Reaching for the invisible with a third hand

If there is "augmented reality", why can't there be "augmented human"? Moreover, many improvements and new solutions designed for this “super being” are designed to help navigate the “mixed reality” of technological, digital and physical (1).

The efforts of researchers under the banner of AH (Augmented Human) to create an "augmented human" are focused on creating various types of cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body. (2). Technically, human augmentation is usually understood as the desire to increase the efficiency or capabilities of a person and even develop his body. So far, though, most biomedical interventions have focused on improving or restoring something that was considered defective, like mobility, hearing, or vision.

The human body is considered by many to be an outdated technology that requires serious improvements. Improving our biology may sound like it, but attempts to improve humanity go back thousands of years. We also improve every day through certain activities, such as exercising or taking medications or performance-enhancing substances, like caffeine. However, the tools with which we improve our biology are improving at an ever faster pace and getting better. The overall improvement in human health and potential is most definitely supported by the so-called transhumanists. They profess transhumanism, a philosophy with the express purpose of promoting technology to improve the quality of human life.

Many futurists argue that our devices, such as smartphones or other portable equipment, are already extensions of our cerebral cortex and in many ways an abstract form of enhancing the human condition. There are also less abstract extensions such as third arm robot, mind-controlled, newly built in Japan. Simply attach the strap to the EEG cap and start thinking. Scientists at the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications Technology in Kyoto designed them to give people the new, third-hand experience so often needed at work.

2. Diodes implanted in the arms

This is an improvement over known prototype prostheses. controlled by BMI interface. Typically, systems are designed to recreate missing limbs, while Japanese designs involve the addition of an entirely new one. Engineers have designed this system with multitasking in mind, so a third hand does not require the full attention of the operator. In the experiments, the researchers used them to grab a bottle while a participant with "traditional" BMI electrodes performed another task of balancing the ball. An article describing the new system appeared in the journal Science Robotics.

Infrared and ultraviolet to see

A popular trend in the search for human empowerment is to increase visibility or decrease the level of invisibility around us. Some people do genetic mutationswhich will give us, for example, eyes like a cat and a bee at the same time, plus the ears of a bat and the sense of smell of a dog. However, the procedure for playing with genes does not seem to be completely tested and safe. However, you can always reach for gadgets that will significantly expand your understanding of the reality you see. For example, contact lenses that allow infrared vision (3). In recent years, scientists at the University of Michigan have reported the creation of an ultra-thin graphene detector operating in the full infrared range. According to prof. Zhaohui Zhong from the electrical engineering department of this university, the detector created by his team can be successfully integrated with contact lenses or built into a smartphone. The detection of waves in their technology is carried out not by measuring the number of excited electrons, but by measuring the effect of charged electrons in the graphene layer on the adjacent electrical circuit, including in the graphene coating.

In turn, a group of scientists and engineers led by Joseph Ford from UC San Diego and Erica Tremblay from the Institute of Microengineering in Lausanne has developed contact lenses with a polarizing filter, similar to those worn in 3D cinemas, which allows seen at nearly XNUMXx magnification. The invention, whose main advantage is extremely, for such a strong optics, the small thickness of the lenses (just over a millimeter), was designed for elderly people suffering from amblyopia caused by changes in the macula in the eye. However, people with good eyesight can also take advantage of optical expansion - just to expand their capabilities.

There is also one that not only allows doctors to see the insides of the human body without surgical intervention, and auto mechanics the center of a running engine, but also provides, for example, firefighters with the ability to quickly navigate in fires with limited visibility. bad or nil. Once described in "MT" C Thru Helmet has a built-in thermal imaging camera, which the firefighter sees on the display in front of his eyes. The technology of special helmets for pilots is based on advanced sensors that allow you to see through the fuselage of the F-35 fighter or a British solution called Forward XNUMX – the pilot's goggles are integrated into the helmet, equipped with sensors and automatically switch to night mode when necessary.

We must accept the fact that most animals can see more than humans. We do not see all light waves. Our eyes are unable to respond to wavelengths shorter than violet and longer than red. So ultraviolet and infrared radiation are not available. But humans are close to ultraviolet vision. A single gene mutation is enough to change the shape of a protein in photoreceptors in such a way that the ultraviolet wave will no longer be indifferent to it. Surfaces that reflect ultraviolet waves in genetically mutated eyes will be different from normal eyes. For such "ultraviolet" eyes, not only nature and banknotes would look different. The cosmos would also change, and our mother star, the Sun, would change the most.

Night vision devices, thermal imagers, ultraviolet detectors and sonars have long been available to us, and for some time now miniature devices in the form of lenses have appeared.

4. Lenses that allow you to see invisible ink in the ultraviolet range.

contact (4). Although they give us abilities previously known only to animals, cats, snakes, insects and bats, they do not mimic natural mechanisms. These are products of technical thought. There are also methods that allow you to "see" something in the dark without needing more photons per pixel, such as the one developed by Ahmed Kirmaniego from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and published in the journal Science. The device, which he and his team built, sends out a low-power laser pulse in the dark, which, when reflected from an object, writes a single pixel to the detector.

"See" magnetism and radioactivity

Let's go further. Will we see or at least "Feel" magnetic fields? A tiny magnetic sensor has recently been built to do this. It is flexible, durable and adapts to human skin. Scientists from the Institute for Materials Research in Dresden have created a model device with an integrated magnetic sensor that can be inserted on the surface of the fingertip. This would allow humans to develop a "sixth sense" - the ability to sense the Earth's static and dynamic magnetic field.

The successful implementation of such a concept would offer future options for equipping people magnetic field change sensorsand thus orientation in the field without the use of GPS. We can characterize magnetoreception as the ability of organisms to determine the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines, which provides orientation in space. The phenomenon is quite often used in the animal kingdom and is called geomagnetic navigation there. Most often, we can observe it in migrating individuals, incl. bees, birds, fish, dolphins, forest animals, and also turtles.

Another exciting novelty that expands human capabilities on a scale never seen before is a camera that will allow us to “see” radioactivity. A group of scientists from Japan's Waseda University have improved the photonics developed by Hamamatsu. gamma detector camera, using the so-called Compton effect. Thanks to shooting from the "Compton camera" it is possible to detect and literally see the places, intensity and scope of radioactive contamination. Waseda is currently working on miniaturizing the machine to a maximum weight of 500 grams and a volume of 10 cm³.

The Compton effect, also known as Compton scattering, is the effect of scattering of X-rays and gamma rays, that is, high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, on free or weakly bound electrons, leading to an increase in the wavelength of radiation. We consider weakly bound an electron whose binding energy in an atom, molecule, or crystal lattice is much less than the energy of an incident photon. The sensor registers these changes and creates an image of them.

Or maybe it would be possible thanks to the sensors "See" the chemical composition object in front of us? The seed of something sensor-spectrometer Scio. It is enough to direct its beam at an object in order to obtain information about its chemical composition in a few seconds. The device is about the size of a car key fob and works with a smartphone app that allows you to see

scan results. Perhaps in the future there will be versions of this type of technique even more integrated with our senses and our body (5).

5. Stretched Man (Neuromuscular Interface)

Is the poor man doomed to the “basic version”?

A new era of "rehabilitation" devices, enhanced by bionic technology, is driven by the desire to help the disabled and sick. It's mainly for prosthesis i exoskeletons Compensating for deficiencies and amputations, more and more new neuromuscular interfaces are being developed to interact more effectively with "accessories" and enhancements to the human body.

However, these techniques are already beginning to serve as a means of empowering quite fit and healthy people. We have already described them more than once, which give strength and endurance to workers or soldiers. So far, they are mainly used to help with hard work, efforts, rehabilitation, but options for using these techniques to specifically meet the needs of a little less noble are clearly visible. Some fear that emerging augmentations will spark an arms race that risks leaving behind those who choose not to follow this path.

Today, when there are differences between people - both physical and intellectual, nature is usually the "culprit", and this is where the problem ends. However, if, thanks to technological progress, augmentations are no longer dependent on biology and depend on other factors such as wealth, this may become less enjoyable. The division into "extended humans" and "basic versions" - or even the identification of new subspecies of Homo sapiens - would be a new phenomenon known only from science fiction literature.