Join This Little Mermaid can explore your intestinal tract
What you are seeing here is the Mermaid. Yes, it is a little one, but not the one from the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale.
No, this one is an endoscopy device designed by a team of researchers from Ryukoku University and the Osaka Medical Collage, both in Japan. This two-inch long, half-inch in diameter device can be programmed to take photographs of the stomach or colon.
It can be controlled by a joystick, and can snap two photos per second. I would imagine that doctors can figure out what your digestive pain is. Just don’t ask how you get it inside of you. Let’s just say that if the doctor gives you a choice, then swallow it.
Continue reading » This Little Mermaid can explore your intestinal tract
Dreamtrap EASYWAKEme Sleep Stage Alarm Clock
Sleep is vital to the well being of humans, any doctor can tell you that. Heck, you need not slog your way through medical school (suffering from a lack of sleep in the process, how ironic is that?) to know that having the right amount of sleep is important to make sure you function at peak efficiency. Well, some of us get too much, most of us get too little, but the EASYWAKEme Sleep Stage Alarm Clock from Dreamtrap intends to help you achieve the perfect balance.
Ready to rock and roll this coming July, the innovative sleep monitor will be able to detect the most optimal moments for you to wake up through the simple monitoring of customers’ sleep. This means with enough data collected, you will be awakened stress-free while feeling totally alert, energized and ready to meet the new day, never mind that you are already behind schedule in your work.
Continue reading » Dreamtrap EASYWAKEme Sleep Stage Alarm Clock
A Paralyzed man can walk again, thanks to implant
For some reason, I keep writing about bionics and how they can help the disabled. I started this week with the exoskeleton that allowed a UC Berkeley graduate to walk for his graduation, and just yesterday I discussed Patrick’s bionic hand.
I guess that technology is allowing us to help the incapacitated in ways that we didn’t think of before. Now, thanks to a procedure developed by neuroscientists at the University of Louisville, UCLA, and Cal Tech, Rob Summers can walk again.
Summers was paralyzed in an automobile accident in 2005, but an implant allows him to stand on his own and remain standing for about four minutes. The spinal implant can emit small pulses of electricity that replicate signals that the brain needs to move the body’s limbs. The harness that you see in the picture helps him take steps on a treadmill and move his legs.
Continue reading » A Paralyzed man can walk again, thanks to implant
Exoskeleton lets UC Berkeley graduate walk for his graduation
Now that June is here, there are a lot of people who are “walking” for their graduation. However, if you are paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair, you can’t literally “walk the walk”, so to speak.
A wheelchair-bound UC Berkeley student named Austin Whitney wanted to walk for his graduation so badly, he had an exoskeleton made for it.
The exoskeleton was developed by UC Berkeley before Whitney arrived at the school. He worked with the team for years, giving them feedback from his point-of-view. He found that the “feet” of the exoskeleton had to be more flat, the hand controls should have locks, and the height should be adjustable. Check out the video after the jump to see the results.
Continue reading » Exoskeleton lets UC Berkeley graduate walk for his graduation
X-Fingers replaces non-existent digits
Losing your finger (or even worse, fingers) can be quite a traumatic experience for anybody, as our hands and fingers are parts of the body that we more or less use everyday to do work, never mind if you’re a blue collared worker or one sitting behind a cushy desk, hacking away on the keyboard. Well, we have yet to advance to a stage medically where one is able to grow back fingers from a petri dish that is compatible with your body, so what other alternatives are there? The X-Fingers answers this clarion call, where they are made out of surgical steel and can move, flex, and grasp just like the original.
Didrick is the brain behind the X-Fingers, having designed what is touted to be the world’s first active-function artificial finger assemblies specifically for amputees. With SolidWorks software in tandem, it allows one to have these robotic fingers (and a thumb addition, to boot) to work just like a natural body part without the help of electronics. Want to know more about the kind of magic that makes it possible? Head on after the jump to find out.
Continue reading » X-Fingers replaces non-existent digits
Accidentally Ingest some Poison? – There’s an App for That
What do you do if your kid drinks acetone? is stung by a jellyfish or drinks bleach? Do you induce vomiting? and what would be the best way to do that? Now, everyone with a smartphone can immediately find answers to these types of questions and more, by using the new SOS Poison app. This app is now available for your iPhone.
The SOS Poison application for smartphones contains an alphabetic list of around 250 toxic substances. For each substance, there are instructions on what to do if someone has ingested it. In addition, the app also contains a list of more than 70 toxic plants and each of the plants has a clear photo next to it, so that users can immediately recognize which plant it is that your kid decided to eat. The app also provides advice on ticks, snakes, jellyfish, bees or wasps and there’s even a separate chapter with prevention tips and other relevant information. Continue reading » Accidentally Ingest some Poison? – There’s an App for That
emWave2 launches this week
We have reported on the emWave before, a personal stress reliever that I have tried out for myself. The user puts his or her finger on the emWave sensor, and a red light or a green light tells the user where he or she is relaxed. Even though most devices would have a second generation by now, the emWave2 by HeartMath is better late than never.
The emWave2 works in the same manner as its predecessor with the finger sensor, and the user must develop a breathing sequence based on heart rhythms and emotions. I’m not certain if this is new to the device, but it also features Quick Coherence, an emotion-refocusing technique, to help “increase coherence levels as well as sharpen one’s ability to transform stress on-demand”.
Continue reading » emWave2 launches this week
Weta Workshop creates a mermaid prosthetic device
I am certain that you have heard of Weta Workshop before, they are the group responsible for the special effects for The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia movies.
They also did the effects for that live action Peter Pan film that involved mermaids. In the film, they created tails for actresses, and now they have created this fully functional mermaid tail for a double leg amputee.
The amputee, Nadya Vessey, was once at the pool one day and a little child saw her with her prosthetic legs. The child asked her a lot of questions, and she jokingly referred to herself as a mermaid. This gave her an idea, and she consulted Weta Workshop’s prosthetic department to make the mermaid tail. You can check it out on the video after the jump.
Continue reading » Weta Workshop creates a mermaid prosthetic device
