Tablet Accessory? A woman wears an EEG cap for a Sandia National Laboratories experiment. To use the mind-reading tablet below, people must wear an EEG cap, though a slightly different one that doesn’t require gel on the scalp. Photo by Randy Montoya from PopSci Magazine

As funny as this woman looks, she taking steps towards singularity as she is using this EEG cap to control her tablet with her thoughts.  Even though this contraption is not at the level of perfection required to be on the market, Samsung and its collaborating researchers are working hard to improve this technology.

Not only would this be an amazing and liberating tool for people who struggle with motor skills, but it will also allow for more ways of multitasking that we can probably fathom at this point. Here is MIT’s Technology Review on the product and the process.

My initial exposure to robots and AI left me feeling nervous, skeptical, and uncomfortable. That was until I came across this adorable Beta Testing DARwIn-OP  video on YouTube. The Beta testing of DARwin, our beloved robot that we see in many of Virginia Tech’s promotional videos, provides some insight on the role robots may play in the lives of future generations.

This video shows Dr. Dennis Hong’s son playing with this cute robot. It is clear that Ethan feels some level of connection to the robot as he interacts with the robot as he would interact with a playmate.

Watching this video makes me wonder whether future generations that grow up playing with robots, that will inevitably be more sophisticated, will be more willing to accept human-like robots that people of our generation may be quick to reject.

Benefits of an advanced prosthetic hand

This article on iPhone-controlled prosthetic hands caught my eye after our class conversation on singularity a couple of weeks ago. In 2008, Jason Koger ran into a downed power line and lost both his hands. Five years later, Touch Bionic’s i-limb ultra revolution has provided him with prosthetic hands that finally allow him to reclaim the use of his hands.

When accompanied by a smartphone app, this prosthetic hand can configure itself into 24 preset grip patterns that allow its owner to carry out tasks such as writing with a pen or typing on a keyboard.

Technology like this bionic hand is in sync with its users and allows them to reach beyond their human limits while using technology as a part of themselves. From this perspective, singularity does not seem as outlandish or threatening as it did in other contexts. So then, is there a way to keep technologies like this advanced prosthetic hand separate from other technologies that we are so quick to reject? And if there isn’t a way to keep them separate, is it worth sacrificing one because of the other?

Renee and I are really excited to share with the class our knowledge of LinkedIn. In our attempt to prepare for our presentation, we have planned an information workshop on LinkedIn for Building Construction students. During this workshop, we will also observe how the students are successfully utilizing this tool.

While having LinkedIn on my mind, I came across this short article “LinkedIn Adds Twitter-Like Mention Feature To Boost Engagement” on FastCompany, which revealed that LinkedIn added a feature that allows users to mention connections and companies on the LinkedIn homepage. Christina Chaey, the author of the article, states that, “it’s likely the new mention feature will help LinkedIn expand its push to become the premiere content creation and sharing platform for professionals.”

This provides another example of how social networking sites are benefiting from user-generated information and publicity.

Following professionals in our field for our Online Identity Analysis was interesting but I thought it would be cool to see the content people outside of our discipline Tweet about. Here is TIME magazine’s list of the 140 Best Twitter Feeds in 2013, which according to the article are “feeds that inspire us to laugh, learn or shake our heads in wonderment.” Enjoy!

Similar to what we discussed in class a few weeks back, here is another article that shows that using social media does not detract from people’s productivity at work. Kit Eaton’s article Tweet This: Social Media Use Improves Employee Productivity on Fast Company reports the findings of a study by Warwick University in the UK that addresses and assuages the fear that social media leads to unproductivity at work.

The study shows that, “by using social media and other online comms channels, staff were able to conclude sales more quickly and get more customer service tasks out of the way speedily.” This shows that the practice we get with Tweeting and Blogging helps build our assets and contributes to our employability upon graduation.

Here is another related article, When Social Media at Work Don’t Create Productivity-Killing Distractions, from the Bloomberg Businessweek.

Apparently, utilizing social media for civic engagement is an ongoing conversation from the past . The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation reached out to high school students in May of 2011 to promote civic engagement through social media. The organization held an hour and a half long conference at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. According to the website, “Panelists examine[d] the many positive uses of social media, especially as a tool to promote civic engagement,” and “look[ed] at the role of social media in politics, social entrepreneurship, voluntarism, and activism.”

Speakers also iterated the social media’s power to reach large audiences and provided students with insight on participating in civic engagement and becoming active members of their communities. The conference is now available on YouTube.

Along with the development of artificial intelligence is the improvement in haptic technology, or technology that registers sensory input. Not only can these mechanical devices register tactical stimuli, but they can also relay these sensory details to a person.

The article in Slate Magazine titled The Sensitive Robot: How Haptic Technology is Closing the Mechanical Gap by Erik Sofge indicates that the “promising” improvement of haptic technology with “new sensors and feedback systems” paired with the mechanical technologies of contemporary robotics will improve the usefulness and accuracy of current robots when carrying out tasks that are, or were, mostly performed by humans, such as performing complicated surgeries or detonating bombs.

Later in the article, Sofge mentions that “haptic technology may ultimately give stronger sense of “self,” which brings up the question of whether robots that contain both haptic technology and artificial intelligence could someday hold the same value we give animals, if not other humans.

From crowd sourced information during natural disasters to funding direct personal loans to entrepreneurs in Kenya, people are utilizing social media and data generated from it to contribute to the good of society. Studies have also shown links between the use of social media and the likelihood of entrepreneurial success. The article Using Technology and Data for Social Impact by Amy Gallo, a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, will be Tweeting and regularly updating her findings.

Here’s another interesting article I found from The Chronicle of Higher Education on how to host a website on Google Drive. The article says that even though cloud technology, such as Google Drive, is not always reliable or secure, this provides a fast and easy option to publish your website without paying for hosting.