Out of Scope

The(Y)ear of the Cat?

Sometimes,technology is used to invent things that are so right that we wonder how weever got along without them: the Internet, smartphones, GPS and HDTV. Othertimes, advanced tech is used to create a device so bizarre that rather thanwondering how we managed without it, we wonder how it was ever thought of inthe first place.

Enter?necomimi? from Neurowear, a ?new communication tool? in the form of a cat?sears. You read that right. Necomimi makes the wearer look not unlike a digitalPlayboy Bunny. It?s unclear what this device is supposed to accomplish, but weget that when the ears are perked up, you are?if not happy?at least?concentrating?; when they drop down, you are ?relaxed.? The cool thing aboutthem is that your brainwaves make them flip and flop.

Theears are not yet available, but they are supposed to be released by the end ofthe year. Good luck, Neurowear. You never know what’s going to happen: Whowould have thought a decade ago that we would not look askance at someonewalking around with a Bluetooth earpiece and talking into thin air? Well, I dolook askance at such people, but that may be just me. Now let me dig around formy old coonskin hat.

RockabyeRobo Baby

MeetPneuborn-7II and Pneuborn-13, the progeny of researchers at Osaka University?sHosoda Lab. (The names are a play on the pneumatic muscles used as actuatorsthroughout their bodies.) Little ?7II? is about the size of a seven-month-oldinfant and is designed to study motor development. Baby 7II contains a learningalgorithm that allows the tot to crawl forward and roll over. Brother (orsister?) ?13? models a 13-month-old child and is designed to study the effectthe musculoskeletal structure has on the emergence of bipedal walking.

Clearly,these robots are made for research, not home use. And, thank heaven, they arenot supposed to be substitutes for real children?although, if we look farenough out … who knows?

AThoughtful Device

Technologyunder development by a team of researchers at Brown University, the ProvidenceVA Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital can translate brainsignals into commands for electronic devices. BrainGate is an implanted neuralinterface that can detect and record brain signals, allowing people who havelost the use of arms or legs to control a computer.

Theuniversity reports that the device has allowed a woman with paralysis(tetraplegia) to control a computer cursor for the last 2.7 years, demonstratingthat neural activity can be read and converted into action. According to Dr.Leigh Hochberg, director of the BrainGate pilot clinical trial: ?After 1,000days, a woman who has no functional use of her limbs and is unable to speak canreliably control a cursor on a computer screen using only the intended movementof her hand.?

Inother words, the woman ?performed two point-and-click tasks each day bythinking about moving the cursor with her hand.? In both tasks, she averagedbetter than 90 percent accuracy. Researchers had wondered whether such signalscould be tapped inside the brain?especially for an extended period of time. Itappears that they can be, which makes BrainGate very exciting.