Lifeboat Foundation

Has anyone seen “The Yes Men” youtube video where they present to the WTO their proposed employee monitoring suit to ensure employees were working and performing while the supervisor is at the beach. This reminds me a little of that same scenario; except this time it’s the employees wearing the wearable monitor to measure & track their performance.

Working in the intelligence community can be stressful. The IC’s research arm wants to use sensors to evaluate how people respond to the demands of the job.

Technology can be awkward. Our pockets are weighed down with ever-larger smartphones that are a pain to pull out when we’re in a rush. And attempts to make our devices more easily accessible with smartwatches have so far fallen flat. But what if a part of your body could become your computer, with a screen on your arm and maybe even a direct link to your brain?

Artificial electronic skin (e-skin) could one day make this a possibility. Researchers are developing flexible, bendable and even stretchable electronic circuits that can be applied directly to the skin. As well as turning your skin into a touchscreen, this could also help replace feeling if you’ve suffered burns or problems with your nervous system.

Continue reading “The Next Wearable Technology Could Be Your Skin” »

A new article considering chip implants:

Among other tragedies in Florida recently gripping America’s attention, a 2-year-old boy was snatched away from its parents by an alligator at Walt Disney World on Wednesday. I have a similar-aged toddler myself, and I followed this heartbreaking story closely. Unfortunately, it ended as horribly as it began, with the recovery of a dead child.

My presidential campaign with the Transhumanist Party is based on advocating for radical science and technology to make the world a better place for humans. As a result, for nearly two years I have been advocating for using chip implants in people to help keep them safer. Chip implants are often just the size of a grain of rice and can be injected by a needle in a nearly pain-free 60-second procedure. The implants can do a multiple array of things depending on the type. And much of the technology has been used in pets for over a decade, so it’s already been shown to be relatively safe.

Continue reading “Could an implant have saved the life of the toddler attacked by an alligator?” »

Robotic exoskeletons, long a staple of sci-fi novels, comic books, and movies, are now part of the real world—and they’ve mostly followed the sci-fi model. That is, exoskeletons are wearable robots. All metal, all the time. But metal suits are heavy and power hungry, and the human body isn’t metal. If you actually plan to use an exoskeleton for an extended period of time, this can be a bit of a design flaw.

That’s where a new exosuit developed by SRI International is looking to flip the script. Instead of working to build exoskeletons—which are rigid like their namesake—SRI is using soft robotics to make lightweight, wearable “exomuscles” and “exotendons.”

Instead of a human-shaped heavy metal frame, SRI’s exosuit is soft, pliable, and intelligent. The suit learns and adapts to its wearer’s movements to give them a boost when needed. It’s quick to put on and relatively energy efficient.

Continue reading “The Elderly May One Day Swap Their Motorized Scooters for Robotic Suits” »

Medical/ Biocomputing will only continue to grow and advance as a result of the demand for more improved experiences by consumers and business in communications and entertainment, food, home life, travel, business, etc.

Today, we have seen early opportunities and benefits with 3D printing, BMI, early stage Gene/ Cell circuitry and computing. In the future, we will see these technologies more and more replaced by even more advance Biocomputing and gene circuitry technology that will ultimately transform the human experiences and quality of life that many like to call Singularity.

Printing technology has come a long way from screechy dot-matrix printers to 3D printers which can print real life objects from metals, plastics, chemicals and concrete. While, at first, 3D printers were being used to create just basic shapes with different materials, more recently, they have been used to create advanced electronics, bio-medical devices and even houses.

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus recently showcased the world’s first 3D-printed mini aircraft, Thor, at the International Aerospace Exhibition and Air Show in Berlin. Although Airbus and its competitor have been using 3D-printed parts for their bigger assemblies, recent attempt shows that aviation may be ready for a new future with much lighter and cheaper planes given 3D printing not only cuts down the costs with less wastage, it also makes the plane lighter, thereby making them faster and more fuel efficient. But planes and toys is not what 3D printing might be restricted to; though in the elementary stage at the moment, the technology is being used for creating complex electronics like phones and wearables and may be able to reduce costs for manufacturers like Samsung and Apple.

Continue reading “Want to know what the future of medical invention looks like? Read on” »

SRI is developing wearable “exosuits” that can augment the musculoskeletal system for performance and strength enhancement and assistance to overcome or prevent damage from injury or disease. SRI’s exosuit differs from exoskeletons by using new muscle-like actuation, comfortable and soft skin attachment, and electronically releasable spring elements to minimize mass, bulk, and noise as well as eliminate constraints on natural joint motions. As part of DARPA’s Warrior Web Program, the technology is being applied to prevent and reduce musculoskeletal injuries caused by dynamic events typically found in the warfighter’s environment. They are exploring other military applications and beginning to use the technologies to assist individuals with musculoskeletal diseases.

The wearable exosuit, Superflex, uses motion sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes to read the speed and angles of the owner’s legs and adjust its movements accordingly.

On April 21, 2016 – SRI International announced the launch of Superflex, Inc., its newest spin-off venture. Superflex will develop cutting-edge wearable robotics to enhance the human musculoskeletal system for a wide range of applications.

Intel is in the midst of its biggest business transition ever. Just a few months ago, the chip giant announced that it would be laying off 11,000 workers and taking a step away from the PC market. Instead, it’ll be focusing on wearables and IoT devices. Coinciding with those announcements was an executive shuffle that put Navin Shenoy, its Mobile Client VP, in charge of its wider Client Computing Group (which covers all consumer devices). At Computex this week, we had a chance to pick Shenoy’s brain about Intel’s path forward.

What do you envision being the next major breakthrough for PC form factor?

Continue reading “Intel’s new consumer head dreams of building JARVIS” »

Walk into any workout facility and, odds are, you’ll see plenty of people working with a personal fitness trainer. It’s common practice to hire a trainer who can help improve your physical fitness, but is it possible to find a trainer for better mental fitness? Entrepreneur Ariel Garten founded her company, InteraXon, around this very idea. Bolstered by new advances in non-invasive brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that can help people practice ways to reduce stress and improve cognitive abilities, Garten believes this is just the beginning of a lucrative industry.

Garten’s company manufactures a BMI called the Muse, an EEG sensor headband that monitors occipital and temporal brain waves. According to Ariel, the goal of the device is to help people understand their mental processes while at the same time learning to calm and quiet their mind at any time, with the same convenience of carrying around an iPhone.

Image credit: www.choosemuse.com

“We don’t measure stress (with the Muse). What we’re actually measuring is a state of stable, focused attention,” Garten said. “When you hone your mind into a state of stable focused attention, what you’re able to do is resist the thoughts that you have and the distractions that you have. That helps you improve your cognitive function and attention. And, it also helps you decrease your stress, anxiety and all of the downstream physiological responses of that stress.”

Continue reading “Can A Brain-Machine Interface Help Train Your Mind?” »

Make no mistake, today’s wearables are clever pieces of kit. But they can be bulky and restricted by the devices they must be tethered to. This has led engineers to create thinner and more powerful pieces of wearable technology that can be applied directly to the skin. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led by Zhenqiang “Jack” Ma, have developed “the world’s fastest stretchable, wearable integrated circuits,” that could let hospitals apply a temporary tattoo and remove the need for wires and clips.

With its snake-like shape, the new platform supports frequencies in the .3 gigahertz to 300 gigahertz range. This falls in what is set to become the 5G standard. For a mobile phone, 5G enables faster speeds and greater coverage, but with epidermal electronics, engineers have discussed the possibility that wearers could transmit their vitals to a doctor without having to leave their home.

While the idea isn’t unique, the integrated circuits created by Ma and his team have a much smaller footprint than those developed by other researchers. Earlier transmission lines can measure up to 640 micrometers (or .64 millimeters), but UW–Madison’s solution is just 25 micrometers (or .025 millimeters) thick. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research also supports Ma’s research, suggesting that his wearable breakthroughs may help pilots of the future.

Continue reading “Researchers create high-speed electronics for your skin” »