Re: TV: Documentary Science of Beauty

From: natashavita@earthlink.net
Date: Fri Aug 25 2000 - 13:21:56 MDT


Ken Clements wrote on Fri, 25 Aug 2000 14:04:17
 ------------------

>I am, however, now active on the other end of the size scale.
 This is to make teleoperated robots in the micro world. When
I get this together, teams of workers will be able to get into
their VR stations and be transported to a
construction site that is actually deep inside a scanning electron
microscope.<

Visionary idea. I would imagine that the architecture for the
teams of workers would be quite fascinating, and even stunning
to look at.

I haven't read this book _Cellular Robotics and Micro Robotic
Systems_ by T Fukuda & T Ueyama (Nagoya Univ.), but references
I did read references about it and it covers ideas on cellular
robotics and micro robotic systems with pointers to concepts
stemming from the organic architecture of the physical body.
 An aspect of this I like a lot is focus on swarm intelligence
and emphasis on the technology of micro robotics.

Regarding telepresence, I enjoyed reading the synopsis below
by an unknown author:

"The term telepresence is often encountered in the literature
and it deserves special attention. Three definitions of the term
telepresence are in common use: the simple, the cybernetic, and
the experiential. In the simple definition, telepresence refers
to the ability to operate in a remote or computer-mediated world
generally. In the cybernetic definition, telepresence is an index
of the quality of the human-machine interface. In the experiential
definition, telepresence means a mental state in which a user
feels physically present within the remote world.

The critical difference between cybernetic and experiential telepresence
is that the cybernetic definition refers to efficiency while
the experiential definition refers to something experienced by
the human user. Cybernetic telepresence is the projection of
human capability into a remote world and experiential telepresence
is the projection of human consciousness into a computer-mediated
world.

Although the importance of experiential telepresence is widely
accepted, some authors question the value of the concept because
of the paucity of data demonstrating the existence of the phenomenon
or its relationship to task performance. Experiential telepresence
may also be criticized from the perspective of scientific parsimony:
although it postulates an additional construct lacking in the
cybernetic definition (the illusion of presence), it does not
seem to provide a more powerful explanation of observations of
teleoperator performance." (unknown author)

Interesting Research Locations:

Australia's Telerobot (University of Western Australia)
Carnegie Science Center's Online Telerobot (Carnegie Mellon University)

Khep On The Web
ETC-Lab Ergonomics in Teleoperation and Control Laboratory (University
of Toronto)
Bradford Robotic Telescope Observatory site
The Telegarden (University of Southern California)
Interactive Model Railroad
PumaPaint (Wilkes University/Villanova)
Net-Robot
Robotoy (University of Wollongong)

Natasha

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