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Ben Salem
Industrial Design
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
b.i.salem@tue.nl
polywork.com/~bsalem

Overview 44 slides

• Conscious Robots
• Is enactment the solution

• Modelling Volition
• Is free will an illusion?

• Functional Neuro-Anatomy of the brain
• Inspiration for Interactive Systems

© By Ben Salem Presentation at SONY FW Labs, 9th September 2005

Contents

• Introduction
• What are Emotions

• What is Volition

• Understanding Consciousness

• Modelling the Brain
• MiniMe
• Mollycuddle

• Department of Industrial Design
• 80 Staff since 2000/2001

• 3yrs Bachelor Degree, 2yrs Master Degree

• Two Research groups and growing

• User Centred Engineering

• Designed Intelligence


Vision

• To understand ourselves and achieve higher
spirituality and harmony with the aid of
technology
In fact, harmony is the life and real meaning of a true community or an organisation
The teaching of Buddha


Inspiration

Ryugyong, Pyongyang, DPRK Burj el Arab, Dubai, UAE

Pictures from the Internet

Holistic Approach

The tuna ﬁsh syndrome

Picture from the Internet

Why Holistic?

High speciﬁcations leads to specialisation
High Specialisation leads to lack of adaptivitiy


The most adaptive and subjective system we
know is ourselves.


Volition
No matter how high one’s aspiration may be, it must be attained step by step


A linear model


Benjamin Libet
in 1979 reveals a substantial delay--the "mind time"--before any
awareness affects how we view our mental activities.
If all conscious awarenesses are preceded by unconscious processes,
as Libet observes, we are forced to conclude that unconscious
processes initiate our conscious experiences. Freely voluntary acts are
found to be initiated unconsciously before an awareness of wanting to act-
-a discovery with profound ramifications for our understanding of free will.

Libet, B., Wright, E. W., Feinstein, B. & Pearl, D. K. (1979). Brain 102,
193

Pictures from the Internet

Emotions
She was attempting to control her emotions


Functional Neuro-Anatomy
1st Doomite Robot: Humans are so stupid!
2nd Doomite Robot: That's because their brains are analogue instead of digital.
From Voltron: Defender of the universe, Wikiquote


Limbic System


Amygdala


Amygdala

• Plays a key role in emotions
• Seat of fear and pleasure assessment


Hippocampus


Hippocampus Indirect


Hippocampus

• Plays a role in memory and navigation


Hypothalamus


Hypothalamus

• Connects to the endocrine system and
release neurohormones
• Involved in the regulation of body
temperature, hunger, thirst and circadian
cycles.
• Part of the Control of emotions and sexual
activity


Awakeness


Other Structures

• Thalamus:
Relay station

• Brainstem:
Respiration, cardiac rhythm, route of communication
between brain and spinal cord

• Cerebelum:
Major sensorimotor structure that play an important role in
the regulation an planning of movements.


Emotional brain circuits


The Reason for enacting

• Is a disembodied brain a possibility?
• Is a brainless body a possibility?


Projects
If knowledge can create problems,
it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
Isaac Asimov


Well Planned Progress?


MiniMe

• Bottom-up Approach
• Work on joint control

• Top-Down Approach
• Modelling volition, emotions and now CS!


Anatomy of the knee joint


Three types of motor units

• S. Slow-twitch, FR. Fast-twitch, fatigue-resistant and, FF.
Fast-twitch, fatiguable.

• Muscles can operate under 3 modes:
1. small amount of force for prolonged period
2. Moderate amount of force sustainable for moderate amount of time
3. Large amount of force for brief periods.


Biomimetic joint control


Mimicking 3 muscle ﬁbres


Mollycoddle

• Pampered and overprotected toy
• Empathy,
• 1st year students and now I’m coaching a 3rd year student
for his ﬁnal project


Cuddle


Mikko


Questions?


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