AalborgUniversity
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ICYMI: VR real-life surgery, drone impact study and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-436615{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-436615, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-436615{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-436615").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Royal London Hospital and VR company Medical Realities made the first VR surgical training video while performing an operation on a real person. Meanwhile the pain of getting hit by a drone's propeller is being studied in Denmark. We're also showcasing a wearable for stress relief that reminds you to do some deep breathing or meditation. Definitely make sure you read about the web master who deleted thousands of websites accidentally (poor guy) and the UC Davis blunder of trying to cover up the Pepper Spray Cop. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Danish professor crafts a robotic twin: behold the Geminoid-DK (video)
Uncannily realistic telepresence humanoids aren't just for the Japanese -- this week, it was revealed that Denmark is home to a brand-new Geminoid -- the Geminoid DK. Modeled after professor Henrik Scharfe at Aalborg University, this Geminoid-F derivative was constructed by Kokoro and ATR, the very same organizations that built the last few we've seen. The more things change, the more they stay the same: DK pulls off the beard quite nicely, but it still looks downright creepy when it smiles, blinks and breathes. See for yourself in plenty of video footage, both above and after the break.
iPhone 4 antenna problems were predicted on June 10 by Danish professor
Well, this must be one of the most epic "I told you so" moments in the history of consumer electronics. Professor Gert Frølund Pedersen, an antenna expert over at Denmark's Aalborg University, managed to get his concerns about the iPhone 4's external antennae on the record a cool two weeks before the phone was even released. In an interview on June 10, the Danish brainbox explained that he wasn't impressed by Steve Jobs' promises of better reception, describing external antennas as "old news," and suggested that contact with fleshlings could result in undesirable consequences to the handset's reception: "The human tissue will in any event have an inhibitory effect on the antenna. Touch means that a larger portion of antenna energy becomes heat and lost." Machine-translated that may be, but you get the point. Researchers at Gert's university have already shown that over 90 percent of any phone's antenna signal can be stifled by holding it in the right place, but he's highlighting the specific exposure to skin contact as a separate issue to be mindful of. Good to know we've got sharp minds out there, and as to his suggested solution, Gert says phones should ideally have two antennae that act in a sort of redundant array, so that when one is blocked, the other can pick up the slack. So, what are we going to do now, Apple? [Thanks, Andrew]
