Image Caption: WIRED NextFest Banner at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The Fourth Annual WIRED NextFest in Los Angeles, California, USA this past weekend offered a glimpse of our technological future with a variety of themed pavilions exploring the future of exploration, entertainment, security, education, design, robotics, green technologies, communication, play, health, and transportation.

WIRED NextFest is hosted by a different city every year, and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined WIRED Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, event sponsor Hitachi’s Chief Executive for North America Tadahiko Ishigaki, and teacher and astronaut Barbara Morgan to open the event around 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 13, 2007. The event began a day early for the media and 9,000 4th through 12th graders. Scores of school children were on hand for the opening ceremony, which featured a jet-pack flyover and the Kiyomori Samurai Robot from tmsuk. Mayor Villaraigosa said it was a day to focus on education by providing “a window, if you will, into the future.” He said that “Technology is an opportunity for us to go into space, to find cures for diseases, and an opportunity for us to change the world.”

Future of Robotics Pavilion

The opening ceremony was followed by the Google Lunar X PRIZE announcement and tours of the pavilions. A variety of robots were on display at the Future of Robotics pavilion. Xi’An Chaoren Sculpture Research Institute was present with company founder Zou Ren Ti and his look-alike android. The android is nearly indistinguishable from human because of realistic looking skin and motions that include blinking and other facial movements.

Image Caption: Zou Ren Ti Android Robot.

Hanson Robotics was another company present showing off their robots, including “Revolutionary Robotic Friend” Zeno and other more human-looking robots. Zeno is a 43 cm (17-inch) tall, 6 pound toy expected to be released sometime in the next few years. The robot is being developed to recognize faces, show emotions, and carry on conversations. His skin is made of a polymer that can easily be moved via motors create realistic facial expressions. A camera behind one eye and a microphone will eventually feed inputs into what company representatives described as a “learning AI”. The robots on hand were not yet enabled with AI but did demonstrate scripted facial expressions and face-recognition capabilities. Hanson Robotics plans to use animation software to develop Zeno’s capabilities and train the learning AI.

Image Caption: Zeno, a “RoboKind” robot from Hanson Robotics.

Earlier robots on display by Hanson Robotics included representative robots from their “HumanKind” line of products, including Albert Einstein

Image Caption: HumanKind robots Albert Einstein and friend, from Hanson Robotics.

Future of Exploration Pavilion

A simple all-terrain rover was a favorite with students and technology bloggers for the simply reason that people could lay down and become the terrain for the rover to drive over. Capable of climbing gently over objects twice the size of its wheels, the rover demonstrated technology that is being used to explore other planets while being of particular interest to kids.

Future of Design Pavilion

A highlight of the design pavilion was a polymer from d3o Lab. The gooey material d3o is easily molded but hardens instantly upon impact to absorb much of the energy. Used as a shock absorber, the material has found its way into clothing for Olympics athletes, snowboarders, mountain bikers, motorcyclists, and others. While not intended to stop bullets, d3o could be used with bullet-proof materials to absorb some of the residual energy that can still cause damage.

Future of Health Pavilion

Researchers from Wake Forest University and the University of Michigan were on hand to show their progress in developing artificial organs and regenerated body parts.

Graduate student Luda Khait from the University of Michigan Artificial Heart Laboratory explained that one of the goals of their research is to create tissues for transplant into heart attack victims in hopes of repairing damaged heart muscle. They hope to demonstrate that externally grown cells and tissues will go where needed when implanted into patients. Right now the technology is being developed using rat models. They have been able to use cells from rats on a special gel to create networks of cells that beat, a desired outcome of cardiotissue engineering. The differentiated cells used are taken from the hearts of three to four year old rats.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Wake Forest University Institute for Regenerative Medicine have successfully grown pig heart valves, a milestone toward a future where tissues and organs can be grown in bioreactors for patients. One of the difficulties in engineering organs is their fragile nature. A valve, for example, will readily withstand the continuous opening and closing motion of its action in the heart. A valve created outside the body, however, needs to be strengthened to handle this task. Therefore, technology that mimics the heart beat can be used to “train” the grown valve prior to implantation.

On display was an inkjet printer modified to print cells in a medium instead of ink. 2-D tissues can be “printed” in this way, but 3-D organs are the holy grail in regenerative medicine. These 3-D organs will have nutrient and oxygen requirements even before implantation, but researchers believe that the rapid pace of innovation in the field will lead to significant breakthroughs within the next five to ten years.

Traffic and Long Lines

Organizers expected to match last year’s 47,000 attendees over four days. On Friday, September 14, 2007 with the event open to the public, a line of people quickly stretched around the South Hall venue amidst heavy automobile traffic. Local media coverage and global Internet coverage, including many technology blogs, were extensive.

Image caption: X PRIZE Moon exhibit and logo at WIRED NextFest

A robotic scavenger hunt to the moon is the next big space competition. The X PRIZE Foundation announced at Wired NextFest, along with representatives from Google, NASA, and one of the Apollo 11 astronauts, the Google Lunar X PRIZE. The largest incentive competition in history, US$30 million will go to the first and second privately funded teams to land a rover on the Moon.

US$20 million will be awarded to the first team who makes a soft landing on the surface of the Moon, drives a least 500 meters, and takes two sets of high definition video and images. The second team to accomplish the same tasks will be awarded US$5 million. In addition, $5 million will be awarded for bonus tasks, including finding artifacts from past mission, finding water ice at the lunar south pole, surviving one full lunar night of frigid temperatures, and driving a total of 5 kilometers instead of 500 meters.

On hand for the announcement were Dr. Peter Diamandis, X Prize chairman Robert K. Weiss, Google co-founder Larry Page, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) founder Elon Musk, and NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. Video messages from Google co-founder Sergey Brin and director James Cameron were shown. All expressed their support for the latest prize.

According to Page, science has a serious marketing problem. Competitions like the Google Lunar X PRIZE can help promote science and engineering, while continuing to push progress and economic growth. Page announced during his comments a new version of Google Moon with improved resolution and panoramas captured by Apollo.

Through video and speech, the X PRIZE Foundation recapped incentive competitions to date, including the 2004 culmination of the first X Prize for a private manned suborbital launch. Since then, several new prizes have been announced, including the Archon Genomics X PRIZE, Automotive X PRIZE, and upcoming educational, life science, and energy prizes. The latest prize is being marketed as “Moon 2.0″, with previous lunar activity through the final Apollo mission in 1972 referred to as Moon 1.0. While Moon 1.0 was a competition between the superpowers, Moon 2.0 is expected to open up the moon as a resource.

X PRIZE’s Weiss listed surface silicon and water ice as important lunar resources to enable manned missions of the Moon and potentially help with resource issues on the Earth, including energy concerns. Diamandis said the Google Lunar X PRIZE will be the first commercial steps to exploiting the resources of the Moon.

SpaceX’s Musk announced they will donate profits they would normally make on space launches to lower the cost of launch of X PRIZE competitors’ entries. Other organizations like SETI will provide services to competitors for reduced or no cost.

The setting for the announcement – Wired NextFest – allowed for a somewhat elaborate stage, including a remote controlled rover that joined Diamandis at one point, a life-sized model of an astronaut and lunar rover, and a huge model of the moon unveiled for the photo-op at the end of the presentations, with Diamandis exclaiming “Let the race begin!”. In additions to participating representatives and media, there were many students, parents, and teachers in attendance for the announcement.

A video dramatization of a private team winning the Google Lunar X PRIZE in the future included depictions of access to data returned by the mission via the Internet on laptops, iPhones, and video billboards. Currently, a new website – http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/ – has been created to host educational videos, tools, and hands-on activities for students.

Image caption: X PRIZE Moon and rover exhibit at the fourth annual WIRED NextFest

Image caption: X PRIZE exhibit of Apollo astronaut and moon rover at the fourth annual WIRED NextFest

Thursday is Education Day, with 4th through 12th graders and their teachers filling the LA Convention Center for an early peak at the technology goodness. There will be robots and consumer electronics, new medical gear, transportation advances, interactive demonstrations, and much more.

The morning begins with an opening ceremony followed by the X Prize press conference. Frontier Channel will be attending both events as well as a taking a sneak peek tour of the exhibits.