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PRIME hand injury diagnosis system takes hold of innovation prize

It may look like little more than a pegboard and a force meter at present, but the PRIME hand-strength measuring device has already won first place at the IShow innovation showcase. Its magic lies in the custom software loaded onto the appended PDA, which makes it possible to accurately and repeatably diagnose hand and wrist injuries that doctors currently test for by squeezing and prodding. The Rice University students responsible for the Peg Restrained Intrinsic Muscle Evaluator have applied for a patent and are planning to commercialize the device, so we'll be looking for it on the next episode of House.

[Via Physorg]

Panasonic banks on robot drug dispensers


Panasonic isn't the first company to turn to robots as a means for dispensing drugs, but it looks like it's set to become one of the bigger players in the still fledgling field, with it announcing today that it's developing a robot that it hopes will rake it about 30 billion yen (or $315 million) by 2016. Unfortunately, Panasonic isn't quite ready to actually show off the robot just yet, but it says it could be making the rounds at some Japanese hospitals by next March, and head into the United States and Europe sometime after that. It's also not ready to do much talking about specifics, with it only going so far as to say that it "does not look humanoid" but rather looks like "a cabinet with lots of small drawers" (no doubt somewhat like the Pyxis bot pictured above), and that it'll be able to store medical data for each patient and sort out prescriptions for up to 400 patients in about two hours. That cabinet won't come cheap though, with Panasonic estimating that it'll cost "several tens of millions of yen," or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Via TG Daily, image courtesy Wikipedia / Jeremy Kemp]

Steve Jobs back to work at Apple


And he's back, folks. Six months after Steve Jobs took a medical leave from Apple due to health reasons, the company has announced that he's back on the job, working a "few days a week" on the Apple campus and from home the remainder. Of course, we'd been hearing of Steve's continual involvement in "key aspects" of Apple's business for a while now, so this seems like more of a rubber stamp on the status quo than a major change, but now that it's official we're sure the questions from shareholders and other interested parties regarding Steve's health will only grow louder and more insistent -- especially given the news of his liver transplant earlier this year. We'll see how Apple decides to handle the situation when the time comes -- until then, we're just thankful that he's returned and is doing well.

Thinergy micro-battery retains charge for years, very easy to misplace


As you know, it wouldn't be a typical day in the blog mines without some revolutionary battery news, and for today's fuel cell fix we'd like to present the Thinergy Micro Energy Cell. Developed by Infinite Power Solutions and consisting of "a new class of electronic component that bridges the performance gap between batteries and supercapacitors," the battery is downright lilliputian: about the thickness of a postage stamp, and half the area at its smallest. Since the battery requires a minimum of four volts to charge (with the ability to hold its charge for years) these guys are perfect for RFID cards and Big Brother-style thought-control implants. Tinfoil helmet squad: You've been warned!

[Via Red Ferret]

BMW's Emergency Stop Assistant halts your vehicle if you can't


While it may seem as if BMW and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany just hate seniors, we kind of doubt that's the prevailing mentality behind the admittedly brilliant Emergency Stop Assistant. Said technology is being testing as part of the Smart Senior project, and in theory, it will be able to detect medical emergencies, activate hazard lights and autonomously pull the car over safely if the driver cannot. Of course, we're still anxiously awaiting details on how the system plans on detecting said calamities and figuring out how to pull over without crashing, but one thing's for sure: OnStar just got a lot more outdated.

DeafBlind Communicator helps deaf / blind individuals communicate

Every so often, we stumble upon a new piece of technology designed to assist deaf and / or blind individuals, but we've yet to see a creation so complete as this. HumanWare, working in tandem with the Washington State Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, has concocted a DeafBlind Communicator to provide a trio of communication options to handicapped individuals: face-to-face-, TTY and SMS. The DBS system consists of two separate components -- the BrailleNote and a DB-Phone, the latter of which is a specially designed handset with a QWERTY keyboard and unique software that helps the deaf-blind community converse with bus drivers, waiters, friends, family, etc. The Braille menus enable those folks to easily strike up conversations and live life more easily, and it seems as if sales inquiries are being fielded as we speak.

[Thanks, Drew]

NC State gurus keep hearts beating outside of the body


If NC State's athletic branches had even half the aptitude as its medical researchers, maybe then those blue boys down the road wouldn't have so much right to bang us up. Personal beefs aside, we're simultaneously stoked and amazed by a new machine crafted down in Raleigh, one that enables scientists to keep a heart pumping even after it has been removed from the body, but for research purposes only. Andrew Richards, a bright young mechanical engineering student, designed the so-called dynamic heart system, which "pumps fluid through a pig heart so that it functions in a very realistic way." Obviously, such a device has a multitude of benefits, including time / money savings compared to alternative approaches, the ability to record the inner workings of a pumping heart and scoring the creator some serious street cred in the industry. Mind-blowing video is just after the break.

[Via Neatorama]

Corkscrew nanopropellers may one day deliver drugs internally

Clearly, vaccinations are so three years ago. As the race continues to find the best, most mobile internal transportation device for delivering drugs to remote places within the body, Peer Fischer of The Rowland Institute at Harvard University has teamed with colleague Ambarish Ghosh to concoct the wild creation you see to the right. The glass-derived nanopropeller was designed to move in a corkscrew motion in order to plow through syrupy, viscous liquids within the human frame. The device itself is fantastically small, measuring just 200 to 300 nanometers across at the head and 1 to 2 micrometers long. Fischer points out that each of these can be controlled with a striking amount of precision via an external magnetic field, though we don't get the impression that they'll be on to FDA testing in the near future. Ah well, at least our gra, er, great-grandchildren will be all taken care of.

Robot Hall of Fame expands to include Da Vinci, Terminator, Roomba


Forget those "sporting" Halls of Fame -- the real HOF is right here. Since 2003, the Robot Hall of Fame has been honoring robots and creators at an exhibit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now we're seeing the latest handful of noteworthy creatures take their rightful place in history. For those unaware, the Robot HOF is maintained by Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Science Center, and an international jury of researchers, writers, and designers has just selected five new bots to join the cast: Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the T-800 Terminator (yes, that Terminator), the Da Vinci surgical system, iRobot's Roomba and 'Huey, Dewey, and Louie' from the 1972 sci-fi flick Silent Running. Could you have imagined a more fitting five? If so, sound off below!

Vena-enabled asthma inhaler adds IR and Bluetooth connectivity, won't sync with your headset

Putting a new twist on inhalers, Cambridge Consultants this week announced a new Vena platform for medical apparatuses. It's comprised of two wireless standards, Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) and the IR-based IEEE11073, for exchanging data with between devices. The Vena respirator marks the first demo unit and will connect via smartphone or computer to help keep track of when it's being used and can provide reminders for patients who need to scheduled doses. The information can also be sent to relevant doctors and anonymously to health care specialists who like to mine these numbers and find trends. If you're looking to see it for yourself and maybe try to smooze your way into a lungs-on, it'll be at the Respiratory Drug Delivery Europe 2009 conference in Lisbon, Germany later this month.

[Via CNET]

Mind-controlled wheelchair prototype is truly, insanely awesome


We've seen brain-controlled wheelchairs in the past, but we've never seen them in action. This one, developed and built at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, uses an EEG cap worn on the head, using a P300 neurophysiological protocol and automated navigation. The user sees a real-time visualization of his surroundings on the screen in front of him, and then concentrates on the space which he wants to navigate to. The EEG detects the location, which is then transmitted to the autonomous navigation system, which then drives the chair to the desired location, avoiding any obstacles that might be in the way. Once the location has been chosen, the user can sit back and relax while the chair does all the work, making the use of the system far less mentally exhausting than some previous iterations which demand constant concentration on the target. Although there is no information about commercial availability of the wheelchair, it has been successfully tested by five different participants in a study. There's a video with a more detailed explanation of its impressive operation after the break.

Merlin medical implant monitoring system approved for use in Europe

Merlin.net, a medical monitoring system developed by St. Jude's Medical has been approved for use in Europe (after previous approval in the US). The system transmits medical information from an implanted pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), to a Merlin monitoring unit in the patient's home, which then transmits the information to the hospital or caretaker. Transmitting the data can occur at any time, regardless of whether the patient is even awake, and provides constant monitoring of the patient. If the system detects a possible problem or "event," it will alert the doctor by text message, email or fax, making possibly emergency situations more easily treatable. Merlin is expected to be marketed to health care provides starting in the spring -- which is currently happening -- so any day now.

[Via Medgadget]

Venus wearable monitor could offer alternative to needles


It looks like folks wary of needles now have yet another piece of technology to look forward to, with this so-called Venus device promising to measure tissue oxygen and pH levels without the need to draw any blood at all. To do that, the system makes use of a relatively small sensor that's placed directly on the skin, which uses near infrared light to measure to measure the blood and analyze both the tissue oxygen and pH, as well as the the metabolic rate. As a bonus, the lack of needles also reduces the the risk of infection, and it's relatively portable nature makes it ideal for use outside of strictly medical situations, such as monitoring athletes -- or astronauts, as it was originally developed for. As you might expect, however, the device is still just in prototype form, and there doesn't appear to be any indication as to when it might move beyond the lab.

USB ultrasound device coming to a Windows Mobile phone near you?

Two computer science professors at Washington University in St. Louis have produced a USB ultrasound probe which is compatible with Windows Mobile smartphones. The project, funded by Microsoft, has developed and optimized probe that uses less power, and is enhanced for data transfer rates on cellphones. The devices could be especially useful in on-the-go situations -- for ambulances, emergencies, and for use by traveling medical staff. The makers also foresee that the device could positively effect medical practice in the developing world, where equipment and doctors can be scarce, and a small, but cellphone access is ever increasingly prevalent. We don't know when these might be commercially available, but they are hoping to sell them for around $500 -- significantly cheaper than many portable ultrasounds, which can cost almost $30,000.

Update: Check out another image after the break.

[Via Physorg]

Ossur's new POWER KNEE prosthesis sports A.I., motorized actuators


Perhaps it's a sobering reminder of the world we live in, but we've seen prosthetic technology grow in leaps and bounds over the last couple years. Continuing the upward arc, Ossur has just announced its second generation POWER KNEE device. Developed in partnership with Victhom Human Bionics, the device is billed as "the world's first and only motor-powered, artificially intelligent prosthesis for above-knee amputees." Features include: advanced torque and accelerometer sensors that keep an eye on the ground level and compensate accordingly; actuators that actively lift and stimulate the users own muscles for walking up stairs, inclines and ramps; and what the company is calling its "artificial intelligence" features, which allow the device to "observe the whole state of the respective human-system interface." Currently in use at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a full commercial release is expected by 2010.
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