Astounding Androids

Android is a robot designed to appear and act like a human being.Years ago Androids figured mostly in Science fictions.The first robot was buiilt in 1927.Android robots were later used in surgery and military. But of late many Androids are life like with astounding capabilities showing expressions and emotions. Japan and South Korea are the two countries that have succeeded in making it a reality.There are quite a few commercially successful Androids.Japan has developed programmable Androids.When these androids are programmed,they can chroeograph their motions,make gestures with voice.As early as 2002 Tokyo university developed an Android called 'Saya'.Now Saya is working as a guide in the science University of Tokyo.Waseda another Japan university has developed an Android named WD-2.This android can make changes to its face.It is said there are 17 facial points and these can be actuated to change the facial movements of the android.Korea has developed an android called EveR-2.It is obviously named after the Biblical character Eve.She can make realistic facial expressions,sing and dance simultaneously.The korean government is planning to make one robot available in every household by 2020.They also have plans for several robot cities.US has developed an Android called 'Einstein' This was the first full body walking Android.Around the world lot of Android projects are being carried out.China has introduced a singing android called Dion.Dion is very life like.There is another European consortium working on cub androids.The consortium members include elven institutions from Italy,Switzerland,UK,and portugal. Their goal is to study cognition through an human robot cub of 3.5 years old called iCub.Aiko is a humanoid developed by Le tung of canda.Acyut is the first Indian humanoid developed by a team from BITS Pilani.They are collaborating with some south korean robotic company to develop Acyut-2 to attain some athletic skills.Toyota has developed a robot that can play violin.There is a dental training robot called Simroid.Simroid is a robotic dental patient with a realistc human appearance.It is a training tool for dentists.It can follow spoken words and would react like a human being.She has senseitive teeth.She can understand the mistakes made by the trainee dentist and would express her pains by frowns, moves her eyes and hands and also speaks when it hurts her.Adam is a robot-computer combination about the size of a large pickup truck. It can carriy out genetic experiments on yeast and reach original conclusions without human help. A soccer player robot is expected by 2050 .Humans engaging in team work with robots is foreseen.The EU Joint-Action Science and Technology project (JAST) is working on this project.

Today we have many semi-autonomous robots like surgery robots, service robots, and military robots.Robots are also used in automotive, electronic, petrochemical and military operations. Android robots are the future.However, there are many apprehensions over its misuse also. Criminals in US now use robot submarines and aircraft to smuggle drugs. There is a continous increase in Annual sales of Robotics world over.The cost of robots are also coming down due to reduction in cost of electronic components.But there should be a code of ethics to regulate robotics .An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots and vice versa is being drawn up by South Korea. Already there are many mechatronics Labs in Japan and South Korea. A korean government report forecasts that robots would routinely carry out surgery by 2018. BBC says robots could demand same citizen rights as humans in the future.Fifty years from now robots would have voting rights,pay taxes and serve a compulsory military service.Society will also in turn have a duty to take care of their digital fellow citizens.It is believed by 2050 robots identical to humans will become a regular part of our day to day life.They will be inetelligent than us and will become indispensable.All said and done I don't think one can read the mind of a robot.But one can study an human being by his or her non verbal reactions to a given situation .Will the scientists be able to programme these reactions also?

Some engineering colleges in India also offer courses on mechatronics The response for this course is poor because of poor employment potential in India and there are few takers for this course.It is unfortunate this course has not become popular in India,though it has wide application in many other fields also.

Aiko,cyborg,transhumanism and the future

Vietnam born and canadian inventor Le Tung has created a female robot called Aiko at a cost of $25000.Aiko has unbelievable housekeeping skills,a page 3 pin up face,an enviable 32,23,33 contour,shiny hair,can talk English and Japanese,can do mathematics and manage accounts.Aiko is touch sensitive and reacts the natural way when showered with affection or hurt,recogonises faces says hello.she knows what drink Le tung likes and what he eats.Helps Tung with directions when they go out.Aiko can move her hands,nod head.She is patient,intelligent and never complains and above all she is just 20 ,5 foot tall,has silicone breasts says Le tung.Aiko undoubtedly is a perfect wife.Aiko means'Love child' in Japanese.Aiko can talk 13000 sentences in Japanese and English.She can tell about weather in all international cities through internet links.Le tung goes out for public outing with Aiko.Aiko is the first human robot to mimic pain and react to it.It took Le Tung 1.5 months to build Aiko.But it took years for him to program.BRAINS is the software used in Aiko to control artificail Intelligence (AI),speech,reading,doing maths,vision,colours,hearing,automation,sensors,temperature,face and object recogonition.Aiko can react to surroundings and environment also.Le Tung says future abilities of Aiko would include the following

"Facial expressions

Make Tea and Coffee

Feed Sushi to Tung

Making breakfast : Egg and bacon

Lying on Aiko's lap she would clean Tung's ears with Q tips

Ability to massage Tungs shoulders and neck

Able to print and write

Clean the windows

Dust the shelves

Clean the toilet and much more " says Le Tung

What more could be there except delivering a baby ?

I agree lot of positives from this technology can be utilised in various other fields like using mechanised limbs for those with amputated limbs,face recogonition can be utilised in investigations,intelligence services.But I strongly feel there should be some limits imposed on such future inventions.Integration of humans,computers and bioelectronics beyond a limit could have far reaching social consequences.The inventors of these technologies might try to implant these bio gadgets into human beings to augment capabilities or performance.That could prove fatal.It must be borne in mind human beings are not biological machines.There is much more and human beings are unique.It is foolhardy to stretch human capabilities and build organic humans with robotic capabilities.

Mind reading

A Japanese research team has developed a technology that would display on a screen what is in your mind.This may help in investigation.But I consider it as a blatant violation of one's privacy.Here the electrical signals of the brain are reconstructed in to images.Stretch your imagination and see how all this could be misused and the resultant chaos in every field you can imagine,be it official,familial or political.

Where do we draw a line and decide what is ethically right for the human race?Who will do it?I am not against technology or inventions.But there should be a right balance.Earlier robots were mere machines.But current robots are cyborgs containing mesh of flesh,wires,neurons,steel,blood and circuits.Or one may call it androids.There are organic components.In otherwords a human transformed in to a machine.Yet there is something called humanity,I mean the humane emotions.That gives me some hope, all that is human can not be duplicated.But the transhumanists will continue their attempts to radically change the human life.Future and posterity can only asess the psossible ill effects of transhumanism.