Karl Iagnemma at Frieze Magazine writes…
The robots are coming. We’ve heard this claim frequently over the past 30 years: that someday soon robots will be ironing our clothes, washing our windows, and serving our morning coffee. In fact, the nearest we’ve come to achieving this vision of domestic automation is embodied by the iRobot Roomba, a puck-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner that does decent work on tile and hardwood, but won’t venture near pile.
As a working roboticist, however, I can attest that the vision of domestic robotics is finally, if incrementally, becoming a reality. Robots will not be serving our coffee any time soon, but they will be entertaining our children and caring for our – hopefully not my – elderly relatives. And the likely form of these robots is decidedly humanoid. But what should a humanoid robot look like? More..
www.Technology-Conference.com
Alfred Nordmann, Technical University Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
After receiving his Ph.D. in Hamburg (1986) and serving on the faculty of the Philosophy Department at the University of South Carolina (1988-2002), Alfred Nordmann became Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Darmstadt Technical University. His historical interests concern the negotiation of contested fields of scientific knowledge such as theories of electricity and chemistry in the 18th century, mechanics, evolutionary biology, and sociology in the 19th century, nursing science and nanoscale research in the 20th century. In particular, he studied the scientific contributions of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph Priestley, Charles Darwin, William Bateson, Heinrich Hertz, and Herbert Gleiter. His epistemological interests concern the trajectory that leads from Immanuel Kant via Heinrich Hertz and Ludwig Wittgenstein to contemporary analyses of models, simulations, and visualizations. From 2003 until 2009 he was president of the Lichtenberg Society. More…
Bridgette Meinhold at Inhabitat.com writes:
Researchers are developing ways to mass-produce tiny robots the size of a fly that operate like swarms of insects to collect data to aid in surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine, and more. Measuring in at under 4 mm square, the microbots have all the equipment necessary to move, communicate, and collect data, plus they generate all of their own power via solar panels.
These mini-robots are quite revolutionary, considering that they contain all that’s necessary to collect data and relay it back using one single circuit board. In the past single-chip robots have presented significant design and manufacturing challenges due in part to the use of solder as an adhesive. These new microbots use conductive adhesive to attach the components to a double-sided flexible printed circuit board using surface mount technology. The circuit is then folded into thirds and wrapped around the ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). More…
The New York Times’ Kevin J. O’Brien reports:
Engineers at a research institute in the Netherlands have programmed two robots — Nao and iCat — to teach young children to avoid overeating and to remind them to take life-saving medications, like insulin.
Emporia Telecom, an Austrian cellphone company, has expanded production since T-Mobile, the largest German mobile operator, began selling its TalkPremium model for seniors. The phone has a large keypad and is built for voice- and text-messaging.
The very young and the elderly have never been target markets for high-tech companies, which focus instead on the global mainstream. But with the economic downturn reducing growth, companies are applying cutting-edge technology to the often-neglected extremes of the consumer spectrum. More…
Karim Gherab Martín, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
www.Technology-Conference.com
Dr. Karim Gherab Martín is a physicist and philosopher of science and technology. For the 2008 and 2009 academic years, he was in Cambridge, USA as a visiting research scholar in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. His previous experience includes teaching at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid and working for many years as an IT consultant in Spain and Latin America. In addition to teaching, he also worked for the Government of Madrid writing strategical reports. (More…)
