muscle
Latest
Daily Mac App: Muscle System Pro II
Back in March I raved about 3D 4 Medical's Muscle System Pro II iPad app. It's a photo-realistic 3D atlas of the human body that allows the user to navigate through layers of muscles with the touch of their finger. The app is so good it's found a foothold among must-have apps at medical school across the country. For those of you who work or study in the medical fields, or just have an interest in anatomy, I'm happy to say that 3D 4 Medical has now brought Muscle System Pro II to the Mac. Like its iPad brother, Muscle System Pro II for Mac allows users to look up 433 of the major muscles in the human body. Users can tap on a muscle's pin to get more information about the muscle, such as its origin, insertion, and action. Particularly helpful for students is that the app allows you to insert your own pins into a muscle and make your own notes for each individual muscle. The app also offers an interactive quiz which tests the user's knowledge of muscular anatomy. If you're a fan of the iPad app, be sure to check out the Mac version. The 3D models look absolutely amazing on a 27 inch iMac display and its just nice to be able to access a powerful research and study tool on any device of your choice. Muscle System Pro II for Mac is US$19.99 in the Mac App Store. For users interested in anatomy, 3D 4 Medical has also brought some of their other iPad apps to the Mac platform, including Skeletal System Pro II, Brain Pro, and Heart Pro. %Gallery-138704%
Researchers take one step closer to neural-controlled bionic legs for safer mobility
We've seen our fair share of prosthetic arms and computer interfaces operated with little more than the firing of a synapse, but legs? They're a different story: balancing and propelling a sack of (mostly) flesh and bone is a much more complicated task than simply picking up a sandwich. Thankfully, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago's Center for Bionic Medicine is now one step closer to thought-controlled lower-limb prosthetics. As pictured here, the researchers' early simulations showed that amputees could control a virtual knee and ankle with 91-percent accuracy, by way of pattern recognition software to interpret electrical signals delivered through nine different muscles in the thigh -- patients think about moving, thus lighting up the nerves in varying patterns to indicate different motions. The ultimate goal is to hook up bionic legs through the same way, which would offer a greater range of motion than existing prosthetics, making tasks like walking up and down stairs safer. Now all we need is a quadruple amputee willing to pick up a badge and slap on an eye-tracking microdisplay.
Muscle Trigger Points app helps you locate sources of pain
Trigger points are taut bands of muscle that send pain to other areas of the body. Oftentimes people with trigger points might suffer pain in one area of the body, like the lower back, and not realize that the pain is actually originating on the other side of the body (the psoas, in this case). The field of trigger point therapy was pioneered by Dr. Janet Travell, personal physician to John F. Kennedy. After Travell's 40-plus years of work, she co-wrote a (very expensive) two-volume, 1600 page book detailing over 700 trigger point locations and their effects on the human body. For those of you who don't want to spend a few hundred dollars on Travell's books, Real Bodywork has made a universal iOS app called Muscle Trigger Points that details trigger points for over 70 muscles and their pain referral patterns. The app itself is an excellent reference guide that lets you search for trigger points by specific muscle, or by pain zones on your body. Best of all, the app is cheap compared to Travell's books. For those of you who are into trigger point therapy, I highly recommend Muscle Trigger Points just for the fact that it provides an interactive reference that you can carry with you on your iPhone or iPad. That being said, the app does have some drawbacks. It doesn't feature all the muscles or trigger points in the human body, and it does leave out some major ones (Extensor hallucis longus, anyone?). The app also doesn't show you how to deactivate your trigger points, though it does talk you through self-treatment in a four-minute audio guide. (For those who want detailed instructions about self-treatment, Claire Davies' respected Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is the best.) Muscle Trigger Points is a universal app, and it's available for US$2.99 on the App Store.
Muscle System Pro II shows the great potential of iPad apps
Mark my words: Muscle System Pro II will one day appear in an iPad commercial. It's that good. This is one of those apps that show you just how powerful the iPad can be. Muscle System Pro II by 3D 4 Medical is an interactive learning tool that allows the user to completely explore the muscular anatomy of the human body. It uses photorealistic 3D models that the user can control in real time. You can strip away muscle layer by layer, rotate around them, view different parts of the body from different angles, and that's just for starters. You can look up 433 of the major muscles in the human body. Rotate any part of the body around to see its anterior, superior, inferior or lateral views. Pinch to zoom in on a specific muscle, and you'll see just how detailed the 3D models are -- you can even see the direction the muscle and fascia fibers are running. When you tap on a muscle's pin (a marker labeling the muscle), a pop-up shows the muscle's name, its origin, insertion, what action it performs, its innervation and its arterial supply. Furthermore, you can add a note to the muscle to record your thoughts or comments about it. Muscle System Pro II isn't cheap at US$39.99, but this isn't your run of the mill app. This is a 3D powerhouse of interactive anatomy that every doctor, chiropractor, nurse practitioner and massage therapist should own, not to mention every medical student or anyone interested in human anatomy. When you use an app like this, it's easy to tell that tablets are not just the future of consumer computing, but of learning and medical reference as well. Check out the video after the break to see Muscle System Pro II in action.
Rubbery artificial muscles promise to make robots more lifelike
Some robots may already look pretty lifelike, but it's still quite a different story when they're actually moving, when all the mechanical parts inside make themselves known with some unmistakable, robot-like movements. Some researchers at New Zealand's Auckland Bioengineering Institute now have one possible solution to that problem, however -- a motor with none of the usual moving parts. Instead, the rubbery, Cronenberg-esque contraption relies on some electroactive structures that can stretch by more than 300 percent, and expand and contract when a voltage is applied. While things are obviously still very early, it's conceivable that robots could eventually be built entirely out of these artificial muscles -- or, as lead researcher Dr. Iain Anderson succinctly puts it, "the future is soft." Video after the break.
Active Book microchip provides hope for exercising paralyzed limbs
Scientists have been experimenting with muscles and technology to solve both human and robotic mobility issues for years. Now it looks as though a team of researchers from University College London, Freiburg University, and the Tyndall Institute in Cork have made a significant leap forward for paraplegics, thanks to a revolutionary microchip the team has dubbed "Active Book." What's notable about the chip is that it stimulates more muscle groups than existing technology without the need for external connections. This was accomplished via micro-packing and precision laser processing, which allowed tiny electrodes to be cut from platinum foil and rolled into a 3D book shape. These platinum foil "pages" close in around nerve roots, and are micro-welded to a hermetically sealed silicon chip. Once embedded into areas within the spinal canal, the chip can work to stimulate paralyzed muscles, implying patients could even "perform enough movement to carry out controlled exercise such as cycling or rowing." A press release from the Council which sponsored the research says the Active Book will begin trials sometime next year -- we can't wait to see the results.
DARPA-funded prosthetic arm reaches phase three, would-be cyborgs celebrate
Last we heard from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, it wanted a neurally-controlled bionic arm by 2009. Needless to say, the school overshot that goal by a tiny bit, and have now been beaten (twice) to the punch. But DARPA sees $34.5 million worth of promise in their third and final prototype, which will enable the nine pound kit (with 22 degrees of freedom and sensory feedback) to begin clinical trials. Rechristened the Modular Prosthetic Limb, it will be grafted onto as many as five real, live persons, the first within the year. Using the targeted muscle reinnervation technique pioneered at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, patients will control these arms directly with their thoughts, and for their sakes and the fate of humanity, hopefully not the other way around. Press release after the break.
Artificial Muscle ramps up production -- expect touchscreens that push back in 2011
Last we heard from Artificial Muscle, the company was trying to convince hospitals, cell phone manufacturers and more that its technology -- a silicon film that expands and contracts with an applied voltage -- would provide a real sense of touch to their cold, hard touchscreens. On at least three counts, it has succeeded. The San Jose Mercury News reports that two cell phone manufacturers are planning Artificial Muscle-based products in 2011, and that an "electronics entertainment product" will be released this Christmas. The company also plans to produce 1 million of the electronic actuators per month to anticipate further demand. While the Mercury News notes that Artificial Muscle's product isn't the holy grail of haptic feedback -- the entire screen stiffens when pressed, not just the spot you touch -- its adoption means the company may have set events in motion to ultimately reach that goal.
DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps
Even DARPA understands that its futuristic bubble shield can be penetrated given the right circumstances, and when it does, the soldier behind it is going to need some serious healing. In a hurry. In the entity's newest budget, there's $6.5 million tucked away "for the creation of a scaffold-free tissue engineering platform, which would allow the construction of large, complex tissues in vitro and in vivo." As you well know, this type of mad science has been around for quite some time, and now it looks as if DARPA is ready for the next best thing: "non-contact forces." Put simply, this alludes to replacing scaffolds with magnetic fields or dielectrophoresis, which could purportedly "control cell placement in a desired pattern for a sufficient period of time to allow the cells to synthesize their own scaffold." It's still too early to say how close we are to being able to instantaneously heal soldiers on the battlefield, but frankly, the public is apt to never know for sure.
Artificial muscles let cadavers (and someday paralyzed humans) wink with the best of 'em
The above contraption, aside from looking really uncomfortable, is the latest advance in electroactive polymer artificial muscle technology. Using soft acrylic or silicon layered with carbon grease, EPAMs contract like muscle tissue when current is applied -- making 'em just the ticket for use in UC Davis's Eyelid Sling. Billed as the "first-wave use of artificial muscle in any biological system," the device is currently letting cadavers (and, eventually paralyzed humans) blink -- an improvement over current solutions for the non-blinking, which include either transplanting a leg muscle into the face or suturing a small gold weight into the eyelid. Look for the technology to become available for patients within the next five years.
Micromuscle makes microrobots that can live inside you
While artificial muscles stand poised to bring a new world of tactility to touchable devices, there's still hope they might fulfill some bigger, loftier goals -- like helping to save lives. That's a large part of where the research at Micromuscle is focused, creating a series of electroactive polymers that do impressive things when placed under small voltages, changing shape and even volume as demonstrated in the Engineering TV clip embedded below. In it you can see a few examples of these things folding into complex, golden structures on their own accord, but the main application seems to be things like catheters that can steer themselves through the bloodstream, drug delivery mechanisms that can deploy multiple substances on command, and even microscopic robots that can pick up tiny things and move them tiny distances. You know what this means: robot armageddon might actually start from the inside.[Via Engineering TV]
Artificial Muscle makes touchy devices burlier
In the future we envision artificial muscle driving our cybernetic soldiers and helping to repair our fleshier ones. In the present, though, it seems the tech is starting a little smaller, at least it is in the case of Artificial Muscle (the company), which has developed tech enabling a silicon film to expand or contract when a voltage is applied to it. It's currently being used to create small pumps and linear actuators and the like, and is now is being pitched as a solution for feedback in touch-sensitive devices. The silicon film is thin enough to be inserted beneath a touchpad or touchscreen, moving the surface appropriately depending on what you're stroking on-screen as shown in a video demonstration below. Impressively this tech will only cost "a couple dollars" to add to any given device, meaning even cheap netbooks could start coming with fidgity touchpads soon. Now that is progress.
Osaka University scientists create world's first optical pacemaker
Around 1.5 years ago, we got wind of researchers in the UK working up a battery-free pacemaker. Fast forward to now, and we've got yet another breakthrough in the field. Purportedly, a crew of Osaka University scientists have created the "world's first optical pacemaker," and in an article published in Optics Express, the team details how "powerful, but very short, laser pulses can help control the beating of heart muscle cells." In theory, this discovery provides the means for dictating said cells within a controlled setting, which could help researchers "better understand the mechanism of heart muscle contraction." As amazing as we're sure this is to the science world, throwing "lasers" and "heart" into the same sentence just doesn't elicit warm / fuzzy feelings.[Via Primidi]
UCLA researchers create self-healing, power-generating artificial muscle
We've seen self-healing materials and artificial arms, but a team of researchers hailing from UCLA have taken two fabulous ideas and wed them together to create "an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity." Put simply, the contracting / expanding of the material can generate a small electric current, which can be "captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery." The scientists have relied on carbon nanotubes as electrodes rather than metal-based films that typically fail after extended usage, and in an ideal world, the research could eventually lead to (more) walking robots and highly advanced prosthetics. Integrate an AC adapter in there and we're sold.[Via CNET]
Targeted muscle reinnervation enables your brain to control prosthetic limbs
If you're suddenly overcome with an eerie feeling of déjà vu, fret not, as this idea has certainly been brainstormed before. As scientists aim to make prosthetic limbs more user-friendly, a certain physiatrist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and professor at Northwestern University has developed a technique that enables artificial arms to react directly to the brain's thoughts. The process, dubbed targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), works by rewiring residual nerves that once carried information to the now-lost appendage to the chest; when the person thinks to move their arm, the chest muscle contracts, and with the help of an electromyogram (EMG), the signal is "directed to a microprocessor in the artificial arm which decodes the data and tells the arm what to do." Currently, "only" four movements are possible after the procedure, but studies are already in full swing to determine if TMR could be used to bless future patients with an even fuller of range of motion.[Image courtesy of ScienceDaily]
Virtually Overlooked: M.U.S.C.L.E.
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.It's plainly obvious that we love talking about terrible NES games here in the Virtually Overlooked squad command center. According to a statistic that we just made up, about 72% of the games we profile are awful. Nothing is more fun than snarking about a game that is not only completely without merit or value, but also old enough that nobody will show up to defend it.But what isn't so obvious is the fact that we genuinely, honestly love playing some of the worst NES games. Whether it's a result of nostalgia or some kind of bizarre preference for poor game design, we don't know. But the fact is that we would give serious consideration to buying a virtual copy of M.U.S.C.L.E., despite owning the cartridge.
Rygar screens: remember the game for the first time
We liked Rygar: The Legendary Adventure enough to want to at least look at the Wii version. We hate to admit it and indirectly support port-dumping, but messing with the yo-yo-like Diskarmor was pretty neat on a regular controller, and we kind of think it mightb be worth trying with the Wiimote. Famitsu uploaded some new screenshots of the game, all of which highlight the bizarre and absolutely non-Rygar-like character design.Famitsu actually found the new content in the game, outlining the new Wiimote-based "Muscle Mode," a battle arena where you slice tons of monsters with your Diskarmor using motion controls. You can slam the Diskarmor into the ground, generating a quake. You can also swing it around horizontally and create a sonic boom, or perform a sort of Diskarmor stab in which the Diskarmor shoots directly forward at high speed.
NC State researchers uncover muscle mimicking fibers
While some researchers over in Raleigh are having fun tinkering with PlayStation 3 farms and dodging the RIAA, NC State's Drs. Tushar Ghosh and John Muth are occupied building prototypes with fibers they say "resemble human muscle and can exhibit muscle-like capabilities when electrical currents are applied." The duo sees the development as paving the way for "advancements and potential applications in robotics, smart textiles, prosthetics, and biomedicines," as they have reportedly found that polyurethane and silicone tube structures shaped like human muscle strands can be manipulated with electricity. It was noted, however, that the current models are using strands "roughly the size of a pencil lead," but the next step is to scale down the fibers and integrate them into a robotic Mr. and Mrs. Wuf.
Here comes Beefiness Training
From Dorasu, developers of Duke Saraie no Kenkou Walking Navi, comes the very latest in awkward-looking health training programs for the DS. Nobuaki Kakuda's Kaku-chan Type Muscle Train-Navi will use exercise descriptions and animations of the very big and tough-looking karate champion Nobuaki Kakuda to teach users how to bulk up. Users will be able to choose what bulk-related issue they need to work on, with exercise programs based on specific goals, like looking good in a tank top. Then they'll get to watch Nobuaki performing the exercises in a fake living room, sometimes using chairs as props.Stuff like this is precisely why we love reporting on the Nintendo DS. We can't wait to see what the other four games in Dorasu's series are.
Mobile controller concept fits like a ... sleeve?
Tired of tapping at tiny, ergonomically suspect buttons to play your favorite mobile phone games? How about putting on a sleeve and flexing your muscles instead?Last September, mobile developer Arto Holopainen posted about a proof-of-conept case study for using two sets of EKG sensors to control a Snake game via muscle flexing. Now, Holopainen has expanded the concept with a wearable sleeve that translates flexes into standard mobile phone commands.Holopainen sees the device being used for muscle rehabilitation or as an aid to disabled phone users, but we can't stop picturing a subway car full of hapless passengers flailing about to control their games of Bejeweled. Better yet, maybe someone will adapt the device for a line of specially-designed bodybuilding games. Who has the rights to the Lou Ferrigno license?[Update: Fixed typo in Holopainen's name. Thanks Hakobus.][Via QuicklyBored]
