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June 19, 2006
Reprogramming Biology
Biology is now in the early stages of an historic transition to an information science, while also gaining the tools to reprogram the ancient information systems of life. Few of us go more than a few months without changing the software programs we use in our electronic devices, yet the 23,000 software programs inside our cells called genes have not changed appreciably in thousands of years (although recent research suggests that a few have changed as recently as a few hundred years ago).
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 07:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2006
X3D
What ever happened to the virtual reality, 3D world of the web? Back in the late 90s, all the hype was about VRML—Virtual Reality Markup Language—which would turn the web into an immersive environment that you'd maneuver around to get to the information you wanted. We're here to tell you that the reports of the 3D web's death are greatly exaggerated. As evidence, we present three 3D browsers that will use that graphics card for something other than gaming: 3B, Browse3D, and SphereXPlorer.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 03:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2006
Touch sensor
An artificial touch sensor as sensitive as a human fingertip has been developed by US scientists. One day it could let surgeons remotely "feel" tissue through an endoscope and help robots pour drinks without spilling a drop.
The sensor is made from a film of nanoparticles of gold and cadmium sulphide. It is so sensitive that it can easily detect the contours of Abraham Lincoln's head embossed on a US penny, and even make out the outlines of the smallest letters printed on the coin.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 04:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Trust me, I'm a robot
IN 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.
This gruesome industrial accident would not have happened in a world in which robot behaviour was governed by the Three Laws of Robotics drawn up by Isaac Asimov, a science-fiction writer. The laws appeared in “I, Robot”, a book of short stories published in 1950 that inspired a recent Hollywood film. But decades later the laws, designed to prevent robots from harming people either through action or inaction (see table), remain in the realm of fiction.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 08, 2006
Tiny Robots Control Cockroaches
Scientists have created miniature, insect-like robots that can change the behavior of cockroaches.
The devices work by at first fooling the bugs into believing the devices are fellow roaches and then leading the insects away from darkness into light, according to a recent announcement made by the European Union Information Society Technologies Program.
The thumbnail-sized devices, called "insbots," are among the first to manipulate insect and animal behavior.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 07:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 03, 2006
iRobot Scooba Exposed
Robots have long fascinated humanity. Movies like "Artificial Intelligence: AI" (2001) and "I, Robot" (2004) portrait possible futures where all your mundane chores are performed by a mechanical life form. Just imagine not ever cleaning the windows, doing the dishes, or washing your car! On average, a family spends 1.8 hours per day doing just such activities. That is 12.6 hours a week, 655 hours a year, or 2,047 days of your life wasted on something that a robot could do.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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