It was an absolute privilege for ipXchange to have been invited to Maker Faire Rome 2023, and its opening conference came with a vibrant atmosphere and an ethos focussed on innovation, the future of technology, and methods by which the development of both can be democratised for all to participate in.
While there were many great speeches this evening – as well as a moving modern dance piece featuring Karim Randè using a blade-type leg prosthesis designed by Ken Endo – we’d like to focus on two key highlights that really got us thinking about design engineering.
For details of the full programme, see this official webpage.
The first was a talk on ‘gamification’ by Fabio Viola, who described the use of “digital drugs”, i.e. doctor-prescribed gaming – now with FDA approval – to help treat existing conditions like ADHD, rather than as medication for gaming addiction. He also went on to describe how gaming explores our understanding of social, economic, and individual/group identity, boosted in part by third-person viewing of one’s own actions within the context of understanding group actions. It was an inspiration to hear his vision of gaming’s fusion with culture as an evolution of art. From still images to film to gaming, we may soon see this medium in museums with complete interactivity, alongside the greats.
The most thought-provoking talk came from Hiroshi Ishiguro, who famously made a robotic double of himself around the turn of the millennium, his dream being to see a world where humans and robots interact on a daily basis.
“But why humanoid robots?” he hears many asking. The answer is simple: the human brain is optimised for human interaction, so the ideal interface for human interaction is with a human, or as close to one as can be.
Interestingly, a previous key bottleneck in creating robots with human-level interactivity was free-flowing conversation, something that ChatGPT and large language models have close-to-solved. But human-like robotic interactions are just one part of the equation:
On the other side, Ishiguro envisions realistic robotic ‘avatars’ that will allow all people to interact in the real world at the same level, regardless of ability, location, or preference in the way one wishes to present themselves to others. This has already been done digitally using online avatars with laptop-only motion capture, but also using a robotic double in order for the digital minister of Japan to give a speech at a conference he was not physically at. While this creates a situation where security may be heightened for celebrities, points were raised on the philosophical and ethical questions posed by such technology as the boundary between humans and robots fades to nothing.
What an interesting start to an incredible weekend. We’ll be sharing our interviews from the main event very soon, but for now, check out Useful Sensors’ AI-In-A-Box Module by following the link below; we could not help but think about its practical implementation as Ishiguro described his vision for the future.
Keep designing!
(Images provided by Maker Faire Rome official press team)
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