Hasta La Gadget!

Robots do come in pretty handy if they are programmed in the right manner and are headed in the correct direction of course, such as the SkySweeper which is 3D printed and intends to help lower the cost of inspecting power lines, while there is also a shark tracking robot that will do its bit to help scientists with a heart for the environment to keep track of the world’s dwindling population of sharks. Well, here we are with yet another interesting robot from researchers who have invented it, being a robot arm system which is capable of reaching deep into the brain so that it can do away with fatal clots through the use of steerable needles.

This is a spanking new image-guided surgical system that is currently being worked on by Vanderbilt University, where it employs steerable needles that are approximately the same size as those used for biopsies, penetrating the brain with minimal damage while helping suction away the blood clot which is within. Thanks to researcher Robert J Webster’s design, it is capable of being steered in different directions without messing around with one’s brain too much – as long as the surgeon controlling it has steady hands and knows what he is doing.

Robot Treats Brain Clots Using Steerable Needles original content from Ubergizmo.

When it comes to art, this can be described as one relative topic which is always open and subject to personal interpretation. Personally, I do not have the kind of eye for modern art as deep down inside, I feel as though it lacks the kind of skill required by the Renaissance masters of old, but feel free to disagree with me wholeheartedly. Having said that, we now have the world’s smallest Mona Lisa painting ever created – where the “canvas” itself is thinner than a strand of human hair.

Researchers over at the Georgia Institute of Technology have managed to recreate the Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece through the clever implementation of a technique which can also be duplicated for nanomanufacturing. The famous painting’s “canvas” measures roughly 30 microns in width, which is approximately 33% the width of a human hair. A microscope is required in the recreation of a masterpiece, in addition to a process that is called ThermoChemical NanoLithography, where the process itself was developed way back in 2009. TCNL, the technique which was described, could eventually be used to create proteins, DNA, and nanoparticles.

Smallest Mona Lisa ‘Painting’ In The World Created original content from Ubergizmo.

People lie to their doctors all the time, even though it’s for their own good. There’s a new invention in the works that makes it impossible to deny you had that extra slab of steak or that you smoked a couple of cigarettes: tooth sensors.

They were developed by a team from the National Taiwan University. Aside from being able to detect if the person is overeating or sneaking in a couple of smokes when he or she shouldn’t be, the system also informs the doctor about it.

The sensors were tested by sticking them onto eight dentures. The researchers discovered that the sensor had the capacity to distinguish between chewing, speaking, and smoking about 94% of the time.

It’s definitely an interesting gadget, although it might be a while before it’s deployed. But the question is: would you be willing to wear it, knowing your teeth will tell on you?

[via New Scientist and Motherboard via Engadget via Geeky Gadgets]

Researchers from Asia and Europe have developed the world’s lightest and thinnest organic circuits, which in the future could be used in a range of healthcare applications.

Lighter than a feather, these ultrathin film-like organic transistor integrated circuits are being developed by a research group led by Professor Takao Someya and Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Sekitani of the University of Tokyo, who run an Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) program sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), in collaboration with Siegfried Bauer’s group at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz, Austria.

The circuits are extremely lightweight, flexible, durable and thin, and conform to any surface. They are just 2 microns thick, just 1/5 that of kitchen wrap, and weighing only 3g/m^2, are 30 times lighter than office paper. They also feature a bend radius of 5 microns, meaning they can be scrunched up into a ball, without breaking. Due to these properties the researchers have dubbed them “imperceptible electronics”, which can be placed on any surface and even worn without restricting the users movement.

The integrated circuits are manufactured on rolls of one micron thick plastic film, making them easily scalable and cheap to produce. And if the circuit is placed on a rubber surface it becomes stretchable, able to withstand up to 233% tensile strain, while retaining full functionality.

“This is a very convenient way of making electronics stretchable because you can fabricate high performance devices in a flat state and then just transfer them over to a stretchable substrate and create something that is very compliant and stretchable just by a simple pick and place process.”

This prototype device is a touch sensor featuring a 12×12 array of sensors on a 4.8 cm x 4.8 cm circuit. It is made up of two layers, an integrated circuit layer and a tactile sensor layer.

With the development of these plastic electronics, the possibility for flexible, thin, large area electronics has been realized. In the future, the group would like to expand the capabilities of these circuits.

“The new flexible touch sensor is the world’s thinnest, lightest and people cannot feel the existence of this device. I believe this development will open up a wide range of new applications, from health monitoring systems, wearable medical instruments, and even robotic skins in the future.”

The results of this research were published in the July 25, 2013 issue of the journal Nature.

This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.

Via: University of Tokyo

Let’s just say that you have always wanted to get a tattoo simply because you think it is cool, but never really got round to doing so due to so many reasons – the lack fo time, you have not […]

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.