Tag Archives: robotics

The human-machine mind meld is just around the corner if you believe the buzz coming out of Silicon Valley these days. But neuroethicists worry the technology poses a threat to the last bastion of privacy, our innermost thoughts, and have suggested tweaks to our fundamental human rights to protect that privacy.
Elon Musk made waves last month when it was revealed that he had launched a new company called Neuralink, aimed at building brain-computer interfaces (BCI) that would allow us to “telepathically” communicate with machines.
The tech billionaire has been talking about the need to avert the existential threat of artificial intelligence by merging with machines for some time, but he’s now put his money where his mouth is and set an ambitious target of having healthy people installing these devices as a consumer product within the decade.
Earlier this month, the head of Facebook’s Building 8 research group, Regina Dugan, said they are also working on this kind of neural technology, though they want to create a non-invasive headset rather than an implant. They envisage people being able to use their thoughts to control a cursor in augmented reality or type 100 words per minute.

"The technology is coming and is likely to have dramatic implications for privacy, consent and individual agency."

Let’s be clear, the timescales these companies have outlined are wildly optimistic, not least due to the fact that even the world’s top neuroscientists barely understand human cognition yet. Nonetheless, the technology is coming and is likely to have dramatic implications for privacy, consent and individual agency.
That’s why Marcello Ienca, a neuroethicist at the University of Basel, and Roberto Andorno, a human rights lawyer at the University of Zurich, have outlined four new human rights in the journal Life Sciences, Society and Policy designed to protect us from the potential pitfalls.
“While the body can easily be subject to domination and control by others, our mind, along with our thoughts, beliefs and convictions, are to a large extent beyond external constraint,” they write. “Yet, with advances in neural engineering, brain imaging and pervasive neurotechnology, the mind might no longer be such an unassailable fortress.”
The first proposed new right is the right to “Cognitive Liberty,” which states that people have the right to use emerging neurotechnology to modify their mental activity. But it also protects the right to refuse to use it in situations such as an employer requiring workers to take advantage of devices that would improve their performance.
Second on the list is the right to “Mental Privacy,” which would protect people from third parties accessing data about their mental activity collected by a neurotechnology device without their consent.
The impulse for this protection is obvious; tech giants are already hoovering up huge amounts of our behavioral data in their efforts to divine our innermost desires and sell us stuff. Brain data could let them bypass this guesswork and precisely tailor our online experiences in pursuit of their goals.
The authors debate whether this right should be absolute or relative, though. In certain situations, allowing the state to access the thoughts of criminals and terrorists could have obvious benefits for society. But the researchers suggest this could erode the already well-established right not to incriminate oneself, which is widely recognized across the democratic world and enshrined in the Fifth Amendment.
The last two rights are intertwined and deal with the emerging ability to not just record mental activity, but directly influence it. The right to “Mental Integrity” effectively protects against people hacking brain implants to hijack or interfere with their mental processes or erase memories.
The right to “Psychological Continuity” deals with the vaguer notion of attempts to alter someone’s personality or identity, either through similar brain hacking approaches or more subtle ones like neuromarketing, which can involve companies using insights from neuroscience to try and alter unconscious behavior and attitudes in consumers.
These proposals raise some important issues that will have to be tackled as neurotechnology becomes increasingly common. However, it remains debatable whether the invention of new human rights is the best way to tackle them.
The researchers themselves raise the problem of so-called “rights inflation,” where the push to label anything that is morally desirable as a fundamental right waters down the meaning of those already in place.
While they offer a defense, it is not entirely clear why existing rights to privacy and accompanying data protection laws would not be equally applicable to the personal and medical data collected by neurotechnology devices. Similarly, it could be argued that the final two rights overlap to the point where it may make more sense to combine them.
Either way, though, the paper cuts through the utopian futurism that has surrounded emerging neurotechnology in recent months by highlighting the potential dangers and opening up discussion on how best to tackle them.

“It’s always too early to assess a technology until it’s suddenly too late.”

The technology may still be some way off, but as Ienca told The Guardian, it’s best to be prepared. “We cannot afford to have a lag before security measures are implemented,” he said. “It’s always too early to assess a technology until it’s suddenly too late.”
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Last year, an AI named Benjamin wrote a weird and entertaining science fiction short film called Sunspring. Now, Benjamin’s back in a new film titled It’s No Game. Like its predecessor, the short is a surprisingly effective blend of human and machine talent—plus a healthy dose of the surreal.
Watch the film below to see David Hasselhoff, compelled by nanobots, reel off algorithmically mashed up lines from Knight Rider and Baywatch scripts.

Artificial intelligence is perhaps a bit overhyped currently. Rapid progress in a variety of difficult AI problems has us, at times, confusing future possibilities with present capability. The AI timeline tends to go missing, and human obsolescence in the face of superintelligence appears imminent.
Because AI competes with our proudest assets, such as intelligence and creativity, the response is fearful. What exactly is our value in a world where we’re outperformed by algorithms at basically everything? It’s a fascinating and important question. There is no answer. But we have time to figure it out.
AI is still the narrow type. Most algorithms are excellent, even superhuman, at the task for which they're designed, but ill-suited for anything else. And there are yet some tasks just beyond AI's reach. Writing is one of them. It’s No Game is self-aware enough to call out the worry—writers replaced by robots—right next to the still glitchy (but awesome) output of an artificial neural network.
Benjamin’s writing relies on whatever content is fed into it. In this case, instead of X Files scripts (as in Sunspring), we’re treated to multiple segments inspired by Shakespeare, Golden Age Hollywood, Aaron Sorkin’s fast-paced politics, and of course, Baywatch and Knight Rider.
The output tends toward the nonsensical, but mostly, that's okay. Quick, dense lines from Aaron Sorkin’s work, for example, can be as much about the emotional sense communicated by the actors as they are about content.
"People will watch a Sorkin movie and not take in what’s being said, [but] understand the thrust of the scene and know what’s going on," says the Walking Dead's Thomas Payne, who plays one of the screenwriters in the film.
Which is basically why Benjamin’s stuff works here. It’s up to the cast and crew’s sense of timing and delivery to make the lines meaningful. David Hasselhoff time travels to make those disembodied 80s snippets into an unmistakable resurrection of “the Hoff” himself. And the freaked out, confused scene at the end ironically echoes our larger existential worries.
We may be headed into a world of artificial general intelligence, and that world may arrive faster than conservative guesses suggest. But make no mistake, even narrow AI is very powerful. And artists, entrepreneurs, and researchers will no doubt continue to work with such algorithms to make surprising new creations, from the purely useful to the bizarre and fascinating.
(Check out Annalee Newitz's article in Ars Technica for an excellent and comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at the making of It's No Game.)
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Smithers Rapra, one of the world’s leading sources of information on polymers, plastics, rubber and adhesives, recently published a report stating that the global tire manufacturing industry is set to grow almost at a pace of four percent per year from now through to 2022. There are many key factors and industry trends that are driving this growth, but a large percent of that growth can be contributed to the innovations in tire technology which are then furthering advancements in automation within tire manufacturing and distribution facilities.
These advancements are not only benefiting new facilities (Greenfields), but also existing facilities (Brownfields) that were developed with only manual operations in mind. Large tire retailers are beginning to realize what automating their entire facilities or even a few parts of their handling process can do to their bottom lines. Over the last decade, automation has touched each area in the tire manufacturing/handling process and also allowing distribution center operators to realize what this can do to their bottom lines as well.
Automating Each Step in the Process
Legacy Brownfields were designed with manual processes for the handling of their tires, and as a result have typically been perceived as automation-unfriendly. However, with advancements in automation, modules can be customized to each process and each facility, causing an accelerated adoption rate.

Breaking Down the Process Areas
The first process is the automatic storage and transportation of raw rubber and other basic ingredients. During this process, raw materials are placed into automatic storage and automatic retrieval (AS/RS) systems.
Raw materials are then delivered by automation to various mixing and preparation processes to be made into compounded materials for component preparation.
These materials are then delivered by automation to component preparation machines.
The next step is the green tire building process, which receives components automatically.
From there green tires are automatically unloaded from tire building machines (TBMs) by robots.
The green tires are then automatically moved by green tire storage and retrieval gantries or crane style AS/RS systems.
Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) or an overhead electrified monorail systems (EMS) then deliver green tires to the curing press.
After curing, final quality checks on the finished products are completed within fully automated cells.
The tires are then sorted and placed on pallets using gantry robots.
Order fulfillment and shipping automation is the final step. This is where the customer orders are picked by gantry systems and then sequenced into a trailer for customer delivery.
For facilities that do not have the ability to automate all at once, they can deploy modular automation in sequential steps. Modular automation is able to be built and configured in elemental steps to meet their planning requirements. The systems are modular from raw materials to palletizing. There’s a shorter delivery and installation time due to this standardization concept and can be easily applicable to any factory.
Experiencing the Benefits
Whether automating part or all of the handling process, customers are seeing the necessary return on investments (ROI). They’ve begun to see the following savings and benefits:
Total process flow control and visualization of manufacturing/distribution processes at each stage.
Increase in productivity. For example, customers can manufacture 5 to 10 percent more tires per day by getting the right Work-in-Process (WIP) and/or product in the right place at the right time.
With complete communication between the facility’s WMS, MES and ERP systems as well as interface to PLCs, robot controllers and upper host, facilities have 100 percent tracing of total tire production history. This means they can quickly see the progression of the tires from materials and components to green tires (GT) to finished tires (FT).
Real-time data for inventory management, which enables 100 percent availability of materials, components and tires in each process.
With an optimized layout design, less space is needed. This means customers can minimize the required factory footprint, which in turn minimizes the need for large capital investments.
Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery to different processes areas as well as to the end customer.
Streamlined material flow that allows facilities managers to minimize buffering, have less WIP and maximize efficiency.
Reduction in waste and scrap.
Better ergonomics and allocation of human resources. This results in fewer health and safety labor-related problems.
Flexibility with operations and processes. Customers have ability to make automatic changes based on needs and demands.

Implementing for the Future
With rising customer demands and tire sales predicted to spike, tire manufactures are seeking ways to maintain their share of the market by implementing the latest automated systems or upgrading individual processes, which in turn gives them more of a chance to maintain/gain market share.
Because they’re tailored for each manufacturing and distribution process and can be installed in new and existing plants (as either a one-time deployment or independently through scalable, modular automation implementations), the time is now to automate. It ensures your bottom line keeps stacking up.

Author Bio:
Don Heelis is a mechanical engineer and senior systems sales manager for Cimcorp, a manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic gantry-based order fulfillment and tire handling solutions. With more than 25 years of experience, Heelis helps customers develop fully automated systems that increase efficiency, accuracy and throughput for manufacturing, warehouses and distribution centers around the world.
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