A tear-jerking introduction of the technology

A cerebrally controlled robotic system is being developed by a team of researchers from Brown University, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and a host of others could give paralyzed people the ability to use robotic limbs to manipulate objects for themselves. Called ‘BrainGate’, the brain-controlled system allows the user to control a robotic limb through thought. To do this, the team implants a wireless microelectrode array (Neural Interface System) at 4 X 4mm directly on the motor cortex portion of the brain that controls motor function. The series of electrodes (100 in all) on the chip pick up the brain's activity associated with arm movement and sends the signals to a series of computers that use software (unknown at this time) to decode the brains activity. The computers then translate those signals into a series of instructions that tell a robotic arm to move and grasp an object based on the user’s desired intentions. The researchers are presently using two types of robotic arms, which are being continuously developed by DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics and DEKA Research and Development Corporation.

DLR robotic hand/arm concept

The bigger of the two robotic arms being used by the researchers is DLR’s Hand Arm System, which is an external robotic arm made for more robust applications where impacts with heavy objects are nonconsequential (factory and warehouse work?).  The arm consists of a series of mechatronic compliance actuators with 52 drives and over 100 position sensors. The units hand alone features 38 individual tendons with each connected to an individual motor to provide tension and stiffness. The fingers use a similar configuration that uses two separate motors for individual grasping and tension based on the object being manipulated. The arm is so robust that you can actually beat it with a baseball bat without damaging any of the electronics.

Deka arm system

The second arm that the team is working with is DEKA Research and Development’s ‘Luke’ Arm (named after Luke Skywalker's mechanical hand). The arm is actually a robotic prosthesis that was designed for amputee patients and was developed as a DARPA tetraplegia project. The titanium Arm was designed to be roughly the same size as a typical human appendage and houses all of its electronics, motors and actuators inside (exactly how and what technology was used is currently unknown). The prosthesis features 18 degrees of movement which was accomplished by using rigid-to-flex circuit boards that were folded into ‘origami’ shapes placed inside the titanium housing. A vibrational motor at the top of the arm lets the user know how much pressure is needed to grasp an object through varying degrees vibration depending if the wearer is holding an egg or a brick.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

(All images and video courtesy of Crown Institute for Brain Science)

Engineers become millionaires in less than 30 days; learn from their example.

Pebble Technology has recently entered into the Kickstarter hall of fame with their E-Paper watch gaining over $10,000,000 US in funding after only 26 hours of being put on the site. So, what makes the E-Paper watch so popular? It functions as a connection interface between your smartphone and as a wrist-mounted watch with app capabilities, a relatively simple embedded system.

Pebble Smartwatch (via Pebble)

The watch can be infinitely customized with different watch-faces (which is always on) and is compatible with both iPhone and Android (2.3 and higher) smartphones with a wide range of apps that let you check e-mail/text messages, caller ID and Facebook/Twitter accounts among others. The E-Paper watch connects to your smartphone through a Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR/4.0 connection and houses an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller which has over 8X more Flash memory and 12X more RAM than their previous inPulse Smartwatch. The ‘face’ is actually a high-resolution (144 X 168) black and white e-paper display and has a vibrating motor with a 3-axis accelerometer that’s capable of gestural detection. Charging the watch is the same as you would a smartphone by using a USB cable either for your PC/wall-outlet or mobile charging platform and has a life-span of 7 days before it needs to be re-charged. For those of you who love the water, E-paper is expected to be fully water-proofed to either 3 or 5 ATM (up to 165ft) if you can stand the pressure but make no mistake the watch IS NOT water-proof. Pebble Technology has sold out their first batch of 85,000 units, so the rest of us will just have to wait for E-Paper’s second coming.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

Concept models (via FXI)

Only a short time after intensely successful Raspberry Pi hit the market, copy-cats came sweeping in to grab some of the frenzy.

FXI, a Norwegian hardware and software developer, has recently announced that the company plans to release their USB-stick sized computer later this month (May, 2012). The stick, dubbed Cotton Candy, is designed to connect to any screen and turn it into a personal computer. Does this sound familiar?

FXI states that the device can be used to complement mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks but can also provide ‘smart’ capabilities to standalone screens such as TV’s. While Cotton Candy may be small in size, it none the less houses some pretty big hardware. Providing the computational power is an ARM Cortex A9 1.2GHz processor that’s coupled with a quad-core ARM Mali -400P GPU to deliver HD content (native support for MPEG-4, H.263/4) with resolutions up to 1080p on HD-capable screens. The device packs 1 GB of dedicated memory and the ability to upgrade to 64 GB through micro-SD cards for increased storage of media. Another impressive feature of Cotton Candy is its plethora of connection options that include USB (male) 2.0, micro-USB (female) 2.0 and HDMI. The software it uses is pretty much rounded out with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and Ubuntu with a virtualization client for Windows, Linux and Mac (sorry no iOS). Content on-screen can be controlled in various ways with integrated keyboards found on tablets and notebooks, or wirelessly with the devices built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections that let you use your smartphone as the interface.

As it stands right now, only Scandinavians will be able to lay their hands on Cotton Candy at the end of May (2012), while the rest of us have to wait till the end of 2012 and should retail for about $200.00 US. The price is nearly 6 times that of the Raspberry Pi. Are the differences worth the extra $165?

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

A new emergency alert system is set to go into effect in April geared towards mobile devices. Called the ‘Wireless Emergency Alerts’, the system was developed by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and most major wireless carriers to bring free emergency text alerts to mobile devices. The system is initiated by local, state or national officials who in-turn alerts a Federal aggregator (central hub) which translates the alert message into a specified software format that is able to be used by mobile carriers.

The translated alert is then sent to cell towers (if they haven’t been destroyed) in that particular area of disaster. CMAS-enabled (Commercial Mobile Alert System) mobile devices will then receive a special ring-tone and vibration in the geo-targeted area notifying the user of the emergency. As of now the WEA system will use three kinds of alert messages; Presidential: for national emergencies issues by the president or designee (terrorist, financial melt-downs and alien invasions?). Imminent Threat Alerts: NOAA severe weather alerts and other man-made or natural disasters. And finally Amber Alerts: for missing or exploited children. All messages are limited to 90 characters.

Unlike traditional text messages that aren’t point-aware, the WEA system is a point-to-multipoint generator meaning only those affected in that area (regardless of phone origin or area code) will receive that message. So, if you’re from Chicago but visiting Denver when an emergency occurs, you will be notified if you’re in the path of eminent doom. However, people will be able to opt-out of the imminent threat and amber alerts. Presidential alerts are mandatory.

According to the CTIA (International Wireless Association) the bulk of alerts will be weather related with advisements for tornados, earthquakes and floods and will give the user important information (such as seeking shelter) based on the specific alert. The system sounds like it will be very useful, but what happens if you’re riding out an earthquake while in the middle of a violent storm that produces a tornado?

Most mobile carriers will display the image below if the device is capable with the alert system.

Eavesdropper

The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC) has recently announced that Microsoft has joined the conglomerate in an effort to integrate HMC technology into next generation systems. The HMCC are a group of electronic equipment manufacturers that include industry giants such as Samsung, IBM and Micron that are looking to develop and implement  advancement in DRAM memory technology called Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC).

The HMC features 15x the performance of DDR3 memory by utilizing a memory die that’s stacked using Through-silicon-VIA (Vertical Interconnect Access used to create 3D circuits- hence the ‘cube’). HMC technology has increased density that enables more memory to be packed into a space that’s 90% less over today’s DDR3 modules while utilizing 70% less energy per-bit.

The connections between the efficient stacked chips are shorter, which is why it takes up less of a foot-print over traditional DDR modules and is also significantly faster. This means that memory bandwidth and clock speeds can remain constant with each new iteration of CPU’s and GPU’s which isn’t limited to networks and PC’s but will also provide a performance boost for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as well. Microsoft has recently join the Consortium, hoping its resources will get the technology developed quicker. If the Consortium is successful in their developments, the future will indeed be ‘cubed’!

Actual image of a HMC (via HMCC)

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

Cognisens concept diagram (via Cognisens)

SOF (Special Operations Forces) soldiers go through some pretty tough unending training to get their bodies into super-athlete condition to be able to handle the missions they’re tasked. However, it’s more of a matter of ‘mind’ than it is physical, as they need to be able to react to the environment around them.

Reconnaissance and FID (Foreign Internal Defense) plays a big part in the community , and that takes quite a bit of intelligence. To keep the mind sharp the SOF community employs a wide range of techniques and tools such as SOCOM’s (US, Special Operations Command) recent implementation of Cognisens NueroTracker. The system was actually designed for professional sports players to increase situational awareness and decreasing response time during game play. To do this Cognisens designed the system as a 3D environment where the participant wears 3D glasses to view 8 targets and has to track 4 designated targets for a period of 8 minutes.

It’s easier said than done as the series of targets increase over the period of sessions. This process becomes harder over time with 8 different gameplay difficulties with ‘Overload’ being the hardest level and ‘Challenger’ mode that pits two players against each other. The company states that just as lifting weights develops increased muscle capacity, NueroTracker ‘re-wires’ the part of the brain uses for memory and increases its performance. SOCOM says that this is the perfect tool in giving commandos the ability to track multiple targets with reduced response time and the ability to predict movement. While it doesn’t seem like the harsh, rigorous, training most operators go through, any tool that improves ability is certainly beneficial.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

Capacitive touch-sensing technology won’t be limited to smart devices (phones/tablets) and monitors as a group of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research plan to bring it to everyday objects and surfaces. To do this, the team designed what they call ‘Touché,’ which brings interactive capacitive-touch sensing to everything from tables and doorknobs. Where typical touch-capacitive screens use a single frequency to sense a predefined touch event, Touché uses multiple frequencies, known as Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing, which can enable objects to sense complex combinations of touches or even gestures.

For example; a door would unlock itself based on how you grabbed the doorknob, or a table could sense and advise you on your posture based on how you’re leaning against it. The team states that this could be done by using just one sensing-electrode and can even be implemented on the human body making ‘you’ an input device. Another test showed that SFCS could detect a person’s body gestures using electrodes which could be used to interact with smartphones or other devices. An example could be silencing your phones ringer by simply placing a finger on your lips or starting your car just by grabbing the door handle. The possibilities are endless , and the researchers state that Touché could be immediately implemented in creating new ways of interaction with our environment.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

(Left) Captain Paul Stewart with an Asending Technologies Pelican quadrotor and "lucas" a mobile social robot (Right) the LASR facility building (via U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

After two years of construction, the US Navy has opened its doors to their new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) center. The facility will serve as the Navy’s primary laboratory for intelligent autonomous systems (robots), sensor systems, UAV’s and a host of other studies in multiple fields for future defense technology. The $17 million dollar building located in Washington DC contains multiple spaces for some of the more interesting labs that include a prototyping high-bay designed for testing both air and ground unmanned vehicles and features the world’s largest motion-capture system that allows scientists to collect accurate detailed data concerning said vehicles. There’s a littoral high-bay lab which contains a 45ft X 25ft pool that’s 5.5ft deep that features a wave-generator for water-borne unmanned vehicle testing in both calm and choppy simulated sea conditions. Another area contains a desert high-bay that has 18ft-high rock walls with a 40ft X 14ft area of sand that’s 2.5ft deep to test robots and sensors in an arid environment. Other environmental labs include the tropical high-bay which allows for testing systems in a greenhouse setting akin to southeast Asia, as well as an outdoor test range simulating a highland forest complete with waterfalls, streams and increasingly difficult terrain. There really is no area found on earth (besides the arctic regions) that the LASR hasn’t simulated for testing of all these systems.

(Left) Desert High-Bay with an 18-foot rock wall (Right) Tropical High-Bay simulating southeast asian rain forests (via U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

The facility also contains various machine and electrical shops for all the labs as well as conference spaces for get-togethers to discuss wind-falls or complete disasters. Testing autonomous systems is nothing new to the Navy as the NRL (Naval Research Laboratory) has been testing these platforms since 1923 with the development of an electric dog that was controlled by a system of relays and a flight-control stick found in airplanes at the time. Other notable research done by the NRL includes remote-controlled battle ships in the 1930’s which were operated through selector switches based on teletype systems that used Baudot code. There were even anti-aircraft target drones that could be remote-controlled by people on other aircraft at distances of up to 25 miles away designed for a more realistic target for AA training. These testing platforms and developments created over the first half of the twentieth century eventually led to the development of guidance systems for missiles, like the sub-launched Polaris ballistic nuclear missile. With the Navy’s new LASR facility finally open it will be interesting to see what new developments come out of the first half of the current century. Can anyone say ‘Skynet’?

See more about robotics in element14's Robotics group

Eavesdropper