Robert Hickson • Dec 07, 2017 •
Robotic combat is becoming a thing. In TV studios, not the battlefield. A tiresome thing, the hi-tech equivalent of Monster Truck shows. MegaBots promotes itself as “the future of sports“. (I think they forgot the (TM) in that tag line.) But they have a way to go to be more that dudes driving dumbbots. Its … Read More
Robert Hickson • Feb 10, 2017 •
Here’s a sci-fi scenario that may become reality: genetically modified cyborgs susceptible to mind control. That’s the plan for a collaboration between engineering R&D firm Draper and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They are focusing on dragonflies, and using optogenetics so that their movements can be controlled by light. The techniques and technologies are there, … Read More
Robert Hickson • May 15, 2014 •
The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research Robotics has announced it will be holding a Cyberathlon in October 2016. (The BBC has a brief synopsis – the Cyberathlon site can bring up security certificate warnings). Its open to those with arm or leg prosthetics, as well as wheel-chair bound athletes and those with exoskeletons. There’s also … Read More
Robert Hickson • Jan 30, 2014 •
Why go through the pain and expense of getting neural implants if you just want to get cyber-wild for an evening. Katia Vega is developing make-up applications to enable your skin to “act as an interface”. Better than glow sticks and those shoes that flash when you walk. But she isn’t all frivolity, as this Wired article notes. Read More
Robert Hickson • Jul 09, 2013 •
Some of you will be familiar with Ray Kurzweil’s vision of the merging of people and machines in the next few decades. A Russian billionaire is also keen on this idea, and is trying to get his own avatar project off the ground. But it may be too soon to give up on the wet ware just … Read More
Robert Hickson • Feb 22, 2013 •
If you could have bionic bits, would you, should you? Which ones? Currently your options are limited, but that seems likely to change over the next couple of decades. There is increasing activity in wiring up appendages and organs to the brain. As recently noted by Miguel Nicolelis, cyborgs rather than Singularity seems more likely … Read More