Pinktentacle translates a cyborg project from Asahi into English for those of us who aren’t blessed with the ability to read Hiragana/Katakana…and what they’ve dug up is astonishing! Japanese researchers have been implanting electrodes for monitoring activities directly into subjects brains. Researchers have already applied with ethics committees to begin robotic testing and expect to have great success. Resistance is futile.

The researchers, who have filed a license application with the Osaka University Hospital ethics board, are working to enlist willing subjects already scheduled to have brain electrodes implanted for the purpose of monitoring epilepsy or other conditions. The procedure, which does not involve puncturing the cortex, places an electrode sheet at the central sulcus, a fold across the center of the brain near the primary motor cortex (which is responsible for planning and executing movements).

To date, the researchers have worked with four test subjects to record brain wave activity generated as they move their arms, elbows and fingers. Working with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), the researchers have developed a method for analyzing the brain waves to determine the subject’s intended activity to an accuracy of greater than 80%. The next step is to use the data to control robot arms developed by the University of Tokyo’s Department of Precision Engineering.

The armed forces have long been innovators in the development and use of technology with many programs eventually having a trickledown effect into the lives of normal citizens. This phenomena has been seen in everything from air travel to ballpoint pens. The exoskeleton concept is nothing new to the community of people interested in mobility challenges, and the US Army appears to be on the fast track to getting something into production rather quickly. After a prototype is developed, deployed, and released we can expect to see civilian impact fairly quickly.

The lightweight aluminium exoskeleton, called XOS, senses Rex’s every move and instantly moves with him; it is almost like a shadow or a second skin. It is designed for agility that can match a human’s, but with strength and endurance that far outweigh our abilities.

With the exoskeleton on and fully powered up, Rex can easily pull down weight of more than 90 kilos, more than he weighs.

For the army the XOS could mean quicker supply lines, or fewer injuries when soldiers need to lift heavy weights or move objects around repeatedly. Initial models would be used as workhorses, on the logistics side.

Later models, the army hopes, could go into combat, carrying heavier weapons, or even wounded colleagues.

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Vitals.com, a New Jersey based startup, aims to take the guesswork out of finding a good physician by soliciting user reviews, certifications, and other risk factors for poor quality care. The site allows one to search out information on a particular physician, or to find a physician based on location, and specialty, and then see what his or her patients are saying about the quality of care they receive.

Diabetes Mine has posted an extremely thought provoking and in depth article regarding the use of cellphones, and the ubiquitous wireless cell network as a sort of ‘health tether’ being developed by Qualcomm. The benefits of this type of ‘always on’ monitoring technology to mobility limited individuals is immediately evident.

Wireless technology leader Qualcomm Inc. has some very big ideas about untethered devices for healthcare, and in particular, about using your mobile phone as a health aid. I was lucky enough last week to get a “back stage pass” for a chat with Don Jones, the company’s VP of Business Development, who’s considered a visionary on the application of wireless technology to the healthcare and medical device sectors.

DM) Don, in just a few sentences, how do you define “wireless healthcare”?

We choose to define it as wireless health — not healthcare — because this includes fitness, wellness, and consumer health. It’s basically anywhere that connectivity can be applied to people’s health.

Qualcomm is a B2B (enterprise to enterprise) organization, helping companies deliver wireless health services by developing the enabling technologies. We’ve focused on small computing devices that have connectivity and incorporate into people’s lives beyond traditional voice services.

You may have noticed that some of our articles are often focusing on ‘toys’ and ‘games’ lately. Particulary the inventive uses for the Wiimote which are being discovered daily. Let me propose something radical: The biggest advances for mobility challenged individuals won’t be coming from the medical community or the research community. They are going to come from computer gamers.

Let me relate a short story to you.

This past New Years, while sitting over a bottle of wine in a lovely French restaurant on 21st St, a friend of mine who happens to be a corporate attorney specializing in securing venture capital told me about a new product in development. She (rather casually I might add) mentioned a headset which could control computers solely by thought. She told me how the developers of this technology were having great trouble actually securing capital because it was a gaming device.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, I was dumbfounded, excited, and realized I was standing on the brink of the biggest developmental paradox of the future. Right there, over a nice fromage and fruit plate.

‘A gaming device???!’ I thought to myself? No. It’s a revolution. A revolution in a lousy $300 box. I couldn’t understand why the obvious usage, control of environment and restoration of independence for people with limited mobility wasn’t the target market. I was absolutely astonished. Gaming? No funding? These people are sitting on a not only a goldmine of profit but also a gift to society of epic proportion! Why are they saddling themselves with the stigma of ‘computer gaming’? No technology investor will touch anything these days without a very very solid business case — too many people got burned in the bubble. Why not go for medical research money? Why not approach engineering think tanks for assistive device technology?

After thinking about it for about 3.4 seconds, I realized the problem was the medical regulatory committees of the world. The studies and funding and research would be red taped to death and all too often the product wouldn’t ever see the light of day — after all the developers are two guys in a basement. And even with funding, the process can take decades to get something to market. We live, on average 72 years as human beings. Wasting 20 years of that seems a crime. Gaming. It makes sense. Off-book usage of gaming devices…they can’t be regulated. Or stopped.

Since the day the Borg appeared on a Star Trek screen, I think everyone knew that resistance really WAS futile. The melding of technology to the human body has been happening for years in prosthetics and other medical devices; it will only continue to become more sophisticated. The holodeck, and the continued striving for it within the gaming community, is another technology that will eventually happen. Rudimentary versions are already available. I often wonder though, do people really realize what these things will mean to the people who are often overlooked by society?

Regardless of their humble, and often scorned, origins, these things aren’t just for gaming. They aren’t just toys. We will undoubtedly find that they will have a world changing impact on humanity…on the day to day lives of both the enabled and disabled. The pioneers of the technologies that will change the lives of billions are likely to be swigging beer, eating pizza, and thinking about the best way to beat the other guy playing Halo. Perhaps that isn’t so radical (lookin’ at you Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs), but it is always kind of…shocking to really acknowledge.

Imagine a world where someone who is completely incapable of any movement at all, can simply think about moving letters on a computer screen…or making a TDD telephone call from an enabled iPhone…full two way communication with the world is restored. Imagine a world where a person in a coma can communicate with the outside world, if it’s only doctors able to spy on the thoughts and activities of their brains. Are they hurting? Can they hear us? Is there really anything going on in there at all? Imagine being able to control a small robot to carry books and food and the small luxuries of life, like the remote control from the couch to your bedside, with just a thought.

It truly is inevitable. Hopefully the medical research committees, and the thinktanks at the big boys shops will come around — developing technologies for ‘gaming’ rather than medicine. A simple reclassification could change the lives of millions within a year or two, rather than decades from now. Dr. X, Primary Gaming Device Researcher. Heh.

Who knew it would all come down to a simple question: Would you like to play a game?

Technology allows Barb Hartseil, a special ed teacher, to continue teaching her students while she is recuperating from injuries sustained in a car accident. While she is expected to make a full recovery — it will be a long one. Video conferencing technology has allowed the homebound teacher to maintain her position, and quality of life — remaining productive and happy in spite of her disability.

Special education teacher Barb Hartseil was in a serious car accident in late January, and her five students really needed to know she was OK after a nearly two-month absence. Modern technology allayed their fears, with students and teacher using video-conferencing software to see and hear each other.

Now, Cody Gravett, 14, and his classmates regularly see and hear their teacher as she recuperates from two broken legs.

“She works with students with autism and we were discovering that the students were having an exceptionally difficult time with her absence,” said Nora Bardi, the school’s assistive technology coordinator.

“It’s wonderful what technology can do,” said Rita Gyires, technology training coordinator for Normal-based Unit 5 schools.

Unexpected uses for the Wiimote benefit disabled, soldiers, and well, the people who just don’t want to push a vacuum.

Wii hackers worldwide are developing truly revolutionary, non-gaming, uses for Wiimotes including bomb disarming(!), robot control, and more. You can even vacuum your house!

What can you do with your Wiimote?

Steers with just a little lean, accelerates with just a couple fingers at up to 25mph over any hard surface. Sure, it’s spendy, but sometimes you just gotta have fun!

Drawing upon a robust history of development that began with an original design conceived in Marseilles, France in 1869, this is the motorized monocycle made in the Netherlands that propels a single rider up to 25 MPH. Powered by a 31cc, four-stroke 1 1/2-hp engine, the wheel operates by using a centrifugal clutch on its inner steel frame to engage the larger 67″ diam. outer flywheel that actually makes contact with the ground with a rubber tire. The ingenious device is steered by leaning to one side or the other, and it can safely negotiate any dense surface such as pavement or grass. A fiberglass frame encloses the engine, drive train, and fuel tank, and provides a cushioned seat and convenient footrests for riders up to 6′ 3″ high when i n a sitting position. The hand-holds have a finger throttle that provides progressive acceleration and a brake that provides confident stops for riders up to 275 lbs. (minimum weight of 110 lbs. suggested for proper counterbalance during acceleration and braking). It can run for up to two hours on less than a 1/2-gallon of gasoline.

New advances in eye-movement recognition technology lead to hands-free surgery. Adaptation and cost-reduction of this technology will lead to significant advances in day to day living challenges for future generations.

James Randerson, science correspondent
The Guardian

British researchers are developing a medical robot which can work out the intentions of a surgeon performing an operation, making surgery easier and more precise.

They hope new software will lead to less invasive operations, for example when conducting a cardiac bypass or tumour removal, allowing patients to recover more quickly.

The improvements have been made to the most advanced robotic surgeon on the market, the Da Vinci. It allows surgeons to sit at a viewing console directing the movement of the robot’s mechanical arms inside the patient’s body. The research team is working on using the surgeon’s eye movements to direct the robot, getting the best out of both human and machine.

“We want to empower the robot and make it more autonomous,” said computer scientist Professor Guang Zhong Yang, of the Hamlyn centre for robotic surgery at Imperial College London.

He said robotic surgeons are currently completely under the control of the surgeon. The robot responds only to the surgeon’s hand movements. “There’s a large amount of information that is not being explored at all. That’s the human part.”

The team has added a device which tracks the surgeon’s eye movements. By working out precisely where each eye is looking, software can build up a 3D map of the area of tissue the surgeon is looking at. “What that does is it uses the surgeon’s brain as a way in to calculating the depth of the tissue,” said the surgeon Lord Darzi, who heads the centre and is a government health minister responsible for improving patient care.

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