University of Wisconsin-Madison
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ICYMI: Tornado simulators and cranial cracking robo-surgeons
Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are leveraging 20,000-core supercomputers to model the inner workings of supercells in hopes of finding out why some storms unleash tornadoes while others do not. In all, the simulation relied on nearly two billion individual data points. We also take a look at a sure-handed robotic surgeon developed at the University of Bern in Switzerland that's designed to drill tiny holes in your skull. See, in order to install a cochlear implant, doctors need to cut a small hole in your skull but the location is packed with facial and taste nerves. One wrong move and the operation can do more harm than good. But with this robo-surgeon on call, doctors can drill more deftly. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Piezoelectric system turns your balmy breath into pungent power
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have come up with a way to produce electricity from just about the most renewable source known to man -- his own breath. It's all thanks to a plastic microbelt developed by engineers Xudong Wang, Chengliang Sun and Jian Shi. Made of a material known as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), this belt produces an electric charge whenever low-speed airflow passes over it and causes it to vibrate -- a result of that vaunted piezoelectric effect. Eventually, Wang and his team were able to tinker with their system to the point where it could produce enough current to charge small electronic devices. "The airflow of normal human respiration is typically below about two meters per second," Wang explained. "We calculated that if we could make this material thin enough, small vibrations could produce a microwatt of electrical energy that could be useful for sensors or other devices implanted in the face." The researchers say their technology could be used to power smaller biomedical devices like blood monitors and pacemaker batteries, which typically don't demand vast amounts of energy. No word yet on when this system could make its way to the mainstream, but we'll be waiting with bated breath.
Spiroscout inhaler uses GPS, WiFi to track asthma attacks
Back in 2009, we told you about a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist using GPS to tag asthmatics in an effort to better understand what was triggering their attacks. Two years later, David Van Sickle and his current company, Asthmapolis, are about ready to turn his research into a commercial product dubbed the Spiroscout. The USB-powered inhaler uses GPS as well as WiFI to track patients' inhaler use, which Van Sickle says will yield a fuller, more accurate body of data than the self-recorded logs patients are often asked to keep. The benefit is two-fold, Van Sickle says: physicians can use this data to adjust their patients' medication, if necessary, while epidemiologists might have more insight into population-level trends. As PhysOrg notes, this isn't the first inhaler of its kind (incidentally, that would be Asthmapolis' first-gen product, the SiliconSky GPS), but it may be the most practical one to date in that it doesn't come with a bulky box attached. Spiroscout isn't available just yet -- the company expects it to ship in the fall -- but curious asthmatics can reserve theirs now.
Twitter-brain interface offers terrifying vision of the future
We'll be honest, we're always on the lookout for faster and better ways to annoy our Twitter followers with hopelessly mundane status updates, and this brain-control interface from the University of Wisconsin's Adam Wilson seems to be the perfect to get all Scoble on it with a minimum of effort -- you think it, you tweet it. Okay okay, we kid -- it's actually just the usual brainwave-control setup you've seen everywhere, and the average user can only do ten characters a minute, but think of the potential, people. Soon everyone will know that you are "Walking on sidewalk, LOL" almost the second you think it, and all it will take is a mindreading cap paired with a sophisticated computers running an advanced signal processing algorithm connected to the massive infrastructure of the internet via a multibillion-dollar mobile broadband network. That's progress. Video after the break.[Via Hack A Day]
Researcher plans to use GPS to study asthma triggers
You wouldn't expect GPS tech to have an impact on asthma research, but the University of Wisconsin-Madison's David Van Sickle says it will -- he's planning on tagging sufferers so he can learn when and where they reach for their inhalers. The data will hopefully make sorting out environmental triggers of the disease much easier -- it took scientists eight years to prove that soybean dust near the Barcelona harbor caused a massive asthma outbreak in the 80s, a timeline that might have been dramatically shorter if location information had been available from the start. The plan's still in the early stages, but would-be participants can sign up already -- let's just hope the tracker is slightly more attractive than Kogan's enormous watch unit.[Via CNET]
Researchers create human-like "shape-shifting" lens
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have gone back to the source for inspiration with their new artificial lens, creating a so-called "shape-shifting" lens that mimics the way a human eye works. Like other liquid lenses, theirs uses a glass-oil-water interface, but it also adds a a ring of polymer gel around the lens that acts like a muscle, changing the focal length as it expands and contracts. What's more, the gel apparently works simply by reacting to environmental changes, like a rise in temperature or change in acidity, allowing for both smaller and more power-efficient imaging devices than other similar lenses. One example the researchers give is an implantable lens that could react to protein changes in the human body. Not quite Fantastic Voyage territory, but we'll take what we can get.
