sort of invitation a
chap gets every day. What made Bertolt agree to it? "My aim was to show
that prostheses can, instead of conveying a sense of loss, pity, and
awkwardness, convey a sense of 'wow' and amazement - a positive
reaction, if you will," he tells me.
The engineering behind modern prosthetics is certainly awe-inspiring. The iLimb Ultra, of which Bertolt is a user, is part of the new class of myoelectric prosthetics. These custom-made devices function by placing electrical sensors directly in contact with the skin. These sensors pick up the signals generated by muscular movements in the residual limb - signals that are then translated by software into natural, intuitive movement in the prosthetic limb.
We all know about prosthetic limbs, even if many of us are not aware of just how sophisticated they now are. Less familiar, though, is the idea of bionic organs. Far removed from the iron lung of yore, these new fully integrated artificial body parts are designed to plug directly into our own metabolism - in effect, they are not within us, they become us. They're the ultimate in biomimicry.
Take the elegant simplicity of Bionic Man's pancreas, invented by Prof Joan Taylor of De Montfort University. Within a protective casing of firm gel lies a store of insulin. In the presence of excess glucose, the gel begins to soften and liquefy, releasing the insulin – and as glucose levels drop in response to the insulin release, then gel hardens once again, in a self-regulating loop. Like a natural pancreas, this device requires no conscious monitoring – implanted permanently within the body, it plugs directly into our own homeostatic systems, potentially liberating us from the chore of blood sugar monitoring. It is, Prof. Taylor hopes, only around seven years from general use.
Bionic Man's kidney is, likewise, an implantable, self-regulating artificial organ. The brainchild of Prof Shuvo Roy's team at the University of California, San Francisco, it's made up of a silicon nanoscale filtration system, which requires only the power of the body's own blood pressure. The filtrate thus generated is then passed to a miniature bioreactor - a small cartridge housing living renal tubule cells from a healthy donor. Together, these components will - it is hoped - perform all the functions of a biological kidney. Clinical trials are due to begin in 2017.
Rex has some artificial intelligence: talk to him and he'll listen
(through his cochlear implants), before using a speech generator to
respond. Photograph: Channel 4
It's one thing to use a bionic organ to replace lost function. But in
a future world where we could, feasibly, replace virtually all of our
body, will we blur the boundaries of artificial and natural to an extent
that we have to recalibrate our definition of self and non-self? That's
especially pertinent when we consider the reality of neural
prosthetics, like the "memory chips" developed by Dr Theodore Berger.
Instinctively, many of us are uncomfortable with brain implants - but
should we be? And will this discomfort be reduced if we broaden our
definition of self?
Bertolt himself is pleased with the increasing normalisation, and even "coolness", of prosthetics. But he expresses caution about the potential for elective use of such technology - would we ever choose to remove a healthy body part, in order to replace it with a stronger, better prosthetic? Elective use of artificial body parts would, Bertolt fears, result in market forces becoming more important than medical need. In essence, those who can afford it could build "super bodies" - with the risk that prosthetic and bionics manufacturers would then focus on fulfilling those demands, rather than on the less profitable medical needs of the rest of us.
What's already certain, though, is that artificial body parts can already restore independence to us in a way never previously possible. Bionic Man is a visceral, visual way to show just much of our bodies could be replaceable in the near future. As a piece of engineering outreach, he is unique - and as a symbol of future humanity, he is startling.
How To Build A Bionic Man will be broadcast on Channel 4 on 7 February. The bionic man can be seen in a new free display in the Who Am I? gallery at London's Science Museum from 7 February until 11 March
Except that he is, in fact, a real-world bionic man. Housed within a frame of state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs is a functional heart-lung system, complete with artificial blood pumping through a network of pulsating modified-polymer arteries. He has a bionic spleen to clean the blood, and an artificial pancreas to keep his blood sugar on the level. Behind the deep brown irises are a pair of retinal implants, giving him a vista of the crowds of curious humans who meet his gaze.
He even has a degree of artificial intelligence: talk to him, and he'll listen (through his cochlear implants), before using a speech generator to respond. Although, like us, he sometimes stumbles over his words, memorably describing his idol Eminem as a "well-known crapper", before quickly correcting himself.
Created by Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP, the TV company behind Touching The Void and Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections), with the help of robotics experts Shadow Robot Company, the bionic man was conceived as a literal response to the question: how close is bionic technology is to catching up with – and even exceeding – the capabilities of the human body?
DSP got in touch with Dr Bertolt Meyer, a charismatic young researcher from Zurich University and himself a lifelong user of prosthetic technology, and invited him to, essentially, rebuild himself in bionic form. The result can be seen in How to Build a Bionic Man, to be broadcast on Channel 4 on 7 February. The Bionic Man himself will then reside in the Science Museum's Who Am I? gallery from 7 February until 11 March.
Richard Walker (left), chief roboticist, and Dr Bertolt Meyer
(right) at the Body Lab. On the table is an iWalk BiOM ankle.
Photograph: Channel 4
Build yourself in bionic form … it's not the sort of invitation a
chap gets every day. What made Bertolt agree to it? "My aim was to show
that prostheses can, instead of conveying a sense of loss, pity, and
awkwardness, convey a sense of 'wow' and amazement - a positive
reaction, if you will," he tells me.The engineering behind modern prosthetics is certainly awe-inspiring. The iLimb Ultra, of which Bertolt is a user, is part of the new class of myoelectric prosthetics. These custom-made devices function by placing electrical sensors directly in contact with the skin. These sensors pick up the signals generated by muscular movements in the residual limb - signals that are then translated by software into natural, intuitive movement in the prosthetic limb.
We all know about prosthetic limbs, even if many of us are not aware of just how sophisticated they now are. Less familiar, though, is the idea of bionic organs. Far removed from the iron lung of yore, these new fully integrated artificial body parts are designed to plug directly into our own metabolism - in effect, they are not within us, they become us. They're the ultimate in biomimicry.
Take the elegant simplicity of Bionic Man's pancreas, invented by Prof Joan Taylor of De Montfort University. Within a protective casing of firm gel lies a store of insulin. In the presence of excess glucose, the gel begins to soften and liquefy, releasing the insulin – and as glucose levels drop in response to the insulin release, then gel hardens once again, in a self-regulating loop. Like a natural pancreas, this device requires no conscious monitoring – implanted permanently within the body, it plugs directly into our own homeostatic systems, potentially liberating us from the chore of blood sugar monitoring. It is, Prof. Taylor hopes, only around seven years from general use.
Bionic Man's kidney is, likewise, an implantable, self-regulating artificial organ. The brainchild of Prof Shuvo Roy's team at the University of California, San Francisco, it's made up of a silicon nanoscale filtration system, which requires only the power of the body's own blood pressure. The filtrate thus generated is then passed to a miniature bioreactor - a small cartridge housing living renal tubule cells from a healthy donor. Together, these components will - it is hoped - perform all the functions of a biological kidney. Clinical trials are due to begin in 2017.
Rex has some artificial intelligence: talk to him and he'll listen
(through his cochlear implants), before using a speech generator to
respond. Photograph: Channel 4
It's one thing to use a bionic organ to replace lost function. But in
a future world where we could, feasibly, replace virtually all of our
body, will we blur the boundaries of artificial and natural to an extent
that we have to recalibrate our definition of self and non-self? That's
especially pertinent when we consider the reality of neural
prosthetics, like the "memory chips" developed by Dr Theodore Berger.
Instinctively, many of us are uncomfortable with brain implants - but
should we be? And will this discomfort be reduced if we broaden our
definition of self?Bertolt himself is pleased with the increasing normalisation, and even "coolness", of prosthetics. But he expresses caution about the potential for elective use of such technology - would we ever choose to remove a healthy body part, in order to replace it with a stronger, better prosthetic? Elective use of artificial body parts would, Bertolt fears, result in market forces becoming more important than medical need. In essence, those who can afford it could build "super bodies" - with the risk that prosthetic and bionics manufacturers would then focus on fulfilling those demands, rather than on the less profitable medical needs of the rest of us.
What's already certain, though, is that artificial body parts can already restore independence to us in a way never previously possible. Bionic Man is a visceral, visual way to show just much of our bodies could be replaceable in the near future. As a piece of engineering outreach, he is unique - and as a symbol of future humanity, he is startling.
How To Build A Bionic Man will be broadcast on Channel 4 on 7 February. The bionic man can be seen in a new free display in the Who Am I? gallery at London's Science Museum from 7 February until 11 March
Robot Rex comes face-to-face with the man he is modelled on: Science Museum unveils $1million 'bionic man' with his own heart, blood and lungs
This is quoted from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2273441/Astonishingly-lifelike-bionic-man--complete-synthetic-blood-organs--set-unveiled-Science-Museum.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490#axzz2KDLIrzfb .
Robot Rex comes face-to-face with the man he is modelled on: Science
Museum unveils $1million 'bionic man' with his own heart, blood and
lungs
For years it existed only in the wildest realms of science fiction.
But now a team of leading roboticists have created a real bionic man - complete with artificial organs, synthetic blood and robot limbs goes.
The astonishing creation incorporates some of the latest advances in prosthetic technology, as well as an artificial pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea, and a functional blood circulatory system.
Scroll down for video
The 6ft 6in (2m) humanoid shares quite a bit in common with Steve Austin, the original 'bionic man' from the cult 1970s TV series the Six Million Dollar Man.
But costing almost £640,000, it is cheaper.
Robot Rex comes face-to-face with the man he is modelled on: Science
Museum unveils $1million 'bionic man' with his own heart, blood and
lungs
- Team of roboticists build amazing humanoid machine costing £640,000
- Bionic man has artificial organs and a functional blood circulatory system
- He is modelled on Swiss man Berthold Meyer, who has bionic hand himself
For years it existed only in the wildest realms of science fiction.
But now a team of leading roboticists have created a real bionic man - complete with artificial organs, synthetic blood and robot limbs goes.
The astonishing creation incorporates some of the latest advances in prosthetic technology, as well as an artificial pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea, and a functional blood circulatory system.
Scroll down for video
Seeing double: Bertolt Meyer, a social
psychologist from Switzerland, stands beside the bionic man whose face
is modelled on his own face
Twins: Swiss social psychologist Bertholt Meyer with the bionic man, which was modelled on him
But costing almost £640,000, it is cheaper.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Nature, Landscape, Animal, Humanism, Humor photo video 6, 自然, 景色, 動物, ヒューマニズム, ユーモア 写真 映像 6
Nature, Landscape, Animal, Humanism, Humor photo video 6, 自然, 景色, 動物, ヒューマニズム, ユーモア 写真 映像 6
This photos is quoted from https://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollection .
この写真の出処はhttps://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollectionです.
This photos is quoted from https://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollection .
この写真の出処はhttps://www.facebook.com/WorldwideCollectionです.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)