Talking to machines? Ok. But are you ready to swallow them?

 

Perhaps you remember the "Innerspace" movie from the 80's, where a man in a kind of submarine, both miniaturized, where travelling inside a man's body, and talking to him using a loudspeaker.

A good comedy, very funny of course, since it is so unusual to imagine oneself having a robot swimming inside one's body.

Does this technology will soon exist? Probably yes. And some improvements are fore-casted compared to the "Innerspace's submarine"!

Here is an example of blood swimming robot, that provides a dose of medication directly to the infected area. It also illustrates the basic principles of nanorobots' design.

 

There are also some ambitious projects, like solving infertility problems using robots able to detect and bring suitable sperm cells.

 

Ok, these robots seem to be hard workers, fair enough. But we are here to talk to machines, so what about talking with these robots?

Is the loudspeaker missing ???

At first, these robots will take wireless instructions from a computer host outside of the patient's body. This is essential for patients requiring constant monitoring, such as tumor status or diabet.

But let's recap: wireless connection, computer, so...

Will I be able to use my smart-phone to monitor my body ???

Probably yes. Some applications already exist, for example the Sanofi's blood glucose monitor system dedicated to diabetes (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2113676), but are based on a combination of an application and a hardware external device.

This is emphasized on the following system, which manages ECG monitoring.

So we know that the business applications are here, but the challenge now is to replace the external device by an internal specialized nanorobot, able to send monitoring info using wireless connection.

Here are some challenges of this future technology:

• To be able to get the robot out of the patient's body (assuming that it will not be as easy as a sneeze, like in Innerspace movie)
• To manage the maintenance of the robot once in the body
• To ensure that the robot cannot harm the patient's body

...communication evolution

…created for calls, developed in multi-connection platforms with the most advanced computing abilities and application functionalities: here the SMARTPHONE.                          

A research published at ASYMCO.COM is forecasting that, within five years, all phones will be smartphones. But how will smartphones and their usage evolve? “Human interface” is definitely playing a key role in defining how it will look like…                                             

 Microsoft is currently working on the development of a new interface for Windows 8 phones, based on gesture recognition and advanced control movement (VR-Zone.com).         

Other companies (such as Hillcrest Labs) are moving in the same direction to create the “next-generation user experience” through multi-platforms devices for gesture recognition (infohq.com)                                                                                                                   

As reported in the article at ECNMAG.COM, this new smartphone generation will modify our habits and allow us to complete a larger number of tasks.                                                      

But do you really believe that the final result of this evolutionary process will be a “totally humanized phone”, as proposed by the following Nokia research - HumanForm, able not only to capture visible movements, but also to understand and translate feelings through emotional interactions? 

Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ovqDMvsWuvc