Good vibrations aid mind-controlled steering
IDENTIFYING
telltale brain patterns promises to usher in a new era in which all manner
of objects can be controlled by thought. But telling brain patterns apart
is devilishly difficult. Now cybernetics researchers think a mild buzz from
the gadgets that make phones vibrate will focus the mind.
Controlling electric wheelchairs using the power of the mind is emerging as a realistic option for some people with neurodegenerative conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease. Several groups have already developed such thought-controlled wheelchairs, including Francisco Sepulveda's team at the University of Essex in Colchester, UK. His system involves wearing an electrode-filled skullcap connected to a PC running brain-computer interface (BCI) software. This can sense four types of thoughts, represented by electroencephalogram (EEG) potentials. The user thinks about their feet to move forwards, their tongue to stop, and their right or left hands to proceed in those directions.
But being able to move in only three directions is clearly very limiting. Sepulveda's team tried to improve on its design by building powerful artificial intelligence software to identify brain patterns associated with thinking about more complex directions, but success eluded them. "It would only get it right about 60 per cent of the time, which is not enough for the real world," says Sepulveda.
Now Anne-Marie Brouwer and colleagues at the TNO research organisation in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, believe they may have a more liberating approach. They have developed a system called tactile BCI, which uses a physical sensation to provoke an EEG potential called a P300. This is a specific brain response indicating a person's strong interest in a particular stimulus. It gets its name because the signal arises 300 milliseconds after the stimulus.
The researchers placed 12 phone vibrators, positioned like the numbers on a clock, on a belt worn around the wheelchair user's waist. These vibrate sequentially for 3 seconds each. If they wearer wants to go, say, in a 4 o'clock direction, they wait until the appropriate "tactor" vibrates and then think "that one". "That generates a P300 and selects the movement direction you want," says Brouwer.
Latest Technology in Hearing Aids
Siemens,
one of the leaders in hearing technology, introduced one of their most advanced
hearing devices.
Meet Artis 2 – “helping people with hearing loss fully appreciate all that life has to offer”. Artis 2 is a smart little device that learns the wearer’s volume preference, so that it adjusts automatically while it is being worn. Artis 2 actually records and stores hearing aid use data so your hearing health professional can access the data for quick adjustments as needed. This tiny little device is so smart, it utilizes wireless technology. Yes, both ear pieces can communicate with each other wirelessly.
The Artis 2 can also differentiate between sound and just plain noise by upping the volume on speech while reducing background din. The screeching feedback problems have also been reduced digitally with feedback cancellation.
Nano-Robot Technology: Medical Perspective
A
nanorobot is a tiny machine designed to perform a specific task or tasks
repeatedly and with precision at nanoscale dimensions, that is, dimensions
of a few nanometers (nm) or less, where 1 nm = 10^-9 meter. Nanorobots have
potential applications in the assembly and maintenance of sophisticated
systems. Nanorobots might function at the atomic or molecular level to build
devices, machines, or circuits, a process known as molecular manufacturing.
Nanorobots might also produce copies of themselves to replace worn-out units,
a process called self-replication.
Non-surgical heart valve replacement
Patients
with congenital heart disease will have a chance at a treatment without
a major open heart surgery. Cardiologists at the Rush University Medical
Center has developed a minimally-invasive transcatheter valve replacement.
Patients involved in a clinical trial had this implant, and are presently
recovering. This gives hope to patients that would otherwise undergo multiple
open heart surgeries. The valve replacement procedure uses a bovine pericardial
heart valve that is compressed into a balloon as small as a pencil, threaded
from a major vein in the leg into the circulatory system, and is deployed
across the pulmonary valve.
The US Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved the trial in 2007.