#Boy Given A 3-D Printed Spine Implant Doctors at Peking University Third Hospital have implanted successfully the first ever 3-D-printed section of vertebra into the young patient.
and in April 2013 the Mayo Clinic used a 3-D printer to create a customized artificial hip.
and weak health infrastructure and where accurate data on the spread of the disease is difficult to come by.
covered in pixel camouflage, and furnished with stadium-seating for its two crew members, the Advanced High performance Reconnaissance and Surveillance Aircraft (AHRLAC) looks like an alternate history version of a World war i fighter.
the software also allows for easier design changes. This article originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of Popular Science i
and today both cars and smartphones rely on GPS satellites to know exactly where they are.
The project has gotten attention around the Internet this week thanks to a new press release announcing that the Harken system has tested een by users in closed track tests,
other information the project has put online suggests that it has succeeded at consistently filtering out oiselike car vibrations from the sensor data,
it's a notable accomplishment for a system that does not involve putting any sensors in direct contact with the user's skin.
which prompted some to defiantly post photos of themselves kissing camels on various social media sites.
P. S. P. S. Popular Science Postscript: How can a process that produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, help reduce global warming?
#Squid Protein Could Help Brains'Talk'to Computers In the most advanced prosthetics--such as this crazy mind-controlled robotic arm--electronic hardware interfaces directly with nerves and muscles in the human body.
the proposal envisages that the loan will be repaid over 40 years at an interest rate of 1. 4%.Planned upgrades will cover:
a laser beam is moved in a computer-controlled three-dimensional manner within the epoxy resin layer thus curing the resin locally.
Urban mobile robot chassis The Ground Drone Project wants to make a low cost ground robot chassis for hobbyists
https://www. kickstarter. com/projects/1145776805/ground-drone-project-a-versatile-mobile-robotic-pl? ref=categoryyou can back the Kickstarter project here:
kickstarter. com/projects/1145776805/ground-drone-project-a-versatile-mobile-robotic-p o
#Google commits $1. 36 billion for NASA facility, to house their robotics, space and flight technologies Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures has committed to a 60-year $1. 16 billion lease of the 1000 acre Moffett Field Naval Air station.
The agreement includes an additional $200 million to refurbish the hangars and improve the site with a museum and educational facilities.
Hangar One the biggest and most colorful of the buildings on the site will be restored. Also Hangars Two and Three.
The facility is slated for research assembly and testing in the areas of robotics space exploration aviation and other technologies NASA said in a press release.
NASA also said: Once renovations are complete Hangar One will again be home to high-tech innovation as Planetary Ventures begins using the historic facility for research development assembly and testing in the areas of space exploration aviation rover
This news comes on the heals of Google investment in Magic Leap last month as well the announcement of Andy Rubin departure r
The index covers a range of key segments currently with a 47%allocation to industrials 33%information technology 11%healthcare 5%energy and 4%in consumer discretionary.
This ranges for example from companies that physically manufacture robots and automation machinery to companies specialising in the types of software and technology that enable automation.
#A computer vision system for mining artistic influence When we look at an image we not only recognize object categories
In the past decade there have been impressive advances in developing computer vision algorithms for different object recognition-related problems including:
Although there has been some research on automated classification of paintings there is almost no research done on computer-based measuring
With the increasing volumes of digitized art databases on the Internet comes the daunting task of organizing
There are millions of paintings present on the Internet; to manage properly the databases of these paintings it becomes essential to classify paintings into different categories and sub-categories.
This classification structure can be used as an index and thus can improve the speed of retrieval process.
if we can infer new information about an unknown painting using already existing databases of paintings.
The contribution of our work 1234 is in exploring the problem of computer-automated suggestion of influences between artists a problem that has not previously been addressed in a general setting.
The data set contains 1710 high-resolution images of paintings by 66 artist spanning the time period of 1412-1996
We also collected a ground-truth data set for the task of artistic influences which mainly contains positive influences claimed by art historians.
After browsing through many publications and websites we concluded to the best of our knowledge that this comparison has not been made previously by an art historian.
Elgammal#An Early Framework for Determining Artistic Influence#The 2nd International Workshop on Multimedia for Cultural heritage MM4CH Naples Italy 2013 3 Babak Saleh Kanako Abe
Ravneet Arora Ahmed Elgammal#Toward Automated Discovery of Artistic Influence#Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal#Springer#2014 4 Babak Saleh Kanako Abe and Ahmed
2) Programming Modeinstead of Wigl moving once it hears a note it stays still and stores it in its memory.
Every note played is memorized like lines of code in a computer program. Then to run your Wigl program you play a special NTERNOTE
notes as pseudocode! While most robotic toys on the market require a smartphone or a computer for remote control Wigl interacts directly with the child and their instruments.
Most children s entertainment is moving towards software mainly on tablets and I believe that limits their creativity and understanding of what s possible.
We want kids to think outside the tablet and so we remove the screen in order to encourage direct interaction with Wigl.
After extensive testing at a number of schools and children s museums over the past year and a half by hundreds of children and their parents Wigl is now ready for pre-orders!
Since winning the Crowd Pleaser award at Robohub s Robot Launch 2014 Odd I/O has teamed up with Indiegogo to bring Wigl to the public
#New soft ntagonisticactuator enables robots to fold Traditionally many key robot components (including sensors and actuators) are rigid
and a ground landing (landing is a particularly dangerous time for hardware). The elevon must sustain an angle during flight meaning that the aerodynamic force acts on its surface another a common reason for failure in flying robots.
and it will make the Pepper available in the U s. at retail stores of Sprint the telecom carrier acquired last year by Softbank in a $22 billion deal.
#Google news: Rubin leaves; Pichai promoted to#2; and Google invests in Magic Leap Andy Rubin leaves Google;
Sundar Pichai promoted to#2 man at Google; and Google invests in $542 million B funding for Magic Leap.
Andy Rubin the Google executive who was in charge of the company#s robotics group and spearheaded the Android operating system before that resigned fromâ Google
and will start a tech incubator focused on hardware. According to the NY Timesâ Mr. Rubin#s departure is part of a series of recent executive moves that seem to give Mr. Page more room to focus on the company#s longer-term bets#like robotics
#while handing almost allâ the responsibility for Google products to Sundar Pichai a rising star.
 The robotics group will now be led by James Kuffner who has been at the company since 2009 and has worked on self-driving cars a Google spokesman said.
Regarding James Kuffner who replaces Rubinâ The Wall street journal saidandy Rubin former leader of Google#s Android mobile businessâ oversaw a series of robotics acquisitions last year
so his departure comes at a poor time for the company. Â That puts pressure on Kuffner to bring together disparate Google properties like Boston Dynamics and Schaft.#
#Robotics is still a difficult technology to pull off well I think moreso than many or all tech fields#said Michael Wagner a senior commercialization specialist with the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie mellon University.#
#James has the expertise to navigate traps others with less experience may not expect. So I don t think this is a setback at all.#
#Sundar Pichai becomes Google Product Chief. The NY Times said of the promotion: Sundar Pichai is to oversee every major Google product except Youtube.
The move arguably makes Mr. Pichai the second-most powerful person at the company and is intended to give Mr. Page more time to focus on more futuristic projects according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
In a memo on Friday Mr. Page said that Mr. Pichai#s empire#which already includes the Android
and Chrome products along with Google Apps like Google docs and Gmail#will now include Research Search Maps the social media network Google Plus along with Commerce.
He will also oversee technical infrastructure which is essentially the ever-growing racks of servers and switches that keep all those products working.
Much interest within the robotics community has been focused on Google acquisitions in the area of robotics
because Google hasn said anything about what they are doing. So many start-ups#Â So much talent#What their long-term goal?
What the common denominator? How where andâ when will those purchases and their activities combine into some moneymaking enterprise (s) and/or product (s)?
Magic Leapas artificial intelligence software and emerging learning chips fuse into more speedy and capable pursuits the line between things robotic (which has a specific definition)
and AI-driven robotic activities not yet defined (like software bots) is coming into question. Hence the interest in whereâ Google is focusing.
Some of that focus has been on acquiring learning system companies (and talent. Additional focus mayâ includeâ virtual reality 3d imaging and augmented reality systems.
No Oculus Rift headset and goggles. Scrolling down a bit one sees a classroom scene with colorful sea horses floating inbetween the kids.
Thus it was no surprise that Google participated in the recent $542 million B funding round for the start-up Magic Leap a Florida start-up thatâ claims to merge the physical and digital worlds with hardware
and software that surpasses existing virtual and augmented reality solutions. Â Other participants in the B fundingâ included Qualcommâ KPCB Andreessen Horowitz Obvious Ventures and Legendary Entertainment m
The rocket and general hardware is also at least partially covered and as stated on the press conference NASA
#Opensource 3d printed oppyhumanoid enables experimentation in robot design Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Â Poppy is a 3d printed open source humanoid designed by the Inria Flowers lab a French research facility
that creates computer and robotic models as tools for understanding developmental processes in humans. Â Inria Research director Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (who developed Poppy as a tool for studying the science of learning
and development) hopes that the open source and 3d printable aspects of the project will enable researchers to quickly print custom body parts and experiment with different robot morphologies in order to study their impact on behaviour and learning.
while other humanoid projects such asâ icubâ are also open source the 3d-printable aspect of Poppy is significant
 With 3d printing changing the body shape is easier. nother platform that is similar to Poppy in that it is both open source and 3d printed isâ Jimmy the Robot.
the 3d printing and open source aspects of the project are part of that vision. To facilitate collaboration
and experimentation they have created an open source dedicated webâ platformâ that combines hardware software and webtools.
However only very little has been done to explore the benefits of 3d printing and its interaction with computer science in classrooms.
and teachers an adequate tool to cultivate the creativity of students studying in fields such as mechanics computer sciences electronics and 3d printing.
Both hardware and software are open source. There is not one single Poppy humanoid robot but as many as there are users.
This makes it very attractive as it has grown from a purely technological tool to a real social platform a
#Google adds to Deepmind, acquiring 2 UK startups and partnering with Oxford U In January 2014 Google acquired London-based Deepmind Technologies for $643 million.
Now it is adding to that purchase with two more companies ten new hires and a substantial contribution to Oxford university.
Google Deepmind was a British AI start-up with some high-profile investors and a whiz kid founder (Demis Hassabis) and theirâ forte was smart recommendations for online commerce.
The two acquisitions are Dark blue Labsâ (whichâ is creating systems to understand natural languageâ that would allow computers to comprehend the meaning of sentences
According to the Financial times the two acquisitions are estimated to have cost Google Deepmind $50 million. The Google-Oxford partnership will cost more.
A substantial contribution to Oxford university is forthcoming to expand Google AI and deep learning capabilities.#
#Google Deepmind has hired all seven founders of these startups with the three professors holding joint appointments at Oxford university where they will continue to spend part of their time#Hassabis notes in his blog post.#
#These exciting partnerships underline how committed Google Deepmind is to supporting the development of UK academia
and the growth of strong scientific research labs.#f you liked this article you may also be interested in:
#Japan holds first#robotics revolutioncouncil meeting This fall the Japanese government held its first meeting of a new panel focused on its goal of aâ#robotics revolution#a key item in the government#s
The panel is tasked with promotingâ measures to increaseâ the use of robots and related technologies in various fields extending out ofâ the manufacturing sector andâ into hotel distribution medical and elderly nursing-care services.
According toâ Prime minister Shinzo Abe who instigated the robot panel determiningâ the appropriate use of robots will be a key to solving these problems.
The panel chaired by Mitsubishi electric Corp. consultant Tamotsu Nomakuchi will work out a five-year plan to be presented by the end of 2014 with details on how they willâ achieve the numerical targets.
In our laboratory we develop various types of high-speed vision hardware and algorithms that can implement high-speed image processing with a sampling time from 10ms up to 1ms.
High-speed vision can provide control data at the same sampling rate as that of the servo controller used for the robot actuators.
The running algorithm used in the ACHIRESÂ robot is different from those typically used in other running robots.
While most running robots use a method based on ZMP-criteria for maintaining stable and balanced posture we introduced a very simple algorithm using high-speed performance of a sensory-motor system without ZMP criteria.
#British National Oceanographic Centre launches major unmanned exploration mission Collecting oceanographic data is accomplished usually by a combination of satellites buoys
This data will help scientists map the distribution of the fronts and their associated fauna.
and is designed to gather oceanographic data over long periods of time. C-Enduroc-Enduro is an innovative long-endurance autonomous surface vehicle built by Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV.
and is equipped with computers for navigation and a satellite communication system. Three Wave Gliders have been deployed for this project.
and can remain at sea for months at a time while transmitting data back to shore. Two gliders are used in the NOC project
and to record different type of data. The Robotic Exploration of Ocean Frontsâ project is divided into two phases.
or a limit sensor. ith the majority of stepping motors a backup battery is needed to store position data
and because batteries have limited a life data can't be stored for a long time. But the AZ Series doesn't need a battery
so storing data isn't a concern even if the production equipment is stopped for a long time or the unit is shipped overseas. hat is so special about this new product?
because Hellospoon is a smartphone app: This relegates the processor speaker and microphone to the user smartphone drastically cutting the cost of production.
If a robot is intended to improve people lives it shouldn be expensive right? Also unlike other mealtime assistants Hellospoon is meant to be a companion and not just a feeding machine.
Users can talk to Hellospoon using voice commands and Hellospoon can answer back and play songs
while scooping food and does a little dance when the user decides to stop eating.
It interactions like these that make mealtime more entertaining andâ help to establish a bond between the user and the robot.
We know that every user is different and so Hellospoon behaviours can be customized to suit the user individual needs and preferences.
For example we are developing a profile system where Hellospoon will behave playfully when interacting with kids
and respectfully when interacting with elderly users. My name is Luis Garcia and I#m a recently graduated 23-year-old Mechatronics Engineer from Sinaloa Mexico;
I also the developer designer programmer and crazy guy behind the Hellospoon robot. I have been developing Hellospoon for the past year
and a half from my bedroom proving that sometimes you don need a big robotics laboratory to start something great!
Hellospoon Youtube channelhellospoon bloghellospoon Twitterplease support the Hellospoon robot campaignâ-Â inviting other people to support this development will be amazing to t
#Open Brain-Computer Interface: An Interview with Conor Russomanno Brain-computer interfacing (BCI) is a rapidly growing field that offers huge potential for many applications such as medical grade BCIS to help people with sensory-motor disabilities.
Currently a number of researchers are developing more affordable BCI systems designed to address a wider range of neurotherapeutic applications.
and research developer of Openbci a low-cost open-source hardware platform that records the brain#s electrical signals and uses devices and software languages to make the data easily accessible.
Russomanno and cofounder Joel Murphy aim to accelerate the advancement of BCI through collaborative hardware and software development.
Another of Openbci#s exciting potentials is the fact that it is fully open source. Russomanno
This enables users to share tutorials getting started guides and also their own individual projects.
In reality however in the current state mind controlled robots at least using Openbci translates to looking at a flashing screen
and helping him train for the All Star Games through a sequence of animated storybooks that play on a screen in his belly.
Jerry is built off of the android platform and has sewn 19 sensors throughout his fur. These sensors let children check Jerry glucose levels feed him foods give him insulin
Builder and all-around maker of mechanical and electrical systems with a passion for user interaction. Wire-framer of ideas and framer of ideas out of sculpture wire.
Andrew Berkowitz Software engineer: Android developer hacker hustler and resident diabetes expert if our bears ever become sentient you#ll know whom to blame.
Joel Schwartz Hardware Engineer: Previouslyâ building rehabilitative toys for kids with cerebral palsy. Happiest in a machine shop with a well-made spreadsheet or fly fishing.
Brian Oley Software engineer: An acrobatic unicycling photographer and developer of mobile games and medical software.
A well balanced member of the team. If you liked this article you may also be interested in:
See all the latest robotics news on Robohub or sign up for our weekly newsletter o
#Has Dyson#s robotic dream become a reality? has cracked Dyson finally its 16-year mission to create a robot vacuum cleaner?
The company#s  teaser video hints at a new release which looks a lot like a rival for the best-selling Roomba
 Dyson#s mysterious video posted on Youtube (below) heralds a 4 september release. The only piece of information to accompany it reads:#
and would use computer vision to navigate a room. Imperial#s Professor Davison has spoken also about the importance of  location tracking:
#Dyson is also planning a £250m expansion of one of its UK sites at Malmesbury
In a great up-sum of why  published on Techcrunch computer scientists Rudina Seseri and Wan Li Zhu who both work for VC#s Fairhaven Capital explain why the conditions now are perfect.#
#In recent years#they say#we have seen accelerated levels of innovation in both software and hardware that are now driving new possibilities for consumer readiness and adoption of personal robotics.#
#This as happened on a number of levels: Proliferation of devices compute and bandwidth. Instead of requiring expensive custom onboard computing robots are now able to leverage hardware smartphones and cloud computing for processing and storage.
This has implications on both cost and availability of data for machine perception and learning.
Progress in natural language processing speech vision and machine learning a self-reinforcing loop: As machines can better understand the real world they learn at a faster rate.
The ability for machines to tap into multiple online data sources and services allows them to quickly stitch together value reducing time
Location-based data financial and weather and increasingly healthcare data are all examples. They and many others active in the field also believe that the robotics future won t look much like the current mass-visage of the technology
To increase the range of a small UAV one idea is to pair it with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that can carry it to a site of operation and transport heavier cargo.
and is stable in the face of multi-second time delays allowing unreliable wifi communication to be used in the landing.
With the robots ready the Nagpal team had to develop an algorithm which could guarantee that large numbers of robots with limited capabilities
and local communication could cooperatively self-assemble into user-specified shapes. This is what they came up with.
The algorithm had to account for unreliable robots that are pushed out of their desired location or block other robots performing their functions.
Nagpal#s team overcame this challenge by implementing strategies that allowed robots to rely on their neighbours to cooperatively monitor for faults.
After years of research in this area it looks like we are finally reaching a tipping point where both hardware
and algorithms can build large-scale robotic swarms at least in the labs. These swarms have the potential to help us understand natural self-organised systems by providing fully engineered physical systems on which to do experiments.
by expanding cooperation with telecommunication. The 1st Vice-minister Kim Jae-hong Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy said
#In order to take a leap forward in making our domestic robot industry a major industry it#s essential to expand robot demand based on the business service models of other industries with a secure core technology.
Sebastian Cagnon a French behavior architect at Aldebaran Robotics who blogs at About Robots recapped the following governmental programs.
Programming Edison involves dragging and dropping icons to form a program. The software Edware is open source and compatible with Windows Mac and Linux.
Programs download into the robot via the supplied Edcomm cable that plugs into the headphone jack of your computer.
But programming isn#t necessary to start using Edison as the robot has the ability to read special barcodes that activate preprogrammed features such as line-following and obstacle avoidance.
The barcodes also allow Edison to learn commands from a standard TV and DVD remote control which can be used to drive the robot by remote control.
Two or more Edisons can communicate via infrared light so combined with the low cost creating your own robot swarm becomes feasible.
onboard data storage and a 500 lumens LED projector. We are already working on more sophisticated features including live streaming data gimbal integration ultrasonic sound capabilities and improved flight time.
 It is not hard to imagine a slightly sci-fi future where micro UAVS with similar broadcasting abilities are used to deliver breaking news disaster and traffic management emergency warnings and maybe an advertisement or two.
#Global trends in robotics from patent analysis 120000 robotics patents have been published in the last 10 years tripling in rate from 2004 to 2013 according to the UK Intellectual Property Office Informatics Team.
#the big data revolution and energy-efficient computing;##satellites and commercial applications of space;##robotics and autonomous systems;#
Google#s automotive patent portfolio is relatively small at 35 families. Most of Google#s patents were published very recently in 2013 with the earliest being only in 2010.
The rate of publishing for Google shows clear increase so further patents should be anticipated. Â The report also shows collaboration within industry groups.
For example Google and Honda are contained very self in contrast to other automotive companies. Most of the patents in the UK dataset are in the field of autonomous vehicles includingâ road vehicles unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles.
Roboticsâ companies in the UK dataset have very small portfolios with the largest being Notetry (5â families)
The cap then deciphers the intention of the user and transmits the instruction to the exoskeleton
The exoskeleton user wears sleeves created by a team lead by Prof. Hannes Bleuler at LSRO EPFL and NCCR Roboticsâ and stemming from the ongoing Phd work of Simon Gallo.
and allowing the user to walk upright. Thus the wearer can sense what feels like an artificial footprint on their arm as the sensors roll from heel to toe.
and an avatar to allow the user to see real time limb positioning. One of the major challenges of the project was the training process for the eight volunteers (males
The second worry for the project was that electromagnetic fields from cell phones carried by people in the stadium would block electronic signals in the exoskeleton
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