That being said, the update for the MOTOACTV is available using a Mac or Windows based computer and can be found by simply connecting your watch to your computer using a USB cable. From that point, you will be prompted to download and install the update. And if for some reason you do not get that prompt, you can navigate to Device -> Check for Device Upgrade while in MOTOCAST USB. Otherwise, the updates will arrive as the following version numbers;

8GB

• Blur_Version.4.55.97.Motorola-F100.Retail.en.US
• Blur_Version.4.57.97.Motorola-F100.Retail.en.EU

16GB

• Blur_Version.4.56.97.Motorola-F100.Retail.en.US
• Blur_Version.4.58.97.Motorola-F100.Retail.en.EU

With that all out of the way, lets get into what users can expect to see once their device has been updated. And lets kick that list off with the details for the new and improved battery life.

Longer Battery Life: MOTOACTV’s indoor/outdoor battery life is now better than ever before with up to 9 hours of uninterrupted workout time outdoors.

From here we move onto the battery status bar, workout screen lock, enhanced auto-pause and auto-run and the ability to repeat a planned workout along with a few other goodies.

• Battery Status Bar: Now you can now see how long your battery will last via the handy Status Bar. Just monitor your percentage and make the most of your workout time!
• Workout Screen Lock: Ever activate your Workout Screen through accidental contact? Problem solved. Now you can lock it to prevent unwanted display activation. Just Double Press the Power key to lock and unlock your workout screen.
• Enhanced Auto-Pause and Auto-Run: Now you can take a break from the action and pause your workout manually, even if Auto-Pause is enabled. You can also choose between indoor/outdoor Auto-Run options.
• Repeat a Planned Workout: You’re now free to repeat a planned workout even if it had been previously started.

And for those other goodies, they arrive as follows;

• WAHOO BLE HRM Strap support has been added.
• Enhanced syncing planned interval workouts to MOTOACTV.com.
• Workout metrics have been reordered for easier searching.
• Improved WiFi syncing when multiple networks are configured.
• Optimized list of workout metrics so you can search for your favorites easier.
• Pressing the BACK key on any Home screen brings up the watch face.

You’re reading this right, folks: basically, doctors in Belgium printed off a new jaw for a patient. An 83 year old woman, found suffering from progressive osteomyelitis (which pretty much was set to destroy her entire mandible structure, or jaw for those of you who don’t remember your high school biology classes very well), had the entire jaw removed and replaced with a prosthetic. But it’s how the prosthetic was made that’s the really interesting part.

Using a combination of technologies from Xilloc and LayerWise, a medical implant maker and a metal additive maker respectively, doctors then used computer-aided design technology common in a variety of businesses today to create a new lower jaw using a 3D printer. And while most consumer-model 3D printers use plastic or resin, which would have been largely ineffective at replicating bone, these doctors used powdered titanium, which did the job just fine.

The end result was a jaw every bit as tough as a normal bone model, but weighing just a little more (it weighs in, reportedly, at 107 grams). In fact, the procedure went so well that the patient had full mandibular control again, including speaking and swallowing, in less than a day after the operation was completed.

The implications here are astonishing; custom-printed prosthetic devices, done in a doctor’s office, in such rapidity and so fluidly that it can almost be done on an outpatient basis? It’s the start of something amazing, I’d say, and it may well go a good way toward fixing some of the problems we find ourselves having as far as health care goes. But the process is still in the early stages; when we can print, say, an artificial heart or liver, then we’ll be in business. But a jaw is a great start, and hopefully one which will be built on.

So what do you guys think here? Figure the new jaws are a great start, or just a gimmick? No matter what you think, hit the comments section below and tell us what’s on your mind!

Basically, hospitals are setting up iPad kiosks with secure frames to hold the iPads in, and specialized software allowing patients to file their own information as part of the check-in process, or as a way to check on people already in the hospital’s systems. In turn, hospitals have discovered that, by not having a real person hand out that kind of information, they can reduce their labor costs, and in turn, hopefully cut down some of the massive price tags that we all have to pay whenever we go through the hospital system.

The use is steadily growing, and is worldwide thus far with hospitals from Changi General in Singapore to Massachusetts General Hospital using them at least for patient status and check-in procedures. New York Methodist, meanwhile, reportedly has a much broader use, using the iPad in relation to their diagnostic machines. And there’s word that the FDA has recently approved a new kind of mobile diagnostic program which will likely see some use as well.

It’s not surprising to see the iPad–indeed, the tablet in general–become more accepted for professional use. We’ve seen pilots trying to get these as replacements for their mammoth flight bags , and it’s probably a fair bet that plenty more industries are also considering ways to cut down on their paper and traffic, especially in a value-conscious economy like the one we’re in right now.

So what do you guys think here? Like the thought of your next hospital stay being at least partially controlled by an iPad and a series of professionally-tailored apps? Or do you think that this is an open invitation to disaster? No matter what you think, the comments section is the perfect place to tell us all about it!

And yes, this was the app that launched first for Symbian. But other platforms aside, this latest bit of news is for those sporting a Windows Phone device. And nicely done, the launch of Sports Tracker for Windows Phone comes with the potential of winning a Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone. But first the details of the app, Sports Tracker does just what the name implies — it tracks your workouts.

“Turn your mobile into a social sports computer with Sports Tracker and take your training to the next level! Track and analyze your performance, share workout data with your friends, and most of all – get fit and stay healthier.”

More specifically, the app uses the GPS of the phone to track goodies such as your distance, duration, speed, average speed and pace, max speed and energy spent (kCal). Some of the other features break down as follows;

• Training Diary for workout data analysis
• Diary sync to sports-tracker.com service for further analysis
• Sharing of workouts to Facebook, Twitter and the Sports Tracker community

In terms of the app itself, Sports Tracker arrives in the Windows Phone Marketplace as version 1.0.0, measures in at a 1MB download and requires Windows Phone 7.5 or higher for use.

With that, while we suggest giving this a shot if you are looking for a fitness app (other than Runkeeper) on Windows Phone — the comments seem to be a mixed set of results at this point. Some of the commenters have stated that this is the “best fitness app ever” and that it has a “really nice UI” and “great layout.” And then on the other hand, some are saying that it has “inaccurate GPS” and that the app is only posting to Facebook and Twitter using km instead of miles.

Yup, the good news has arrived, the folks at Jawbone have offered up a press release detailing what the bracelet can do, when it will be available, how much it will cost and where you will be able to make a purchase. In short, the Jawbone UP will be available November 6th and it will come priced at $99.99.

And as the AT&T listing implied, they will be one of the places where you can make a purchase. The Jawbone UP will also be available with Apple, Best Buy, Target and direct with Jawbone.com. In addition, the bracelet will also be in 24 Hour Fitness locations “later this year.”

Before we get into the features of the bracelet, lets mention to colors and sizing. The Jawbone UP will be available in seven different colors including Dark Black, Dark Brown, Dark Red, Bright White, Bright Silver, Bright Red, Bright Blue and it will be available in a size small, medium and large.

With that all out of the way, lets get into what the UP fitness bracelet can do. To begin with, it marries up with an iOS app, which is currently available in the iOS App Store as a free download. But perhaps more important, the UP bracelet will track your daily activity, sleep patterns and eating habits and is aimed to help you “live a healthier life.” Some of the other features break down as follows;

• TRACK YOUR ACTIVITY: Steps, distance, calories burned, pace, intensity level and GPS routes.
• TRACK YOUR SLEEP: Hours slept, deep vs. light sleep, awake time and overall sleep quality.
• LOG YOUR MEALS: Snap quick photos to create a journal of what you eat; then respond to prompts about how each meal makes you feel.
• JOIN CHALLENGES: Join fun health challenges to keep you moving more, sleeping better and eating smarter. Challenge your friends, collaborate on goals, even create your own challenges.
• SMART WAKE UP ALARM: Program your UP wristband to vibrate on your wrist and intelligently wake you up at the ideal moment in your natural sleep cycle just before your desired wake up time; helps you feel as refreshed as possible.
• ACTIVITY REMINDERS: Program your UP wristband to vibrate on your wrist and remind you to move when you’ve been inactive.

That being said, Garmin has not offered up a specific release date just yet, however they have said that the FR70 would be available beginning next month (November 2011). In terms of the price, $129.99.

“A lightweight, comfortable and stylish watch that helps users accomplish their goals is what the FR70 is all about,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Wear it as an every day time piece and keep it on during walks, runs or fitness routines to monitor these activities and progress.”

And just to kick things off, the Garmin FR70 is black in color, however there will be one model with blue trim and another with pink trim. As for features, the FR70 does what many would expect and/or require from a fitness watch — it will track your time, heart rate, calories burned and more. In addition, when the FR70 is combined with the some of the optional accessories, it can then be used both outdoors on the road as well as indoors on the treadmill.

Some of the accessories that will work include the ANT+ or wireless foot pod. In addition, it will also partner up with the Tanita BC-1000 scale which will track and record your weight, body fat, body water and six other measurements.

And lastly, as we mentioned with the Garmin Fit smartphone app, the FR70 fitness watch is also compatible with the Garmin Connect set-up which means all your workout and health data will be easily accessible and able to be analyzed.

The app comes priced at $0.99 and can be found in either the Android Market and/or the iOS App Store. And in addition to the app, those using Garmin Fit with an iOS device can also add in the optional Garmin ANT+ adapter. The ANT+ adapter is priced at $49.99.

“Garmin Fit is the ideal solution for users who are new to the fitness tracking landscape and for those looking to stay totally connected,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “To be able to utilize Garmin’s powerful fitness accessories with the same device that plays music, makes calls and uploads workouts automatically to share and analyze, makes Garmin Fit a must have app.”

And with that, lets get into the features of the Garmin Fit app. To begin with, this will bring integration with Garmin Connect, which should make those already using another Garmin product smile as their workout data can remain available in one location. Other features of the Garmin Fit mobile apps include being able to monitor your speed, pace, distance, time and calories. In addition, the app will allow users to control their music from within the app as well as still view and answer any and all incoming calls and/or text messages.

Moving over to the ANT+ adapter, again, this one is only available for those using the Fit app with iOS. As for what Garmin ANT+ will offer, this one brings your heart rate and cadence data in with the regular goodies that are monitored by the Fit app itself. And again, the data coming from the ANT+ adapter will be integrated into your Garmin Connect account.

And lastly, just in case you wanted even more optional accessories to go with your Fit app, Garmin also offers a footpod sensor which will allow you to track your speed, pace, distance and run cadence when working on an indoor trainer (treadmill).

Well, sadly most of the details are still missing, however judging from this recently launched coming soon style teaser page on the AT&T website — we suspect that the Jawbone UP will be available sooner rather than later. Of course, given it is already into October, we are running out of time for a later this year release.

For those who may have completely missed the original UP announcement, here is how the bracelet is being described from the folks at Jawbone;

“UP by Jawbone is a new system that tracks your movement, sleep patterns, and nutrition so you can live a healthier life. This new end-to-end system consists of a small wristband that monitors your activity 24/7, a mobile app that analyzes the activity, and an open platform that motivates you with personal and social recommendations and challenges tailored to your goals.”

Anyway, the page over on AT&T offers a few additional details as to what the device can do. Some of the details noted by AT&T include showing support for the iPhone and that the Jawbone UP will allow you to do things like track your movements including steps, distance, pace, intensity calories burned and active vs. inactive time. In addition, the app will also allow you to enter and track your meals as well as your sleep habits.

And for those in need of some additional motivation, the app has what they call “get up and move” reminders as well as the ability to challenge your friends and family members.

Well, this is one of those times when speculation and rumors seem to have been entirely misleading. Some had been suggesting that the Motorola KORE tablet would kill off the Xoom as it arrived with its quad-core processing power. Needless to say, the Motorola KORE is not going to be killing of the Xoom and its not going to have a quad-core processor.

In fact, thanks to a recently discovered trademark filing, we now know that the Motorola KORE is going to be a fitness gadget. Yup, those who like to spend time outdoors doing exercise will likely find this one appealing. And taking that into consideration, the name KORE suddenly sounds a bit more fitting. A core workout. Of, so that may be a bit of a stretch, however here is how the filing breaks down;

ELECTRONIC NON MEDICAL PORTABLE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY MONITOR AND FITNESS DEVICE FOR MEASURING MOVEMENTS, INDIVIDUAL’S ENERGY EXPENDITURE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVEL AND ACCESSORIES THEREFORE, NAMELY, HEADPHONES; SOFTWARE FOR DEVELOPING AND MONITORING PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE PLANS, TRAINING PLANS, TRAINING GOALS AND GIVING FEEDBACK ON THE ACHIEVED RESULTS.

Bottom line here, it looks like the Motorola KORE will be something worn on your wrist that allows you to monitor your workout progress and also control your audio entertainment. From what we can see in the images, the KORE will have controls for your audio and be able to track (at least) the basics such as your workout time, total distance, average pace, calories burned and heart rate. All said and done, and maybe this is just the black and red coloring from the images, but this sort of looks like something that Nike would rollout as part of the Nike+ lineup.

Yup, Scosche has released a pulse monitor. The nice part here, the data is monitored on your iPhone and the monitor also has music controls built-in. But perhaps a but nicer as being able to control your music while exercising — the monitor is worn on the wrist, which anyone who has used a pulse monitor in the past may like — this one is not worn around the chest.

The Scosche myTREK works with the iPhone or iPod touch and is capable of keeping a connection at a distance up to 33 feet. The pulse monitor comes with a USB charging cable and has a battery that should be able to stay alive for up to 5 hours of workout time.

Furthermore, the myTREK pairs with an app, which is available for free by way of the iOS App Store. In addition to monitoring your pulse, the myTREK wristband and app also monitor and keep track of the type of training that you are doing as well as the distance you have ran (biked), the amount of time you have been working out and the amount of calories you have burned.

And for those familiar with heart-rate based training, here are some additional details about how the myTREK works;

Monitor With Comfort
The Scosche myTREK has no bulky chest straps or wires and easily attaches to your forearm for full wireless communication with your device. Integrated dual LED/optical sensors produce real time pulse monitoring.

Set Your Goals
Based on personal health information, each workout zone is represented in a different color. Customize your training sessions by adjusting the type of activity, target training zone and type of workout all within the App.

The myTREK Wireless Pulse Monitor will be available a bit later in the day by way of the Scosche website store. The monitor will be selling for $129.99.

Basically, UC-Berkeley put together a study bringing together 24 adults and subjecting them to 3D content. One was quickly excluded due to testing failures, but from there, 23 others, ranging in age from 19 to 33 years old  watched a series of dot stereograms, with their normal eye correction gear in place (glasses for those who wore them, and so on). The effects were then measured, and the UC-Berkeley team discovered that, basically, a goodish chunk of their sample set felt some kind of discomfort, ranging from eye strain to headaches, while watching. It didn’t seem to matter much, either, whether the content was close up or far away in terms of discomfort. What did make a difference, though, was where the content was placed. With closer 3D, objects in front of the screen are more uncomfortable, but farther away 3D is the opposite, with images behind the screen being most uncomfortable.

Of course, it’s hard to say just how valid a study with a sample size of 24 actually is, but it certainly does start an interesting course of logic. I know from personal experience that a 3D movie at the theater often leaves me with a good dose of eye strain, so it’s good to know that I’m not alone in this. Whether or not we can say it’s harmful is up for some debate, but a couple dozen experiments like that one, and I might well believe UC-Berkeley.

But what about you guys? Do 3D movies, games and television shows leave you all sore in the head? Or do you not notice no matter how much you watch? Either way, head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think about this one!

Whether it’s sorting socks, playing pool, or just fetching you a beer, the PR2 from the folks out at Willow Garage has been providing us with loads of entertaining news for a little over a year now. Well, we haven’t heard much out of the multifunctional dynamo these days, at least until just recently, when one of the little wonders emerged as part of a project called Robots For Humanity.

The robot in question was tasked to a gent named Henry Evans, who’d suffered a brain stem stroke at the age of 40, which in turn left him with control of his head and a finger, which as it turned out, were enough to control the PR2 thanks to a Kinect motion tracker. The PR2 allowed him to, essentially, shave himself via remote, as well as scratching an itch for the first time in fully ten years.

Robots for Humanity, made up in part of Georgia Tech and the Healthcare Robotics Lab, were one of the outfits that got a PR2 way back when they first came out for sale to a very limited number of outlets.

Naturally this will likely bring about plenty of jokes about how giving a robot a razor that close to a human throat will bring about the downfall of humanity, but frankly, I welcome this. Robots helping humans who need help is one of the great dreams of science fiction since the earliest days of same. Sure, we all like the thought of having a robot fetch our meals whilst we watch an expanded array of cable channels and then send our robots off to work in the morning so we can sleep in, but it’s this kind of thing, right here, that really makes the whole concept of robotics so worth exploring.

And what do you guys think? Is this the direction we should be sending our robotics studies in? Or do you have a different, even better, idea? Either way, hit the comments section and tell us what you think!

The new gadget is the UP wristband and it is dubbed as coming to “help people live a healthier life.” According to the details we received;

“UP by Jawbone is a new system that tracks your movement, sleep patterns, and nutrition so you can live a healthier life. This new end-to-end system consists of a small wristband that monitors your activity 24/7, a mobile app that analyzes the activity, and an open platform that motivates you with personal and social recommendations and challenges tailored to your goals.”

With that, while this endurance geek does have his eye on this, there are still several key details missing. Most important, how much this will end up selling for and when exactly it will be available. At present, the UP by Jawbone is noted as coming “later this year.” So far no hints as to the price.

Furthermore, while there was mention of a “mobile app” the details are rather sparse as to which platform that will be for. We suspect, if there is just one that it will be for iOS, however we are hoping to see at least two — one for iOS and the other for Android.

Bottom line, this is another way to help monitor and track your body and what it does during the day (and night) and could be a nice offering, assuming you are into that sort of thing. And for those looking for something similar and not feeling like they want to wait, there are other similar products such as the Fitbit. Me personally, I like Jawbone and think I may wait to see what happens when they officially launch this.

The folks out at the storied Oxford University developed these, and they’re currently on display at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Basically, the glasses use very small cameras built into the bridge pieces of the glasses, which in turn relay information to an LED array in the lenses. This LED array then displays said information, up close and extra personal, for the viewer. Plus, a variety of other sensors get involved–depth sensors, face detection systems, and tracking software, among others–to produce the image in question.

Admittedly, it’s not a one-for-one swap. The word is that the image displayed is a “simplified” version of what’s actually being recorded, which makes some sense being that these are prototype glasses only. But for people with, say, macular degeneration and other eye disorders who can barely see to begin with, even a “simplified” version of the world around them would likely be a blessing.

And what’s so thoroughly amazing about the whole thing is that the technology involved in the building of these glasses is really nothing more than off the counter camcorder technology, applied in a different way. Sure, there are some modifications going on here, but things like face detection systems and tracking software are stuff we find every day when we go look at cameras out at Best Buy.

The Oxford crew believes that the glasses in question will sell for 500 pounds sterling (around $800 US) when they clear the prototype stage, which may not be for some time yet.

So what do you guys think about this? Is this an exciting new way to use current technology in a way no one’s thought of? Or is this just a tempest in a teapot, of limited use to anyone? No matter where you fall in on this concept, we want to hear from you! So head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!

What Media Lab Camera Culture (the group at MIT that’s working on this), lead by Ramesh Raskar and his crew, is up to is called the Catra system, an eyepiece that attaches to a smartphone (or similar device–an iPod Touch was actually noted at one point) that the potential cataract sufferer looks through. What they’re looking at is a series of lines shown on the device’s screen, and while they’re looking at the lines, the eye itself is being scanned. Meanwhile, the users then click a button on the device to identify when an image looks cloudy, and that allows the device to record at what points the images looked cloudy. And this information, in turn, can be processed to discover whether or not the person in question has cataracts.

So far, Raskar et al have tested the Catra out on 22 people, and actually managed to succeed where a doctor could not. The Catra system actually managed to find one case of cataracts that had gone undiagnosed by a doctor’s visit only a few months prior. Early diagnosis has been suggested to lead to better results for surgeries and improved overall recovery.

This isn’t the first time Raskar et al have been busy improving optometry worldwide; Catra comes hot on the heels of Netra, an entire portable eye test system to determine glasses prescriptions that can, once again, be contained entirely in a smartphone.

Making medical diagnoses by smartphone may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but as is so often the case, today’s science fiction is often tomorrow’s science fact. Hopefully Catra and Netra and the rest will be able to make it into wide use and help some people out.

So what do you guys think of the Catra system? Too good to be true or a benefit to all mankind? The comments section awaits, so head on down and give us your opinion on the smartphone eye tests!

In other words, you can now ride the Tour De France from the comfort of your own living room. And while indoor bike trainers are not new, this one from Pro-Form comes with some rather high-tech features. First lets begin with the Google Maps. This comes as part of the iFit Live technology and has 24 pre-mapped courses available. Plus, you can also create and ride just about any other course you can dream up. But given the Tour is currently in progress at this time, we suspect many would want to see how the pros are doing it and ride (or at least try and ride) one of their routes.

Other goodies that come along with this trainer include up to a 20 percent incline and decline — which means that the trainer will follow the pattern of the road. In addition, and following up on the road like experience that will come with the inclines and declines, the trainer also simulates the wind experience “for a more personalized experience.” Bottom line, this trainer comes with an almost road-like riding experience with a few exceptions — there are no potholes to worry about, no rain or bad weather to contend with and while a true-road riding experience cannot fully be matched — this one comes without having to worry about cars.

With that, the official Tour trainer and all of its high-tech features comes with a price — $1,299. Who would have thought, the service that many of us count of for directions would allow us to ride with such a realistic experience right from the comfort of your home. Nonetheless, at just under $1300 we believe this one will be for those with some commitment to riding already in place.

And while we should clarify that they are not suggesting you use your phone for anything other than a bedside alarm, we tend to think that if found close by — it will get used. That said, the first thing in my hand each morning (aside from a cup of coffee) is a smartphone. But before I digress any further, there is the WakeMate, which is a wristband that you wear while you sleep and it is touting the ability to “calculate the ideal wake time closest to your alarm setting” so you wake up feeling more refreshed.

Anyway, according to the details on the WakeMate website, you set your alarm to wake you at a latest possible time. For argument sake, say that wake time is 7AM. And from there, once you fall asleep, the WakeMate monitors your sleep cycle and judges the optimal time to wake you. But worry not because you will not be waking up hours in advance — its the perfect time in a cycle. But more specifically, it will be within a 20 minute period from your must-wake-by time.

In addition, there is also the web-based Wakelytics which will allow you to login online and check things such as your “nightly sleep score” as well as the number of nightly awakenings, the time it took you to fall asleep and more.

Bottom line, for $59.99 you can purchase a WakeMate and could potentially start waking up a little easier. And I only say could because I have yet to test this myself, though in some strange way — I really want one. Of course, I have also been sort of eyeing a Fitbit and really love tracking my runs and bike rides with Runkeeper. In other words, I may just like having data on myself.

That being said, as the name seems to imply, the app is used as a medication coach, and perhaps a little more important — designed to help make sure you never miss another medication.

“This easy-to-use app helps you remember to take the right medications, at the right time – every day. Stay on schedule with your medication regimen and even connect to your pharmacy to refill your prescriptions automatically. Whether you take multiple medications, or just want to remember your daily aspirin, MedCoach will assist you.”

Some of the features include getting reminders, keeping track of what you have taken and even the ability to call for help by shaking. Yup, “Shake for Help” is one of the features.

• It’s easy to create your personal medication schedule to make sure that you’re taking your medications at the right time – every time!
• Receive helpful reminders and alerts when it’s time to take your medications
• Keep a log of your personal medication history (when you took your meds), and share it with your doctors and pharmacists
• Easily connect to your pharmacy when it’s time to refill your prescriptions
• View a history of your daily medication usage
• A helpful medication lookup feature that accesses the First DataBank national drug database will help you select your medication and dosage
• “Shake for Help™” is a handy tool to always get an answer when you need one – just shake your phone at any time, and help will appear!
• Should you ever need more help, you can quickly email GreatCall’s customer care team
• The interactive and easy-to-use interface provides effortless navigation throughout the app

And touching back on that Shake for Help feature, that comes in addition to 24/7 access to live personal assistance via email, which is handled by GreatCall’s HIPAA compliant customer support team where they use GreatCall’s secure SAS70 Type II infrastructure to keep your data private.

Bottom line, while we can poke fun at the Jitterbug, this app seems like it could actually be of benefit for quite a few people. After all, your phone is often in your hand or close by so what better way method to use as a medication reminder.

The X-Prize Foundation, in association with Qualcomm, is bringing us the Tricorder X-Prize (and that’s actually the name of the competition). The goal of said competition–aside from the winning of said prize–is to yield a medical device, easily carried, that can “diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians”. Basically, it’s to be the equivalent of having an entire room full of doctors in a device roughly comparable in size to your iPhone.

The best such device will win at least a share of a substantial $10 million pot, which may well end up split several ways among winners. The contest is currently in the planning stages right now, set for a 2012 start date, so if you’ve got a plan for such a device, better get the Legos and get on to construction.

Of course, actually creating such a device would likely do horrendous things to the world as we know it–general practitioners would be shown the door en masse and all health insurance would be catastrophic care and medication only–but at the same time it would likely save a whole lot of people a whole lot of cash. No more would people need an appointment to determine of a suspicious lump, for example, was malignant or benign, and no more waiting days for results, either.

Considering how many devices are already out there designed to make medical diagnoses and treatment easier and more accessible, rolling them all into one convenient package may not be out of line. And while this will prove to be only an early-model tricorder, it will still be head and shoulders above most anything else out there today.

So what do you think of the medical tricorder idea? You want one? Or will this be a horrible mistake that destroys the health-care industry as we know it? Hit the comments section and tell us what you think!

The Let’s Chat tablet is geared toward people who can’t speak, or fully use their hands to render sign language an impossibility. What they can do now is use the Let’s Chat to press a couple buttons and have the tablet itself say whatever the person in question wanted to say instead. Not only will the tablet display said message in the screen above, it will also read the message out loud. The Let’s Chat can be used for fully 62 common phrases (one of which is, apparently, “get me water”). It also contains a buzzer to use as more of a general alert system, and can even be used as a simple television remote, since it’s actually compatible with most of the television made in Japan.

It’s an impressive idea, but seems a bit underpowered. Actually it looks like something of a misnomer anyway, but then, I don’t suppose “Let’s Chat Assuming How I Should Respond To Your Half Of The Conversation Is Part Of The 62 Phrases In This Thing’s Memory” would fit really well on the side of the box. And considering how many text to speech programs already exist, you think you’d just put one of those in a proper tablet and then be able to say whatever you want anyway.

Still though, it’s a fair start (this thing has “elder care” written all over it and if there’s one thing Japan has plenty of, it’s elderly people), and hopefully future versions of the Let’s Chat tablet will provide users with more utility, especially given that Panasonic wants to sell these at $1,980 each.

So right now you’re likely asking the exact same questions I was, wondering how focused beams of light have absolutely anything to do with sound waves, but the research is oddly convincing. University of Utah researchers discovered that when exposing oyster toadfish hair cells (which are a lot like the ones we’re packing in our inner ears) to a low-powered infrared diode (which in turn is a lot like a laser pointer), the hair cells released neurotransmitters that, in turn, activated neurons nearby like the transfer of information.

This by itself doesn’t mean much, granted–shoot a laser pointer at some hair cells and brain gook goes pouring out of them–but when you take this bit of information and combine it with some proper engineering, you get a distinct possibility that lasers could take auditory data, process it into a beam form, fire said beam into inner ears and have the information get turned into another coded form that our ears could pass on and our brains can thus understand.

Naturally, this is still early-stage stuff. You’re not going to be able to get Grandma a new laser hearing aid at Walgreens’ next week. But what it does mean is the very real possibility that, in a few years, deafness may not be a condition you live with for the rest of your life but rather a treatable, fixable issue. And that is both scary and exciting, in its way. So keep an eye out–we may see a laser fix hearing problems in the not too distant future.

Optometrists say that the Nintendo 3DS can help detect certain eye disorders in children six years and younger. This, in turn, will be useful in determining whether kids need vision therapy.

In particular, playing with 3D games can help diagnose amblyopia, more commonly known as lazy eye. With this disorder, depth perception is poor because the brain is unable to process images from one eye as quickly as the other. This renders the 3DS’ autostereoscopic system useless.

Eye doctors also say the naked eye 3D system can help diagnose other problems. If your child becomes dizzy or disoriented after short periods of playing 3D games, better have his eyes checked.

It’s still debatable, though, whether the 3DS is helpful or actually more harmful in the long run. Kids should be playing more physical activities rather than spend all day playing video games. Aside from potential eye problems, console games are known to cause obesity. Still, anything that can be addictive can prevent kids from being well-rounded (mental, physica, emotional), and is bound to be bad.

Normally, when a suspicious lump is being tested for cancer, a sample is taken from the lump in question and analyzed at a lab, a process which can take most of a week. But thanks to this new device, going by the hefty mouthful of a name that is the nuclear magnetic resonance scanner, several samples can be taken and analyzed in rapid fashion, yielding incredible results.

First, using nuclear magnetic resonance yields results in about an hour, where previous tests took nearly a week. What’s more, those results are actually more accurate than earlier, going from 84 percent up to 96 percent accuracy, even finding problems in samples that had not raised a flag under previous methods.

Either one of these facts by itself is impressive, both together is amazing, and when I tell you that, right now, a nuclear magnetic resonance scanner can be built and operated for right around $200? And when the current research says that the device can be shrunk down and operated via smartphone? That just blows the whole game right out of the water.

This is all still in the early testing phase, but if they get these to work the way they think they can, look for nuclear magnetic resonance scanners to show up in just about every hospital on the planet. At $200 each, it’s hard to imagine how they wouldn’t.

The iGrow uses a series of laser diodes–21 of them–and a matching set of 30 LED lights. The company says that it “matches the output of most clinical hair lasers” and even goes so far as to say it should result in “thicker, fuller and healthier” hair a matter of months. It’s even set to work for both men and women, so if you’re dealing with thinning hair this might well be the solution. And on the off chance that’s not enough, it even comes with a set of earflaps that double as headphones for your mobile media device of choice, be it iPod or other MP3 player (I’d guess it works with a 3.5 mm headphone jack).

I’m not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV, but this sounds spectacularly dodgy, especially in light of the fact that one of these costs $695. Though give Apira credit, they’re planning to offer a six month money back guarantee on this one, so giving it a shot and then discovering it doesn’t actually work would be the kind of problem that you could seemingly fix in short order.

On a certain level, though, it does make sense. Part of hair loss, or at least what I could gather from a Wikipedia article, involves the shrinking of hair follicles, and if you could open those back up, they’d be producing hair again. On the most basic of scientific levels, this approach does strike that note of plausibility, though dropping that kind of money on a shot in the dark doesn’t seem like the best of ideas on the surface, money back guarantee or no.

It probably helps that the robot arm in question (which sounds pretty similar to famed inventor Dean Kamen’s Luke arm, pictured above) was developed by DARPA, another branch of the government, but this one is still pretty nice. It’s an upper arm prosthetic, which connects back to a microchip implanted in the brain that converts neural activity to machine language that in turn controls the prosthetic. It’s geared toward amputees or those who had strokes or spinal cord injury.

Meanwhile, the Innovation Pathway has some specific features all its own. In order to get in on the streamlined path, products have to be “truly pioneering technologies” that are, basically, game-changers. More specifically, they have to have “the potential of revolutionizing patient care or health care delivery”. Then, those products are given a case manager, and the whole process gets compressed down into a roadmap and timeline, which reportedly goes a whole lot faster than a regular system would.

It’s sort of a double-edged sword, really–while it’s great to get these game changing technologies to market faster, we’ve also got to be careful to ensure products with hidden dangers are kept out of the market. Whether you believe the government can do it better than the private sector is largely a matter of personal taste, but one thing is clear–someone’s likely going to get a new robot arm pretty soon, and I call that a good thing.

Created by Canadian company Medical International Technology, the Med-Jet (which also comes in the Agro-Jet variety–basically the same thing but for use on livestock) is a needle-free injection system that, much like the hypospray from Star Trek, injects the substance of choice into the skin via compressed air. It’s a high-speed, low-pain system that allows doctors to perform–get this!–fully 3000 injections per hour. In fact, reports suggest that the injections can be intradermal (between the dermis and the epidermis layers of skin), subcutaneous (under the skin) or intramuscular (directly into a muscle), can work on volumes from .01 to 1 cc, and will last fully ten years before needing to be replaced.

Long term durability with incredibly high volumes at high speeds? No wonder the Chinese approved it; considering China is currently the most populous nation on the face of the earth (China contains about one fifth of the world’s entire population by itself), they’d probably be dying for a way to perform a whole lot of injections in rapid fashion, and by all reports, the Med-Jet does exactly that.

Anyone else think this might well represent the future? Manufacturing hypodermic needles requires resources, while compressing air really only takes power, so there’s a pretty fair chance that this kind of thing will catch on, especially if hospitals, already pressed for cash, start to discover cost savings involved. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather take my shots via compressed air than by needle myself.

We’re no stranger to robots performing delicate surgical procedures out here, but this one is a doozy as it involves a video game controller. Here’s the deal–robotic surgery can be incredibly precise, and everyone wants precision when it comes to things like very sharp knives around things that you need to live. And while robot surgeons can pack that precision, no problem, what they lack is a sense of touch, a feel of kinetic feedback that lets them know when they’re getting too close to something or something is unusually soft or hard (depending on whether it should be hard or soft, respectively), all those things that regular human surgeons can do without a second thought.

But instead of giving the robot a sense of touch, which some have tried to do via force feedback technology channeled to a human operator, what the Kinect approach does is it takes the Kinect’s depth camera, and uses it to, basically, give a robot depth perception, so that the camera gets an even better look at what it’s cutting into. If it can see that it’s going after the wrong organ or getting too close to a vein or something like that, it can then reverse course in time to keep something particularly nasty from happening.

And here’s the nifty part–the students say that, had they tried to build this from the ground up, without Kinect, it would have cost better than $50,000 to put something together. But because they had a Kinect, the costs dropped to a meager $150, and some time spent programming.

The next time your mother / girlfriend / parole officer / what have you says you’re spending too much time playing the video games, well, hand them this article and tell them you’re funding lifesaving medical research.

Being referred to as a submarine camera (also called Das Belly Boot by one particular witty source), this camera allows doctors to see what’s going on on the front have of your digestive tract-the throat and into the stomach–by just having you swallow a camera-along with some sherbet powder to get the digestive sacs inflating–which in turn sends back footage wirelessly. Once inside…you…the submarine camera’s direction is controlled via external magnet, allowing doctors to get a full look at what’s going on in there while not having to cram a length of cable down your maw in order to see anything.

For those of you out there who see plenty of similarity between this and either Fantastic Voyage or Inner Space, well, you’re not alone. But what was formerly science fiction is now science fact.

The camera itself, meanwhile, was tested on fully ten different subjects in the opening round, and by all reports, returned solid footage, fully usable in a medical situation, and pretty much showing once and for all that we don’t need to shove cable into people’s gullets in order to see what’s going on. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but even I can tell this will likely be a pretty good move forward medically, as formerly cumbersome, embarrassing and downright painful procedures are replaced with much simpler, much less invasive ones via the application of technology.

When this becomes more widely available is as yet unknown, but hopefully it gets to that point before I need my first colonoscopy in about twenty odd years.

More precisely, we’re talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder, a disorder that turns the “winter blahs” into a much more serious issue, one that in many cases has been connected to the relative lack of daylight in the system at that time of year. But what the University of Oulu has done by way of its Valkee earbuds is attempt to short-circuit the process via directed light.

Instead of firing light into your eyes, it fires that light instead into your ears. What researchers at the University of Oulu reportedly discovered is that your eyes don’t need the light at all. What needs the light is your brain, and the way your brain gets light is not via the eyes, but rather, via the ears. So the Valkee earbuds, in turn, fire light directly at your brain via the ear canal.

Here’s the part that will really kill you–it works. The Valkee earbuds, when used just eight minutes a day (some users went as high as 12 minutes) produced complete relief from symptoms suffered by nine out of ten users.

If you want to give these a try yourself, you can actually buy the Valkee earbuds used in the University of Oulu studies for 185 euro (right around $240 US), and you can even get them in your choice of white or the above-pictured black.

So if you’re feeling a little down this winter, (and please bear in mind that I am neither a doctor nor do I play one on TV) you may want to look into a set of Valkee earbuds. Though likely many will want to save their money and look into other ways of getting light into their skulls.

We actually talked about the Challenge HAL units way back in 2008, but they’re making an appearance at the big show this week. Basically, they’re a robotic exoskeleton that reacts to the way you move your own limbs while in the frame by measuring the actions of your nervous system, and responding to fluctuations in the nerves that correspond to certain limbs. In the case of the Challenge HAL systems being shown off out at CES, it appears to be limited only to your legs.

Reports, however, say that full size units are in the works, if not already completed but not showing at CES right now, and that they can even be worn in a sitting position so wheelchair users will also be able to put these into use.

I don’t know whether it’s hilarious or terrifying that a company that builds robotic limbs would actually name itself Cyberdyne, or that they named their product after an insane computer, but if someone breaks into my favorite pool bar and demands my clothing, I’m not sticking around to hand them over. I’m going out the window if I have to, but I’m definitely not sticking around. But one thing’s for sure, the Challenge HAL is likely to be a welcome boon to a whole lot of people, and as such, hopefully these will make it to market soon. Since they’re getting shown off out at CES, well, that definitely suggests a market plan in action.

The iPhonECG, which will be showing at the CES 2011 show according to reports, is, pretty much, exactly what it says on the box. It’s a case for your iPhone 4 that allows it to function as a “clinical quality” electrocardiogram system, keeping track of your pulse rate right there on the phone. It can be attached directly via  a set of electrodes or serve wirelessly so you don’t have to keep the phone constantly pressed against your heart like you’re pledging allegiance to the mighty state of iOS, though chances are, that’s the kind of dream that makes Steve Jobs giggle in his sleep.

It also stores and wirelessly transmits the data, which means, at pretty much any time, you can be uploading data about how your heart functions anywhere. The first thought is, of course, to your doctor, though I figure it won’t be long before we get someone starting a “heart blog” about what their heart is doing at any time. Reminds me of an old Doonesbury strip where Walden roommates Zipper Harris and Jeff Redfern tried to license the digital distribution rights for Dick Cheney’s ECG readings.

That and it’s always amazed me how literally you can take the whole “there’s an app for that” philosophy. It’s getting to the point where, in all seriousness, there really is an app for just about any purpose you care to take on.

But at any rate, you’ll be able to get a look at this out at the CES show next week, so keep an eye out for it.

Guys like neat stuff.

And by “neat stuff”, Barry means things that are unnecessarily complex, or things that go fast or make loud noises or knock stuff down or blow stuff up. So if you’re shopping for a guy this Christmas, and you probably are, take heart. Because what we’ve got here today is a guide to gadgets for guys–our Gadgets For Him gift guide.

Chocolate Ammo $9.97

It may come as a surprise to persons of certain other genders, but guys like chocolate too. In fact, guys find chocolate downright tasty. It’s not the same experience as it is for the ladies, or so I’m told, but chocolate is good stuff for guys. But guys don’t just like chocolate for its own sake–if you can improve on the experience for a guy, then do! That’s why I’m bringing you chocolate ammo from the folks out at The Sportsman’s Guide. It comes in twenty-round cases, and the cases are reusable for holding small things (small bits of hardware, spare change, what have you) once the “ammo” is “expended”. So for a sweet price, you can throw a sweet treat your guy’s way.

Magic Bullet Express Blender / Mixer System $49.88

Head on over to Walmart for this one because it’s the best price I’ve found over half a dozen places–but what this is going to do is give your guy a way to be a whiz in the kitchen without actually having to learn how to cook.  If you’ve seen the infomercials for the Magic Bullet blender system, you’ve watched these people cook things, relentlessly, breakfast, lunch and dinner in the same half hour segment. They go from omelets to muffins to pasta and nachos in the space of seconds, and all with nary a pause or anything even vaguely resembling difficulty. It may not be that easy for your guy, not at first anyway, but considering it also packs in a book of “10 Second” recipes, your guy may well be well on his way toward making incredible meals. Pair this with the next item and get ready for some killer breakfasts.

WowBacon Microwave Bacon Cooker And Savenor’s Bacon Society Membership (one year) $150.00

If there’s one thing a guy knows, it’s that bacon is awesome. And while plenty of guys aren’t fond of cooking, exceptions will often be made for bacon, one of the greatest of all meats. So be kind to your guy of choice and give him the greatest possible joy: lots of bacon and a way to cook it easily. While the WowBacon Microwave Bacon Cooker by itself is a nice and inexpensive Christmas gift, allowing him an easy way to rapidly cook as many as six strips of bacon at one time, you might as well go the distance and give him a way to fuel that bacon machine. See, the Bacon Society from Savenor’s offers multiple varieties of bacon, sent every month for a year. It’s not quite the Bacon of the Month Club, but it’s the next best thing. Send Peppered Bacon, Smoked Wild Boar, Cob Smoked Bacon and more, and keep your guy in bacon for as long as he likes.

24: The Complete Series $180

What can I say? Guys like to watch stuff blow up and stuff go bang, and Kiefer Sutherland brought huge amounts of that throughout the various seasons of 24. And now, joy of joys, they’re all together in one big whopping box set. You’ll shell out quite a bit for this one, but considering that you’ll not only get all eight seasons of 24, but you’ll also get 24: Redemption, and a bonus disc full of commentary for a total of, get this, 57 discs, you’ll get a whole lot for your money.  And for the guy in your life, it’s probably perfect. Put one of the biggest guy shows of the last ten years all in one place for your guy of choice.

Panasonic Vortex Arc Shaver $180

If there’s one thing every guy needs, it’s a way to keep the whiskers trimmed. Not everyone looks good with facial hair, and that means a regular hit with a razor. Sure, you can buy a sack full of disposables for a whopping five bucks or less, but sometimes you want more than that. You want something like the Panasonic Vortex Arc Shaver.  The Panasonic Vortex Arc Shaver can operate in wet or dry conditions, so whether you favor a shave in the shower or a shave directly after, you’re equally well-represented. And the ultra-thin foil blades guarantee a super-close shave. You’ll get an LCD status display for all the salient on your razor’s functions, a pop-up trimmer, and an automatic cleaning system that keeps your razor in prime function.

Vuzix Wrap 920 Video Eyewear $250

Chances are your guy has gadgets. Chances are your guy has at least one portable media player. And so he already knows how tough it is to get along with the teeny-tiny screen and have to suffer through squinting at his favorite YouTube videos. But now, you can put some extra punch in his portable media with the Vuzix Wrap 920 video eyewear. These are the video sunglasses you’ve often heard about, with a couple of earbuds depending from the stems of the glasses. Wearing the glasses, meanwhile, looks like a 67 inch screen from about ten feet out. The video quality isn’t the best–these aren’t designed to replace the television, after all–but considering they’re geared toward the movie watcher on the go, well, you’ll come out pretty far ahead.

Houdini II Frosty Fridge Rocker Recliner $599

We’ve covered a lot of home theater gear here, but one thing that’s clear is your guy needs a place to sit and enjoy all that home theater gear. That’s where this wonder comes in: the Houdini II Frosty Fridge Rocker Recliner.  See, the reason they call it that is three fold: It rocks. It reclines. And it’s got a refrigerator hiding in one of the armrests. But that’s hardly all–it’s also carrying two massage zones and a heated back to help loosen those tensed back muscles. It may well be the ultimate in recliner joy: have a cold drink and a heated massage all in one place.

And so, there you have it, folks–seven great gifts for the guy in your life this Christmas. Some of them are a little pricey, and some of them come in real cheap, but all of them will go over well with your guy, because they’re all geared just for him.

The lengthy research involved treating a patient for about three years using stem cell transplants. Researchers from the Charite-University Medicine Berlin used stem cells from a donor who had a rare gene mutation that makes cells naturally resilient to HIV infection by lacking the specific cell receptor that HIV latches onto.

The cure is not simple, though. The treatment required doctors to kill the patient’s immune system entirely, and replace this through the stem-cell transplant. They also had to do this twice in a span of 18 months, in treating the patient’s leukemia. This came with numerous side-effects such as blindness and amnesia–both of which were, thankfully, temporary.

Scientists are still debating the viability of this cure, and some predict that HIV might relapse. The supposed treatment is also seen to be viable only in certain cases, such as when the HIV has not yet spread or mutated far enough. It is also likely to be expensive.

Image credit: 3dscience.com

Reebok signed on with recent start-up MC10, a company that deals in those flexible electronics. Now, they’re not spilling a whole lot of details as yet on just what it is they’re trying to do together, but what we do know thus far is that they’re looking to, according to one source, “make the interface between people and electronics disappear”.

This sounds a lot more high-tech than it really is; the basic concept says that, right now, if you want to figure out your heart rate while you’re working out, you need to hook something up to yourself and check the results. But with what MC10 and Reebok are looking to do, you won’t need to do that any more, as what you’d have once needed to hook yourself up to is now, instead, available right on your clothing itself. Suggestions have been made that they’d like to simply take the flexible sensors and install them into the clothing, which can process its own data in-house and send it on to a remote monitoring device.

This is not only worthwhile for athletes monitoring their performance, but also for hospital patients or those receiving rehab care, as things like heart rate and the like can be monitored without hooking up extensive arrays of insidious-looking beeping machinery.

It’ll be a while before they’re ready to wheel this sort of thing out, of course–some estimates figure within two years–but still, even I can see how a lot of value could be derived from products like this. Keep an eye out, folks, because pretty soon your workout clothes might have a better idea of how your workout’s going than you do.

The folks out at Cambridge Consultants put this together, and they’ll be showing it off at the upcoming CES show. And here’s where it gets interesting: it actually combines a whole lot of different inputs to reach a conclusion that, hey, you’ve been working out crazy hard and you need a water break.

The bottle itself can measure ambient temperature (it must have some downright crazy good insulation to not be thrown off by the temperature of the water inside it), the amount of fluid you’ve drank so far from the bottle (it can even tell it’s empty!) and how often you’ve upended that bottle for a quick drink. It then can communicate with an accompanying smartphone app that will use its accelerometer (assuming it has one) to measure your movement rate, and couple that with heart rate data that it will be taking from an included chest strap. It’ll then crunch all that data together and discover that, hey, you need a water break.

And just for the final touch, it will alert you to your need for a water break by flashing a blue light on the bottle itself.

It’s designed to show off how sensors can work together with smartphones in a move Cambridge Consultants is calling “hardware apps”, though to a lot of people this is probably going to look like an example of technology at its most ludicrous. I can see this helping out for, say, summer sports teams, though, as hydration is extra important in events like that (and the lack of attention to same has previously proven fatal in several tragic cases) and anything that reminds young athletes to stop and have some water when they need it certainly can’t hurt.

Created by a man who lost the use of his legs following a car accident, Amit Goffer created the ReWalk system along with the help of his newly-minted firm. Basically, what it amounts to is a set of robotic pants (a suit that happens to be half-robot, essentially) that can move a paraplegic’s legs and support the extra weight, allowing that person to, basically, walk again.

Sure, it’s the robot legs that are doing the walking as opposed to the paraplegic, who basically happens to be along for the ride, but close counts, especially when you’re dealing with something like allowing people to even look or feel like they’re walking again who formerly could not.

There’s a down side to this, though, as the ReWalk is set to cost fully $100,000 (which is exactly the same price as the eLEGS Exoskeleton we talked about not too long ago) so I guess the going rate for helping people walk again is six figures. And it’s only got sufficient battery to run for 3.5 hours before needing recharging.

On a more personal note, I’ll bet all this is really making insurance companies start to sweat. It was one thing when someone would start talking about the eLEGS as a way to help the paralyzed walk again; then they could just polish the old “experimental treatment” routine. But with two versions on the market–and probably more to come!–it’ll get harder and harder for them to find excuses to turn people away. And a few dozen angry parents with paralyzed children who’d love for their kids to be able to walk again will probably make things very uncomfortable for recalcitrant executives.

However it all comes out, you can look for the ReWalk to hit shelves in a couple of weeks, which will beat the eLEGS to market by about eight months at last projection.

Accidents, disease and congenital conditions that cause paralysis can be debilitating, especially if paralysis is involved. Scientists have long been trying to develop technologies that can help persons with such disabilities regain (or gain) their motor abilities. The so-called “Active Book” implants are chips that bind to a person’s spinal nerves, much like pages of a book. These will then stimulate the nerves with electricity in order to stimulate muscle groups in ways that are not currently viable with existing technology.

The applications can theoretically mean that muscle groups can get enough movement to do controlled exercises (rowing, cycling) and maybe even more complicated tasks, such as walking.

Studies will begin next year. If this technology flies, persons with paralysis can probably say goodbye to being bedridden or stuck in a wheelchair for life.

The Cody robot is partially human controlled, and includes a camera and laser attachment so it can tell precisely what body part it’s set to wash. The arm joints are made specifically to reduce unnecessarily harsh impact (they’re actually made with very low stiffness so the resulting slack can absorb some shock), plus, the robot is specifically programmed to keep its skin-contact pressure low (well below, it’s being reported, the capacity to do any damage at all), and just to top things off, Cody even comes with an override button that shuts all its movement systems down when pressed, allowing for a one-touch kill switch in case something goes wrong.

And since it can be partially controlled by humans–a human nurse holding Cody’s robotic hand can lead it around–there will likely always be someone on hand to smack that kill switch should Cody get too rambunctious.

Here’s the kicker–it’s actually already working. Initial tests had Cody wipe blue candy off “patients”, and the “patients” themselves report that, while the first few seconds had them wildly freaked out, they quickly calmed down when they discovered the process was going well. The feel of it worked out, and Cody got most of the blue candy off the “patients” too, so call this one a huge success.

When Cody will see wide use in home health care or nursing homes or hospitals remains to be seen, but considering how hard nurses work already, they’ll probably welcome a bit of help from robots.

It’s hard to believe, but the Q Sensor comes from Affectiva, which is a spinoff of MIT’s Media Lab. It works about the same way a polygraph device does, detecting electrical changes in the skin (sometimes called galvanic skin responses), based on their change in mood.

When you’re having severe emotional changes–either happy or sad, excited or worried–moisture starts building up under the skin. That generally leads to sweating, but it also makes your skin more electrically conductive (obviously, wet surfaces conduct electricity better than dry). The Q Sensor measures this conductivity which in turn gives you an idea of just how stressed out you are, whether you’re actually sweating or just getting ready to start.

Affectiva, for its part, looks to use the devices for medical purposes, especially for caregivers who will be able to tell at a glance just how stressed out their charges happen to be. In turn, they can use this information to start trying to calm their charges down before outbursts–potentially violent ones, especially–even happen.

The Q Sensor does have some limitations: it can’t tell just how stressed you are, or whether you’re happily excited or potentially enraged, but it can collect other information like body temperature and motion, things that can also add a note of valuable information in determining whether someone’s dangerously stressed, and the data itself can be transmitted via USB port to other connections.

Q Sensors will sell for $2000 a unit to start with, starting next month in a trial version.

Presenting proof of concept at the AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition in New Mexico, professor Tao Xu’s team used a system through which the administered drug is only activated by light. The drug’s molecules are to be coated with miniature photovoltaic cells, which like their bigger counterparts, react to light.

The drug is introduced into the body, but will be inert, until it reaches the area where the tumor is located. Here, lasers that penetrate 10 cm into the body will activate the drug, which will then kill only the affected cells.

The team is still testing the viability of this approach to chemotherapy, but it’s a novel way of applying technology formerly only used in bigger applications, such as solar cells that power homes and cities.

Image credit: flickr