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Penn doctors perform the first robot-assisted spinal surgery
Surgical robots are capable of feats that even the most skilled doctors can't manage, and the University of Pennsylvania just offered a textbook example. The school has confirmed that it performed the first-ever robot-assisted spinal surgery, using Da Vinci's robotic arms to remove a rare tumor where patient Noah Pernikoff's spine met his skull. The two-day operation, which took place in August 2017, started with neurosurgeons preparing the spine using ultrasonic cuts, and then brought in the robot to clear a path for removing the tumor through Pernikoff's mouth (you can see a slightly graphic illustration below). The team then used some of Pernikoff's own bone to reconstruct the spinal column section they'd removed.
Edible robot surgeons will cure you from the inside out
Back in 1985, the best robotic surgeon we had was the Puma 560, a manipulator arm just barely more advanced than Rocky Balboa's robo-butler. Just barely. The Puma was nevertheless revolutionary. It was the very first mechanical operator, progenitor to steady-handed robo-surgeons like the DaVinci system. But in the near future, robots will no longer be cutting into us -- from the outside, at least.
The unending fight to preserve 'The Last Supper'
In April, Italian marketplace chain Eataly announced it would sponsor the latest effort to preserve Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper. It's the perfect marketing partnership: A food company saves the most famous depiction of a meal for future generations. This excerpt is from its online announcement, titled "Eataly Saves The Last Supper":
Tiny surgical robot can bend and operate on hard-to-reach areas
The coin above wasn't enlarged to make the pincer-like device look extremely small -- it's really that tiny. That "pincer" is a two-millimeter-thin instrument designed and built by a group of researchers from Vanderbilt University for incredibly precise minimally invasive surgery. It's pretty comparable to the da Vinci surgical robot, though that one has bigger needles and requires five to eight millimeter incisions. According to the Vanderbilt team's lead researcher, Robert Webster, the da Vinci works great for abdominal surgery, but it's not ideal for smaller parts of the body. Unfortunately, "the da Vinci uses a wire-and-pulley system that is extremely difficult to miniaturize any further," he said.
Makers of controversial government surveillance software hacked
When you call your enterprise "Hacking Team" you'd like to think you're pretty on top of that whole, well, hacking thing. Yet here we are, telling you about how the aforementioned organization has just seen 400GB of data pilfered from its servers, and put onto BitTorrent for all to see. Hacking Team is known for its controversial "Da Vinci" software that allows governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor encrypted communications such as email and Skype conversations, and collect evidence on citizens. It's fair to say it's not popular with journalists and privacy advocates.
Octopus-inspired surgical tool will dig deep into your guts
Telecommuting surgeons are becomingly increasingly adept at working on humans but there are still limits on what they can do using the stiff metal manipulators of a robotic stand-in like the DaVinci. This new omnidirectional grasping appendage, however, could one day wind its way into the most remote corners of your body cavity and gently cradle your guts with the same dexterity as an octopus' tentacle.
New surgical robot makes it easier to perform complicated surgeries (video)
Those who visited our Expand events in San Francisco and New York last year already know that Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci robot allows for minimally invasive surgery while still giving doctors the kind of dexterity and control they need to do the job. However, the current iteration of the system, the da Vinci Si, is only optimal when targeting a small, focused area. If the surgeon wants to explore a different part of the body mid-operation, he or she would need to reposition the entire apparatus, which sometimes means driving the patient cart around to the other side or having to wedge the da Vinci base in between the patient's legs. Today, however, Intuitive Surgical has announced the da Vinci Xi, a brand new surgical robot that promises to make it a lot easier for surgeons to perform exactly those kinds of complex surgeries.
Here's a $499 3D printer
After the deluge of announcements from MakerBot and 3D Systems over the past two days, it's likely going to be tough for any other 3D printing companies to cut through the noise this week at CES -- though XYZprinting's got something most of the competition can't match: a sub-$500 price point; $499, to be exact. The Taiwanese company will be brushing elbows with the big boys, showcasing the da Vinci 2.0, a semi-enclosed cube printer with a 7.8 x 7.8 x 7.8 build volume, which is set to launch in Europe, Japan and the US come March.
Hear Leonardo da Vinci's 500-year-old instrument play for the first time (video)
Leonardo da Vinci invented numerous devices that he never built, including the viola organista -- a machine-like instrument that combines a harpsichord, an organ and a viola da gamba. This 500-year-old idea is now a reality, however, thanks to Polish musician Slawomir Zubrzycki. His 5,000-hour project faithfully recreates da Vinci's concept, using a keyboard to press steel strings against moving wheels wrapped in horse hair. The results are sweet-sounding, despite the seemingly odd approach; as you'll hear in a debut performance after the break, Zubrzycki effectively becomes a one-man string ensemble. While it's doubtful that you'll ever find a viola organista in the local music shop, the one-off creation proves that da Vinci knew how to blend technology and art. [Image credit: Tomasz Wiech AFP/Getty Images]
Tokyo's IBIS robot promises cheaper surgery, throws shade at da Vinci (video)
"Anything you can do, I can do cheaper," says the Tokyo Institute of Technology while jabbing a rude elbow in the ribs of Intuitive Surgical. The Japanese institute is showing off IBIS, a surgical robot that is expected to cost between a third and a tenth of the $2 million it takes to buy one of Intuitive's da Vinci droids. Unlike its electrically powered American rival, IBIS is pneumatic, making it significantly cheaper and able to provide force feedback to surgeons when the arms touch something. The engineers behind the 'bot are hoping to produce a practical version within the next five years, and we're already thinking about inviting both machines along for a fight at Expand 2020. In the meantime, you can catch IBIS in action in the video after the break.
Engadget Expand speakers, Round Five: Robots, bionics, da Vinci surgery and more!
It's time for another unveil of the speaker lineup we've got brewing for Expand in San Francisco this March 16-17. We've got four more inspiring thinkers and doers who will be joining us on stage at Fort Mason Center: Marc Raibert: President & Chief Robot Lover, Boston Dynamics Catherine Mohr: Sr. Director of Research, Intuitive Surgical MG Siegler: General Partner, CrunchFund Russ Angold: Co-Founder and CTO, Ekso Bionics™ They're joining a whole host of other rad speakers including Chris Anderson (CEO, 3D Robotics and former editor-in-chief, Wired), Yancey Strickler (Co-founder and Head of Community, Kickstarter), Steve Cousins (CEO, Willow Garage), Julie Uhrman (Founder and CEO, OUYA) and many more. Stay tuned here and on our social channels (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) for more agenda reveals and other Expand news. Plus, find out who the attendees are most looking forward to seeing...
SRI unveils Taurus, DaVinci's bomb-defusing little brother
This is SRI International's Taurus. Brought to you by the minds behind the DaVinci robo-surgeon, the diminutive (14 x 5-inch) bad boy is used to detect and defuse IEDs. Piggy-backing on existing devices such as Talon or PackBot, the device delivers hi-def 3D images and haptic feedback (via gloves) to a bomb disposal tech operating from a safe distance. According to IEEE Spectrum, it works so well that users forget they're working remotely. Right now it's a prototype, but with any luck the system could be in the field as early as this summer.
da Vinci Robot pwns Operation, deems our childhoods forlorn (video)
What happens when a robot with immaculate dexterity comes to grips with a notorious board game from our childhood? Just ask Johns Hopkins University students, who successfully removed the wish bone from an Operation board using the da Vinci Robot. If you're familiar with the game, you'll know how incredibly difficult it was to prevent that ear-piercing noise from occurring-- even with our tiny fingers. Of course, we should have expected that a robot -- especially one capable of folding a tiny paper airplane -- would be able to accomplish this feat with such ease. Be sure to peep the pseudo-surgery in video form below the break.
Surgical robot builds tiny paper airplane (video)
Like killing elephants, paper airplane construction is a skill passed from father to son generation after generation -- at least until the robots take over. Dr. James Porter knows this and has done us the service of putting together a video showing him manipulating a da Vinci surgical robot to deftly fold a tiny paper airplane. So why not call in the kid and click through the break for all the go-action, daddy. It's not quite as impressive as robotic prostate surgery but hey, at least it's not prostate surgery.
Kinect Hacks: DaVinci drawing interface, flying machine
Two more crazy Kinect hacks have been captured on video, making a nice thematic pairing. First, Razorfish's DaVinci software has been ported to Kinect, allowing users to draw onscreen by making gestures, and then interact with those drawn objects Crayon Physics-style. Second, researchers at UC Berkeley's Hybrid Systems lab mounted a Kinect on an autonomous quadracopter, allowing the machine to sense its surroundings in 3D. You know who else invented a crazy helicopter thing? That's right -- Da Vinci! We told you there was a theme. Check out both videos after the break, and ponder the question: if Kinect can now fly around on its own, why would it want to stay home and play MotionSports with you?
Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video)
Razorfish is a little marketing company that has done some impressive things on Microsoft's Surface, things you may or may not have seen because that particular brand of pedestal hasn't exactly become a threat to the global dumbtable market. One of Razorfish's cool things is a so-called Surface Physics Illustrator called DaVinci, which lets a user doodle on the screen and turn those doodles into balls, boxes, levers, and fulcrums. Now that code has effectively ported that code over to Kinect, as you can see in the video below, letting you do the same sort of things but with thine own two hands floating in mid-air. You can cause shapes to levitate, create gravity between them, make things orbit, even enable magnetism that alternately pulls and hurls your little doodles across the screen. The company is said to be continuing to refine the experience and maybe, if you all ask nice, they'll even release the app when they're through so you can try it for yourself. [Thanks, Luke]
First all-robot surgery performed at McGill University
A team of surgeons at McGill University, including the da Vinci robo-surgeon and a robot anesthesiologist named, of all things, McSleepy, recently removed some dude's prostate during what is being billed as the world's first all-robotic surgery. The device transmits hi-def 3D images to a nearby workstation, where it is controlled by surgeons "with a precision that cannot be provided by humans alone," according to MUHC urologist-in-chief Dr. A. Aprikian. Of course, the robots are being kept on a tight leash by their human operators, with McGill's Dr. Thomas Hemmerling pointing out that "[r]obots will not replace doctors but help them to perform to the highest standards." Just tell that to all the other medical robots we've seen in this space, eh, doc? We've heard they have plans. Bad plans.
Digital Storm's Davinci workstation gets down with Core i7-980X, Quadro graphics
Creative professional. Hear that much? If that's how this all-too-structured world views you, you just might be due a new rig -- particularly if you're thinking of stepping into 4K territory. Digital Storm is offering up a rather unique solution in its Davinci, which opts for a 3.33GHz Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (yeah, that new Intel chip) instead of a more traditional Xeon. You'll still get an NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 (768MB) GPU, 12GB of DDR3 memory, Windows 7 Processional and one of the nicer liquid cooling systems that we've seen, which may or may not be enough to sneak a little Crysis in between edits. Too bad the base price base rings up at $4,995, but look, that next indie film you're producing is totally hitting it big.
Robotic Surgical Simulator lets doctors sharpen their skills by operating on polygons
These days you wouldn't jump behind the controls of a real plane without logging a few hours on the simulator, and so we're glad to hear that doctors no longer have to grab the controls of a da Vinci surgical robot without performing some virtual surgeries first. The Center for Robotic Surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University of Buffalo School of Engineering have collaborated to create RoSS, the Robotic Surgical Simulator. Unlike our Ross, who works odd hours and covers fuel cell unveils with innate skill, this RoSS allows doctors to slice and dice virtual patients without worrying about any messy cleanups -- or messy lawsuits. We're guessing it'll be awhile before consumer versions hit the market, but just in case we've gone ahead and put our pre-orders in for the prostate expansion to Microsoft Cutting Sim 2014™.
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!
