Week 8 (8.12 - 14.12): Robots in army.

Now it is very much  used robots in the army.
The army and the police use of drones, autonomous trucks and  robots to work sapper. BigDog is a good example of technology developed for the military.
The robot was presented to the world a few years ago, but today is an impressive achievement.

Another and more recent example is the ATLAS robot. It is a humanoid robot with impressive capabilities.

Please watch the video and visit the website:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkBnFPBV3f0
http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_Atlas.html
http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_bigdog.html

Is an impressive a fragment of the robot slips on the ice.

Please answer the questions.

1. What methods are used to maintain a balance?
2. This is a robot from 2008. What do you think the  military technology has now?
3. Do you think that the robot has a chance to survive on the battlefield?
4. Do you think that the moral to use these machines against other people?

Week 8 (8.12 - 14.12): The Lean Startup - How can our ideas become successful companies?

I know that each one of you guys is super busy. 

I'll try to keep it brief and interesting for you.

Ideas

Ideas are everywhere. I guess all of you had a lot of them during your studies. You still think of something new. From time to time, there comes an idea that really sticks to you. You cannot stop thinking about it. You know that you are passionate about it and could commit yourself to it. You start to wonder: What if it's an idea that could bring the change? What if I could find customers for that product/service?

Knowledge

In my opinion we all (me included) lack knowledge about how to turn ideas into products that have a high potential on the market. We often possess skills to produce (as I do, being a developer) but do not know, how to make it matter in terms of building a business around the product.

I trully believe that this is a very imporant knowledge that could, and should be teached. How to turn ideas into successful products is a knowledge that could be gathered, shared and taught. Fortunatelly some people do that already.

Startups

Several institutions in Poland and abroad brought a new fashion - fashion for being an entrepreneur. You could almost say that it is trendy to work on your own business. I think that this trend is not a bad thing. By examining in detail, what brought an idea to successful products gives us an insight of factors that are critical for proper execution. Create a trend, take a look on several startups and you have a fair amount of data to analyse and reason from.

The Lean Startup

I invite you to view a brief (7m) introductional video  on "The Lean Startup". Book and methodology of Eric Ries that deconstructs business building process into steps that can be taken to achieve success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBlrLqsjIDw

Questions

Here are couple of questions from me:

1. Do you remember your last business idea that was important for you? 
2. Did you try to execute it?
1. If you did - why? How did it go?
2. If you didn't - why? 
3. What makes a good product in your opinion?
4. What do you think about the lean startup approach?
5. Would you be afraid to talk openly and publicly about your next idea for the business?

But wait, there is more!

If you are interested in that subject I invite you to take a part in a course at Stanford University about "How to Start a Startup?". Course is lead by Paul Graham, CEO of Y Combinator - one of the most successful incubators in the world. Link to the first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBYhVcO4WgI

I'm deeply interested in this subject because I'm just in the middle of founding my own incubator (foundation) that brings programmers (hackers), web designers (hipsters) and marketers (hustlers) togheter. 

Week 8 (8.12 - 14.12): Are athletes really getting faster,better,stronger?

Today the sport is not just a competition between players now it is big business worth many billions of dollars.
Today to beat records is not enough just hard training and abilities. Currently corporations invest great big money in research and employ the best researchers that will help athletes achieve better and better results.

 Please view of a short presentation which show how technology and research  help athletes to achieve better and better results.

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_getting_faster_better_stronger#t-31072 

 

Please answer the questions.

 

1. Do you think that technology should so interfere with the performance of athletes? 

 

2. Do you think technology is killing the idea of sport  according to which competition should win the player with the best preparation and not this player who has  the best equipment and access to better technology?

 

3. How far in your opinion  technology should interfere with sport to help athletes achieve even better results and what do you think about this result which are achieve thanks to technology in you opinion these results are really the result of hard work?

 

Week 8 (8.12 - 14.12): When two brains connect.

I am presenting a far shorter article than before which make me think. Are we in future going to communicate directly between two brains?

A story begins more than year ago. Scientist from Harvard lunched research if human can move rat’s tail. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/162678-harvard-creates-brain-to-brain-interface-allows-humans-to-control-other-animals-with-thoughts-alone.

And they did! Few month latter scientist tried connection of two human brains. Read more what happens.:

http://files.pwojcik.pl/SAMindP1.jpg

http://files.pwojcik.pl/SAMindP2.jpg

http://files.pwojcik.pl/SAMindP3.jpg

http://files.pwojcik.pl/SAMindP4.jpg

Questions:

1.       Do you think it is possible to communicate using only thought?

2.       Can we use computer to transfer for example image directly to our brain?

3.       How brain-to-brain communication will revolutionize society, education system etc?

4.       What application of brain-to-brain connectivity come to your mind?

5.       Is it ethically correct to continue the research in this fields? What risk is it takes?

6.       Will you agree to implant electronic device to your brain to make communication this way to other cyborgs.

Week 7 (1.12 - 7.12): Mobile robot navigation

Today it is used more and more robots in industry, medicine and the military.
In recent years, are generally available cleaning robots, and robots mowing grass.
A very important and difficult issue in robotics is navigation. Each robot must know its own position. Without this information, it was impossible to reach the target, wash the entire floor or reaching to the charging station batteries. There are many evaluation method and navigation algorithms. They differ in complexity, accuracy, and of course price. Not all methods are universal and can not be used in all conditions. An important element is to build maps navigation environment. If the robot knows the own position and the position of obstacles can plan an optimal path to the goal.

My robot:)

In my robot used a two incremental encoders to measure the distance traveled. I got 1/10 of a millimeter while driving with a minimum speed. For correction encoder wanted to use the accelerometer but turned out to be less accurate than the encoders. I used to build the map data from the encoders and ultrasonic sensor mounted on a micro-servo.


Please read the article.
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_97/journal/vol4/jmd/

Please answer the questions.
Which of navigation methods should be used in the autonomous car?
Is robot mowing the grass should have a GPS receiver?
What this map (vector, raster) should create a robot cleaning the apartment?

Week 7 (1.12 - 7.12): Augmented and Virtual Reality

With projects like Oculus Rift, Google Glass, Google Cardboard or Gear VR, Virtual and Augmented Reality are on a verge of finally becoming available to a general public. In the past there were many attempts to bring Virtual Reality to our lives. Many of us remember the excitement around projects like Nintendo’s Virtual Boy and the VFX-1 Virtual Reality Helmet. Unfortunately those projects resulted in very niche products and usually commercial failures.

At this moment if feels inevitable - we finally have the technology which will allow us to emerge ourselves in Virtual Realities at home and enjoy Augmented Reality in the outside world. There are already many games supporting Oculus Rift, even though it hasn’t been officially released yet. With the latest generation of graphics cards, NVidia is optimizing its hardware for VR - trying to optimize performance and reduce latency, which has been one of the main issues with Virtual Reality. Projects like Google Cardboard (http://cardboard.withgoogle.com) make it possible for almost anyone to experience Virtual Reality on a mobile device for less than 10 USD (the cardboard is usually free, but you have to buy two lenses!).

With widespread Augmented and Virtual reality around the corner, more and more engineers and scientists are starting to think about their possible applications. I came across a short paper describing a very interesting implementation of Augmented Reality (AR). Most of AR-related projects try to enhance user's experience by adding some extra elements or information to the world seen by the user. This project is different - it tries to limit user's vision in various ways, enabling the user to experience her/his surrounding in a way in which a person with visual impairments would do:
http://eelke.com/files/pubs/simviz.pdf

I would like to invite you to discuss the following topics:
-    Which industries will be affected by the increasing popularity of Augmented and Virtual Reality?
-    What are the main limitations of AR and VR in their current state?
-    Are there any existing or currently developed AR or VR projects which you are excited about?

Week 7 (1.12 - 7.12): Fighting Identity Theft with the Red Flags Rule: A How-To Guide for Business

I would like you to think about threat of fraud which can be consequence of action of organized criminal groups: skimming, phishing, creating "mule" accounts and what is the most frequent cause of fraud - being thoughtless.
Please read an article about fraud prevention by financial institutions with usage of "Red Flags Rule".
http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus23-fighting-identity-theft-red-flags-rule-how-guide-business

Think of following situations and finish sentences:
Imagine that you are looking for a job. You reply to an offer that you had received on your mailbox. You send CV with your adress, e-mail, date of birth, but they want you to give more details. Potential work is supposed to be well-paid so you instantly share with your bank account and sensitive data. Futhermore, in CV there is your photo.
Few weeks later you find out that ....

Suppose that you got this job. In your responsibilities is to work from home using your own bank account. You "only" have to immidiately transfer money that you have received to other account. Your salary is a percentage from transferred amount.
The next day after first transaction somebody is knocking to your door ....

You want to take money from ATM. The machine looks somehow strange cause it is little scratched and the keyboard is like protruding. You are in shopping center so you think that nothing could happen to this machine, there is always a lot of people and for sure are cameras. You take the money.
You've been a victim of ....

Have you ever lost your wallet? Did you block ID's number in your bank even if the wallet was returned to you the next day?
What can happen is ....

Do you think that "Red Flag Rule" is the only system used by institutions to manage with frauds? Do you see other mechanisms that can work?
....