Google’s Robots are Learning

http://www.popsci.com/googles-robots-are-learning-hand-eye-coordination-with-artificial-intelligence

In the article listed above , google takes in interesting approach on advancing the intelligence of an industrial robot arm. Instead of scripted tasks for the robot to execute they are now programmed with the ability to learn from their mistakes. Google has attached a special camera to the robots that allows it to see what they are picking up. from this the robot can then attempt to pick up the object.  By continuously analyzing the object in relation to the robot’s hand it makes it more adaptable and “human like “. What makes this really interesting and kind of strange is that the robots learned different methods to pick up hard/ soft objects; Which means it understood the difference between the material properties they were touching.

Our Reliance on Inaccurate Tech

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a20112/mistake-google-maps-wrong-house-demolished/

Without realizing it , we have been conditioned to be reliant on technology for our every day tasks. We rarely stop to question how accuracy of the apparatus effects our daily decisions. In the link above we see the repercussions  of what happens when we are controlled by technology that is not accurate. A demolition company used google maps to find the location of a house to demolish. unbeknownst to them , google actually pinned the wrong location and they actually destroyed the wrong house. They insist that google is to blame , but really we need to take a step back and realize how much of an impact technology makes on our daily decisions.

BMW: Shapeshifting

http://www.techinsider.io/bmw-vision-next-100-wheel-movement-2016-3

 

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/bmw-vision-next-100-concept-focuses-on-alive-geometry-and-autonomous-driving-105319.html

BMW’s the Vision Next 100 is the company’s attempt to take a long-term look at what the car of tomorrow might look like after autonomous drive technology has fundamentally changed automotive design. The Vision, also reflects the growing desire by consumers for “made to order” products. In recent years, advances in technology have allowed people to order all sorts of personalized goods and many digital devices can learn from their owner’s behavior and adapt to accommodate it. The same idea is behind the design  for the Vision Next 100. According to BMW, the concept is able to alter itself to meet the driver’s desires and habits, not just in terms of tweaking the suspension or switching off the traction control, but in physically altering the car itself on the go and anticipating and even improving the driver’s performance.

Game of Drones

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/01/21/tokyo-police-are-using-drones-with-nets-to-catch-other-drones/

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/us/prison-yard-drone-drugs-ohio/

 

 

 

Drones have become more popular and easily obtainable over the past year. Because of its rapid evolution in the market there has been a struggle on how to regulate  and provide laws for these new machines populating airspace. This has actually been the cause of drug battles in the sky between police and cartels in Tokyo as well as here in the US. This allows the cartels to distance themselves from the front line and not having to worry about being captured. The first link shows how the police force in Tokyo has deployed interceptor drones to chase after private drones. The next link shows an example of a drone being utilized to deliver a drug package into a prison yard. Drones have the capability of  being used for both good and bad. It all depends on who is flying them , and for what purpose.

Modding the world through AR

http://www.cnet.com/news/robots-crawl-through-walls-in-microsofts-terrifying-hololens-demo-video/

Advances in AR / VR prove to be estranging our relationship to the actual. With these emerging technologies, it gives us the capabilities of becoming our own moderators of the world. It would allow us to be more expressive and show our individuality over things prior to this technology we had no control over. This medium allows us to not see the world as it is, but the world as we would want it to be. Secondly, this technology has the capability of merging different industries together to create a more immersive and custom entertainment platform.  It allows there to be a capacity for storytelling in a mixed reality as seen in the second link.  As this technology evolves, we will see a revolution in the future of computing with endless application possibilities.

Data Capacity and our Lives in a Game

http://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/9/11/3318910/nasa-scientist-believes-we-could-all-be-in-a-video-game

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2016/02/5d-data-storage-update.page
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Scientist have made a recent breakthrough in data and the dimension that contains it . They have now revealed a device that can record data in 5 dimensions with  properties including: 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000°C and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 billion years at 190°C ) opening a new era of eternal data archiving. This is all recorded on a small circular piece of glass which can be stored outside of the conventional rows of data farm servers.  One can speculate how much data needs to evolve to keep up with the markets expanding  capacity for data .

Relating to this article, A recent interview at NASA has one scientist  set out to prove that we live in a video game simulation. Rich Terrile (the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) says that in 30 years when a new PlayStation comes out (presumably the PlayStation 7, given that console cycles tend to last six to eight years), it will be able to compute 10,000 human lifetimes simultaneously in real-time, or about a human lifetime an hour. There soon may be no limits as to what technology could accomplish because of its rapidly expanding capacity of data. Terrile finished his interview by saying that “you could have move humans living in a PlayStation than you have humans living on earth today”

VR : Empathy Machine

Overview Articles:

http://www.wired.com/brandlab/2015/11/is-virtual-reality-the-ultimate-empathy-machine/

http://www.thespace.org/news/view/rachel-segal-hamilton-virtual-reality-empathy-amnesty

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syrian VR video:

http://www.thespace.org/news/view/clouds-over-sidra-chris-milk

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VR is not a new technology, its first implementation was in 1963 by Hugo Gernsback with his  “TV glasses”. There has always been this desire to escape reality and immerse yourself in a new world. With the advancement of VR it is becoming easier to project ourselves into these crafted worlds or even see life through the eyes of another. Currently VR is being experimented with as a form of empathy machine . This is now a tool that can be used to make people relate to/ understand the situations of another person. One such example puts the viewer right in the middle of a Syrian refugee camp to experience the life of someone inside firsthand. This idea of placing the user in the middle of conflict is already being tested on the big screens with a fully shot first person movie  called Hardcore Henry. This direction that VR and film are heading towards could provide a new and interesting way to portray events and connect to audiences.

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Hardcore Henry Trailer: ( movie shot in first person)

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The Void

Company Site:

https://thevoid.com/

Article Link:

http://www.roadtovr.com/the-void-is-a-vr-experience-which-fuses-physical-and-virtual-reality-environments/

Throughout history both window and frame have shared a relationship to how content is perceived. A frame has been understood to be the sort of apparatus to the Cartesian boundary, allowing us to receive an image in a specific way. In contemporary times we can breach this boundary  as we now are receivers  of content in fractured frames. The article linked above aims to challenge the relationship of window to frame even further.  “The Void” is able to  fuse both the physical and the virtual allowing the user to now step into the other side of the frame. This new relationship introduces  a method in which the screen can now physically engage your senses . One can only speculate how much this technology could evolve to further blur the lines between the virtual and the actual.

 

The Craft of AI and How It Will Replace Human Labor

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/minimum-wage-offensive-could-speed-arrival-of-robot-powered-restaurants/2015/08/16/35f284ea-3f6f-11e5-8d45-d815146f81fa_story.html

The craft of AI and how it will replace human labor:

In this day in age efficiency is key to the growth of a company or emerging technology.  We have evolved so much from a time of craftsmanship and human production . We then moved to assembly lines and now super computers or AI could have the potential capability of removing human craftsmanship. This sort of technology only wants us to be the consumers . Task can be automated and executed at a greater speed and accuracy. This labor saving technology could be implemented into low wage positions, automating tasks that do not take much human effort. This would yield a major profit to these companies, but at what cost to humanity?

Data Dependency : The Duality of a New Light Source

Meet WI-FI LI-FI

http://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/meet-li-fi-the-breakthrough-technology-thats-100-times-faster-than-wi-fi.html

   Our contemporary world is one that is integrated and heavily reliant on emerging technologies. We go about our lives on a daily basis having different size screens dictate and influence our interactions with the world. We don’t even recognizing the complex invisible mega structure that is data; we continue to consume technology at a rapid pace. The industry’s response to our consumption is to compile multiple functions into one device, while also increasing the speed or efficiency of the product.
This article introduces the possibility of data being streamed directly from any light source ( LiFi is data through illumination). Data itself would become exponentially faster and more accessible to everyone. Although, an emerging technology such as this would have extreme positive and negative effects on social interaction. Areas of the developed world would become even more interconnected but at what cost? This would produce less physical human interaction in an age where we are already so dependent on these digital screens of information.

Blog Entry By: Kevin Arango