Lifeboat Foundation

Careful, you may end up with mini cyborgs!

“The closer we come to his goal, the more likely we will get a brain that is capable of sentience and of feeling pain, agony and distress,” Christof Koch, chief scientist and president of the Allen Brain Institute, told the NYT.

The human brain is so complex that scientists are still guessing at many aspects of how it works. That’s the appeal of mini-brains — they’re comparatively simple balls of neurons that simulate some characteristics of full brains but which barely scratch the surface of their capabilities. But this new study, published Thursday in the journal Cell, suggests that the mini-brains could be more complex than previously believed.

Continue reading “Scientists Grew Tiny Human Brains and Hooked Them up to Robots” »

Restoration of lost motor function after stroke is typically accomplished after strenuous rehabilitation therapy lasting for over months. However, new research published by a group led by Yukio Nishimura, the project leader of the Neural Prosthesis Project, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science showed that an artificial neural connection (ANC)*1 successfully allowed a new cortical site, previously unassociated with hand movements, to regain control of a paralyzed hand in a matter of minutes.

In this research, experimental animals regained voluntary control of a paralyzed hand about ten minutes after establishment of an ANC. Animals engaged in learning with a functional ANC showed variable levels of input signals provided by the cerebral cortex*2 as hand movement improved. Specifically, the activated area of the cortex became more focused as control of hand movements improved.

Through this training of various areas of the cerebral cortex, the research team successfully imparted a new ability to control paralyzed hands via an ANC, even if those areas were not involved in hand control prior to the stroke. Examples of such regions include areas of the cortex that controls the movement of other body parts such as the face or shoulder, and even the somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for tactile and proprioception processing and is normally not associated with motor control. This finding suggests that an ANC can impart new motor control functions to any cortical region.

Article. Reasearchers from Japan are making cyborg cockroaches. 😃 The article has videos as well.

I guess it’s justified considering roaches are some of the most resilient organisms on our planet. Are you ready for the cyber-roaches?

Continue reading “A Swarm of Cyborg Cockroaches That Lives in Your House” »

Military observers said the disruptive technologies – those that fundamentally change the status quo – might include such things as sixth-generation fighters, high-energy weapons like laser and rail guns, quantum radar and communications systems, new stealth materials, autonomous combat robots, orbital spacecraft, and biological technologies such as prosthetics and powered exoskeletons.

Speeding up the development of ‘strategic forward-looking disruptive technologies’ is a focus of the country’s latest five-year plan.

Humanoid robots of tomorrow could feel pain just like us.

Don’t you wish you had your own robotic exoskeleton?

This would really take away the strain in manual labor.

“In the past, the lifting workers could hardly stay after 2 years as the heavy work would burden them with injuries.”

Continue reading “Exoskeleton Suits Turn Car Factory Workers Into Human Robots” »

But a pair of bionic gloves now allows him to live his passion again.

Cool! 😃

After being unable to play for more than 20 years, a special pair of bionic gloves gave Brazilian pianist João Carlos Martins the chance to relive his passion once again. ❤️ (🎥 : @maestrojoaocarlosmartins)

The future Russian soldier is going to be able to control drone swarms, have landmine proof boots and an exoskeleton/suit to enhance their physical abilities and situational awareness.

Russia will integrate the ability to control small size attack drone swarms, robots, and exoskeletons into its next-generation soldier gear, in a development that feels more like a videogame update than reality.

Self healing material is being developed for prosthetic limbs.

This material can help us make self-healing prosthetic limbs in the future.