Building Towards the Future

Universal Translator

 

By: Kevin Robinson

The idea of a universal translator is a great one. It will give a person the ability to communicate with someone who speaks a different language.  Language barriers will be a thing of the past and people all around the world can communicate with each other more efficiently. The time it takes to learn a new language will be spent on more suitable things.

How this device will work is that every time a person wants to speak in a different language, the individual will need to insert a tiny microchip into the device. The microchip will read the language and translate it to the wearer. When the person wants to communicate back, the wearer will reply in the other person’s language. The drawback is that the wearer needs to know what language the other person is speaking in, so the individual knows what chip to insert into the universal translator. These chips can only hold one or two languages on it.

The device itself is handheld so it can only store a little bit of information; however, technology is always changing so new models of this device will come shortly after. Much of our society is surrounded by tiny handheld devices. This invention has not been invented yet. Judging from the descriptions, it will probably look like some sort of Bluetooth headpiece or handheld voice recorder.

Google created an online translator that translates any language a person types in into another. It even goes as far as to detect the language being typed in. We are one step towards achieving this invention. I think this invention will help a lot of people that work overseas or businesses that work with clients in a different area or country.  There are a lot of out-there inventions like the hovercraft or jetpacks that I don’t see happening, but the universal translator is actually something I can see happening within the next five to ten years. Apple managed to create a new iPhone that allows users to communicate with a computerized secretary that answers their every question. Can you imagine what it would be like if the universal communicator was like that? That would be pretty cool.

References

http://www.freshpatents.com/Universal-translator-dt20061214ptan20060282269.php

http://voices.yahoo.com/google-translation-precursor-universal-translator-7624124.html

Pick Your Side

Pick Your Side

By: Kevin Robinson

Nikola is a better inventor and without his help, Edison could not have been where he is now. Tesla worked for Edison at one point and didn’t stay long. Thomas Edison was known for stealing ideas from his subordinates and marketing them as if he made it. In no way was Edison a better inventor than Tesla was. Edison was a better businessman and a master of manipulation.

Edison was very competitive. He hated to lose and had no problem throwing people under the bus. The thief saw Nikola Tesla as competition for America’s most talented inventor. At one point Tesla was very vocal about Edison when the two of them were being honored for a Noble Prize. He still held some resentment towards Edison for stealing his ideas.

Tesla eventually opened up his own lab. He experimented with lightning and managed to light almost 200 light bulbs at once. The majority of his life Tesla was laughed at. Most of his ideas were very outlandish and he lacked the adequate funding to produce them. A good amount of his ideas were kept in his journal. It wasn’t until future generations that we realize how important his ideas were to history.

I would have to say that I side with Nikola Tesla. It was very shady of Thomas Edison to take credit for an idea that someone he worked for created. If he spent less time trying to scheme from his coworkers, he may have had the chance to create something just as important. Thomas Edison is a greedy businessman. He saw an opportunity to capitalize on something and sold it off as his own. Tesla may not have been as business savvy as Edison was, but that does not give Edison the right to steal work from other people. Thomas Edison was a snake.

http://voices.yahoo.com/nikola-tesla-thomas-edison-genius-the-912459.html

http://www.viewzone.com/tesla.html

Bionic Eye (Light Powered)

The Bionic Eye (Light Powered)

I have decided to use visual prosthesis, or the bionic eye, as my subject for this blog. Visual prosthesis is an experimental visual device that people will hope restore vision to the visually impaired. There are several forms of this device existing today, but I decided to focus on just one. The specific bionic eye I will be talking about is the one powered by light.

Scientists at Stanford University in California are creating at retinal implant powered by light. Using a special pair of glasses that take in infrared light directly into the eye, scientists hope to give sight back to people who can’t see at all. The glasses are installed with a video camera that records what the patient is looking at and fires beams of infrared light on to the retinal chip. There is a chip behind the retina and a battery fitted behind the ear. Compared to other bionic eyes, there are hardly any wires present. This particular bionic eye is wireless.

No human testing has been conducted with this device; however, scientists are testing these devices on mice. Scientists use an infrared laser on the rats that were implanted with the bionic eye. The infrared light being taken is weak enough to where it doesn’t do any harm. Scientists are hopeful that it will work on humans someday.

I think it is amazing that people are working on a device that can cure blindness. The only thing I am worried about is the level of light being taken in. I hope they are doing a lot of testing to make sure that it isn’t just one level of infrared light being transmitted into the chip. If something were to happen to the chip if too much light was taken in, that would be a problem and do more damage than it is worth. I am confident that scientists are taking every precaution available before them being human testing.

Resources,

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-05/new-light-powered-eye-implants-use-infrared-pulses-restore-sight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18061174