Giving a body part in order to obtain something is an activity we certainly wouldn’t want to partake in, although there are people in the world who would gladly give something up for the latest and greatest piece of tech. A few years ago, we saw a teenager selling his kidney for an iPad 2, and today, we’re seeing a grown man offer his testicle for a Nissan 370Z. (more…)
Man Willing To Sell A Testicle For A Nissan 370Z original content from Ubergizmo. 
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In a disaster situation, triage and rescue workers typically tag patients with a colored paper bracelet that correlates to the severity of their injury. But a patient’s situation can change after being tagged, making it difficult to keep track of who needs what care. So researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed a cheap electronic alternative enhanced with GPS and health sensors.
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A skilled physiotherapist can get your body working again after an injury, but even they can’t see your inner workings while you’re rebuilding muscle. So a team of researchers from Saitama University have developed a rehabilitation machine that generates a virtual representation of the muscles in your arm letting you, and your physician, see them in motion.
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Don’t you think that the world is largely moving towards being smarter and better? That seems to be the case, what with smart cars, smart homes, smartphones, and now, the possibility of a smart walking stick. The Isowalk would arrive assuming it has picked up enough dough during the crowdfunding project over on Indiegogo. Thanks to Kineticane LLC, the Isowalk smart walking stick is supposedly capable of adapting itself to its user. It will be different from conventional canes which will create concentrated loads on the wrist, eventually leading to the possibility of one’s wrist and arm aching. No sir, the Isowalk combats this potential pitfall with a smart force relief system which will adapt itself to the user’s weight, wrist pressure, and gait, so that it delivers customized cushioning with every step that you take.
Not only that, the Isowalk has also been touted to be self propulsive, ensuring that it is capable of positioning itself in an optimal manner for the next step with minimal user intervention. Users should eventually enjoy an improved and ergonomic alignment of hand, wrist, and arm, which results in a better weight distribution and reduced pressure concentration on the wrist. Tipped to debut publicly in January next year, it is tipped to arrive in the market sometime next spring. [Project Page]
Isowalk The Smart Walking Stick original content from Ubergizmo. 
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When it comes to birth control, there has been plenty of advancements made over the years, but there seems to be a whole lot more options available to the ladies compared to men. Well, it seems that there might be a new method in the world of contraceptives, and that would be to prevent sperm from being ejaculated. A new mouse study has pointed to this possibility which should be made possible via a birth control drug which will be concocted specially for the guys.
Of course, cautious restraint should be exercised, as this research does not mean that a male contraceptive drug will be available on pharmacy shelves in a few years’ time, since the drug itself, if manufactured, will first need to go through years of testing for safety and effectiveness. Needless to say, the male contraceptive would be more of a biological challenge to achieve than that of a female contraceptive, since it needs to stop all of the sperm cells men that are ejaculted. Not only that, this potential anti-sperm birth control method will also need to be reversible, all without causing any harm to the sperm cells in the long run. Sounds like a massive challenge, don’t you think so? Other forms of male contraception were also explored previously.
Male Contraceptive A Possibility original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The thought of having to automate a morgue to keep up with the demand is a little depressing, but researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have developed a robotic system that can help with at least part of an autopsy by spotting physical abnormalities on a body—giving pathologists as much data as possible for determining the cause of death.
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Just because a hospital is a place where lives are rescued to the best of the doctor’s abilities each day in the operation theater, not to mention it is a sanctuary for those who need to recuperate from a serious illness, it does not mean that it is a fully sterile platform. Actually, hospitals are pretty good candidates to be a breeding ground for dangerous bacteria. MRSA, a bacterial infection which has proven itself resilient to majority of the antibiotics out there, will run rampant in healthcare environments if given the chance. Of course, such infections can be easily stopped if hospital workers wash their hands on a regular basis. IBM intends to make use of technology by reminding them to wash their hands, all through the clever implementation of RFID-enabled badges.
Employees will use badges that have an integrated RFID chip, where this RFID badge will “talk” to sensors placed in different locations throughout the building. Should someone happen to walk into a patient’s room, and leaves without washing their hands, the sensor will detect the situation as such, and report to the central server. This means all staff members will be monitored of their respective failures, and hopefully, corrective moves can be made to improve the situation down the road.
IBM Introduces RFID Enforced Hand Washing Technology original content from Ubergizmo. 
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We have seen the possibility of a urine-powered robot earlier last month, but here we are with scientists from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK who claimed to have developed a prototype robotic “heart” that will successfully be able to be powered solely by human urine alone. This is an interesting development, as this prototype heart was made using a 3D printer. Needless to say, the journey is far from finished, as a full working robot happens to be under development still, as the heart is the only working component at the moment.
In fact, this “heart” is made out of a rubber-like 3D printed material that is called TangoPlus, where it can charge up to 3.5 volts and perform 33 pumps thanks to just 2 milliliters of “fresh” human urine. If one were to extrapolate this particular idea, who knows, we could have an entire slew of ecologically-friendly robots that will be able to be powered simply by using energy from waste that has been collected from urinals, and public lavatories at that. Hopefully it has some sort of useful air filter, no? It would certainly be yucky to clean the innards of the robot, especially where the urine is gathered, don’t you think so?
Prototype Robotic “Heart” Runs Off Urine original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Some time ago, we talked about how a woman decided to get creative by implanting a platinum heart into her eyeball as a fashion statement of sorts, which certainly did not go down well with certain quarters. After all, having something invade our bodies is not an experience that most folks would be comfortable with, and the needle is also a fearful thing to face for some of us. However, there are times when vaccines are necessary, but what if there was a new kind of technology that does away with injections? Scientists at the University of Minnesota are currently working on a new vaccine implant which will deliver all the vaccines you need based on a time release format, which means there are no more trips to the doctor for shots down the road.
The vaccine would be administered via a small tablet that has been been implanted in your arm beforehand, which means you will still need to face the needle – but at least only once instead of multiple times. After that, you would receive a prescription for a bunch of pills that are required to be consumed based on specific days so that the correct vaccine dose will be activated. Each time a pill is swallowed, the implant in your arm would then release a different vaccine dose, all the way until the entire routine is complete. Once done, the implant would dissolve by itself.
Vaccines Delivered Without Going Through Multiple Injections original content from Ubergizmo. 
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3D printing has definitely come some way since it was first introduced, but how about using a 3D printer for biomedical purposes instead of just churning out action figures and toys for your nephews and nieces so that you need not go to the store to purchase one for them and get all bruised up at the checkout counter as you jostle with the mad holiday crowd? Well, it seems that researchers over at the University of Liverpool in the U.K. are working on delivering individualized, natural looking 3D printed skin.
This is no mean feat, almost miraculous actually, since everyone’s skin is more or less different, boasting a whole lot of wrinkles (for some) and veins in various areas. Hence, getting a right match for the person who needs some skin pronto is not exactly a walk in the park, but the project’s leader, Dr. Sophie Wuerger, is feeling optimistic about the entire operation. She and her colleagues are developing a system which will eventually tailor-print skin to match individual patients. This is made possible with the development of a 3D scanning camera that can build 3D images of a patient’s skin in different light levels, while data from such scans will eventually be fed and processed by a computer, resulting in a printout for patient-specific skin grafts.
3D Printed Skin A Future Possibility original content from Ubergizmo. 
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