A Tesla driver can now unlock his car without using his smartphone. Thanks to a chip implanted in his hand, he will never lose his keys again.
A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a promising technology that has received increased attention in recent years. BCIs create a direct link from your brain to a computer. This technology has applications to many industries and sectors of our life. BCIs redefine how we approach medical treatment and communication for individuals with various conditions or injuries. BCIs also have applications in entertainment, specifically video games and VR. From being able to control a prosthetic limb with your mind, to being able to play a video game with your mind—the potential of BCIs are endless.
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Continue reading “The Power of Brain-Computer Interfaces | TVS” »
The chip is an artificial neuron, but nothing like previous chips built to mimic the brain’s electrical signals. Rather, it adopts and adapts the brain’s other communication channel: chemicals.
Called neurotransmitters, these chemicals are the brain’s “natural language,” said Dr. Benhui Hu at Nanjing Medical University in China. An artificial neuron using a chemical language could, in theory, easily tap into neural circuits—to pilot a mouse’s leg, for example, or build an entirely new family of brain-controlled prosthetics or neural implants.
A new study led by Hu and Dr. Xiaodong Chen at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, took a lengthy stride towards seamlessly connecting artificial and biological neurons into a semi-living circuit. Powered by dopamine, the setup wasn’t a simple one-way call where one component activated another. Rather, the artificial neuron formed a loop with multiple biological counterparts, pulsing out dopamine while receiving feedback to change its own behavior.
Wearable human-machine interface devices, HMIs, can be used to control machines, computers, music players, and other systems. A challenge for conventional HMIs is the presence of sweat on human skin.
In Applied Physics Reviews, scientists at UCLA describe their development of a type of HMI that is stretchable, inexpensive, and waterproof. The device is based on a soft magnetoelastic sensor array that converts mechanical pressure from the press of a finger into an electrical signal.
Continue reading “Human-machine interfaces work underwater, generate their own power” »
New AI supercomputer from Graphcore will have 500 trillion parameters, (5x that of human brain) and compute at a speed of 10 exaflops per second (10x that of human brain) for a cost of $120 million USD. New AI powered exoskeleton uses machine learning to help patients walk. AI detects diabetes and prediabetes using machine learning to identify ECG signals indicative of the disease. AI identifies cancerous lesions in IBD patients.
AI News Timestamps:
0:00 New AI Supercomputer To Beat Human Brain.
3:06 AI Powered Exoskeleton.
4:35 AI Predicts Diabetes.
6:55 AI Detects Cancerous Lesions For IBD
A year after Tesla announced its humanoid robot — the Tesla Bot — the conceptual general-purpose robot is up against some Chinese competition. On the sidelines of Xiaomi’s Autumn launch event in Beijing, the company announced its first full-size humanoid bionic robot. The rather unimaginatively named Xiaomi CyberOne is the second robotic product from Xiaomi and comes a year after the announcement of the Xiaomi Cyberdog, which they showcased at their 2021 Autumn launch event.
Xiaomi.
Continue reading “Xiaomi CyberOne Robot Revealed To Give Tesla Bot A Humanoid Rival” »
A pair of UCLA bioengineers and a former postdoctoral scholar have developed a new class of bionic 3D camera systems that can mimic flies’ multiview vision and bats’ natural sonar sensing, resulting in multidimensional imaging with extraordinary depth range that can also scan through blind spots.
Powered by computational image processing, the camera can decipher the size and shape of objects hidden around corners or behind other items. The technology could be incorporated into autonomous vehicles or medical imaging tools with sensing capabilities far beyond what is considered state of the art today. This research has been published in Nature Communications.
In recent years, material scientists have designed a wide range of innovative materials that could be used to create new technologies, including soft robots, controllers and smart textiles. These materials include artificial muscles, structures that resemble biological muscles in shape and that could improve the movements of robots or enable the creation of clothing that adapts to different environmental conditions.
As part of an ongoing project focused on textile-based soft actuators, a team of researchers at Jiangnan University in China recently developed new artificial muscles based on free-standing, single-helical woolen yarn. Their artificial muscles, introduced in a paper published in Smart Materials and Structures, could be used to easily and affordably produce twisted actuators that can detect and respond to humidity in their environment.
“We are trying to design flexible and versatile actuators by leveraging the hierarchical structure design of textiles, ranging from microscales (e.g., molecular chains and aggregation structures) to macroscales (e.g., fiber morphology and textile architectures),” Fengxin Sun, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. “Realizing a yarn-based artificial muscle with free-standing and single-helical architecture via eco-friendly and easy-fabrication manufacturing process is still challenging.”
Dubbed GRACE, the robot hand can even bend fingers and make realistic human movements.
Scientists have developed a new type of artificial muscle that can lift 1,000 times its own weight * 3D actuators were combined to form a real-life robot hand that could lift 8kg * The high-strength properties could be applied to create higher capabilities in other body parts and a range of devices.
A team of researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology has just developed a new class of high-strength artificial muscles that can stretch and contract like a human muscle in a way that has never been done before. According to a recent research paper, the muscles perform with a level of versatility and grace closely matched to life-like movements, and provide a boost in the development of three-dimensional functional devices such as artificial body parts. class of strong pneumatic artificial muscles has been developed and combined to form a robot hand that can lift up to thousand times its own weight.
In medicine, a prosthesis, or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth. A pioneering project to develop advanced pressure sensors for use in robotic systems could transform prosthetics and robotic limbs. The innovative research project aspires to develop sensors that provide enhanced capabilities to robots, helping improve their motor skills and dexterity, through the use of highly accurate pressure sensors that provide haptic feedback and distributed touch.
It is led by the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), Integrated Graphene Ltd, and supported by the Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering (SRPe) and the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS) Industry Doctorate Programme in Advanced Manufacturing. This is not for the first time when the team of highly talented researchers have decided to bring the much needed transformative change in prosthetics and robotic limbs.
The human brain relies on a constant stream of tactile information to carry out basic tasks, like holding a cup of coffee. Yet some of the most advanced motorized limbs — including those controlled solely by a person’s thoughts — don’t provide this sort of feedback. As a result, even state-of-the-art prosthetics can often frustrate their users.
