Archive for the ‘wearables’ category: Page 48
Jun 6, 2017
What Happens When Cyborg Tech Goes Beyond Medicine?
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, robotics/AI, wearables
The age of the cyborg may be closer than we think. Rapidly improving medical robotics, wearables, and implants means many humans are already part machine, and this trend is only likely to continue.
It is most noticeable in the field of medical prosthetics where high-performance titanium and carbon fiber replacements for limbs have become commonplace. The use of “blades” by Paralympians has even raised questions over whether they actually offer an advantage over biological limbs.
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May 22, 2017
MIT used bacteria to create a self-ventilating workout shirt
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: bioengineering, wearables
Many rain jackets have zippers at the armpits that, when opened, let out perspiration and funk that would otherwise stay trapped inside. But researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a prototype of a wearable that vents itself automatically in response to sweat—and it does so using bacteria.
Wen Wang, the lead author of a new study about biohybrid wearables in the journal Science Advances, says that the garment with bacteria-triggered vents represents just a stepping stone on their way to creating shirts that do something even better: produce a pleasant smell when you sweat.
To make the prototype garment, the researchers experimented with different structures of latex and bacteria, says Wang, a bioengineer and former research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and the university’s department of chemical engineering. One such configuration involved just two layers: bacteria on one side, and latex on the other. But what worked best for creating the vented wearable was coating latex on both sides with a type of bacteria called B. subtilis.
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May 17, 2017
Project Telepathy: Team explores bioelectric signals produced
Posted by Carse Peel in categories: neuroscience, wearables
(Tech Xplore)—Researchers at the University of Bristol have figured out how you can whisper to someone up to 30 feet away. Their approach managed to translate facial expression into ultrasonic words.
David Lumb in Engadget said the researchers built a wearable system; its components are a speaker worn on the forehead or chest and electrodes placed on the lips and jaw.
The only “snag,” as New Scientist called it, is fairly substantial. How could one be a stellar secret message-passing agent in a crowd when staring people would find it odd that person is wearing a speaker on his head and walking around with electrodes around his mouth.
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May 11, 2017
3D Printing the Way to Bionic Humans
Posted by Carse Peel in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, cyborgs, health, transhumanism, wearables
A pressure sensor printed directly on a hand is a step toward new biomedical devices, “on the fly” wearable technology, and more…
(Inside Science) — Wearable technology may soon be at your fingertips — literally. Researchers have developed a pressure sensor that can be 3D printed directly on your hand. The device, sensitive enough to feel a beating pulse, is made from soft, stretchy silicone that conforms to the curves of your fingertip.
May 10, 2017
Precision typing on a smartwatch with finger gestures
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: augmented reality, media & arts, mobile phones, virtual reality, wearables
If you wear a smartwatch, you know how limiting it is to type it on or otherwise operate it. Now European researchers have developed an input method that uses a depth camera (similar to the Kinect game controller) to track fingertip touch and location on the back of the hand or in mid-air, allowing for precision control.
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May 6, 2017
Kurzweil: By 2030, Nanobots Will Flow Throughout Our Bodies
Posted by Simon Waslander in categories: biological, nanotechnology, neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil, wearables
Another futurist, Dave Evans, founder and CTO of Silicon Valley stealth startup Stringify, gave his thoughts about Kurzweil’s nanobot idea in an interview with James Bedsole on February.
Evans explained that he thinks such a merging of technology and biology isn’t at all farfetched. In fact, he described three stages as to how this will occur: the wearable phase (where we are today), the embeddable phase (where we’re headed, with neural implants and such), and the replaceable phase.
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Apr 13, 2017
Toyota shows robotic leg brace to help paralyzed people walk
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI, wearables
Toyota is introducing a wearable robotic leg brace designed to help partially paralyzed people walk.
The Welwalk WW-1000 system is made up of a motorized mechanical frame that fits on a person’s leg from the knee down. The patients can practice walking wearing the robotic device on a special treadmill that can support their weight.
Toyota Motor Corp. demonstrated the equipment for reporters at its Tokyo headquarters on Wednesday.
Apr 8, 2017
A temporary tattoo that brings hospital care to the home
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: biotech/medical, habitats, health, wearables
What if doctors could monitor patients at home with the same degree of accuracy they’d get during a stay at the hospital? Bioelectronics innovator Todd Coleman shares his quest to develop wearable, flexible electronic health monitoring patches that promise to revolutionize healthcare and make medicine less invasive.
Mar 31, 2017
Google and Levi’s Are Releasing the World’s First ‘Smart Jacket’ This Year
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: wearables
With the exception of activity trackers and smartwatches, it’s fair to say that wearable technology hasn’t really taken off just yet, but if Google and Levi’s have their way, that could soon be about to change.
The two companies are teaming up to release their first co-designed product – the world’s first ‘smart’ trucker jacket (yep, that’s a thing now). It looks for the most part like a regular Levi’s Commuter jacket, but with a conductive fabric called “interactive denim” and a Bluetooth device that attaches to the sleeve.
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