H+ Weekly - Issue #51
ISSUE #51
A guy implants a wallet into his hand, Google wants AI to do art, a robot gets work at Pizza Hut, power sliding self-driving car, robots, AI and more!
More than a human
I Put A Payment Chip In My Hand To Replace My Wallet
Soon, instead of paying with contactless cards or with smartphones, we might be paying with our own hands. Just like this guy who implanted into his hand a microchip to replace his wallet.
Amputee Gamer Gets A Bionic Arm With an Interactive Screen, Charger, and Drone
"You have a metal arm? That is awesome, dude!"
Drakkar, an open source prosthetic leg
It looks cool, it's cheap and open source. And it is 3D printable.
Human 2.0: Tech Upgrades for the Nervous System
An infographic from Scientific American proving that bionic body is closer than you think.
After 40 Years of Blindness, a Bionic Eye Gave This Man His Sight Back
An operation that was only recently approved by the FDA just gave one man, John Jameson, back his sight. The implant, likely the Argus II, was designed to tackle retinitis pigmentosa.
Artificial Intelligence
New AI Analyzes Facial Structure To See Who's A Terrorist
Faception is a software that based on how your face looks like tells if you are a terrorist, pedophile, professional poker player or a CEO. The company behind it claims the system has 80% accuracy.
How to Create a Malevolent Artificial Intelligence
The title of the article might sound like a tutorial for a super villain, but it's not. If cybersecurity experts are to combat malevolent artificial intelligence, they will need to know how such a system can emerge, say computer scientists.
Killer robots won’t doom humanity–but our fears of AI might
"In short, there is no reason to introduce unnecessary and restrictive oversight into the AI world. However, there is plenty of room for guidance. The time has come for the industry to receive guidance that will ensure AI operational systems adhere to our legal and moral values—and that robots don’t come after us while we sleep."
Google wants to teach computers to create art from scratch
On June 1, Google will release Magenta, an AI system designed to create art. First, Magenta will try to make music and then step into visual arts and video.
Robotics
Softbank’s Pepper robot just got a job taking orders at Pizza Hut
In Pizza Hut in Singapour instead of a human waiter, you might encounter Pepper - Softbank's emotion-reading robot.
Meet the queen of sh*tty robots
You might have seen one of these robots on the internet. Simone Giertz talks about her love of building hilariously terrible robots, from a terrifying knife wielding chopping bot to a life-affirming applause bot.
Build An Obstacle-dodging Bug Bot
Did you ever want to build a bio-inspired robot? If so, here's a simple step by step tutorial how to build your own insect-like robot able of dodging the obstacles.
Autonomous Mini Rally Car Teaches Itself to Powerslide
We teach robots to drive cars on motorways and in the cities. But that's boring. How about driving off-road and powersliding like a rally driver? Some people done that and results are awesome. And their robot is open source.
Researchers Teaching Robots to Feel and React to Pain
You might ask yourself, why should a robot feel pain? For the same reason we feel pain - to avoid permanently damaging itself. The researchers from Leibniz University of Hannover are developing an “artificial robot nervous system to teach robots how to feel pain” and quickly respond in order to avoid potential damage to their motors, gears, and electronics.
The Pittsburgh Steelers Are Practicing With Football Robots
Because progress. There's a new MVP working out with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That would be a Mobile Virtual Player, a remote-controlled dummy that can run drills with football players, allowing them to practice against an opponent that never gets tired.
Robotic Wrist-Worn Joint Gives You Another Hand
This MIT Media Lab creation gives a person a second, controllable gripping hand, just in case you need a hand with something.
Virtual Worlds
Hyper-reality
Hyper-Reality presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, resulting in something I would describe as if the internet merged with the real world.
eBay Launches The First Virtual Reality Department Store
eBay and Myer just launched the world's first virtual reality department store accessible through a smartphone app in Australia. They're also giving a way their own cardboard virtual reality headsets called Shopticals.
holoportation: virtual 3D teleportation in real-time
Nice demo of holoportation - a mix of holograms and teleportation. Special motion tracking cameras capture your movement and your body, which is then analyzed and send transmitted anywhere in the world in real-time. And if you add HoloLens, it feels like you are talking to someone as that person was in the same room.
Biotechnology
An interview with Liz Parrish
Liz Parrish, the CEO of Bioviva, became the first person to undergo an anti-aging gene therapy designed by her company. In this interview, she explains the motivation behind it and how the therapy works.
Can You 3D Print Organs? - Brit Lab
Greg Foot explains whether or not we could actually 3D print organs. He starts with a brief reminder what 3D printing is, why it is so popular and important, and then jumps into the usage of 3D printing in medicine - from printing titanium bones to figuring out how to print living organs. Or your next steak.
Is the World Ready for Synthetic Life? Scientists Plan to Create Whole Genomes
Last weekend, an invite-only group of about 150 experts convened privately at Harvard. Behind closed doors, they discussed the prospect of designing and building an entire human genome from scratch, using only a computer, a DNA synthesizer and raw materials.
The Age of CRISPR: Why You Shouldn’t Fear Gene Editing
CRISPR is one of these disrupting technologies that promises a lot of things, but it also causes a lot of fear and misunderstanding. This article will explain what is CRISPR, how it works and should we be afraid (no, you should not).
Democratizing Neuroscience with OpenBCI & Adapting VR Content with Biofeedback
25 minutes long podcast on how OpenBCI and similar brain mapping devices might ride on VR wave and democratize neuroscience.
Wear it
Custom Earphones Double as Brainwave Monitors
A new earphone device currently in development could be another all-in-one milestone for the digital age. The Aware, currently in high-gear Kickstarter mode, combines a wireless Bluetooth earbud system with the biometric tracking features of fitness bands and other wearables — all in a custom-fitted, 3D-printed “hearable" device.
Outro
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - The Mechanical Apartheid
The promo video of upcoming new Deus Ex game. The year is 2027. The hostility against augmented people increases. The attacks on them become more frequent and more brutal. They are treated like a second-class humans. Eventually, non-augmented humans see them as a thread and start to isolate them. Very good sci-fi/cyberpunk short story, I recommend watching it.
AI will create 'useless class' of human, predicts bestselling historian
As AI becomes more sophisticated, more and more people will become "useless", argues Yuval Noah Harari in his upcoming book.
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