English | EN When Technology makes dreams come true
Nov 1, 2013
I am not fond of comics.
In my youth, my father insisted on my reading classics instead of these easy-to-create comics devoid of imagination— a polite way to say it was forbidden. In a way, he was (and still is) right: just as with passively watching videos, one only has to look and react. There’s no need to imagine or to create a new world when it’s already described through a comic’s words and images.
Reading comics was, therefore, a luxury or a moment of stolen pleasure all amplified by this sense of parental prohibition.
I was, however, fascinated by these science fiction comics. No X-Men or super heroes though – I discovered them years afterwards— but simple “European” style comics, and especially this one:
I was amazed by the way this young Japanese girl had her human performance greatly enhanced by means of this extraordinary machine.
This improvement of a human body, whether functional or not, through an exoskeleton has been a recurring theme in the last 50 years through SciFi books and movies. Remember:
- Alien and its charger robot,
- or in Avatar with these combat machine in the jungle,
- The Matrix and its APUs:
- Not to mention Iron Man and his armor
Though it still looks like science fiction, amazing progress has been made when you consider all the constraints an exoskeleton carries:
- Weight: new materials such as composite provide both lightweight and resistance
- Autonomy: though hydraulics could be used, a battery-powered system seems more adequate
- Balance between raw force and ability to sense resistance: you need to hold charges beyond human capacity and at the same time be able to grab an egg without breaking it
- Limited capacity of movements: the exoskeleton is per definition limited by our own human body capacity. Mechanics is mechanics, and solutions are not unlimited.
Exoskeletons are still in labs and are undergoing heavy research, but some key developments have already impacted our daily lives by improving or replacing missing parts of the body such as hands or hips with prosthetics, and thus moving slightly from an external device to an internal device.
A company such as Touch Bionics is a good example of recent progress made in this field.
http://www.touchbionics.com/products/active-prostheses/i-limb-ultra/
While looking at computing power increase within any given space, it would appear that exoskeleton looks like a natural but somehow useless step. Why try to position something on a human body when you can just forget about it and be more effective by having an autonomous and “intelligent” robot? An exoskeleton may provide you with additional features, but you are still bound by a human body (size, temperature, etc.). Artificial intelligence is the key technology in this field, but we are not competing with a human yet.
Even this stage may look like an interesting but maybe useless step with the recent improvements made in cloning and genetic manipulation. Don’t forget about the film Blade Runner based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” from Philip K Dick.
Humans are outgunning machines by far; after all, humans are amazingly complex, powerful, intelligent, and can easily reproduce. Why try to copy or improve it with metal and actuators when genetic engineering can help you?
I will not see that in my life time. It will take decades before we can achieve this. In the meantime, let’s go for the exoskeleton. Or robots.
By the way, are you aware that there are fans of R2D2, the rolling robot of star wars?
Have a look at this site:
Marc is a good friend of mine, and he has the only non-professional (amateur) robot with retracting third leg, the so called 2-3-2 actuation ( http://www.curiousmarc.com/2-3-2-actuation ). His site is famous worldwide, and is by far ranked first in terms of clicks.
When technology makes dreams come true….
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