Japanese Children Turning into Calligraphers, Thanks to Robots

That's because a robot arm is also attached to the brush and for a moment, as thick lines of glistening black ink are laid down on the page, Nijiya is transformed into a master calligrapher.

A few days ago the 10-year-old student and his classmates from a junior high school in Yokohama, close to Tokyo, came face to face with this strange invention.

Despite being a deft practitioner of such a subtle art form, there is nothing human about this collection of metal rods and whirring motors.

But the robot writes just like an expert calligrapher and its inventor hopes it will help teach a new generation of Japanese children an ancient skill that many fear is fast dying out.

"The teaching of calligraphy is all but lost so I thought I could forever preserve the art of our great masters on the robot's memory," explains Seiichiro Katsura, a professor at Keio University and the robot's inventor.

The machine itself consists of multiple engines and a mechanical arm which is attached to a brush. Its hard drive has been imbued with the skills of 90-year-old Juho Sado, a master calligrapher who taught the robot how to write a series of "Kanji" characters down to the most imperceptible of wrist movements and brush strokes.

The robot's complex sensors recorded everything, from the stroke order, the brush angle, the thickness of the line or the slightest pressure change. It then relays those memories to novices and gently corrects their hand movements if they go wrong.

The little school students from Yokohama were able to practice drawing kanji characters such as "study", "sea" and "flower" in classic cursive -- a calligraphy style where all the lines are interconnected. Each time the students produce near perfect replicas.

"When you take the brush, it's as if the master himself is holding your hand and guiding you," said Ayaka Matsui, an assistant of Professor Katsura who teaches children how to use the robot during introductory workshops at the university.

Nijiya agrees. Proudly waving his "Gaku" character -- which means "study" -- he exclaims: "The master is not there but we feel his presence, like he's trying to teach us."

"It's great," adds his classmate Keisuke Yamagishi. "I only need to put a little bit of pressure through my arm and the brush glides across the paper."

Professor Katsura hopes this new technique will not only be able to teach people other forms of art, but also other fields such as surgery or mechanics.

"The process of transmitting knowledge by hand was often tedious, requiring a long process of acquiring techniques, intuition and experience," he says. "With this robot, the process becomes faster and more efficient."

Source-AFP

View the original article here

Now, Robots Emit Cidal Ultraviolet Rays to Sanitize Hospital Rooms

by Bidita Debnath on? June 25, 2013 at 3:56 PM Hospital News To systematically kill germs in hospital rooms, 3-foot robots emit cidal ultraviolet (UV) rays for 15 minutes in closed, unoccupied rooms.

The robot has been nicknamed "Ralph" by the housekeeping staff at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital and "little Joe" at Loyola University Medical Center.

The hospital housekeeping staff cleans the rooms and then uses the robots for additional sterilization. The pulsed UV light destroys viruses, bacteria and bacterial spores without human contact or use of chemicals.

According to studies, the disinfection robots eliminate Clostridium difficile (C. diff) in less than 4 minutes and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) in less than 2 minutes.

Source-ANI

var xmlHttpvar imgpath,imagefunction RefreshImage(ImageId){image=document.getElementById(ImageId);//alert(ImageId);xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/captcha.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();imgpath=url;xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReg;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReg(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){image.src = imgpath;}}function RequestCode(){xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/reqimgvalue.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReq;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReq(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){var seccode=xmlHttp.responseText;if(seccode==document.getElementById("scode").value){//alert(seccode + "same value");}else{document.getElementById("scode").value=xmlHttp.responseText;}}}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttpNew=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttpNew=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttpNew;}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttp=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttp;} function fnsearch(){day1 = document.search.SelDay.value;month1 = document.search.SelMonth.value;year1 = document.search.SelYear.value;tmpdate=month1+"/"+day1+"/"+year1 fromdate=new Date(year1,month1-1,day1)if (!((fromdate.getDate()==day1)&&(fromdate.getMonth()+1==month1)&&(fromdate.getFullYear()==year1))){alert("Please Select a valid Date")document.search.SelDay.focus();return false;}tmpcatid=document.search.ncategoryid.value;tmpkeyword=document.search.keyword.value;document.search.action="http://www.medindia.net/news/newsday_list.asp?ddate="+tmpdate+"&ncategoryid=" +tmpcatid +"&keyword=" +tmpkeywordreturn true;}News Categories:?? Latest Health News Popular News AIDS/HIV News Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Alternative Medicine News Anti-Aging News Bird Flu News Cancer News Celebrity Health News Chikungunya News Child Health News Cholesterol News Clinical Trials News Corporate News Dengue News Dental News Diabetes News Diet & Nutrition News Drug News Education News Environmental Health General News Genetics & Stem Cells News Health Insurance News Heart Disease News Hospital News Hypertension News Indian Health News Lifestyle News Medical Gadgets Medical PDA News Medico Legal News Men?s Health News Mental Health News News on IT in Healthcare Nursing Profession News Obesity News Organ Donation News Research News Respiratory Disease News Senior Health News Sexual Health News Tropical Disease News Weight Loss Women Health News

View the original article here

Skin for Robots Developed

by Sheela Philomena on? General Health News Artificial skins and sensor technologies to augment "sensitivity" in robots have been engineered by European scientists.
The new capabilities, and a production system for building touch-sensitivity into different robots, will improve the way robots work in unconstrained settings, as well as their ability to communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans, reports Science Daily.

The European Union-funded project 'Skin-based technologies and capabilities for safe, autonomous and interactive robots' (ROBOSKIN) developed new sensor technologies and management systems which give robots an artificial sense of touch, until now an elusive quality in robotics.

The artificial skin is modelled largely on real skin, which has a tiny network of nerves that sense or feel changes like hot/cold or rough/smooth.

The electronic sensors collect this so-called 'tactile data' and process it using application software which has been front-loaded to include some basic robot behaviours which can be added to over time.

"We opted for programming through demonstration and robot-assisted play so the robots learn as they go along by feeling, doing and interacting," said project coordinator Professor Giorgio Cannata of Genoa University, Italy.

"We had to generate a degree of awareness in the robots to help them react to tactile events and physical contact with the outside world," he adds.

Source-IANS

var xmlHttpvar imgpath,imagefunction RefreshImage(ImageId){image=document.getElementById(ImageId);//alert(ImageId);xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/captcha.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();imgpath=url;xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReg;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReg(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){image.src = imgpath;}}function RequestCode(){xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/reqimgvalue.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReq;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReq(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){var seccode=xmlHttp.responseText;if(seccode==document.getElementById("scode").value){//alert(seccode + "same value");}else{document.getElementById("scode").value=xmlHttp.responseText;}}}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttpNew=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttpNew=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttpNew;}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttp=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttp;} function fnsearch(){day1 = document.search.SelDay.value;month1 = document.search.SelMonth.value;year1 = document.search.SelYear.value;tmpdate=month1+"/"+day1+"/"+year1 fromdate=new Date(year1,month1-1,day1)if (!((fromdate.getDate()==day1)&&(fromdate.getMonth()+1==month1)&&(fromdate.getFullYear()==year1))){alert("Please Select a valid Date")document.search.SelDay.focus();return false;}tmpcatid=document.search.ncategoryid.value;tmpkeyword=document.search.keyword.value;document.search.action="http://www.medindia.net/news/newsday_list.asp?ddate="+tmpdate+"&ncategoryid=" +tmpcatid +"&keyword=" +tmpkeywordreturn true;}News Categories:?? Latest Health News Popular News AIDS/HIV News Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Alternative Medicine News Anti-Aging News Bird Flu News Cancer News Celebrity Health News Chikungunya News Child Health News Cholesterol News Clinical Trials News Corporate News Dengue News Dental News Diabetes News Diet & Nutrition News Drug News Education News Environmental Health General News Genetics & Stem Cells News Health Insurance News Heart Disease News Hospital News Hypertension News Indian Health News Lifestyle News Medical Gadgets Medical PDA News Medico Legal News Men?s Health News Mental Health News News on IT in Healthcare Nursing Profession News Obesity News Organ Donation News Research News Respiratory Disease News Senior Health News Sexual Health News Tropical Disease News Weight Loss Women Health News

View the original article here