HomeHealthcare
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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.
UK trial allows patients to book doctor visits via remote
Amidst the recent boom in home healthcare gizmos that are enabling the elderly to better care for themselves, it's no surprise to see a trial hit the UK which allows patients to book GP appointments via their TV. The system was devised by EMIS, and was initially available "through the Looking Local portal on the interactive menus on Sky, cable, and Freeview boxes with a modem or broadband connection." Additionally, users could access the menu via WAP-enabled mobile phones, and customers in participating areas were able to "access information from the doctor's receptionist along with a password which allowed them to log in to the system." Results from the pilot program included fewer missed appointments and less time spent chatting with the ill over the phone, but we don't foresee any of these productivity savings being passed along to the consumer in the form of pounds and pence.
