Hasta La Gadget!

Detecting cancer could be on the verge of getting a whole lot cheaper — and better. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have come up with a device that, using a needle to get a tissue sample, has achieve 96 percent accuracy despite having a cost to produce of just $200. It’s called a mini NMR (for nuclear magnet resonance) and also gives results in under an hour, giving the good or bad news on a smartphone display. The cost, simplicity, and portability could make it much easier for cancer to be caught and diagnosed early, but naturally it still has a good bit of testing left before it’ll be ready for prime time.

$200 ‘Mini’ NMR detects cancer faster and cheaper than full biopsies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This as-of-yet-unnamed mini computer was fashioned as an implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients, but its creators envision a future where we’re all crawling with the little buggers. Taking up just over one cubic millimeter of space, the thing stuffs a pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell, wireless radio, and low-power microprocessor all into one very small translucent container. The processor behind this little guy uses an “extreme” sleep mode to keep it napping at 15-minute intervals and sucking up 5.3 nanowatts while awake, and its battery runs off 10 hours of indoor light or one and a half hours of sun beams. Using the sensor to measure eye pressure and the radio to communicate with an external reader, the system will continuously track the progress of glaucoma, without those pesky contacts. Of course, the mad scientists behind it look forward to a day when the tiny device will do much more, with each of us toting hundreds of the computer implants all over our bodies — looks like a bright future for cyborgdom.

Researchers debut one-cubic-millimeter computer, want to stick it in your eye originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We reported on Ossur’s robotic prosthetic back in 2009, and now amputees in Europe and the United States have become the first official recipients of the Power Knee. According to the company, “the world’s first and only motor-powered prosthetic knee” was recently approved for reimbursement by the German National Health System, covered by private insurance in France and the UK, and picked up by select healthcare providers in the US. Power Knee combines “artificial intelligence,” motion sensors, and wireless communication to learn and adjust to the walking style of its users — that’s one small step for real-life cyborgs and one giant leap for prosthetic technology.

Continue reading Power Knee motorized prosthetic officially available in US, Europe — race of cyborgs still in infancy

Power Knee motorized prosthetic officially available in US, Europe — race of cyborgs still in infancy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 07:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The CycloClean from Nippon Basic

CycloClean is a Japanese designed bike which purifies water with pedal-power. Aimed at the developing world, the bike can suck up, scrub clean and then store water from pretty much any source. Then all you need to do is ride home.

It works like this. You park up next to a muddy river or dubious looking lake. Lower a hose into the water, hitch the bike up on its stand, and climb back on. The rear wheel is kept off the ground, and the pedals now power a pump. Water is forced through a primary filter before moving on to an activated carbon filter, like the one you may have in a Brita jug at home. Finally, the water passes through a “micro-filtration membrane filter” before being stored in the vessel of your choice.

The CycloClean can process three tons of water in ten hours (you might want to take turns riding it). That’s enough to supply 1,500 people for one day. some smaller figure may be easier to understand: you’ll get five liter (1.3 gallons) in a minute. Filters should last for up to two years.

The bikes have already been deployed by the maker, Nippon Basic, from Kawasaki, outside Tokyo. They cost ¥550,000 each. That’s around $6,650. As you can see, they’re not going to be selling to residents, but the company has shifted 200 of them in five years. The bikes themselves are made to last, with non-puncture tires and redundancies so that you can still use the bike for transportation or pumping when the filters have expired, for example, and one great use for this sturdy beast is on the ground at disaster sites.

I love it (except the price). Not just because it will save lives and prove a money-spinner for some smart developing world entrepreneur, but because it yet again shows how awesomely flexible bikes are.

CycloClean product page [Nippon Basic via Physorg. Thanks, Chuck!]

See Also:

• Fast-Flowing Water-Filter Fills Bottles in Seconds
• Water-Bottle Filters As You Drink
• Water Bike Pitches Pedal Powered Purification
• Cheap Carbon Cloth Can Zap Toxins, Kill Bacteria

I never thought I would live to see something like this: A hand held scanner that can detect if a patient is healthy or not just by pointing it at the skin. It seems out of Star Trek, but it is real and it works today. More »