TR100 - 2003 

Technology Review Magazine presents their third class of 100 innovators 35
or younger whose technologies are poised to make a dramatic impact on our
world.

Attached are innovators who have an interest in rehabilitation.



Cynthia Breazeal - MIT
Innovation: Constructs robots whose expressive faces convey humanlike
emotions 

People often ask Cynthia Breazeal, director of the MIT Media Laboratorys
robotic-life group, whether robots will take over the world. "Im like, Oh,
go see a movie," she laughs. Nonetheless, theres something Hollywood about
Breazeals work. She builds expressive robots that exhibit socially
appropriate emotional responses, attracting media attention as well as
advancing artificial-intelligence research. For her doctoral thesis, Breazeal
constructed Kismet, a bright-eyed mechanical head that reacts to human
voices, movements, and expressions with smiles, frowns, and raised eyebrows.
Her latest robot, Leonardo, a collaboration with the Stan Winston Studio, of
movie special-effects fame, is a 75-centimeter-tall creature. The furry bots
60 small motors produce fluid movements and subtle facial expressions; it
also has pressure-sensitive "skin",  microphones, a speech synthesizer, and
camera "eyes" that track peoples faces and gestures. Unlike other robots,
whose actions are driven by programmed routines, Leonardo learns tasks by
assessing humans expressions and imitating their movements. Breazeal calls
it "the most expressive robot today", and because she believes "socially
intelligent" robots could become actors, or helpers for the elderly, she is
conducting studies of human-robot interaction. Her lab is also helping NASA
build a "robonaut" space assistant that might one day perform maintenance
tasks in space.

http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/cynthia/cynthia.html
http://web.media.mit.edu/~cynthiab/
http://robotic.media.mit.edu/
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/kismet/kismet.html
http://www.samogden.com/Kismet_and_Cynthia_Breazea.html
http://www.cogtech.org/CT99/Breazeal.htm
http://www.2001halslegacy.com/interviews/braezeal.html
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/kismet.html
http://www.siggraph.org/conferences/REPORTS/s2003/articles/robotics.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/05/CC69735.DTL&type=tech_article

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Torsten Reil - NaturalMotion
Innovation: Employs simulations of human movement to create realistically
animated characters 

It might be surprising to find a biologist pushing the frontiers of computer
animation. But Torsten Reil is bringing cheaper, lifelike digital characters
to video games and films. As a doctoral researcher in neural systems at the
University of Oxford, Reil programmed computer simulations that mimicked
human and animal movement, and in 2001 he cofounded NaturalMotion in Oxford,
England, to commercialize that work. To create characters that move
realistically, conventional animators draw extensive series of frames that
are played back - repetitively - in set sequences. But Reil wrote software
that an animator uses to program a nervous system for a character he or she
draws just once. The code makes the character's body obey the laws of physics
and react automatically to changing on-screen situations. NaturalMotion's
first product is already saving game developers and visual-effects companies
thousands of dollars by accelerating animation, Reil says. Look for his
characters in the upcoming Hollywood epic Troy. Reil recently won a grant
from the British government to model the gaits of children with cerebral
palsy, to help doctors determine the neurological basis of the disorder.  

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~quee0818/
http://www.naturalmotion.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2058040.stm
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~quee0818/pub/publications.html

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Erin Lavik - Yale University
Innovation: Helped paralyzed rats walk again and aims to do the same for
people 

A playwright who has written a one-act farce, Erin Lavik has a day job that
is no laughing matter. She uses polymers and neural stem cells to promote
recovery from spinal-cord injuries, which 10,000 people suffer each year in
the United States alone. A Yale University assistant professor of biomedical
engineering, Lavik designed polymer scaffolds that mimic the architecture of
a healthy spinal cord, seeded the scaffolds with neural stem cells, and
implanted them in paralyzed rats. Much to everyone's surprise, the rats were
able to move their limbs, bear weight, and even walk. Although
spinal-cord-injury research is a big field, Lavik's method is the first to
demonstrate such dramatic success. Repairing spinal-cord injuries in humans
will be a bigger challenge, but then, Lavik didn't expect her injured rats to
walk so soon. If she has her way, people with spinal-cord injuries could be
walking sooner than expected, too. 

http://www.eng.yale.edu/faculty/vita/lavik.htm

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Tsuyoshi Yamamoto - Hitachi
Innovation: Builds brain-imaging machines that are faster and cheaper than
magnetic-resonance imaging equipment 

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto is steering his way through the brain. Since joining
Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, Japan, in 1997, he has
co-developed an optical-topography system that measures changes of
concentrations of hemoglobin in the brain, providing insight into how neurons
process language, images, and movement. Yamamoto's device, which is easier to
use and cheaper than magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI), beams light through
the skull and into the cortex, the brain's outer layer. By charting the
intensity of the light reflected back by the cortex, the machine gauges
changes in blood cell concentrations - indications of brain activity. The
instrument, which looks like a beauty salon dryer, is less motion sensitive
than MRI equipment, so rather than lying flat, patients are seated for scans.
Now on sale in Japan, the system has received US Food and Drug
Administration approval. Patients robbed of muscle control by
neurodegenerative disease can communicate via Yamamotos gear, which can
sense the brains "yes" and "no" responses to questions. He hopes his device
will further understanding of language processes. "We don't know so much
about the brain," he says. "I would like to find new functional areas."

http://aoot.osa.org/abstract.cfm?id=72463
