The Penelope Surgical Instrument Server makes its debut
Remember that "robotic scrub nurse" we mentioned back back in January? Yeah, well the voice-controlled Penelope Surgical Instrument Server assisted in its first surgery the other day, helping a surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital here in NYC successfully remove a benign tumor from a woman's arm (they don't say whether she consented to have Penelope be part of the show or not). The voice-controlled bot can automatically grab surgical instruments when called for ("scalpel please!") and then pick it up and put it back when it's no longer in use, while at the same time keeping track of everything that's used in order to make sure that nothing is, uh, accidentally left behind (you really don't want to wake up with some forceps inside of you).
[Thanks, icebin]
