Automaton

Just in case you'd ever lain awake at night wondering to yourself how you might build a robotic hand you could eat... well, wonder no more.

More information can be found at the MAYA Make group's website. Happy fooding.

A few months ago, I moved to an apartment with a backyard, and I was excited about barbecuing. But one thing stood between me and my kebabs: an unruly thicket of grass all over the yard.

I had never mowed a lawn, and I must say I wasn't thrilled about pushing a machine with rapidly spinning blades under a scalding sun. Then I found something that would do it for me.

No, it's not a goat—it's Robomow.

Spectrum associate editor Sally Adee on how researchers are looking for a way to connect prosthetics directly to the brain. [Click on the image below to go to the video player.]

Spectrum reports that Caltech researchers are developing a MEMS robotic device to insert and position electrodes in the brain. The system could enhance the performance of neural prosthetics, which have proved hard to implant accurately. The researchers haven't built the device yet, but they've devised control algorithms to guide the miniature robots to make good neural connections. From the article:

The Caltech team has designed a system that would make the procedure more predictable by attaching a tiny MEMS-based motor to each electrode on a multichannel electrode array and using an algorithm to direct the electrodes to individual neurons.

[...]

As the electrodes are driven into the tissue, the software starts taking sample recordings to detect spikes of electrical activity at the electrode tip. When the software detects spikes, it moves forward in small increments and tracks how the signals change. After determining whether the signal has improved or gotten worse, the algorithm moves the electrode to a new position and does more recording and comparing, driving the electrode in further if necessary until it finds the best signal. If the signal wanes, the algorithm will automatically adjust the electrode position to improve the signal.

Perhaps one day we'll be able to shop online for bionic body devices like soccer-programmed prosthetic legs or Google neural interfaces, but in the meantime check out Spectrum's Bionic Body Shop below to see the medical devices that are already out there (or almost).

The "shop" is part of our special report on the Singularity, the positive-feedback techno-explosion that will spring smarter-than-human intelligence into existence and make us invincible, or kill us. But here's the big question: Is the digital Apollo below wearing a Speedo or what?

The Bionic Body Shop
Advanced medical devices are the tools that enable humans and robots to merge, perhaps signalling the dawn of a technological singularity. How close are we now? Take a tour and shop around--we've been cramming more intricate engineering into our bodies than you might think.

PS: Can't read the text in the Flash animation? A larger version is here.