| Japanese robotisist Akira Mita has vision of buildings that know more about us than we know about ourselves is enabled by a fundamental re-think of how "smart" buildings should be constructed. Mita proposes moving the sensors now used in smart buildings to learning robots, that “chase” a structure's human occupants, he wants buildings to understand everything about us, down to our emotional state. |
Mita is an engineer, not an architect, and it shows in both the sophistication of his designs and the scale of his ambition. Using swarms of robotic sensors that “chase” a structure's human occupants, he wants buildings to understand everything about us, down to our emotional state.
These robot sensors will learn from their mistakes, self-regulate using digital “hormones”, and record information over the course of years, building up a record of experiences to be used as “DNA” to program future versions of themselves, or even other buildings.
"Living organisms give birth to the next generation, and have immunity to viruses such as influenza," says Mita in a video promoting his work. "Our idea was that we wanted to give architecture this kind of biological response capability."
Early prototypes, called the “e-bio,” are about as big as the iRobot Roomba. They’re equipped with a pair of bat-like ears that can determine the precise location of sounds. They also have an “eye” that sweeps a laser beam around the robot, allowing it build a complete, three-dimensional picture of its surroundings ten times a second.
Mita’s team is concentrating on making his robots hyper-attuned to signals given off by the human beings in a building.
Take the body language or words we use to express the discomfort we feel with the temperature in a building. In cases like this, the attendant robots would communicate via a “hormonal” signal.
Borrowing ideas from “swarm robotics” — the study of robots that make decisions in the same distributed way that ants and other insects do — Mita wants his robots to make consensus decisions about how to alter a building’s environment.
Mita’s team figured out how to program a building’s ambient music to shape the mood of its human occupants. The system has pre-set goals — in this case, keeping people productive during the day — and accomplishes them by experimentally adjusting both the familiarity and the tempo of the music piped through a building. By integrating observations of all the humans present, the system used a relatively unsophisticated but “swarm intelligent” algorithm to increase productivity by 69% versus a no-music control.
Another characteristic of living things that Mita is copying is a concept called “homeostasis.” For example, rather than simply being programmed with simple instructions like “if a person walks into a room, turn the light on,” Mita’s “e-bio” sensors might learn how much light a user likes.
Equipped with their own light sensors, they can adjust ambient light levels to fit a user’s demonstrated preferences.This way, the system automatically takes into account time of day, clouds, even whether or not the blinds are drawn, all without actually knowing the state of any of those variables.
SOURCE BBC Future
"Living organisms give birth to the next generation, and have immunity to viruses such as influenza," says Mita in a video promoting his work. "Our idea was that we wanted to give architecture this kind of biological response capability."
Early prototypes, called the “e-bio,” are about as big as the iRobot Roomba. They’re equipped with a pair of bat-like ears that can determine the precise location of sounds. They also have an “eye” that sweeps a laser beam around the robot, allowing it build a complete, three-dimensional picture of its surroundings ten times a second.
Mita’s team is concentrating on making his robots hyper-attuned to signals given off by the human beings in a building.
Take the body language or words we use to express the discomfort we feel with the temperature in a building. In cases like this, the attendant robots would communicate via a “hormonal” signal.
Mita’s team figured out how to program a building’s ambient music to shape the mood of its human occupants. The system has pre-set goals — in this case, keeping people productive during the day — and accomplishes them by experimentally adjusting both the familiarity and the tempo of the music piped through a building. By integrating observations of all the humans present, the system used a relatively unsophisticated but “swarm intelligent” algorithm to increase productivity by 69% versus a no-music control.
Another characteristic of living things that Mita is copying is a concept called “homeostasis.” For example, rather than simply being programmed with simple instructions like “if a person walks into a room, turn the light on,” Mita’s “e-bio” sensors might learn how much light a user likes.
Equipped with their own light sensors, they can adjust ambient light levels to fit a user’s demonstrated preferences.This way, the system automatically takes into account time of day, clouds, even whether or not the blinds are drawn, all without actually knowing the state of any of those variables.
SOURCE BBC Future
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The home robots will be a great use as I think. I this will bring a new dimension to the forth generation. I appreciate your invention. Great!!!
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