FROM THE RAW STORY

Group plans to beam free Internet across the globe from space

By Eric W. Dolan

The charity group A Human Right said it was planning to purchase a satellite that would provide free basic Internet access to developing countries around the world.

The group, which was founded by 25-year-old Kosta Grammatis, is currently raising money to buy the TerreStar-1, the largest commercial communications satellite ever built. TerreStar, the company that owns the satellite, filed for chapter-11 bankruptcy protection in October 2010, opening the possibility that the satellite may be up for sale.

The group hopes to raise $150,000 to finalize a business plan, investigate the legal and business aspects of submitting a bid for the satellite, and hire engineers to turn the plan into a reality. After this initial phase, the group plans to develop an open source low cost modem that could be used to connect to the satellite and finalize plans with partner governments.

"We believe that Internet access is a tool that allows people to help themselves - a tool so vital that it should be considered a universal human right," the website for Buy This Satellite stated. "Imagine your digital life disconnected. Without access to the 100 million man-hours that have been put into Wikipedia, how much do you actually know?"

Nearly 5 billion out of the world's 6.9 billion people don't have access to the Internet.

A Human Right plans to finance their satellite by allowing telecommunication companies to purchase bandwidth, while providing basic service for free to everyone. "Our goal is to not only get everyone online, but also facilitate the growth of an industry," their website said.

The group has already managed to raise $44,781.

"The idea for global connectivity was born in Berlin, Germany in an innovation 'Do-Tank' called Palomar 5," according to the group. "Thirty people under the age of thirty came together to innovate on what the future might look like, and how to address some of the worlds problems."

READ MORE

FROM CNET
Robots help sick kids go to school


Children too sick to go to school are still getting an education--thanks to robots in the classroom that transmit lessons back to the student.

Stepan Supin, 12, of Moscow has been battling leukemia for two years, and his immune system is so weak he can't leave home. However, telepresence technology allows him to go to school via remote-controlled robot.

The R.BOT 100 was developed by Moscow's 3Detection Labs several years ago, and it's been helping Stepan study history, geography, and languages since September.

Priced at roughly $3,000, the R.BOT 100 moves around on a wheeled base and has a display, Web cam, microphone, speakers, and an Internet link so Stepan can interact with his classmates and teacher.

"I can change the robot's speed, to go slower or faster. I can move his head to look left or right. I really feel as if I am in the classroom," Stepan told Australia's Herald Sun.

In Texas, Lyndon Baty also goes to school through a robot surrogate. He suffers from polycystic kidney disease and has a severely impaired immune system, which confines him to home.

Lyndon attends class with the Vgo telepresence robot, which was released last year by Vgo Communications. With two-way video, audio, and a 10-hour battery, Vgo lets Lyndon roam around the halls of Knox City High School and interact with other students (see the video below).

"I never thought when I was sick that I would ever have any interaction, much less this kind. It is just like I am there in the classroom," Lyndon said.

Priced around $6,000, the Vgo is much cheaper than Anybots' QB robot. With more and more telepresence bots coming out, will they become as common and cheap as laptops? If so, getting that magical doctor's note that lets you stay home might not mean too much anymore.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20030156-1.html#ixzz1CsIEwnqy

S.Korea schools get robot English teachers


Engkey, a white, egg-shaped robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science of Technology (KIST), began taking classes Monday at 21 elementary schools in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The 29 robots, about one metre (3.3 feet) high with a TV display panel for a face, wheeled around the classroom while speaking to the students, reading books to them and dancing to music by moving their head and arms.

The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines -- who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.

Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.

"Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP.

Apart from reading books, the robots use pre-programmed software to sing songs and play alphabet games with the children.

"The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person," said Kim Mi-Young, an official at Daegu city education office.
Kim said some may be sent to remote rural areas of South Korea shunned by foreign English teachers.

She said the robots are still being tested. But officials might consider hiring them full time if scientists upgrade them and make them easier to handle and more affordable.
"Having robots in the classroom makes the students more active in participating, especially shy ones afraid of speaking out to human teachers," Kim said.

She stressed the experiment was not about replacing human teachers with robots. "We are helping upgrade a key, strategic industry and all the while giving children more interest in what they learn."
The four-month pilot programme was sponsored by the government, which invested 1.58 billion won (1.37 million dollars).

READ MORE

FROM endless capabilities


Babies with mobility issues, such as spina bifida or cerebral palsy, can’t explore the world like babies who can walk or crawl. Since babies explore and learn as part of infant development, mobility is linked with cognitive development.

At the RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America) conference, doctors presented a paper calling independent mobility crucial for infants. “Children with physical disabilities and restricted mobility have been found to demonstrate increased dependence, frustration, depressed motivation, lack of curiosity, and a lack of confidence,” they wrote. These doctors recommended that babies should take to driving robots enhanced with sonar capabilities.

They created a baby robo-chair by placing the baby into a baby seat that is strapped onto a Wii Fit Balance Board that sits atop a Pioneer 3 robot platform. This ingenious invention works for even 7-month-old infants as the robot will travel in whatever path and direction in which the baby leans. The built-in sonar keeps babies safe by avoiding collisions.

Researchers wrote, “The balance board has responsive pressure sensors in each of its four corners and built in Bluetooth capabilities. We use a commercial Bluetooth adapter and WiiYourself! C++ library (ti) to access balance board data within our robotics software. Our software compares the values of the four pressure sensors to determine which, if any, direction the infant is leaning. When a sustained lean is detected the robot begins to move in that direction. When the child reaches out for an item, he or she leans in the direction of the item and moves toward it. We believe this will be the most intuitive method for a young child to learn to use.”

Since each child moves in a different way, the robo-chair can be customized. Parents or therapists can use a wireless joystick as a master override switch if needed.


READ MORE

From Physorg
UM researchers are studying child-mother interactions to design robots with social skills
October 28, 2010

To help unravel the mysteries of human cognitive development and reach new the frontiers in robotics, University of Miami (UM) developmental psychologists and computer scientists from the University of California in San Diego (UC San Diego) are studying infant-mother interactions and working to implement their findings in a baby robot capable of learning social skills.

 
The first phase of the project was studying face-to-face interactions between mother and child, to learn how predictable early communication is, and to understand what babies need to act intentionally. The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Neural Networks in a study titled "Applying machine learning to infant interaction: The development is in the details."
The scientists examined 13 mothers and babies between 1 and 6 months of age, while they played during five minute intervals weekly. There were approximately 14 sessions per dyad. The laboratory sessions were videotaped and the researchers applied an interdisciplinary approach to understanding their behavior.

The researchers found that in the first six months of life, babies develop turn- taking skills, the first step to more complex human interactions. According to the study, babies and mothers find a pattern in their play, and that pattern becomes more stable and predictable with age,explains Daniel Messinger, associate professor of Psychology in the UM College of Arts and Sciences and principal investigator of the study.


READ MORE