A soldier's new best friend: BigDog robotic military pack-mule

BigDog is a robot controlled by an on-board computer developed by Boston Dynamics, along with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for the future military use to carry supplies for soldiers across uneven terrain that wheeled vehicles cannot easily negotiate and a range of weather conditions, including snow. Funding is through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

BigDog stands about 2.5 (0.76) feet high by three feet long (0.91 m) long, weighs 240 pounds (110 kg), and can carry up to 400 pounds of supplies or equipment up inclines up to 35 degrees. Most remarkably, it can regain its footing after being pushed and its independently placed  feet allow it to negotiate narrow and difficult terrain. An 18 month testing period will begin this summer, prior to use by troops in the field.

 

Baby robot shows child development from the inside out

 Researchers at Osaka University's Graduate School of Engineering have created "Child-robot with Biomimetic Body," or CB2 in order to better understand how children learn and develop. CB2 has a soft touchable body and responds like a 1-2 year old in movement and facial expression, giving an eerily accurate childlike impression when observed.

More importantly, from a research point of view, CB2  has sensors that are responsive to touch that will help us to understand how the feedback from touch helps a child learn to recognize the dimensions and abilities of  his own body.  CB2 also develops social skills by observing facial expression, and sorting  them into categories such as "happy" or "sad".  Additionally, response to language is tracked in ways far beyond learning to associate a repeated word with a particular object. As CB2 learns, his social and cognitive behavior changes and his movement adapts to incorporate the new knowledge, much as a child would.

Previously, research was necessarily based entirely on observation of children responding to stimuli.  Never before has it been possible to observe the effect of touch and other stimulation on building intelligence and self-awareness from the inside out by seeing how the artificial brain, specifically designed to mimic a child's, adapts and changes  to its environment.The research team hope to create a more sophisticated robot with the intelligence and responses of a three year old in a few years.  

Scan me! Barcode and QR interactive tattoos

Tattoo artists are constantly searching for a fresh and original ways for their clients to express themselves- and to stand out.  New inking trends include light up tattoos and research  into color changing and even emotion-sensing tattoos.

Barcode and QR tattoos started as a bit of an underground movement, sometimes to make some sort of philosophical statement about numbers, databases and general consumerism, or perhaps for their inherently ambiguous meaning prior to reading and (then) edginess due to their then rarity and cyber-crossover quality.
 

Classic barcode reads "Joe",
 the bearers name 

Newer QR tattoos are able to store much more information than the simple barcodes that started the trend. These barcodes are readable by any iPhone or QR scanner. The embedded information can be text, a URL or any other data.

Taking this one step farther tattoo artist, on June 16, 2011, Paris-based tattoo artist Karl Marc realized the world’s first animated tattoo which was featured in a You Tube video as part of a Ballantine's Whiskey advertising campaign. Scanning the tattoo makes it "come alive" with and animation that plays on your phone for a truly original effect.

Video of Animated Tattoo

Another artist developed a tattoo that touts itself as ‘the first random tattoo in the world,’ This tattoo generates random content every time it's scanned by a smartphone.

Perhaps, more usefully,  someday we can easily change the QR code tattoo to contain whatever information would be most useful at that moment as sort of an ultra-portable source of personal data.  For instance you could have your dental  records available when you visited  a new dentist for them to scan to saving filling out new patient forms, or keep emergency medical information such as blood type and drug allergies and medical history  literally "on" you at all times in case of an accident .

Scan me! A new way to give out your contact info

As a social connector, your contact information could be scanned by new friends to instantly allow them to follow and link up with you on various social media.  Indeed, one might no longer hope to get the traditional phone number in a club and instead aim to be offered to scan their tattoo.

 Barcode tattoos:Now old-school interactivity
(seen here in the form of  affordable
low commitment temporary tats)

Safeguards against security and privacy concerns, as well as the potential misuse of this technology as a way for governments to control, "brand", trace or segregate populations for their own purposes may be something that needs to be considered carefully as it becomes more available.

Video for the first random QR video

Amazing interactive windows

Commanding the dancer at  a Parisian boutique window

A passerby changes the image at the window at Repetto, a French boutique that sells ballet shoes. A tired traveler waves her hand to "grow" a tree across her city-view hotel window for privacy. Windows are getting more delightfully interactive with every passing year. On a more basic note, switchable windows, which change from clear to opaque at the touch of a button, are now widely available to consumers.

Interactive window display concept by Gustaf Engström 

The future of hotel windows: 

Personalized interactivity and light therapy to combat jet-lag

Video of interactive hotel window features

Switchable windows for  privacy at the touch of a button

Oil spill-cleaning nanobots, explosive-sensing wetsuits- underwater micro-tech hits the beach

Stretchy waterproof sensor
detects underwater explosives

Nanobots have long been considered for entering the bloodstream to combat disease, not unlike a more sophisticated version of the concept in the classic sci-fi movie "The Fantastic Voyage".  They are even being taught be able to join together, "think" and act collectively as one larger entity, with one possible application being to be deployed individually through small cracks and then, once in, joining together into a larger entity to rescue victims of earthquakes or other disasters.

 Now Joseph Wang, much-lauded professor of Nanoengineering at UC San Diego, has developed and is testing prototypes of the first nanobot designed to help clean up after oil spills.

The clean room in the Nanoengineering lab

These "microsubmarines" - about ten times smaller than the width of a human hair-  require very little fuel and move ultra-fast. They  have a "superhydrophobic" (water repellent and also very oil absorbing) coating which allows them to glide through the water and pick up oil.  Tests show the cone-shaped microsubmarines can collect droplets of olive oil and motor oil in water and transport them through the water.

Wang has already been named on 15 separate patents, with wide ranging applications from microfabricated DNA "applicable for broad use in nucleic acid analysis, particularly for measurement of nucleic acids (e.g., DNA and RNA), and their sequences and interactions, and for detection of DNA damage", to flexible sensors that can be printed onto the fabric of wetsuits to detect underwater explosives.

Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico: environmental
and public relations disaster

The UCSD Nanoenigeneering Department also actively seeks to collaborate with industry and governmental partners that could benefit from the research and patents developed.  Bearing in mind the both urgent importance of finding new tools to contain and eliminate oil spills, and the understandable corporate focus on not only protecting the environment, but also the public perception of the gas and oil industry; it seems likely that this technology will gain the interest and support it needs for full development to of its potential create another tool to combat environmental disasters.

Dr. Joe Wang 

      Dr. Wang explains the potential  applications of nanotechnology