viernes, 25 de mayo de 2012

CAC - Noticias

CAC - Noticias

What you always wanted to know about ... robots and Artificial Intelligence

Posted: 24 May 2012 11:00 PM PDT

As a child, he created his own robots with pieces of Meccano and Lego and then spent his adolescence assembling and disassembling motorbikes, when not reading books such as The War of the Worlds by H.G.Wells. Today, scientist Kevin Warwick is considered one of the greatest visionaries of cybernetics as applied to humans and for years he has been experimenting with biochips on his own body. In 2002, he was able to control from New York a robotic hand that was in England, because his nervous system was connected to the internet. And he admits that he felt the strength of that hand when it picked up objects. He also managed to connect his nervous system to his wife’s in another experiment.
His more controversial areas of research include the creation of robot/animal hybrids driven by rats’ neurones. His next goal is to carry an implant in his own brain. Known as Doctor Cyborg, he has converted what used to be science fiction into pure science. He is confident that artificial intelligence will allow us to cure neurological diseases and to travel further than the Moon, among many other feats. One of his ambitions is to achieve direct communication of thoughts and emotions between brains.


Tomorrow, Saturday, Kevin Warwick will be giving a lecture at 12 noon in the Santiago Grisolía Auditorium at the Science Museum, as part of the ‘Robòtik’ event.

What moved you to dedicate yourself to this scientific field?

It's what turns me on. I am completelt immersed in it - it is also my hobby. I like the possibility of helping people with disabilities. But I also like looking into the possibilities of human enhancement. 

How did you feel wearing the biochips?

Well it was tremendously exciting to be involved at the time - especially when we achieved some groundbreaking results. As a scientist that's what you live for. For me, carrying out the first communcation experiment between the nervous systems of myself and my wife was tremendous.

In 2002 being in New York you controlled a robotic hand that was in England. It sounds like a science fiction story. How did you get it?

Well I guess before we achieved it, it was science fiction. But we made it science. Literally we plugged my nervous system into the internet and linked it with the robot hand in England. So my brain signals controlled my human hand in New York and my robot hand in England at the same time. Not only that but I could feel the force/grip being applied by the robot hand. This was important - it was the first time such feedback hd been studied in animals or humans. It took my brain 6 weeks to learn to recognise the pulses from the robot hand. A new sensory input.

Your next experiment was to convince your wife to wear an electronic device in order to be both connected through the nervous system . How was the communication?

It was like telegraphy - a sort of morse code. My wife had electrodes positioned in her nervous system. This is called microneurography. We linked our nervous systems together electrically. Then every time she closed her hand, my brain received a pulse. So it was simple but very effective.

Also you create robot and animal hybrids powered by rat neurons . What does the project involve? What can they do?

We are delighted with the results here. We grow a biological brain in a dish with electrodes on the bottom. This must be kept in an incubator at a constant 37 degrees C. After about 10 days the neurons have connected up sufficiently for us to link the brain to a robot body. So the brain receives stimulating pulses from its technological body. Outputs from the brain then move the body around. The robot can learn how to avoid obstacles - quite simple but we are studying how the learning and memories actually occur in the brain. We also now have human brain cells though - this makes the study even more interesting.

Your next objective in the Cyborg project goes further, a brain implant in 2015 . Do you think it will be possible for us to communicate between our brains and to transmit emotions without any language?

The main thing I want to achieve is brain to brain communication - probably using the same type of implant that was used last time round. Positioning the implant in the brain is the main question we are looking at at the moment. It will require two people and I want to be one of those. But my wife feels that it's somewhat dangerous - so at the moment I do not know who the other person will be.

Well certainly to communicate emotions, thoughts, feelings, colours, images etc - it has to be possible with the right technology. It may well involve protocols of some kind though - a language of thought if you like - most likely very different to language as we know it at present, essentially involving coded messages.


What advantages and possibilities will have the implementation of electronic devices in the human brain?

Already used for Parkinson's Disease, Epilepsy, Clinical Depression. Will allow us to understand much more about strokes and dementia. Lots of possibilities in the future, all sorts of neurological problems.

However , we can imagine terminators or supercomputers controlling ourselves . W hat do you think of those who see a worrying future where we can artificially improve our intelligence or physical abilities?

People are right to be worried about this - The Singularity - I hope that enhancing humans will allow us to stay in the driving seat - we MUST do it.

What kind of future brings us the robotic?

Well it can help a lot of people but it will mean that our brains are linked together. However this gives us all the advantages of AI - so we can expect thought communication and the ability to to think in hundreds of dimensions - as a result maybe we will figure out how to travel further than the moon - I hope so.

Más de 140 robots realizados por escolares compiten hoy en 'Desafío Robot 2012'

Posted: 23 May 2012 04:21 PM PDT

La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias celebra hoy viernes, 25 de mayo a partir de las 10:00 horas en el Salón Arquerías del Museo de las Ciencias, la cuarta edición del concurso "Desafío Robot" donde más de 140 robots diseñados y construidos por escolares valencianos competirán en distintas pruebas para saber cuál es el artilugio más rápido y mejor construido.

"Desafío Robot" forma parte de "Robótik" unas jornadas gratuitas previa inscripción que se desarrollarán durante el fin de semana y que incluyen además el taller "Robots del siglo XXI", un Cine Forum sobre la película de ciencia ficción española "EVA", y como plato fuerte la conferencia del profesor de Cibernética de la Universidad de Reading (Inglaterra), Kevin Warwick.

Kevin Warwick, que ofrecerá su conferencia el sábado, 26 de mayo a las 12:00 horas en el Auditorio del Museo, es conocido como Doctor Cyborg ya que lleva experimentando desde hace años en su propio cuerpo los llamados biochips. Warwick hablará sobre algunos de sus proyectos, como la creación de híbridos de robot y animal propulsados por neuronas de rata. Una ocasión única, para conocer cómo la tecnología es capaz de potenciar las capacidades humanas hasta límites que todavía no somos capaces de imaginar. ¿Dónde termina el hombre y empieza la máquina? Kevin Warwick intentará dar la respuesta a los asistentes.

Si te interesa la robótica, descubre más curiosidades como ¿sabías que en 1950 el científico Alan Turing  publicó su famoso test para demostrar la inteligencia de una máquina? 

La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias recibe la visita del programa 'Resto del mundo' del Canal 13 de Argentina

Posted: 23 May 2012 04:18 PM PDT

La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias ha recibido hoy la visita de la cadena de televisión argentina, Canal 13, con su popular programa de viajes ‘Resto del Mundo’, líder de audiencia en Sudamérica con más de 13 millones de espectadores.

El espacio, presentado por el popular modelo Iván de Pineda, ha visitado las instalaciones del Oceanogràfic, donde ha podido vivir su experiencia como 'Entrenador por un día',  y del Museo de las Ciencias, donde entre otras, ha podido conocer la exposición 'Indiana Jones™ y la Aventura de la Arqueología'.

De esta manera, la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias formará parte de uno de los programas de la novena temporada del famoso espacio televisivo, el cual se emitirá en Argentina, Chile, Brasil, Uruguay y Paraguay.
Publicado por Unknown en 1:22

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