July 2013 ~ NEW GEN TECH LIFE : new generation technology news

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Health Tech

Health Tech

Children's cancer wing transformed into superhero ward

Children's cancer wing transformed into superhero ward
Kids dealing with cancer at the A.C. Camargo Cancer Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, are getting a slightly different kind of cancer-fighting treatment. The medicine is the same, but the delivery method carries a superheroic message. The IV fluid is now covered with superhero logos created by advertising agency JWT Brazil.
Warner Brothers (owner of DC Comics) is also a client of JWT and gave its blessing and a helping hand to the project that features Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The kids are given custom comic books and animations that show the popular superheroes undergoing similar treatments. The superheroes recover thanks to the "superformula" and continue in their crime-fighting ways.… Read more

Get instant pulse readings with iSpO2 for iPhone, iPad

Get instant pulse readings with iSpO2 for iPhone, iPad
LAS VEGAS--The iSpO2 by Masimo ports the hospital checkup experience to iPhones and iPads and makes on-the-spot pulse readings available to active types wherever they are.
iSpO2 is a consumer pulse oximeter that connects to most Apple i-devices and comes with a sensor that you slip on to your ring finger for immediate oxygen, pulse rate, and perfusion index readings.
While not intended for home use, the idea behind iSpO2 is to help fitness fanatics, aviators, skiers, and extreme sports enthusiasts find out crucial information on their vitals without the need for a physician. Max Safai, senior vice president of … Read more

Brain implants let paralyzed woman move robot arm

Brain implants let paralyzed woman move robot arm
Jan Scheuermann can't use her limbs to feed herself, but she's pretty good at grabbing a chocolate bar with her robot arm.
She's become the first to demonstrate that people with a long history of quadriplegia can successfully manipulate a mind-controlled robot arm with seven axes of movement. Earlier experiments had shown that robot arms work with brain implants.
Scheuerman was struck by spinocerebellar degeneration in 1996. A study on the brain-computer interface (BCI) linking Scheuermann to her prosthetic was published online in this month's issue of medical journal The Lancet.
Training on the BCI allowed her to move an arm and manipulate objects for the first time in nine years, surprising researchers.
It took her less than a year to be able to seize a chocolate bar with the arm, after which she declared, "One small nibble for a woman, one giant bite for BCI." Check it out in the video below. … Read more

Hair clip inspires device that clamps down traumatic bleeding

Hair clip inspires device that clamps down traumatic bleeding
After three tours in Afghanistan as a trauma surgeon for the Canadian Navy, Dr. Dennis Filips was inspired -- by a simple hair clip -- to design a medical clamp that can stop traumatic wound bleeding in a matter of seconds.
Now the device, due to hit the market in multiple countries later this year, has earned Filips the top innovator award at last week's Life Science and Health Care Ventures Summit in New York.
The ITClamp will "level the playing field for everybody," Filips recently told the Edmonton Journal. (His firm, Innovative Trauma Care, is based … Read more

Early-warning software could reduce false alarms of seizures

Early-warning software could reduce false alarms of seizures
Of the 50 million people worldwide estimated to have epilepsy, almost a third do not respond to treatment. Those patients must rely on implantable anti-seizure devices that detect pre-seizure electrical activity and shoot small electrical impulses to the brain to interrupt the seizures.
The downside is that the tech, still early in development, also produces false positives, causing devices to send currents to the brain when a seizure is not actually occurring. One new approach, developed by a biomedical and electrical engineer at Johns Hopkins University, appears to reduce those false alarms.
Tested on real-time recordings of brain activity in … Read more

Routine mammography's potential harm: Overdiagnosis

Routine mammography's potential harm: Overdiagnosis
Routine mammography screening, widely considered crucial in early breast cancer detection, may in fact be doing its job too well.
It turns out that as many as a quarter of the early cancers detected by mammography would not progress. That suggests early detection results in a great deal of unnecessary treatment and stress, according to a Harvard School of Public Health analysis of a nationwide screening program in Norway.
"Radiologists have been trained to find even the smallest of tumors in a bid to detect as many cancers as possible to be able to cure breast cancer," lead … Read more

Microfluidic chip to quickly diagnose the flu

Microfluidic chip to quickly diagnose the flu
During the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009, which spread across more than 200 countries and killed more than 18,000 people, it became clear that flu diagnosis was often taking too long and resulting in frequent false negatives.
Today, researchers from Boston University, Harvard, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are reporting in the journal PLoS ONE that they have built a microfluidic chip that rivals in accuracy the gold-standard diagnostic test known as RT-PCR but is faster, cheaper, and disposable.
For their four-year study, which involved 146 patients with flu-like symptoms and was funded by the National Institutes … Read more

Living 'gut-on-a-chip' to help study intestinal disorders

Living 'gut-on-a-chip' to help study intestinal disorders
After describing a living, breathing "lung-on-a-chip" in Science back in the summer of 2010, Harvard researchers are now reporting in the journal Lab on a Chip on their latest endeavor: a human gut-on-a-chip.
These bio-inspired micro devices that mimic the structures, behaviors, and environments of human organs could help scientists better understand the inner workings of a variety of diseases and disorders -- in this case intestinal ones such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis -- without resorting to often less reliable animal testing.
The latest so-called "gut-on-a-chip" is a silicon polymer device whose central … Read more

Paging Dr. iPhone: ThermoDock takes your temperature

Paging Dr. iPhone: ThermoDock takes your temperature
The Medisana ThermoDock gets you one step closer to having a medical toolkit like Dr. McCoy on "Star Trek." This is an infrared device that plugs into your iPhone. Point it at your forehead, your dog, or your iPad 3, and take its temperature.
The nice thing about infrared is that you don't have to stick the ThermoDock where the sun don't shine. That means your iPhone stays at a safe distance from steaming coffee mugs, people carrying around flu germs, and grumpy children.
This gadget can also be used to check the ambient temperature of your room or the great outdoors. As we like to say here in New Mexico, "It's a dry heat!"… Read more

Hospital alarm system will sound when people light up

Hospital alarm system will sound when people light up
Calling itself one of the most modern and well-equipped hospitals in all of Europe, Scotland's 2-year-old and $480 million Forth Valley Royal Hospital is hoping that a new alarm system will help deter smokers who continue to ignore no-smoking signs outside the main entrance.
The alarm, which is followed by a presumably shaming loudspeaker message to stop breaking the rules, is sensitive enough to be triggered by a single smoker lighting up. A representative of the company that installed the machine said in a hospital statement that its purpose is twofold: to encourage better health and to keep the … Read more

Top 5 Medical Technology Innovations

Top 5 Medical Technology Innovations

March 2013
Against the backdrop of health care reform and a controversial medical device tax, medical technology companies are focusing more than ever on products that deliver cheaper, faster, more efficient patient care. They are also making inroads with U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulators to re-engineer the complex review and approval process for new medical devices.
Many in the industry have long felt overly burdened by what they consider to an unnecessarily complex approval process. Critics claim it impedes innovation and delays the availability of better health care. To change that perception, the FDA last year announced a new Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) charged with simplifying the process of designing and testing new technologies. With input from industry, government, and other nonprofit organizations, public-private MDIC will prioritize the regulatory science needs of the medical device community and fund projects to streamline the process.
"By sharing and leveraging resources, MDIC may help industry to be better equipped to bring safe and effective medical devices to market more quickly and at a lower cost," says Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
As the regulators, politicians, and corporate executives hash out these details, industry engineers and scientists continue to push through new ideas for improving and managing human health. Every year, industry observers like the Cleveland Clinic and the medical device trade press single out their favorite technology trends. These thought leaders agree that today's best technologies strike a balance between reducing the overall cost of medical care and increasing safety and survival rates—and isn't that what health care reform is all about?
Here are five emerging technologies to watch in the year ahead.


The MelaFind optical scanner from MELA Sciences. Image: MelaFind.com

1. Cutting Back on Melanoma Biopsies

With the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, a huge number of dangerous-looking moles are actually harmless, but has always been impossible to know for sure without an invasive surgical biopsy. Today dermatologists have new help in making the right call — a handheld tool approved by the FDA for multispectral analysis of tissue morphology. The MelaFind optical scanner is not for definitive diagnosis but rather to provide additional information a doctor can use in determining whether or not to order a biopsy. The goal is to reduce the number of patients left with unnecessary biopsy scars, with the added benefit of eliminating the cost of unnecessary procedures. The MelaFind technology (MELA Sciences, Irvington, NY) uses missile navigation technologies originally paid for the Department of Defense to optically scan the surface of a suspicious lesion at 10 electromagnetic wavelengths. The collected signals are processed using heavy-duty algorithms and matched against a registry of 10,000 digital images of melanoma and skin disease.

The ATI Neurostimulator from Autonomic Technologies. Image: ATI-SPG.com

2. Electronic Aspirin

For people who suffer from migraines, cluster headaches, and other causes of chronic, excruciating head or facial pain, the "take two aspirins and call me in the morning" method is useless. Doctors have long associated the most severe, chronic forms of headache with the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), a facial nerve bundle, but haven't yet found a treatment that works on the SPG long-term. A technology under clinical investigation at Autonomic Technologies, Inc., (Redwood City, CA) is a patient-powered tool for blocking SPG signals at the first sign of a headache. The system involves the permanent implant of a small nerve stimulating device in the upper gum on the side of the head normally affected by headache. The lead tip of the implant connects with the SPG bundle, and when a patient senses the onset of a headache, he or she places a handheld remote controller on the cheek nearest the implant. The resulting signals stimulate the SPG nerves and block the pain-causing neurotransmitters.

The Symphony tCGM biosensor from Echo Therapeutics. Image: EchoTX.com

3. Needle-Free Diabetes Care

Diabetes self-care is a pain—literally. It brings the constant need to draw blood for glucose testing, the need for daily insulin shots and the heightened risk of infection from all that poking. Continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps are today's best options for automating most of the complicated daily process of blood sugar management – but they don't completely remove the need for skin pricks and shots. But there's new skin in this game. Echo Therapeutics (Philadelphia, PA) is developing technologies that would replace the poke with a patch. The company is working on a transdermal biosensor that reads blood analytes through the skin without drawing blood. The technology involves a handheld electric-toothbrush-like device that removes just enough top-layer skin cells to put the patient's blood chemistry within signal range of a patch-borne biosensor. The sensor collects one reading per minute and sends the data wirelessly to a remote monitor, triggering audible alarms when levels go out of the patient's optimal range and tracking glucose levels over time.

The Telemedicine System from InTouch Technologies. Image: InTouchHealth.com

4. Robotic Check-Ups

A pillar of health reform is improving access to the best health care for more people. Technology is a cost-effective and increasingly potent means to connect clinics in the vast and medically underserved rural regions of the United States with big city medical centers and their specialists. Telemedicine is well established as a tool for triage and assessment in emergencies, but new medical robots go one step further—they can now patrol hospital hallways on more routine rounds, checking on patients in different rooms and managing their individual charts and vital signs without direct human intervention. The RP-VITA Remote Presence Robot produced jointly by iRobot Corp. and InTouch Health is the first such autonomous navigation remote-presence robot to receive FDA clearance for hospital use. The device is a mobile cart with a two-way video screen and medical monitoring equipment, programmed to maneuver through the busy halls of a hospital.


The Sapien transcatheter aortic valve from Edwards Lifesciences. Image: Edwards.com
5. A Valve Job with Heart

The Sapien transcatheter aortic valve is a life-saving alternative to open-heart surgery for patients who need new a new valve but can't endure the rigors of the operation. Manufactured by Edwards Life Sciences (Irvine, CA), the Sapien has been available in Europe for some time but is only now finding its first use in U.S. heart centers—where it is limited only to the frailest patients thus far. The Sapien valve is guided through the femoral artery by catheter from a small incision near the grown or rib cage. The valve material is made of bovine tissue attached to a stainless-steel stent, which is expanded by inflating a small balloon when correctly placed in the valve space. A simpler procedure that promises dramatically shorter hospitalizations is bound to have a positive effect on the cost of care.

Monday 15 July 2013

AMAZING! IS IT........

Future Yacht



Orion Shuttleworth via designboom
John Shuttleworth Yacht Designs created this extra-luxurious luxury yacht. It lights up! And it goes at a max speed of 23.2 knots, or 26 mph and change. And you can pilot it remotely with an iPad for some reason? Sure, why not.

Trash Art





Barry Rosenthal spends time collecting junk from beaches and organizing it into something beautiful, like this monochromatic look at bottles and other green objects. Check out more of Rosenthal's work over at Slate. And also: Hurry! Go empty out the nearest garbage bag in case you're missing something beautiful.

Sound Art




Sound artist Zimoun made this lovely noise installation out of a chemical tank: 329 motors with cotton balls attached bounce against the side, making a sound like a lot--a lot--of rain on a tin roof. Watch a video and listen to the project here.

Faces In The Clouds




Studio Shinseungback Kimyonghun created Cloud Faces, software that does exactly what you'd expect it to do: recognize faces in clouds like a kid lying down on a park bench. It seems to be pretty good at it, too, judging by this collection it spotted.

Pothole Spotter





So you're pedaling your bike along, perhaps for a casual night-time ride, when, whoops, there's a pothole that takes you out. If only there were some way to stop this! Well, here's one idea: a team from Sichuan University in China created this design concept for LEDs that form a grid on the ground, mapping inconsistencies in the road. It's still just a concept, though, so not available for purchase yet. How many more wipe outs have to happen before this is a reality?


Tiny Paper World


 Photographer/photo manipulator Zev creates beautiful miniature worlds. Oh, and he's also 14 years old. He's been doing this since he was 8, and in the past couple years started sharing his work, under the screen name Fiddle Oak, on his excellent Flickr page.

A Human Cocoon





British designer Freyja Sewell created Hush, a human cocoon made from biodegradable materials that people can use to work or rest in private. By the time they come out, the people have transmogrified into beautiful butterflies are totally refreshed.

Black Hole Jets

 


Astronomers created this composite image of a black hole in the center of a distant galaxy. Space debris gets pulled into the black hole and, occasionally, spewed back outward in jets, visible here. Through an X-ray spectrum view, you can also see the million-degree-plus gas glowing at the center.

Soyuz Liftoff

Earlier this week, a Soyuz rocket took off, launching a multi-national team of three astronauts toward the International Space Station. Here they are, space-bound.

An Audi Roadster Motorcycle Concept, Inspired By The Ducati 848

This futuristic, lightweight concept envisions the first motorcycle from Audi.

Audi Motorrad Concept, 1
Audi Motorrad Concept, 1 Thibault Devauze and Marc Devauze

Click here to enter the gallery
The Future Of Motorcycles:  Popular Science
Carmaker Audi prompted some head-scratching last year when it purchased Italian motorcycle company Ducati for $1.12 billion. Now, French designers and brothers Thibault Devauze and Marc Devauze have imagined what a four-ringed motorcycle might be like with their new concept Audi Motorrad, based on the Ducati 848.
A Ducati-derived 850cc, L-twin cylinder engine paired with a dual-clutch transmission powers the sleek roadster concept, while a combination of carbon fiber and light alloys make the bike super lightweight. Check out the gallery for more views of this fun, beautiful motorcycle.

A Motorcycle Helmet With A Head-Up Display


This Indiegogo campaign wants to sell a voice-controlled, augmented reality motorbike helmet for $2,000.

Motorbike helmet with built-in navigation system and voice controlled interface
Motorbike helmet with built-in navigation system and voice-controlled interface LiveMap
The Future Of Motorcycles:  Popular Science
Russian inventors have created a motorcycle helmet with built-in navigation. The LiveMap helmet displays full-color, translucent images and text right on the visor, so riders can check their speed, view the time, and get directions, all without taking their eyes off the road.
Through Indiegogo, the device's creators are hoping to raise $150,000 by July 12. The LiveMap, which is only slightly larger than a regular helmet, includes voice control, a digital compass, and a light sensor that adjusts display brightness depending on whether it's dark or light out.
Inside the LiveMap helmet
Inside the LiveMap helmet:  LiveMap
The LiveMap helmet also comes with some smart safety features. The minimalistic interface means users will not be able to play games or watch videos on the device (phew), and the visor will only display an overview map if the bike's speed is close to zero.
The inventors plan to sell the helmet for $2,000, though donors to the Indiegogo campaign can pre-order for $1,500.
Here's a somewhat-hilarious video of the helmet in action:


Car Crash in Copenhagen
Car Crash in Copenhagen Wikimedia Commons
The notion that hackers could assassinate people in an instant is a favorite among conspiracy theories. The latest example: After the young journalist Michael Hastings died in a car crash last month, conspiracy theorists speculated that his car was deliberately hacked--that the crash was, not an accident, but an act of murder. It's an insanely unlikely scenario, one that isn't really worth entertaining except as a thought experiment. There is one tricky kernel of truth in it, though: car hacking is, in some forms, technically possible.
Most likely result of hacking attacks? A long weird call with AAA.Limitations first: hackers cannot magically gain control of a car. While cars are increasingly computerized, not every system involved in driving is hooked up to external controls. Let me repeat that for clarity: in almost every car currently on the road, it's impossible to hack the steering. A hacker trying to kill someone via car can't just take over and pilot the vehicle into a tree or off a cliff.
What could they do instead?
A list of potential attacks attempted by researchers at the University of Washington and University of San Diego can be found in a report here. Notable attack options fall into two categories:

Attacks that irritate or confuse the driver.

Researchers demonstrated that hackers could permanently activate the car horn, shoot windshield wiper fluid continuously, disable headlights, falsify the speedometer reading, increase radio volume, and turn off auxiliary lights. In testing, none of these attacks could be stopped by a manual override--which might be enough to cause a car accident on a dimly lit road at night. Alternatively, a well-timed burst of full-volume sound with cut lights and a wiper-fluid-obscured windshield could provoke a sudden accident, but that's a lot of effort and leaves a lot to chance. Mucking about with the speedometer can cause problems, though a driver who can roughly keep up with traffic will be able to get by without it. Most likely result of these attacks? A driver would be annoyed, pull over, get out of the car, and have a long weird call with AAA.

Attacks that change the speed of the car.

Far deadlier are hackers manipulating brakes. In testing, the researchers demonstrated an ability to engage the left and right brakes of a car independently, as well as unevenly engaging right side brakes, and perhaps scariest of all, release all brakes and prevent braking. That, more than anything else, provides the real risk in a car hacking attack. A car that can't brake is a hazard, straight-up, to the driver and everyone around them, but it's not necessarily fatal unless it's so well timed as to be a scripted moment in a Hollywood film.
While car hacking is potentially deadly, it's a really, really uncertain way to attack someone. The effort involved in finding, hacking, and monitoring the car, and then picking the exact right moment to disable the breaks, make such an idea more like "Enemy of the State" than a real threat. It's complicated and probably requires a surveillance team. Bullets are a usually but not always more reliable means, and they require much less planning and coordination.
Failing that, there's always the option of poisoning by polonium-210, most famously used against an ex-KGB agent in London in 2006. If a car must be used, car-bomb assassinations have precedent both in the United States and abroad.
[Motherboard]

The first production plug-in hybrid sedan from Porsche

2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid
2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid Green Car Reports

Click here to enter the gallery Porsche isn't the first name in hybrids, or even in green cars. But the company is leveraging its depth of engineering knowledge to move forward in the field rather quicker than a small company should.
Examples of this include the 918 Spyder supercar and the new 2014 Panamera S E-Hybrid. The 918's 887-horsepower rating and 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds capabilities are impressive, especially in light of its target gas mileage of 85.6 mpg in the European cycle. But the Panamera S E-Hybrid is the car those closer to ordinary mortal status will be able to attain.
And it's no slouch, either. Porsche estimates fuel consumption at 75.8 mpg in the European cycle (3.1 liters per 100 kilometers), thanks to a set of updates to the engine and hybrid system. What that will translate to in U.S. EPA testing remains to be seen, but it's not likely to be 75 mpg.
Now sporting a 3.0-liter supercharged V-6 engine paired with an electric motor and a 9.4-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, the Panamera S E-Hybrid generates a combined output of 416 horsepower, managing a 5.2-second sprint to 60 mph despite the extra 550 pounds of battery pack compared to a non-hybrid Panamera S. A PDK dual-clutch transmission is skipped in favor of a Tiptronic S eight-speed automatic, chosen because it works more fluidly with the electric side of the powertrain.
That electric side is surprisingly potent, offering up to a claimed 22 miles of all-electric driving at speeds up to 83 mph. In our brief drive of the car last week in Germany, we easily achieved a total electric-only range of 25 miles, and under the right conditions, even farther would be possible.
When driving in electric mode, the Panamera S E-Hybrid behaves like just about any other all-electric car. There's not as much ultimate power on tap as in the Tesla Model S, but the high-torque (229-pound-feet) 95-horsepower electric motor is plenty for accelerating from stop lights and maintaining speed on the highway. For the statisticians, the S E-Hybrid's motor operates at 360 volts, up from the previous hybrid's 288 volts.
2014 Porsche Panamera
In hybrid mode, the Panamera S E-Hybrid drives like a normal car, with the hybrid function essentially transparent. If the battery charge is fully depleted, the Panamera will run on engine alone--and can even tap into the engine's output to charge the battery on the fly in E-Charge mode. Porsche estimates it to require about 30 miles of on-road driving to fully recharge the battery pack in E-Charge mode.
The new luxury hybrid sedan can also be charged from AC power. An included Porsche Universal Charger will replenish the battery in about 2.5 hours when connected to a 240-volt source. Because of the standard plug-in power connector, it can also be recharged at public charging stations. The Porsche charger can also be used with 120-volt sources. A Porsche Design charging dock is also included to mount the universal charger to the owner's home.
Another fuel-saving feature is the new "coasting" mode, which turns off the engine and lets the car coast along at highway speeds, re-engaging if necessary. At the same time, the coasting mode helps recharge the batteries.
On the whole, the Panamera S E-Hybrid drives like you'd expect any other Panamera to, which is to say, quite well. It's heavier and a touch less concerned with ultimate sportiness, but it's still a Porsche, and that engineering and tuning knowledge shows through; if you're after a plug-in hybrid with real all-electric capabilities that doesn't compromise on luxury or features, while also being rather quick, yet seating four in comfort, the Panamera S E-Hybrid should be at the top of your list.
For the tech-connected, there's even a new Porsche Car Connect app, which offers standard connectivity and functionality with the S E-Hybrid (it's optional on other Panameras). With the app, drivers can remotely monitor charge status or remaining driving range, set a charge timer to charge from the wall at cheaper electricity rates, and remotely activate the climate control to pre-heat or pre-cool the cabin. It can even remember where you parked.
In the dash, a Power Meter replaces the traditional tachometer and can display a variety of information about the hybrid system's function, including driving range in both efficiency and sport modes; on-the-fly power distribution and recuperation; and activation points of the internal combustion engine when the driver requests more power. Additional information can be found in the center-mounted screen via the Porsche Communication Management system.
With its wealth of high-tech features and luxury appointments, the 2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid is an impressive entry in a difficult field. Attempting to span the sport, luxury, and hybrid segments, and doing all three aspects with results in the good-to-excellent range is a feat of engineering that's easy to appreciate, if not to replicate.
The S E-Hybrid arrives in the U.S. later this year at a starting price of $99,000.
This article, written by Nelson Ireson, was originally published on Green Car Reports, a publishing partner of Popular Science. Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter.
More from Green Car Reports:
BMW Builds Its Last M3 Coupe... Ever
Do Tesla Model S And Porsche Panamera Plug-In Hybrid Compete?
15 Car Styling Cues For The Ages


These futuristic cars could make you rethink your haterade.

Toyota Fun VII
Toyota Fun VII Toyota's Fun VII concept car has been nicknamed a "smartphone on wheels," because of its digital skin and interactive features. gallery.drivespark.com
Do Americans just not want to drive cars any more? Recent studies suggest that the United States has passed its driving zenith, with the number of miles driven per person peaking in 2005. As of April 2013 the number of miles driven per person had dropped 9 percent below the peak, equivalent to measurements recorded in January 1995. Americans of all ages have cited various factors, from recession woes to environmental concerns, and car manufacturers are taking note, with big names such as Mercedes-Benz and Audi incorporating futuristic new ideas into their designs. Here, we present six cars for people who think they don't want to drive any more.

See the gallery.