Blog 6:
Subject to all that is unknowable, my departure from Birmingham for Bordeaux is now set for 10.00am Monday 4th July – just 3½ weeks away. Thanks to you all, fundraising is also going well. A little closer to the date I’ll do the sums and let everyone know how much has been raised.
One of the more notable events I really enjoyed this week was a discussion with some robotics engineers who saw their task as “extending the human machine”. In this sense, they could just as well be describing musical instruments. To put it bluntly, a musical instrument is no more than a tool. Like a hammer, a screwdriver, a flint axe or just a simple lever; it’s a device that human beings use to fulfil the desires of the mind in the physical world. You think of it, you will it, but whether by use of a body part or something attached to a body part, we need tools to interact with the world at large. This doesn’t explain the pleasure we get from honed and precise control of our tools, nor the deeper emotions we can create and manipulate with their use, but tools they are nonetheless. The vocabulary of these things is always subject to fashions, but the current terms “creative technology” and “human technology” are especially ascendant at the moment. I can see why: technological development is producing some quite wonderful devices to improve the human machine. There’s a huge amount out there, but I’ve four examples that I found particularly interesting.
The Eyewriter was created for the Los Angeles graffiti artist known as Tempt1, who suffers from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a motor neurone disease that has left him completely paralyzed except for his eyes. With the use of “$50 and a computer” a group of technologists have created a device with which he can now draw graffiti in light on buildings throughout the city. The creators have made all their work publically available, or open source as it’s known. Take a look at www.youtube.com/watch?v=84H-xLrLvvk.
There is quite a battle going on between Toyota and Honda to create advanced robots. Honda’s Asimo is currently ahead in media exposure, but Toyota may have a lead with their “mind controlled” wheelchair. The user has to wear a slim but very unflattering EEG sensor cap which then picks-up thought signals and interprets them into motion. They say the wheelchair can respond to thoughts in 125 milliseconds. Honda are working with much the same technology, but linking it to robotic development. It’s exciting stuff, although I do think they need to recruit milliners onto their teams. You can watch the short summary of this on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VPY1d2t_FE&feature=player_embedded#at=72.
When Professor Josh Silver talks about his water glasses he starts with an intriguing statement: “I’m going to tell you about one of the world’s largest problems and how it can be solved”. The problem is that more than 50% of the world’s population need prescription glasses of one sort or another, but for most there are simply no optometrists available, and often no money to pay for glasses they may prescribe. As an example, Professor Silver claims that in one sub-Saharan country, where most of the population are living on less than $1 a day, there is one optometrist between more than 8 million people. His solution is cheap self-prescribed glasses that use water between two adjustable membranes. The user then makes their own adjustments – like focusing a camera or a pair of binoculars. You can see him demonstrate these on www.ted.com/talks/josh_silver_demos_adjustable_liquid_filled_eyeglasses.html.
Last, I really ought to turn to music again. A few years ago I met the MIT Professor and composer, Tod Machover. He introduced me to the “Sensor Chair”; an instrument they developed at MIT and that has since had various outings around the world in concerts and technology symposia. The performer sits in the chair then moves their arms and legs around in “mapped space”, producing a digital output that can be used to create sounds. It’s great fun, but I think you have to have a streak of exhibitionism to be comfortable performing it in public. Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) gives a very convincing performance at http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/SpectrumWeb/captions/Chair.html.
If anyone has come across other human technology wonders, do please get in touch. In fact, get in touch anyway about anything on these blogs.
Subject to all that is unknowable, my departure from Birmingham for Bordeaux is now set for 10.00am Monday 4th July – just 3½ weeks away. Thanks to you all, fundraising is also going well. A little closer to the date I’ll do the sums and let everyone know how much has been raised.
One of the more notable events I really enjoyed this week was a discussion with some robotics engineers who saw their task as “extending the human machine”. In this sense, they could just as well be describing musical instruments. To put it bluntly, a musical instrument is no more than a tool. Like a hammer, a screwdriver, a flint axe or just a simple lever; it’s a device that human beings use to fulfil the desires of the mind in the physical world. You think of it, you will it, but whether by use of a body part or something attached to a body part, we need tools to interact with the world at large. This doesn’t explain the pleasure we get from honed and precise control of our tools, nor the deeper emotions we can create and manipulate with their use, but tools they are nonetheless. The vocabulary of these things is always subject to fashions, but the current terms “creative technology” and “human technology” are especially ascendant at the moment. I can see why: technological development is producing some quite wonderful devices to improve the human machine. There’s a huge amount out there, but I’ve four examples that I found particularly interesting.
The Eyewriter was created for the Los Angeles graffiti artist known as Tempt1, who suffers from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a motor neurone disease that has left him completely paralyzed except for his eyes. With the use of “$50 and a computer” a group of technologists have created a device with which he can now draw graffiti in light on buildings throughout the city. The creators have made all their work publically available, or open source as it’s known. Take a look at www.youtube.com/watch?v=84H-xLrLvvk.
There is quite a battle going on between Toyota and Honda to create advanced robots. Honda’s Asimo is currently ahead in media exposure, but Toyota may have a lead with their “mind controlled” wheelchair. The user has to wear a slim but very unflattering EEG sensor cap which then picks-up thought signals and interprets them into motion. They say the wheelchair can respond to thoughts in 125 milliseconds. Honda are working with much the same technology, but linking it to robotic development. It’s exciting stuff, although I do think they need to recruit milliners onto their teams. You can watch the short summary of this on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VPY1d2t_FE&feature=player_embedded#at=72.
When Professor Josh Silver talks about his water glasses he starts with an intriguing statement: “I’m going to tell you about one of the world’s largest problems and how it can be solved”. The problem is that more than 50% of the world’s population need prescription glasses of one sort or another, but for most there are simply no optometrists available, and often no money to pay for glasses they may prescribe. As an example, Professor Silver claims that in one sub-Saharan country, where most of the population are living on less than $1 a day, there is one optometrist between more than 8 million people. His solution is cheap self-prescribed glasses that use water between two adjustable membranes. The user then makes their own adjustments – like focusing a camera or a pair of binoculars. You can see him demonstrate these on www.ted.com/talks/josh_silver_demos_adjustable_liquid_filled_eyeglasses.html.
Last, I really ought to turn to music again. A few years ago I met the MIT Professor and composer, Tod Machover. He introduced me to the “Sensor Chair”; an instrument they developed at MIT and that has since had various outings around the world in concerts and technology symposia. The performer sits in the chair then moves their arms and legs around in “mapped space”, producing a digital output that can be used to create sounds. It’s great fun, but I think you have to have a streak of exhibitionism to be comfortable performing it in public. Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) gives a very convincing performance at http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/SpectrumWeb/captions/Chair.html.
If anyone has come across other human technology wonders, do please get in touch. In fact, get in touch anyway about anything on these blogs.
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