Innovative Technology-Part 1( Sixth Sense)

Tweet

Hello humans,
                     Today I will tell you about a human I respect ( shocking isn't it? me respecting humans :P)..Let me tell you why i respect him so much. He is the only human who is as intelligent as me(nerdy alien picks his nose)......hey who's laughing...hmm, must be my friends....don't look at me like that, I have friends. Anyway,I wont keep the mystery of this human any further . Read on to know more about him.

What do you get when you marry the movie “Minority Report” with the Iphone? You get the “SixthSense” technology.

Figure 1- The computer in Minority Report

Figure 2 - Pranav Mistry's SixthSense system

Imagine clicking a photo with your hands, dialling a number on your palm, watching a video on a newspaper, etc. Sounds like science fiction? Well it’s not, its quiet real and the technology has been made free by its creator Pranav Mistry who has made its code open source, which basically means that he is not selling his code but has made it openly available to anyone and everyone. Now here is a true human.

Pranav Mistry has developed a wearable gesture control computer system which feels almost like a sixth sense. This technology merges the physical and the digital world seamlessly and lets you control this environment with hand gestures instead of buttons.

Figure 3- Tom Cruise controls computer with finger gestures in Minority Report

Figure 4- Pranav Mistry controls SixthSense with his fingers     

                                

            The prototype model by Pranav Mistry consists of a webcam and a mini projector which is worn around the neck like a locket and a computer in a backpack and colour rings on four fingers. The combination of this equipment lets you control applications just by moving your fingers in the air. The applications can be projected on any surface like a wall, floor or even the palm of your hand.

            You can navigate, zoom in and zoom out on a map projected on a surface just by moving your fingers in the air.

SixthSense intuitively recognizes users hand gestures and performs the appropriate function, for example if you draw a circle on your wrist with your finger then the SixthSense will project a watch on your wrist.

 If you draw the symbol of a magnifying glass in the air then a map will be projected on a surface near you or if you make an “@” gesture in the air then it will let you check your email. If you make the gesture of a frame with your fingers the SixthSense will take a photograph of that frame area. Later you can go through through those photos by projecting them on a wall and going through them merely by the movement of your fingers in the air. Magical isn’t it ?

            This isn’t all, it can do much more. It projects information about any physical object that you hold in front of you, for example if you hold a book in your hand it will project the books price on Amazon on the book itself or if you hold an airline ticket in front of you it will project the airline’s arrival status on the ticket. If you hold a newspaper in front of you it will project a live news video on it.

            All this technology sounds expensive doesn’t it? Feels like something that only Bill Gates can afford. But you are wrong. Pranav Mistry has made this technology very cheap by giving away his code for free so the cost to build one of your own prototype “SixthSense” devices would come to around Rs. 15000-17000 instead of more than Rs. One lakh if the code wasn’t open source. So what are you waiting for, start building one of your own; Pranav Mistry is willing to help you make one of your own and paste your world on the digital one.

Advanced Technology Part-1: The Rail Gun

Tweet

Courtesy: military.com

Darn you humans, you keep on advancing so fast. Now you have made a weapon which we also have, now we can’t threaten you…….ummm, if you plan to invade us sometime in the future with this weapon then please don’t hurt me o glorious humans……you can have my boss instead, test it on him. In fact give me the weapon, I’ll do it .. :D….hope he doesn’t read this.

                Today I shall be talking about a weapon which has jumped out of sci-fi into reality. I shall be telling you about the very potent rail gun. Now, do you remember one of your earth movie where one of your famous muscle bound hero blasts enemies with a futuristic looking gun, hmm what was his name….oh wait I remember, its Arnold Swarchenegger (and I thought my name was hard to pronounce…..now don’t ask my name because your human tongue can’t possibly pronounce my name :P). Now the gun which he was using was a rail gun and the name of the movie was Eraser.

                Ahh…I see a hint of recognition…..Anyway; the rail gun is one of the most innovative piece of technology ever devised. Unlike ordinary guns a rail gun does not use gunpowder to propel the projectile out of the barrel; it uses electricity and magnetism to accelerate a conductive projectile along a pair of metal rails. It uses two sliding contacts along the projectile that allow it to send a massive electric charge through the projectile. The current in the projectile interacts with the magnetic field in the rails and hence accelerates the projectile along them.

hmm...this is getting too technical..... don’t worry, wont bug you with too much technical data anymore……let’s see some fun facts now

Rail Gun: Hot Facts

The U.S navy has developed and tested a rail gun that accelerates a 3.2 kg projectile to mach 7 speed ( seven times the speed of sound=2.4 km/sec). A Rail gun equipped battleship from the movie Transformers. A projected naval rail gun with a 2.5km/sec muzzle velocity could deliver a guided projectile with an impact velocity of Mach 5to targets at ranges of 250 miles, at a rate greater than 6 rounds per minute. A test demonstrated that a rail gun projectile's kinetic energy could create a 10-foot diameter crater, 10 feet deep in solid ground, and achieve projectile penetration to 40 feet -  3 to 5 times more effective than current guns. Rail gun projectiles are smaller and easier to store: a standard AGS magazine holds  1,500 rounds; a rail gun magazine could hold10,000 rounds in the same amount of space. Source:  Batelle

The Power of a Rail Gun

 

                                                                                  Picture Courtesy:defenseimagery.mil

Issues facing the rail gun

Although the rail gun represents the perfect weapon it has still not replaced conventional weapons due to a few reasons.

1. Rail guns require a large amount of electric charge to accelerate the projectile. The capacitors required to store this electric charge are large in size around some cubic meters.
2. The rails heat up quickly when current passes through them, the heat generated is intense.
3. When the rails heat up there is also a chance of them being damaged due to melting.
4. The current flows in each rails in opposite directions which creates repulsion between them. This repulsion is directly proportional to the strength of the current flowing in the rails. Hence, there is intense repulsion to push the rails apart.

Uses of a rail gun

• Rail guns can be used to replace artillery since it can do double the damage with greater accuracy and it is light to transport since its ammunition does not use any propultion material.
• A portable rail gun which uses small bullets can be made which would limit the massive recoil of large rail guns. The small bullets would still inflict lethal damage.
• Rail guns have also been proposed to be used in the U.S Star Wars program which is for research into space based weapons. It could be use to destroy ballistic missiles by firing projectiles to intercept the incoming missiles.
• Rail guns could also be used to protect the planet from asteroids by firing high velocity projectiles at the asteroid thereby destroying it or changing its course.
• Its non-military use would be to launch vehicles into space from where they would use their rockets.
• Scientists also propose to use a rail gun to initiate fusion nuclear reactions.

Picture Courtesy: defenseimagery.mil

Rail gun technology has reached a new frontier and has stepped into the realm of reality from fiction and is proving to have more applications than just as a weapons technology. It won’t be long before it is assimilated into the human civilization.  

P.S:- Please don’t use it on me, I promise I will be a good alien :)

Robotics – part 2 (BigDog)

Tweet

Well well, its seems that you puny humans have finally managed to make a nice toy, my grandmother can make this in her sleep (whap!!!!! nerdy alien receives a whack on his bald grey head from his boss). ....Ummm, I mean, ahhhh....the glorious humans have mastered the art of making advanced robots.

            Today I shall talk about an advanced four legged military robot called BigDog created by humans (Us aliens like this name….why didn’t we think of it….. we were probably busy scheming against you). It’s created by Boston Dynamic's primarily for operating over rough terrain and carrying a heavy load at the same time. The project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), they wish to use BigDog as a equipment carrier for soldiers that can work over rough terrain where even wheels won’t work. The BigDog project incorporates one of the most advanced sensor technologies in the world of robotics which enable it to navigate over rough terrain.

You could say that BigDog looks like the animal version of the big bad robot from the movie “terminator”. But don’t worry, BogDog won’t turn on you……..yet :D…... that was a joke, don’t report me to my boss or he will do some weapons testing on me and also my bald head is still sore from all those whacks.    

  

Well, apart from jokes here are some facts about BigDog, he stands 2.5 feet tall and is 3 feet long and weighs about 113 Kilograms. He can run at about 6.43 kmph (that’s right he can RUN on those four legs) and climb 35 degree slopes.  He can even walk in water and not be affected by it.

 He can also walk across a muddy trail and through snow. And especially what will be very helpful to soldiers is that he can walk across rubble (very helpful in your puny human war wastelands). He can do all this while carrying a load of 158.6 Kilogram.

BigDog has also set the world record for distance travelled by a legged vehicle at 20.5 kilometers. He is powered by a 15bhp two-stroke water cooled engine.

BigDog can balance himself with heavy load strapped to him, he will even balance himself properly if pushed. He can navigate through terrain which is impossible for wheeled robots to reach. He can be a game changing factor in a combat situation. Considering his abilities he can also be put to use for other purpose like aiding disaster relief operations, etc.

Considering all that we have read above we can arrive at a fact that BigDog has a very heavy configuration that enables it to perform such feats.

BigDog is loaded with some of the most advanced sensors which help him navigate balance and make judgements; some of these are sensors for joint position, joint force, ground contact, gyroscope (helps in maintaining balance), etc. He also has stereo vision.

BigDog can be easily controlled remotely by a person wearing his control vest. The controller can command BigDog to start or stop its engine, stand up, squat down, walk, trot, or jog. He gets the operational information through the visual display. While the operator only gives commands to to go from point A to point B it is upto BigDog to control everything including else navigating the terrain by his own reflexes. (I can control BigDog with my huge nerdy brain :D…….ok I lied , I can’t……..yet )

            From all that we have seen here I can easily say that robots will play a big role in the human civilization. Boston Dynamics has broken a new arrier in robotics with the creation of Big Dog……..I want one on my birthday now.

We might even stop abducting humans if all of you become intelligent as BigDog’s creators (whap!!!!....Nerdy alien receives another whack from his boss)….sorry, boss says abduction is a secret and that I am not suppose to tell you that we do it every alternate day… (whap…. Whap....whap!!!!! Nerdy alien receives more whacking from his boss)….


Picture Courtesy : http://www.bostondynamics.com/

Robotics – part 1 (A.S.I.M.O)

Tweet

Image courtesy: mechanica.in

Ever felt that the mechano set you had in your childhood was not fulfilling or did u want more out of your toy than the usual repeated voice recording? Ever felt that you could make your toys alive? Well you don’t have to look to your dreams to satisfy you anymore all thanks to technology which has made toys more than lifeless.

            Welcome to the fantastical world of robotics. We shall be looking at a few robots, some commercial and some famous for a breakthrough in their technology in the next few posts that will come out in parts.

Honda ASIMO

Unveiled by Honda in the year 2000, ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility.  It is a bipedal humanoid robot which stands 4 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs 54 kilos. It looks like a tiny astronaut wearing a bag.

ASIMO can perform complex functions due to the design of its highly mobile body. It can even run at 6 kmph. ASIMO’s height of 4 feet and 3 inches was selected specifically to operate optimally within a human environment.

Apart from the usual stuff like walking or running or waving hands that you might expect out of ASIMO, he (lets treat him like a person because he is almost like one) can do a lot more things.

ASIMO can recognise different people’s faces and greet them with their names. He can also pass on messages from one person to another when he finds them. He can shake hands with people and if you wave to him, he will wave back.

He can avoid humans and other obstacles while walking or running by going around them.

ASIMO will look at your face while talking you, he can even follow you around.

ASIMO can handle trays very well. He can sense a person’s hands and the tray and receive it from them and carry the tray without dropping it or spilling the contents of the tray by sensing if they are about to fall. He can put the slowly and gently on the table by sensing the weight reduction in his hands as he puts the tray on the table.

ASIMO can also carry heavy loads up to 10kgs, now don’t start boasting about how much weight you can lift, remember for a humanoid robot this is a huge achievement. He can even steer a cart by calculating the force he applies to the cart and can also steer around obstacles by taking actions such as slowing down or changing directions.

            Rumours are that some multinational corporation has even hired ASIMO from Honda to greet their high profile guests at their headquarters. Now come on, I want ASIMO too, Are you listening Honda?

            Now I bet you cannot wait for the day when ASIMO will be available in your electronic store because I surely cannot.

In the next few blogs we will see all the other robots in development or that are available in the market.

From the way robotics development is progressing we can only wait and see what surprises robotics has for the human civilisation.

ASIMO Images Courtesy: http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/