??? Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

[Jon Newman]

I hadn't heard of the Uncanny Valley before but I found it interesting. It seems that manual therapy has its version(s) of an "Uncanny Valley".

[bernard]

Jon,
We have the certainly such a valley and I'll adapt some well known laws :

1. A PT may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A PT must obey orders given to him by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A PT must protect his own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

[Jon Newman]

From Seed Magazine, The Rise of Roboethics

Yessssss!

[Jon Newman]

Robot Overlord, Kweekwon


Sorry about the advert at the beginning. It wasn't there when I first saw the video. Also, it takes a while to load. I recommend you do it in the background while doing something much more important like posting something at Soma.

[Diane]

Check out the facial expressions changing on the robot face.
In case that one was hard to visualize, here it is again with skin and hair and eyes.

These were linked to neurophilosophy blog.

[Jon Newman]

Will humans marry robots in 50 years?--from Cognitive daily

I'm trying to fathom the politics surrounding this sort of arrangement.

[Diane]

Seems there has been a robot developed that can provide facial massages. See attached.
I have a massage chair. The back of it has a hard working robot inside, with four (count 'em, 4!) smoothly operating shiatsu fists. The timing, ramping up or down of acceleration and pressure, etc., feels very "human". Of course, the robot won't respond to "pain" in the same way, but it's ok for general input which feels pretty lifelike, actually, and as always, downregulation of "pain" is the responsibility of the person sitting in the chair attending to the sensations provided to their mechanoreceptors, sensitized or not.

Really, there are already many many PTs and MTs who work like zombie robots, aspire to become them, so the more I think about this, the more I can see future manual therapy enterprises filled with robots providing precisely measured and doled out "mobilizations". Will that make certain outcomes-loving people happy? To be able to control dosages of manual therapy?

[Jon Newman]

More on Roboethics

(see post #53 also)

[Diane]

Check out this from Mindblog: Socialization between toddlers and robots.

[Diane]

Here's "the first Canadian robot to make an appearance"... there's something about this one that seems a bit more .."real"... she's not an idealized female bot, she's Botbabe with boundaries. Note the programmer has programmed her to repel sexual harrassment.

She has had an apparent mishap of some sort, is in a wheelchair. She could be a training model for manual therapists perhaps, because she indicates when handling is too rough.

[Jon Newman]

"She can feel pain sensations"--researcher (Le Trung?) in video.

Now if he could demonstrate that--wow!

[Diane]

It would be nice if it could be demonstrated in humans too.

[Jon Newman]

Good point Diane.

If one tried to treat Aiko's "pain" what would have to happen? How would we measure success?

[Diane]

Here is Deric Bownds this morning on Kewl robotics, biologically inspired. Maybe that should be "cool" robotics.

Although no module can move on its own, by using neural oscillators as drivers for the actuators and through the physical coupling between the units, a coordinated global wave of activation can be induced in clusters of more than 30 modules, which leads to forward movement, even though there is no global control.

Reminds me of the Glumbert kinetic sculptures that move eerily across a landscape driven only by wind. No nerves or brain.

[Jon Newman]

A Clever Robot

[Diane]

[EricM]

Socialization between toddlers and robots.

[Jon Newman]

There is any number of places that I could post this but this thread seemed the best place. (Hat tip to blogger Sabunim4Dan)

Evolution in your brain

From the interview

By proposing the existence of artificial consciousness, aren’t you comparing the human brain to a computer?

No. For example, if you come into this room 10 times, you are not getting an identical set of signals each time, even though the room is relatively stable. Your brain has to be creative about how it integrates the signals coming into it. Computers don’t do that. Our brain is capable of symbolic reference, not just syntax. There’s a neurologist at the University of Milan in Italy named Edoardo Bisiach who’s an expert on a neuropsychological disorder known as anosognosia [a brain injury in which a patient is not aware of the impairment]. A patient with anosognosia often has a stroke in the right side, in the parietal cortex. That patient will have “hemineglect”: He or she cannot pay attention to the left side of the world. Shaves on one side. Draws half a house, not the whole house, et cetera. Bisiach had one patient who had this. He was intelligent. He was verbal. And Bisiach said to him, “Here are two cubes. I’ll put one in your left hand and one in my left hand. You do what I do.” And he went through a motion. And the patient said, “OK, doc. I did it.” Bisiach said, “No, you didn’t.” He said, “Sure, I did.” So Bisiach brought the patient’s hand into his right visual field and said, “Whose hand is this?” And the patient said, “Yours.” Bisiach said, “I can’t have three hands.” And the patient very calmly said, “Doc, it stands to reason if you’ve got three arms, you have to have three hands.” That case is evidence that the brain is not a machine for logic but in fact a construction that does pattern recognition. And it does it by filling in, in ambiguous situations.

[Diane]

Here is a Neurophilosophy blogpost on controlling toys (and robots) through mental command.

(ASIMO, would you bring me a coffee, please? Two-percent double large latte thanks. You're cute, smooth and polite, and don't spill; you're still a bit slow but I'm sure you'll get the hang of this serving and bussing gig you're working on. I like how you go on a break and plug yourself in when you feel a bit tired. )

[Diane]

Here's something pertinent to PT in general, a good functional robot arm, courtesy of Dean Kamen's ingenuity. Matthias included him today in his blog post on learning.

[Jon Newman]

Hat tip to blogger Bobsie for this link.

Robo Love

[Diane]

I saw this article about a successful prototype for a robot fly, and thought it definitely belonged right here in this thread.

[Diane]

This post today by Mo at Neurophilosophy was a mind blower to me. Lots of great links too. A monkey in a lab 7000 miles away was able to keep a robot moving on a treadmill by focusing visually on its legs.

[Diane]

The first two videos attached to this Greg Laden blogpost are of robot fish.
So pretty, especially the wall-eye.

(The other two fish videos are just weird. Maybe they are specimens washed up onto the beach by the tsunami a few years ago.. saw something similar at that time.)

[bernard]

Man is becoming mad? (perhaps it is already done..)
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/0...ur-roboti.html

[Jon Newman]

From the Philosopher's Zone (podcast): Minds and Computers

[Diane]

Why does it not surprise me that Sandra Blakeslee is the writer of this excellent article about the work done by Miguel A. L. Nicolelis to develop control of exoskeletons by intention alone? It does bring up memories of the Borg on StarTrek, but the practicalities it could afford the disabled (here on this planet ) are huge.

I'm not sure why this bionic arm thread languishes in the rubbish cube. Anyone have any objections to me retrieving it and putting it somewhere else?

[Jon Newman]

File this under cool stuff. Here's a video of the robot interpretative dance.



Hat tip to The Neurocritic

[bernard]

This Is a Computer on Your Brain

[bernard]

http://www.ossur.com/?PageID=4463

[Jon Newman]

Deric Bownds has had some great entries lately (including his music) and I've meant to link to them. His most recent was enough to lower my energy of activation.

[Jon Newman]

Mo from Neurophilsophy has another "how cool is that?" (hcit?, hereafter) blog entry. Read about a "brain" in a vat and a robot.

After checking out the above, consider rereading Against the zombification of PT.

[Diane]

I love Mo's posts.

So, rat neurons receive "input" from sensors on the MEA, and "learn" to modify output. (I wonder if they realize what a funny looking "rat" they are running..)

Probably it's similar to the way neurons (of any kind of critter) deal with the mesoderm robot they find themselves, having to learn to control biological "life" cells that are arrayed in little cages of connective tissue, get the big organism to move by command.

Dennett says we have 100 trillion little robots (including all the neurons) making up our bodies, all without consciousness. Makes one think. Maybe we are deluded to think we are conscious at all, or that we can somehow control the process.

Here's a link to the most recent transcript I've done for the most recent episode of BrainSciencePodcast. Lots of discussion of why we need to test ideas outside our own brain to be more certain they are "good", because the feeling of being "certain" is most likely a drug-addled state. So not only are we probably robots ourselves, we are robots running thoughts laced with dopamine much of the time. The ones who realize this the most and want to double-check their ideas by running them through a scientific process to determine their worth are being the least robotic/most "human." Science helps make being a carbon-based life form not such a bad deal, really, less rather than more "matrix" (as in the movie).

[Jon Newman]

If you can't beat them, become them. Here's a promising new device from Honda.

[Mary C]

Guess it's cheaper than installing escalators and elevators. I can see an ex-athlete try it, or a young hemiplegic.

[Jon Newman]

I can imagine a much more diverse population using such a device. Anyone with LE weakness for whatever reason (e.g. long standing arthritis), but with sufficient trunk control could potentially benefit from something like this.

That said, I don't see this type of technology being available to many people any time soon. Like the Segway, it will simply be too expensive for the general population.

Actually, here's a video (slow loading). I imagine someone would need to train people in its use.

[Diane]

Here is a little youtube newsclip that takes no time at all to load, about the same bionic legs for factory workers.

I see a future for uphill and downhill hiking - maybe here their new name would be Grouse Grinders.

[Jon Newman]

I could also see this as a piece of rehab equipment. If the device was adjustable it could be utilized like weight assisted pull-ups (for instance). The assist could be slowly diminished as someone becomes more proficient. Or there could be zones where the assistance could be adjusted.

[EricM]

This link should clear up any ambiguity in Diane's last post. The Grouse Grind.

[Jon Newman]

Here is a study using artificial intelligence to help demential patients: The COACH prompting system to assist older adults with dementia through handwashing: An efficacy study

[EricM]

Just for some fun.

The Humans Are Dead

[bernard]

I found a simple way to be healthy human beings. A way to be good robots.
http://www.physioshop.co.uk/physio/posture-pals/

[Bas Asselbergs]

Oh my goodness. That looks like the 30's in Germany, where all kinds of strap-designs were supposed to do the same thing - AND where whole exercise constructs were designed around straightness of the spine.....Creepy.

[bernard]

I loved the video => (sorry but the sound is quite... bad)
http://www.physioshop.co.uk/physioth...ic-5-pack.html

[nari]

The X-strap thingy was still being used in 2005, as was taping. The rationale was drawn from McKenzie's theories on pain, so it was used for pain in thoracic/shoulder girdle/lumbar areas.
Like the now defunct McConnell taping, it helped a lot - but with little or no permanent effect, unless it was applied regularly.
Interesting that we can look back to recent times knowing now what we do.

Nari

[Jon Newman]

Here's a lecture from a conference ("Stories From the Near Future") sponsored by The New Yorker. It's given by Yoky Matsuoka and titled Neurobotics.

Pretty cool stuff.

[bernard]

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...rain.html?pg=4

[smith]

Are there pleasure models?

[EricM]

A sober discussion about the place of robots in society. Thanks to The Onion.

[Jon Newman]

Jerry Fordor reviews the book Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action and Cognitive Extension by Andy Clark.

His review starts

If there’s anything we philosophers really hate it’s an untenable dualism. Exposing untenable dualisms is a lot of what we do for a living.

Of course this suggests that there are such things as tenable dualisms. As he states, mind the gap.

Hat tip: Butterflies and Wheels