Skip to main content

The University of Reading - Cybernetics at Reading - News

The University of Reading - Cybernetics at Reading - News:

"A new robot at the University of Reading has been rated as suitable for adults only by the University's Ethics and Research Committee. The K-28 robot, named Morgui (mandarin Chinese for Magic (Mor) Ghost (Gui)), consists of a rapid action robot head which has been specially designed as a test bed for multi-sensor integration. Although it has 5 senses, only two of these, vision and audio, are human equivalents, whilst the remainder, radar, infra-red and ultrasonics are extrasensory as far as humans are concerned.

Professor Kevin Warwick of the University's Cybernetics Department said 'We want to investigate how people react when they first encounter 'Mo', as we lovingly like to call the robot. Through one of Mo's eyes he can watch peoples' responses to him following them around. It appears this is not deemed to be acceptable for Under 18 year olds without prior consent from their legal guardian. This presents us with a big problem as we cannot demonstrate Mo in action either to visitors or potential students. In fact the whole of our robotics lab is now officially a no-go area for non-adults'.

Morgui is being used in research as a test bed for integrating different sensory input to provide an overall control strategy for robot behaviour."

Click to see the pic. Looks like the terminator, only scarier. Guess it freaks out the kiddies when it follows their movements with its eyes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Could Narcolepsy be caused by gluten? :: Kitchen Table Hypothesis

Kitchen Table Hypothesis from www.zombieinstitute.net - Heidi's new site It's commonly known that a severe allergy to peanuts can cause death within minutes. What if there were an allergy that were delayed for hours and caused people to fall asleep instead? That is what I believe is happening in people with Narcolepsy. Celiac disease is an allergy to gliadin, a specific gluten protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. In celiac disease the IgA antigliadin antibody is produced after ingestion of gluten. It attacks the gluten, but also mistakenly binds to and creates an immune reaction in the cells of the small intestine causing severe damage. There is another form of gluten intolerance, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, in which the IgA antigliadin bind to proteins in the skin, causing blisters, itching and pain. This can occur without any signs of intestinal damage. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a similar autoimmune reaction to gliadin, however it usually involves the...
19 comments
Read more

Insulin Resistance- cause of ADD, diabetes, narcolepsy, etc etc

Insulin Resistance Insulin Resistance Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression? Heart disease? Type II, or adult, diabetes? Narcolepsy? Are you, or do you think you might be, an alcoholic? Do you gain weight around your middle in spite of faithfully dieting? Are you unable to lose weight? Does your child have ADHD? If you have any one of these symptoms, I wrote this article for you. Believe it or not, the same thing can cause all of the above symptoms. I am not a medical professional. I am not a nutritionist. The conclusions I have drawn from my own experience and observations are not rocket science. A diagnosis of clinical depression is as ordinary as the common cold today. Prescriptions for Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc., are written every day. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious condition caused by serotonin levels in the brain. I am not certain, however, that every diagnosis of depression is the real thing. My guess is that about 10 percent of the people taking ...
5 comments
Read more

Meditation-Specific Prefrontal Cortical Activation during Acem Meditation: An FMRI Study

Some of the most popular meditation practices emphasize a relaxed focus of attention in which thoughts, images, sensations, and emotions may emerge and pass freely without actively controlling or pursuing them. Several recent studies show that meditation activates frontal brain areas associated with attention focusing and physical relaxation. The objective of the present study was to assess whether brain activation during relaxed focusing on a meditation sound could be distinguished from similar, concentrative control tasks. Brain activation was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in experienced practitioners of Acem meditation. Bilateral areas of the inferior frontal gyrus (BA47) were significantly more activated during repetition of a meditation sound than during concentrative meditation-like cognitive tasks. Meditation-specific brain activation did not habituate over time, but increased in strength with continuous meditation bouts. These observations suggest t...
Post a Comment
Read more