Imagine having a personal trainer and nutritionist right in your pocket. Introducing Fitbit: a small device that automatically tracks the user’s fitness and sleep, allowing people to know everything about their daily activities. In short, Fitbit knows you better than you know yourself. The device contains a 3D motion sensor and converts all of the user’s daily activities into useful information. Staying healthy and eating right will become significantly easier.
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Helen Keller asked people to think about how they would use their eyes if they only had three more days to see. Thinking about what one would do forces one to understand exactly how important sight is to human enjoyment of life. Researchers at University of Washington have developed contact lenses with circuits that will enhance the way that we see the world. Future wearers of these contact lenses with circuits will be able to see what the display is superimposing on the world with a virtual display.
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A new kind of intraoral camera has been created that allows people at home to view plaque and tartar build-up without having to go to the dentist for a check-up.
According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, 12% of adults age 20 to 64 have not been to the dentist within the past 5 years. Lack to proper dental treatment can lead to many health problems, including tooth decay and gingivitis. Now, however, Miharu has created a way to save you a trip to the dentist’s office, while still keeping your teeth clean. With the Miharu Intraoral Dental Camera, people will be able to quickly and easily view plaque and tartar build-up at home.
The intraoral dental camera is powered only by a pair of AAA batteries and comes with protective covers, a 3.5 ft (1 meter) video cable, and a macro lens cap. The lens cap and covers also allow you to use the camera to check other parts of the body that you may want to check such as your facial skin, your scalp and your back. The device plugs into the television, allowing people to view their teeth on a large screen. Using the mode change button the user is able to see how much plaque build-up he or she has by illuminating the problem areas in pink.
Dr. George Freedman, DDS, points out that this convenient tool is used by many dentists in the office because of its convenient design and size. The camera can be bought for under $200, which is quite reasonable when compared to other intraoral cameras used by dentists in the office. Education is the key to good oral health, and intraoral cameras can be a very effective way of getting patients to improve both their oral health and their awareness.
A new drivable wheelchair with the power of mind has been designed for people with severe neuromuscular disabilities, and can even be used in crowded or unfamiliar surroundings. To direct the wheelchair, users concentrate on one of several possible destinations in a 3D map of their surroundings, which appear on a screen in front of them.
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People pride themselves on being independent; it is one of our most prized freedoms as a human being. Imagine, however, being a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair and dependent on others for assistance. The Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Lab at the Polytechnic University of Milan has developed an innovative technology that allows people who cannot use their own limbs (because of accidents or congenital illnesses) to drive their own wheelchair using the power of their brain.
This wheelchair, named LURCH, has many new capabilities that other wheelchairs do not posses. LURCH, which stands for “Let Unleashed Robots Crawl the House”, uses a cerebral interface called BCI (Brain Computer Interface) – an electroencephalograph detects the cerebral activity, which is then analyzed and interpreted by an Artificial Intelligence program.
To direct the wheelchair, users concentrate on one of several possible destinations in a 3D map of their surroundings, which appear on a screen in front of them. Users wear a skullcap with 16 electrodes positioned around their scalp, which detect millisecond-long fluctuations in brain activity happening when the user looks at the point on the screen that coincides with a target destination. The wheelchair uses this map and its sensors to steer the user to their destination, avoiding any obstacles along the way. It is the only wheelchair design to incorporate mind-control in a system capable of real-time navigation, route planning and collision avoidance.
This wheelchair, which should be available by 2012, can and will change the life of many people with neuromuscular disorders such as quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis.
Beautiful, agile, and successful. Aimee Mullins has these qualities and much more. She’s a girl that transformed her weaknesses into strengths. She’s a model and an actress that contributes by giving a new significance to the concept of disability.
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Aimee had both her legs amputated right below the knee when she was one, and from that point on she fought to live a normal life, and to eliminate the word “disabled” from her vocabulary. Aimee Mullins did fashion shows for Alexander McQueen, worked with Matthew Barney, and like the athlete Oscar Pistorius, she demonstrated to the world that she could post amazing results on the competitive level.
The first prosthesis ever created dated back to the ancient Egyptian civilization, and it was slowly improved as the centuries rolled by. In the future however, even more powerful and efficient prosthesis’ will be built. Powerfoot allowed Aimee to improve her physical abilities, it was projected by Hugh Herr, a leader in the biomechanical field at MIT. “The next step” according to Hugh “will be to completely connect it to the human body. In the future we will be able to implement it with sensor muscles, that will receive commands from the brain like an actual human limb.”
And while Aimee shows the world the vast array of available prosthetics – made from crystal for elegant nights, from wood, or decorated with heels to match a nice dress or skirt – she invites us to reflect on how in this hi-tech era, technology with bring a sense of normality to even the most disabled of people.
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