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TEDx Talks
Title: How Bionic Rats and Humans are Partnering to Find Landmines | Andrew McGregor | TEDxCulverCity
Published: 2017-08-29
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRVao6RbpSo
once upon a time I lived in Africa working as a journalist and teaching journalism to people living in conflict zones and very difficult parts I was doing this so that my students could tell the world what was going on in cases of atrocity and also this they could have a career to support their families through the media training during this time I found myself in the
northeastern part of DR Congo out during one of the periods of escalation of violence I was a hope and expectation of mind that by bringing these photos the world they would reach people who could potentially to stop the killing or help stop the killing and bring an air of peace one of the duties of journalism this report the facts and then the public will do with
information what it well however and the frustration I had was that it's the troops of journalistic storytelling could never really convey with that the terror of the place what it feels like when people disconsolate under the stress of having their lives almost ended so one of the horrible things about war is land mines out this is a land mine action notes it's a replica is called
an anti personnel mine I am the military logic of this is that when it explodes it names rather than kills the soldier and then at least two of the soldiers comrades will have to do drug that person off to receive medical attention and then this creates gonna further terror while costing military resources one pass around UPS says you can see these are prevalent all around the
world and long after the conflict ends of the mines remain active there's no way to turn them off so this means that women children and men who were largely farmers were going about their lives and they step on one %HESITATION they lose at least eleven possible their lives so I'm I can imagine the frustration with the journalistic tropes don't convey what what things feel like to
be in these areas so I'm after I got out of Congo asserted right short films to kind of explore what it was like to be there to because the duty of a filmmaker is to bring the audience into the world of the characters and so I thought if audience members could come into the world then they would have a better sense of empathy arm towards what
it felt like I should be in these places props or could do what I can to call close and empathy gap so a an idea I had was to use science fiction as a genre to hopefully inspire people to work on new solutions to the land mine problem is summer wave of Star Trek inspired a whole generation of innovators through that three to serve technology and
so one of these amazing things in the world is an organization called a poke ball and a pope who was founded by a Belgian Buddhist product designer who grew up loving rats and it is so important in this life you started to train routes to find land mines and so for twenty some odd years this organization has been clearing minefields with the use of the giant
African pouched rat this is all true it's amazing so I would I was like well how do you don't become fascinating short film about a rat and then I was kind of looking for a plot though right it's going to be a movie in and around this time goes off to be a judge on the single the robot Film Festival and the road film festivals afraid
of fun quirky about professor trying to showcase benevolent human machine relationships through the use of cinema us like one of the slogans of the film festivals like what a sky that loved us right it did you Charlie different terminator series but then when I was a judge in this house like wait a minute of rock roll out some humans are working together would have rats and
robots could work together so with that while I had my plot a love story between Iraq a robot who guide human subtle and mine field after they've gone insane perfect perfect short film thing right %HESITATION so I was making the film and it was getting this great community and people start to come to become involved and let my mirror removal working up a chicken themselves and
then well we had this kind of little barely functioning robot type thing on set I got kind of interest in the metaphor flick what if robots are kind of like puppets that you throw electronics on great what would have to have the kind of magic so then just come of the no side quest as I do I am I started to try and make the robot
from my movie in the real world in the process of doing this I came across this fantastic thing which many you're probably aware but if you're not called the maker community basically makers are people are interested in technology who strongly believe in open source collaboration and also like shortcut keys in the projects will talk about Cherian high five you go go team of this also submit
all the water that the steam education initiatives you see coming around America these days so yeah there was or was it away and try to make a robot storefronts makers and was cut come somewhere between looks like and what it does so I was actually kind of cute in okay at this and another cool thing that's actually nipple in the maker movement is that a lot
of the technology %HESITATION that previously like very very recent history would require advanced degrees sonority utilizes now really available so someone like me who's like you know how to make a robot arm can actually make a robot so I was I was on cloud nine you know you just you you feel like a non evil doctor Frankenstein right like our lives alms so right things go
Greta got the robot and then I start mixing the role with the rats because unlike will work in the movie why can it work in reality so I mean I started going to plan with routes and they're just amazing creatures like Chuck them out I'm and when I started but can what happened here is what I started to mix the route in the robot together while
this route would be very loving and you can put on your shoulder and its food when I put the food in the robot the rat would just Jack the role but it was the first I think right on robot muggy and witnessed by a human add well as I could tell you know I learned a lot no just it's not there so I was colic moving
away from I dream of the rattler about working together when I got one of those like chance emails like head McGregor that you should go check this guy out %HESITATION to see a lecture by a robot assistant artist name yin Ingram I'm in room makes robots that communicate and commune with animals and nature of what you have featured here is his work called lizard both legs
and the robot is on the left and so basically there's a certain species of lizard the does push ups to declare dominance of the hot spots of the rock and that robot emulates the gesture that the lizard perceives as I'm the dominant man on the rocker she man or she she would ever lizard genders are and then the lizard will run away and so it does
all tunnels through so what Chris is lecture got there at the end of that really excited to find someone who's who tried to Beatrice in the stuff and I got there I was like blather in and he looked kind of bemused and they had three GPS coordinates he's like alright tomorrow be with my robot lizard come to these GPS garments so now I'm not saying to
always follow GPS coordinates to man with a robotic lizard and some look how unknown but it's a world you I'd strongly endorse so I met him saw the lizard as slick Willie in thrall and then I went into what I call the kung fu modality of life and that's basically when you find the bastard %HESITATION you just go and offer to beat the system has Tojo
until he teaches you the sacred things us or started but in the end what may be his assistant and eventually graciously allowed me and I started working on him repairing this robot %HESITATION with this Sir robotics squirrel that scans environment for humans are dogs and when it finds what it flicks that scroll tell and in the squirrel kind of lexicon twenty called better language that means
head of the trees there's danger so what's a certain work on the scrolls like whoa man and I was also now in conversation with one of the world's foremost experts on you know robot animal communication and the more I talk to the more he just made it really public clear that my dream of rats robots working together was gonna be but I was like I was
with them so it's like you must you soak them in some way to kind of make this all happen and Sir Ian got me into this curve philosopher biologist name Jakob von looks cool and Jakob one looks cool is one of the the founders of a a field called bio semiotics isn't a bunch of a concept called the room felt busy with the whom belts is
is a description that organisms different species have relationships to each other based on what the can perceive %HESITATION and soap and interview thinking like how can one communicate with a rat they will build in his work would be pretty some at all so one of his famous studies is about and I animal that's probably not near and dear to our hearts but it's eaten you or
someone you love in your life and its blinds deaf and can barely move I find that amazing I'm obviously talking about the tech so what school did a study on the techs and basically the tick has very few ways to perceive the world do you think of like all the vast you know spectrums of sound UV inoltre roundup to delta house a tick able to get
on to you it it doesn't have eyes seriously how the trick works is the house general light sensitivity in its skin and that what's it climbed the talk the top of grass then once it's on the top of grouse it just waits of %HESITATION at Ford company to come by and how it knows something is coke or it was for a mammal to come by because
all mammals mid something called butyric acid from their skin and so once the tick the text which Eric acid then the tick immediately drops and if the pic drop some senses heat are all mammal blood runs at ninety eight point six degrees other tickle then climb up %HESITATION find a spot without too much hair suck blood have a meal and then it drops off reproduces and
dies it's got the lifestyle going to anyway so I was around so but this kind of this like opened up my world right leg so can you can think of like other ways that help animal perceptions can be really really integrated into electronics projects yeah hawks the hell kind of a telephoto lens viper's are able to hunts in complete darkness using infrared of course is because
of the classic good example of the bat but all these sensors are really affordable the really available in the critically for the maker community has worked with some %HESITATION it was she was like others a possibility here and so we had our we had our philosophy and then the whole gimmick tikkun built of human with whom built of a rat so as you probably noticed as
a human you're a of visual creature %HESITATION humans so well built is mostly mostly visual however rats Sir mostly all factory it's through sense so for example if a rat comes into a rut convention throughout knows like who's having sex with who who's eaten last who's hungry who needs food yeah who would have a family you know who doesn't have it all the stuff is I
merely paratroop the rotten you can kind of wonder what the sense of time would even be like that right wing social relationships are all known in the present such the fun thought experiment but how do you connect these two creatures and so brilliant insight you came up with was to put a an accelerometer which is something the text motion it's an all smart phones on the
racks are durable way Scott we'll do don't always go as my idea but then when the rod which one more bit of information so the pope organization the trains thrust upon land mines trains them to scratch and on the ground with a final and mine so in doing this it's a part of the natural behavior of the route that a human can also visually identify with
it soon belt sooner to kind of facilitate the raft human or build communication I we started making accelerometer Wescott devices and put on the right and then that would send out X. Y. Z. I data that is then try I Dimitrije next office of life which is as a bright bionics researcher so no we had no idea we had Cobre methodology we had some technology and
we had been in touch with the pope organization about potential ways that automating the the perception of the rot indication on a land mine could be of service they're fantastic landmine system and so you know I did the next logical thing and flew to Tanzania to test it all out arm this is the pope will then my training facility in beautiful more Goro Tanzania I'm making
kind of see those little markers there but this is just acres and acres full of detective riddle and mines where they put the rats this kind of a rigorous behavioral training kind of from birth until when they a couple of going to mine fields and shipped off to camp out in places like that also once you and I were there well we started that's in our
Rick Rick started like pass the salt out and then that might support the whiskered Marat and then so this is what happened is %HESITATION we return tests are there some things like this and this is what the data looks like when it comes out of the route suite waistcoat and so at this point it became quite obvious that like no human can really draw out what
that is remember the ticket described how the three factors so we now need to use a machine learning algorithm the kind of has the brilliance of the tech but couldn't find three factors in xray Z. data here that indicates the route has found a lead by me which brings us to our next challenge %HESITATION vaccinia using the machine learning algorithms to do all this so I
wanna cut ticket briefly back to just note that a simple screenplay has now led to the center experience were trained drug being translated by wearable technology that is then interpreted by machine learning algorithms all to work towards where in the world of land mines in the children have to grow up in fear of the ground beneath their feet and that's were out now and I predict
a bold and wonderful future for you know bionic right communication technology and I want to bring this back one for the star to remind you all that this started with the robots and a raft and if there's something that but you can take from my story I want you to explore the barriers within you to service the foundation to forge the bridge to other communities in
