Week 4 [20-26.11] Boston Dynamics

I've recently been tracking the development of the Boston Dinamics robots. After a few months of silence the company decided to boast about its achivements. On their YouTube channel began to appear videos, we first saw an improved version of the SpotMini machine, which reminds me of a mechanical dog and they presented the progress of the robot Atlas. I remember the first presentation of this robot. His movements were quite sluggish and slow. Today the robot jumps and performs exercises that would be hard to do for many of us. (including me 😉 ).

 

Atlas looks very much like a man, probably because of that his fitness are scary to me 😉. Its construction, (two legs and hands) make this robot can be designed (as claimed by Boston Dynamics) for warehouse work. Here is an example:
 https://youtu.be/rVlhMGQgDkY?t=65

His stability and sense of balance are unbelivable. The new Atlas is almost perfect to master stepping and jumping between them, there are no problems with rotation of up to 180 degrees, and if there is not enough, he can ... make a backflip.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRj34o4hN4I

Engineers say they owe much to 3d printing technology. Thanks to it, components such as arms and legs can be modeled on structures found in animals.

These recent videos made me wonder how it would affect our lives in the future. First thoughts are of course black scripts from Sci-fi movies. Robots dominating the world. Stephen Hawking, a well-known astrophysicist, also has a number of concerns regarding artificial intelligence and robots. He also claims that artificial intelligence at a high level can even surpass man in thinking and that robots will begin to build their own world or will improve the one that was created by humans. The most important thing in all of this is that humanity always has the ability to control what "thinks" the robot, what conclusions it is, and what intentions it may have.

Great presentation of Boston Dynamics on Ted Talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO4In7d6X-c 

1.      What do think, how life would be like in the future with robots and AI? 
2.      Would you like to have SpotMini as a pet? 😊

Sources:

https://youtu.be/rVlhMGQgDkY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRj34o4hN4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO4In7d6X-c

https://www.bostondynamics.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(robot)

Week 4 [20-26.11] Boundless daydreaming

How often do you dream? Have you ever heard about Elon Musk? His one of the guy who isn’t afraid of dreaming and makes dreams come true!

Even If you’re not like him, you must concede he’s fearless. Personally, he’s not my hero. For me, he seems to be a normal guy but extremely intelligent. His ability to dream makes him so smart. I know him because of his biography written by Ashlee Vance and I have in my mind one unmissable fact about him, his willingness to colonize Mars. Impressive, isn’t it?

When I first heard about it I couldn’t believe it so I started digging. Here’s something more about his idea:

The goals are ambitious, until 2022 SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk, wants to hold a transportation mission to Mars. In 2024 the company wants to send people to Mars. It’s really impressive. I’m looking forward to hearing more news about this mission.

The question is, what makes him so brave? It isn’t his only idea, which takes my breath away. There is a list of other wildest ideas from Elon Musk:

• using computers as an implant with your brain to augment his capabilities
• new transportation called the Hyperloop, which zip you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes. Now it takes approximately 5 hours by car
• making space travel affordable and possible to everyone

The list could be much more longer. So is Elon Musk an incurable dreamer or an ordinary salesman? Of course, the truth lies in the middle. He’s an entrepreneur, so money is one of his element, but he’s also a dreamer, one of the biggest dreamer that I know. One more important thing which is worth to spread. He keeps both feet on the ground. "The first journey to Mars is going to be really very dangerous," he said. "The risk of fatality will be high. There's just no way around it.” and that’s why I decided to write about him, because of his honesty. I appreciate such people.

Do you know similar personalities like Elon Musk? Maybe you are a type of person who makes dreams come true? Share your experiences.

Sources:

http://www.spacex.com/mars

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/04/25/teslas-elon-musk-big-ideas/100884144/

https://www.techworld.com/picture-gallery/business/elon-musk-ideas-that-are-borderline-genius-3627252/

https://businessinsider.com.pl/international/the-14-craziest-things-elon-musk-believes-right-now/536k0vg

Photos:
https://ocs-pl.oktawave.com/v1/AUTH_2887234e-384a-4873-8bc5-405211db13a2/spidersweb/2017/09/SpaceX-15-1000x563.jpg
http://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/426_20170928_musk_2000x1124.jpg?w=990
https://ocs-pl.oktawave.com/v1/AUTH_2887234e-384a-4873-8bc5-405211db13a2/spidersweb/2017/09/SpaceX-9-1000x563.jpg

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSv0Y7qrzQM

Week 3 [6-12.11.17] Unsocial social media

Go to http://konwersatorium1-ms-pjwstk.blogspot.com/2017/11/week-4-06-12112017-unsocial-social-media.html and watch the presentation. Comment on it on our blog. Share with us your experiences and observations.

Week 3 [6-12.11.17] Science of Intelligent Machines

Go to http://konwersatorium1-ms-pjwstk.blogspot.com/2017/11/week-4-0611-1211-science-of-intelligent.html and watch the presentation. Comment on it on our blog.

Week 3 [6-12.11.17] What if there was no internet

What if there was no internet

Most of us can't imagine a day without the internet. It is present in our everyday lives. We use it on multiple occasions, for example to communicate, to check the news, to have fun. Without it people would have had to spend much more time to get some things done (e.g paying bills, buying something, learning). Computer games would be much more boring with no connection with other people, many of it are available only through the internet. Also access to the information would be much more limited. People would be much more easier to manipulate with only television and press as a source of information. 

http://www.nowanet.pl

On the other hand internet have its dark sides too. A lot of people are addicted to the internet, spending whole days in front of computer, tablet or phone, surfing the web with no purpose. I think without it the internet people would be going outside more often, connecting with real humans, not the one on the web. People also would be more active, therefore more healthy and happy.

Considering all the pros and cons of the lack of the internet it is hard to say whether the life would have been better or worse. For sure it would have been a lot different than it is today. We will never know.

1. How do you think, what life would be like without internet?

2. How often do You use internet?

http://thinklink.in/internet/

Week 3 [6-12.11.17] Quadcopters

What are quadcopters

You must have heard about drones, quadcopters, buzzers, UAV or whatever other name you find for them. They all mean the same and mostly refer to aircrafts with four arms sticking out of the main frame, each of them equipped with an electric engine and a propeller. Nowadays people use them for various reasons.

When you think about drones what most of you probably see a device presented below:

https://store.dji.com/product/inspire-1-v2

This type of quadcopter is used for professional photo- and videography. These machines are expensive and very easy to fly. They have multiple sensors pointing forward and down to detect whether a pilot is not going to crash into an obstacle like a building or a tree. This, however is not a type of drone i want to focus on in this post. What I want to tell you about are small (250mm diagonal between engines) quads that have really short flight time (2-3 minutes on one battery). What they lack in air time they make up for with speed, flips, rolls and dives.

Below is my machine in its present form, it still lacks a battery, propellers and gopro mount which you can see in the second picture. These machines are almost always a DYI projects so if soldering, or PCB programming, is not something you’re keen on, you might want to give this hobby a pass.

Before we proceed to the final step. Llet me quickly go through parts of my quad, perfectly visible in the photo above

1. A camera for the first person flight
2. A Gopro mount for recording
3. Engines (two of them turn clockwise, two counterclockwise)
4. Propellers
5. A battery
6. Power distribution and control board
7. A video and signal transmitter
8. Antennas

Finally, below is a short clip of one of my favourite pilots, his flight style is really smooth and hardly nauseating :) see for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DHwUaEdOCs

Sources:

https://store.dji.com/product/inspire-1-v2

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHxiKnzTyzE9Qez8ZGpQbPQ

After reading did you consider this as a hobby for you?

Do you think that every drone should be registered and supervised to limit incidents where someone flies over an airport and disturbs airspace?

Did you get sick while watching the video?