Present-Day Terminators Roam
May 18, 2009
Terminator Salvation opens this week, and I couldn't resist the cyborg angle. The movie conjures up human-machine hybrids and robotic armies doing soldiers' jobs. I know what these mean in Hollywood, but what do they mean in the research labs around the country that are developing ways to meld electronic components with living tissue? And what does the future of war hold when robots will be charged with combat? It's all about as freaky and as scary as the movie. We explore it all on this week's Wide Angle: Present-Day Terminators.
- IM Interview: Upgrading Humans
Tracy Staedter chats with Desney Tan, who finds ways to upgrade humans by augmenting them with technology.
- Quiz: Is It A Robot Or A Cyborg?
Robots are made from metal and wires. Cyborgs have that but more -- living tissue. (Think Bladerunner or Terminator). If you met one on the street, would you be able to tell the difference? Test your wits with this quiz.
- News: Ethical Guide for Robot Warriors in the Works
Ronald Arkin, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is in the first stages of developing an "ethical governor," a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire.
- Puzzle: Wearable Robots
Robotic hands to help people overcome motor problems to full body exoskeletons that help soldiers carry 200 pounds. Wearable robots are our future. Which one will you sport?
- Feature: Cyborg Moth Gets New Radio
Electrodes and a control chip are inserted into a moth during its pupal stage. When the moth emerges, the electrodes stimulate its muscles to control its flight. The animal-machine hybrid will transmit data from mounted sensors, which might include low-grade video and microphones for surveillance or gas sensors for natural-disaster reconnaissance.
- Blog: Recycle Bots Take Over
MIT's 2.007 mechanical engineering design class held its annual competition recently, pitting robot against robot. This year it had an environmental theme: construct robots that can pick up and drop off recycling.
- Podcast: SixthSense Project Bridges the Gap between Real and Virtual Worlds
If you're one of those people who has watched one too many Terminator films and doesn't want to see the real and virtual worlds melded any further, then by all means do not go the Fluid Interfaces Group website.
- HowStuffWorks: How Robot Armies Will Work
The Terminator movies demonstrate a future where battalions of sentient, humanoid robots wage war on mankind. While that vision is still well within the realm of science fiction, many countries are looking into creating robot soldiers, including the United States.
- HowStuffWorks: How Biomechatronics Works
Biomechatronics is the merging of man with machine -- like the cyborg of science fiction. Scientists attempt to make devices that interact with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems with the goals of assisting or enhancing human motor control that can be lost or impaired by trauma, disease or birth defects.
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