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发表于 7-2-2024 14:45:45
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本帖最后由 choi 于 7-7-2024 12:34 编辑
(2) Adam Satariano, She Learned How to Use Her Prosthetic Limb, and It Learned from Her. An intricate AI hand performs everyday tasks. New York Times, July 2, 2024, at page B5 (B is Business section; published online on May 26, 2024).
https://www.nytimes.com/card/202 ... y/ai-prosthetic-arm
Four consecutive paragraphs:
"Before being fitted with her prosthetic last year, a process that requires taking a cast of her remaining limb, Ms. de Lagarde spent months visiting a London clinic to help train the software that would eventually power her arm.
"With electrodes attached to the end of her remaining limb, near her shoulder, technicians told her to think about making basic movements like turning a door handle or pinching her fingers.
"The process triggered her muscles as if her arm was still there and provided data to teach her prosthetic how to react when she made certain actions or gestures.
" '[before] It would take me like 10 seconds and a lot of brain power to complete a movement like opening my hand,' she said. 'Now I just open up the hand and I realize I didn't even think about it.'
Note:
(a) "Her AI Arm" was the online title of the NYT article.
(b) The photo at the bottom appeared in the online, but not print, article. Other photos will not help you understand the Covvi hand. So I do not upload them. Go read (3) instead.
----------------------------NYT
Sarah de Lagarde’s arm is heavy. It has to be charged at least once a day. When the weather is hot, it becomes sweaty and uncomfortable. It connects just below her shoulder and will never function as the one she once had.
But the more she uses it, the better its software gets at predicting what she’s trying to accomplish. Her arm is powered in part by artificial intelligence.
As prosthetics become more sophisticated, a form of A.I. known as machine learning is teaching bionic limbs how to learn. They can understand patterns and make predictions from past behavior. Arms and hands have become more dexterous, more subtle, more lifelike.
After losing her right arm in a subway accident two years ago, Ms. de Lagarde connected with makers of some of the world’s most advanced prosthetics.
Now, when Ms. de Lagarde, 45, moves, sensors embedded in her right arm track muscle movements and send a signal to her hand to perform the job — making morning coffee, straightening her hair or snuggling with her daughter.
It’s a far cry from her former life, but the prosthetic has provided her with capabilities that may have been gone forever.
A.I. is seeping further into fields like health care. While many researchers have raised alarms about A.I.’s risks, other experts said those concerns must be weighed against the technology’s potential to improve lives.
“When we get the opportunity to show people A.I. that is truly assistive for helping somebody, that’s positive,” said Blair Lock, a founder of Coapt, which made the machine learning software used in Ms. de Lagarde’s arm.
Ms. de Lagarde, a corporate affairs executive at an investment firm in London, was rushing to a train in September 2022 when she slipped and fell through a gap between the platform and the train.
Just a month earlier, she had hiked Mount Kilimanjaro with her husband. “I had thought I was invincible,” she said.
For 15 horrifying minutes, she was stuck on the tracks undetected. Two trains ran over her.
She survived, but her right arm and the lower portion of her right leg had to be amputated.
Before being fitted with her prosthetic last year, a process that requires taking a cast of her remaining limb, Ms. de Lagarde spent months visiting a London clinic to help train the software that would eventually power her arm.
With electrodes attached to the end of her remaining limb, near her shoulder, technicians told her to think about making basic movements like turning a door handle or pinching her fingers.
The process triggered her muscles as if her arm was still there and provided data to teach her prosthetic how to react when she made certain actions or gestures.
“It would take me like 10 seconds and a lot of brain power to complete a movement like opening my hand,” she said. “Now I just open up the hand and I realize I didn’t even think about it.”
Simon Pollard, the chief executive of Covvi, the British company that makes the hand used by Ms. de Lagarde, said her prosthesis points to further advancements to come.
But the prosthetics are not cheap. The arm, elbow, hand and A.I. software for Ms. de Lagarde were made by separate companies. A full arm like Ms. de Lagarde’s can cost more than 150,000 pounds, or about $190,000. She paid for it in part with donations raised through a crowdfunding campaign. Covvi donated the hand, and Ms. de Lagarde now does some ambassador work for the company.
The technology is not perfect. Ms. de Lagarde said the design of the prosthetic seems more oriented for men. The weight sometimes causes her shoulder and back to hurt. There is also no tactile function to help her feel what she touches. She has dropped her phone several times after forgetting that she was holding it in her right hand.
“Every day, there is a moment where I think, ‘Ooh my gosh, I miss my arm so much,’” she said. “It makes you realize, as sophisticated as this is, our bodies are incredible.”
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发表于 7-2-2024 14:40:43
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