Future Technology

Technology can be awkward. Our pockets are weighed down with ever-larger smartphones that are a pain to pull out when we’re in a rush. And... read more

Via Anna Hu

While working as a professor in the sensory-motor systems lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), Robert Riener noticed a need for assistive devices that would better meet the challenge of helping people with daily life. He knew there were solutions, but that it would require motivating developers to rise to the challenge.

So, Riener created Cybathlon, the first cyborg Olympics where teams from all over the world will participate in races on Oct. 8 in Zurich that will test how well their devices perform routine tasks. Teams will compete in six different categories that will push their assistive devices to the limit on courses developed carefully over three years by physicians, developers and the people who use the technology. Eighty teams have signed up so far.

Riener wants the event to emphasize how important it is for man and machine to work together—so participants will be called pilots rather than athletes, reflecting the role of the assistive technology.

“The goal is to push the development in the direction of technology that is capable of performing day-to-day tasks. And that way, there will an improvement in the future life of the person using the device,” says Riener.

Here’s a look at events that will be featured in the first cyborg Olympics.

Via Wildcat2030

For years, scientists have been experimenting with "biobots." Example include insects fitted with various electronic systems that can harvest kinetic energy from their wings, those that use the Xbox's Kinect interface to follow a set path, and those put to work mapping building interiors. Now, engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are developing a method to tap into the highly-tuned olfactory system of locusts, using them like tiny cyborg sniffer dogs to detect the smell of chemicals used in explosives.

Leading the project is Baranidharan Raman, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at WUSTL, who has previously conducted research into the sensory systems of locusts. Those studies determined how the insects' brains light up in response to olfactory stimuli, and found that even when clouded by other smells, locusts are able to single out odors they've been trained to identify.

Since the locusts' natural chemical-sensing system is far more powerful than any artificial ones, Raman plans to harness the power of that nose, attaching miniature electronics to the insects that monitors their brains and determines, through their neural activity, which chemical compounds the locusts are detecting.

Via Wildcat2030