Medical Gadgets

Sign language is a great method for the deaf community to communicate, but unless everyone around you is fluent in the visual language, it won’t be much help for communicating with the non-disabled. You could always develop a system of lip reading and writing your answer on a notepad or something, but then the years you spent learning sign language are all for naught.

Recently shown at the Meeting Of The Minds expo at Carnegie Mellon University Center, a prototype gadget called the HandTalk was displayed for the first time. The HandTalk is a wearable glove device which can detect motion and gestures done when using sign language, and translate these movements into audio played through the users cellphone or other mobile device.

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I know that New Year’s a distant memory by now, but surely some of you have decided to quit smoking back in January, but failed to do so until now? Chewing tobacco doesn’t quite make the grade for you, so what about the Gamucci Micro Electronic Cigarette?

It looks like a cigarette, it tastes like a cigarette, it smokes like a cigarette, but it isn’t a cigarette, it contains no tobacco, and the “smoke” is just vapour. Containing state of the art micro-electronic technology this re-chargeable e-cigarette produces a real smoking experience without any of the deeply unpleasant side-effects of tobacco. As you inhale a tiny battery vapourizes liquid inside the cigarette producing smoke. You can insert cartridges (it comes with a set of them) that will release nicotine - or of course choose to skip the nicotine altogether and just puff away on what is virtually nothing. Of course people may come finger-wagging at you telling to put it out (it looks that real), but there’s nothing to put out.

Each £49.95 purchase comes with a spare battery and charger, and a full charge out to be able to last you for a long, long time. I wonder whether minors are allowed to “smoke” this since it technically isn’t a real cancer stick.

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I’m fortunate to be a fairly healthy guy, and feel bad for those that have difficulty getting around. While I could imagine that someone that relies on a wheelchair or cane would have a hard time just about anywhere, I would bet that the stairs are the worst. Now if those stairs are in their home, that would be even worse. Thankfully this cool device can help out those that have difficulty getting up and down stairs.

This StairSteady Handrail was actually a GCSE coursework project that was later turned into a full-fledged product. Essentially what you have is a horizontal bar which runs along the handrail. This allows a person to evenly distribute their weight between both hands, rather than just relying on one. There’s no word on when the StairSteady will go on sale, but the installation kit will run you somewhere around $650 and should work with most stairs.

Source: Ubergizmo

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We all know a person like this. You know the one I mean. Every ache leads to a fatal illness. Every headache MUST mean that they have brain cancer. The word is hypochondria, and it’s everywhere we turn.

This sub-branch of extreme personality trait is the perfect crowd for scientists performing research studies on EMF cellphone emissions to prey upon. “Talking on cellphones too much can lead to brain cancer!” This might lead to a hypochondriac cutting their phone use significantly, or even disowning the device all together.

Put their minds at ease with the CellSensor EMF Detector, a home solution for measuring both radio frequency radiation and extremely low-frequency magnetic fields. And the CellSensor doesn’t necessarily only work with cellphones. Move the sensor around your whole house to really give that special someone a scare.
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The OneTouch UltraLink Meter has recently acquired FDA approval, and this glucometer from Medtronic boasts wireless information transfer using a proprietary protocol to the MiniMed Paradigm insulin pump, hoping to achieve a tighter glycemic control in the end. Sounds like a much more convenient method of checking the glucose level in one’s blood, helping to make bolus dosing more accurate and much more convenient for patients when compared to manual entry of blood glucose readings. Read on more about the OneTouch UltraLink Meter after the jump.

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Traveler-ER, Inc. has rolled out an easy-to-use, progressive solution where storing your personal, medical and emergency contact information is made easy, thanks to the Traveler-ER USB flash drive. It isn’t meant for casual users though, designed with input from emergency medical and travel professionals in order to come up with an easy method to store and ferry vital records with you just about everywhere you go. All the personal information within is stored only on the password protected USB drive and not on any central database, which means you can be sure Traveler-ER Inc. won’t have any sensitive information on you.

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Having heart problems is no laughing matter, and most people will have to take plenty of medication, keep up a good exercise regime and watch their diet. They too, will need a heart rate monitor of some sort in order to make sure nothing untoward happens during the course of the day. These devices tend to be bulky, and they’re awkward to carry around. Enter the Vital Jacket heart rate monitor courtesy of BioDevices, which is actually an ordinary t-shirt that continuously monitors heart rate and ECG waves, making it one of the most ideal solution for elderly patients with plenty of potential for fitness applications too.

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There comes a time in everyone’s life when there is need for a pregnancy test. It’s usually helpful to know if you’re going to be having a child, so cheap at-home pregnancy tests are cheap and easy to obtain. Personally I’m weirded out by them and feel sorry for the women that have to use them. Seriously, who wants to squat and pee on something like that? Anyway, I was surprised to see this particular test which had a USB plug on the end.

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