Mandayam Srinivasan
Enhancing our bodies and evolving our brains
Machines and their maker, the human, are in an increasingly interactive relationship. Just as the primitive man forged hand tools to triumph over harsh nature, we continue to develop smart machines to interface with information-rich real and virtual worlds. Although machines range from a simple hand tool to a cochlear implant to a complex interplanetary spacecraft, they ultimately serve one purpose: to extend our ability to interact with the world around us. Rapid evolutions of technology in information processing, communication and robotics are bringing humans and machines ever closer, even occasionally merging the two within our bodies to augment our biological functions. Interactions with real and virtual environments through sophisticated machines can enhance both our sensorimotor and cognitive abilities, thus contributing not only to the extension of our bodies but also to the evolution of our brains.
Human-machine interaction includes two-way transmission of information: sensory information from the environment to the human that affects our perception of the environment, and action commands from the human to the environment to explore or modify the environment. The human–machine interface is thus the gatekeeper through which we convey our intentions to the machines and they, in turn, give us feedback on task performance. In order to fully realize the benefits of the rapid technological progress in the processing and communication of information, we need machines that augment our ability not only to perceive, but also to act on the environment. Current technologies that interface with our haptic system show the path towards removing some of the spatial, temporal and energetic limitations of our bodies in physically acting on the environment. By providing unprecedented stimuli and responses in real and virtual worlds, these machines enable evolution of our brains as well. In this talk, I will illustrate recent progress in and prospects for machines capable of extending our bodies and evolving our brains.
