Seeing-eye.

In my last posting, I was talking about ASIMO the people friendly robot. I also touched on dogs helping the blind in Japan. I remember a few years ago in Japan, Sony has developed robotic pet-dog called AIBO. AIBO was both an early use of Sony technologies such as the Memory Stick and its proprietary embedded operating system, as well as advanced robotics technology from the company's research and development labs. Over time AIBO becomes more sophisticated, with ability to speak 1000 words, react to owner's command (pre-programmed) and with camera installed behind its eyes. However, due to cost cutting and reorganizing effort, Sony has "put AIBO to sleep."

 

AIBO the pet-dog toy

Yesterday, I came across an article in the internet which says that the dogs for the blind or called "seeing-eye dogs" may lose its job soon. This is because, NSK a Japanese robotic company is developing a robot seeing-eye dog that can roll across floors, climb stairs and assist the visually impaired. According to NSK, the machines are technically called “quadruped walking robots,” because they use four legs to move.Robotics researchers have also given the latest guide dog the gift of sight by adding a Microsoft Kinect camera to its head. Kinect cameras are traditionally used for video games on the Microsoft Xbox 360 but are also often used in robotics projects.

Click here for Video of the robotic " Seeing-eye dog" developed by NSK.Seeing-eye dog

Look Who's Cooking?

As I mentioned earlier, I am am not so much into technology. However, I know one technology invention that I wish I could have as a companion at home. I’m sure everyone is familiar with ASIMO, the latest robotic invention by HONDA. ASIMO stands for Advances Step in Innovative Mobility.

What is so special about ASIMO?

ASIMO is designed as a People Friendly robot which means that ASIMO is created as a partner for people to make people’s life easier. At this moment ASIMO is considered as the most advance humanoid robot in the world. It has been developed and programmed with features resembling human movement like walking, running, speaking, recognizing voices so on and so forth. The followings are features of ASIMO as stated  in HONDA websites. ASIMO also can do things like turning on light switches, carry objects with its two hands and push a trolley cart. Lets us see some of the features ASIMO has. 

1. People Friendly Robot Feature

With 130cm height, ASIMO is just as tall as my 8 years old son. ASIMO can be a great companion for my two boys to play soccer or maybe camping outside the house. But can ASIMO endure the “torture” to be dressed up like girls by my daughter? She surely would like to dress up ASIMO with skirts or "baju kurung " or "kebaya". Maybe she would put some make-up to make it prettier.

According to HONDA,The robot's size was chosen to allow it to operate freely in the human living space and to make it people-friendly. This size allows the robot to operate light switches and door knobs, and work at tables and work benches. Its eyes are located at the level of an adult's eyes when the adult is sitting in a chair. A height of 130cm makes it easy to communicate with. Honda feels that a robot height between 130cm and that of an adult is ideal for operating in the human living space.

ASIMO AT HOME

ASIMO IN OFFICE

2. Intelligence Technology

ASIMO has advance communication ability. It is amazing how technology has enable people to create a robot with human motor ability. One feature which can differenciate robot and human is,  robot has no feelings. If the inventor of ASIMO can improvise ASIMO with ability to detect mood swing, I think it will be good to bring ASIMO to office to detect our bosses mood (to make sure the boss is in a good mood )before we apply for leave. The followings are the intelligence technology Honda developed on ASIMO.

a) Recognition of moving objects.

- ASIMO uses visual device (a camera) mounted on its head to detect movement, it can follow people’s movement, follow a person or greet a person.

- Recognition of postures and gestures

- By using the visual information captured, ASIMO interpret the positioning and movement

of hands can able to recognize postures and gestures.

b) Recognition the environment

ASIMO is able to assess the immediate environment whereby it can recognize obstacles, make evaluation to avoid from collision with the obstacle.

c) Distinguishing sound

ASIMO is able to source of sounds and able to distinguish voices from other sound.

d) Recognition of faces

ASIMO can recognize faces even the human is moving provided the faces of the people must be pre-registered for ASIMO to recall the person, greet or address the person’s name. 

3. Network Integration

i. Integration with user’s network system

ii. Internet connectivity

4. Carrying object while using Tools.

ASIMO is able to handle tray, in terms of holding the tray and handing it to a person, walking while holding tray and putting the tray onto the table.

Helping Hand

In my opinion, one of the best feature of ASIMO is  recognition and avoiding obstacles. This feature  is similar with the dogs for the Blind.  I think that ASIMO could be the best assistance for the visually impaired people. In Japan, a friend of mine took study leave for one year to join a Dog Training School for the Blind. The dogs are trained to accompany the visually impaired people whereby instead of using the stick, the dogs will walk side by side and give signs if there is obstacle ahead. The dogs are also trained not to react to moving object such as balls or cats. However, the dogs are allowed to “behave” like a dog occasionally to avoid stress.

Maybe in future, we can have ASIMO like assistance of which can act like the dog for the blind, that can assist the blind people in every part of the world.

I would be happy if ASIMO can cook too. If ASIMO can be programmed to cook, it means that, I have to input into ASIMO cooking receipts and set instruction for ASIMO to cook the dish according to schedule. It will be great. But ASIMO also need to be programmed to taste. It’s even better if ASIMO can do the groceries too. Me? I can use the spare time reading books, watching TV or even exercising.

Read more about ASIMO from here. http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/

Take a sneak peek....

When I was in school, I really enjoy History lesson especially learning about the world history or civilization, inventors and their inventions and even ancient history. At first I wanted to become and archaeologist or historian but I could not see the bright prospect of career in those field in Malaysia. Most of my friends found History as a very boring subject while I found it very interesting. In my opinion, in the ancient history, the nature of competition is the maximization and utilization of abundance resources to build an unforgettable kingdom or civilization whereas in the modern history, human struggle for power, political and economical control due to the diminishing of resources in the world.

When talking about the history of telephone, I am sure that everybody knows the first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 19th century (year 1876). At that point of time, telephone was defined as: " An instrument which converts sound, specifically the human voice, to electrical impulses of various frequencies and then back to a tone that sounds like the original voice." Today, in the 21st Century, telephone still exist and has evolved and expanded from its original definition and functions.

Since it was first invented in the 19th century, telephone has evolved from wired phone into cell-phones. The development of cell-phones began in the early of 20th century and now in the 21st century, cell-phone has extended beyond what could have been imagined in the 19th century. Here, I would like to share the history of cell-phone in brief. Let us take a sneak peek of the history!

19th CENTURY

Sir Alexander Graham Bell – The Inventor of telephone

This is the original invention by Sir Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. 

In the early 20th Century, Candlestick (wired telephone)  telephone was widely used.

According to the www.businessdictionary.com, Cellular Phone (Cell-phone) is defined as Small wireless device that has at least the same functions of a standard wired telephone but is smaller and more mobile. A cell phone requires a subscription to a service provider and requires either a prepaid or monthly billing setup. Generally, they have more functions than traditional land lines and need to be charged after a period of time. Also called mobile phone or mobile device.

The development of cell-phone began somewhere in 1930's.

Year 1930's.

SCR 194 and SCR 195 - Used by the Army in the World War II era. Weight about 25 pounds.

Year 1940s

i. SCR-300 Radio transceiver developed for US Military by Motorola. Weight 32 to 38 pound.

ii.  SCR-536, the first handie talkie produced by Motorola, weight about 5 pound.

iii.  First commercial mobile telephone service (Mobile Telephone System) intended use for utilities, truck fleet operators and reporters. Weight about 80 pound.

Year 1950's

Developed by Erickson called Ericson Mobile System (MTA), mobile system designed for automobiles, first used in Sweden.

Year 1960's 

Improved Mobile Telephone Service (MTS), designed for automobiles/ Developed by Motorola, weight about 40 pound.

Year 1970's 

Prototype of DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) portable phone developed by Motorola.

Year 1980's

i. Nokia Mobira Senator, weight about 22 pound.

ii. Motorola's DynaTAC cellular phone, developed after 10 years of it's prototype in 1973. Weight 2 pounds and expensive.

iii. Motorola's MicroTAC - First flip phone design and world's first pocket phone.

Year 1990's

There have been tremendous development of cell-phone in the 90's. I think, the 90's marks the beginning of fierce competition in the communication technology business.

1992 - The Motorola International 3200, first 2G technology hand-sized GSM mobile phone.

1993 - IBM Simon was a mobile smart phone.

1994 : Motorola's Bag Phone (2900) was the car phone.

1996 : Motorola StarTAC, the first clamshell mobile phone.

1997 : Nokia 9000 Communicator, the earlier type of smart phone.

1998 : The Nokia 8810 was the first cell phone without an external antenna.

1999 : Popular Nokia cell phone, Nokia 3210, with over 160 million sold.

2. Nokia 7710 with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

Benefon ESC! by Geo Centric. World first to combine mobile phone and GPS.

Japan Kyocera Visual Phone (VP-210), with built in camera video phone.

21st CENTURY

Year 2000

i. 2000 - Sharp J-SH04 (J-Phone), the first camera phone in the market.

ii. Sanyo 5300 - 1st camera phone sold in North America

iii. RIM's BlackBerry 5810, the first data device which incorporate with mobile phone.

iv. First known as Danger Hiptop in 2002, later re-branded as the T-Mobile Sidekick.

v. PDA Phones

Camera Phones

i. Motorola RZR

ii. First Palm smartphone named Treo 700w,

iii. Motorola ROKR E1, the first phone to have integrated music player (not Apple iPhone!!)

iv. Everyone know this revolutionary touch-screen smart phone, Apple iPhone, developed by Steve Jobs in 2007.

v. Coming next in 2008 - Google's Android OS called HTC Drea.

vi. 2010 - HTC EVO 4G from Sprint was the first cellular phone to meet 4G standards, running on the WiMAX network.

vii. 2011 - Samsung Infuse 4G 

viii. Expected launch in 2012 - Apple iPhone 5

It is amazing how telephone, a communication device has evolved since the 19th century. What we see and have today, might have not been imagined in the 19th century. Can we imagine how the communication device (cell-phone) will be in 100 years from now? See some awesome pictures of futuristic idea of cell-phone.

Source :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelephone7.htm

http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/albell/homepage.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/complete-visual-history-of-cell-phones-2011-5#1938-1

Cell-phone : Beauty turned Silent Killer!

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am not so much of a gadget person. For example, a telephone is meant for me to talk to my friends to decide when and where to hang out, to call my siblings deciding when and where to hold family gathering, to inform my husband to pick up the kids form school if I’m coming home late, to call the childcare center to make sure my kids are okay, and for some banking, official calls or products inquiry. I am fond of NOKIA cell-phone and NOKIA 3210 was my 1st cell-phone in the year 1999.

Nokia 3210



This is my first cell-phone NOKIA 3210. 

Nokia 3310

 After NOKIA 3210, I changed to NOKIA 3310 for reason which I cannot recall.

 
Not long after that, I changed to NOKIA with polyphonic ring tone which I cannot recall the model name.

 

Nokia N70

In 2006, I changed to NOKIA N70, Music Edition, a birthday present from my husband. The most appealing feature at that time was the one touch Music button on the right side. Despite all the new models in the market, I am still using Nokia N70, because of the sentimental value. I intend to use my current cell-phone until it cannot longer be used or until I get a new one (hopefully Apple iPhone) for my birthday this year. 

As I mentioned earlier, I am not a gadget oriented person, but I would love to have Apple iPhone because it is well known all around the world. It also seems that to own one of Steve Jobs' famous invention will enhance one's self esteem. 

While admiring the beauty and fame of Apple iPhone, I came across an article on dangerous effect of cell-phone on human being. It never crossed my mind that cell-phone  have dangerous effect on human body especially cancer.  To me cell-phone is a very useful and harmless invention.  This is the invention that connects me with my family and friends. Besides communication media, I can also  take pictures instantly using my cell-phone. Once captured, I can upload the pictures into my laptop and print out. Lets us just see how this beautiful invention can endanger human body. Of course many cell-phone heavy users may not agree with the article but the choice is always in our hands.

According to the article, the cell-phone is listed as “carcinogenic hazard” category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform. Study have shown evidence that there is an increase in glioma (malignant type of brain cancer) and acoustic neuroma cancer among mobile phone users but type of cancer is still unknown. This is because, the exposure will only take effect after a long period of time. Acccording to the study which was released in 2010, the rate of developing glioma and acoustic neuroma cancer has doubled among cell-phone users who has been using cell-phone for more than 10 years.

It is not to say that the cell-phone usage causes cancer, but the radiation emitted form cell-phone usage may cause the development of cancer in a long run.The radiation coming out from the cell-phone has the same function as radiation function in microwafe as to food. Besides leading to te development of cancer and tumor, it may also affect cognitive memory function.

So far, no study has been carried out on the effect on children, but considering the effect on adults users, I would assume that, the effect could be devastating. Although people are still skeptical about cell-phone usage causing side effect, some mobile providers (ex:Apple iphone 4, Blackberry Black Bold) has indicated caution of radiation exposure in their manuals. The rationale is that, the farther the device from human body, the lesser radiation is absorbed by the human body. Experts also suggest using speaker phone, not to use cell phone in the area where signal is weak because the device is forced to emit more radiation in order to connect to cellular tower signal. For more details, you can read CNN New and the following website.

Speaker phone

End