Now you really can reach out and touch someone through the Internet, with the help of a wearable robot designed by a husband-and-wife team of scientists based in Japan.
A Japan-based husband-and-wife team of scientists have now made it possible for us to reach out and touch through the Internet - with the help of a wearable robot.
Five years in the making, the device aims to inject a little physicality into online chatter, boosting the emotional quotient of virtual exchanges between flesh-and-blood people.
Robot Being Used for Medical Staff Training Suffers from Illnesses, Bleeds Like Humans
A new robot that expresses pain and suffers from multiple health problems like a human, is being used for the training of medical staff.
A new robot that expresses pain and suffers from multiple health problems like a human, is being used for the training of medical staff.
The quickened thump of an angry heart beat, a spine-tingling chill of fear, or that warm-all-over sensation sparked by true love -- all can be felt even as your eyes stay glued to a computer screen.
The proof-of-concept robot, dubbed iFeel_IM! ("I feel therefore I am"), was presented on Saturday at the first Augmented Human International Conference, held in the French Alps ski resort of Megeve.
Germany's 1st Doner Kebab Fair Has a Meat-cutting Robot
Meat-cutting robot known by the name of FFDR-V1004 , and introduced during the first doner kebab industry conference in Berlin holds immense promise for the doner kebab industry.
Meat-cutting robot known by the name of FFDR-V1004 , and introduced during the first doner kebab industry conference in Berlin holds immense promise for the doner kebab industry.
Smart phones that tell you not just where you are but what you are looking at, or Terminator-like visual overlays of data for soldiers in battle are both examples.
Advertisement
In Latin Americas First Such Operation, a Surgical Robot Fixes Heart in Brazil
In the first operation of its kind in Latin America, Brazilian surgeons used a multi-armed robot to repair a hole in a woman's heart, they said Friday.
In the first operation of its kind in Latin America, Brazilian surgeons used a multi-armed robot to repair a hole in a woman's heart, they said Friday.
But Dzmitry Tsetserukou, an assistant professor at Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan, said his aim was to boost feeling, to add a human-like sense of touch to the incorporeal ether of cyberspace.
Advertisement
"I am looking to create a deep immersive experience, not just a vibration in your shirt triggered by an SMS. Emotion is what give communication life."
For now, his prototype robot is a collection of sensors, small motors, vibrators and speakers woven into a series of straps similar to a parachute harness, minus the parachute.
Connected to a computer, the device can simulate several types of heart beat, a realistic hug, the tickling sensation of a butterfly stomach, and a tingling feeling along the spine. It can also generate warmth.
While he could have added a mechanism for sexual arousal, Tsetserukou decided doing so would ultimately distract from his focus on emotion boosting.
Software written by his colleague (and wife) Alena Neviarouskaya, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, ferrets out the emotional messages embedded in written text, triggering the appropriate touch sensation in the robot in realtime.
It distinguishes joy, fear, anger and sadness with 90 percent accuracy, and can parse nine emotions -- adding shame, guilt, disgust, interest and surprise -- nearly four out of five times, according to a peer-review study presented at the conference.
"This is really state of the art, there is nothing this accurate," said Tsetserukou.
Subjects tested the system in the online, three-dimensional environment known as Second Life, inhabited by avatars manipulated by individuals sitting before their computers.
In a demonstration, two people wearing iFeel_IM! robots communicated at distance through the medium of their avatars.
The words "I am happy to see you" triggers a warm sensation in the person spoken to, and as the avatars hug in their virtual world, the act is mirrored in reality by a squeezing sensation around the waist.
Tsetserukou compared the system to the blockbuster Avatar, and especially the film Surrogates, set in a future when humans stay at home plugged into a cocoon while their healthier, more handsome doppelgangers venture forth into the real world.
"In a few years, this could be a mobile system integrated into a suit or jacket," he said. "It’s not that far away."
Source-AFP
TAN
