Human Skin as an Input Device

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-16-2011, 01:18 PM

Human Skin as an Input Device for Mobile Devices, PDAs and Computers, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3XPUdW9Ryg

When I first saw this Tech-Vid, I thought, "Hmmm...This is pretty cool, huh?" But having a deep and abiding interest in technology from my own inventive imagination, I can see other implications that give me pause. When Honda's Robotics Team started working on their ASIMO Humanoid Robot, I found it both fascinating... and frightening in the same moment. The machine moves with such fluid, human-like abilities that it is almost impossible not to imagine them strolling about among us with the ease and ability of real human beings. But the fact that ASIMO only stands 4' 3" tall and weighs only about 94 lbs...with a perpetual built in subservient stoop...did not fool me one bit. They chose to design it this way because their first versions of this machine scared the hell out of everybody at ten feet tall and weighing many hundreds of pounds. All of us know that the cosmetic nature of machines makes it easy to conceal hidden power "'neath the skin" so to speak and this makes them supple and easily changed from something that appears innocuous... into something lethal and possibly... unstoppable.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=asimo&aq=0
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/ASIMO

**Google Adsense** · 01-16-2011 01:18 PM

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-16-2011, 01:57 PM

This is an interesting and useful technological development, but the brilliance of this concept will eventually be overshadowed by the military applications for its use in tactile combat robotic systems. Trust me... as soon as the Japanese at Honda can configure their ASIMO Robots with a skin surface capable of sensate abilities and solve the current problem of its poor three dimensional vision cognition, they'll begin making mechanical soldiers with a real-world battle hardened architecture and physical endurance and interaction capabilities that will make the average human soldier...as obsolete as a toy. This new "Skinput" idea provides a new mechanism for a machine to sense where it is and what is happening around it in the world. If this comes to pass, our world will become unpredictably dangerous.

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-16-2011, 01:58 PM

Here is ASIMO...learning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ByGQGiVMg

What would happen if ASIMO was turned loose with one of these?

"Say Hello to My Little Friend...with HIS Little Friend..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqucg...eature=related

The last bastion of Big Problems they need to solve will be of course: Self Awareness. I suspect they will never be able to accomplish what God has given us in the way of what Descartes called "The Mind - Brain" connection that gives us the chance for having a soul and the unique sense we possess of "The Self". But really...it will not be necessary for Robots to have what we have to represent a real danger to us all. Just as IBM's "Deep Blue" beat Kasparov at world class chess in the late 1990s with what they called "Brute Force Processing", the current crop of engineers will simply have to program enough conditional calculations and conditional response files to include as many variables as possible on board to fool the machine into the belief that it will be necessary to follow certain actions and do certain things to survive under constantly changing conditions. And when the first one wakes up and starts to walk around... it will be irresistible to consider, "I wonder what it is thinking about..."

After thumping Kasparov... Deep Blue said, "Thank You ...For an Interesting Game..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJarxpYyoFI

Eventually, I suspect they'll stumble across something in the way of making a solid state holographic cube (probably later made out of a type of industrial diamond or bullet-proof mineral glass for combat hardness and reliability) that will emulate the human brain's neurology. When fitted with enough information and programming protocols... and fed a cool light source at low power, or say from basking in the morning sun as it comes up above the horizon, this machine will perpetually "wake up" and act indistinguishable (and perhaps in-extinguishable) from any living organisms that over the last 4 Billion years of evolution have been borne and bred; lived and died "countless times among the stars". Sentient Robots will not have to continuously work out all the problems and difficulties of self-preservation that all life presently existing on the earth has had to struggle with. The big difference here though will be that once this thing is created...it will never have to die... unless we have the will, the means and the ability to deliberately kill it...

And from our side... Stronger Robots... albeit...bolted down on a bench...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yadj3...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29TVb...eature=channel

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-18-2011, 11:35 AM

This whole area of "Man vs. Machine" has been central to our love-hate relationships with them ever since the Dawn of Time and the evolution of the hominid brain. As soon as either a Cro-Magnon or Neanderthal Man spied something "shiny and hard" glinting out of a cold camp fire and discovered metals... we have been pounding on them for one reason of another ever since. We've managed to pound on them and shape them well enough to make everything from a fine Swiss time piece to a Saturn V Rocket that allowed Neil Armstrong to stroll around on the moon. But when we started down the path of making a "Man-Like Machine", we launched projects that some day might allow the men made of metal to pound back on us... and win.

With its recent release and arguable final and complete re-construction with an additional 25 minutes of film restored, the Fritz Lang movie "Metropolis" gave us an early and prescient look into our near future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSExdX0tds4

Ten Minutes of the RESTORED Version with Original Soundtrack Version via YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAuSE...eature=related

Here is the Full Unrestored Version) of the Metropolis movie on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_-f...1&feature=fvwp

Of course, who can forget the words of Dave's request for the HAL 9000 computer to, "Open the Pod Bay Doors, Please Hal..." in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyUMmNl4hk

And with others on a similar theme, like the movies "The Terminator" as a singular threat and "The Matrix" showing an entire society of machines at odds with humankind are all well-told tales of warning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj6Df2rT9sc

Hell...even the Japanese... with all of their fervent and bizarre interest in being the first to get there with the making of a life-like humanoid robot have discovered what they call..."The Uncanny Valley"...which is the developmental "Point of No Return" when the robots they create and show to people...begin to utterly creep them out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNdAIPoh8a4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0NLH...1&feature=fvwp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLnBK...eature=related

Even when the CG are as good as this... They all fall off the edge and drop into into "The Uncanny Valley"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyhf3...1&feature=fvwp

And last but not least..."The CREEP" in this video is NOT the Robot...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0IIV...eature=related

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-19-2011, 10:42 PM

Almost as soon as the nuclear and chemistry teams under Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer managed to overcome their mutual design and build problems with General Grove's "Gadget"... and the shock wave and power of "The Bomb" displayed a strange and unearthly mushroom cloud at the Trinity Test Site as it bloomed and flowered up into the stratosphere... he felt an overwhelming sickness in the pit of his stomach. The sensation formed in his mind that mankind had just nudged something very elemental into a monstrous and uncontrollable thing right here on earth. He remembered a Hindu passage from the Bhagavad Gita in the Hindu Scriptures where The Prince is being chastised for not wanting to do his duty in the presence of the god Vishnu...who rose up in anger with his many arms unfolded and said..." Now... I am become Death... The Destroyer of Worlds!" What is happening in Japan and elsewhere in the world in the field of Robotics, Automation and Computing right now will soon be able to cook something up out of Titanium, Gold wires, plastic, pneumatics, hydraulics and the scariest neural processor ever and will be upright and walking around among us... and on the day when they cobble together the ones that can emulate the human mind...we can only hope that Oppenheimer's lament does not bear repeating from that day on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8H7Jibx-c0

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-19-2011, 10:56 PM

Just as the ROOMBA robot floor vacuum and the even more recent one seen on the commercial for a Robot emerging out of your coffee-maker machine and asking, “What can I get for you?”, when the first "Thinking" Robots make their way into our world, they'll be introduced only to the super-wealthy consumers in the manner of a sleek machines, with nicknames such as, “Rosie...The Rolls Royce of Domestic Robots” or perhaps as , “Jeeves...The Bentley of our New Line of Man-Servant Robots”. The desire for special services and status that can be completely owned over the general population will set the stage for new mechanical human-like slaves brilliantly exposed by the marketing teams set to create a desire for people to have one of their very own.

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoVacuum...FcNi2godJHePHA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EPNO...eature=related

A few short but tantalizing weeks later, a few “Open Source” Robots will be allowed out into the general population for study purposes to see how these machines manage to use their AI and adapt to interacting with people, animals and various environments. But more importantly, to see what happens when one of them is stolen and hacked for their designs and engineering...but protected by anti-theft, LOJAC like devices and some very unexpected self-preservation behaviors that will kick in as soon the the Bot gets lifted. The real bomb in this case will be dropped when those in control have machines at their beck and call that obviate the need for any other human labor. There will be those among them who will wonder what it looks like to own the entire state of Wyoming ...with only all the indigenous wildlife and of course, only their own family left alive there as its inhabitants. After all...who needs human day labor ...when you can have one of THESE Babies?!

Now if there are any doubters out there plodding through this missive and wondering what all the fuss is about... one only has to look at the poor inhabitants of the Rust-Belt Ghost Town that is Flint, Michigan to get a clear understanding of how utterly disposable human beings really are... even with their abilities to do manual, skilled and semi-skilled labor.

When the Big Three of the auto industry saw a demonstration of the incredibly dexterous and untiring industrial robots the Japanese were producing... all of the American auto workers and their families became an afterthought. Think about it. Industrial Robots... consider the possibilities. They work with extreme precision, often in very dangerous and de-humanizing environments. They can be programmed to do almost anything imaginable that humans can do..and many that no man or woman will ever perform. They never tire... or get sick... or want a decent salary and benefits...they are for all intents and purpose... The Perfect Slaves... for now, that is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkNVh...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-J_EzKm_70

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-20-2011, 10:05 AM

)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBZZPXCstdw

**bszopi** · 01-20-2011, 11:06 AM

Someone is on a robot kick.

Honestly, though, I am suprised you haven't mentioned "I.Robot", as it is almost exactly what you are describing.

**60dgrzbelow0** · 01-20-2011, 11:52 AM

I read most of the books penned by Isaac Asimov back in the 50's and 60s when I was a mere 10 years old... (I'll be 62.. if I make it to my next birthday

) and of course, I was completely fascinated and enthralled with these intelligent, ostensibly benevolent machines. But now ...as an Old Man... I cannot fight the cynicism I feel towards them. This is largely because of knowing more about the human condition...and the negative qualities that can arise from all human intellectual competition.

Scientists spend so much time trying to outdo each other, they often completely forget that though we might be able to create a monstrous thing like a human-animal hybrid life form with the advent of the burgeoning field of Genetics... the question of whether or not such a thing should be attempted never seems to arise in the ones who want to do just that. Azimov's friendly and helpful Robots were all designed with his immutable "Three Law of Robotics" to permanently emboss their Positronic Brains with survival and protection of mankind as the first priority... and the survival of Robots as secondary under all conditions that involve human safety. If you recall...the female Robo-Psychologist-Cum-Heroine was the focus of most of his stories in the "I, Robot" series as a sort of detective trying to figure out where things had gone awry for one reason or another in a whole raft of Man Using Robot scenarios. Invariably... the problems always stemmed from fallible human beings doing something either stupid, thoughtless or downright dangerous.

But here in the real world...with the advent of the exponential improvement of computing technology, assuming you agree with "Moore's Law" that the speed and power of the microprocessor doubles every eighteen months or so (actually...its been happening at closer to just 12 months), I just wonder when the threshold of the ability for machines to think on their own will be passed. The "Robot" in this sense is just "The Mortal Coil" that would carry this new "Mind" around...with all of their current variation as shown above at their beck and call. Just as he did when Azimov was alive... I find the whole idea of Robots an indelible, self-renewing technological topic of interest. How can we possibly know what it will mean for a machine to suddenly be able to recognize itself as existing?...and so I find this subject matter to be a very contemporary problem that is also very thought provoking. During the latter part of this late 1980's nearly an hour in length interview given by Azimov, he provides more insight on the subject(s) than I can cover here... at about 46 Minutes and 10 seconds into the long interview if you wish to cut to the chase on his opinions about "Robotics"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYzj4yyM8Ws

**pocket-rocket** · 01-20-2011, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by bszopi

Someone is on a robot kick.

Honestly, though, I am suprised you haven't mentioned "I.Robot", as it is almost exactly what you are describing.

That was a good movie, as was Bicentenial Man with Robin Williams.

Bob, I loved Isaac Asimov's books too. I've always thought robots were neat and wanted to build one. I've even got a binder full of stuff to do with the Zlog Z80 CPU that I was going to use to make one. I also remember wanting the robot they used to sell at Radio Shack years ago that stood about 2 1/2 feet high and had a wireless remote.

Thread: Human Skin as an Input Device

Thread Tools

Display

Robotic-Human Skin as an Input Device

Posting Permissions