PORO

Why is the social aspect of technology important?
The social aspect of technology is important because as technology rapidly grows and becomes one of the biggest parts of our lives, we tend to distance ourselves from each other and in turn we lose our touch with our social skills that we have been growing for centuries. In this day and age, children are glued to their screens, and this hinders their social abilities and their functions as a human being. It is important that technology enables social interactions so that it helps people learn about the world and so that when it is their time to go out into the world as an adult, they will be prepared and ready for many of the social interactions that come.

Describe the function and purpose of your robot. How is it trying to address a social problem?
PARO is an advanced interactive robot that is aiming to:
– Reduce patient stress and their caregivers
– stimulate interaction between patients and caregivers
– improve patients relaxation and motivation
– improve the socialization of patients with each other

PARO aims to do this using five kinds of sensors: tactile, light, audition, temperature, and posture sensors, with which it can observe people and their environments. PARO can also learn to behave in a way that the user prefers, and it can respond if it is given a new name.

Technology like PARO is extremely essential, especially during times like this where everybody is afraid of the COVID-19 pandemic and patients will need to relax and calm down. PARO is trying to help ease the jobs of caretakers and people working on the frontlines of the pandemic by calming down patients.

What is the cutting edge technology behind it?
The cutting edge technology behind PARO is that it has its five sensors mentioned previously. It also has artificial intelligence that is able to help it change its behavior depending on the situation. Its specifications can be found at: https://robots.ieee.org/robots/paro/

What technology do we rely on during COVID-19 pandemic?
During the COVID-19 pandemic we are relying on various kinds of technology to help us bear through it. Services like online shopping are heavily relied on to receive goods, this is so that we do not have to go outside and risk being exposed to the virus. Technology is also one of the ways we can easily access the quickly updating news on the pandemic as well. We need to rely on my technologies so that we are able to properly know what is currently going on around the world. We also use technology as a way of entertainment and content for us to enjoy.

Has technology connected us better socially or worse or a bit of both? Explain
Technology has definitely allowed us to contact each other over the internet way better, but is this way of communication really better than going outside and meeting each other, especially in recent times, it really can be a hard question. On one hand it enables us to communicate easily and stay out of the troubling hands of the pandemic, on the other hand it influences people to be less eager about going outside at all and once the pandemic is over, their social skills will have deteriorated.

With the Coronavirus pandemic recently becoming a huge issue, there have been many efforts to help the people in need and the people who are afraid. Many people are now afraid of contracting the disease and they do not know if they have the virus or not. Recently there have been developments in how technology and software, specifically apps, can help people have a better understanding of COVID-19 and if they should seek medical help. Emerging technologies are a variety of technologies such as educational technology, information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, cognitive science, psychotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence. However with these varieties of technologies there are also many ethics that come along with it. There are a few ethical considerations when it comes to technologies, these are: informed consent, voluntary participation, do no harm, confidentiality, anonymity and only assess relevant components. All ethical considerations are built around these guidelines.

Informed Concent – means that the person participating in the evaluation is fully informed about the evaluation being conducted. Users must be made aware of the purpose of the evaluation, who is funding it, how it will be used and who will have access to the it

Voluntary Participation – means that people participate in the evaluation voluntarily and not be force. People are free to withdraw their participation. It is the right of participants to leave a program at any time, therefore no pressure should be placed on those who choose to withdraw.

Do no harm – Both physical and psychological harm are prohibited. It can be in the form of: stress, pain, anxiety, diminishing self-esteem or invasion of privacy.

Confidentiality – means that any information that could identify someone is not made available to, or accessed by anyone but the program’s coordinator. It is very important to consider how reports are worded to ensure that there is no opportunity for people to be identified even if names are not used.

Anonymity – It is a stricter form of confidentiality, as the identity of the participant remains unknown to the research team. It is more difficult to achieve than confidentiality because participants are usually known to the program coordinator.

Only assess relevant components – makes sure that the program only analyses the information that is relevant to the purpose of the evaluation. It is important to keep evaluations as simple as possible and to remain focused on the intention of the evaluation and what the data gathered will be used for.

COVIDSAFE APP’s ETHICS
“The COVIDSafe app speeds up contacting people exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19). This helps us support and protect you, your friends and family.” – https://www.health.gov.au/resources/apps-and-tools/covidsafe-app.

Although the app has good intentions, the ethics behind the app will be explored in this post.

Informed Consent – The users of the app will be informed of the purposes of the evaluation, how it will be used and who will have access to it. More information is provided online.

Voluntary Participation – The app is completely voluntary and is only used to protect you, your loved ones and the lives of other Australians

Do no harm – The app may cause psychological harm if the user is found to have COVID-19 through the app, however the app itself does not inflict physical or psychological on purpose.

Confidentiality – Personal information will be used to enable contact tracing by health officials. They will not use or disclose personal information for any other purpose.

Anonymity – Does not input anonymity, health officials and authorised officials will be able to see the contact and personal information of the users.

Only assess relevant components – The only details collected are: mobile phone number – so that people can be contacted if needed, name – so the relevant health officials can conform they are speaking to the right person when performing contact tracing, age range – so health officials can prioritise cases for contact tracing, and postcode – to make sure health officials from the right state or territory who work in the area can contact you.

I think that the COVIDSafe app is a great idea for the many people who are afraid of the virus. I myself would not use the app as I personally am not afraid of the virus. However people who want ot be cautious should download the app, especially if it is made by trusted officials from the government. I do not think it is required for high school students to download and use the app but if they think they need it they are welcome to use it, it will not be bad and suspicious. I do recommend that older people use, especially to be informed of the matter and because they are out more frequently than students, especially during this time.

The recent COVID-19 breakout has been quite alarming, rapidly spreading across the globe and many countries are going into lockdown. Despite all the panic, scientists all over the world have been trying to figure out a cure for the pandemic. However, while these scientists have been working on a cure. Engineers could be figuring out solutions that could help patients fight the pandemic and prolong their life. New medical equipment could be manufactured to help the patients in need. Or there may be engineering solutions to slowing down or halting the spread of the pandemic. There could be many ways that different types of engineering could become a factor into slowing down the spread of the coronavirus.

Already, in Spain, there has been a medically approved emergency 3D printed ventilator that has gone into production. The device is an emergency device that can help patients breathe for a short period of time. The engineering technology has now come to Australia with Triple Eight Race Engineers create a ventilator to help ICUs (Intensive Care Units). Modelling tools originally designed to improve the efficiency of factories are being used by Cambridge engineers to help Addenbrooke’s Hospital manage the COVID-19 emergency.

Isolation has become one way of dealing with the coronavirus, with many people staying at home to stop the outbreak of the virus. However along with the isolation people have been dying to buy many of the essential items that are needed to be properly isolated. This is where engineering could improve the manufacturing rate of essential items that are needed when people are in isolation. This will also benefit long-term as many more products will be able to be produced quicker and more efficiently.

Although the engineers are not at the frontlines of fighting the COVID-19 outbreak, they may be behind the scenes, helping the people in need while the scientists are working to cure the hundreds of thousands of people who have been infected with the recent pandemic.

Update: 20/04/20

Since the date this post was uploaded on the 8th of April, there have been more suggestions on how engineers could continue to help with the coronavirus pandemic. As well as making new health equipment, a few of these suggestions are:

– A quicker, novel and easier way of COVID-19 testing
This would allow many patients and people who are anxious, to test themselves, it would be great if this kind of equipment was made to be as accurate as possible. This testing would allow people to know if they have to virus, which allows them to seek medical attention

– Speeding up the testing
This would just allow more people to be tested and be treated so that they can recover quickly.

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is defined as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.” Basically biodiversity refers to all the variety of life that can be found on Earth, this includes plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms.

How can humans increase biodiversity?  

We can help in increasing and conserving our Earth’s biodiversity in many ways. We can:
– Eradicate and control introduced weeds. Keep vehicles on main roads to reduce the spread of weeds and disturbance to wildlife.
– Leave native plants undisturbed.
-Maintain old standing dead trees. Large dead trees provide nests foro many species.
– Use environmentally friendly products.
– Recycle, reuse and reduce.
-Drive less, walk or ride more.

More ways to help in Biodiversity Conservation can be found at: https://www.naturetrust.bc.ca/conserving-land/what-can-we-do

Should humans try to increase biodiversity or should they let nature exist without our inteference? 

With many recent problems with biodiversity and the environment in general, with human made problems such as global warming and climate change, it is clear that many actions by humans are causing a decrease in biodiversity. So this definitely is a reason for us humans to try and increase the biodiversity. If we let nature exist without interference in its current state, it could just get progressively worse than better, so it is much better for us to do something rather than nothing.

Who makes the decisions about how much humans should interfere? 

There is not really a huge organisation that makes decisions on how much us humans should interfere with the biodiversity of our Earth, that is totally up for us to decide, whether we want to help the problems of biodiversity that are currently occurring, or whether we decide to totally ignore the problems and go on with our daily lives, however there are people out there who have decided to make recommendations on what we should be doing and how we can help.

There are many people who care about our planet and are trying to raise awareness as well as spread factual information, organisations such as WHO (World Health Organisation) have a whole page dedicated to biodiversity. There are many other types of small websites that are doing their own part in spreading awareness on the biodiversity of our earth. It is important for these organisations to be spreading proper, factual information on biodiversity as, if it were to become a large problem in the future, people would know the correct information and they would not be believing fake news and false information.

What technologies are used to monitor and improve our natural areas?  

There are many technologoies that are used to conserve our biodiversity by monitoring and improving our natural areas. Some of these technologies include:

• Camera Traps – remote cameras that take photos when a sensor is triggered by movement, an image is sent to the operator. This lets researchers document the presence of many wildlife species.
• Bioacoustic Monitoring Devices – Acoustic sensors are similar to camera traps but instead of taking photos, it records the presence of animals through their sounds 24/7, the cost of this system is low cost as well.
• Aerial Imagery – With sensors, satellites or anything inbetween, aerial imagery can be created. Online mapping and data sharing are easy ways of seeing the landscape, this gives us a rough idea of where most animals will be located.
• Software Apps – Apps may be able to enhance real data with augmented reality may increase empathy for wildlife among many people.

There are many definitions that define what a robot is. Some of these include:

– “A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advanced.” – American Heritage Dictionary

– “A machine used to perform jobs automatically, which is controlled by a comper” – Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

– “A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.” – Oxford Dictionary

The term robot comes from the Czech word ‘robota’ which translates as ‘forced work’, ‘slave’, or ‘servitude’.

Although a robot can be defined by these definitions, there are really 4 main points that are used to define a robot. It is artificial, it has been manufactured and is not natural, it is controlled by a computer, whether it be a small controller or a big computer, it can sense surrounding environment and it can perform actions and movements.

Whether or not an object is a robot can be defined most of the time, by these questions:
– Is it artificial?
– Is it controlled by a computer?
– Can it sense the surrounding conditions?
– Can it perform actions and movements?

Robots are not simply used to show-off today’s growing technology, the robots have been designed so that they will be of use to humans in the future. There are many benefits to using robots for jobs over humans. They will never lose interest and will never make a mistake unless, the robot malfunctions. It can also take care of dirty and dangerous jobs. It also has accuracy and can make precise movements that can be repeated, something whihc humans cannot do.

Is a remote controlled car a robot?

Is it artificial?
A remove controlled car is definitely artificial, and cannot be found any where naturally. It definitely has been manufactured.

Is it controlled by a computer?
The car is controlled by a remote, which could be considered as a computer, therefore it is controlled by a computer.

Can it sense the surround conditions?
Depending, on the type of remote controlled car, it definitely could sense its surroundings with sensors such as cameras.

Can it perform actions and movements?
A remote controlled car can definitely perform actions and movements. Controlled by a remote, it can definitely move around using its wheels, it can accelerate, decelerate and move its direction.

A remote controlled car can definitely be considered a robot as it is artificially manufactured, it is controlled by a remote, which could be considered as a computer, it can sense its surrounding conditions with sensors and it can definitely perform actions and movements.

What is VEX?

The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 competitions worldwide.

“VEX creates tools that educators and mentors will use to shape the learners of today into the problem solving leaders of tomorrow.”

VEX is involved in more than 60 countries, 22000 schools, 24000 competitions and over a million students. VEX Robotics is now a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities and robotics teams around the world.

Find more information about VEX on its website: https://www.vexrobotics.com/

There are many ways a fire could start. The fires in Australia are becoming more and more of a wide spread issues and the ways that the bushfires are starting are becoming a larger concern. Australia has always experienced bushfires. However, this year they are a lot worse than usual. Fires can be caused naturally or artificially. Natural fires could be start by lightning, climate change, hot weathers and strong wins. Artificial fires are started by people throwing out still-burning cigarettes. Fires could be started by unattended fire places left over from camp. Both natural and artificial bushfires are dangerous and could be a danger for the animals and people of Australia.

Natural

Natural bushfires are the most common way that fires start. Fires, ironically, are usually caused by lightning strikes or accidentally by a spark. Although this is how the fire starts, the severity and deadliness of the fire depends on a few factors. The fire intensity and speed at which a bushfire spreads will depend on ambient temperature (air temperature of an environment), fuel load (amount of flammable material that surrounds a fire), fuel moisture (amount of water in fuel loads), wind speed and slope angle. All these factors can affect a bushfires severity and speed. If the land before the fire was dry, then the fire would be much more dangerous than if it were to have proper amounts of fuel moisture. An increase in wind speed would allow the fire to spread much more quickly than if the wind speeds were low.

Artificial

The majority of bushfires are started either intentionally or unintentionally by people instead of natural sources. There are many ways that a bushfire could be started artificially. They could be the result of a discarded cigarette, railway cause, campfires or arson. Recently there was a case of a fire in Binna Burra which had destroyed the Binna Burra Lodge, which was started by a carelessly discarded cigarette. However smoking, is not as common a source of bushfire ignition as people think, but arson is a behind a large number of bushfires both in Australia and internationally. Police are treating several blazes around New South Wales as suspicious.

Our Impact

Although there are many ways that fires are started, us normal everyday people could be a culprit of the many fires that are affecting the east of Australia. Because of climate change and global warming problems that the whole world are responsible for, we may be the reason that the bushfires are severe. Although we may not have started the fires ourselves, we may have increased the severity of the fires unknowingly as we may be helping the ever so increasing climate change and global warming problems. 2019 was Australia’s hottest and dryest year on record, this may have been a result of the climate change and global warming problems we are valiantly trying to slow down.

Introduction:

Australia has always experienced bushfires, but as climate change and global warming start to have different patterns, disasters such as bushfires start to become more dangers. However with the severity of the bushfires are increasing, new technologies are being developed to better defend people from the bushfires.

Some ideas to help against bushfires are having immediate effect, while others are too imaginative and unrealistic. hey all show how innovation is helping humans defend against impending disasters.

1. Virtual Realist and haptic technology that can help train firefighters

A problem with training firefighters to fight against bushovers is that the chemicals used to defend against fires are not very environmentally friendly. One Australian entrepreneur is devising a system that uses virtual reality and haptics (the use of technology that stimulates the senses of touch and motion) to help firefighters gain experience with their equipment without leaving the unpleasant chemicals behind.

2. Keeping firefighters safe from truck burnovers

During bushfires, the media have shared videos of firefighters driving through raging fires, these moments are called burnovers. CSIRO are trying to find a solution, testing water sprays and shields to determine the best solution to reduce exposure to radiation, temperature and toxic gases.

CSIRO have developed firetrucks that now have features such as:

• A ring of spray nozzles that deliver a ‘water curtain’ over the vehicle’s cabin.
• Radiant heat shields or curtains for windows to block radiation from reaching the people in the cabin. These inclusions also provide an extra layer of protection if the windows break.
• Water sprays to stop wheels and pumps catching alight.
• Fire resistant covers for electrical, pumps, air intakes and air hoses.

3. Drones on the job

Australia, in recent years have been trying to integrate drones into their efforts. Drones have been used to monitor fires, giving responders thermal and visual data. In 2017, the drones were used to help locate property damage and hotsports. Advantages drones have over other aircraft are that they can fly without a pilot, with a pilot they could be in danger of the smoky conditions and low-altitude flight required to monitor the fires.

4. Putting satellites and spaces cameras to use

The German Aerospace Center and LaTrobe University engineering departments have used a hyperspectral camera that has been installed on the International Space Station.

The technology can be used to monitor the bushfires from orbit, providing firefighters with mapping information. Other ideas have also come up, where the satellite data could be used for virtual reality and holograms that can help observers see conditions.

5. Using sound waves to extinguish blazes

One way of revolutionising firefighting is if it could be done without water or chemicals. Students from the George Mason University have come up with a way to extinguish fires using soundwaves.

“The principle behind the extinguisher is simple: as they are mechanical pressure waves that cause vibrations in the medium in which they travel, sound waves have the potential to manipulate both burning material and the oxygen that surrounds it. If the sound could be used to separate the two, the fire would be starved of oxygen and, accordingly, would be snuffed out.”

There are issues with this solution as the fires may come back after the sound waves are switched off.

Conclusion:

The bushfires in Australia are becoming more and more severe and deadly but along with these tragic incidents, new technologies are being devised to better defend people against these fires.

Photograph 1

1. Describe – I see a group of people who are on a boat that is on an area of water that looks to be a lake or pond. The colours of the photograph are warm in contrast to the mess of poeple on the boat. There looks to be a lot of trash and rubbish on the boat and the people look miserable. They have equipment.
2. Explain – I believe that the people on this boat are in need to help, whether it is shelter, food or mental problems they do not look too happy in this photo and they look tired. It could also be interpretted as them going camping or they are homeless as they have bags and they also look to have hiking gear and they could just be exibitionists. They could also be refugees.
3. Predict – I predict that the group of people on the boat are trying to find shelter or find safety.

Photograph 2

1. Describe – A woman seems to be in danger, with a mask on. There is a red light or colour that is being reflected on her and the area around her. She is holding something in her hand.
2. Explain – I think that woman may be trying to escape from a fire because of the red fire flames that is reflecting off her face and she looks to be rowing away from the danger or controlling a motor boat. She may be wearing a mask because
3. Predict – I predict that the woman escapes from the fires.

Photograph 3

1. Describe – In the photo, there is a graffiti art on a wall of Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison’s head being set on fire as well as his clothes, he is looking quite calm about it in the graffiti.
2. Explain – I think that this graffiti is responding to how the Prime Minister had been dealing with the bushfires occuring in the country. This act is to show that Scott Morrison thinks that it is fine that the country is on fire and he does not care about what is happening in his country.
3. Predict – I predict that this photo gained a lot of attention and was released to the public and raised awareness of Scott Morrison’s poor job at handling the bushfires in the country.