Like others have said, the algorithms are already quite robust, but problems are the price of sensors and also legal issues.
But also quality management and systems engineering will be a problem with "intelligent" vehicles:
- Cars continue evolving AFTER the production line
- Even worse: all cars will evolve in a seperate ways
So obviously normal Six Sigma works based on normal statistical distribution go out of the window.
And who will analyze the problems? workshop mechanics (controlling algoritms??)? GM workers following every car remotely (huge costs, data overload and privacy concerns, anyone?)?? How can one in the concept phase design for characteristics which will be emergent?
And many more such issues. Long way to go then before it can really be used in mass-produced cars designed by regular project teams.
Hubble is definately one of the great science success stories of the past decades.
Remember it would have been a complete disaster if the initial mirror errors discovered just after it was placed in orbit could not have been corrected. And also now (again) thanks to the shuttle upgrades it will give much more crucial science.
I worry a bit with this about the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be much further from earth (Sun-Earth Lagrange point, if I am not mistaken). Anybody know what NASA's longterm plan for JWST upgrades is (probably somewhere around 2015-2025)? Hope for a fail-safe design? Robotic missions?
I agree with other posts that there is not much new or visionary in the article. It's a summary of current research, basically, as practically all the points have actual research projects which have started. Put researchers from different top universities together and they will come up with such a summary.
(Of course I appreciate that all this current research being done is very difficult and important work. Just that for a "visionary" article it would have been more interesting to predict what is beyond current research.)
Noteable lack of mention of robotics, "intelligent" prosthetic limbs, human and animal cloning (whole or just organs), cognitive engineering and neuroscience.
Interesting to note btw how often sensors get mentioned.
In engineering the quality of the information (telemetry, simulation models, engineering reports, etc) in databases always will degrade over time as the database exponentially grows. Sooner or later changes in personnel will cause data logging procedures to be ignored, errors or missing sensors not to be corrected, users will stop placing extensive comments connected to the data, bad data will simply be dumped and so forth.
To your knowledge, which development are currently ongoing to make a database automatically keep the quality of the information high? Place a "forgetting" algorithm which cancels out old data, automatic metrics for the quality of the information, recognize and resolve ambiguities in the information, or other similar potential solutions?
Obviously I'm not a neurosurgeon. I look forward to posts from the experts.
But what is the difference between the electrical signals from the nerves and those given off by contracting muscles? Since the nerves which carry the signals are known, why can't those nerve signals be read straight away? Is it a case of much easier signal patterns to identify with the electrical signals of muscles or just a question of signal strength or something much more complicated?
Interesting as well that they should say that when the muscles are touched, for the patient is seems like the prosthetic arm is touched. Too bad they don't mention the perceived sensitivity to temperature and pressure with this effect. Put sensors on the tip of the hand and a little device on his chest and you might give the patient movement and "feeling" as well.
I've had year-long non-competition agreement with the Ferrari Formula 1 team when I left them at the beginning of 2005.
Their reasoning (fear) behind it was that I could immediately take my knowledge of the race car design to another team. But after a year, with the speed of technology development, this design knowledge would be outdated.
I did have discussions with lawyers if such a contract is legal or not.
Well: in Europe is IS legal IF THEY CONTINUE PAYING YOU after leaving the company. Otherwise a judge in Europe will take about 20 second to review the case and say you are right.
So Ferrari continued paying me for a year for not working for another F1 team (I had no restrictions for the rest). (I offered to sign a contract for life instead of 1 year, guaranteeing never to work again for a Formula 1 team, but unfortunately they did not accept my generous offer!!!!).
Regularly with my work as a consultant customers try to make me sign such non-competition contracts. They always quickly drop it after I point out to them that I'd happyly sign it....if they pay me for it.
The type of contract they are trying to make to sign doesn't sound legal at all to me.
good luck! Chris
"The United States beat the Soviet Union in developing multiple-use Space Shuttle rockets, which form its current fleet of manned spacecraft."
The United States (together with Europe) have also beaten the Soviet Union in wasting countless billion of dollars on an International Space Station of very limited research value. Basically they just trying to try to stay alive up there and do 30 minutes of research projects per day. The Shuttle is currently also just a pork-barrel project. Those funds need to be spent in different ways (such as next generation planetary rovers).
The Russians have managed to keep their total costs for development and launches lower over the decades, by having at least some sort of "mass production" economies of scale.
Their MIR space station managed to get along for years against increadible odds, for a fraction of NASA money.
The Russians have very good and practical aerospace engineers. This illustrates the difference nicely: during the space race NASA spent money and effort in developing a pen which could work in weightlessness. The russian astronauts instead of pens used pencils in space.
It has always been known that the brain continuously adapts (but for this it needs to be stimulated all the time, "use it or lose it" as they say). But my understanding at least has been that for this the brain signals travel along new paths of existing neurons to do brain functions. This is the first time I hear of proof that the brain also physically adapts. And at quite a high rate as well. This research could be especially important for understanding Parkinson's disease.
The current state of development of this robot doesn't sound advanced at all, compared to other ongoing research with "intelligent" robots.
They won't be to worried about that, no doubt there will not be a lack of big industry/government funding in China for such a project. In fact I suspect that is probably its only purpose, a nice cash-cow.
Looks a bit like a toy robot......but beware, remember the toy robot in "Kentucky Fried Movie"!!!
The idea is nice: shift the innovation for electronics to the consumers.
In the automotive and aerospace engineering industries, there definately is a need for quick prototyping of electronics parts. But at Buglabs they don't explain well how they could help here. So I think these Buglabs building blocks the coming years probably just will just be used by some researchers.
Hard to see also how with a company of 6 people they can provide support and challenge competitors like Sun's Sunspot. The Sunspot parts (Java, not OS) are going to be easier to program and also will be wireless (why do the Buglab parts necessarily have to click together??). So I imagine many more useful applications and much more success for Sunspot.
Slashdot Mirror
Like others have said, the algorithms are already quite robust, but problems are the price of sensors and also legal issues.
But also quality management and systems engineering will be a problem with "intelligent" vehicles:
- Cars continue evolving AFTER the production line
- Even worse: all cars will evolve in a seperate ways
So obviously normal Six Sigma works based on normal statistical distribution go out of the window.
And who will analyze the problems? workshop mechanics (controlling algoritms??)? GM workers following every car remotely (huge costs, data overload and privacy concerns, anyone?)?? How can one in the concept phase design for characteristics which will be emergent?
And many more such issues. Long way to go then before it can really be used in mass-produced cars designed by regular project teams.
Hubble is definately one of the great science success stories of the past decades. Remember it would have been a complete disaster if the initial mirror errors discovered just after it was placed in orbit could not have been corrected. And also now (again) thanks to the shuttle upgrades it will give much more crucial science. I worry a bit with this about the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be much further from earth (Sun-Earth Lagrange point, if I am not mistaken). Anybody know what NASA's longterm plan for JWST upgrades is (probably somewhere around 2015-2025)? Hope for a fail-safe design? Robotic missions?
I agree with other posts that there is not much new or visionary in the article. It's a summary of current research, basically, as practically all the points have actual research projects which have started. Put researchers from different top universities together and they will come up with such a summary.
(Of course I appreciate that all this current research being done is very difficult and important work. Just that for a "visionary" article it would have been more interesting to predict what is beyond current research.)
Noteable lack of mention of robotics, "intelligent" prosthetic limbs, human and animal cloning (whole or just organs), cognitive engineering and neuroscience.
Interesting to note btw how often sensors get mentioned.
Haven't bumped into this myself yet, still it is something to keep in mind.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9008399
In engineering the quality of the information (telemetry, simulation models, engineering reports, etc) in databases always will degrade over time as the database exponentially grows. Sooner or later changes in personnel will cause data logging procedures to be ignored, errors or missing sensors not to be corrected, users will stop placing extensive comments connected to the data, bad data will simply be dumped and so forth.
To your knowledge, which development are currently ongoing to make a database automatically keep the quality of the information high? Place a "forgetting" algorithm which cancels out old data, automatic metrics for the quality of the information, recognize and resolve ambiguities in the information, or other similar potential solutions?
Obviously I'm not a neurosurgeon. I look forward to posts from the experts.
But what is the difference between the electrical signals from the nerves and those given off by contracting muscles? Since the nerves which carry the signals are known, why can't those nerve signals be read straight away? Is it a case of much easier signal patterns to identify with the electrical signals of muscles or just a question of signal strength or something much more complicated?
Interesting as well that they should say that when the muscles are touched, for the patient is seems like the prosthetic arm is touched. Too bad they don't mention the perceived sensitivity to temperature and pressure with this effect. Put sensors on the tip of the hand and a little device on his chest and you might give the patient movement and "feeling" as well.
hi stellar7,
I've had year-long non-competition agreement with the Ferrari Formula 1 team when I left them at the beginning of 2005. Their reasoning (fear) behind it was that I could immediately take my knowledge of the race car design to another team. But after a year, with the speed of technology development, this design knowledge would be outdated.
I did have discussions with lawyers if such a contract is legal or not. Well: in Europe is IS legal IF THEY CONTINUE PAYING YOU after leaving the company. Otherwise a judge in Europe will take about 20 second to review the case and say you are right. So Ferrari continued paying me for a year for not working for another F1 team (I had no restrictions for the rest). (I offered to sign a contract for life instead of 1 year, guaranteeing never to work again for a Formula 1 team, but unfortunately they did not accept my generous offer!!!!).
Regularly with my work as a consultant customers try to make me sign such non-competition contracts. They always quickly drop it after I point out to them that I'd happyly sign it....if they pay me for it.
The type of contract they are trying to make to sign doesn't sound legal at all to me.
good luck! Chris
"The United States beat the Soviet Union in developing multiple-use Space Shuttle rockets, which form its current fleet of manned spacecraft."
The United States (together with Europe) have also beaten the Soviet Union in wasting countless billion of dollars on an International Space Station of very limited research value. Basically they just trying to try to stay alive up there and do 30 minutes of research projects per day. The Shuttle is currently also just a pork-barrel project. Those funds need to be spent in different ways (such as next generation planetary rovers).
The Russians have managed to keep their total costs for development and launches lower over the decades, by having at least some sort of "mass production" economies of scale.
Their MIR space station managed to get along for years against increadible odds, for a fraction of NASA money.
The Russians have very good and practical aerospace engineers. This illustrates the difference nicely: during the space race NASA spent money and effort in developing a pen which could work in weightlessness. The russian astronauts instead of pens used pencils in space.
It has always been known that the brain continuously adapts (but for this it needs to be stimulated all the time, "use it or lose it" as they say). But my understanding at least has been that for this the brain signals travel along new paths of existing neurons to do brain functions. This is the first time I hear of proof that the brain also physically adapts. And at quite a high rate as well. This research could be especially important for understanding Parkinson's disease.
The current state of development of this robot doesn't sound advanced at all, compared to other ongoing research with "intelligent" robots. They won't be to worried about that, no doubt there will not be a lack of big industry/government funding in China for such a project. In fact I suspect that is probably its only purpose, a nice cash-cow. Looks a bit like a toy robot......but beware, remember the toy robot in "Kentucky Fried Movie"!!!
The idea is nice: shift the innovation for electronics to the consumers. In the automotive and aerospace engineering industries, there definately is a need for quick prototyping of electronics parts. But at Buglabs they don't explain well how they could help here. So I think these Buglabs building blocks the coming years probably just will just be used by some researchers. Hard to see also how with a company of 6 people they can provide support and challenge competitors like Sun's Sunspot. The Sunspot parts (Java, not OS) are going to be easier to program and also will be wireless (why do the Buglab parts necessarily have to click together??). So I imagine many more useful applications and much more success for Sunspot.