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Bionics
Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1958, is a portmanteau from ''biology'' and ''electronics'' that was popularized by the 1970s U.S. television series ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' and '' The Bionic Woman'', both based upon the novel '' Cyborg'' by Martin Caidin. All three stories feature humans given various superhuman powers by their electromechanical implants. According to proponents of bionic technology, the transfer of technology between lifeforms and manufactured objects is desirable because evolutionary pressure typically forces living organisms – fauna and flora – to become optimized and efficient. For example, dirt- and water-repellent paint (coating) developed from the observation that practically nothing sticks to the surface of the lotus flower plant (the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bionic Woman
''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel ''Cyborg'' by Martin Caidin, starring Lindsay Wagner that aired from January 14, 1976, to May 13, 1978. ''The Bionic Woman'' series features Jaime Sommers, who takes on special high-risk government missions using her superhuman bionic powers. ''The Bionic Woman'' series is a spin-off from the 1970s ''Six Million Dollar Man'' television science fiction action series. Wagner stars as professional tennis player Jaime Sommers, who becomes critically injured during a skydiving accident. Jaime's life is saved by Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and Dr. Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) with bionic surgical implants similar to those of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' Steve Austin (Lee Majors). Through the use of cybernetic implants, known as bionics, Jaime is fitted with an amplified bionic right ear which allows her to hear at low volumes and at var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Six Million Dollar Man
''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is rebuilt with superhuman strength, speed and vision due to bionic implants and is employed as a secret agent by a fictional U.S. government office titled OSI. The series was based on Martin Caidin's 1972 novel ''Cyborg'', which was the working title of the series during pre-production. Following three television films intended as pilots, which all aired in 1973, ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' television series aired on the ABC network as a regular episodic series for five seasons from 1974 to 1978. Steve Austin became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. A spin-off television series, '' The Bionic Woman'', featuring the lead female character Jaime Sommers, ran from 1976 to 1978. Three television movies featuring both bionic characters were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biomimetics
Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from grc, βίος (''bios''), life, and μίμησις ('' mīmēsis''), imitation, from μιμεῖσθαι (''mīmeisthai''), to imitate, from μῖμος (''mimos''), actor. A closely related field is bionics. Living organisms have evolved well-adapted structures and materials over geological time through natural selection. Biomimetics has given rise to new technologies inspired by biological solutions at macro and nanoscales. Humans have looked at nature for answers to problems throughout their existence. Nature has solved engineering problems such as self-healing abilities, environmental exposure tolerance and resistance, hydrophobicity, self-assembly, and harnessing solar energy. History One of the early examples of biomimicry was the study of birds to enable human flight. Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyborg (novel)
''Cyborg'' is a 1972 science fiction/secret agent novel, written by Martin Caidin. The novel also included elements of speculative fiction, and was adapted as the television movie ''The Six Million Dollar Man,'' which was followed by a weekly series of the same name, both of which starred Lee Majors, and also inspired a spin-off, ''The Bionic Woman.'' Plot summary ''Cyborg'' is the story of astronaut and test pilot Steve Austin, who experiences a catastrophic crash during a flight, leaving him with all but one limb destroyed, blind in one eye, and with other major injuries. At the same time, a secret part of the American government, the Office of Strategic Operations (OSO), has taken an interest in the work of Dr. Rudy Wells concerning bionics — the replacement of human body parts with mechanical prosthetics that (in the context of this novel) are more powerful than the original limbs. Wells also happens to be a good friend of Austin's, so when OSO chief Oscar Goldman "inv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin (September 14, 1927 – March 24, 1997) was an American author, screenwriter, and an authority on aeronautics and aviation. Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books as well as more than 1,000 magazine articles. His best-known novel is ''Cyborg'', which was the basis for ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' franchise. He also wrote numerous works of military history, especially concerning aviation. Caidin was also an airplane pilot. He bought and restored a 1936 Junkers Ju 52 airplane. Fiction Caidin's fiction incorporated future technological advances that were projected to occur, and examined the political and social repercussions of these innovations. In this respect, his work is similar to that of Michael Crichton. One recurring theme is that of cyborgs, meldings of man and machine, using replacement body parts known as '' bionics''. Caidin references bionics in his novel '' The God Machine'' (1968) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, and types of application. See glossary of engineering. The term ''engineering'' is derived from the Latin ''ingenium'', meaning "cleverness" and ''ingeniare'', meaning "to contrive, devise". Definition The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET) has defined "engineering" as: The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under speci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary information encoded in genes, which can be transmitted to future generations. Another major theme is evolution, which explains the unity and diversity of life. Energy processing is also important to life as it allows organisms to move, grow, and reproduce. Finally, all organisms are able to regulate their own internal environments. Biologists are able to study life at multiple levels of organization, from the molecular biology of a cell to the anatomy and physiology of plants and animals, and evolution of populations.Based on definition from: Hence, there are multiple subdisciplines within biology, each defined by the nature of their research questions and the tools that they use. Like other scientists, biologists use the sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In Silico
In biology and other experimental sciences, an ''in silico'' experiment is one performed on computer or via computer simulation. The phrase is pseudo-Latin for 'in silicon' (correct la, in silicio), referring to silicon in computer chips. It was coined in 1987 as an allusion to the Latin phrases , , and , which are commonly used in biology (especially systems biology). The latter phrases refer, respectively, to experiments done in living organisms, outside living organisms, and where they are found in nature. History The earliest known use of the phrase was by Christopher Langton to describe artificial life, in the announcement of a workshop on that subject at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1987. The expression ''in silico'' was first used to characterize biological experiments carried out entirely in a computer in 1989, in the workshop "Cellular Automata: Theory and Applications" in Los Alamos, New Mexico, by Pedro Miramontes, a ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary Computation
In computer science, evolutionary computation is a family of algorithms for global optimization inspired by biological evolution, and the subfield of artificial intelligence and soft computing studying these algorithms. In technical terms, they are a family of population-based trial and error problem solvers with a metaheuristic or stochastic optimization character. In evolutionary computation, an initial set of candidate solutions is generated and iteratively updated. Each new generation is produced by stochastically removing less desired solutions, and introducing small random changes. In biological terminology, a population of solutions is subjected to natural selection (or artificial selection) and mutation. As a result, the population will gradually evolve to increase in fitness, in this case the chosen fitness function of the algorithm. Evolutionary computation techniques can produce highly optimized solutions in a wide range of problem settings, making them popula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swarm Intelligence
Swarm intelligence (SI) is the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, in the context of cellular robotic systems. SI systems consist typically of a population of simple agents or boids interacting locally with one another and with their environment.Hu, J.; Turgut, A.; Krajnik, T.; Lennox, B.; Arvin, F.,Occlusion-Based Coordination Protocol Design for Autonomous Robotic Shepherding Tasks IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, 2020. The inspiration often comes from nature, especially biological systems. The agents follow very simple rules, and although there is no centralized control structure dictating how individual agents should behave, local, and to a certain degree random, interactions between such agents lead to the emergence of "intelligent" global behavior, unknown to the individu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neural Network
A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological neurons, or an artificial neural network, used for solving artificial intelligence (AI) problems. The connections of the biological neuron are modeled in artificial neural networks as weights between nodes. A positive weight reflects an excitatory connection, while negative values mean inhibitory connections. All inputs are modified by a weight and summed. This activity is referred to as a linear combination. Finally, an activation function controls the amplitude of the output. For example, an acceptable range of output is usually between 0 and 1, or it could be −1 and 1. These artificial networks may be used for predictive modeling, adaptive control and applications where they can be trained via a dataset. Self-learning resulting fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna (often the same antenna is used for transmitting and receiving) and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the objects. Radio waves (pulsed or continuous) from the transmitter reflect off the objects and return to the receiver, giving information about the objects' locations and speeds. Radar was developed secretly for military use by several countries in the period before and during World War II. A key development was the cavity magnetron in the United Kingdom, which allowed the creation of relatively small systems with sub-meter resolution. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
