In the horticultural world, some vines are especially grabby. As they grow, the woody tendrils can wrap around obstacles with enough force to pull down entire fences and trees. Inspired by vines' twisty tenacity, engineers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a robotic gripper that can snake around and lift a variety of objects, including a glass vase and a watermelon, offering a gentler approach compared to conventional gripper designs. A larger version of the robo-tendrils can also safely lift a human out of bed. The new bot consists of a pressurized box, positioned near the target object, from which long, vine-like tubes inflate and grow, like socks being turned inside out.

Developmental psychologists have long-established the importance of socio-cognitive abilities in human intelligence. These abilities enable us to enter, participate and benefit from human culture. AI research on social interactive agents mostly concerns the emergence of culture in a multi-agent setting (often without a strong grounding in developmental psychology). We argue that AI research should be informed by psychology and study socio-cognitive abilities enabling to enter a culture too. We discuss the theories of Michael Tomasello and Jerome Bruner to introduce some of their concepts to AI and outline key concepts and socio-cognitive abilities. We present The SocialAI school - a tool including a customizable parameterized uite of procedurally generated environments, which simplifies conducting experiments regarding those concepts. We show examples of such experiments with RL agents and Large Language Models. The main motivation of this work is to engage the AI community around the problem of social intelligence informed by developmental psychology, and to provide a tool to simplify first steps in this direction. Refer to the project website for code and additional information: https://sites.google.com/view/socialai-school.

Age-related loss of mobility and increased risk of falling remain important obstacles toward facilitating aging-in-place. Many elderly people lack the coordination and strength necessary to perform common movements around their home, such as getting out of bed or stepping into a bathtub. The traditional solution has been to install grab bars on various surfaces; however, these are often not placed in optimal locations due to feasibility constraints in room layout. In this paper, we present a mobile robot that provides an older adult with a handle anywhere in space - "handle anywhere". The robot consists of an omnidirectional mobile base attached to a repositionable handle. We analyze the postural changes in four activities of daily living and determine, in each, the body pose that requires the maximal muscle effort. Using a simple model of the human body, we develop a methodology to optimally place the handle to provide the maximum support for the elderly person at the point of most effort. Our model is validated with experimental trials. We discuss how the robotic device could be used to enhance patient mobility and reduce the incidence of falls.

I am still half asleep, had a nice dream, and huddled in my warm bunk bed. The other children are outside. It feels good to be with my brothers and sisters, pretty sure my brothers are playing soccer again. Sunrise is already peering through the skylight. How could children in the old times wake without their brothers and sisters?

Afrofuturism, if you're unfamiliar, is a movement in literature, music, art, video games, movies, etc., featuring futuristic or science fiction themes which incorporate elements of global Black history and culture, or better yet, making them central themes. We've seen some games that take the concept to heart, like Usoni, but few go beyond including Black or African characters to actually include their stories or experiences. We Are The Caretakers is an unapologetically Afrofuturist sci-fi squad-management RPG about protecting endangered animals--and your planet--from extinction. In the game, you recruit, train, manage and build squads of arcane protectors called the Caretakers. Set in the land of Shadra, a fictional nation in Africa, the story revolves around defending Raun, rhino-like creatures, from human and alien poachers.

As we age our bodies becomes a host to several diseases and inabilities. It's like the reverse cycle of a young-one growing up that executes in the opposite direction. Here's how AI and IoT in healthcare can help dementia patients. With age, senior people tend to lose their ability to walk correctly, hear well, speak sharply, and they get blurred vision. Dementia is the dysfunction of several mental conditions like memory loss, decision making, or thinking potential.

As we age our bodies becomes a host to several diseases and inabilities. It's like the reverse cycle of a young-one growing up that executes in the opposite direction. Here's how AI and IoT in healthcare can help dementia patients. With age, senior people tend to lose their ability to walk correctly, hear well, speak sharply, and they get blurred vision. Dementia is the dysfunction of several mental conditions like memory loss, decision making, or thinking potential.

Each month, Future Tense Fiction--a series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives--publishes a story on a theme. The evening before you sign and take delivery of your son, you call Charlie and tell him you think you've made a huge mistake. "Let me come on over and split a few with you," he says. "I haven't seen the fire pit yet." Charlie--a short, compact man with green eyes and a shaved head whom you met when he delivered groceries the first few weeks you were housebound--brings over a six-pack. You walk out into the complex's community garden together. It used to be a parking lot, and the path through the mushroom gardens under the solar panels is still faded gray asphalt and leftover white lines. You're careful with your right foot; you still haven't gotten used to the way your prosthetic moves. You and Sienna from 4B have a fire pit and stone circle dug out in your combined lots, and she's grown a privacy wall of rosebushes that surround the relaxing space. Charlie sits on one of the cedar benches as you fiddle with twigs to make a fire. This beats the awkwardness of sitting down to talk right away. Your parents didn't raise you to be direct about feelings. Neither did the army, nor the warehouse you drove a forklift in. Charlie will, if you let him. Making a fire gives you a moment to sort out all your feelings. Or maybe it just gives you an excuse to delay talking about them.

But only one booth had a line. Attendees stood patiently, every so often oohing and aahing over the featured device. Some turned to strangers, remarking, "Isn't this just the cutest?" or "That's just incredible." Others asked when they could purchase their own. Tombot is one of many startups selling robotic companions for senior citizens, offering emotional support, day-to-day assistance, or remote monitoring through artificial intelligence.

In the world of healthcare, we're yet far from having incredibly smart machines that have the potential yet to replace the typical medicinal suppliers. Regardless, the equivalent AI that has changed the manners or the patterns you can say, in which we shop, drive, and bank (just as addressing pretty much every other part of our day by day lives) can be outfit currently to upgrade the experiences of the patients, enhance results, and thus helping suppliers flourish as medicinal services that develop from a volume-based recommendation to quality which is pure value based. The whole ecosystem of the health systems is confronting some serious sort of difficulties from the everyday new regulations, expenses being subtracted from their income, and developing repayment conventions. Doctors are disappointed, as are patients, whose desires have been formed by the expanding ease with which the majority of their day by day transactions are getting completed. In the world of Globalization and increased technological advancements, everything is getting done from a single click. You just have to push a button to exchange cash from checking to investment funds.