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Do iPods cause ear infections?
According to a recent health column in The Australian, iPod earbuds in and of themselves will not cause ear infections. Prolonged use, however, may irritate the ear canal making it more prone to infection. Ear buds can also pick up material from an outer ear infection and transfer it into the inner ear. The risk is pretty slight says column writer Dr. Linda Clabresi. Of more concern to her is the risk to long-term hearing caused by constant exposure to loud music. "Constant loud music will cause a premature deterioration in a person's hearing. A good rule of thumb is if people around you can easily hear what you're listening to via earphones, it's too loud."
Wave-powered Edinburgh Duck desalinates seawater
Sure, in theory we could use the LifeStraw to purify enough water to quench the thirst of thousands of people, and if Aqua Sciences proves successful in its endeavor to pull water out of thin air, desalinating the seas could prove unnecessary. Nevertheless, Stephen Salter at Edinburgh University in the UK is working with a research team to perfect the "Edinburgh Duck" and provide useful water for needy individuals. The desalinating critters convert wave energy into pressure changes that aid the collection of pure water (in the form of steam) from seawater; by lowering air pressure, the system can draw steam from water at lower temperatures. The pressure-driven machines operates sans electricity by using the crashing motion of waves to operate its innards in a "piston-like motion," slowly but surely creating salt-free water that's pumped back ashore through the two legs that tether the duck to the seabed. Although current prototypes are only pumping air, finalized units could be 10 meters in diameter and 20 meters long -- a device large enough to supply water for "more than 20,000 people." While we're sure the targeted audience here is arid countries with good access to seawater, those days at the beach would be much more enjoyable without generous helpings of NaCl finding their way into our mouths.[Via Slashdot]
Gymkids busts out Step2Play, frustrates lazy children
While it's no surprise that children are gaining weight at an alarming rate these days, there's always the Dance Dance Revolution workout or the entirely more evil MealpayPlus route, but now Gymplay is offering up a fitness-based middleman to keep kids' heart rates up while gaming away. Crafted solely for Sony's now antiquated PlayStation console, the appendage acts as a liaison between the controller and your system, requiring the child (or adult, actually) to continually exercise at an "adjustable rate" determined by the lieutenant parent in charge. The Step2Play will only allow the controller to function if the youngster onboard is keeping those paddles moving at a satisfactory pace, and supposedly targets the "calf and leg muscles" -- but we can envision a good bit of hostility being created when little Johnny finds this accessory waiting under the tree. Although we can't imagine any sane child enjoying this torment as much as the (presumably staged) children are in the photo above, you can give your offspring the gift of motivation for a staggering £115 ($218).[Via Uber-Review]
LouseBuster kills lice, is ineffective against Slimer, Gozer
We're sure Dan Aykroyd and the gang never envisioned their symbolic ghost-busting machine being converted into a lice-evicting device, but researchers at the University of Utah are doing just that. The "chemical-free, hairdryer-like device" -- dubbed the LouseBuster -- eradicates head lice infestations on children by exterminating the eggs (or "nits"), and killing enough lice to prevent them from reproducing. While the description may make some folks queasy, Dale Clayton not only supports the head vacuum, but claims that it cured his teenagers from their own battle with lice. The rake-like comb channels air from the machine into the hair, which after several half-hour treatments makes the environment too arid for lice to survive; however, the team was quick to warn parents that hairdryers weren't an acceptable substitute for the miracle-working powers put forth by the LouseBuster. Nevertheless, Clayton hopes his spinoff company, Larada Sciences, will have the presumably Bill Murray-approved apparatus on shelves soon.[Via MedGadget]
Artificial aid annoys user to counteract short-term memory loss
It's oftentimes tough to recall recent events, names, or gamertags while having a perfectly "normal" state of mind, but folks with brain damage, Alzheimer's disease, or ADHD are commonly plagued with the inability to bring back memories from just moments earlier. The function of the brain known as the "phonological loop" acts as a type of echo to hold snippets of pertinent information (such as phone numbers, directions, etc.) momentarily in your brain until you can get it written down; individuals suffering from short-term memory loss often lack this overlooked, but obviously critical, functionality. Daniel Bogen, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has crafted a handheld device which acts as an aural stopgap to help people remember important information. The device boasts a speaker, microphone, and controls for recording / playback, and will automatically play reminders of the user's latest sound byte every two minutes, or if chosen, will nag its carrier to vocally repeat the message into the machine until he / she does so. To presumably prevent those amnesiac customers from perpetually misplacing their device, Bogen is considering integrating the hardware into "cellphones or wristwatches," but apparently forgot to mention when he hopes to see these in consumers' hands.
Men's Health suggests using the Wii
While we cannot say we subscribe to Men's Health magazine, someone over at Infendo apparently does as they caught a mention of Nintendo's newest console in the "Ask the Girl Next Door" column of the most recent issue. Turns out, one reader is looking to get his girlfriend into gaming and upon asking how he can accomplish this task, receives the following response:"Calling her over to watch you pistol whip a hooker in GTA or solve the riddle of the moon druids in Myst IV is not the way. Maybe you should buy that new Nintendo system with the stupid name, Wii. It was designed to suck video-dissing women into the virtual world. Personally, I'm addicted to Rockstar's Table Tennis and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory."It's pretty easy to just name-check games, so we don't put much stock in her credibility as a gamer, however a mentioning of the Wii is easily accepted and encouraged.[Via Infendo]
Matsushita Electric Works intros blood-toting HOSPI robot
Although Matsushita usually spends its toiling hours crafting gigantic televisions and ultrathin LCDs, the hard hat-wearing Matsushita Electric Works is busting out a blood-transporting robot to waltz the long, white halls in medical facilities everywhere. Designed specifically for "research institutes" which deal with blood inspections, the HOSPI droids are designed to work in groups which transport vials of blood from one workstation to another, while it "automatically analyzes" the containers on board. The self-proclaimed "sample conveyance robot" can wheel around at a blistering 2.2 mph to various destinations sans the need for tracks or human guidance, as it relies on programmable maps to understand the proper routes it should take. Sporting dual CPUs, the 'bot can presumably continue to operate (albeit less quickly) if one processor fails, and it also boasts the ability to dock itself in a recharge station if its battery is running low. Moreover, it sports a "highly precise laser radar" to avoid crashing into its blood-running brethren, walls, stray wheelchairs, and unmonitored patients. No word yet on how HOSPI reacts to EMMA's incessant requests for a date, however.[Via Digital World Tokyo]
Software in development to detect / monitor infant pain
Sure, we've got plenty of ways to inflict pain, but aside from obvious signs conveyed through body language, how can we be sure someone is actually hurting? In the case of infants, their facial expressions cannot be trusted to determine whether he / she is really aching, as hunger and desire for attention can yield very similar (and equally misleading) faces. Sheryl Brahnam, an information scientist at Missouri State University at Springfield, is currently developing software that has proven "90 percent accurate" thus far in truthfully differentiating between honest distress and false alarms. Brahnam's system, dubbed the Classification of Pain Expressions (COPE), analyzes facial signals such as "how scrunched up the eyes are, the angle of the mouth, and the furrow of the brow" to determine root causes. The system relies on a "neural-network learning algorithm" that has been trained on a database of 204 photographic images of 26 different infants taken during a "standard heel prick," which is widely known to aggrieve infants. Brahnam admits the software has "a ways to go" before ready for clinical use, but the ability to accurately detect pain could lead to quicker diagnostics in infantile issues, and probably keep clueless parents of whiny babies a tad more informed sane.[Via MedGadget]
NEC busts out "world's highest resolution" LCD
The leapfrog game played by manufacturers wanting to hold that oh-so-coveted "world's largest" claim has spread from megapixels to HDTVs, and now onto resolution. This time around, however, NEC is simply outdoing itself, as its latest 21.3-inch a-Si (amorphous silicon) LCD rocks an astounding 2,800 x 2,100 resolution. The previous "record" holder was NEC's NL256204AM15-01/01A, whose sesquipedalian model number was only trumped by its prodigious 2,560 x 2,048 pixel count. The panel also sports the company's own "super-fine TFT (SA-SFT)" technology, which enables a brightness of 1000 cd/m2 and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. If you're mulling over picking one of these up to really show off that kilowatt-burning quad SLI setup, you should probably know that this uber-fine monitor comes in monochrome only, as its sole purpose (for now) is to examine detailed medical imagery such as digitized X-rays. It's probably for the best, though, as we don't envision these black and white bad boys coming in cheap at any rate.[Via TGDaily]
Verathon's war-tested GlideScope Ranger video laryngoscope
If you've ever played a round of Team Fortress as a medic, you know how rough it is out there on the battlefield, and having cutting-edge medical gear makes everyone's life a lot easier. Verathon is looking to assist medically trained soldiers in the field handle throat injuries with its GlideScope Ranger, which enables easy viewing of the endotracheal tube, larynx, and vocal cords. The video laryngoscope provides a "clear, real time view of a patient's airway for fast intubations in military / emergency settings," and boasts a "Cormack-Lehane grade I or II view 99 percent of the time." Able to withstand the most extreme conditions, this portable device touts an "easy learning curve," so the operator should have no trouble seeing the less-than-pleasant issue(s) on the "non-glare monitor." The unit also sports an anti-fogging camera, "50 to 60 degree viewing angle" (so the whole platoon can get an eyeful), and the ability to perform 20 intubations on a single battery charge. Unsurprisingly, the GlideScope Ranger was crafted by a Vietnam veteran, and while we aren't sure if these will be made available to us common citizens, you might get lucky at your local PX.[Via MedGadget]
Teenager plays Space Invaders with only his brain
While having a robotic assistant play video games for you might sound novel, it's certainly not as thrilling as interacting with the 1s and 0s yourself. A team of researchers, engineers, and students at Washington University in St. Louis have crafted a brain-computer interface system that allowed a 14-year old gamer suffering from epilepsy to cruise through the first two levels of Space Invaders using only his imagination. Rather than picking up an Xbox 360 and perusing through the Xbox Live Arcade, the crew went back to their roots and programmed an Atari 2600 to interface with the brain-sensing apparatus. The headgear boasted a grid of sensors that monitored "electrocorticographic activity" from the brain's surface to detect signals based on thought processes that were going on. By calibrating his thoughts with video game triggers, the teenager was able to learn the ropes "almost instantaneously," and had no qualms demolishing the competition while twiddling his thumbs. The group plans to use this successful experiment to further understand the mysterious signals of the mind and give physically disabled individuals a chance to show of their mental sharpness, but we're hoping to see this thing bundled in with the sure-to-be-delayed PlayStation 8 that should hit shelves sometime before 2040 2050.[Via MedGadget]
Macworld on healthy computing
Most people know that the right ergonomic setup is important to maintain not only good productivity but good health. Far too many otherwise healthy and intelligent people, including Mac pundit and New York Times columnist David Pogue, succumb to painful, sometimes even debilitating, RSI or back pain caused by flawed work environments. Lucky for those of us who don't have the time to do a full re-configuration of our computing areas, Macworld has a two succinct and informative articles on small but important things you can do to improve the ergonomics of your desk. The first article touches on methods for improving over-all physical ergonomics such as screen and keyboard positioning and best practices for how to set up your chair. Once your big picture is all comfy and healthy, it's time to look at the software tools such as TextExpander which can help reduce the amount of repetitive actions one takes in their daily computer usage.
Better eating habits through gaming
Can gaming teach us healthier ways to eat? Nonsense! A recent Electronic Arts study concluded that commercial games can be effective teaching tools in the classroom. Last week, researchers at the University of Sydney found that automated dietary advice, similar to Amazon recommendations, reduced the amount of saturated fats in the goods purchased by the participants. The two studies are not necessarily mutually exclusive: imagine a 3D platformer where your enemies all shared a common thread of containing copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup. Would you subconscious start avoiding foods that contain HFCS, or at least check the nutrition labels?Yoshi's Fruit Cake? Veggie Burger Time? Scrumdiddly-umptious.See Also:W. Virginia to put DDR in all 765 public schoolsParent prefers kid dabbling in coke over playing video gamesRead - New tool helps online shoppers buy lower-fat food [Reuters, via Geek.com]Read - Video games have 'role in school' [BBC News]
2nd Stand-Alone Power Assist Suit aids in patient lifting
While we could've devised a slightly more compressed moniker, the 2nd Stand-Alone Power Assist Suit is shaping up to help nursing personnel take a load off their backs while helping patients get around (and work on their biceps) a lot easier. Stronger and more compact than its predecessor, the 66-pound full body contraption is designed to help nurses and home caretakers with lifting their patients who cannot provide any substantial muscular assistance. While it currently only handles patients up to 180 pounds, it cuts the amount of force necessary to get them up and about by 50 percent, and integrated "micro air pumps" aid the patient in busting a move (or just getting to the lavatory) once they're strapped in. Powered by portable batteries, built-in sensors determine which movements are being made, and the pumps are then inflated and deflated in patterns desgined to assist the typical walking, lifting, and moving motions. Although it can only muster about half an hour of assistance, creators are determined to improve on the current model in order to help rehabilitating individuals regain the strength required to move sans machinery -- much like Activelink's motorized jacket. While the team couldn't pinpoint a completion date, we can envision these popping up in quite a few wards not already stocked with superhuman robotic assistants handling the hoisting.
Matsushita and Activelink unveil rehabilitating robotic suit
If tossing on a HAL cyborg suit and ascending a mountain seems a bit intimidating to you, Japanese firms Matsushita (producer of Panasonic) and Activelink have partnered with Kobe Gakuin University to develop a robotic jacket that helps rehabilitate paralyzed individuals with slightly less "lofty" goals. The vest, which slips over an individual's upper body and arms (no leg support just yet), allows the person to move their unaffected arm as they please, while it mimics the muscles in the paralyzed area(s) to help the patient recall the feelings of maneuvering that limb. By teaching the person to take over for the motorized "stretching and bending compressors" within the device, the 1.8-pound suit can gradually help someone to regain stimulation in a previously motionless area of their upper body. Activelink reportedly plans to "start testing" the unit at a Hyogo hospital soon, and make it commercially available by March 2009. The only kicker is the price -- at ¥2,000,000 ($17,159), customers best ensure their insurance plan is mighty stout before suiting up in this.
Mucus-riding robot headed to intestines
While the thought of having anything, much less a robot, crawl around and inspect our intestinal tract is certainly not in the forefront of our minds, Dimitra Dodou from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands hopes her ideas will change the way colonoscopies are performed. Currently, uncomfortably large tubes or devices known as "wormbots" crawl through the delicate linings of your intestines, typically causing a great deal of discomfort in the process. Dodou's prototype contains a "polymer material" that clings to proteins found in the mucus lining of the gut, but can have its "sticky properties temporarily turned off" when sprayed with water. This two-faced material can be used in "snail-like" transporters that move by alternately gliding forward when it releases water, "sticking around" to control direction, and repeating again until the final destination is reached. By the close of 2006, Dodou hopes to have a camera-equipped version available for trial, which could be quite helpful in taking biopsies. Although we certainly don't intend on going under the knife anytime soon, it's quite comforting to know that Dodou's mucus-riding robot should makes things easier to stomach (ahem) if the occasion arises.
Xbox used for stroke rehab
The PlayStation 3 isn't the only game system that researchers are hoping to use to help the sick. Engineers at Rutgers university have modified an Xbox to work with Essential Reality P5 gaming glove and custom software to help stroke patients in their rehabilitation. Patients use the glove to control a virtual hand and practice motions such as wiping a picture clean and flexing fingers to scare away a butterfly.Similar, custom-made virtual rehab systems are already available, but the Rutgers engineers said the hacked Xbox setup costs less than $600 to set up and "may one day rival systems 10 times as expensive." Nice to see that Microsoft's subsidized hardware is good for something other than encouraging game sales and that mod chips are good for something other than piracy.[Via Boing Boing]
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RFID to prevent loss of surgical sponges inside patients
We always said those sophisticated tracking tags had to be good for something other than data processing and jazzing up passports, and as the list of applications continues to grow, a study at Stanford University is showing how RFID chips can be used to potentially save lives. 1 out of 10,000 surgery survivors will experience the misfortune of having a foreign object remain in them after they're all sewn up, and nearly 67% of those remnants are surgical sponges. The traditional tracking system (eyes and careful counting) has failed enough times to cause 57 deaths since 2000, definitely not something you want to hear when you're going under the knife. Researchers have determined that tagging sponges (and other supplies) with RFID tags allows for a chip-reader to scan the body and detect any remaining, erm, used paraphernalia, yet to be removed. Volunteer-led studies have shown a perfect success rate in discovering leftovers thus far, and hopes are to have every instrument in the OR RFID'ed. This may make a few folks queasy, but we're all for keeping our innards a sponge-free environment.
Eyedrop robot at high-tech medical devices expo
A smorgasbord of new medical devices are on display through tomorrow at the International Modern Hospital Show 2006 in Toyko, Japan, and we're seeing some impressive robots get face time at the expo. Specifically, a lovable teardrop-shaped unit caught our, um, eye; the Muu Socia 3.0 is a brilliant social mediator that facilitates conversation between the care giver and care taker by adding interjections and livening up the chat (saywha?). This little fella is pretty advanced, too: voice recognition, voice synthesis, speech recognition, and even facial recognition aren't beyond its abilities. Who wouldn't want a colorful cyclopic raindrop around in case the small talk gets stale? And don't even think of turning your back on it; just watch it get a little jumpy when something gets in the line of duty. [Via Pink Tentacle]
Bluetooth SIG drafting Medical Device Profile
Your Bluetooth-enabled PC or handset will soon be able to do more than just stream audio and sync data, as the SIG responsible for the wireless protocol has announced a forthcoming profile that will enable pairing with health and fitness monitoring equipment. Although several proprietary monitoring solutions are already on the market, the so-called Medical Device Profile will allow third-party manufacturers to release hardware with guaranteed interoperability, which should help grow this nascent use of the technology. Scheduled for completion sometime during the first half of next year, the new profile will allow users to both track pertinent statistics on their Bluetooth devices and easily send that data to doctors, coaches, or trainers. Luckily for us heavy Bluetooth users, the profile will also be compatible with the upcoming Ultra Wideband (UWB) standard, meaning that the fitness-related bits traveling to our smartphone won't have to fight for bandwidth with the tethered GPS receiver and A2DP tunes we rock during our workouts.[Via MedGadget]
