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Daily Archives: August 20, 2017
5 Passive Cooling Alternatives Using Robotics and Smart Materials – ArchDaily
Posted: August 20, 2017 at 6:18 pm
5 Passive Cooling Alternatives Using Robotics and Smart Materials
The IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) has developed a series of advanced materials and systems for air conditioning and passive ventilation, allowing homes to reduce interior temperatures up to 5 degrees lower while saving the electricity consumption caused by the traditional air-conditioning. The systems are made from long-lifespan materials, which lower the costs of maintenance in the long-term and can be used as low-cost alternative building technologies.
The projects highlightedare the Breathing Skin, Hydroceramics, Hydromembrane, Morphluid and Soft Robotics - all developed by students of the IAAC's Digital Matter Intelligent Constructions (conducted by Areti Markopoulou). The passive air-conditioning of spaces is investigated using a combination of new materials that mimic organic processes, adaptive structures and Robotics that help regulate temperature and create sustainable micro climates.
Facades and light structures like Hydroceramics, Breathing Skin or Hydromembrane have been developed by the IAAC during recent years. By creating a series of systems that act like a second skin in buildings, IAAC transforms a buildings thermoregulation to imitate the human body -transpiring water to regulate the temperature.
Hydroceramics is a faade system made of clay and hydrogel panels capable of cooling building interiors up to 5 degrees. Hydrogel capsules have the capacity to absorb up to 500 times their own weight in water to create a construction system that "breathes" through evaporation and perspiration.
Unlike Hydroceramics, parallel inventions Hydromembrane and Breathing Skin are based on compounds made with fine membranes and intelligent fabrics for buildings that act as a second "respiratory" skin for constructions capable of self-regulating the humidity and climate of indoor and outdoor spaces.
Each system uses materials that have a high capacity of water absorption, which is later released by evaporation - creating a cooling effect in warm environments. As an example, Breathing Skin absorbs up to 300 times its volume in water in a relatively short period of time thanks to the presence of superabsorbent polymer called sodium polyacrylate.
IAAC has also designed more alternatives that focus on structures and applied robotics in the new bioclimatic architecture. Morphluid or Soft Robotics (SORO) are created as passive shading systems using "live roofs" that regulate the amount of light and heat entering the spaces.
Soft Robotics is a lightweight and sensitive robotic shading device that attempts to create microclimate by controlling sunlight, ventilation and temperature to humidify the atmosphere. This robotic prototype adopts different sizes and shapes as the artificial "sunflowers" that project shade the moment its integrated liquid element is evaporated by the heat of the sun.
Morphluid is also based on the transition of liquids as an activator that modulates the roof and adjusts the environment by means of shading. Morphluid integrates two water tanks into a movable structure (a roof, a window) that tilts when the water in one of the tanks evaporates, allowing shade to continuously project and refresh the environment.
The IAAC academic director and project manager, Areti Markopoulou, highlights "the potential of advanced systems and materials to help us have the most pleasant temperature in our homes through more sustainable buildings that breathe and behave the living things and interact with their environment." Markopoulou Also highlighted the importance of this innovation to energy saving, since "passive air-conditioning materials and systems are based on principles of physics such as evaporation to cool spaces."
To learn more about eachproject, check out the gallery below:
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5 Passive Cooling Alternatives Using Robotics and Smart Materials - ArchDaily
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This 3D-printed robotic arm is built for sign language – TechCrunch
Posted: at 6:18 pm
While we usually see robotics applied to industrial or research applications, there are plenty of ways they could help in everyday life as well: an autonomous guide for blind people, for instance, or a kitchen bot that helps disabled folks cook. Or and this one is real a robot arm that can perform rudimentary sign language.
Its part of a masters thesis from grad students at the University of Antwerp who wanted to address the needs of the deaf and hearing impaired. In classrooms, courts and at home, these people often need interpreters who arent always available.
Their solution is Antwerps Sign Language Actuating Node, or ASLAN. Its a robotic hand and forearm that can perform sign language letters and numbers. It was designed from scratch and built from 25 3D-printed parts, with 16 servos controlled by an Arduino board. Its taught gestures using a special glove, and the team is looking into recognizing them through a webcam as well.
Right now, its just the one hand so obviously two-hand gestures and the cues from facial expressions that enrich sign language arent possible yet. But a second coordinating hand and an emotive robotic face are the next two projects the team aims to tackle.
The idea is not to replace interpreters, whose nuance can hardly be replicated, but to make sure that there is always an option for anyone worldwide who requires sign language service. It also could be used to help teach sign language a robot doesnt get tired of repeating a gesture for you to learn.
Why not just use a virtual hand? Good question. An app or even a speech-to-text program would accomplish many of the same things. But its hard to think less of the ASLAN project; taking an assistive technology off the screen and putting it in the real world, where it can be interacted with, viewed from many angles, and otherwise share the physical space of the people it helps, is a commendable goal.
ASLAN was created by Guy Fierens, Stijn Huys and Jasper Slaets. Its still in prototype form, but once its finalized the designs will be open sourced.
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This 3D-printed robotic arm is built for sign language - TechCrunch
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The Robots Will Be Soft and Cuddly and Heal Their Own Wounds … – WIRED
Posted: at 6:18 pm
Seppe Terryn/Science Robotics
Poke a hole in a human and something remarkable happens. First of all, you go to jail. But meanwhile, the wound heals itself, filling in the missing tissue and protecting itself from infection. Poke a hole in a robot , however, and prepare for a long night of repairs. The machines may be stronger than us, but theyre missing out on a vital superpower.
Until now. Researchers at Belgiums Vrije Universiteit Brussel report this week in Science Robotics that theyve developed a squishy, self-healing robot. Cut it open, apply heat, let it cool down again, and the wound heals itself. While self-healing materials are nothing new, their application in so-called soft robotics a relatively new kind of pliable machine that uses pneumatics or hydraulics to movecould be big. Think Terminator-style robots that automatically heal bullet wounds. OK, maybe dont think of that.
Seppe Terryn, Science Robotics
To build their squishbot, the researchers crafted an elastomer, a elastic variety of polymer. Its network of microscopic chains are held together by something called a Diels-Alder reaction , which is temperature-sensitive. So these bonds break when you heat them and reform as they cool. On the microscopic level, there is enough mobility to seal the gap, says electromechanical engineer Seppe Terryn , lead author on the paper. And then if we decrease the temperature again the entire network will be formed again. Think of melting down a cube of Jell-O, then putting it back in the fridgethe difference being that this polymer goes back to its original shape and strength after injury. Also, its more expensive and less tasty.
Now, of course itd be ideal if the soft robot could heal itself without the application of heat, but in a way theres an advantage here. This means also that we can do the healing in a controlled way, says Terryn. So in the long term, the robots can decide when is the best time to start the healing and start heating up.
That, though, would require that the robot knows its injured. So what the team is working on next is a material loaded with sensors that could tell exactly where a wound opens up, then deploy targeted heat to the area to heal it. The robot could even start preemptively healing if it detects microcuts from normal wear and tear.
Seppe Terryn, Science Robotics
This system, then, very much mimics the way an animal seals up a wound. That's opposed to other self-healing materials already out there which, for instance, use embedded microcapsules to release healing agents. (These are better for rigid structures like glass, not floppy robots. That and they don't need temperature changes to work.) What Terryn and his team are doing instead is adapting an existing technology. "They're taking these Diels-Alder polymers that have been shown before to have reversible covalent bonds and making use of them in these very biomimetic applications," says North Dakota State University's Michael Kessler, who also works in self-healing materials.
In addition to this system needing heat to work, another downside is that the healing isnt wildly efficient. The main concern with the material proposed in this paper is the time and the heating required for healing, says roboticist Pietro Valdastri of the University of Leeds. Depending on the application, 40 minutes at 80 degrees centigrade plus cooling time can be too long to wait.
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But thats now. Self-healing will only get better from here, and surely will be essential for soft robots, which today are typically made of fabrics like polyester. After all, the whole point of a robot soft is it can interact with humans without killing them and pick up squishy objects like tomatoes.
That and they pack well: A four-foot-long soft robot arm can deflate and ship in far less space than a traditional robot arm. And thats important because soft robots are going places. Having a robot that doesn't need to be pulled out for repair, says roboticist Jon Pompa of soft robot outfit Pneubotics , if you could identify some failure modes and have the materials of the robot do some kind of self-repairing stuff, that would be a really excellent argument why to use them in extreme environments.
For instance, if you pack a soft robot in a rocket and fire it to Mars to do some construction ahead of human habitation, youre screwed if it springs a leak and deflates mid-mission. But what Terryns team has shown is that you could theoretically have an injured soft robot deflate itself and heat up to repair the wound. That would save you a lot of money and heartache.
So get ready to see a lot more soft robots and, at some point, soft robots you can stab without getting in trouble. Sorry, I'm still thinking about Terminator .
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Business Showcase : Fastbrick Robotics – Irish Tech News
Posted: at 6:18 pm
By@SimonCocking
Describe the company the elevator pitch
Fastbrick Robotics Limited (ASX:FBR) is an Australian robotic technology company developing and commercialising digital construction technology solutions.
Fastbrick Robotics revolutionary bricklaying machine, the Hadrian X, represents the first application of our underlying intellectual property portfolio.
The Hadrian X is a globally patented 3D robotic bricklaying system, and marks the transition of automated machinery from the secure and controlled nature of indoor factories and laboratories to the dynamically stabilised robots (DSR) that operate outdoors in uncontrolled environments.
Fastbrick Robotics is committed to improving the safety, speed, accuracy, cost and waste management in the global construction industry through utilising the worlds latest innovations in mobile robotic technology.
How are you different?
The robotics sector globally has tremendous growth and presents significant opportunity for those with relevant intellectual property, and the underpinning technology that enables the Hadrian X associated with dynamic stabilisation, has widespread potential applications beyond robotic bricklaying.
While the Hadrian X is not the first robotic bricklaying machine, it is the first machine that is fully-automated from start to finish meaning that the entire brickwork of a house could potentially be completed in as little as 15 hours without the need for human intervention.
Fastbrick Robotics is pleased to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: https://t.co/8swHPHlJ1c pic.twitter.com/JVKjmVDkpj
Fastbrick Robotics (@_Fastbrick) August 16, 2017
Why will the company/product do well?
Fastbrick Robotics has a suite of protected intellectual property that extends well beyond the Hadrian X bricklaying machine and we have hardly scratched the surface in exploring other possible markets and applications for this technology. We are therefore very excited by the unquantifiable potential for the company and its technology and about the additional applications and opportunities beyond the Hadrian X. Having said that, the delivery of the Hadrian X is certainly the companys priority at the moment.
The Hadrian X represents a quantum leap in digital construction technology and this breakthrough threatens to shake up one of the oldest and largest industries in the world, the construction industry. We know that the digital age of construction is here right now and that the use of robots outside factory walls for purposes including construction is also a reality right now. We intend to lead the charge in this emerging space of digital construction and also explore other markets and applications for our enabling technologies. While many people around the world once objected to automation and the use of robots in factories, so it is that this technology presents as disruption to markets such as construction. The prevalent use of robotics in factories today speaks for itself and we can not only see the same evolution happening with robots outside but we are leading the charge. Our dynamic stabilisation technology now makes this a reality.
People need houses and the world has a shortage of them along with bricklayers. With the valuable end prize of reducing cost, time, and waste while improving safety and accuracy in the building process, the world is watching this technology very closely as it threatens to shake up the way houses and other structures are built.
The industry and the market we are addressing with the Hadrian X is extremely large and the commercial prize is very big, and we are a long way ahead of any other company in terms of the technology we have developed. The potential applications for our enabling technology are potentially endless and we are currently exploring these as part of our broader company strategy.
With the market now closed, Fastbrick Robotics $FBR finishes a stellar day as one of the biggest movers on the @ASX. pic.twitter.com/KUDeqxAQjJ
Fastbrick Robotics (@_Fastbrick) August 16, 2017
Where are you based?
Perth, Western Australia.
When was the company launched?
Fastbrick Robotics was publicly listed on the ASX in November of 2015 via an oversubscribed reverse takeover, and subsequently raised AUD $5.75 million.
What have been your biggest wins to date?
At the end of 2016, we were named Western Australian Innovator of the Year. This success continued in 2017 when we won the Most Disruptive Technology category at the WAITTA INCITE Awards, and most recently when we announced an agreement with industry giant Caterpillar (see our website atwww.fbr.com.au), and when Caterpillar became a shareholder of Fastbrick Robotics Ltd as part of the same deal.
What type of people (market segment) are you trying to attract to your product?
Weve had a significant amount of interest from both individuals, companies and governments of countries around the world. As a result, we are still working through the details of a fully integrated market strategy that may now be influenced by our recent agreement with Caterpillar Inc.
Tell us about your team?
Our team is primarily made up of both mechanical and software engineers that have been working extremely hard to develop the underlying technology behind the Hadrian X. While we have a reasonably young team, our engineers represent the peak of innovation and have established themselves as leaders in their respective fields. The technical teams are led by founder/Executive Director/Chief Technical Officer Mark Pivac.
We also have a very strong commercial managerial team led by our Managing Director, Mike Pivac, who are leading the company towards the commercialisation of our technology and ensuring a secure and profitable future.
What are your long-term plans for your product/company?
The overall long-term plan is to cement our position as a global leader in the field of robotics, particularly in relation to digital construction solutions. However, our primary focus now is commercialising the Hadrian X and bringing this unique technology to the world.
How do people get in touch with you?
The best way to contact us is via the contact form on our website atwww.fbr.com.au. Alternatively, you can keep in contact with us through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Facebook:www.facebook.com/fastbrickrobotics
Twitter:www.twitter.com/_Fastbrick
If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [emailprotected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking
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Hartford robotics team teaches at the Dodge County Fair grandstands – WiscNews
Posted: at 6:18 pm
The robotics team from Hartford Union High School took time to give fairgoers a shot at controlling one of their award-winning robots through some obstacles near the Dodge County Fair grandstand.
We think its really cute because the kids get to drive the robot, said team member Maddy Jacobi, 15.
The team is called Oriole Assault (Team 1091), which is part of the FIRST Robotics. The organization is meant to bring mentors and young students together to build science, engineering and technology skills. The 15-year-old team is composed of 21 high school students and more than seven mentors. It took the team six weeks to construct its robot.
Near the fair grandstands Thursday morning, the team maneuvered its robot through a set of obstacles. The robot could transport a large yellow gear from one station to another and is able to hoist itself off the ground, making it look like the machine is doing a pull-ups. All of the obstacles gain the team points in competition.
This year, the team took third place overall in the Seven Rivers Regional in La Crosse, and it took third place in the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee. According to the teams website, it has competed in nine FIRST Robotics Challenges.
Its our teams goal to one year make it to nationals, Jacobi said.
Oriole Assault is the first group of its kind to host a robotics demonstration at the Dodge County Fair. Jacobi said the team wanted to do a demonstration at the fairgrounds because, compared to other teams, they are small and they want to get their work in front of people.
In addition, she said the team is mostly boys and its important for her to show girls that they can work on a team like Oriole Assault.
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Hartford robotics team teaches at the Dodge County Fair grandstands - WiscNews
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How Self-Driving, AI And Robotics Will Transform The Auto Industry – International Business Times
Posted: at 6:18 pm
The auto industry seems to be ready for disruption. It is an industry that has functioned largely without changes for the past hundred years, but with the emergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence, self-driving and robotics, the basic paradigm of the industry is expected to change.
Robotics, for example, has been used for a long time in the auto industry, but not at the rate that it are being applied currently. Tesla, the biggest disruptor in the automotive industry, has set the trend for increasingly robot-run factories.
The Tesla Gigafactory 1 is located at a site which was previously a General Motors automotive factorythat employed more than 50,000 people. In contrast, the Gigafactory 1 employs just 10,000 people and uses robots and automation to make its cars, such as the newly launched Model 3. The company employs robots such as the self-navigating Autonomous Indoor Vehicles (AIVs).
It also uses a lot of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) which are used for transporting equipment from one section to the other.
The car assembly is done with the help of robotic arms instead of by tool-wielding humans.
While the Tesla Gigafactory 1 is just one of many examples of auto companies increasingly employing robots in production, it is the strongest indication that as the auto industry moves towardautomation and robotics, human employment in the industry is set to decrease. In other words, the auto industry will not be a large scale employer and as the industry progresses and competition with brands such as Tesla rises,companies will increasingly opt for robot-run factories like the Gigafactory 1.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will also play a large part in the future of the automotive industry. According to the Information Handling Services (IHS) Technology's Automotive Electronics Roadmap Report, the use of AI based driver-assistance systems in vehicles is set to jump from 7 million a couple of years ago to 122 million by 2025.
"An artificial-intelligence system continuously learns from experience and by its ability to discern and recognize its surroundings. It learns as human beings do, from real sounds, images and other sensory inputs. The system recognizes the car's environment and evaluates the contextual implications for the moving car," said Luca De Ambroggi, IHS Technology's principal analyst for automotive semiconductors, according to a report by Computerworld.
AI-based systems are set to become basic systems for vehicles and in combination with technologies such as speech recognition, gesture recognition, eye tracking, driver monitoring and virtual assistance, these systems are expected to make driving safer and also more automated.
Since cars are increasingly expected to be equipped with hardware such as camera-based machine units, radar-detection units and driver evaluation units, AI will serve as the connecting interface between the regular car machinery and such hardware e.g., advance brake warnings using object detection feedback from the onboard cameras.
This technology is expected to change the way we drive. According to Gartner, there will be 250 million connected vehicles on the roads by 2020, which will be using AI in some way or other.
Self-driving, a technology which is still not mainstream and yet has major auto and tech players investing in it, is set to change the auto industry in the biggest of ways. With many car makers aiming to achieve full autonomy by 2021, the end of driving as we know it might be near.
With cars such as the Tesla Model 3 equipped with semi-autonomous features, which let the car be driven using automation on highways, the move toward the end of human driving seems to have begun.
Apart from taking overcontrol from human drivers, self-driving has the potential of changing the notion of car ownership as it stands. Currently, you buy a car and drive it yourself or hail a cab.
The problem with lending out cars is, in some ways, due tothe inconsistency of human driving. Once driving becomes safer, thanks to a universal standard of safety followed by self-driven cars, this might not be an issue.
Think about a world in which driving is no longer necessary. Since the cars will be driven via automation, chances are that people might actually lend their cars out when they are not using them. These cars could be used by ride-hailing services such as Uber and returned to the owner at the time of his/her usage.
Another paradigm is that since self-driven cars would be available 24 hours, a person could simply order a car to his/her doorrather than keepone in the driveway. Automotive transport could transform into a utility like electricity or water supply.
According to the MIT'sMilken Institutes AgeLab, When the brightest-eyed autonomous vehicle advocates talk about self-driving cars transforming society as we know it, what theyre imagining, first and foremost, is the death of car ownership.
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How Self-Driving, AI And Robotics Will Transform The Auto Industry - International Business Times
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Technology could make us immortal. But there will be consequences. – The Week Magazine
Posted: at 6:18 pm
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Immortality has gone secular. Unhooked from the realm of gods and angels, it's now the subject of serious investment both intellectual and financial by philosophers, scientists, and the Silicon Valley set. Several hundred people have already chosen to be "cryopreserved" in preference to simply dying, as they wait for science to catch up and give them a second shot at life. But if we treat death as a problem, what are the ethical implications of the highly speculative "solutions" being mooted?
Of course, we don't currently have the means of achieving human immortality, nor is it clear that we ever will. But two hypothetical options have so far attracted the most interest and attention: rejuvenation technology, and mind uploading.
Like a futuristic fountain of youth, rejuvenation promises to remove and reverse the damage of aging at the cellular level. Gerontologists such as Aubrey de Grey argue that growing old is a disease that we can circumvent by having our cells replaced or repaired at regular intervals. Practically speaking, this might mean that every few years, you would visit a rejuvenation clinic. Doctors would not only remove infected, cancerous, or otherwise unhealthy cells, but also induce healthy ones to regenerate more effectively and remove accumulated waste products. This deep makeover would "turn back the clock" on your body, leaving you physiologically younger than your actual age. You would, however, remain just as vulnerable to death from acute trauma that is, from injury and poisoning, whether accidental or not as you were before.
Rejuvenation seems like a fairly low-risk solution, since it essentially extends and improves your body's inherent ability to take care of itself. But if you truly wanted eternal life in a biological body, it would have to be an extremely secure life indeed. You'd need to avoid any risk of physical harm to have your one shot at eternity, making you among the most anxious people in history.
The other option would be mind uploading, in which your brain is digitally scanned and copied onto a computer. This method presupposes that consciousness is akin to software running on some kind of organic hard-disk that what makes you you is the sum total of the information stored in the brain's operations, and therefore it should be possible to migrate the self onto a different physical substrate or platform. This remains a highly controversial stance. However, let's leave aside for now the question of where you really reside, and play with the idea that it might be possible to replicate the brain in digital form one day.
Unlike rejuvenation, mind uploading could actually offer something tantalizingly close to true immortality. Just as we currently back up files on external drives and cloud storage, your uploaded mind could be copied innumerable times and backed up in secure locations, making it extremely unlikely that any natural or man-made disaster could destroy all of your copies.
Despite this advantage, mind uploading presents some difficult ethical issues. Some philosophers, such as David Chalmers, think there is a possibility that your upload would appear functionally identical to your old self without having any conscious experience of the world. You'd be more of a zombie than a person, let alone you. Others, such as Daniel Dennett, have argued that this would not be a problem. Since you are reducible to the processes and content of your brain, a functionally identical copy of it no matter the substrate on which it runs could not possibly yield anything other than you.
What's more, we cannot predict what the actual upload would feel like to the mind being transferred. Would you experience some sort of intermediate break after the transfer, or something else altogether? What if the whole process, including your very existence as a digital being, is so qualitatively different from biological existence as to make you utterly terrified or even catatonic? If so, what if you can't communicate to outsiders or switch yourself off? In this case, your immortality would amount to more of a curse than a blessing. Death might not be so bad after all, but unfortunately it might no longer be an option.
Another problem arises with the prospect of copying your uploaded mind and running the copy simultaneously with the original. One popular position in philosophy is that the youness of you depends on remaining a singular person meaning that a "fission" of your identity would be equivalent to death. That is to say: If you were to branch into you1 and you2, then you'd cease to exist as you, leaving you dead to all intents and purposes. Some thinkers, such as the late Derek Parfit, have argued that while you might not survive fission, as long as each new version of you has an unbroken connection to the original, this is just as good as ordinary survival.
Which option is more ethically fraught? In our view, mere rejuvenation would probably be a less problematic choice. Yes, vanquishing death for the entire human species would greatly exacerbate our existing problems of overpopulation and inequality but the problems would at least be reasonably familiar. We can be pretty certain, for instance, that rejuvenation would widen the gap between the rich and poor, and would eventually force us to make decisive calls about resource use, whether to limit the rate of growth of the population, and so forth.
On the other hand, mind uploading would open up a plethora of completely new and unfamiliar ethical quandaries. Uploaded minds might constitute a radically new sphere of moral agency. For example, we often consider cognitive capacities to be relevant to an agent's moral status (one reason that we attribute a higher moral status to humans than to mosquitoes). But it would be difficult to grasp the cognitive capacities of minds that can be enhanced by faster computers and communicate with each other at the speed of light, since this would make them incomparably smarter than the smartest biological human. As the economist Robin Hanson argued in The Age of Em (2016), we would therefore need to find fair ways of regulating the interactions between and within the old and new domains that is, between humans and brain uploads, and between the uploads themselves. What's more, the astonishingly rapid development of digital systems means that we might have very little time to decide how to implement even minimal regulations.
What about the personal, practical consequences of your choice of immortality? Assuming you somehow make it to a future in which rejuvenation and brain uploading are available, your decision seems to depend on how much risk and what kinds of risks you're willing to assume. Rejuvenation seems like the most business-as-usual option, although it threatens to make you even more protective of your fragile physical body. Uploading would make it much more difficult for your mind to be destroyed, at least in practical terms, but it's not clear whether you would survive in any meaningful sense if you were copied several times over. This is entirely uncharted territory with risks far worse than what you'd face with rejuvenation. Nevertheless, the prospect of being freed from our mortal shackles is undeniably alluring and if it's ever an option, one way or another, many people will probably conclude that it outweighs the dangers.
This article was originally published by Aeon, a digital magazine for ideas and culture. Follow them on Twitter at @aeonmag.
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Technology could make us immortal. But there will be consequences. - The Week Magazine
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Building an Ultra Saber from Start to Finish – Geek
Posted: at 6:18 pm
As long as I can remember, Ive always wanted to construct my own lightsaber. It always felt like a right of passage. Picking just the right kyber crystal that bonds with you. The hilt itself never felt as important, but now as weve seen Reys journey and trials with Anakins original saber; it just might. Sadly in the real world, the closest we have come to building a fully destructible saber is Allen Pans burning saber and the Arctic Spyder 3 laser. But if youre looking for something you can take into a convention hall without suffering the risks of being escorted off the premises with; then polycarbonate sabers are right for you!
The fine folks at Ultra Sabers got in contact with me to build my ultimate saber. The ultimate fanboy in me lit up. These are not your typical store-bought sabers made of hollow plastic. Ultra Sabers are high-end lightsabers that look as if they were plucked right out of the film! Not interested in a replica? Ultra Sabers can also help you craft unique designs to fit whatever original costume or character concept you have in-store.
Its funny. I immediately had the ultimate saber in mind before going to Ultra Sabers website. Once there I was floored by the amount of customizations I could add to my saber. They even have different chipsets for light and sound FX. Right now theDiamond Controller is their hottest selling saber brand. It is the most powerful and versatile saber controller on the market for custom lightsabers. It recognizes gestures in a sequence of movements that you can program into the Diamond Controller to trigger unique sounds and light effects.
With the budget I was allotted, I becameWatto in a junkyard free for all. Yet, it was the hardest decision ever! I could buy a car and name my first born faster than I could finalize a decision like this. Luckily while making about four or five different sabers with many tabs open, Ultra Sabers staff were quick to message me through their site asking if I had any questions. Boy did I have many. I asked about their Tri LEDs. These are LED diodes instead of just the single diode. The result is a slightly brighter and a fuller blade color. Yes, you can even make your saber the brightest saber at the con! If you are going to be using these sabers for friendly combat, you can even reinforce your sabers carbon tubing and add pointed tips for effect. You also have the option to have the saber flash different colors when it clashes.
These are just a handful of effects the saber has itself. We havent even talked about the hilts. Ultra Sabers sell single blade, double bladed and Kylos cross guard designs, all Custom built to your hearts desire. You can request that your power on button lights up, or maybe you want vent holes right where the beam ignites. It is all up to you and how much you are willing to spend.
So this was the moment. What was I going to go with? I have a collection of Force FX sabers I acquired over the years. As much as I enjoyed them, they were not built for combat. Coming home one late night from work, back in my early twenties; I found my roommates in my dark backyard clashing away with the sabers in hand. Spots where the sabers had taken hits no longer worked so that the beam had gaps in it. To say I was a tad peeved is an understatement. Though with this new saber, I would not be doing much clashing, as I would just be showing off the saber at home or maybe at a convention. My now EX-roommates helped me never want to clash another saber again.
With the same budget, I sat aside a lot of the flashy motion options and put that into a second saber. Thats right. I went with a double-bladed lightsaber! While collecting sabers over the years, I never actually owned one and felt now was the time. But I wanted to theme it to my liking. I always enjoyed Jedi Master Plo Koons orange lightsaber. Though it was technically not canon (even after they put it in all the games, figures, and comics), I felt it was time to finally own an orange saber. But not just a single orange saber, a double-bladed orange saber with the Dark Sentinel V4hilt to give the lightsaber an almost Halloween look to it.
If you buy a double-bladed saber through Ultra Sabers, they are basically two separate sabers held together by a centerpiece. The inside and outside designs were complete, and it was ready for shipment. It only took about a week for the saber to be built and shipped my way. I included rechargeable batteries and chargers with the order so that way the sabers would never dull out. Upon arrival, everything was in one large box heavily wrapped in bubble wrap. It was pure bliss putting the saber together and igniting it for the first time.
Comparing my classic Force FX sabers to the new Ultra Sabers, I found one interesting difference. The travel of the light when first igniting and then extinguishing. Force FX runs LEDs up the carbon tube to give the look of the beam elongating and then diminishing. Ultras LEDs are located in the hilt of the saber and turns on and off like a flashlight. But where the travel light fails, the sound takes over. I ordered my saber with an Obsidian USB V4 Sound chip and boy does it pack a punch next to the Force FX sabers. Now the great thing about this chip is that you can load up different sounds to your saber.
For instance, sounds made in Episode II are slightly different than the ones used in Episode IV. You can hold down the sabers button and pick different sound fonts. The Ultra Sabers community has been uploading new sounds for a while now, and I think that is probably the strongest trait Ultra Sabers has going for it. For young padawans, thelauncher tutorialworks out beautifully on both Mac and Windows platforms. Just simply download the custom sound files from the forums and load them right onto your sabers hilt using a USB mini cable. If you wanted, you could even have your saber become an Owen Wilson meme. The dark choice is completely up to you.
The saber itself is beyond gorgeous and is built exactly to my liking. Another great thing about Ultra Sabers line is once you are done building your custom saber, you can always send it back in to get modifications done when new features are released. You also can also order different parts and add onto the hilt yourself. In the two videos below I show off the Phantom V4 in action, along with an up-close look at the Dark Sentinel V4. I have a creepy Sith idea in mind to accompany the grim saber and cannot wait to get started on it. Definitely give Ultra Sabers site a look soon! They are always trying out new designs and pushing the limits of their craft. Easily one of the best saber manufacturers out there!
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How a Toronto hospital uses virtual reality to grant dying patients a last wish – CBC.ca
Posted: at 6:17 pm
Meike Muzzi isnot dressed for travel.
Hospital bracelets in all three primary colours encircle her wrinkled right forearm,a goldbangle onthe left.
But she says she's ready for today's trip the promise of an escape from the Toronto palliative care ward in which she's spent the past five weeks waiting to die.
David Parkeris there to fulfilthat promisewith the help of his virtual reality goggles.
"What you've brought me so far has been beautiful," Muzzi says, settling the soft black material of the goggles into the creases around her eyes.
David Parker shoots his own video or edits together video shot by others to take patients around the world or into the heart of their own city. (CBC)
The pair has alreadytravelled together through the plains of Africa. And Muzzi reminds her guest that she would have liked to linger longer with the elephants.
Parker already knows this.
He listens to her stories,interviewing Muzzi and all the patients he visits at BridgepointHealth in Riverdale, so he can storethe information away and use it to help them revisit the moments of particular meaning in their lives.
Parker's idea to offer virtual reality therapy began at Christmas.
The IT consultant received the headset as a gift. He first used them to take his wife's grandmother to Venice, gliding through the canals on a gondola. Then herealized he could offer the same experience to those in hospice or havinglong-term hospital stays.
That idea has bloomed into both a pilot project at Bridgepointand a passion project for Parker. Right nowhe donates his time and the equipment, but says that even thoughhe runs a creative agency he can see this becoming his life's work.
Virtual reality therapy grants final wishes to terminally ill6:09
He's taught himself to shoot 360-degree video and to edit other video so that it gives viewersan immersive experience. Parker doesn't just want to show someone a video of the Great Wall of China; he wants them to feel like they're getting on a plane, riding a taxi to the hotel, wandering the hot and crowded markets, before seeing the final wonder.
"I'm not just dumping a headset on them," he said. "I'm actually sort of progressing it so they get the feeling that they're doing a trip or doing something that's special.
"How can we virtually start to cross items off [the patient's] bucketlist?"
Most of Muzzi's days are spent inside this hospital room, decorated with photos and the flowers she used to grow in her garden (CBC)
To Parker's knowledge his pilot project is the only of his kind in Toronto.
There's limited data about the efficacyof virtual reality as therapy, but both he and Dr. Leah Steinbergthe palliative care physician who has supported the projecthope to change that.
They've already cleared several hurdles simply in starting the program. For example, they've ensured that the headset can be sterilized so that it doesn't bring in any bacteria to vulnerable patients.
It's not a typical medical tool, but the escape of virtual reality can helppatients cope after learning they have a terminal condition, Steinberg said.
"One of the things that patients really struggle with when they get a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness they can often lose their sense of who they are, sort of lose the sense of what's meaningful to them in their life," she said. "So a big part of what we do in palliative care is help them reconnect to who they are."
It can also help take them out of their pain, at least according to Parker and Steinberg.
The physician hopes at some pointto have her patients rate both their mental well-being and their pain, both before and after "travelling" with Parker.
David Parker and Meike Muzzi chat about her latest trip using the videos of Toronto he shot for her to watch through a virtual reality headset. (CBC)
At 83, Muzzi is a seasoned traveller. She's met at least five times with Parker andthis time he takes her to the heart of the city: Nathan Phillips Square on a summer day. The sun glimmers off the pond, creating a rippled reflection of the iconic Toronto sign.
She lovesseeing the waterespecially. She remembers the warmth of the sea off Corsica, a rainbow of fish and coral gliding beneath her.
"Those were beautiful that you had," she said of an older video of scuba diving among coral Parker immersed her in during another virtual visit. "They were so red and so orange and so beautiful.
"I did do a lot of those" she mimes a mask.
"Snorkelling," Parker interjects, helping her find the English word she's forgotten for her native Dutch.
"Every single week I'm going to bring you something and ask, 'Is it as good as the coral? And then one time, you're going to go, 'That was better.'"
"Oh, I don't know," she says, her face creased in a smile.
It's a challenge and one Parkerhopes they're given the time tofulfil.
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How a Toronto hospital uses virtual reality to grant dying patients a last wish - CBC.ca
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Reach Out and Touch This Virtual Reality Art Installation – Smithsonian
Posted: at 6:17 pm
SmartNews Keeping you current A screenshot of William Wheeler's VR creation showing a barren, sandy landscape to explore (Essex Flowers)
smithsonian.com August 18, 2017
There's only so much space in a gallery to hold art, but one New York venue has figured out a clever way to get around this problem,reports Benjamin Sutton forHyperallergic.
For its latest show, the Chinatown gallery Essex Flowers is showcasingthe work of 15 artists in a400-square-foot space. How? Thanks to some virtual reality wizardry. Rather than having theworks physically occupy the space,the exhibit, titled"The Sands,"lives entirely in the VR headsets thatvisitors don when they enter the exhibit.
The innovative solution allows the works on view to be rotated through an endlessvirtual space. Visitors can reach out andinteract with, and even walk through, the curateddisplays.
"The works in this show...simply share the same space and time in ways that are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and occasionally even discordant," the gallery writes in a description of the exhibit.
The show's name draws inspiration from the legendary Las Vegas hotel and casino of the same name, where Frank Sinatra and many other stars of the mid-20th century could often be found. Even though it was demolished more than 20 years ago, the casino lives on strongly in the American cultural memory today, serving as ashorthand for agolden era of Las Vegas inthe 1950sfull of ambition, glamor and arrogance.
"It was a place both physical and imaginary, where fantasies came true and where realities transformed into myth," the gallery writes.
Essex Flowers isn't the first artistic venue to make use of burgeoning virtual reality technology. Last year, The Dal Museum inFlorida allowed visitors to literally step inside a surrealpainting, while London'sTate Modern museum plans to employ VR technologyto simulate the early 20th-century Paris in an upcoming exhibit on the career of artist Amedeo Modigliani.
The Sands will run in Essex Flowers, located inNew York City's Lower East Side, until Sunday, August 20.
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Reach Out and Touch This Virtual Reality Art Installation - Smithsonian
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