SMART ROBOTS

 

Quadcopters are quickly gaining popularity.consumers can look forward to smart quadcopters like Spiri.Spiri is a programmable flying robot that has an onboard camera and range finder to help you achieve whatever you program it to do.

Robot cubes that can move about on their own and assemble themselves into anything they are programmed to do. Magnets are used to attach the blocks to one another while flywheels inside the body of each cube generate enough momentum for them to move and even jump in the air.

There’s no real application to what these modular robots can actually do right now as it’s still in the very early stages of research, but this modular idea means that a machine isn’t limited to a single task but can assemble itself into another machine to achieve another task.

Do-it-yourself Stress Hormone Test by Your Smartphone

In a recent conference in USA  researchers said that health apps are coming in your smartphone for stress test.Anyone with a smartphone will be able to measure their salivary cortisol level quickly, easily and inexpensively

Parts of the United States and the rest of the world that lack facilities to measure cortisol will now be able to perform this essential diagnostic test.Measuring salivary cortisol with this technology will provide a way for individuals to monitor their personal biometric stress levels easily and inexpensively.

The public to monitor their own cortisol levels whenever they want. So they designed their device to be inexpensive to manufacture, and easy to use on all cell phones, all platforms and all form factors.

It consists of a case, a light pipe, and a lens, it uses no battery power and it’s unbreakable and reusable.

To take the test, a person puts a straw-like saliva collector under the tongue, and capillary action wicks the saliva to an assay strip in a cassette that's inserted into a reader; the reader aligns a lens and light diffuser with a smartphone’s camera and flash. A few minutes later, the smartphone image analysis app quantifies the cortisol value.

 

 

MRAM- Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory

Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile computer memory (NVRAM) technology, which has been in development since the 1990s.

Unlike conventional RAM chip technologies data is not stored as electric charges but by magnetic charges.

In MRAM data can be stored in greater amount and can be accessed faster while consuming less battery power compare to conventional electronic  memory.

Conventional memory chips like RAM stores information as long as power is on,once power is turned off the information is lost unless it is stored in secondary memory.But in MRAM the information still remains in memory even when the power is turned off.

IBM,Motorola,Honeywell,HP,Hitachi,Siemens are working on MRAM.

                                            Electric Cars

 
From the Nissan LEAF to the BMW i3, 2013 started to bring electric cars more to the middle of the road.

As more charging points are rolled out across the country in 2014, expect the interest in these motors to increase.

As well as helping the environment, they keep the cost of driving low with no need for petrol or diesel.

All you do is plug them in overnight and off you go in the morning.
Of course, you have a limited range but they're great for local and short hopper journeys.

HGST Launches External Hard Drives

 

HGST,a Western Digital company,has launched a new line of Touro S external hard drives.The 7200 RPM hard drives runs 23 percent faster than standard 5400 RPM based drives.

Featuring an aluminum enclosure and USB 3.0, the Touro S drive family delivers two levels of data protection—local backup and cloud storage. It comes with Touro S local backup software which automatically backs up photos, music, videos and documents from a computer directly to the drive.

The Touro S family offers 3 GB of Touro Cloud Backup for free. For more cloud storage, users can upgrade to 250 GB for $59 per year.

The drives are available in capacities of 1 TB and 500 GB priced at Rs 6,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively. They carry a 3-year limited warranty.   

3-D printed wrist splints for arthritis 

A Loughborough University lecturer has developed a computer software concept that will enable clinicians with no experience in Computer Aided Design (CAD) to design and make custom-made 3D printed wrist splints for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. The 3D printed splints are not only more comfortable and attractive but potentially cheaper than the current ones that are 'ugly, bulky, and can make a patients arm sweat'.

The splints, which provide joint protection, rest, and promote pain relief,could be a major boost for sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis.

The splints are made by scanning a patient's arm in the 'appropriate position'. A 3D model splint is then designed based on the scan to generate a computer model.

The 3D printer can then produce as many splints as are needed at the touch of a button. They can be any colour, feature multiple materials, have a lattice design to aid ventilation and any type of fastening the patient requires.

The 3D CAD software prototype was shown to certified splinting practitioners, such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

 

 

Musical Gloves for Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

The researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology have created a wireless musical glove that may improve sensation and motor skills for people with paralyzing spinal cord injury (SCI). 

The gadget was successfully used by individuals with limited feeling or movement in their hands due to tetraplegia. These individuals had sustained their injury more than a year before the study, a time frame when most rehab patients see very little improvement for the remainder of their lives. Remarkably, the device was primarily used while the participants were going about their daily routines.

The device is called Mobile Music Touch (MMT). The glove, which looks like a workout glove with a small box on the back, is used with a piano keyboard and vibrates a person’s fingers to indicate which keys to play. While learning to play the instrument, several people with SCI experienced improved sensation in their fingers.

The MMT system works with a computer, MP3 player or smart phone. A song, such as Ode to Joy, is programmed into a device, which is wirelessly linked to the glove. As the musical notes are illuminated on the correct keys on the piano keyboard, the gadget sends vibrations to "tap" the corresponding fingers. The participants play along, gradually memorizing the keys and learning additional songs.