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Even DARPA understands that its futuristic bubble shield can be penetrated given the right circumstances, and when it does, the soldier behind it is going to need some serious healing. In a hurry. In the entity’s newest budget, there’s $6.5 million tucked away “for the creation of a scaffold-free tissue engineering platform, which would allow the construction of large, complex tissues in vitro and in vivo.” As you well know, this type of mad science has been around for quite some time, and now it looks as if DARPA is ready for the next best thing: “non-contact forces.” Put simply, this alludes to replacing scaffolds with magnetic fields or dielectrophoresis, which could purportedly “control cell placement in a desired pattern for a sufficient period of time to allow the cells to synthesize their own scaffold.” It’s still too early to say how close we are to being able to instantaneously heal soldiers on the battlefield, but frankly, the public is apt to never know for sure.

DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pinky and the Brain don’t get nearly the respect they deserve, but then again, neither do the lab coat-wearing boffins who make great strides behind sterilized doors to bring us one step closer to mass laziness. The latest development in the everlasting brain control saga takes us to the University of Washington, where a team of researchers are carefully studying the differences between doing an action and simply imagining the action. So far, they’ve discovered that interacting with brain-computer interfaces enables patients to create “super-active populations of brain cells.” Naturally, this finding holds promise for rehabilitating patients after stroke or other neurological damage, but it also suggests that “a human brain could quickly become adept at manipulating an external device such as a computer interface or a prosthetic limb.” Or a remote control, or a Segway, or a railgun. We can’t speak for you, but we certainly dig where this is headed. Video of the findings is after the break.

Continue reading Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer

Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s better than an artificial nose? Why, an artificial foot, of course! University of Michigan researchers have developed a new prosthetic foot that could one day make it much easier for amputees to walk. Put simply, this new prototype drastically cuts the energy spent per step, as it harnesses the energy exerted when taking a step and enhances the power of ankle push-off. The device is able to capture dissipated energy, and an inbuilt microcontroller tells the foot to return the energy to the system at precisely the right time. Tests have shown that those using this here foot spent just 14 percent more energy to walk than one would spend when walking naturally, which is a rather significant decrease from the 23 percent uptick experienced with conventional prostheses. If you’re still baffled, there’s a pretty wicked video demonstration waiting for you after the break.

Continue reading Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk

Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Artificial schnozzes have been sniffing foreign objects for years now, but rarely are they engineered to sniff out specific things. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have done just that, though, with a new snout that acts as a coffee analyzer. Reportedly, the device can “distinguish between ten well-known commercial brands of coffee and can also make a distinction between coffee beans that have been roasted at different temperatures or lengths of time.” The significance here is that this distinction is incredibly difficult to make, and it could one day help coffee growers determine whether batches are as good as prior batches on the cheap. More importantly, however, it could help the modern java hunter determine whether or not they’re walking in a corporate Starbucks or one of those “branded” kiosks with two-fifths the menu. Brilliant, right?

Artificial nose becomes coffee analyzer, sniffs out KIRF Starbucks venues originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It won’t officially launch until May, but we’re already guessing that the folks over at DaVinci are casting quizzical glances towards BeBionic. The UK-based outfit is teasing what it calls the “next generation of fully articulated myo-electric hands,” which are said to provide “a range of naturally compliant grip patterns that provide repeatable accuracy” to those who have lost their own hand(s). Better still, the functions (speed, grip force, grip patterns, etc.) can be customized to suit each individual user, and the integrated wireless chip means that said tweaking can take place sans any troubling USB cables. The company’s also planning to reveal the planet’s first powered wrist with rotation capabilities as well as flexion / extension, and the range just wouldn’t be complete without silicone skin available in 19 tones. Hop on past the break for a couple of promo videos — we get the feeling the world of prosthetics is about to take a huge leap forward.

Continue reading BeBionic teases advanced bionic hand, Terminator 5 now has a prop supplier (video)

BeBionic teases advanced bionic hand, Terminator 5 now has a prop supplier (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cubicles are the site of many of the worst cases of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so it’s perhaps a bit ironic that Quotient’s ADHD System looks an awful lot like a cubicle on wheels. It’s an automated machine that presents a series of games and challenges for a user to participate in, all while watching that user with a pair of cameras — one up top to monitor head movement and one below to look for a bouncing leg. We think the same could be done far cheaper with a webcam and a Yurex leg odometer, but the FDA has recently seen fit to clear parent company BioBehavioral Diagnostics to start marketing this thing, so look for these to crop up in every elementary school faster than a twitchy kid can say Ritalin.

Quotient system electronically diagnoses ADHD, oh look a bunny originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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