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Val's Nanotech discussion thread


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#91 Luna

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Posted 09 April 2010 - 05:46 AM

I wasn't too excited about the iPad when I heard of it either.. you know what would be cool? if you could fold it!

If it was smaller and you could stretch it to make it bigger, so it doesn't take so much place.

One of the reasons I don't have a laptop is because it means carrying a heavy not-so-portable thing/ + it means carrying quite a big bag all the time.

#92 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 13 April 2010 - 06:18 PM

Boy, did I call it or what?


http://hplusmagazine...me#comment-8265

Don your telepathic headset and plug into your iPhone. Want to call your friend? Just look at her picture and think about her.

No, this isn’t SF technology from the latest episode of Caprica (although the smart phones in Caprica look suspiciously like our own). A new iPhone app described in the MIT Technology Review blog developed by Tanzeem Choudhury, Rajeev Raizada, Andrew Campbell and others at Dartmouth College lets you “wink” or “think dial” your relative or friend when his or her photo appears on an iPhone. Dubbed the “NeuroPhone” (not to be confused with the “Neurophone” developed by Dr. Patrick Flanagan in 1958, a device that converts sound to electrical impulses) it’s a brainwave-phone interface that uses a wireless EEG headset to send signals wirelessly to an iPhone. Here’s a video demo of the NeuroPhone:



The “telepathic” headset is actually the Emotiv EPOC, which recently won the 2010 Red Dot Award for Product Design out of a field of 4,252 entries from 1,636 companies in 57 countries. While the wireless Emotiv EPOC headset is being marketed as both a gaming device and as an aid for the disabled, it clearly has the capability for hands-free smart phone use. With 14 EEG electrodes to monitor brainwaves and a gyroscope to locate your head in 3D space, its lithium battery lasts 12 hours and charges via USB. In addition the EPOC can read brain activity related to facial movements, which can be translated in software to infer your emotional state and intentions. The EPOC headset can also provide vegetative patients a way to communicate, let users play hands-free video games, and allow robot owners to send instructions to their bots.



the beginning of the creation of the VR interface of the latter half of this decade has become reality.

#93 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 16 April 2010 - 12:55 AM

And more in VR news:

http://www.newscient...real-world.html

POWERPOINT presentations are about to get a sprinkle of fairy dust. A hand-held projector can now create virtual characters and objects that interact with the real world.

The device - called Twinkle - projects animated graphics that respond to patterns, shapes or colours on a surface, or even 3D objects such as your hand. It uses a camera to track relevant elements - say a line drawn on a wall - in the scene illuminated by the projector and an accelerometer ensures it can sense the projector's rapid motion and position.

Software then matches up the pixels detected by the camera with the animation, making corrections for the angle of projection and distance from the surface.

The device could eventually fit inside a cellphone, says Takumi Yoshida of the University of Tokyo. A prototype which projects a cartoon fairy that bounces off or runs along paintings on a wall or even the surface of a bottle (pictured) was presented at the recent Virtual Reality 2010 meeting in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Yoshida and his colleagues are also developing a way for graphics from several projectors to interact, which could be used for gaming.

Anthony Steed of University College London is impressed. Many researchers have been attempting to create virtual graphics that can interact with a real surface, he says, but Twinkle can cope with a much greater range of environments.


It's a small step from a virtual fairy to an Avatar.

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#94 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 26 April 2010 - 08:16 PM

Interesting news in the world of VR today:

http://gizmodo.com/5... style-emailing

Between various patents and even a bog-standard Sony Ericsson, we've already thought about the possibilities of gesture-controlled phones. The University of Tokyo, in typical form, has taken it one step forward and released a video showing some sweet Natal-like possibilities.

Recombu likens it to the Project Natal of smartphones, which is a pretty accurate description for the phone pictured in the video, capable of detecting finger gestures by the motion-sensing camera located at the base. While I can't imagine typing out a text message using finger gestures, let alone an email, the idea of scrolling through photos or media is really appealing—and most definitely possible in this day and age. [Ishikawa-Komuro Lab via Recombu]


The convergence is starting. A gestural interface (not touch) for a cell phone. Using a motion sensor, just waving your hand could allow you to navigate your phone.

If you've seen a recent commercial, with a girl using a virtual display that surrounds her as she looks for a shoe store, controlled by her just waving her hands, this is the device that is moving us one step closer to that reality.


Next we have mind controlled robots

You've seen Rovio hackery before, but not like this. Not with MIND CONTROL and Skype both involved. Emotiv Systems' headset is used to control the Rovio, with the signal being carried to the robot over Skype.

Wearing the Emotiv headset, facial gestures and brainwaves are recognized, and used to control the Rovio robot, which normally prowls around houses, streaming live video footage to a secure site for regular checking up on. First though, the signals are detected by the PC, which is loaded with Roboclient, which interprets the commands. Those commands are then sent to another computer, via Skype, and is then transferred to the Rovio using the Robodance 5 app. It's a convoluted process which is obviously quite expensive to set up, but if you get it going properly then you can even tell the Rovio to send video footage of its activities, plus audio clips and status updates


That's right, control of a robot over the internet via skype using an Emotiv headset. One step closer to telepresence robots.

Now imagine a telepresence robot overlaid by an AR avatar of you being your proxy for a visit to Japan. Or a sex bot visiting your lover's bedroom.


In the carbon newsfront, graphene is found to be structurally better for superstrong materials than CNT's

http://nextbigfuture...mers-31-53.html

The mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposites with graphene platelets, single-walled carbon nanotubes, and multi-walled carbon nanotube additives were compared at a nanofiller weight fraction of 0.1 ± 0.002%.


* graphene platelets significantly out-perform carbon nanotube additives.
* The Young’s modulus of the graphene nanocomposite was 31% greater than the pristine epoxy as compared to 3% increase for single-walled carbon nanotubes.
* The tensile strength of the baseline epoxy was enhanced by 40% with graphene platelets compared to 14% improvement for multi-walled carbon nanotubes.
* The mode I fracture toughness of the nanocomposite with graphene platelets showed 53% increase over the epoxy compared to 20% improvement for multi-walled carbon nanotubes.
* The fatigue resistance results also showed significantly different trends


I just wrote an article on Graphene for H+ in which I made a interesting observation. Graphene has been used by humans daily for centuries. It's common pencil lead. The bulk form of graphene is common Graphite. It's the individual sheets of graphite that we now call graphene.

The one question I am looking forward to answering is whether the electronics and structural properties of graphene can be combined. i.e. can that wingstrut also be a terahertz computer? It opens up the possibility of reactive materials, like wings that can sense turbulence and adjust their airflow properties to minimize strain.

#95 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 26 April 2010 - 08:23 PM

And specifically for those like Luna who wonder why I am very focused on VR, allow me to repost the three articles I have had published so far on H+

http://hplusmagazine...pen-sim-project

Virtualization, The Rise of the Avatar & the Open Sim Project

Written By: Valkyrie Ice
Date Published: January 17, 2010

Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a girl of style and grace, however, unlike Mick, I won’t make you guess my name. I’m Valkyrie Ice, or just Val for short.

I do have another name, but for the twenty five plus years I have been online, starting with my first appearance in the Red Dragon Inn on my very first BBS, Val has been the name every one knows me by. But it’s not just my name which is different online; like many of you, I also have a preferred form, which from IM to Forums to Second Life I have also had since my earliest incarnations in text descriptions on the early MOOs and MUSHs, to my current existence in Second Life. Meet me on SL, and you might raise an eyebrow at the wings, horns, tail, and hooves.

At which point I will likely laugh and say “Why yes, I AM a succubus.”

Odd as it may seem to some of you, my online persona is no different than millions of others. If you traverse the blogs and forums and websites of the World Wide Web, you will find that those who choose to be exactly what they are in real life on the net as well are in a minority. From elves to vampires, klingons to anime cat-girls, cartoon characters to movie stars, the face worn by the majority of netizens is rarely the one they wear in daily life.

However, this is not the topic of this article, simply a fact of internet life. My actual desire is to point out exactly what this fact is likely to mean to our world and society as we begin to enter into the age of virtual reality. While this age is still in its infancy, we have arrived at the stage which Kurzwiel describes as “Expensive/Doesn’t work very well” for full audio/visual immersive Virtual Reality.

With the upcoming release of “Project Natal”, the Emotiv Epoc neural headset, a variety of video glasses such as Limus’s see-through glasses, and a computer or console game, basic virtual reality is now a reality. Add in the growing number of Augumented Reality applications available on various smart phones and it should be obvious that the world of the Virtual has arrived. While it will still take a few years to become commonplace, given the speed of current electronics development we can likely expect VR to reach the “Cheap/Works very well” stage in just a few years, and certainly within the next decade.

So what do VR and Avatars have to do with each other you might ask?

A lot more than you may realize, actually.

Avatars are at the heart of the 3d experience. From fighting games to social games to MMORPGs, you possess an onscreen representation of yourself. Whether it’s Farmtown, or World of Warcraft, or Soulcaliber, or Modern Warfare, you interact with the game world through this Avatar. With the Project Natal controller, that Avatar will more or less “be” you, and with the abilities of the Emotiv Epoc to detect facial expressions with fairly high accuracy, that Avatar will not only move like you, but allow anyone seeing you in that Avatar to interact as naturally as they would in person. When you smile, your Avatar will smile, when you move, it will move.

But at present, that Avatar is the creation of a game designer’s imagination. It may mimic you, but it won’t be you.

But what if it could be? What if that onscreen Avatar which mimics your every action could not only imitate you, but look exactly as you wish?

The OpenSim project is looking to allow just that. It’s an open source project to allow the Avatar access to any of a number of shared worlds, so that an Avatar created in, say Second Life, which allows the creation of an almost endlessly customized Avatar, could travel to any virtual world which supports OpenSim protocols. In other words, my appearance in any game could be that of my personally customized succubus Avatar in Second Life. I could use my base appearance in Second Life as the 3d equivalent of my Facebook profile to sign into any virtual world.

But there is far more to it than just 3d games. Watch the video linked into Project Natal. You will note that video phones are included among the various intended uses. We’ve actually had the ability to make video phones for several decades, but they have never become popular for one very simple reason. Human vanity. As good as the idea of video phones sound, one very real draw back to them is that most people don’t really want anyone who calls to see them in their typical appearance around the house. Whether it's bed head, a need to shave, or a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, we seldom want people to see us at our worst. Yet the advantages of interacting “in person” are extremely obvious.

Avatars are a perfect solution. With the level of control already available for your virtual you, your virtual “clone” could make you appear your best even if you just stepped out of bed to answer a video call. As the technology of photorealistic 3d images and the control interfaces continue to improve, that “perfect you” will eventually be indistinguishable from the real you.

At this point, I think you will realize how inevitably human nature will lead us to Avatars which look “better” than the “real” you. Once you can look “perfect,” it’s only one small step to “idealized” and simply one more step to “customized.”

Game developers know the innate desire humans possess to look idealized. Despite constant complaints by a minority about how “unrealistic” game avatars are, designers understand that people don’t want to look like Joe Schmoe from Idaho, but like Arnie from his Conan days, or like Pamela from her Baywatch days. That’s why Ivy’s cup size gets larger with every new version of Soulcaliber, or World of Warcraft guys are nearly as wide as they are tall.

But, as my opening to this post illustrated, it’s more than that. People want to look like they want to look, and that may not have anything at all to do with how they look in reality. While the recent movie Surrogates revealed that little fact quite well, they utterly failed to illustrate the reality. Second Life is a far closer look at our Avatar future than Surrogates.

Once VR has achieved the ability to create perfect virtual clones that are under our complete control, we're going to start making those Avatars look the way we wish we could look, complete with Ivy's oversized attributes, or a Nightelf's oversized muscles and long ears. We will have our plain vanilla "business" Avatar, and the "real" one that we will spend all our non-business time using, be it in a virtual nightclub socializing or swinging a virtual sword as we wade through a horde of ferocious critters.

If the net of today is any indication, I expect our Virtual future to have a lot more Elves, Vampires, Aliens, and Anime Cat Girls…

And of course, Succubi.

#96 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 26 April 2010 - 08:26 PM

http://hplusmagazine...worlds-part-two

Virtualization: From Avatar to the Mirrorworlds (Part Two)

Written By: Valkyrie Ice
Date Published: January 25, 2010

Hihi, Valkyrie Ice here again. In my last article, I discussed how the technology had arrived for making the very basic Audio/Visual immersive VR rig was available. Since then I came across a nifty omnidirectional treadmill, for allowing walking in place... which means that most basic elements are now covered. There are quite a few haptic systems in development, but for the VR revolution to start, sight and sound are two of the biggest hurdles that have now been overcome. And it doesn’t look like I’m the only one to think so. A few recent stories I’ve read give me the impression that both Microsoft and Google are angling to have an edge in the emerging VR market.

Microsoft seems to be making a push towards 360 Avatars to use them in games, both through releasing their own “Game Room” arcade for avatars and through releasing a set of design rules for use of Avatars in 3rd party games. The gist of it is: “Do nothing to break the Avatar/Player surrogate bond.” Added to their ever expanding list of customizations in clothing, pets, and body forms, it speaks heavily of their thoughts for the future of an avatar centered web. Perhaps the next version of Windows will be WinAV.

Google seems firmly set to make sure the mobile web gets built by any means necessary. Between their forays into mobile advertising, mobile webtops, mobile smartphones, and the mobile OSes of Chrome and Android, it would seem Google has its eyes firmly on a future in which the web is available to everyone everywhere, and where your mobile device is your all in one game/communications/web device. But there is another thing that leads me to suspect Google plans to be a leader into the world of VR that I’ll go into later. Then there’s this little item I just read here. Also, corporations are already experimenting with VR worlds for training and some conferencing, and it seems likely that as Avatars become more common, and virtual employees more frequent, the need for highly realistic virtual clones will become a factor pushing for universal, highly customizable, personal avatars.

So what? So we’ll make custom versions of ourselves to use online, what’s the big deal? By itself, nothing. It would just be more internet weirdness. It’s only when you start looking at a bigger picture that you begin to really see exactly what VR will mean.

In my last article, I talked about how videophones would likely only become common when combination with Avatars. I hope you didn’t just think of landlines when you read it. Because once video glasses become common in the home, they are going to be attached to smartphones. It’s inevitable. And it’s that combination with smartphones that makes VR a technology to change the world. Because it’s mobile. You’re going to have VR available everywhere.

But universal VR by itself is only one single part of a larger puzzle. Augmented reality, mirrorworlds and lifeblogging are the other four parts that make it a monster.

So imagine -- if you will -- a set of glasses attached to a smartphone circa 2015-2020. Transparent wraparound OLED displays, with CCD cameras mounted strategically, and a Natal-style lidar capable of motion tracking the world around you, tied into a network of smartphones and public surveillance cameras that more or less enables your phone to accurately place where your body is to within millimeters of precision. No matter where you are, your surroundings and your body are mapped into a virtual mirrorworld that exactly duplicates the real world you are in, but which allows you to interact with the virtual world, the real world, and the mirrorworld all at the same time.

You would look at the world through these lenses, but it might not be a world you would recognize today. Because in that world, you may not see exactly the same thing you would see without the lenses. That checkout girl at the grocery store might be a nightelf. The person you pass on the street might be an alien, a game character, or a Hollywood icon.

You might see a totally mapped mirror world, one in which Virtual, Real, and Augmented are all mixed to makes such a world possible. And smartphones and VR will make this possible. We don’t need robots to make Surrogates a reality. Indeed, the limits of robots don't apply to VR, which makes it even easier for people to customize -- and indentify with-- their avatars. And just like the examples above, a lot of people might just stop appearing as anything but their Avatars, as in Surrogates. So it might not just be the net that's filled with aliens and anime cat girls. Our entire world might look like this coke commercial.

Google is already well on it’s way to creating that world with Google Earth and Street View. Navteq is now planning to map the world in 3d with lasers and there’s even research underway to use existing surveillance cams to enable such augmented reality abilities as seeing through walls. With other Google software being used to create 3d models of buildings such as Sketchup and Building Maker, the public is already collaborating in the construction of the mirror world. Other approaches -- such as using thousands of photos from the internet to create 3d models of entire cities -- are also underway.

The mirrorworld is in the making, and right now, Google Earth appears to be the center of it. With Google’s push into mobile web technology, it seems almost assured that -- as smartphones begin interacting with the mirrorworld and augmented reality lenses get added to them -- Google’s mirrorworld and AR, as well as VR are all going to collide… and create a digital wonderland. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s probably going to happen far quicker than you might expect. And that is going to lead to some rather revolutionary changes in our world. It’s not just that we may end up with a world that has some resemblance to a sci-fi convention overlaid onto a mundane reality, a world where Avatars walk down the street and we can meet up with our buddies at the giant pin sticking out of the bar. It’s not even that we could play the same avatar in real life, or in any virtual game. It’s not even that this mix will enable us to do all kinds of wild and wacky wonders like teleport from one city to another virtually. The real head banger is what all this virtuality is going to inspire. You see, humanity is not a species known just for having a vivid imagination. It’s known for making that imagination real. Just like we demanded Star Trek Communicators and got cellphones, once we get our perfect avatar bodies and get to play with them in the streets, go shopping with them, and hang out in bars with them, we’re going to want them in real life.

And that’s the biggest game changer. We’re not a species that is happy with just the seeming of a thing. Once it’s in our face, we’re going to have to make it a reality. We’re going to want those pointed ears, and angel wings. We’re going to demand our neko-mimi and anime eyes. And we’ll push research that will make it happen, because we will have created a demand so massive that no profit-minded business will be able to ignore it. VR will open the door through which Biotech, Nanotech, and Robotics will emerge, and drag them kicking and screaming into reality.

#97 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 26 April 2010 - 08:53 PM

http://www.hplusmaga...-reality-part-3

Virtualization: From Virtual to Reality Part 3

Written By: Valkyrie Ice
Date Published: February 15, 2010

If you read the last section of this three part essay, you will recall I discussed how the VR revolution is likely to occur, and ended up with the statement that VR will likely open the door for the benefits of the technologies of Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics. In this section, I’m going to explain why I think this will occur.

As I pointed out previously, VR is likely to lead to all sorts of weirdness such as people becoming their Avatars in daily life, businesses creating virtual worlds to work in, and a general blurring of the hard and fast lines of Virtual and Real. More than anything else, It’s that blurring effect that more than anything leads me to believe that VR will become a catalyst for GNR.

VR is an ideal test laboratory, one in which we can test out many concepts that are too expensive, or too controversial, to implement in the real world right now. It should be obvious from the recent financial crisis that we need to overhaul our economic models, and even begin looking forward to transitioning to a post scarcity economy, but doing so in the real world is prohibitively difficult. As attractive as the Venus Project's resource based economy model, or Cory Doctorow’s “Wuffie” model may be, implementing them in the real world is not only hard, but until they are fully tested and found to be practical, they are potentially problematic. Without working prototypes, we have no way to know if they will solve problems or create even worse ones.

But we could easily ucover such problems in a virtual world. A MMO game or virtual world could be far easier to make and test than real life itself is. Nor is it limited to just one single vision. A thousand different worlds could each have their own economic system, and the most successful ones could be refined into completely vetted and tested systems that could then be implemented in reality.

Economic models are not the only thing VR will be used to improve and refine. We already have a machine that can be used to create organs, via a process of “printing”. We also are beginning to see the emergence of genetic CAD systems like Tinkercell, and advances in stemcell use are occurring so rapidly that trying to list even a tiny fraction of links would consume pages. We are in the process of deciphering the programming language of life, and simultaneously using that language to create medical wonders.


So what happens when you begin using VR and combine it with such technologies? The obvious answer is that virtual reality will enable us to create tools that are much easier to use in dealing with small scale devices like micro surgery robots, or any number of other microscopic sciences such as DNA manipulation. A VR version of Tinkercell could allow a scientist to custom build entire organisms from scratch and see them modeled at a scale large enough to easily work with, much like the virtual workshop Tony Stark used in Ironman. That ease of use could just as readily aid the continued research into breaking the genetic code, enabling us to essentially make Lego brick like modules of an enormous variety of molecular machines, complete with their DNA codes, and assemble them in VR.

At the same time, our increasing knowledge of genetics isalso going to make things like customized body sculpting not only easier, but probably pretty cheap too. We can print organs now, and use stem cells to cosmetically alter our bodies. They’ve even tested building rabbit penises. Seriously, how long do you think it’s going to be before an organ printer is routinely used to create larger penises? And how long after that do you think it could be used to create a customized elf ear? Or even a prehensile tale for a human being? Once we’ve cracked the DNA code for it, we can program a stem cell to become any other kind of cell. It may not be long before the demand for body customization, raised by VR Avatars, will lead to a the use of organ printers to create “accessories” for our bodies -- and we will do it as easily as we accessorize our cars. Frivolous, you say? Absolutely. But don’t ever underestimate how much people will invest in frivolity to get what they want.

In a related field, VR is also likely to push research into BCI in a massive way. As recently noted on h+, we’ve now got transistors that act more like synapses than digital devices. It is possible that such synaptic mimics could make it far easier to link the human nervous system to a typical digital circuit; or could create a means of making entirely new kinds of computers which could enable two way communication between the brain and your VR environment. It should be obvious that the basic VR device I’ve outlined is a far cry from the typical Matrix-like expectations of VR, but it’s only the beginning. As computers continue to advance, and we find new ways of using electronics and our biology, a Matrix level VR system is simply a matter of time, research, and demand. Even if it proves impossible to create a full 2-way communication system, we’ll find other ways to make our VR systems as hyperreal as reality itself.

Which more or less brings us to the next revolution -- nanotechnology. I won’t go into all the pros and cons about nanotech, but I will point out that K. Eric Drexler himself is saying that we have the foundational tools needed to bring his vision of nanotech into it’s infancy. It’s happening, and we still have to figure out how to cope with it.

VR offers the same laboratory for nanotech that it does for other sciences. In fact, in its roughest stages, it's already providing. The ability to create items in Second Life is really a virtual version of Drexler’s Nanofactory. To be sure, it’s a rough equivalent, but close enough to give us an idea of what kinds of changes to our everyday reality true nanotech could bring. From the most fantastical of structures, to the most fantastical of creatures, Second Life is built on the object creation system. Be it a home, a sword, or a pair of wings, if you can imagine it, you can make it. This is the same promise that Nanotech offers, but available now. It gives us a taste of what universal assemblers could do and lets us play with it hands on.

We’re already in the rough stages of pre-nanotech universal assemblers with such advances as the RepRap self replicating 3d printer; our increasingly versatile ability to print electronics like flexible touch screen displays; and the organ printer mentioned above. With the continued growth of open source designs, and the likely integration of object creation software like that used in Second Life and other 3D environments, creating what we imagine may become as easy in reality as it is in VR. Even as nanotech is being developed through multiple pathways, we may already have not only explored many of its benefits in virtual space, but figured out how to cope with its dangers as well.

Which brings us to the last of Kurzweil’s revolutions -- robotics. We already deal with robots in virtual space in the form of animated NPC’s and various other “monsters” in video games. With the rapid advances in robotics, from such complex devices as the Actroid to the surprisingly advanced toy Femisapien, to the new “sexbot” Roxxxy, it seems likely that once VR “NPC’s” merge into the world of robotics, we’re going to see some major advances in the use of robots in our day-to-day life.

While Rosie the robot maid may be some years off , robots in limited capacities may become quite commonplace for many menial tasks such as running the register at a fast food joint or supermarket -- doing precisely what NPC’s do in the virtual world today. We will just as likely see the use of robots for VR surrogates, much like the recent movie, though far more limited. Take Roxxxy for an example, and add in the Actroid animatronics, and it seems that it could be a fairly simple matter to program such a robot to act as the physical “avatar” for a virtual person, enabling them to remotely control the bot from anywhere in the world. Even in the early stages, such a "telepresent" sexbot would revolutionize the entire concept of long distance relationships, further blurring the line between virtual and real. While it would start off with something as simple as preprogrammed routines similar to the sex animations common in Second Life, as we continue to advance in our ability to interact with our virtual selves and such telepresent “surrogates” to enable us to “be there” physically, it seems likely that those advances will be usable outside the bedroom as well, enabling us to create ever more lifelike and sophisticated automatons.

And as we learn to make robots act more and more human, it will also enable us to make them capable of more and more complex tasks, gradually working up from salesbots and sexbots to autochefs capable of not only cooking our food, but cleaning up the kitchen. And it will start as we make better and better virtual “people” to handle all those boring and menial jobs in VR.

And that is why I say VR is a gateway to the other revolutions. We continually hear about the wonders of such advanced technologies, but we are as afraid of them as we are desirous. VR, more than anything else, will let us play with our dreams, without worrying about our nightmares. We will make a virtual wonderland, and from that wonderland, we will bring the best and most beneficial to our everyday world. No matter how crazy, no matter how strange it may seem to us now, our future will be beyond our wildest imaginations. VR will give us the tools we need to not only make that future conceivable. It will give us the means to face our fears and overcome them. Unlike the Krell from the movie Forbidden Planet, we will be able to face our Demons of the Id before they will ever have the power to do us harm, and in so doing, it will let us chart a safer course to the Singularity.

Tempting thought, no? Well, what did you expect? I did warn you I was a Succubus…




And there you have part of why I am so supportive of VR. But there is another thing that VR is going to do that will also have far reaching effects. Think about the reality of all those cameras, all those devices scanning the entire world constantly. You will have a record of your entire life, everything you see, everything you say, and everything that happens around you. Essentually you will have a perfect memory, one which could be used to provide evidence when someone robs you, or commits a crime against you. A black box for the common man.

But more than that, it will mean the end of secrecy. When ten million eyes are on our public officials, they will not be able to hide their back room deals, corruption, and lack of accountability. We're already beginning to see this take place, epitomized by of all people, Jon Stewart, with his constant calling attention to the lies, backstepping, and out right hypocrisy of many public figures by doing nothing more than comparing their current words with those previously recorded. As we transition into the VR future, accountability is going to happen, no matter what anyone tries to do to avoid it.

VR is going to radically change our world long before Nanotech, Robotics, AI, or even Genetic engineering. We're going to start seeing this change begin in the next five years.

Step by step, development by development, one small piece at a time.

#98 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 27 April 2010 - 11:15 PM

And in Neo-Luddite News:

http://nextbigfuture...low-up-ibm.html

UK Daily Mail - A routine traffic-stop in Switzerland has allegedly thwarted eco-terrorists from blowing up the site of the £55million nano-technology HQ of IBM in Europe.

The three members – two men and a woman – of the Italian terrorist group Il Silvestre were stopped just a few miles from their target with their explosive device primed and ready to go.



So Luddites Zero and Emerging technologies and Societal Law Enforcement One. However, there is ongoing investigation and interrogation to see if this was part of a larger series of planned attacks. This may herald the start of societal conflict and attempted disruptions over emerging technology.

Italians Costantino Ragusa and Silvia Guerini, together with Italian-Swiss Luca Bernasconi, were arrested and jailed after a search of their vehicle revealed the bomb.

Guerini and Constantino – the 33-year-old leader of Il Silvestre - already have convictions for eco-terrorism offences and have served jail terms.

The group describes itself as anarchist and is opposed to all forms of micro-technology as well as nuclear power and weapons.

The IBM facility that the Il Silvestre group was targeting is still under construction. When finished, it will contain the most state-of-the-art facilities in Europe for nano-and-bio-technological research, with the probability of billions of pounds in profit for IBM.

Investigators are quizzing the suspects on whether the planned attack is part of a new co-ordinated wave of terror against such facilities on the continent. Swiss media reported that the intended bombing was planned to coincide with a secret meeting of European anarchists on April 16 and 17 in the Swiss town of Winterthur.



I agree with Brian Wang, Luddites zero, law enforcement one. Yay for our side.

#99 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 30 April 2010 - 06:27 PM

Interesting news today. Brian Wang does a spot on various AR technologies:

http://nextbigfuture...technology.html

First a "haptic" floor http://www.technolog...o...ref=rss&a=f

The modular "haptic" floor tiling system is made up of a deformable plate suspended on a platform. Between the plate and platform are sensors that detect forces from the user's foot. And the plate can give off vibrations that mimic the feeling of stepping on different materials. A top-down projection and speakers add visual and audio feedback


Combine that with this http://gizmodo.com/5...is-the-holodeck and we're talking.

And then a few links to wearable computing devices
http://nextbigfuture...-augmented.html
http://nextbigfuture...ennas-will.html
http://nextbigfuture...eadmounted.html
http://www.wired.com...ion-spectacles/

Day by day. Step by step. And each one a little faster than the one before.

#100 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 30 April 2010 - 08:11 PM

And in Nanotech news:

http://nextbigfuture...anoengines.html

There is fresh buzz in nanomechanics. Scientists at the University of Bonn have succeeded for the first time in making, out of DNA double stands, an interlocked molecule (rotaxane) with freely moveable components. As the researchers wrote in the latest edition of the science journal "Nature Nanotechnology" (doi: 10.1038/NNANO.2010.65), this opens up exciting possibilities for nanorobotics and synthetic biology. Researchers give a major boost to nanorobotics: Rotaxane molecules made of genetic material.


Basically, DNA used to create mechanical parts. One step closer to Drexlerian nanomachines.

#101 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 01 May 2010 - 07:27 PM

And today in Nanonews:

http://nextbigfuture...omic-scale.html

Arxiv - Six degree of freedom atomic-scale manipulation using carbon nanotube bundles The designs can support the 9 tooltips designed by Freitas and Merkle.

Abstract. Scanning probe imaging and manipulation of matter presents is of crucial importance for nanoscale science and technology. However, its resolution and ability to manipulate matter at the atomic scale is limited by the rather poor control over the fine structure of the probe. In the present communication, a strategy is proposed to construct a molecular nanomanipulator from ultrathin single-walled carbon nanotubes. Covalent modification of a nanotube cap at predetermined atomic sites makes the nanotube act as a support for a functional ―tool-tip‖ molecule. Then, a small bundle of nanotubes (3 or 4) with aligned ends can act as an extremely high aspect ratio parallel nanomanipulator for a suspended molecule, where protraction or retraction of individual nanotubes results in a controlled tilting of the tool-tip in two dimensions. Together with the usual SPM three degrees of freedom and augmented with rotation of the system as a whole, the design offers six degrees of freedom for imaging and manipulation of matter with precision and freedom so much needed in modern nanotechnology. A similar design might be possible to implement with other high-aspect ratio nanostructures, such as oxide nanowires.


I'm tempted to just let this stand on it's own, but I don't want to take the chance someone will miss what this is.

Game over man. Check and mate. Drexler wins.

THIS IS A NANOASSEMBLER.

They have designed it, and have the tools to make it. I expect working models inside of five years.

Edited by valkyrie_ice, 01 May 2010 - 07:42 PM.


#102 air90

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Posted 02 May 2010 - 11:17 PM

Interesting. I'd like to hear what Merkle and Freitas have to say about this.

#103 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 07:50 PM

And today H+ has published my first actual ARTICLE.

http://www.hplusmaga...s/graphene-next

Graphene. If you’ve never heard about it, don’t worry, a lot of people haven’t, because it’s really only been “discovered” relatively recently, and most of the truly interesting news about it has been in the last year. The amazing thing is that we’ve actually been using it for centuries, in the form of the common pencil. Graphene is a form of carbon, much like carbon nanotubes and other fullerenes, with one major difference. While fullerenes are 3D structures of carbon atoms, graphene is a flat sheet. It’s a 2D lattice of carbon with bonds as strong as diamond. It’s this sheetlike nature that makes it so useful in a pencil. As you write, individual planes of graphite are sheared off the end and deposited on the paper. Those individual planes are pure graphene.


Okay, shameless self promotion aside, I hope you will read and enjoy the article since most of it comes from this very thread.




And now:

Posted Image
*HAPPY DANCE TIME!!!*

#104 ken_akiba

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 08:05 PM

I just want to mention that Terran warship in the game of Starcraft is also named Valkyrie. May I ask why "ice"?

#105 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 08:18 PM

And now for real news:

http://nextbigfuture...onic-robot.html

Successfully realizing claytronics rests firmly on the ability to mass-produce sub-millimeter scale catoms. Each catom must have a small robust physical structure integrated with the ability to transfer energy to neighboring units, store energy, move, communicate with its neighbors and selectively adhere to neighboring units; all under the local control. To invest each unit with all of this functionality requires a novel approach towards the design and manufacture of the catom. Our design philosophy seeks to simplify the catom design by following the ensemble principle, which states that: A unit should include only enough functionality to contribute to the desired functionality of the ensemble.


Utility fog, Generation 0. Nuff said?

Then we have this:
http://nextbigfuture...ive-optics.html

Air Force Office of Scientific Research-supported holographic, adaptive, optics research may help transform software into computer-free, electronics for unmanned aerial vehicles, high energy lasers and free-space optical communications that will enable each to run faster and more efficiently than before

"The current system for UAV imagery, lasers and optics is computer software driven, but the next phase is to replace that with an electronics system called High Altitude Large Optics," he said. "Such a system would be orders of magnitude faster than anything else available, while being much more compact and lightweight."

It is hoped that HALOS will become the standard in adaptive optics of the future. It may also create entirely new markets for sharper telescopes and camera images that will be used for military purposes.


Confused? It's basically a hardwired method to provide the kind of image enhancement that presently is supplied by software, in real time, as a built in function of the camera.

In other words, extremely high quality, high resolution, imaging that is insensitive to atmospheric turbulence or lighting. In simpler words, a camera which can deliver the kind of razor sharp detail a digitally enhanced image can reveal at the instant the image is captured.

So what? It's military gimmickry?

For now.

But think about what it will mean when it's in your smartphone's camera. A smartphone that is as capable of the image quality that currently is only spytech. One capable of capturing the kind of data which could make a mirror world exact down to the smallest detail.

Or how about a VR device capable of giving you all the powers of Geordi's VISOR. Telescopic, microscopic, IR, UV, night vision, etc.

#106 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 08:29 PM

I just want to mention that Terran warship in the game of Starcraft is also named Valkyrie. May I ask why "ice"?



A Valkyrie's "Ice" was a poetic way of saying her sword in some of the old norse poems.

My legal name is also that of a weapon. Kinda ironic actually that 25 years ago I came up with that name as a call sign for my character in a Robotech RPG, long before I ever knew of the old definition. The Valkyrie was the variable fighter in Robotech, and I had just watched "Top Gun". Val Kilmer was "Iceman" Thus Valkyrie "Ice"

There are other reasons, but I didn't know them consciously at the time. Valkyrie Ice has been my Online name for over 20 years, and I'm comfortable with it.

#107 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 08:34 PM

Oh, missed one:

http://nextbigfuture...could-make.html

Tel Aviv University develops fiber optics technology to replace semi-conductors. It's a new nano-based technology that can make computers and the Internet hundreds of times faster — a communications technology "enabler" that may be in use only five or ten years in the future. Dr. Koby Scheuer has developed a new plastic-based technology for the nano-photonics market, which manufactures optical devices and components. Reported in the journal Optics Express, his plastic-based "filter" is made from nanometer-sized grooves embedded into the plastic. When used in fiber optics cable switches, this new device will make our communication devices smaller, more flexible and more powerful.


In other words, high speed chips and high speed data transfers are coming hand and hand.

#108 ken_akiba

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 11:12 PM

Ahh Macross! I remember now. How neat is it that you know this ancient Japanese anime by heart.
And ICE.. hauntingly beautiful.

As to Valkyrie, uhh no Val Kilmer, I adore his line "Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash"
English is such a fun language.

Thank you and 5 star for you, Madam Valkyrie.

#109 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 04 May 2010 - 11:30 PM

Ahh Macross! I remember now. How neat is it that you know this ancient Japanese anime by heart.
And ICE.. hauntingly beautiful.

As to Valkyrie, uhh no Val Kilmer, I adore his line "Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash"
English is such a fun language.

Thank you and 5 star for you, Madam Valkyrie.


What can I say, I'm an American Otaku. I even write a Sailor Moon, Ranma, Ah! My Goddess, Inuyasha megacrossover fanfic called Tears of a Dragon http://www.fanfictio.../42036/LSMcGill

I cut my teeth on Yamato, Harlock, and Macross.

#110 Luna

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Posted 05 May 2010 - 02:01 PM

I love Ranma and Ah! My Goddess. I liked Inuyasha.. but mainly because Sesshomaru is hot :|o

Love the updates!

#111 Reno

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Posted 06 May 2010 - 01:29 PM

I own macross plus, but I never got to see the original robotech series. The last time I looked at the robotech boxset cost a fortune.

#112 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 06 May 2010 - 05:34 PM

I own macross plus, but I never got to see the original robotech series. The last time I looked at the robotech boxset cost a fortune.



I own it. Got it in trade for the complete Mechwarrior series of games, which I also got free.

You can watch it here: http://animeseed.com...robotech/?p=901

#113 Reno

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Posted 07 May 2010 - 01:07 AM

I own macross plus, but I never got to see the original robotech series. The last time I looked at the robotech boxset cost a fortune.



I own it. Got it in trade for the complete Mechwarrior series of games, which I also got free.

You can watch it here: http://animeseed.com...robotech/?p=901


That's a real good trade. Thanks for the link val. I use to watch anime like that when i was in high school, but nowadays I only watch it if I buy it. I think the last boxset i got was the lain serial experiments boxset in ~07. I was wanting to pick up the utena black rose saga awhile back. I just haven't had the time or money to fool with ordering it.

#114 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 07 May 2010 - 01:36 AM

And an non-xbox exclusive competitor to Project Natal just debuted at Technomy in Tel Aviv.

http://techcrunch.co...-project-natal/

It uses usb 3d cameras, is intended to work on all platforms, and will be licensed to developers for 3rd party branding. I expect to see a rush to beat Microsoft to the punch.

#115 ken_akiba

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Posted 07 May 2010 - 03:33 AM

Original manga version of Babel Nisei might interest you unless it is already under your belt. It is posted on a couple of site for free viewing.

#116 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 07 May 2010 - 07:46 PM

More AR advances:

http://www.crunchgea...ne/#more-156894

Noora Guldemond, Head of Marketing at Metaio—a company focused on developing Augmented Reality experiences—showed me a few recent AR examples her company developed. This Jurasic Park example curiously doesn’t have the usual black and white “target” that I normally recall seeing in many AR demos. In fact, Noora indicated that is called Natural Feature Tracking and is one of their differentiators.


An AR application that can use any image as an "anchor" instead of needing the black and white targets needed till now. Combine this with the projector "Fairy" I talked about earlier, and you can see where we will soon have AR that is able to be overlaid on the real world soon without any need for "targets"

#117 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 07 May 2010 - 09:55 PM

Original manga version of Babel Nisei might interest you unless it is already under your belt. It is posted on a couple of site for free viewing.


Found the anime, will have to try and find the manga. I have found that I prefer the manga or the interactive novels better than the animes because the animes simplify the stories too much. Negima is a prime example.

#118 valkyrie_ice

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Posted 07 May 2010 - 10:01 PM

And in the world of gaming:

http://kotaku.com/55...ld-of-warcrafts

The social districts of APB, Moreland said, could also become a place where some gamers spend most of their time. In fact, the developer is even playing around with the idea of making it free for anyone to access, whether they buy the game or not.

"With the social district there is a compelling investigation to be made into making the social district entirely free to play, building that out to be a stand alone," he said. "There is going to be two kinds of audiences in APB: People who want to play the action game and think it's cool and then people for whom customization is the driver.

Realtime Worlds is already looking into building out the social districts of their game to include more features for people not as interesting in the gunplay.

"We're talking about adding player housing soon," Moreland said.

In theory, gamers could spend all of their time in the social districts creating their own clothing lines, car art or tattoos and selling them in game for APB's in-game currency.


In other words the social part of the game is like Second Life. That makes APB the first cross between a social "VR world" and a MMORPG. If they catch on, and the OpenSim model continues to improve, we may soon be seeing many such games, where the Social world is freely accessable to all, and only the GAME environment is pay4play. This could lead to a massive shared world environment in the not to distant future, and certainly in time for VR.

#119 hotamali

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Posted 08 May 2010 - 05:25 PM

And in the world of gaming:

http://kotaku.com/55...ld-of-warcrafts

The social districts of APB, Moreland said, could also become a place where some gamers spend most of their time. In fact, the developer is even playing around with the idea of making it free for anyone to access, whether they buy the game or not.

"With the social district there is a compelling investigation to be made into making the social district entirely free to play, building that out to be a stand alone," he said. "There is going to be two kinds of audiences in APB: People who want to play the action game and think it's cool and then people for whom customization is the driver.

Realtime Worlds is already looking into building out the social districts of their game to include more features for people not as interesting in the gunplay.

"We're talking about adding player housing soon," Moreland said.

In theory, gamers could spend all of their time in the social districts creating their own clothing lines, car art or tattoos and selling them in game for APB's in-game currency.


In other words the social part of the game is like Second Life. That makes APB the first cross between a social "VR world" and a MMORPG. If they catch on, and the OpenSim model continues to improve, we may soon be seeing many such games, where the Social world is freely accessable to all, and only the GAME environment is pay4play. This could lead to a massive shared world environment in the not to distant future, and certainly in time for VR.



A couple of my friends got an APB beta, they said it was awesome, totally open ended.

#120 Elus

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Posted 08 May 2010 - 05:34 PM

#1. I thought this might be appropriate for the thread.



#2. So might this:

http://news.cnet.com..._3-6226196.html

COMBINED WITH:
http://www.ecogeek.o...nt/article/1128



= 1200 miles per charge. l0l.

Edited by Elus Efelier, 08 May 2010 - 05:38 PM.





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