Android 17 is getting a dedicated gaming mode for foldables that will put a virtual gamepad with touch controls on half of your screen to theoretically make it easier to play games.

With foldable gaming mode, which is set to launch in the coming months, the virtual controller emulates physical button presses at a system level and is designed to work “with any game that supports physical controllers,” says Google’s Mishaal Rahman on Reddit. For the actual inputs, the virtual controller will have a D-pad; left and right virtual sticks; A, B, X, and Y buttons; L1, L2, L3; R1, R2, and R3; and a start button. And you’ll be able to configure the gamepad in several ways, such as keeping the virtual joysticks inline or staggered from each other, scaling the size of the buttons, and toggling haptics on or off.

Turning on the mode “is as simple as unfolding your device, either before or after launching a compatible game,” Rahman says. You can also choose to hide the gamepad, and if you connect a physical controller, the virtual gamepad will turn off on its own.

“Android allows you to play a wide variety of games on the go,” says Rahman. “While touch controls work incredibly well for many titles, certain games are better enjoyed with physical gamepads. The problem is that carrying a Bluetooth controller or a snap-on gamepad with you everywhere isn’t always convenient. We want to bridge that gap, and we’re addressing it with a new feature in the Android 17 platform release that’s specifically tailored for foldable devices.”

RAMageddon has come for computers. The price of memory chips, hard drives, and solid state storage has skyrocketed. That’s led to price increases on desktop and laptop RAM, SSDs, spinning hard drives, and pretty much everything that uses any of those things. Consoles are more expensive. Desktops are more expensive. Laptops are more expensive. Tablets and phones are more expensive. Even MacBooks, which started out expensive but then started looking like a pretty good deal, just got more expensive.

All that sucks. But if (if) there’s a silver lining, it’s that most of the stuff you plug into a computer — keyboards, mice, webcams, monitors, and so forth — isn’t getting bananas expensive. Actually, there are some good deals out there.

Great keyboards on the cheap

Hot deals on mice in your area

Monitors to watch (get it?)

Cases and stands, hubs and docks, and other stuff

Robots have gotten very good at moving fast, repeating steps and doing jobs that would wear you and me out. But ask a robot to pick up something delicate, oddly shaped or slightly different from the last item it handled, and things can get a little complicated quickly.

That is where a new collaboration between ABB Robotics and PSYONIC comes in. ABB Robotics is working with PSYONIC, a California bionics company, to explore whether real-world touch and motion data from human prosthetic use can help train robotic arms.

In other words, the same kind of bionic hand that helps a person grip a tool, pick up a fragile object or adjust pressure in real time could help teach robots how to do those tasks better.

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SOFT ROBOTIC ARMBAND GIVES PROSTHETIC HAND USERS NATURAL CONTROL

How a bionic hand could teach a robot

The collaboration centers on PSYONIC’s Ability Hand and ABB’s GoFa cobot. The Ability Hand was originally developed for prosthetic use. It has multi-articulating fingers, pressure sensors, vibration feedback and flexible mechanics that help it conform to irregular objects. That combination is important because human grip isn’tt one fixed action. You hold a coffee cup differently than a screwdriver. You handle an egg differently than a phone. Most of us do that without thinking about it.

For robots, that instinctive adjustment is hard. ABB and PSYONIC want to explore how movement, contact and grip-force data from the Ability Hand can help train robots to handle objects that are fragile, uneven or unpredictable. ABB’s GoFa cobot brings the industrial side of the equation, offering the accuracy and repeatability needed to test those movements in a controlled way. The result could be a robot arm that learns from real human handling data, then applies that information to factory and warehouse tasks.

Why robot grip is such a hard problem

Industrial robots can already lift, move, weld, sort and assemble with impressive speed. However, many still struggle when a task involves subtle touch. Think about a robot picking up a soft package, a medical component or a part that shifts slightly on a conveyor belt. Too much pressure can damage the item. Too little pressure can make the robot drop it. A tiny change in angle can throw off the whole process.

JOB-KILLING ROBOT LEARNS AT WORK, AND IT’S COMING TO THE FACTORY FLOOR

That is why gripping and dexterity remain major challenges in automation. ABB calls this a key part of Autonomous Versatile Robotics, or AVR, its vision for robots that can sense, reason, move and handle objects with precision in changing environments.

Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics, put it this way: Human dexterity remains “one of the most difficult things to replicate in industrial-grade robotics.” He said the collaboration with PSYONIC could help “close the long-standing gap” between human and robot dexterity. That gap is where this technology could make a real difference.

What makes the PSYONIC Ability Hand different

The PSYONIC Ability Hand was built to help people. It uses myoelectric control, touch sensing and compliant mechanics in a lightweight design. Its sensors can detect pressure during a grip, while vibration feedback can help communicate touch back to the person using it. That same sensing ability could be valuable for robots.

AI ENABLES PARALYZED MAN TO CONTROL ROBOTIC ARM WITH BRAIN SIGNALS

PSYONIC says the Ability Hand can capture detailed data about movement, contact and grip force. When that hand is used by people in real-world situations, it can generate a more natural dataset than a lab-only robot demonstration.

Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, founder and CEO of PSYONIC, called dexterous manipulation “a data challenge as much as a hardware challenge.” That line really gets to the heart of this. Better robot hands are important. Yet the training data behind those hands may be what decides how useful they become in real workplaces.

Where bionic hand data could show up first

ABB and PSYONIC say this work could apply across automotive, aerospace, packaging, logistics and life sciences. That makes sense. These are industries where robots already play a major role, but where delicate or variable handling can still slow things down. A robot that can better adjust its grip could help with fragile components, oddly shaped products, soft packaging or repetitive tasks that are tough on the body.

HUMANOID ROBOTS HANDLE QUALITY CHECKS AND ASSEMBLY AT AUTO PLANT

The International Federation of Robotics has also pointed to advanced gripping and digital integration as a way to reduce engineering time by up to 30%. That’s important for companies because automation often gets delayed by setup, tuning and custom engineering. If touch-enabled robotic hands can reduce some of that work, companies could deploy robots faster and use them in more flexible ways.

How touch-trained robots could change factory work

There is a hopeful side to this. Robots that handle repetitive or ergonomically challenging work could reduce strain on people. That could mean fewer workers stuck doing the same painful motion all day. However, there is also a bigger labor question here. More capable robots could take on tasks that once seemed too variable to automate. That may affect how companies hire, train and assign work in the future.

The most useful version of this technology would support people instead of simply replacing them. For example, robots could handle the repetitive gripping while workers focus on oversight, quality checks, machine setup and higher-skill work.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

ABB Robotics and PSYONIC are taking a different approach to one of robotics’ hardest problems: touch. Instead of training robots only in a lab, they want to use real movement and grip data from a bionic hand that people already use. That could help robots become better at delicate, variable tasks that have traditionally been hard to automate. It could also push industrial robots closer to working safely and effectively around humans in more settings. But the human side should not get lost in the excitement. If robots are going to learn from human touch, companies need to be clear about data use, workplace impact and safety testing.

Would you feel comfortable knowing a robot at work was trained using real human touch data?  Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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