November 22nd, 2009

The surgeons of tomorrow: Miniaturized robots that go inside you

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 4:28 pm

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Nanotechnology, Robotics

Tags: Bot, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

Before the advent of laparoscopic or keyhole surgery in the 70’s, operations such as a stomach bypass or gall bladder removal required large incisions and long periods for recovery. The next chapter further minimizes the invasiveness of surgical procedures via robots that are millimeters in size that infiltrate our bodies through the ears, eyes and lungs, to take tissue samples, deliver drugs, or install medical devices.

Brad Nelson, a roboticist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EHT) in Zurich, recently told New Scientist; “It’s not impossible to think of this happening in five years. I’m convinced it’s going to get there.”

Hurdles to overcome include the development of new mechanisms for propulsion and power supply on a miniature scale, which are also prerequisites to the loftier idea of nanoscale medical robots swimming in our bloodstream.

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November 19th, 2009

7 things you should know about Body Area Networks (BANs)

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 12:08 am

Categories: Computers & Internet, Defense & Security, Health & Medicine, Wireless & Telecom

Tags: Communication, Sensor, IEEE, Wireless, Body Area Networks Technology, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Chris Jablonski

The budding field of Body Area Networks gives new meaning to the term “personal” in PCs. In a nutshell, the technology leverages wireless communications protocols that allow for low-powered sensors to communicate with one another and transmit data to a local base station and to remote places like hospitals.

For instance, small flat sensors placed on the skin, or even under it, could be used to create a “medical” body area network that provides doctors with real-time data about their patients’ bio-signs. Another key application is short-range person-to-person communications that could help protect front line soldiers in combat.

BAN technology is still in its infancy and mainstream adoption is still over the horizon as engineers and researchers work to overcome challenges involving interoperability, sensor design constraints (i.e. power and complexity), privacy, and security to name a few. Once these issues are overcome, expect BANs to first revolutionize healthcare allowing for concepts like telemedicine and mHealth to become real, and potentially allow for groundbreaking uses in communications, security, and sports.

Below, in no particular order, is a list of facts, news, and generally good things to know about BANs: Read the rest of this entry »

November 12th, 2009

Top three Star Trek-style holodeck experiences

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 12:24 am

Categories: Computers & Internet, Energy & Environment, Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Nanotechnology, Science & Nature, Space & Aerospace

Tags: User Interaction, 3D, Pixel, StarCAVE, Audio System, Tech Spec, Projectors, Virtual Reality, Hardware, Components

Surround 3D TV is making its way to your living room. To get a sense of what it may look and sound like, look no further than the cutting edge of virtual reality taking shape at academic research centers outfitted with world class data visualization facilities. In this post, we’ll take a look at three (ok, four) of the most remarkable scientific visualization technologies.

Allosphere: University of California, Santa Barbara

The AlloSphere is a spherical space in which immersive, virtual environments allow researchers to convert large data sets into experiences of sight and sound. For example, it allows researchers to “fly” through a hydrogen atom while hearing sonified features of the wavefunction of its single electron to help describe invisible processes of nature.

The facility consists of a 30-foot diameter sphere built inside a 3-story cube that’s nearly echo-free. Inside the chamber are two spherical hemispheres that are constructed of perforated aluminum designed to be optically opaque and acoustically transparent. A 7-foot-wide bridge runs across the center, supporting the users. High-resolution video projectors can project images across the entire inner surface enabling seamless stereo-optic 3D projection.

The Allosphere has more than 500 audio components that hang suspended in rings just outside the aluminum shell and are connected to multiple Gigabit Ethernet LAN fibers that lead to a server farm consisting of seven Hewlett Packard 9400 workstations (as of April 2009).

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October 25th, 2009

Carbon nanotubes: Great for agriculture, but for humans?

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 11:10 pm

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Nanotechnology, Science & Nature

Tags: Agriculture, Nanotube, Carbon Nanotube, Health Care, Seed, Nanotechnology, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

In what can eventually kick up a firestorm similar to the genetically modified food controversy, the emerging field of “nano-agriculture” is making headlines.  It involves the use of nano-particles — wisps 1/50,000th the width of a human hair — in agriculture and could have beneficial affects for crops, say scientists.

Tomato seeds exposed to carbon nanotubes (right) sprouted and grew faster than unexposed seeds. (Credit: The American Chemical Society)

University of Arkansas researchers report that tomato seeds exposed to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) germinated faster and grew into larger, heavier seedlings than other seeds. That growth-enhancing effect could be a boon for biomass production for plant-based biofuels and other agricultural products, they suggest.

Considerable scientific research is underway to use nanoparticles — wisps 1/50,000th the width of a human hair — in agriculture. The goals of “nano-agriculture” include improving the productivity of plants for food, fuel, and other uses.

The scientists report the first evidence that CNTs penetrate the thick outer coating of seeds, and support water uptake inside seeds, a process which can affect seed germination and growth of tomato seedlings.The nanotube-exposed seeds sprouted up to two times faster than control seeds and the seedlings weighed more than twice as much as the untreated plants.

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October 19th, 2009

'Scaffolding' to regenerate lost or damaged bones and tissues, even stop age clock

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 11:47 pm

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine

Tags: Body, Bone, Fiber, Network Technology, Networking, Chris Jablonski

Implantable organ and tissue “scaffolds” are currently in the spotlight for regenerative medicine, and may allow for the replacement of most body parts that flounder with age within 30-50 years, according to a report from BBC.

That means future centenarians born today could have a “physical” age of 50 at a calendar age of 100.

A “scaffolding” technique developed at Leeds University allows for transplantable tissues, and eventually organs, that the body can make its own. Once the scaffold has been transplanted, the body takes over and repopulates it with cells without any fear of rejection - the main reason why normal transplants wear out and fail .

Using this technique, a research team at Leeds has managed to make fully functioning heart valves, which involves taking a healthy donor heart valve - from a human or a suitable animal, such as a pig - and gently stripping away its cells using a cocktail of enzymes and detergents. The inert scaffold left can be transplanted into the patient, writes the BBC.  According to Eileen Ingha, a professor at the university’s Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, trials in animals and on 40 patients in Brazil have shown promising results.

Across the continent, another approach to scaffolding is underway at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. There, professor Meital Zilberman has developed an artificial biologically active scaffold made from soluble fibers, which may help humans replace lost or missing bone.

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October 6th, 2009

A brain-computer interface that communicates thoughts between people

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 11:30 pm

Categories: Computers & Internet, Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Science & Nature

Tags: Light-emitting Diode, Person, Engineering, Internet, B2B, Telecom & Utilities, E-business/E-Commerce, Chris Jablonski

New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible for communication from person to person through the power of thought alone.

Looking to take brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to the next level, Dr. Christopher James from the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, set out to show that brain-to-brain (B2B) communication is possible. Utilizing electrodes, computers, and the internet, he claims that his experiment is a “proof of concept” that shows, for the first time, true brain to brain interfacing.

Dr James noted: “Whilst BCI is no longer a new thing and person to person communication via the nervous system was shown previously in work by Professor Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading, here we show, for the first time, true brain to brain interfacing. We have yet to grasp the full implications of this but there are various scenarios where B2B could be of benefit such as helping people with severe debilitating muscle wasting diseases, or with the so-called ‘locked-in’ syndrome, to communicate and it also has applications for gaming.”

Below is a three and a half-minute video detailing the BCI experiment:

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September 29th, 2009

Researchers give brain implants a nanotube coat to boost performance

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 10:50 pm

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Nanotechnology

Tags: Electrode, Nanotube, Researcher, Brain, Performance, Biomedical, Nanotechnology, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

Microelectrodes implanted in the brain are increasingly being used to treat neurological disorders, but robust and reliable chronic application of neural electrodes remains a challenge.

Scientists at University of Michigan have created brain implants tested in rats that can more clearly record signals from surrounding neurons. The findings could eventually lead to more effective treatment of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and paralysis.

The newly developed brain implants use nanotubes coated with PEDOT, which is a bio-compatible and electrically conductive polymer that has been shown to record neural signals better than conventional metal electrodes.  The coating allows the electrodes to operate with less electrical resistance than current metal electrode sites, which means they can communicate more clearly with individual neurons.

This illustration depicts neurons firing (green structures in the foreground) and communicating with nanotubes in the background. (Credit Mohammad Reza Abidian)

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September 23rd, 2009

Latest MIT retinal implant to see human trials by 2013

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 11:48 pm

Categories: Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Science & Nature

Tags: Electrode, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cell, Prosthei, Telecom & Utilities, Semiconductors, Hardware, Chris Jablonski

Led by an MIT professor, a team with 20 years of retinal implant research announced a prosthesis that could one day help restore a useful level of vision to certain groups of blind people.

The eye implant is designed for people that have lost their vision from one of two leading causes of blindness; retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. The prostheis takes over the function of lost retinal cells by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.

Credit: Shawn Kelly

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September 18th, 2009

New protocol enables interoperability among telesurgical systems

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 12:07 am

Categories: Computers & Internet, Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Robotics

Tags: Interoperability, SRI International, Teleoperation, Robots, Emerging Technologies, Chris Jablonski

The growth in teleoperation systems has achieved a critical mass that has led researchers to explore ways to collaborate, share facilities and access each others’ telerobotic devices.

Nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Credit: SRI International

The international consortium used a new software protocol called the Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol (ITP). According to a paper- Breaking the Interoperability Barrier Through Emerging Standards- detailing the research, until now,
 systems
 that allow for the operation of robots over a distance have
 used
 their
 own
 ad‐hoc
 methods
 for
 network teleoperation.
 The new protocol is fully open and meant for sharing. It was cooperatively developed by the University of Washington and SRI International, a non-profit that operated its M7 surgical robot for this demonstration.

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September 12th, 2009

Neuroengineering to challenge what it means to be human

Posted by Chris Jablonski @ 9:55 pm

Categories: Computers & Internet, Engineering & Innovation, Health & Medicine, Science & Nature, Social Sciences

Tags: Virtual Reality, Processors, Emerging Technologies, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Chris Jablonski

In a recent interview published on H+ Magazine,  a new publication (online and print) that covers technologies that both “promise and threaten to radically alter our lives and our view of the world and ourselves,” AI expert Dr. Bruce Katz lays out a lofty vision for the emerging field of neuroengineering (a.k.a. neural engineering).

One of many cool images on H+ (Credit: H+ Magazine)

Katz, a lecturer, adjunct professor, and author of Neuroengineering the Future, and Digital Design, believes that, “We are on the cusp of a broad neuro-revolution, one that will radically reshape our views of perception, cognition, emotion and even personal identity.” He says that advancement in the study of neural systems and intersecting technologies is rapidly moving from perceptual aids such as cochlear implants to devices that will enhance and speed up thought. It may ultimately “free the mind from its bound state in the body to a platform independent existence,” he claims.

Technology that one day will allow for uploading of the human mind is highly controversial, helping to fuel the great singularity debate among pundits and skeptics.

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