Robots Perform Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Dance

The King of Pop would have been proud. As a man who pushed the boundaries of technology himself, from his backyard Never Land, to sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber (is that actually true?), to his cryogenic chamber (is that actually true?), to showing us the versatility of plastic surgery, Michael Jackson was one of those multi-billionaires who liked to spend money on really neat things.

Well, some other really neat things have taken notice. The video below is a compilation of robots dancing–or appearing to dance–to Jackson’s “Thriller.” I recognize the Nao Robots performing their eight minute dance at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The original score was not Michael Jackson, but who cares, this is a fun YouTube video and listening to “Thriller” never gets old. And while you’re bobbing your head at your cubicle instead of taking care of that thing your boss needs pronto, you get to check out some pretty nifty moves from these robots of all shapes and sizes. The complexity and smoothness of some of the dances are impressive. I have to admit the synchrony at that part–you know, when MJ and all the zombies line up and they start marching towards the girl and he’s got some really big contact lenses in–yeah, the synchrony of the robots at that part is way better than in the original video.

Seeing as how Michael Jackson probably grew up doing the robot a lot, I think it’s poetic that now robots get to do the Michael Jackson–without the soul for getting down!

Latest Geminoid Robot Looks More Human

The Uncanny Valley is a pit of doom for robots, few that dare enter its depths will ever emerge again. Yet the latest realistic robot from genius Hiroshi Ishiguro is as close to spanning the valley as any machine I’ve seen. Referred to as Geminoid-DK, the robot is a replica of Henrik Sharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. This thing is amazing looking. Unlike many previous Geminoids we’ve seen in the past, Sharfe’s robotic copy is almost real enough to pass as human. Almost. Movements and expressions aren’t quite there yet, but when it’s sitting still – wow, this robot is getting close to the goal. Check out Geminoid-DK in the videos below and see if you agree. From some angles this guy is creepy, from others it’s nearly friendly. Geminoid-DK shows that the aim of creating a life-like robot that humans can accept may be nearer than we think.

Built by ATR and Kokoro in Japan, Geminoid-DK is the first model of Geminoid to be hosted outside of Japan. It will be used at Aalborg University by Sharfe and his colleagues to explore human-robot interaction. According to their website, the university’s Centre for Robotics Research will aim to answer the following broad philosophical questions: What is a human? What is presence? What is a relation? What is identity? I’m clueless as to the details of the experiments the team hopes to run, but I can guess that Geminoid-DK will be spending quite a bit of time meeting and communicating with visiting humans to judge their reactions.

As many answers as the Geminoid-DK project will generate, I’m not sure the robot itself represents a great technological achievement. You can see fleshless versions of the bot on its Facebook page, and none of the press seems to indicate that the armatures have been improved greatly over previous models. Yet if it’s not more sophisticated than other robots, Geminoid-DK still manages to be a better illusion in my opinion. How? I’m not sure. It might be that the face-molding and hand-molding procedures used on Sharfe (seen in videos here and here) have been improved. Certainly the eyes are amazing, and we know how important eyes are in human-robot interaction. It could be that each Geminoid is a piece of art and some are simply going to be better than others. It might be that the copy of Sharfe actually isn’t any more real than earlier models of Ishiguro himself, it’s just that I’m more used to European faces than Asian ones because I grew up in Texas. Technique, art, or culture – hopefully Sharfe’s research will determine which is the driving factor of his clone’s success.

The future of Bluetooth: where do we go now?

Since Bluetooth was established in the early 1990s, it has grown into the most successful short-range wireless technology in use today. Bluetooth already features in over 50% of mobile handsets in Western Europe, and the number of Bluetooth accessories and gadgets now available is staggering.

Bluetooth is now at a crossroads. The potential market for wireless is immense – but different new applications have requirements that necessitate differing technologies.

The health and medical, sports and fitness, as well as the home automation market, and even devices such as watches are requiring a much lower power form of wireless technology. At the other end of the scale the potential applications for a higher speed technology are vast, from digital cameras, TVs and PCs, to PDAs, laptops and even smartphones.

As a result Bluetooth is now moving into two new distinct areas: the Bluetooth v3.0 standard is taking on the market for consumer devices that deal with large data files; while its ultra low power sister technology, Bluetooth low energy, is opening wireless connectivity to devices and applications that could have never considered it before.
Low power Bluetooth

Taking the lead for low power wireless is Bluetooth low energy, formerly known as Ultra Low Power (ULP) or Wibree. Already successfully demonstrated by CSR in a mobile handset, Bluetooth low energy consumes tiny amounts of power – the battery life of devices with this technology could run into years rather than days. This opens up Bluetooth and wireless to a whole range of products that been previously discounted due to short battery lives. For example, Bluetooth low energy could be put into heart monitors, trainers, weighing scales and watches to synchronise and upload data to your phone or laptop. The technology uses fewer frequencies (3 rather than 32) to make connections compared with standard Bluetooth, resulting in significantly lower power consumption when connectable.

Bluetooth low energy is an attractive proposition for manufacturers because of its compatibility and interoperability with standard Bluetooth. Unlike other technologies such as Zigbee, Bluetooth low energy can build on the existing billions of Bluetooth devices already in the market. Bluetooth low energy is being added to existing Bluetooth silicon for negligible cost and with no need for redesign. Compared to alternative technologies this is a massive advantage.
Bluetooth and mobile phones

The mobile phone is increasingly becoming an important piece of technology with a role in many aspects of our lives. Smartphones already support email and internet access, sharing information with PCs or other phones, satellite navigation, and even for receiving location-specific information in restaurants and stations.

If Bluetooth low energy is integrated into watches, lights, central heating thermostats, heart rate monitors, microwaves, even running shoes, as predicted by the Bluetooth SIG, then people will be able to coordinate all of these applications through a single ‘remote control’ – their mobile phone. For most people, a mobile phone is almost always within arm’s reach, if you want to control the lights and heating you’ll reach for your mobile. Bluetooth low energy is the best technology to provide this sort of connectivity.

Low energy can also enable gateways from small devices such as weighing scales, out onto the internet via these same mobile phones. This not only increases data revenues for operators but also connects your devices to websites and the internet to your devices. When everything is connected, using low energy, everything can be monitored and controlled from almost anywhere.

What about the higher speed data transfer? When Bluetooth was established in the early 1990s it had a data rate of just 1Mbps, which has now evolved into v2.1+EDR that offers up to 3Mbps. However, modern smart phones can take 6 megapixel photos (with even higher resolution camera phones on the way) and feature high-resolution video camera functions, meaning files on mobile phones are constantly increasing in size. Also the potential for wireless in devices such as cameras and PDAs has always been restricted by the data rates offered by Bluetooth and the battery life restraints of other technologies.
Bluetooth 3

With this in mind Bluetooth v3.0 was launched late last year and will ultimately allow the wireless transfer of large files such as music and video to and from devices that were previously limited to transferring smaller files, as anything larger would have taken forever and drained the battery if using standard Bluetooth. This works by using a Wi-Fi radio to transfer the larger file, but the proven low-power Bluetooth radio to monitor for and establish the connection.

The inclusion of the Wi-Fi radio in the Bluetooth v3.0 specification brings a proven technology and one that already exists in many consumer devices today. Wi-Fi is a tested and understood technology both from a technical and end-user point of view. The inclusion of Bluetooth over IEEE 802.11 a/b/g – with the Wi-Fi radio acting as an AMP (Alternative MAC and PHY) – delivers the quick transfer speeds demanded by modern consumer devices – without suffering from battery drain issues. By using the low power Bluetooth radio to monitor for connections the Wi-Fi radio is only used for the actual file transfer and therefore for the smallest time possible. This will allow wireless technology to be used by many more consumer devices that previously dismissed it due to power consumption issues. For example, a user could stream video from their camcorder to their TV, or upload a whole music album from their phone to their MP3 player in just a few seconds.

Bluetooth SIG

The Bluetooth SIG knows that ease of use is a key requirement for devices. Features such as Secure Simple Pairing that is also used by Bluetooth v3.0, allows devices to find each other much more easily and then secure the connections with the best user experience.

Similarly, Bluetooth v3.0 hides the radio used from the user. This means that if a large file needs to be transferred, the Wi-Fi radio will be turned on, the data transferred, and if not needed anymore will be turned off to conserve power. This increases data transfer speeds for Bluetooth and saves power, without confusing the user and it is the software stack’s function to work out the best radio for the transfer. Bluetooth v3.0 therefore relies on an intelligent software stack, such as CSR’s Synergy, to be effective. CSR Synergy is the only software stack on the market that has been ratified by the Bluetooth SIG as being compliant with Bluetooth v3.0.

Bluetooth v3.0 takes Bluetooth to the next step and will open up the market to hundreds of different consumer applications where previously wireless was not considered, or the application may not have even been thought of. While wireless in cameras has been tried without success before, the new standard could allow you to stream video from your phone to your TV or to upload a whole music album to your media centre in just a couple of minutes – both of which were previously impossible due to the battery drain of a phone trying to upload or stream this much data.

First Lego Sets Ever Launched Into Space

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These Are the First Lego Sets Ever Launched Into Space

Jesus Diaz — Yesterday, the space shuttle Endeavour launched for the last time, carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the ExPRESS Logistics to the ISS. But more importantly, it carried Lego to space for the first time in history. These are the sets.

The first person to build Lego models in space would be astronaut Cady Coleman, a former United States Air Force officer and current NASA astronaut now living in the International Space Station as part of Expedition 27. If the name Cady Coleman sounds familiar to you is because she’s the astronaut who played the flute in space for the first time last April:

There’s no end to her talents, I tell you. Astronaut, pilot, music player, Lego builder and the cutest girl in space and down on Earth. I think I’m in love now.

But I digress. Cady would be building these Lego models not just for the fun of it, but to show children how they behave in space. She will “explore the effects of microgravity on simple machines by building models, conducting experiments, and sharing those results with students and teachers back on Earth through video and crew commentary.”
Down here, teachers and students will be able to build the same models. The teacher would be able to download a guide and a student worksheet, so they can also perform the same experiments down here and compare the results with those shown on the videos.