Posts Tagged ‘robots’

Culturing brain material and plugging it into robots, or “animats” as they are known. Rise of the rat-brained robots. This is no ordinary robot control system – a plain old microchip connected to a circuit board. Instead, the controller nestles inside a small pot containing a pink broth of nutrients and antibiotics. Inside that pot, some 300,000 rat neurons have made – and continue to make – connections with each other. To create the “brain”, the neural cortex from a rat fetus is surgically removed and disassociating enzymes applied to it to disconnect the neurons from each other. The researchers then deposit a slim layer of these isolated neurons into a nutrient-rich medium on a bank of electrodes, where they start reconnecting. They do this by growing projections that reach out to touch the neighbouring neurons. “It’s just fascinating that they do this,” says Steve Potter of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who pioneered the field of neurally controlled animats. “Clearly brain cells have evo

November 19, 2009 in Web Tech
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The Singularity Is Near. Future for Artificial Intelligence. Point in time when humans lose control and understanding of technological and scientific progress, thus of their destiny. Scientists in Israel have developed tiny robots to crawl through blood vessels attacking cancers, and labs in the United States are working on similar technology. These robots will grow smaller and more capable. One day, intelligent nanorobots may be integrated into our bodies to clear arteries and rebuild failing organs, communicating with each other and the outside world via a ?cloud? network. Tiny bots might attach themselves to neurons in the brain and add their processing power?and that of other computers in the cloud?to ours, giving us mental resources that would dwarf anything available now. By stimulating the optic, auditory or tactile nerves, such nanobots might be able to simulate vision, hearing or touch, providing ?augmented reality? overlays identifying street names, helping with face recognition or telling us how t

November 18, 2009 in Web Tech
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Miniature Robots to Swarm the Oceans. Swarms of soup-can-sized robots will soon plunge into the ocean seeking data on poorly understood phenomena from currents to biology – http://digg.com/environment/Miniature_Robots_to_Swarm_the_Oceans (via http://ff.im/bgpKl)

November 10, 2009 in Web Tech
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Robotic ‘Dragon Egg’ Gives Soldiers a Roving Eye. Afghan colonial war needed also as test ground for new weapons.

August 19, 2009 in Uncategorized
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petrbuben: 16 Amazing Robot Videos http://ff.im/6NoiR

August 18, 2009 in Uncategorized
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Robot See, Robot Do, http://DrRobot.com

August 18, 2009 in Uncategorized
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