[Cyborg] various cyborg ideas from Daemon and Freedom(TM)

[Jacob Rosenthal]

Heya all,

Jacob from HeatSync, the Phoenix space, lurking here since I was out
there for makers fair and talked to Eric.

I've consistantly had this same question every couple years!  Where is
this stuff?

Obviously Eric is working on the haptics (and I'm doing some work there myself)

I looked up subvocal stuff about a year ago.  All I could find were
some excellent academic work a Nasa researcher was doing.

NASA began work on this in 1999 with their extension of the human
senses project:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/technology-onepagers/human_senses.html

For them it is envisioned as a way to do control inside suits or
inside space stations where noise is an issue.

They have produced a few interesting papers since then including
2005's Web Browser Control Using EMG Based Sub Vocal Speech
Recognition where theyve successfully trained ( on a per user basis) 6
subvocally pronounced control words, 10 digits, 17 vowel phonomes and
23 consonant phonemes.  Theyre are using an EMG to detect muscle
movements and software to filter and recognize the intent.  I havent
found anything published by them  since then though...

I did a very brief looksee on google scholar for something more recent
but didn't see anything else particularly interesting.  However I
recommend you pop "subvocal Jorgensen" into the engine and use the
"Cited By" link to find new papers who are citing his older work.  Let
me know if you find anything!

I've also been waiting for the bone conduction stuff.  The last I
remember was this 2009 Ars Technica Review of a pair of Commercial
Bone Conduction Earphones:
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/01/audio-bone-uses-your-skull-for-music.ars

As for HUDS, the beauty of augemented reality stuff is, I think, some
real energy in the HUD realm.  Vuzix indeed has been a major player
for many years but as for their commercial stuff only the recent CamAR
and upcoming Vuzix Wrap 920AR Clear lenses look at all promising.

Look forward to what you guys have compiled as for the 'state of the
future' (been meaning to do a blog post on this myself).  Also thanks
for being an active Augmenting Humanity list :)  I'm having trouble
getting something similar off the ground out here.

--Jacob

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 9:05 AM, <travis+ml-cyborg at subspacefield.org> wrote:
>
> Been listening to audiobook versions of Daniel Suarez's books
> Daemon and Freedom(TM).
>
> A few ideas from there:
>
> Haptic vest - Also called "the third eye", this vest stimulates the skin,
> making it a giant input device.  By rendering your surroundings as perceived
> via e.g. IR, ultrasonics or RADAR, you can effectively see in the dark, or
> when blinded.  The characters in the stories use them to receive messages
> from robots and alerts from newsfeeds.
>
> Heads Up Display - the primary output device for Darknet operatives.
> Often seen as eyeglasses.
>
> Bone Conduction Speakers - so you can hear (the computer, or your teammates)
> even in firefights.
>
> And of course there were gloves for somatic gesture inputs.
>
> One of the characters has a laser-induced plasma channel (LIPC) gun...
> this is what I asked about on the Noisebridge list, where a particular
> UV wavelength ionizes air, making it conductive, so that you can
> stun people remotely.
>
> Also, here's one I remembered:
>
> Subvocalization microphones - pick up neck movement associated with speaking,
> capable of picking up inaudible sounds.  This would mean you could communicate
> quickly and silently, possibly without any movement of the mouth.  Perhaps one
> could train a computer to recognize not sound, but muscle movements as well.
>
> So what's the state of these?
>
> My friend says Vuzix has the best HUD form factor so far.
>
> He also says that this augmented reality system may be the leader:
> http://www.layar.com/
> --
> Good code works on most inputs; correct code works on all inputs.
> My emails do not have attachments; it's a digital signature that your mail
> program doesn't understand. | http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/
> If you are a spammer, please email john at subspacefield.org to get blacklisted.
>
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>



--
Jacob Rosenthal
Champion | HeatSync Labs
480.389.4743 | jacob at heatsynclabs.org
Twitter: @heatsynclabs @jacobrosenthal
http://www.heatsynclabs.org