The sentient Magic Carpet from Aladdin might have a new competitor. While it can't fly or speak, a new tactile sensing carpet from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) can estimate human poses without using cameras, in a step towards improving self-powered personalized healthcare, smart homes, and gaming. Many of our daily activities involve physical contact with the ground: walking, exercising, or resting. These embedded interactions contain a wealth of information that help us better understand people's movements. Previous research has leveraged use of single RGB cameras, (think Microsoft Kinect), wearable omnidirectional cameras, and even plain old off the shelf webcams, but with the inevitable byproducts of camera occlusions and privacy concerns.

The sentient Magic Carpet from Aladdin might have a new competitor. While it can't fly or speak, a new tactile sensing carpet from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) can estimate human poses without using cameras, in a step towards improving self-powered personalized healthcare, smart homes, and gaming. Many of our daily activities involve physical contact with the ground: walking, exercising, or resting. These embedded interactions contain a wealth of information that help us better understand people's movements. Previous research has leveraged use of single RGB cameras, (think Microsoft Kinect), wearable omnidirectional cameras, and even plain old off the shelf webcams, but with the inevitable byproducts of camera occlusions and privacy concerns.

Even before gyms closed down (because they'd quickly become coronavirus Petri dishes), I always found it intimidating to walk through the door. All I've ever done to stay fit growing up has been participating in youth sports. I played soccer, ran laps, and did the occasional pushups, planks, and other bodyweight exercises as coaches demanded them. But as I got older and it came time to tame my steadily expanding beer belly, I'd walk past the free weights section of my local gym and head straight to the treadmill. I know strength training is important but I had no idea where to begin.

Humanoid robots running around like us was a distant dream just 20 years back. The growth of technology in the last decade has filtered through to innovation in every sphere, including robotics. Imagine walking down to your local gym to see a robot out lifting even the biggest guys in the gym. Well, this could very soon turn into a reality thanks to scientists from Tokyo, who have created a robot capable of very human-like movements. The team of researchers from the University of Tokyo is developing robots capable of making human-like movements, including doing exercises like push-ups, crunches, neck stretches, chin-ups, calf stretching.

A team of Japanese researchers has built two humanoid robots that can do pushups, situps and stretches just like their human creators. One can even sweat, releasing heat generated by the physical activity. In the latest issue of the U.S. journal Science Robotics released this week, Yuki Asano and colleagues from the graduate school of information science and technology at the University of Tokyo explain how the two robots -- named Kenshiro and Kengoro -- were designed to mimic human systems, including muscle and bone movements. Kenshiro, developed between 2011 and 2014, and Kengoro, developed from 2015 onward, aim to mimic the body proportions, skeletal structure, muscle arrangement and joint performance of average humans. Kengoro, which is 167 cm tall and weighs 56.5 kg, is also equipped with five-fingered hands and feet that can naturally touch the ground, and can even artificially perspire -- a feature that allows it to release motor heat.

Like humans, robots that are working hard generate a lot of heat, a byproduct that adds stress to their systems and limits the amount of time they can be active before they need to recharge. One of the things that makes humans such good distance runners is our ability to sweat, a liquid discharge that helps to cool our bodies as it evaporates. Researchers at the University of Tokyo's JSK lab decided to borrow from that behavior to try and improve robotic performance, building a metal frame that could be filled with water which would seep out when it was in motion. The team created custom "bones" by 3D printing porous aluminum. Water moves through these channels in predictable ways, and the "sweat glands" are positioned near motors, the pieces that typically overheat during strenuous activity.

As we exercise, our bodies can produce a lot of heat as our muscles convert chemical energy into mechanical energy. To keep moving effectively during such conditions, we produce sweat to cool ourselves down. As the water in our sweat evaporates, it takes excess heat with it, allowing us to keep moving without overheating. A team from the University of Tokyo has created a robot that can exercise and cool off in a similar way, inspired by human sweat. The new robot is named Kengoro.