Read, I, Pencil I, Pencil My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that's all I do. You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. Simple? Pick me up and look me over. Innumerable Antecedents Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so is it impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents. My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon. The logs are shipped to a mill in San Leandro, California. Consider the millwork in San Leandro. Don't overlook the ancestors present and distant who have a hand in transporting sixty carloads of slats across the nation. My "lead" itself—it contains no lead at all—is complex. My cedar receives six coats of lacquer.
Love Robot Holds Female Lab Intern Prisoner The robot Kenji at Toshiba's Akimu Robotic Research Institute was programmed by Dr. Akito Takahashi and his team to emulate certain human emotions, including love. However, Kenji began to display surprising behavior. The robot held a young female intern within its lab enclosure for a few hours, until she was freed by senior staff members. “Despite our initial enthusiasm, it has become clear that Kenji’s impulses and behavior are not entirely rational or genuine,” conceded Dr. Un bras bionique connecté au système nerveux Un bras bionique connecté au système nerveux Todd Kuiken est un ingénieur et chirurgien de talent qui a mis au point une prothèse de bras robotisée capable de se connecter avec le système nerveux humain. Cela permet au porteur de la diriger dans des mouvements souples et précis et même de ressentir les choses (au touché). Il est passé chez TED avec sa patiente Amanda Kitts qui est équipée de ce bras bionique et c'est franchement très impressionnant. Merci à Yoann pour le partage. Vous avez aimé cet article ?
Robots This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed below. These standards are drawn from Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education: 2nd Edition and have been provided courtesy of theMid-continent Research for Education and Learningin Aurora, Colorado. Grade level:6-8Subject area:technologyStandard: Understands the relationships among science, technology, society, and the individual.Benchmarks:Benchmark 1: Knows ways in which technology has influenced the course of history (e.g., revolutions in agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation, medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, communication). Benchmark 3: Knows examples of advanced and emerging technologies (e.g., virtual environment, personal digital assistants, voice recognition software) and how they could impact society. Benchmark 4: Knows that science cannot answer all questions and technology cannot solve all human problems or meet all human needs.
Meet Nao: The first robot able to develop emotions and form a bond with humans By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 11:52 GMT, 13 August 2010 The first robot capable of developing emotions and forming bonds with humans has been unveiled by scientists. Nao has been designed to mimic the emotional skills of a one-year-old child and is capable of forming bonds with people who treat it kindly. The robot has been developed to use the same types of expressive and behavioural cues that babies use to learn to interact socially and emotionally with others. It is able to detect human emotions by studying body-language and facial expressions and becomes better at reading someone's mood over time as it grows to 'know' the person. It is also able to remember its interactions with different people and memorise their faces. Nao have been created through modelling the early attachment process that human and chimpanzee infants undergo when they are very young. 'This behaviour is modelled on what a young child does,' said Dr Cañamero.
Universal robotic gripper Robert Barker/University Photography The human hand is an amazing machine that can pick up, move and place objects easily, but for a robot, this "gripping" mechanism is a vexing challenge. Opting for simple elegance, researchers from Cornell, the University of Chicago and iRobot Corp. have created a versatile gripper using everyday ground coffee and a latex party balloon, bypassing traditional designs based on the human hand and fingers. They call it a universal gripper, as it conforms to the object it's grabbing, rather than being designed for particular objects, said Hod Lipson, Cornell associate professor of mechanical engineering and computer science. John Amend The robotic gripper conforms to the shape of the item it is lifting. "This is one of the closest things we've ever done that could be on the market tomorrow," Lipson said. Here's how it works: An everyday party balloon filled with ground coffee -- any variety will do -- is attached to a robotic arm.
Researchers Develop Technique to Remotely Control Cockroaches Remote control cockroach cyborgs Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses an electronic interface to remotely control, or steer, cockroaches. “Our aim was to determine whether we could create a wireless biological interface with cockroaches, which are robust and able to infiltrate small spaces,” says Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. “Building small-scale robots that can perform in such uncertain, dynamic conditions is enormously difficult,” Bozkurt says. Researchers were able to precisely steer the roaches along a curved line. But you can’t just put sensors on a cockroach. The new technique developed by Bozkurt’s team works by embedding a low-cost, light-weight, commercially-available chip with a wireless receiver and transmitter onto each roach (they used Madagascar hissing cockroaches).
Do Kids Care If Their Robot Friend Gets Stuffed Into a Closet? "Please don't put me in the closet," cries the robot. Last week, we wrote about a study that looked at whether humans attribute moral accountability and emotions to robots. This week, we've got a study from the same group, the Human Interaction With Nature and Technological Systems Lab (HINTS) at the University of Washington, that takes a look at what kind of relationships children are likely to form with social robot platforms, and it involves forcing their new robot friend into a dark, lonely closet. The 90 children in this study were separated into three groups by age: 9 year olds, 12 year olds, and 15 year olds, with an equal mix of boys and girls. The core of the study was a 15-minute, very carefully structured "interaction session" between Robovie, a child, and several adult researchers. The session involves a game of "I Spy," a guessing game where Robovie gives the child verbal clues to help them locate objects around the room. Geez. "What then are these robots? [ HINTS Lab ]
Les dents de l’aster Les dents de l’aster Des scientifiques ont mis au point des micro robots (ou microbots) baptisés les "asters", capables de nager dans un environnement liquide et d'attraper des "objets" pesant plusieurs fois leur poids, en utlisant leurs machoires ou en les emprisonnant. Ne dépassant pas le millimétre, ces robots sont aussi capables de se reconstituer s'ils perdent des morceaux d'eux-même. Les Asters sont constitués de petites particules qui s'assemblent et se déplacent grâce à l'application de champs magnétiques. Voici 2 vidéos tournées sous un microscope : Ce genre de robots pourront aider en science, en médecine ou pourquoi pas déboucher ces cartouches d'encre bas de gamme que vous utilisez une fois par an et qui vous coûtent presque aussi cher qu'une imprimante neuve. [Source] Vous avez aimé cet article ?
25 (Free) 3D Modeling Applications You Should Not Miss 3D-modeling tools are instrumental in transforming individual concepts into stunning models and prototypes across various sectors. Whether you’re a novice enthusiast or a seasoned professional, these tools offer the flexibility to create and modify models from scratch. They are widely used in industries like film, animation, gaming, architecture, and interior design, making 3D models essential components of various projects. Finding the ideal modeling software can be challenging due to the diverse features and functionalities they offer. To assist you in making an informed choice, here’s a compilation of 20 3D-modeling software suitable for both personal and professional use. 35 Sites to Download Free STL Models for 3D Printers 35 Sites to Download Free STL Models for 3D Printers Free STL models that you can download and print 3D models. Wings 3D Wings 3D is a sophisticated sub-division modeler equipped with an extensive range of modeling tools. Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux
IBM’s Watson Tries to Learn…Everything Steven Cherry: Hi, this is Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum’ s “Techwise Conversations.” Computers aren’t just getting better, they’re getting smarter. Sixteen years ago, a software program beat the reigning chess champion . Two years ago, IBM’s Watson software beat the world’s two best players in the television game show “Jeopardy!” Since then, Watson has been put to work learning something a lot less trivial—medical diagnosis. But IBM is also looking to the long term. My guest today is Jim Hendler . Jim, welcome to the podcast. Jim Hendler: Thanks very much, Steve. Steven Cherry: I called this an open-ended three-year charter to make Watson smarter. Jim Hendler: That’s pretty much correct. Steven Cherry: So your students and colleagues will tackle a wide variety of problems, but there’s one that interests you personally, and that’s the thousands and thousands of open data sets around the world. Jim Hendler: Yeah, so there’s issues to do with standards, but the real issue is semantics.
RAY KURZWEIL - That Singularity Guy - Vice Magazine In the year 2050, if Ray Kurzweil is right, nanoscopic robots will be zooming throughout our capillaries, transforming us into nonbiological humans. We will be able to absorb and retain the entirety of the universe’s knowledge, eat as much as we want without gaining weight, shape-shift into just about any physical form imaginable, live free from disease, and die at the time of our choosing. All of this will be thrust on us by something that Kurzweil calls the Singularity, a theorized point in time in the not-so-distant future when machines become vastly superior to humans in every way, aka the emergence of true artificial intelligence. Computers will be able to improve their own source codes and hardware in ways we puny humans could never conceive. This will result in a paradigm shift that sees mankind coalescing with its own creations: man and machine, merging into one. That kind of correspondence will only be possible if we develop advanced artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.