Hidden Figures Ⅰ
Norbert Wiener，the Father of Cybernetics，
"Hearing Gloves"
Cybernetics is the scientific research on how humans, animals, and machines control and communicate with each other, and is widely regarded as the theoretical foundation of disciplines such as computer science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. Norbert Wiener, known as “the father of cybernetics,” and his team at MIT developed the "Hearing Gloves," which can convert sound into tactile vibrations and correct spoken pronunciation by comparing the tactile sensations of different sounds on the five fingertips. In 1950, invited by Wiener, Helen Keller, the deaf-blind author herself tested the device as a research "subject." Wiener allegedly told Keller that the hearing gloves were “the first constructive application of cybernetics to human beings.”
The photo shows Norbert Wiener posing with an early prototype of the translator in 1949, hoping to eventually wear something like "gloves". Photo from Getty Images.
The photo shows Helen Keller and her assistant Polly Thomson checking the phone at Bell Labs in 1949; Photo from AT&T Archives and History Center.
The Prosthetic Metaphors in the"Uncanny Valley"
Theory of Robot Design
According to the famous "Uncanny Valley" theory, the higher degree of human-likeness in robots, the more affinity people will have for them. But before the human-likeness reaches 100%, such affinity will suddenly decrease. Here, the more the robots have lifelike appearance, the more eerie humans will feel, descending into the "Uncanny Valley."
In the original text on "Uncanny Valley," Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori frequently uses prosthetics as a narrative device. For example, he pointed out that once we realize that the hand that looked real at first sight is actually artificial, we experience an “eerie sensation.”
原文 (“…once we realize that the hand that looked real at first sight is actually artificial, we experience an eerie sensation. For example, we could be startled during a handshake by its limp boneless grip together with its texture and coldness. When this happens, we lose our sense of affinity, and the hand becomes uncanny. In mathematical terms, this can be represented by a negative value.”)
from: Masahiro Mori: The Uncanny Valley(Mori, Masahiro. "The uncanny valley: the original essay by Masahiro Mori." IEEE Spectrum (1970).)
原文：一旦我们意识到第一眼看起来真实的手实际上是人造的，我们就会有一种怪异的感觉。例如，在握手时，我们可能会被它没有骨头、柔软的抓握以及它的质地和冰冷吓到。当这种情况发生时，我们对机器失去了亲切感，这只手变得诡异。用数学术语来说，这可以用负值来表示。
The photo is a wooden prosthetic hand made by a Buddhist woodcarver
The photo shows a human arm in the upper left corner, controlling a highly simulated electromyographic hand called the "Vienna Hand"
Disability Analogies in Alan Turing's
Theory of "Intelligence"
In 1950, Alan Turing, known as the "father of artificial intelligence,” published a paper on computers and intelligence in the journal Mind, where he compares machines to disabled children. He argues that even though machines do not have feet or eyes, they can still “learn,” just like Helen Keller. Since Helen Keller's childhood, analogies that relate her to "input" and "output" have frequently appeared in the journal Mind, a frontier philosophy publication founded in 1876. She also served as a research “subject” for several of the most important laboratory studies during her lifetime.
from：Alan Turing: Computing Machinery and Intelligence(Turing, Alan M. Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 1950.)
The photo is an excerpt from Alan Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" published in Mind.
The photo is the cover of the 236th issue of the journal Mind in October 1950.
The first commercial application scenario of
Integrated Circuits (ICs): Hearing Aids
The advancement of integrated circuit technology is the foundation of computer miniaturization. As early as the 1900s, when the market potential of integrated circuits in its early-stage development was not immediately apparent, hearing aids provided a main use case for its commercial application. Due to the stigmatization of hearing impairments, users of hearing aids preferred small and even invisible hearing aids. Other than being early users, deaf and hearing-impaired individuals were also among the developers, retailers, and manufacturers of micro-electronic devices at that time. The general public was not interested in computer miniaturization until the late 1950s, giving rise to a craze for owning personal electronic products.
from: Mara Mills: Hearing Aids and the History of Electronics Miniaturization(Mills, Mara. "Hearing aids and the history of electronics miniaturization." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 33, no. 2 (2011): 24-45.)
The photo shows a wearable Sonotone vacuum tube hearing aid advertising poster. Its advertising beautifies the concealment of the product.
(Courtesy of the Kenneth Berg Hearing Aid Museum and Archives)
The photo shows the printed circuit board (bottom left corner) of the Solo-Pak hearing aid, compared to previous hard wire and discrete components.
Autism and Affective Computing
Rosalind Picard, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, is known as “the mother of affective computing.” Picard and her colleagues believe that autism can bring new insights into affective computing. They pointed out that the systematization of social situations by individuals on the autism spectrum can help affective computing researchers develop socioemotional technologies, such as robots that can read emotions.
“Persons diagnosed with ASC are extreme systemizers, showing intact or superior systemizing abilities, such as excellent attention to detail, islets of ability in topics like prime numbers, calendrical calculation, or classification of artifacts or natural kinds (Shah and Frith 1983; Jolliffe and Baron-Cohen 1997; Baron-Cohen et al. 2002; Baron-Cohen 2006).
“Many people with ASC attempt to systemize empathy, analyzing conversations and interactions, as it unfolds and for hours after it is over (Blackburn et al. 2000; Mixing Memory Blog 2005).”
“Affective computing over the past 10 years has been developing sensing and recognition technologies that, together with insights from people with ASC, may eventually facilitate systemizing the social world.”
from: (KALIOUBY, RANA el, Rosalind Picard, and Simon Baron‐Cohen. "Affective computing and autism." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1093, no. 1 (2006): 228-248.)
Figure: Kismet is an affective computing robot built in the 1990s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is the first robot in history designed to engage humans in expressive interactions, is widely regarded as a pioneering effort in the field of Social Robotics.
