Robotic Exoskeletons and Social, Companion, and Service Robots

Robotics is an emerging technology presenting great opportunities for the future of eAccessbility and Assistive Technologies. This is why this chapter aims to present the current state of the art in the domain together with the potential that robotics holds for the future. More specifically, it presents recent efforts on social and companion robotics and the dangers and current challenges we are facing in that area, such as autonomy, security, the risk of seclusion for people being taken care of by robots, etc. Furthermore, this chapter is also discussing the developments in another area of robotics dealing with robotic exoskeletons. Exoskeletons are now being used in specific working environments and could in the future become a useful technology of people with disabilities. Some first examples are presented, and the chapter discusses issues such as the potential transfer of knowledge and expertise from other applications and the use of assistive technologies for helping caretakers instead of the actual persons in need.

This chapter looks into horizontal issues in ICT advances and discusses how the factor of human performance could help in increasing the impact of eAccessibility and assistive technologies in the future. More specifically, it revisits some of the ideas presented in earlier chapters looking at them from a different angle. The one of maximizing the audience and target group for assistive technologies through the increase in human performance, issues related with exoskeletons for working environments and dual use of assistive technology, sports as a motivator, aesthetics and fashion of prosthetics are discussed from this same perspective. Human performance could be a critical factor for the future of assistive technologies, and today's people with disabilities could become tomorrow's people with super-abilities and leaders in human performance issues.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Knight

This paper takes stock of the current state-of-the-art in multimodal corpus linguistics, and proposes some projections of future developments in this field. It provides a critical overview of key multimodal corpora that have been constructed over the past decade and presents a wish-list of future technological and methodological advancements that may help to increase the availability, utility and functionality of such corpora for linguistic research.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Zarah Walsh-Korb

Conserving the world’s cultural and natural heritage is considered a key contributor to achieving the targets set out in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, yet how much attention do we pay to the methods we use to conserve and protect this heritage? With a specific focus on wooden objects of cultural heritage, this review discusses the current state-of-the-art in heritage conservation in terms of sustainability, sustainable alternatives to currently used consolidants, and new research directions that could lead to more sustainable consolidants in the future. Within each stage a thorough discussion of the synthesis mechanisms and/or extraction protocols, particularly for bio-based resources is provided, evaluating resource usage and environmental impact. This is intended to give the reader a better understanding of the overall sustainability of each different approach and better evaluate consolidant choices for a more sustainable approach. The challenges facing the development of sustainable consolidants and recent research that is likely to lead to highly sustainable new consolidant strategies in the future are also discussed. This review aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion of sustainable conservation and highlight the role that consolidants play in truly sustainable heritage conservation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Attias ◽  
Achiya Livne ◽  
Tiffany Abitbol

AbstractMaterial development based on fungal mycelium is a fast-rising field of study as researchers, industry, and society actively search for new sustainable materials to address contemporary material challenges. The compelling potential of fungal mycelium materials is currently being explored in relation to various applications, including construction, packaging, “meatless” meat, and leather-like textiles. Here, we highlight the discussions and outcomes from a recent 1-day conference on the topic of fungal mycelium materials (“Fungal Mycelium Materials Mini Meeting”), where a group of researchers from diverse academic disciplines met to discuss the current state of the art, their visions for the future of the material, and thoughts on the challenges surrounding widescale implementation.


Informatics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Loraine Franke ◽  
Daniel Haehn

Modern scientific visualization is web-based and uses emerging technology such as WebGL (Web Graphics Library) and WebGPU for three-dimensional computer graphics and WebXR for augmented and virtual reality devices. These technologies, paired with the accessibility of websites, potentially offer a user experience beyond traditional standalone visualization systems. We review the state-of-the-art of web-based scientific visualization and present an overview of existing methods categorized by application domain. As part of this analysis, we introduce the Scientific Visualization Future Readiness Score (SciVis FRS) to rank visualizations for a technology-driven disruptive tomorrow. We then summarize challenges, current state of the publication trend, future directions, and opportunities for this exciting research field.


Author(s):  
M. Kvasnica

This article focuses on the current state-of-the-art assistive technologies in man-machine interface and its applications in robotics. This work presents the assistive technologies developed specifically for disabled people.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1599-1631
Author(s):  
Stathis Th. Konstantinidis ◽  
Ellen Brox ◽  
Per Egil Kummervold ◽  
Josef Hallberg ◽  
Gunn Evertsen ◽  
...  

The population is getting older, and the resources for care will be even more limited in the future than they are now. There is thus an aim for the society that the seniors can manage themselves as long as possible, while at the same time keeping a high quality of life. Physical activity is important to stay fit, and social contact is important for the quality of life. The aim of this chapter is to provide a state-of-the-art of online social exergames for seniors, providing glimpses of senior users' opinions and games limitations. The importance of the motivational techniques is emphasized, as well as the impact that the exergames have to seniors. It contributes to the book objectives focusing on current state and practice in health games for physical training and rehabilitation and the use of gamification, exploring future opportunities and uses of gamification in eHealth and discussing the respective challenges and limitations.


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