Cybernetics and Robotics News - October 2009 Archives

Autosub6000 dives to depth of 3.5 miles (10/29/2009)

The United Kingdom's deepest diving Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Autosub6000, has been put through its paces during an extremely successful engineering trials cruise on the RRS Discovery, Sept. 27 to Oct. 17, 2009. ...> Full Article

Blue light-filtering increases macular pigment, may protect against age-related vision loss (10/27/2009)

A new study shows that implantation of blue light-filtering intraocular lens at the time of cataract surgery increases a nutritional component of the eye, which may afford protection against the development and/or progression of age-related macular degeneration. The study, conducted by leading ophthalmology and vision researchers from the Macular Pigment Research Group at the Waterford Institute of Technology, is published in the October 2009 issue of the high impact journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. ...> Full Article

Is your microrobot up for the (NIST) challenge? (10/25/2009)

The folks who introduced the world to tiny robots demonstrating soccer skills are creating the next level of friendly competition designed to advance microrobotics. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, in collaboration with IEEE, is inviting university and collegiate student teams to participate in the 2010 NIST Mobile Microrobotics Challenge in May 2010. ...> Full Article

Pushing through brain barriers (10/22/2009)

Case Western Reserve University scientist building nimble tools to monitor brain works ...> Full Article

Experimental treatments restore partial vision to blind people (10/21/2009)

Two experimental treatments, a retinal prosthesis and fetal tissue transplant, restored some vision to people with blinding eye diseases. The findings, presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health, may lead to new treatments for the blind. Researchers also reported that an engineered protein restored vision in an animal model and identified ways to improve stem cell treatments. ...> Full Article

Is my robot happy to see me? (10/20/2009)

Scientists at Georgia Tech tested our ability to interpret a robot's "emotion" by reading its expression to see if there were any differences between the ages. They found that older adults showed some unexpected differences in the way they read a robot's face from the way younger adults performed. The research is being presented this week at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting in San Antonio. ...> Full Article

Bioengineering of nerve-muscle connection could improve hand use for wounded soldiers (10/16/2009)

Prosthetic hand devices used by wounded soldiers have limited motor control and no sensory feedback. But a bioengineered interface, developed at the University of Michigan and made of muscle cells and a nano-sized polymer, could go a long way in creating prostheses that move like a normal hand. Animal studies show the interface may possibly restore a sense of touch. ...> Full Article

Findings about veracity of peripheral vision could lead to better robotic eyes (10/16/2009)

Two Kansas State University psychology researchers have found that peripheral vision is most important for telling us what type of scene we're looking at. Examining how people take in scene information paves the way for building better robots. ...> Full Article

Communicating person to person through the power of thought alone (10/8/2009)

New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible for communication from person to person through the power of thought alone. ...> Full Article

Energy-autonomous sensors for aircraft (10/7/2009)

Aircraft maintenance will be easier in future, with sensors monitoring the aircraft skin. If they discover any dents or cracks they will send a radio message to a monitoring unit. The energy needed for this will be obtained from temperature difference. ...> Full Article

Color sensors for better vision (10/6/2009)

CMOS image sensors in special cameras -- as used for driver assistance systems -- mostly only provide monochrome images and have a limited sensitivity to light. Thanks to a new production process these sensors can now distinguish color and are much more sensitive to light. ...> Full Article

A step toward better brain implants using conducting polymer nanotubes (10/1/2009)

Brain implants that can more clearly record signals from surrounding neurons in rats have been created at the University of Michigan. The findings could eventually lead to more effective treatment of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and paralysis. ...> Full Article