Homehealth
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Can Canary's smart home camera keep your home secure?
Canary is a 6-inch-tall black plastic cylinder that's designed to be a one-stop shop for securing your home. Essentially, it's a $249 infrared security camera that alerts your phone or tablet when it senses motion. Then, all you have to do is open the app to see a live video feed to determine if you need to call the cops. I've been testing the device out over the last month to see if it's enough for me to leave my home's security system off forever.
Intel and GE form healthcare joint venture, sluggish Atom-powered home servants on the way
Okay, so maybe we're only half-kidding about the prospective of having home health robots that can barely multitask, but we're hoping that Intel and GE at least have the heart to equip any domicile servants with a Core i3 or stronger. If you haven't heard, the two aforesaid companies have joined hands this week to create a 50/50 joint venture, one that'll result in the creation of a new healthcare company "focused on telehealth and independent living." Financial terms aren't being disclosed, but the goal is pretty simple: "to use technology to bring more effective healthcare into millions of homes and to improve the lives of seniors and people with chronic conditions." It's a bit unclear at this point what all the duo will be creating, but we wouldn't be shocked to see medical tablets, Core i7 980X-based "medical monitoring PCs" and Moorestown-powered "I've fallen and I can't get up!" neck pieces surface in the near future.
4HomeMedia's HealthPoint 1500 provides remote health monitoring
There's not a lot to go on just yet, but 4HomeMedia looks to be invading the ever-expanding home healthcare industry with the HealthPoint 1500. Dubbed an open-standards home health hub, the device reportedly provides remote health monitoring, offers up "in-home benefits" for elders and keeps friends, family and caregivers connected via a fully customizable Health Portal. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of details beyond that, but stay tuned for further developments.
Air-driven robotic legs hop, skip and jump
Though we've certainly seen robotic legs that like to get their jump on, a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo have assembled a new two-legged creature that can actually spring up about 50-centimeters on its own -- and land gracefully. The creation is part of a larger project aimed at creating humanoids with cat-like (or just human-like, really) reflexes that can better assist the elderly when used as caregivers. Moreover, this hopper relies on air-driven artificial muscles rather than electric motors, and while we're not sure it could hang with Ronaldinho, it can boot a fútbol when asked.
MIT builds robotic weight loss coach
In an attempt to understand how humans react to having a robotic weight loss coach in their home versus simply using the software that the machine is loaded with, the imaginative folks at MIT have constructed a sociable robot that wants to see you reach your ideal weight. The robot uses internal cameras and face-tracking software to maintain eye contact with you while you attempt to fib about exactly how much exercise you've had, and the external touchscreen allows you to input data such as food / calorie consumption and duration of exercise. The creature is slated to hit the homes of select Bostonians as the designers begin to test its long-term effectiveness, but those looking for a glimpse of it in action should check out the video provided in the read link.[Via TechDigest]
Infrascanner: the handheld NIR hematoma detector
As technology continues to make doctors' lives a bit easier (not to mention saving a few in the process), we've got yet another device that can detect a potentially fatal problem long before mere humans can figure it out. The Indian-based Infrascanner is a "handheld, non-invasive, near-infrared (NIR) based mobile imaging device used to detect brain hematoma at the site of injury" within the most important stage of pre-analysis. The device could also aid in the decision to proceed with "other tests such as head Computed Tomography (CT) scans" when not "facilitating surgical intervention decisions." While the methods behind the scanning are quite sophisticated, the unit uses diffused optical tomography to convert the light differential data seen in the local concentrations of hemoglobin into "interpretative scientific results." Potentially best of all, however, is just how close this thing is to actually hitting hospital wards, as it's simply missing the oh-so-coveted FDA stamp of approval before it can see commercial use.[Via MedGadget]
