Human Kind and Technology » human

Touch-emitted heat enables interactions

ET — Fri, 30 May 2014 21:31:58 +0000

Metaio is trying to make all physical objects touchable by recognizing (in future via HMDs) emitted heat of the human finger(s). So we can link every object with digital information or services. Unfortunately yet the idea needs a lot of work to be done.

Would be interesting to see if the concept operates as aspected with warm/hot objects when I, let’s say, want to play chess on a sun-exposed table in front of a coffee shop.

via TechCrunch, see also Metaio.com – Press Release

Office chair for use of tablets

ET — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:55:20 +0000

There are some guys who think about how we sit when working with tablets. But I can’t see noticable benefits compared to chairs I use at office and at home. Maybe I should try one of these new chairs, maybe sometimes…

via Technology Review, see also steelcase.com

Cyborgs become more realistic

ET — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:25:32 +0000

On the way to transhumanism which can make life easier, funnier, but also more dangerous for sure.

via GIZMODO.de

Billboards & water out of air

ET — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:34:03 +0000

Peru, where there is almost no rain but nearly 100% atmospheric humidity the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) and the agency Mayo Publicidad build a billboard which captures the water from air and stores it. So people can go and catch some (drinking!) water.

via GIZMODO.de, see also: UTEC.edu.pe

Are we talking about the same color?

ET — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:11:10 +0000

It turns out, many people questioned if their color perception is the same as the perception of others. Let’s say as a child you saw something and e.g. your mom told you this is a red strawberry or some other thing is a yellow banana. So you got the idea of red and yellow.

But that does not mean the interpretation of your visual informations in your brain and the interpretation of your mom is the same. And no one knows…

via GIZMODO.de

Emotions and our brain

ET — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:00:01 +0000

The following video can be a bit disgusting. It shows real human brains and how they are anatomized to analyze their structure even at genomic level.

For me it’s interesting if we can analyze genes and their cooperation in view of producing a mood or emotions. What are the preconditions for an emotion like happiness? Would that be possible? Or does people have to much differences in their genomic preconditions? Or are there any other influencing factors we couldn’t measure (yet)?

Third eye in the back of the head

ET — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:00:56 +0000

In the name of art the New York University professor Wafaa Bilal had implanted a titanium connection base for a magnetically camera in the back of his head.

That’s a really nice thing for new use cases. For example think about hacking at the computer in the front and watching TV in the back. *fun* But seriously you can have more overview while walking in dark streets. I’m sure this is very interesting for military purposes.

The questions are: Is the human brain able to process this third eye? Actually W. Bilal is looking at the video data with his own two eyes via laptop. But what if one connects the camera with a brain computer interface directly with the mind? Why didn’t do nature such things? Is the human going crazy because not knowing where he is going (forward or backward)? Is this a new step towards cyborgs?

Protheses: realistic and better

ET — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:00:02 +0000

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) promotes research efforts to enable protheses near humane or in some way even better. So they try to connect them with human cerebral cortex to deliver information from brain to the protheses and also back again! So people can control protheses only by thoughts and will get sense impressions like the structure of a touched surface. The video (especially the first half) impressions were impressive to me:

Unfortunately there can be negative deployments but let’s think about all the good things which can be done with that technology! A lot of people can live a better life just because they will be able to do normal things.

[exhibitions.cooperhewitt.org: Modular Prosthetic-limb System]

Human body as interaction medium

ET — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:00:57 +0000

Research efforts look at the human body as a medium for tactile input “technology” (and therefor they also need it as visual output surface).

That’s a really nice approach so that one don’t have to hold e.g. a mp3 player or a smartphone. But you have to have some free skin and that wouldn’t be accepted by users in winter.

In the video you can see Chris Harrison dialing with his hand – and than? Is he holding his hand at his ears and does he have a body built in microphone? ;D

[chrisharrison.net: Skinput]

Virtualization of human body (1)

ET — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:00:53 +0000

In the next video a researcher is transferring human head movement data via gyrosensor to a roboter and his video data back to the human.

Is this a another new technology (of virtualization) towards alienation (robots taking over your representation in the world and therefor the public majority) and dissociation (knowing yourself | your body) as one can see in the film “Surrogates”?