Innovation: The Outer Limits

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Andrew Eccles

Dan Winters

A Word from the Naysayers

It's no sure thing that artificial intelligence has progressed far enough to endow characters with the smarts needed to make them appear truly real and interesting. And some insist accurate brain-wave measurement is an iffy prospect in an affordable device, so the technique could be glitch ridden for all but the most basic interactions.

Company Close-up

Emotiv Systems, a start-up in San Francisco, plans to introduce its brain-wave-reading headset at the end of this year. The $299 device measures brain electrical activity via 16 scalp sensors, which the company claims allow recognition of basic emotions and up to 30 specific thoughts, such as "lift this object," "fire death ray," or "fly forward." The idea, says Tan Le, the company's president and co-founder, is to create games that adapt the action to the changing moods and thoughts of the players. "Games have never had a feedback loop for understanding how the user experiences content," she says. "When you have that feedback, you can vary the music, the lighting, and the story to help take the player through an emotional journey." The company has raised $13.4 million and has a team of 40 researchers, half of whom have Ph.D.s.

Manufactured Body Parts: We Can Rebuild Him

The Big Idea

The Six Million Dollar Man is finally here. Artificial limbs are becoming more useful and lifelike. And new technology allows people to control them with thought, much as we control our real limbs. Computers installed in the prostheses intercept signals from the wearer's nerves and translate them into commands for motors. Meanwhile, a number of efforts are under way to augment or replace eyes with artificial devices that capture images and relay them to the brain. Researchers also are developing techniques for assembling living cells into working biodevices -- which could mean a solution for damaged internal organs, such as livers, bladders, and kidneys.

Time to market

Eyes that can recognize objects will be available in about five years. In 10 years, we will begin to see prosthetic arms equal to human arms in most tasks, including sensing touch and playing the piano. Artificial organs are also at least a decade away.

Start-Ups to Watch

Much of the work on high-tech prostheses is funded by the U.S. military. At the leading edge is Liberating Technologies in Holliston, Massachusetts, which has developed an artificial arm capable of reading as many as 10 different signals from the wearer's nerves to control five motors simultaneously at variable speeds. Second Sight, a start-up in Sylmar, California, is working on a retinal implant that takes the image from a tiny camera and relays it to the back of the eye. ReInnervate, a start-up in Durham, England, is developing a tiny, three-dimensional plastic scaffolding on which human cells can be grown into artificial tissue, and perhaps eventually into replacements for organs.

A Word from the Naysayers

There aren't many of them. Experts seem to agree this all will happen in the coming decade, though fully functioning artificial organs could be further off.

Company Close-Up

Organovo, a start-up in Los Angeles, is working on a process in which a bioprinter will squirt multiple layers of human tissue cells onto special paper. When the cells are arranged in the right way, the resulting artificial tissue can serve as a stand-in for human subjects in drug testing. "We may never be able to completely replicate a kidney," says co-founder Gabor Forgacs, a University of Missouri researcher who developed the technology. "But at some point we'll be able fabricate a biodevice from a patient's own cells that will duplicate the most important functions of a kidney and that won't be rejected by the patient's immune system."

Smart Materials: Shape-shifting Color-changing Self-repairing And That's Just the Wallpaper.

The Big Idea

Scientists are learning to custom-design matter by assembling molecules into microscopic structures such as spheres, tubes, and lattices. These nanoshapes can change a substance's properties, resulting in materials that are stronger, lighter, shinier, electrically conductive, heat resistant, flexible, slippery, or sticky. The structures of some nanomaterials bend and change shape when given an electrical jolt, so that a material's properties can be altered at the flip of a switch -- it can change color, for example, or become transparent. Nanoengineers can even carve out molecular gears and levers that act as microscopic machines; in theory, some materials could be self-repairing, and others could carry out tasks inside our bodies, like scraping plaque from artery walls. Eventually, there may be few products sold that don't incorporate some nanomaterials.

Time to Market

Some nanotech-enhanced materials are available. A flood of higher-tech ones are expected in three to seven years. Practical nanomachines are at least 10 years away.

Start-Ups to Watch

Currently, nanomaterials are being mixed with, or applied as a coating on, conventional materials to alter their properties. Much of the progress has been driven by large companies such as Dow Chemical and DuPont (NYSE:DD). But a number of start-ups have staked out impressive claims. New York-based ApNano Materials makes lubricating nanocoatings for engine parts; Oxonica, in the United Kingdom, produces nanoadditives that improve sunscreens and diesel fuel; Oakland, California-based Nano-Tex manufactures products that make clothing stain-resistant, softer, and more breathable. "Nanotechnology has been in the research stage for about 20 years, and we're just now seeing it come to fruition," says Jurron Bradley, a senior analyst at high-tech market intelligence firm Lux Research in New York.

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David H. Freedman

A Boston-based contributing editor, Freedman is the co-author of A Perfect Mess, which examines the useful role of disorder in daily life, business, and science. His other books include Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines; At Large: The Strange Case of the World's Biggest Internet Invasion (co-authored with Charles C. Mann); and Brainmakers: How Scientists are Moving Beyond Computers to Create a Rival to the Human Brain.

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