GLIMPSES OF THE
FUTURE |
New Hope For Sufferers of Macular Degeneration Those suffering from advanced stages of macular degeneration may by the end of this year (2007) be able to halt and even reverse vision loss caused by the age-related eye disease. If, that is, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives ophthalmologists the green light to implant new miniature telescope-like devices in patients' damaged eyes. The optical prosthetics, tiny enough to be balanced on a fingertip, dramatically improved the vision of about two thirds of the 206 patients studied in a 24-month clinical trial. The implantable mini-scope, developed by Saratoga-based VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, works with the eye's cornea like a telephoto system, rendering an enlarged retinal image designed to reduce the area of diminished vision. Once implanted, the device protrudes 0.1 to 0.5 millimetre beyond the surface of the pupil but does not touch the corneal endothelium, a layer of cells lining the back of the cornea. Get Ready To Chat To Your Machine Companions A new company called Cognitive Code has built software that it believes will let everyday gadgets talk to humans. The startup company has unveiled a developer's software suite with a set of algorithms that convert strings of words into concepts and which formulates a wordy response. The developer's studio could let businesses, such as cell-phone manufacturers and toy makers, use the technology to add conversational abilities to a product. As an example, instead of composing an e-mail on a PDA the software allows a user to say 'send an e-mail to Tom and tell him 'I'll be there in 10 minutes.' The company claims that such a feature could be possible with the algorithms - based on 15 patents - that Cognitive Code has developed. Guess What? Google Earth Has A Flight Simulator Hidden Inside Its Code The latest version of Google Earth has a secret: it has a flight simulator program built into it, allowing users to pilot a light aircraft or an F-16 fighter jet from any airport to anywhere on the planet - with stunning views. The feature, so far unannounced by Google, was discovered by Marco Gallotta of Cape Town, South Africa, who reveals how the simulator works on his computer science blog. A Simple Ten Minute Swab Test For Early Detection Of Oral and Other Cancers Researchers at the University of Texas are developing a microfluidics device that detects oral-cancer cells in 10 minutes and is simple and cheap enough for use in a dentist's office. The device could also be adapted to test for other cancers, including cervical cancer. It works well on cancer cells grown in the lab and is currently being tested on biopsies from oral-cancer patients. The device, made of acrylic, has a small reaction chamber fed and cleaned via tiny inlet and outlet channels. A solution of scrapings from a patient's mouth enters through the inlet and is strained through a cell-catching filter. Caught cells are then flooded with a solution containing fluorescent protein tags. The tags stick to a protein, called a cancer biomarker, that's made in much greater quantities by oral-cancer cells than by normal cells. Under a fluorescence microscope, cancer cells caught in the device have an intense green halo. The entire test can be performed in less than 10 minutes. Ford Motor Company Pioneers Machine Language Translation A global company such as Ford needs to translate thousands of documents into foreign languages each day. The automobile maker first began using 'machine translation' software in 1998 and has so far translated 5 million automobile assembly instructions into Spanish, German, Portuguese and Mexican Spanish. Assembly manuals are updated in English every day, and their translations — some 5,000 pages a day — are beamed overnight to plants around the world. The car maker uses Enterprise Global Server from Systran Software Inc.of San Diego, but licensing the software was just the first step in automating Ford’s translation activities. High-level English instructions, such as, 'Install the muffler,' are written by engineers and then parsed by a homegrown AI program into unambiguous detailed directions, such as, 'Attach bracket No. 423 using six half-inch bolts.' Each instruction is then stored as a record in a translation database. What happens when androids get old? Basically, they melt away. Of course, ‘old’ comes pretty fast in robotics. Your gorgeous synthetic Android companion may be the stuff of your dreams today - but her skin will start to liquefy in about a year. Before long she’ll end up dismembered and rotting in a cluttered basement or attic. For example, the Actroid and Repliee series of 'romantic companion' androids developed in Japan by the Kokoro Co. have silicone skin. One of the biggest challenges with Actroids is that their skin decays and dirties quickly. It has to be replaced every year and the process is long and tricky. Daily moisturisng might help. Now This Really Is A BIG Flat Screen TV There are big TVs, ridiculously big TVs and then those sets that just make you wonder about the sanity of people who own them. But out gunning all of those categories of ways to waste your money is a new 231inch display from Fujitsu. The Super Frontech Vision LD is not, strictly speaking, a TV set but it may as well be, given that it has all the inputs, including DVI, 16 million colours and a brightness of 5,000 candelas per square meter. Admittedly, the resolution is only 512 x 288 LED pixels, which is probably why you need to stand at least 5m away to view it. Still, that 231in diagonal measurement is bound to get the screen noticed, which is why Fujitsu has just started selling it to advertising companies, train networks and funfair operators. The price? You won’t get any change out of ¥63 million (£235,000 or $520,000). Fortunately, there’s a 116in model available for around a quarter of that amount.
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'Flying Saucer' Invented By Californian Company (again) A new car which can hover and fly up to ten feet off the ground has been unveiled by Moller International. Capable of vertical take-off and landing, the craft - so far a one-off prototype - hovers like a helicopter up to ten feet off the ground. Any higher and the driver would need a pilot's licence. The flying saucer is powered by eight engines which can run on petrol, diesel or even ethanol It is the brainchild of Dr Paul Moller, an aeronautics engineer who envisions a 'highway in the sky' which he believes could cut conventional commuter traffic in half. Haven't we heard this before somewhere? Using Existing (and approved) Drugs To Fight New Diseases Treatments for new or drug-resistant infectious diseases may already be in our medicine cabinets, say the molecular biologists responsible for developing an artificial-intelligence system that can predict unknown antibiotic properties of existing drugs. The hope is that the work will result in an armoury of new treatments that can be rushed into service when standard treatments stop being effective or new pathogens arise. However, if the new AI system suggests an existing drug might be an effective antibiotic, it could be quickly tested for efficacy, and then pushed into service. And because these drugs would have already been approved for use in people, they wouldn't have to go through all the clinical trials and lengthy regulatory approvals required of brand-new drugs. Has There Been A 10x Breakthrough In Battery Technology? News is filtering out that a small startup company in Texas has made a breakthrough in battery storage that relies on capacitors rather than chemical reaction. Details are scarce, but an electric car company that has licensed the technology suggests that it's ready for large-scale production. A capacitor stores charge by arranging two metal plates in parallel. Placing a negative charge in one of the plates will repel electrons from its opposite; this charge difference will be maintained as long as the two plates remain electrically isolated and can be harnessed to produce a useful electric current. A key advantage of capacitors is that they can store charge just as quickly as it's supplied - the long charge times needed by chemical batteries are simply unnecessary. With no chemical reactions involved, capacitors should also have an indefinite life span. The Texas company behind the apparent breakthrough, EEStor, is primarily notable for two things: its secrecy (it doesn't even have a web site to link to) and a patent application that describes a process for manufacturing a well-insulated capacitor. A rough calculation suggests that this new form of storage could offer over 10 times the power density of standard lead-acid batteries. Your Personal DNA Genome On A Memory Stick Scientists predict that within five years DNA sequencing technologies will be affordable enough that personal genomics will be integrated into routine clinical care (at the end of a consultation you'll be handed a copy of your own DNA genome). Companies are responding by offering their services for ancestry tracing, forensics, nutritional advice and reproductive assistance. It won't be long before companies will be able to offer Facebook-like social networking services centred around our genomes (where we'll be able to meet relatives we never knew we had!). Once we have our personal genomic information, what will we do with it and how might this information be used outside the medical context? How will physicians educate patients about the significance of genetic risk information? Will already-strained health-care systems be able to cope with the inevitable influx of 'worried well' patients seeking follow-up investigations for genetic risks that are not clinically meaningful? 'Printer' Patches To Administer Drugs Through The Skin The same technology that ink-jet printers use to squirt ink onto paper could soon could be administering drugs to patients through thousands of tiny needles embedded in a skin patch. And just like a cartridge that can fire different colours, this new smart patch would be able to deliver several medications - at various doses and times, according to a person's needs. Hewlett Packard has announced a licensing agreement with Crospon, an Irish company, to develop the drug delivery system, which could be ready as soon as 2010. It uses micro-hypodermic needles controlled by a microprocessor to painlessly deliver drugs just below the surface of the skin. The tiny processor controls which drug is administered and when. That means it can be used for medications that are sensitive to timing, such as those used for the treatment of diabetes, cardiac disease or hormonal imbalances. It will be helpful particularly for patients who are on a multi-drug regimen and have trouble remembering which drugs to take when. Back issues of 'Glimpses' are archived here. |