(via The Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR))

Technology that helps robots navigate and interact with their environment may soon help blind people in much the same way. A new type of glasses that takes advantage of 3D navigation that some robots use are currently being designed by Edwige Pissaloux and his team from the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics located in France. The design uses a headset imaging system that takes 3D images and sends them to a handheld device that converts it to braille that the user can read which gives the blind a different way to see their environment. The headset consists of two cameras mounted on either side of the wearer which in tandem takes 3D images. A processor then analyzes the images and identifies various objects in the cameras field of view such as walls and other objects and builds a 3D map of the area. A series of accelerometers and gyroscopes monitors the user’s location and speed to determine the wearer’s relative position in relation to the 3D map. The compiled data is then sent to a tactile feedback display that produces a constant 3D map in braille form (at a rate of ten maps per-second) the gives the user a way of ‘seeing’ their environment in real-time.

The IISR team in France is also looking to combine their system with software being developed by engineers at the University of Nevada that was initially used to tell robots how far they have travelled based on its sensors (accelerometer/gyroscope). Their system uses smartphones internal sensors along with available 2D in-door maps and synthetic speech (SIRI?) to help the blind navigate. In order for the system to be effective, the phone must be calibrated to the users stride. This is done touching a series of stationary markers such as walls, hallway entrances and other obstacles. Both systems combined would greatly benefit the user’s ability to navigate just about anywhere in an urban environment. As to when this system/s will become readily available is anyone’s guess but then again ‘seeing is believing’.

It seems the scientific community is bent on technology returning sight to the blind. Read about more efforts in the area after this link.

Cabe

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(repost)

Showa Hanako is a dental training robot developed by the department of Orthodontics at the Showa University (SU) in Japan. The PVC skinned bot would move in a limited fashion using a hydraulic system. Limited movement and speech capabilities were built in. This bot was the 3rd generation of the University's line of training robots. Some of the complaints were the un-lifelike skin, odd stare, and the motion of the overall system. The Showa Hanako was never available for wide spread distribution due to the designer  Tmsuk's inability to handle  global repair issues. But all this is soon to change.

Showa University is going to attempt wide spread sales of their new upgraded Showa Hanako 2 dental training robot. This new bot swaps the PVC skin for realistic silicon skin. It now has an upgraded mouth with 2 degrees of movement for the tongue. The whole body has switch to motor actuation. The bot blinks, sneezes, coughs, shakes its head, gets tired of holding its mouth open, and has an expanding vocabulary. The smooth realistic oral cavity is currently being put through the patent process. IT software company, RayTron, has built in a voice recognition system able to hear a masked dentist and respond accordingly.

The sudden upgrade of parts comes from the Japanese company Orient Industries (OI), famous for "love dolls." OI has been build human shaped dolls since 1977. Their "Real Love Doll" line has figures with silicon skin with every joint movable in natural human positions. SU even admitted they needed OI's help in creating a realistic patient down to every detail. "Even the smallest mistake would be unforgivable."

More on the Showa Hanako 2 :

The Showa Hanako 2 even vomits when a student user touches the uvula (sensor).

Imagine being told you or your loved one will never be able to walk again, the devastation, the shock …

Well, there may be hope after-all.  In a lab at Duke University doctors, engineers, neuroscientists and physiologists from Brazil, Switzerland, Germany and the United States are all actively working on what many might call a miracle, a “prosthetic exoskeleton” that would allow those immobilized by injury or illness to walk again.  Their goal is to demonstrate that they could bypass the body’s complex network of nerve endings and supply the sensation of touch right to the brains of monkeys.

Dr Nicolelis, a Brazilian-born physician and neuroscientist, is bringing together brain science and engineering or sensory feedback and brain control devices to be combined in real time and in a useful way.  Kip Ludwig, who has funded some of Nicolelis’ work, states, “Before, they’ve always been separate.”  He also states that, ideally, the long-term goal would be a prosthetic that would send all the sensory information – touch, position and temperature- to a body part that would add meaning to it."

Nicolelis’ team has “recruited” two female monkeys, from southern Asia, to demonstrate the feasibility of their ideas. The team is sending electrical signals to the monkey’s brain to distinguish between three identical circles with different textures.  These sensations will come from coded electrical currents sent to each monkey’s sensory cortex, or outer layer of the brain, by four filaments the width of hair.

Nicolelis explained the brain the motor drive purpose, “The team is starting with simple experiments for Mango and Nectarine, (the monkeys) so that when the experiments move to humans he or she will not only learn quickly how to initiate and repeat movements using thought alone, but the prosthetic should interface so seamlessly with the intelligent human brain that the patient will begin to see the prosthetic as a natural extension of him or herself.... It would be just like a car…only a little tighter.”

Now, when is this determined and industrious goal expected to happen you ask?  This wonderful team that Nicolelis has put together, hopes to send a young quadriplegic striding out to midfield to open the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, suited up in an “prosthetic exoskeleton."

How is that for ambitious?

Eavesdropper

Pictures and video via Duke University