New robot 'steered by human thought': Honda
March 31, 2009
Honda Reseach Institute president Yasuhisa Arai (L) and Mitsuo Kawato, Japan's ATR computational Neuroscience Laboratories director, stand next to a brain-machine interface, equipped with special headgear to measure slight electrical current and blood flow change occuring in the brain, at Japanese auto giant Honda's headquarters in Tokyo.
Japan's Honda said Tuesday it had developed a robot steered by human thought, thanks to a helmet-like device that measures a person's brain activity and sends signals to the machine.
The latest version of ASIMO -- the celebrity robot of Honda Motor Co. that can already dance, run and guide guests through an office floor -- has now been fitted with a so-called "brain machine interface" (BMI), the company said.
The state-of-the-art technology means the humanoid can perform four basic movements with its arms, legs and tongue based on the non-verbal instructions a person sends to it by concentrating on performing the action themselves.
"By only imagining moving their right hand, for example, a test person can move ASIMO's right hand," said one of the scientists involved, Tatsuya Okabe of the Honda Research Institute Japan.
"The accuracy of a movement depends on the test person and whether that person is good at concentrating."
ASIMO can perform the motions correctly in 90.6 percent of cases -- a record in the field of BMI technology -- the scientists told a Tokyo news conference, where they showed video footage of the experiment.
The research aims to create a robot which can help people with house-keeping chores such as serving dishes or watering plants.
The project is jointly run with the state-backed Advanced Research Institute International and precision-equipment manufacturer Shimadzu Corp.
"What we are doing is still basic research, but we are working on the dream of commercialising it," said Yasuhisa Arai, president of the Honda Research Institute. "But there is still a very long way to go before commercialisation."
(c) 2009 AFP
-
Mickey Welcomes ASIMO To Disneyland's 50th Anniversary
Jun 06, 2005 |
not rated yet |
0
-
ATR, Honda Develop New Brain-Machine Interface
May 24, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
ASIMO Robot to Conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Apr 24, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Honda Reveals Technologies Next-Generation ASIMO
Dec 16, 2004 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Scientists study how to make humanoid robots more graceful
Jul 09, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (29) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
4 / 5 (22) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Does anyone make a small high temperature and high pressure pump?
6 hours ago
-
Strange indexing in Fortran Code
17 hours ago
-
Car Port post load calculation
19 hours ago
-
attempting to spin-cast parabola
Feb 07, 2012
-
Flow around a reducing bend - effect on pumping work
Feb 06, 2012
-
Formula for deflection of 6061 T6 hollow tube, please help.
Feb 06, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Google rumored to have built Heads-Up-Display glasses prototype
(PhysOrg.com) -- 9to5Google is reporting that they have received a tip from someone they believe to be a reliable source saying that Google is working on a Heads-Up-Display (HUD) pair of eye-glasses. The per ...
Hitachi ships the industry's first 25-nanometer SLC NAND flash enterprise-class SSDs
Demonstrating its commitment to delivering leading-edge technologies and solutions for enterprise-class servers and storage systems, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that its ...
5 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
New Nokia phone no standout, but worth a look
The first of Nokia's new generation of smartphones isn't flashy and certainly isn't an iPhone killer. But it's a nice device, and at $40 with a two-year contract, a bargain.
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Feb 03, 2012 |
1 / 5 (2) |
4
Intel packs performance and reliability into its latest SSD 520 series
Intel Corporation announced today its fastest, most robust client/consumer solid-state drive (SSD) to date, the Intel Solid-State Drive 520 Series (Intel SSD 520), a 6 gigabit-per-second (gbps) SATA III SSD ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
3
Some HTC Android phones found vulnerable to WiFi password leak
(PhysOrg.com) -- The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U-CERT) has issued a warning to users of some HTC Android phones regarding a security vulnerability that has been found. The warning pert ...
Short fasting cycles work as well as chemotherapy in mice
Man may not live by bread alone, but cancer in animals appears less resilient, judging by a study that found chemotherapy drugs work better when combined with cycles of short, severe fasting.
Physicists build highly efficient 'no-waste' laser
A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that ...
Study shows how DNA finds its match
It's been more than 50 years since James Watson and Francis Crick showed that DNA is a double helix of two strands that complement each other. But how does a short piece of DNA find its match, out of the millions ...
Transparent iron? For the first time, an experiment shows that atomic nuclei can become transparent
At the high-brilliance synchrotron light source PETRA III, a team of DESY scientists headed by Dr. Ralf Röhlsberger has succeeded in making atomic nuclei transparent with the help of X-ray light. At the ...
Quantum physicist explains $100K offer for proof scaled-up quantum computing is impossible
(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT researcher Scott Aaronson has certainly riled the physics community with his offer this past Friday, of $100,000 to anyone who can prove that scaled-up quantum computing is impossible. ...
'Explorers,' who embrace the uncertainty of choices, use specific part of cortex
Life shrouds most choices in mystery. Some people inch toward a comfortable enough spot and stick close to that rewarding status quo. Out to dinner, they order the usual. Others consider their options systematically ...
Mar 31, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
Sound too perfect
Mar 31, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
Mar 31, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
Mar 31, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
Mar 31, 2009
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)