Story by Judy Holmes
jlholmes@syr.edu
Phone: 443-3784
Story ran in the April 27, 1998 Syracuse Record
Tiny robots being developed may revolutionize mine detection
The Center for Really Neat Research (CRNR) at Syracuse University has been awarded a $1.6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build safer land mine detectors using the CRNR's flagship technologies--NeatTools, widgits and TNGs.
The contract is among the many ways the researchers hope to use their technology to save lives, improve the quality of life for people who are disabled, and revolutionize the rapidly emerging field of telemedicine.
The technology currently being used for land mine detectors is vintage World War II, says David J. Warner, CRNR founder and Nason Fellow at SU's Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC). It's the same technology that is used by people combing the beaches in Florida.
Warner and his CRNR associates Edward Lipson, professor of physics and CRNR principal collaborator, and NPAC Director Geoffrey Fox will be developing the new mine detection system in cooperation with DARPA's Distributed Robotics Program. The idea is for tiny robots-two to five centimeters long-to search for buried land mines, allowing people to remain at a safe distance. The problem lies in developing a lightweight, portable computer system to control the "bots" and to process the information they collect.
That's where NeatTools software, widgits and TNGs come in. CRNR researchers are charged with developing human interface systems that will allow soldiers in the field to interact with both the bots and a distantly located command center. In short, the soldiers would become liaisons between the bots and the commanders.
"The best way to do that," Warner says, "is by using the human body as the interface device." The plan is to build a variety of sensors that can be worn on the body and connected to a wearable computer. The resulting system will increase a person's ability to perceive danger when clearing mine fields, he says.
One of the technologies previously suggested included a hand-held PC. "I talked to the grunts, the soldiers who are actually going to be forward-deployed," Warner says. "They say they're going to drop-kick that thing in a heartbeat because it gets in the way."
CRNR researchers will look at ways to mount computers on sleeves, or touch-pads on thighs, and to use a variety of sensor devices designed to free soldiers' hands yet still enable them to interact with computers.
Warner has dubbed the effort Project Q. "James Bond had Q, who made all of the super spy gadgets," he says. "So we're Q."
Here's how the system works: Widgits, an array of tiny sensors used to detect body movements, are connected to a computer by input devices called TNGs (pronounced "things," it's an acronym for "totally neat gadget").
NeatTools translates the data it receives from TNGs for the computer, which then enables users to manipulate the mouse and interact with any computer software application, including Web browsers.
The technology developed for land mine detectors through the DARPA contract can also be used to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, Lipson says. "We can leverage the technology we develop with the funding so we can either give it away to the disabled or at least make it very affordable."
The area of research-- in which CRNR is involved-looking beyond a keyboard and a mouse as means of accessing computers-is called human-computer interaction. It's a big field right now, and "we're significant players in the field with our cutting-edge technology," Lipson says.
Warner has spent the last two years as director of the American Telemedicine Association's technology task force, whose purpose is to explore alternate ways of thinking about technology and the phenomenon of providing medical care at a distance. The goal is to develop ways to "increase our ability to provide care to people anywhere in the world," he says.
Warner is also one of 12 experts in telemedicine chosen to represent the United States at the next G-7 Telemedi-cine Conference, in Montreal May 28-30, sponsored by the G-7 global health care group. The group is a component of G-7, which comprises the leading industrialized nations in the world. The project Warner is working on is called "International Concerted Action on Collaboration in Telemedicine."
NeatTools can be used to transmit data from medical monitoring devices anywhere in the world via the Internet without having to invent new software systems for every device, Warner says. The medical profession has many devices-including cameras, monitors and probes-that obtain data from patients. New devices are produced weekly. "The basic modular functionality of NeatTools allows us to integrate new devices by simply writing a little piece of code that talks to that device," he says.
During a recent test, Warner transmitted data from an electroencephalogram-an instrument that measures brain waves-from his SU laboratory to a colleague in Oxford, England.
"Using NeatTools, I have a friend in Oxford who can monitor electrophysiological signals coming from a house in upstate New York," Warner says. "The technology will allow medical expertise to be shared down the hall, across the street or across the oceans. Distance is irrelevant."
The CRNR is in the early stages of collaborating with the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis, Minn., on designing a system that would enable rehabilitation therapists to monitor patients' progress via the Internet. The system would use an enhanced sensory feedback device (ESFD) that Warner designed for the institute before coming to SU. ESFD uses computer interface devices that stimulate patients both physically and perceptually to help them recover from physical injuries.
The next step is to develop a NeatTools version of ESFD that would allow for distance therapy via the World Wide Web. Clients would download the device from the Web and work on their therapy at home, while their progress is monitored via the Internet by the institute's therapists.
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