Mechanical Insects

The United States Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding a research project at Harvard University to develop robotic insects. They have already achieved the task of making a 60 milligram robotic, with a 3 centimeter wingspan fly.  They are hopeful that one day these machines can acts as spies, surveillance robots for battle fields and urban environments, and detectors of harmful chemicals.  Recreating a fly's movements with artificial parts could not be done using existing manufacturing processes.  It was simply not possible to scale down existing mechanical parts, it would not have given them the performance needed.  

Along with help from researchers at the University of California Berkeley a new fabrication process was developed.  This involved using laser micromachining tools to cut thin sheets of carbon fiber and polymer.  The careful arrangement of these sheets allowed the team to create functional parts.  These tiny parts placed together gave the robot the ability to bend and rotate as an actual fly's body would.  It was also necessary to create parts that would respond to electrical signals.  The electro active polymers used change shape as when exposed to voltage allowing the fly's to be controlled.  The movements are still limited and are currently being worked on.  They also plan to scale down a lythium-polymer battery.  Along with the addition of chemical sensors there are many problems still yet to work out but it seems that some day soon this technology will be in full swing.

Expanding the Space Industry

A Russian company by the name of Orbital Technologies plans to launch the world's first Commercial Space Station.  They plan for this to be an orbiting hotel that will be open to private citizens, scientists and astronauts.  The space station is expected to be operational by 2016.  Once in space it will be able to hold 7 visitors at once.  There are two main markets that the company anticipates customers from.  The first is space tourism.  It is anticipated that space travel will begin to become popular in the future as a recreational activity.  The other market would be or scientific research, such as medical experimentation and earth observation.  The space station will be built to allow docking with US, European, and Russian space shuttles.

Your webcam as a heart physician?

A graduate student at MIT, Ming-Zher Poh, has discovered a way for a camera to measure your heart rate. Basically, the webcam looks at changes in the brightness of of your skin over time to figure out your pulse. The FDA has approved the pulse measuring device stating that it can produce a result with in three beats per minute of the actual pulse.  As the system is still in development the accuracy is expected to increase.  The camera also has been programmed to recognize and distinguish different people and save their data.  The same science behind this technology should make it possible to monitor respiration rate, blood-oxygen levels, and blood pressure.

Ming-Zher Poh plans for this technology to be installed in bathroom mirrors.  Your mirror will give you daily check ups saving the results every day.  If the camera interprets the numbers as dangerous to your health you will be given an alert to see the doctor.   It is even possible that the results will be sent to your phone daily.

Imagine a mirror that could urge you to see the doctor that day to avoid a heart attack.  We will now have access to inexpensive electronics in the home that will begin to possibly increase our life spans.

Cars That Drive Themselves

When you hear Google, what do you think of?  Most likely you think of a company that runs a popular internet search engine.  Well, Google has been expanding its markets.  The company hired engineers participating in the DARPA Challenges (autonomous vehicle races organized by the US Government) to contruct.  Since then they have had great amounts of success.  The robot driven cars have logged over 140,000 miles on California roads.  The cars have done so well, that the only accident was when a Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a red light.

The inspiration for working on this project is to make roads safer, and cars more efficient.  The video cameras, radar sensors and laser range finders have 360 degree perception, something a human driver can not accomplish.  Google engineers claim that this could nearly double road capacity by allowing cars to be driven more safely and closer together.  If this is accomplished, cars can be made lighter, as the passengers would need less protection.  This would then result in a cut back of fuel consumption.

Google has a high tech database that stores maps of roads as well important details like speed limits.  The computer also warns the passengers of anything that might be going wrong.  If need be, it is very simple for  a human to take control of the car.

Although this technology may be a few years off from mass production it is exciting to learn about this work in progress.  Google has been careful to not break any motor-vehicle laws in the state of California thus far.   Perhaps certain states will enact laws making the use of this technology even stricter as they get closer to perfecting the computer systems.  Currently, it is legal as long as there is a human in the drivers seat who is able to gain control of the vehicle.  Google also suggests the possibility of summoning cars electronically to your location in the future.

A quick video clip if you are interested.

Picture and information from nytimes.com