Intelligent design of the future

There’s an interesting article in today’s New York Times about a humanoid robot called Simon that is “being developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the purposes of exploring intuitive ways for people and machines to live and work alongside one another.”

Article Talking, Walking Objects, by Carla Diana: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/our-talking-walking-objects.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130127

But the article itself, written by Carla Diana, the designer of Simon’s shell, focuses not so much on the robot, but on how it is designed to appeal to the humans it will be interacting with. Ms. Diana, who is described as “a product designer and creative consultant focused on bringing objects to life electronically,” says that there will be a variety of ways that robotic gadgets and appliances will interact with us, for example through a system of lights, sounds and movements. Many appliances available today already have these features.

She writes, “Whereas designers typically use form, color and materials to make an object express some human element (a drill handle may have a pattern that looks aggressive, a toaster might have knobs and dials that seem friendly), we’re entering a time when sound, light and movement are equally important parts of the creative palette. Everyday objects whose expressive elements have long been static will now glow, sing, vibrate and change position at the drop of a hat.”

Many of the concepts discussed in the article would be interesting to engineering students, since these aspects of design are not only aesthetic, but practical and psychologically effective as well.

As she says. “… the future will be rich with sensor-based, animated objects using expressive sound, light, motion and screens to praise, encourage, advise and comfort us.”

In an accompanying video on the website (time 1:44), Ms. Diana describes the kind of robotic appliances that will be available in the future, and how they will be designed so that they appeal to humans.

A Day in the Near Future

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/01/26/opinion/100000002026745/a-day-in-the-near-future.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130127#100000002026745

The video is an animated presentation of a “typical” day in a future with interactive devices. It begins: “Another Monday morning. My lamp has just gone from dim to bright. I try to turn over, but it rotates to follow me. I stumble into the bathroom; I brush one side for a while. Bzzzzt. The toothbrush vibrates, so I know it’s time to switch to the other side. Now I’m really awake. The bathroom mirror says, ‘Nice job on your weight. But your heart rate is a little higher than yesterday.’”

It would be interesting for students to discuss whether they think such interactive devices would be useful, or rather annoying. Or to discuss which devices presented in the video they would most like to have in their lives.

Ms. Diana narrates the video and speaks in a way that will be understandable, even for students at a low-intermediate level, and the accompanying visuals make clear what she is describing.

In my next post next week, I'll look more closely at Simon itself (himself?).

Learning vocabulary like a human

A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University has developed a computer system that is designed to learn the English language as a human would – cumulatively, over time. Called NELL (for “Never-Ending Language Learning system”), the system “reads” millions of texts from the web to accumulate vocabulary items and notice semantic patterns among them (e.g., whether the item is a person, place, plant). The system is able to not only add to its knowledge and categorize the facts it learns, but can review what it has learned, and revise that knowledge if necessary. In other words, it keeps “learning” from what it has learned. It is this feature that makes the system seem to have a more human-like way of learning language. So far NELL is learning only English, but the system has applications for all languages.

This topic would be an interesting way to combine a focus on technology with a discussion of vocabulary learning for technical students who might not be aware of the linguistic processes involved in learning a language. If they see how both their brain and a computer is programmed for learning a language, it could make them more aware of their own language-learning skills.

This is also a way for teachers to help students develop good vocabulary-building skills (and relate them to reading skills). NELL’s focus on semantic fields and categories (part of how NELL learns vocabulary items) is similar to a good reader’s ability to make a connection among words and concepts – a skill students should be encouraged to develop. This can be referred to each time students discuss a text they have read, and can also help students focus on how they can develop effective vocabulary-building skills.

Two articles about NELL:

From ScienceBlog (also has an interview with one of NELL’s developers, useful for discussing the technical aspect of the project)

http://scienceblogs.com/universe/2010/10/08/read-the-internet-speak-englis/

From The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/science/05compute.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=science

Bionic Engineering for Process Description

  Bionics, according to Wikipedia, is “the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.” Many of the innovations being developed today seem to be the stuff of science fictions films, and so many areas of engineering are involved that the topic would be of interest to any engineering student.

On the National Geographic website there is an article about Bionics, focusing primarily on advances in a bionic arm, cochlear implants and bionic eyes.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text

In addition to the article, there is a link to an interactive diagram “The Bionic Body”:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/bionics-animation

The interactive diagram allows a user to move the mouse over parts of the body and read the explanation of how the bionic part works. This is a particularly good example of Process Description. Here’s an example from the section “New Vision”:

1)      Video Camera sends images to a computer worn on a belt. The computer converts the video to a simplified signal.

2)      Transmitter sends the signal wirelessly to an implant in the eye.

3)      Receiver sends the signal to the electrode array to stimulate the retina.

4)      Optic Nerve carries the signal from retina to brain, which perceives visual patterns corresponding to the electrodes stimulated.

The structure of the description and the word partnerships used can be applied to a description of other bionic devices (with relevant technical vocabulary).

Global Village Construction Set

Marcin Jakubowski is the founder of Open Source Ecology, which describes itself as a “network of farmers, engineers and supporters building the global village construction set”. He has determined what the “50 most important machines required for modern life” are, and is working to make a prototype of a low-cost DIY version of each so that anyone anywhere can build them.

Open source ecology:  http://opensourceecology.org/index.php

The global village construction set:  http://opensourceecology.org/gvcs.php

It would be interesting for students to brainstorm what they would put on the list of the 50 machines required for modern life. Then compare their answers with the list on the website.

The Global Village Construction Set Design Specifications are: “Our design needs to balance a number of different elements that include:

1.     Ease of fabrication

2.     Modularity

3.     Affordability

4.     Lifetime Design

5.     Performance”

Each machine is described in terms of what it does, and how to make one. This is very useful for technical description, process description and instructions.

The global village construction set:

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Global_Village_Construction_Set

Here’s the example (and picture) from the website for industrial robot:

Industrial Robot

a robotic arm which can perform certain human tasks – such as welding or milling – for performing tasks that are not better done by humans.

“The industrial robot is an automated machine that performs a wide variety of functions, (including welding, assembly, and CAM, etc...), all depending on which tools its hand is equipped with.

Detailed description:

The industrial robot is a rotating multi-axis machine that can hold various modules (called end-effectors) for performing different tasks such as welding and cutting. These tasks can be done in repetition (through proper "teaching") and with precision (based on the robot's repeatability, which is a measure of how far the robot deviates from a certain position when going there multiple times). The volume in which the robotic arm can travel is called the working envelope (rear of robot is typically restricted), and the axes of rotation are called degrees of freedom (6 or more for higher-end flexibility). A versatile industrial robot can significantly improve the accuracy, precision, and completion times of multiple production tasks while significantly reducing the need for operator involvement.
The industrial robot is task versatile, multi-way programmable, repeatably accurate, and modular with scalable reach and payload. The industrial robot serves a universal function mimicking a human arm, so can fill in (after being programmed) for any repetitive operation not better done by humans; other times, the industrial robot can be directly operator-controlled to act as a mega-arm machine where the high reach, payload, and working envelope are advantaged.”