Intelligent Machines

Parkinson’s disease affects more than 10 million people worldwide, with 10% of these being diagnosed before the age of 50. Parkinson’s disease has a variety of symptoms but can often cause pronounced and uncontrollable shaking in sufferer’s hands, which can make everyday tasks such as making a cup of tea or writing nearly impossible.

What would you do with a third arm? Some personal favorites would be using a phone while typing on a computer, holding a mirror while cutting my own hair, and doing push-ups while eating a donut. While the idea of me doing push-ups is implausible, having a third arm that is fully controllable and articulated is very real. Investigators at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a robotic third arm that attaches to a subject’s shoulder and responds to human gestures.

With the increased trend and market availability of smart home appliances usage, either for comfort or for economy (power consumption control), the automotive industry has started to seriously work on integrating the smart car technologies with the smart home platforms, trying to promote their products as part of the “Internet of Things” (IoT) networking technology.

Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate devices which claim victims the world over, ranging from soldiers, civilians, aid workers and peacekeepers. These mines are explosive devices which are usually detonated by the presence or proximity of a human, but can also be triggered remotely. It’s estimated that there’s 110 million mines buried in 70 different countries around the world, with another 250 mine stockpiled by armed forces.

The field of robotics has exploded since the term robot was introduced in 1920. Where robots do exceptionally well is in manufacturing. We use robots to automate redundant tasks, perform jobs that are too dangerous for humans, and even build computers or other robots. We are now at a time that we want robots in our homes, but unlike a well-ordered factory line, homes are cluttered and unpredictable. Robots in our homes would require some form of sensory input to succeed.

Cerebral palsy affects muscle tone, movement and motor skills and is usually caused by brain damage occurring before or at birth, or during the first five years of a child’s life. The word cerebral refers to the brain and palsy to a disorder of movement and posture

Given the current lack of housing across many countries in the world, it’s not surprising that the industry is looking for fast and efficient alternatives to traditional building techniques. These traditional techniques are generally slow, costly and require a large amount of labor. Construction is also a dangerous industry, with many work-related deaths per year.

Anouk Wipprecht is a designer and electronic wearables artist and has created a design dubbed the ‘spider dress.’ The spider dress comes complete with an Intel Edison chip that uses biosignals for protection, which is an intuitive system that uses biofeedback. It has the ability to record the user’s motions as well as their mental state.

Drunk driving — one of the most common reasons for traffic accidents in the United States causes a third of the total number of deaths among inebriated teenagers and adults on the road. Over the years, there have been several attempts to find feasible solutions to this persistent problem but statistics show that, as of 2016, cases of driving under the influence (DUI) have reached an all-time high.

“Language barrier: a gap in the spoken word that ultimately hinders smooth instantaneous communication, leaving room for misinterpretation.” Of course, having a human translator at all times for this purpose is nearly impossible.

The excessive use of air conditioners or space heaters, a luxury in the developed world, is one of the main causes of global warming and unpredictable meteorological patterns. By excessive, we mean 87% of homes in the United States use energy for artificial climate control, in comparison to 2% that a populated country like India requires. This has influenced the rise of several inventions in the Information Age to save the planet and yet maintain comfortable lifestyles. 

Infertility and a struggle to conceive can result in emotional and mental stress on affected couples and their families. Endless Doctors’ appointments, rounds of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and the threat of miscarriage all weigh heavily on people’s minds.