Hasta La Gadget!

A poor calf was literally left out in the cold this winter and suffered frostbite to both of its hind legs. The frostbite was so severe that the calf lost both the back legs to surgical amputation. A person stepped up and adopted the calf rather than see the animal put down and turned into steak.

Rather than having a calf that lay around all the time, the new owner of the animal spent about $40,000 to have a pair of prosthetic legs made for it. To attach the legs to the calf, bovine surgeons had to remove a couple inches of bone to make a tissue pad.

The hooves of the legs are made from titanium and urethane. The connecting hardware is made from titanium and carbon fiber, and it has taken surgeons at Texas A&M University about a year to develop the prosthetics.

[via Independent]

I’ve been wearing a Pebble Smartwatch over the last few months and a lot of the time, it’s annoying having something on my wrist. If you like the idea of a wearable fitness device, but you don’t want something so bulky, G-Wearable’s Goccia might be the gadget for you. The device is billed as the smallest and simplest activity tracker in all the land.

Goccia is about the diameter of a dime and weighs just a little more than a penny (and it looks a bit like a Life Savers candy). It is small enough that you don’t need to wear it on your wrist like most fitness devices. It’s available with different mounts that let you wear it on a sleeve, a shoe, or even a hair band. It’s built from durable aluminum and Gorilla Glass, and is waterproof, and the Goccia tracks multiple activities, including time spent running, swimming, hiking, sleeping, and more.

It’s good for up to two weeks of use per charge and charges with no wires. It uses LED lights to tell you how close you are to your daily fitness goals. It also transfers detailed data to a smartphone app for tracking and uses LED light transmitting tech rather than Bluetooth to cut down on power use and size.

The project is raising funds on Kickstarter, where a pledge of $60(USD) or more by April 24 will get you a Goccia this May.

If only we could have had chocolate toothpaste when I was a kid. Well, the important thing is that they have it now. Theodent has a new line of fluoride-free, chocolate-flavored toothpaste. And this chocolate flavor isn’t just a novelty.

Theodent’s toothpaste formula contains a patented substance that is actually obtained from the cacao plant that gives it its chocolatey flavor. It’s called rennou, and don’t worry, it is safe to eat. Naturally, you want something safe in a chocolate toothpaste, because kids are going to be tempted to gulp this stuff down when they brush.

Theodent Classic is only $10, while the extra-strength version Theodent 300 is priced at a wallet-busting $100 a tube. Damn, those are dentist prices.

[via Incredible Things via OhGizmo!]

Last year we saw a robot cane for visually impaired people that warns its user of obstacles with an audible alert. The Virtual Aid for the Visually Impaired or VAVI by grade 10 student Roman Kozak is an even more convenient prototype for a high tech cane. It lets the user search Google Maps and be guided towards his or her destination by voice prompts.

VAVI is not actually a cane but just a short cylinder; instead of direct contact it uses an ultrasonic sensor to detect objects in the user’s path. A vibration motor and a buzzer alerts the user if there’s an obstacle in his way. As for the location search, Roman wrote an Android app that taps into Google Maps. When the app is open, the user can order it to search for a location by saying “go to _____.” The app will look for the destination and will then provide voice prompts to guide the user as he walks.

The app also accepts voice commands for placing a phone call, sending the user’s current location to someone else and for finding VAVI. For that last feature, the app will reach out to VAVI through Bluetooth and activate its motor and buzzer to make it easier to find. Roman also made it so VAVI can be charged wirelessly via induction so the user won’t have to bother finding an adapter and an outlet.

For all its capabilities, Roman estimates that VAVI only costs about $70(USD) to produce. Check out Roman’s website for more on his invention.

[via Hack A Day]

One of the many staples of science fiction and other fantasy movies and TV shows is suspended animation. If you have to fly somewhere on a starship, suspended animation will get you there without you being 114 when you arrive, at least in the sci-fi world. Suspended animation is set to come into the real world – at least as a lifesaving procedure.

The doctors don’t call it suspended animation, they use a fancy medical term called “emergency preservation and resuscitation.” The procedure takes someone in the hospital that has had a massive trauma and the doctors can’t get their heart beating again. They can take the person, replace their blood with a cold saline solution, and put them into the state for a short while.

The patient is technically clinically dead while the blood is replaced. After repairing the trauma, the solution can be replaced with blood and the person’s heart will start beating again. At least in theory, the heart will start beating again.

Trials of the process were conducted over 10 years ago on pigs, but no human attempts have been made. Incredibly, the pigs were reanimated after several hours of clinical death using this procedure – without physical or cognitive impairment. Doctors at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh will now begin trials of the procedure on humans who would otherwise have likely died from their injuries, and compare the outcome with patients who don’t have the procedure.

[via New Scientist via ExtremeTech]