Friday, November 6, 2020

 


Human trials for a first-of-a-kind device designed to treat the brain via electrical stimulation have brought some very promising results. Called Stentrode, the implant has the potential to treat a wide range of neurological conditions, but in these very first trials, has brought about significant quality-of-life improvements for a pair of Australian men suffering from motor neurone disease (MND).


The Stentrode device is the size of a matchstick, and enters the brain via a small keyhole incision in the neck.




Monday, November 2, 2020

 


The robot, which mostly consists of a static torso supporting a highly animated and articulated head, was developed by engineers at Disney’s Research division, Walt Disney Imagineering, and robotics researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the California Institute of Technology.

Below is a video of the robot human interaction and it's enough to send a few shivers up your spine. Here's is there statement describing the video.

This video describes the development of a system for lifelike gaze in human-robot interactions using a humanoid animatronic bust. We present a general architecture that seeks not only to create gaze interactions from a technological standpoint, but also through the lens of character animation where the fidelity and believability of motion is paramount; that is, we seek to create an interaction which demonstrates the illusion of life.