Lifeboat Foundation

Should there be any ethical or legal boundaries to technologies that enhance humans? I pondered this last week as I read an online article about the recent trials of upper-body “exoskeletons” by production line staff at Volkswagen and at Chrysler-Fiat. These lightweight wearable frames greatly reduce the physical strain of repetitive overhead assembly work, and will be an important industrial enhancement as workforces age.

We tend to think of medical advancement in terms of better cures for diseases and recovery from injury. Enhancement however goes beyond therapy, and extends us in ways that some may argue are unnatural. Some human enhancements are of course also pre-emptive therapeutic interventions. Vaccination is both an enhancement of our immune system, and a therapeutic intervention. However, in cases where there is little preventative justification, what degree of enhancement is acceptable?

We drink coffee expecting our work performance to improve. We accept non-elective operations, breast implants, orthodontic improvements and other interventions which improve our perception of ourselves. We generally accept such enhancements with little question. However devices and drugs that improve athletic performance can lead us to question their legitimacy.

Continue reading “To be – or not to be – an enhanced human” »

When designing a robot, key components are the robot’s sensors, which allow it to perceive its environment, and its actuators, the electrical or pneumatic motors that allow the robot to move and interact with its environment.

Consider your hand, which has temperature and pressure sensors, but also muscles as actuators. The omni-skins, as the Science Robotics paper dubs them, combine sensors and actuators, embedding them into an elastic sheet. The robotic skins are moved by pneumatic actuators or memory alloy that can bounce back into shape. If this is then wrapped around a soft, deformable object, moving the skin with the actuators can allow the object to crawl along a surface.

Continue reading “This Robotic Skin Makes Inanimate Objects Move” »

A team of scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute has just presented its latest creation in the field of robotic exoskeletons, a fully wearable soft exosuit that automatically tweaks its level of assistance on the fly.

MIT professor Dina Katabi is building a gadget that can sit in one spot and track everything from breathing to walking, no wearables required.

Computing innovation, computer-generated images, Virtual Reality Glasses, Hybrid Reality, communications, Holographic platform, AR, VR, PC, lifelike experience, 3D cameras, cosmic computing, computer security, gaming displays, in-flight entertainment, computer code, Holographic ideal/paradigm, gaming mechanics, automotive, medical, space, spatial, holographic memory, Artificial Neural Networks, Robotics, holographic 3D, software company, mixed-realty, holographic data, hologram monitors, hologram keyboards, voice equipment, projector system, Holographic apps, HD photography, smartphones, tablets, TVs, laptops, digital displays, 360 Video, Virtual Realty Headsets, Mobile Platforms, holographic universe, ubiquitous computing paradigm, virtual images, Holoquad, Holographic Projector Pyramid, cloud computing, spaceships, teleportation, anti-gravity devices, emulation, advanced technology, light field displays, Mobile Hologram Technology, computer programs, untethered, Immersive Technology, Computer Chips, Elohim computer, custom software, mobile application development, computing library, human-computer interactions, Artificial Neural Networks, holographic memory, Spider-Robots, pop-up gaming displays, automate machinery, computer-generated simulation, 3D Pyramid, consumer electronics, personal computers, holographic images, real-world objects, hardware interconnection, missionary, virtual assistant, Computer Systems Structure, two-dimensional computer display, computerization, Projection Screen, Portable, 3D printer, Hologram goggles, 3D Holographic Projection Technology, Hologram Computer Table, hologram generator, multilevel computer, mixed reality, Bluetooth enabled, Virtual Reality Display, transparent screen display, quantum computer, computer animation, 3D plasma display, meta surface, Dark Energy, holographic interferograms, photorefractive, Holographic atomic memory, computer-generated hologram, real-time hologram, x-ray mirror mandrels, virtual wavefront recording plane, Artificial intelligence, AI, Human Resources, Advertising, Animation, Graphic Web Design, Photography, Robotics, computer science, human-robot interaction, Emergency Medical Hologram, wearable computing, bio-computing, battlefield simulations, Holographic Associative Memory, artificial neural network, Digital Avatar.

Clothing, skin patches and augmented reality glasses – welcome to the new age of data collection for mental health care.

Wearable medical technology is designed to be small and lightweight to minimize additional burden on medical Airmen and the warfighter, whether they are on a remote battlefield or aboard an aircraft.

“Wearables provide greater accessibility,” said Dr. David Burch, a research biomedical engineer and the medical technology solutions team lead for the En Route Care Medical Technology Solutions Research Group, 711th HPW. “An aircraft has a very tight space and weight limit to maintain performance, and battlefield medics need to carry everything they use. Wearables provide accessibility to the human in a way that is better form, fit, and function.”

One wearable device that achieves that accessibility is a tissue oxygenation sensor, developed jointly with a private company. This small, soft, injectable sensor lets medics determine if a patient is able to be medically evacuated by assessing how well their blood transports oxygen to tissue.

Continue reading “Lighter, leaner, lifesaving: AF tests wearable medical tech” »

Closing in on molecular manufacturing…

http://xt-pl.com received an honorable mention from I-Zone judges for its innovative product that prints extremely fine film structures using nanomaterials. XTPL’s interdisciplinary team is developing and commercializing an innovative technology that enables ultra-precise printing of electrodes up to several hundred times thinner than a human hair – conducive lines as thin as 100 nm. XTPL is facilitating the production of a new generation of transparent conductive films (TCFs) that are widely used in manufacturing. XTPL’s solution has a potentially disruptive technology in the production of displays, monitors, touchscreens, printed electronics, wearable electronics, smart packaging, automotive, medical devices, photovoltaic cells, biosensors, and anti-counterfeiting. The technology is also applicable to the open-defect repair industry (the repair of broken metallic connections in thin film electronic circuits) and offers cost-effective, non-toxic, flexible industry-adapted solutions.

Continue reading “XTPL ultra-precise Nanometric Printer receives Honorable Mention at Display Week 2018 I-Zone” »

This wristband lets you control machines with your mind.