May 16
May 13
MedRef for Glass uses facial recognition to identify patients, keeps health records
Posted in: Today's Chili
We’ve seen a few interesting apps built specifically for Google’s new headset but, to our knowledge MedRef for Glass is the first that recognize people’s faces. The basic functions aren’t anything terribly ground breaking: you can create and search patient files, and even add voice or photo notes. What makes Lance Nanek’s creation unique is its support for facial recognition. A user can snap a picture of a subject and upload it to the cloud, where it will search patient records for a match using the Betaface API. All of this can be done, relatively hands-free leaving a doctors well-trained mitts available to perform other necessary medical duties. There’s still a lot of work to do, and Nanek hopes that with more powerful hardware the facial recognition feature could be left running constantly, removing the need to snap and upload photos. In the meantime, if you’re one of the lucky few to have an Explorer edition of Google Glass you can install the package at the source link. Otherwise, you’ll have to make do with the demo video after the break.
Filed under: Wearables, Software, Google
Via: SlashGear
Source: MedRef for Glass, NeatoCode
May 13
May 10
May 09
The other day we reported that an artist had picked up pieces of DNA retrieved from public places and used them to print 3D portraits, which we have to say is pretty creepy. Now it looks like Pioneer is hoping to do the same thing, except that instead of picking up random pieces of DNA, they will instead offer to print a 3D holographic image of an unborn baby’s expression using the company’s full-color hologram printer developed by the company last year.
Pioneer plans to market this service as a means to commemorate births, but at the same time it does look a little creepy and we’re not sure what was wrong with the age old tradition of a regular ultrasound photo. The film used to capture these holographic images is a high-performance film designed specifically for holograms in mind called Bayfol HX. The result is a hologram which is visible within a 23 degree angle, and will be 200 components high, and 300 wide. If you’d like to see it in action, check it out in the video above.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sensoria Socks Could Prevent Injuries Before They Happen, These Masks Can Give You Superhuman Hearing, Sight, 
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May 08
Do you have a great love for running? If you have answered in the affirmative, then do take note that with some 25 million runners in America alone, over half that number are said to suffer some type of injury within this year itself. Since the adage “prevention is better than cure” makes a whole lot of sense, what would happen if someone had invented a new kind of sock that was capable of informing you should you run in an incorrect manner, and would hurt yourself eventually? Sounds like science fiction, but the real deal is pretty much in the bag already thanks to the new wearable technology known as Sensoria Socks (patent-pending).
The Sensoria Socks will not only be able to track steps, speed and distance, but it does far more by keeping tabs on weight distribution on the foot as you stand, walk, and run. It is smart enough to identify injury-prone running styles, where it will then rely on a simple app to coach the runner in order to reduce those tendencies. Runners are also able to use the app to benchmark and analyze performance, and whenever one picks up an injury or disease, the Sensoria is also capable of tracking patient adherence and offloading data. Expect the Sensoria Socks to be commercially available sometime in the third quarter of this year.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: These Masks Can Give You Superhuman Hearing, Sight, 3D Printed Bionic Ear Merges Cartilage And Antenna, 
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May 06
The idea of having superhuman powers is one I’m sure many of you can relate to as being able to fly, superhuman strength and invisibility are some of the powers you’ll probably want to have. But a group of students at the Royal College of Art in London created a set of masks that offer as close as an experience to having superhuman powers as you’ll probably get in your lifetime.
The two masks that were developed cover certain portions of the wearer’s face, the first one being worn over the ears, mouth and nose, while the other is worn over the eyes. The first prototype uses a directional microphone that makes it possible to hear isolated sounds within an environment filled with ambient noise. The second mask uses a camera to capture video to then send it to a computer which can apply a number of effects in real-time, which the wearer can then view. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: TitanArm Exoskeleton Can Help Its Wearer Lift Heavy Stuff, Google+ Hangouts get live captions, 
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May 04
Columbia University’s low-cost robotic arm is controlled by facial muscles, we go face-on (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
We’ve seen Emotiv’s Epoc headset control cars and trapeze acts, but now a small posse of students at Columbia University is teaching it how to control a robotic arm. The appendage, aptly named ARM for Assistive Robotic Manipulator, was envisioned as a wheelchair attachment to help the disabled. According to the team, the goal was to keep costs in the neighborhood of $5,000 since insurance outfits Medicare and Medicaid won’t foot a bill for assistive tech that’s much more than $10,000. To keep costs low, the crew built the limb from laser cut wood, and managed to keep the final price tag at $3,200. Since picking up EEG signals and interpreting them accurately can be tricky, the group says it settled on monitoring EMG waves, which are triggered by muscle movements, for additional reliability.
Lifting your eyebrows makes the device open its grip, clenching your teeth shuts it and moving your lips to the left and right twists the claw, while other motions are currently handled by using a PlayStation 2 controller. In the lab, the contraption has seven degrees of freedom, but it was reduced to five when we took it for a spin. It was hit or miss when this editor put the headgear on, between making sure facial gestures were spot on and the equipment’s attempts to pick up clear signals.
May 04
TitanArm already took home silver in a competition for senior projects at the University of Pennsylvania, and now the team behind it is visiting Orlando to compete in the Intel-sponsored Cornell Cup for embedded design. We stopped by the showroom and snagged a few minutes with the crew to take a look at their creation: an 18-pound, untethered, self-powered exoskeleton arm constructed for less than $2,000.
To wield the contraption, users attach the cable-driven mechanical appendage to themselves with straps from a military-grade hiking backpack, and guide it with a thumbstick on a nunchuck-like controller. If a load needs to be held in place, the wearer can jab a button on the hand-held control to apply a brake. A Beagle Bone drives the logic for the setup, and it can stream data such as range of motion wirelessly to a computer. As for battery-life, they group says the upper-body suit has previously squeezed out over 24 hours of use without having to recharge.
Gallery: TitanArm hands-on
May 02
It seems that the world of 3D printing is getting more and more advanced, and having said that, to see 3D printing used in medical circles is also a boon, such as the story that we talked about earlier this week concerning the ability to print one’s own kidneys sometime down the road, as early experiments in mice proved to be successful. Well, a group of researchers led by Michael McAlpine, an assistant engineering professor at Princeton, have managed to cobble together a prototype artificial ear using an antenna and 3D printed cells.
McAlpine has labored for years when it comes to churning out electronic parts which can be be integrated with the human body. For instance, a couple of years back, he and his team built a graphene tattoo which could be stuck on a tooth in order to detect bacteria. This time around, he managed to deliver a 3D printed bionic ear that would merge cartilage alongside an antenna, and early tests showed that this ear is capable of picking up radio waves, where throwing in a “complementary” left and right pair combination might enable one to listen in stereo, now how about that?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Japan Plans To Build Robot Nurses To Help Caregivers Assist Elderly Patients, TitanArm Exoskeleton Can Help Its Wearer Lift Heavy Stuff, 
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