Untitled

wired:

Want a new part for your synthesizer? Need a replacement knob or dial? One company is telling its customers to just print their own.

smarterplanet:

How Big Data Is Improving Healthcare

With the increasing digitization of healthcare, the trend of “Big Data” has been gathering steam. According to a new report from digital health consultancy DrBonnie360, there is an estimated 50 petabytes of data in the healthcare realm. That’s predicted to grow, by a factor of 50, to 25,000 petabytes by 2020. The report, which I’ve summarized in this post, does an outstanding job of profiling the leading products utilizing Big Data in healthcare.

DrBonnie360 principal Dr. Bonnie Feldman, a former dentist, health consultant and sell-side equity analyst, identified six ways Big Data is being applied in healthcare:

• Support Research - Genomics and Beyond
• Transform Data to Information
• Support Self-Care
• Support Providers - Improve Patient Care
• Increase Awareness
• Pool Data to Build a Better Ecosystem

wildcat2030:

Most people appreciate electronics that are durable and can last for years before needing to be replaced. If the device in question is a medical implant or a sensor for monitoring environmental conditions, however, designers might prefer the gadget to simply biodegrade without a trace once its purpose is fulfilled. University of Illinois researchers, working with colleagues at Tufts University and Northwestern University, report in the September 28 issue of Science having developed a way to make “transient” electronics able to do just that by dissolving in small amounts of bodily fluid. Other triggers for dissolution and absorption by the body might someday include heat, radiation and pH levels. (via Electronic Sensors That Dissolve Could Keep Tabs on the Body from the Inside [Video] | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network)

wildcat2030:

In a few short years, the technologies found in today’s mobile devices—touch screens, gyroscopes, and voice-control software, to name a few—have radically transformed how we access computers. To glimpse what new ideas might have a similar impact in the next few years, you need only to have walked into the Marriott Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this week. There, researchers from around the world demonstrated new ideas for computer interaction at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Many were focused on taking mobile devices in directions that today feel strange and new but could before long be as normal as swiping the screen of an iPhone or Android device.

“We see new hardware, like devices activated by tongue movement or muscle-flexing, or prototypes that build on technology we already have in our hands, like Kinect, Wii, or the sensors built into existing phones,” said Rob Miller, a professor at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and the chair of the conference.

One of the most eye-catching, and potentially promising, ideas that was on show makes it possible to perform complex tasks with a flick of the wrist or a snap of the fingers.

A wireless low-power, high-quality EEG headset

Imec, Holst Centre and Panasonic have developed a new prototype of a wireless EEG (electroencephalogram, or brain waves) headset designed to be a reliable, high-quality and wearable EEG monitoring system.

The system combines ease-of-use with ultra-low power electronics. Continuous impedance monitoring and the use of active electrodes increases the quality of EEG signal recording compared to former versions of the system.

How it works

The EEG data is transmitted to a receiver located up to 10 meters away. The headset integrates active electrodes (reduce the susceptibility of the system to power-line interference and cable motion artifacts to improve signal quality), EEG amplifier, microcontroller, and low-power wireless transmitter.

The receiver can continuously record 8-channel EEG signals while concurrently recording electrode-tissue contact impedance (ETI), a measure of contact quality.

The system has a high  (>92 dB) common-mode rejection ratio (to reduce interference from power lines and other sources) and low noise (<6 µVpp, 0.5-100Hz), with configurable cut-off frequency (to filter out high or low frequencies).

The heart of the system is the low-power (750µW) 8-channel EEG monitoring chipset. Each EEG channel consists of two active electrodes and a low-power analog signal processor. The EEG channels are designed to extract high-quality EEG signals under a large amount of common-mode interference. The active electrode chips have buffer functionality with high input impedance (1.4GΩ at 10Hz), enabling recordings from dry electrodes, and low output impedance reducing the power-line interference without using shielded wires

The system is integrated into imec’s EEG headset with dry electrodes, which enables EEG recordings with minimal set-up time. The small size of the electronics system, measuring only 35mm x 30mm x 5mm (excluding battery), allows easy integration in any other product.

(via wildcat2030)

cnet:

Anyone can be a MythBuster at Explosive Exhibition:

Visitors to MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition in San Jose, Calif., will get a chance to try out some of the popular myths from the hit show, and see many artifacts from the show’s long history.

Check it out

wired:

fastcodesign:

Gorgeous sculptures made of old VHS tapes. Remember those? 

We’ll bet no one in the 80s figured this would end up being the best way to display their Cusack classics.

wildcat2030:

It’s a superhero suit for Earth and outer space. NASA and other research groups have made a wearable robotic suit, called X1, to live a double life of usefulness. Up in space, the suit would act as an exercise machine for astronauts, providing extra leg resistance for space travelers. On Earth, the suit can be tuned to lighter settings and support paralyzed people in standing and walking. “It’s the exact same suit,” said Nic Radford, the former project manager for NASA’s so-called exoskeleton research who now leads NASA’s research into humanoid robots. The X1 is an example of the myriad uses that are coming out of NASA’s Robonaut project, which sent a robot helper to the International Space Station last year, he said. The X1, which incorporates many Robonaut technologies, straps onto wearers’ shoulders with a harness and supports wearers’ legs with separate shells. The shells have 10 joints, including four motorized joints for the hips and knees and six nonmotorized joints that allow wearers to step side to side, turn and flex their feet. (via Robotic Suit Aids Astronauts and Paraplegic Patients | TechNewsDaily.com)

wildcat2030:

Imagine a time when your computer is embedded right into your workstation. You don’t have to think too much because Malte Weiss, Simon Voelker, Jan Borchers from the Media Computing Group and Christine Sutter from the Department of Work and Cognitive Psychology of the RWTH Aachen University in Germany came up with a working prototype that puts two and two together called the BendDesk. The BendDesk is basically a working prototype of a desk that’s got a huge, multi-touch computer built right into it. The horizontal and vertical surfaces are connected, so users can interact and do their work on both screens seamlessly. (via BendDesk is a Workstation and Multitouch Computer in One | OhGizmo!)

g-technology:

Kim Pimmel is a photographer and user-interface designer that creates long-exposure photographs of light using LEDs, Arduino microcomputers, servos and other lighting mechanisms, as well as common objects like ping pong balls and pendulums.

See more of his visually stunning work on his website.