Pocket Psychiatrist
It has been said that, “Real adulthood is the result of two qualities: self-discipline and self-reliance. The
process of developing together in harmony is called maturity.” But this doesn't address self-perception.
If one doesn't perceive what is going on around them, to them and to others, how can one discipline
oneself to do the right thing?
Hand a carpenter a problem and she is likely to approach it with a hammer and nails.
Hand an computer scientist a problem and she is likely to approach it with a computer.
Humans are not typically very conscious of what is going around them. Sometimes this lack of
perception causes them to have a distorted view of the world and their own place in it. In order to
correct for these misperceptions, one can meditate, pray, obtain advice from a shaman, priest, minister,
friend, psychologist or psychiatrist. Enter the concept of the robot psychiatrist.
The initials PDA have been used for many years as the acronym for Personal Digital Assistant. If one
had such a device, one could potentially program it to record what happened to the individual during the
day both in video and audio. Given enough advances in computer technology, the PDA psychiatrist
could then make suggestions to the individual at the end of the day. It could suggest anything from
brushing one’s teeth properly to having good manners at a party. Did you say something to your friend
that offended them? Perhaps you did and your friend pretended not to be offended and you are
unaware of your misstep. How are you to obtain feedback if other people are too polite to tell you of
your social errors?
The initial concept of a Pocket Psychiatrist (PP) is not going to appeal to most humans. So how do we
introduce such a device in a manner which won't arouse suspicion?
The typical way such devices are designed is to invent them in a way which doesn’t threaten the human
fear of change. In order to accomplish this, engineers usually approach a problem which is clearly a
medical disease or malfunction so that one can only have praise for how they are helping the injured or
underprivileged.
In this case, the decision has been made by some engineers to help individuals with limbic encephalitis,
in which the limbic system’s ability to store long-term memories is impaired.
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=19840
One does not have to have the pocket psychiatrist be fully intelligent to be useful to patients. For
example, the PP might simply remind the wearer not to drive after his voice indicates that he has been
drinking. If the Pocket Psychiatrist hears the engine of a car start, he can remind the wearer not to drive
while intoxicated.
Some people have the ability to recognize accents and can tell instantly where a person grew up. For
those without this ability, the PP could assist them in guessing where a speaker was from. Such simple
recognition of accents should not require full human-level intelligence. For example, the PP might
inform the wearer that "The speaker is from Memphis, Tennessee. This is where Elvis called home and
the following are some handy facts about country music and the Grand Ole Opry."
PP might also analyze the vocabulary of the speaker and guess that they are an architect, engineer,
doctor or lawyer. The wearer might be a salesman or politician who can gain from this information.
Perhaps the wearer of the PP has bad habits such as interrupting other people. It would be easy to
detect this and program the PP to inform the wearer that he is being impolite.
Advanced Pocket Psychiatrist
This unit would have access to the wearer's bodily functions. It could monitor the acidity of the stomach,
amount of bile, heart rate, blood pressure, sugar content of the blood, insulin levels, serotonin levels, as
well as other neurotransmitters, etc.
This information could be used to inform the wearer that they should be taking an antacid tablet or if
they are a diabetic, they should be inhaling some insulin or eating some food.
Perhaps the wearer orders some food in a restaurant and later on has indigestion. The PP unit could
correlate the food with subsequent mood and determine minor food allergies and suggest "foods that
disagree with your digestion." The wearer would have a personal buddy to discuss such things with at
the end of the day.
Further Technical Details of Body Chemistry to be Monitored
Around 10 "small-molecule neurotransmitters" are known such as acetylcholine (Ach); monoamines
such as epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT) and melatonin.
Glutamic acid, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), aspartic acid and glycine.
Purines such as Adenosine, ATP, GTP and their derivatives should be monitored.
Fatty acids are also receiving attention as the potential endogenous cannabinoid.
Neuroactive peptides such as vasopressin, somatostatin, neurotensin, etc. Also hormones such as
Luteinizing hormone (LH) or insulin that have specific local actions in addition to their long-range
signalling properties. Histamine should also be monitored.
Single ions, such as synaptically released zinc, act as neurotransmitters and should be monitored.
Gases such as nitric oxide (NO), oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) should
also be tracked by the pocket psychiatrist.
Further Advancements
Computers can now do a fairly good job of listening to human speech and converting it to text on a
computer. Furthermore, logic processors are also improving quite a bit. At some point we will be able to
construct a Logic Critic module for the Pocket Psychologist.
News Items
Silicon biosensors are being implanted into the body with a gel to prevent rejection and precursor
versions of nanomedicine capabilities are being enabled.
Most of the bloodstream robot developments happened in 2007 but they are an outgrowth of the
surgical robotics that are tethered and work through keyholes. In addition there are crude capsule
systems that can be swallowed for examining the stomach and digestive system.
The more useful bloodstream robots are still going through clinical trials
the history of robotics in surgery
http://www.imeche.org/industries/medical/robotic-surgery-july-2007.htm
In the early days of the application of robots in surgery, enthusiasts drove their implementation. Now
systems have to be clinically relevant with benefits for patient and surgeon. This has meant that robots
are unlikely to be applied to surgical procedures which are straightforward. It is for tasks that surgeons
find very difficult or currently impossible, that robots have had their greatest success.
http://www.websurg.com/robotics/history.php
Some other advances in medicine:
http://hfd.dmc.org/
See also: PocketAdvisorbot on this site
Send your suggestions to donbot23@gmail.com
donbot
It has been said that, “Real adulthood is the result of two qualities: self-discipline and self-reliance. The
process of developing together in harmony is called maturity.” But this doesn't address self-perception.
If one doesn't perceive what is going on around them, to them and to others, how can one discipline
oneself to do the right thing?
Hand a carpenter a problem and she is likely to approach it with a hammer and nails.
Hand an computer scientist a problem and she is likely to approach it with a computer.
Humans are not typically very conscious of what is going around them. Sometimes this lack of
perception causes them to have a distorted view of the world and their own place in it. In order to
correct for these misperceptions, one can meditate, pray, obtain advice from a shaman, priest, minister,
friend, psychologist or psychiatrist. Enter the concept of the robot psychiatrist.
The initials PDA have been used for many years as the acronym for Personal Digital Assistant. If one
had such a device, one could potentially program it to record what happened to the individual during the
day both in video and audio. Given enough advances in computer technology, the PDA psychiatrist
could then make suggestions to the individual at the end of the day. It could suggest anything from
brushing one’s teeth properly to having good manners at a party. Did you say something to your friend
that offended them? Perhaps you did and your friend pretended not to be offended and you are
unaware of your misstep. How are you to obtain feedback if other people are too polite to tell you of
your social errors?
The initial concept of a Pocket Psychiatrist (PP) is not going to appeal to most humans. So how do we
introduce such a device in a manner which won't arouse suspicion?
The typical way such devices are designed is to invent them in a way which doesn’t threaten the human
fear of change. In order to accomplish this, engineers usually approach a problem which is clearly a
medical disease or malfunction so that one can only have praise for how they are helping the injured or
underprivileged.
In this case, the decision has been made by some engineers to help individuals with limbic encephalitis,
in which the limbic system’s ability to store long-term memories is impaired.
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=19840
- "When Mrs. B was admitted to the hospital in March 2002, her doctors diagnosed limbic
encephalitis, a brain infection that left her autobiographical memory in tatters. As a result, she can
only recall around 2 percent of events that happened the previous week, and she often forgets
who people are. But a simple device called SenseCam, a small digital camera developed by
Microsoft Research, in Cambridge, U.K., dramatically improved her memory: she could recall 80
percent of events six weeks after they happened, according to the results of a recent study.
"Not only does SenseCam allow people to recall memories while they are looking at the images,
which in itself is wonderful, but after an initial period of consolidation, it appears to lead to long-
term retention of memories over many months, without the need to view the images repeatedly,"
says Emma Berry, a neuropsychologist who works as a consultant to Microsoft.
SenseCam is worn around the neck and automatically takes a wide-angle, low-resolution
photograph every 30 seconds. It contains an accelerometer to stabilize the image and reduce
blurriness, and it can be configured to take pictures in response to changes in movement,
temperature, or lighting.
"Because it has a wide-angle lens, you don't have to point it at anything--it just happens to
capture pretty much everything that the wearer can see," says Steve Hodges, the manager of the
Sensor and Devices Group at Microsoft Research, U.K.
An entire day's events can be captured digitally on a memory card and downloaded onto a PC for
subsequent viewing. Using specially designed software, the Microsoft researchers can convert the
pictures into a short movie that displays the images at up to 10 frames per second, allowing a
day's events to be viewed in a few minutes."
One does not have to have the pocket psychiatrist be fully intelligent to be useful to patients. For
example, the PP might simply remind the wearer not to drive after his voice indicates that he has been
drinking. If the Pocket Psychiatrist hears the engine of a car start, he can remind the wearer not to drive
while intoxicated.
Some people have the ability to recognize accents and can tell instantly where a person grew up. For
those without this ability, the PP could assist them in guessing where a speaker was from. Such simple
recognition of accents should not require full human-level intelligence. For example, the PP might
inform the wearer that "The speaker is from Memphis, Tennessee. This is where Elvis called home and
the following are some handy facts about country music and the Grand Ole Opry."
PP might also analyze the vocabulary of the speaker and guess that they are an architect, engineer,
doctor or lawyer. The wearer might be a salesman or politician who can gain from this information.
Perhaps the wearer of the PP has bad habits such as interrupting other people. It would be easy to
detect this and program the PP to inform the wearer that he is being impolite.
Advanced Pocket Psychiatrist
This unit would have access to the wearer's bodily functions. It could monitor the acidity of the stomach,
amount of bile, heart rate, blood pressure, sugar content of the blood, insulin levels, serotonin levels, as
well as other neurotransmitters, etc.
This information could be used to inform the wearer that they should be taking an antacid tablet or if
they are a diabetic, they should be inhaling some insulin or eating some food.
Perhaps the wearer orders some food in a restaurant and later on has indigestion. The PP unit could
correlate the food with subsequent mood and determine minor food allergies and suggest "foods that
disagree with your digestion." The wearer would have a personal buddy to discuss such things with at
the end of the day.
Further Technical Details of Body Chemistry to be Monitored
Around 10 "small-molecule neurotransmitters" are known such as acetylcholine (Ach); monoamines
such as epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT) and melatonin.
Glutamic acid, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), aspartic acid and glycine.
Purines such as Adenosine, ATP, GTP and their derivatives should be monitored.
Fatty acids are also receiving attention as the potential endogenous cannabinoid.
Neuroactive peptides such as vasopressin, somatostatin, neurotensin, etc. Also hormones such as
Luteinizing hormone (LH) or insulin that have specific local actions in addition to their long-range
signalling properties. Histamine should also be monitored.
Single ions, such as synaptically released zinc, act as neurotransmitters and should be monitored.
Gases such as nitric oxide (NO), oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) should
also be tracked by the pocket psychiatrist.
Further Advancements
Computers can now do a fairly good job of listening to human speech and converting it to text on a
computer. Furthermore, logic processors are also improving quite a bit. At some point we will be able to
construct a Logic Critic module for the Pocket Psychologist.
News Items
Silicon biosensors are being implanted into the body with a gel to prevent rejection and precursor
versions of nanomedicine capabilities are being enabled.
Most of the bloodstream robot developments happened in 2007 but they are an outgrowth of the
surgical robotics that are tethered and work through keyholes. In addition there are crude capsule
systems that can be swallowed for examining the stomach and digestive system.
The more useful bloodstream robots are still going through clinical trials
the history of robotics in surgery
http://www.imeche.org/industries/medical/robotic-surgery-july-2007.htm
In the early days of the application of robots in surgery, enthusiasts drove their implementation. Now
systems have to be clinically relevant with benefits for patient and surgeon. This has meant that robots
are unlikely to be applied to surgical procedures which are straightforward. It is for tasks that surgeons
find very difficult or currently impossible, that robots have had their greatest success.
http://www.websurg.com/robotics/history.php
Some other advances in medicine:
http://hfd.dmc.org/
See also: PocketAdvisorbot on this site
Send your suggestions to donbot23@gmail.com
donbot
Inventbot, inventing new creatures
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