I am fortunate enough not to have any allergies, but one of my close friends is very allergic to smoke. If we go anywhere that’s very smoky, she can’t stay for long before her allergies kick in. There’s not much that she can do, aside from wearing a face mask, which no one wants to do. Luckily these little guys should also do the trick.
They are basically small air filters that stick up inside your nose. While they probably wouldn’t be the most comfortable things in the world, they are very discrete. Only a small clear band is visible at the base of your nostrils. You can pick up a pack of them for around $14.
This product looks like it has to be the product of some sick twisted mind. Seriously, a wheel chair is made for people that can’t walk, or at the very least have trouble walking. So why on earth would you make a pedal-powered wheel chair?
There is an actual purpose behind this chair, aside from making disabled people cry. This allows people who still have limited use of their legs to try and build up strength. While it does serve a good purpose, it still just looks plain cruel.
My family has a history of diabetes, so I’m no stranger to having my blood sugar tested. By now I’m used to the small prick from the lancet, but I’ve always hoped for a better solution. The Pelikan Sun is an electronic lancing device that claims to be virtually pain-free and results in minimal bruising and scarring. It also uses a proprietary 50-lancet disk that ensures you get a new needle for every test that’s clean and sharp. The electronically controlled lancet trajectory can be set for 30 different levels of depth, and the precise firing mechanism means it’s only penetrating the skin as deep as you need.
Once you’ve pricked your finger you’ll still need to test the blood sample with a separate glucose meter, but if you’re testing your blood sugar on a daily basis, I’m sure it will provide some level of relief. The Pelikan Sun can be purchased directly from the company’s website, but I have no idea if the $199 price tag is covered by health insurance. And keep in mind you’ll also need to buy replacement lancet disks “…at comparable prices to other high quality lancets currently on the market.”
We’ve all heard or even seen the hour-long TLC specials about surgical instruments being accidentally left inside a patient. But even something as simple as a sponge can lead to a deadly infection if forgotten, and that’s why every single sponge has to be accounted for. But instead of relying on a nurse to manually count the sponges before and after an operation, the Safety-Sponge system from SurgiCount employs special bar codes printed on every sponge that are scanned into a PocketPC computer before and after they’re used.
Essentially, the system works much like a grocery store check-out counter – every laparotomy and gauze sponge is pre-labeled with an individual and unique bar code (in this instance, a 2-D data matrix label) and a scanning SurgiCounter is used to read the labels. Unlike other technologies, there is no major change in a hospital’s established AORN manual counting practices and procedures. And no other technology can offer documented time stamps of when every item was counted in and out.
Since every single sponge has a unique bar code, the system can even alert the operating room staff if the same sponge has been scanned twice. I guess as long as the special barcode-branded sponges aren’t considerably more expensive than a regular sponge, there’s no reason for a hospital not to adopt a system like this. But then again I’m not a doctor, I just pretend to be one on the internet.
I have a full head of hair, and am proud of it. Granted, I’m only in my 20s, so it’s not really all that amazing that I’m not showing any signs of baldness or even a receding hair line. I love my hair, so I would be devastated if I started losing it. Like many others, I would likely turn to crazy gadgets like this one for help.
The X5 HairLaser blasts “15 distinct points of coherent laser light directly to your scalp at the optimum power and wavelength,” which is supposed to promote hair growth. You’ll need to do this for 10-15 minutes three times a week. $300 might be a bit much for a gizmo, but if it will actually regrow hair it would be more than worth it. If it doesn’t help, you’ve got six months to return it.
If you spend an inordinate of time obliviously chatting away on your cellphone in public (you know who you are), everyone else in the world would love it if you could teach yourself how to use Audeo, a combination of software and hardware that picks up nerve signals on the way to your vocal cords. Audeo translates the nerve signals into the words you’re thinking about saying, and then a computer voice says the words for you. For the system to be effective, all you have to do is learn how to instruct your body to say things without your body actually saying anything, which is tricky, but possible.
Of course, Audeo is not actually designed for annoying cellphone users. Rather, it’s being developed for people who have lost the ability to speak due to neurological diseases like ALS (interestingly, the same disease that this robot is designed to assist with). The system isn’t able to recognize words at this point. From what I understand, it matches a pattern of nerve signals to one of 150 different words or phrases. The developers are working on a more universal version, which will be able to interpret the nerve signals of individual phonemes, which are the individual sounds that make up words. It won’t be especially fast or easy, but users will be able to construct whatever words they want, effectively replacing physical speech.
Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a new system to assist those with weak hearts. Current solutions use implanted devices that suck blood out of the heart and pump it into downstream vessels. While they do work, they require the patient to undergo life-long drug therapy to suppress the immune system and prevent blood clotting. They also tend to damage the blood cells they’re pumping because of the high speed turbines they use. However this new system, which was originally devised by Dr. Peter Walker, actually wraps the heart in a specially woven biocompatible web material that never comes into contact with the blood stream. As a result, there’s no chance of the patient’s body rejecting it.
It works by using sensors to detect when the heart wants to beat which triggers a series of motors that cause the webbing to contract. This then increases the pressure inside the heart helping it to pump blood around the body. The device is still in the prototype stage at this point and has only been used on a testing rig that simulates a real human heart. But the team is optimistic that once they’ve perfected the sensors and mechanics it will be extremely beneficial to heart patients and those waiting for transplants.
As far as I know there’s no real cure for Tinnitus, but a company called Neuromonics claims to have created an effective treatment that will reduce the symptoms almost immediately and provide some level of long-term relief. At the core of the treatment is the Oasis audio device which plays specifically designed music that’s embedded with a “pleasant acoustic neural stimulus.” These sounds, which are customized for every patient based on their audiological profile, stimulate the auditory pathway to promote neural plastic changes. And over time it’s these new connections that help the brain filter out the tinnitus disturbance. So as far as I can tell the process doesn’t cure the problem, it just trains your brain to ignore it.
The treatments usually last for 6 months, and during the first 2 months you’ll need to listen to the device for about 2 hours or longer every day. During the last 4 months that duration will gradually decrease, and once the treatment is over you may never need to use it again depending on your results. The Oasis device isn’t FDA approved since it’s basically just an audio player, but you will need to be referred by your doctor in order to receive the treatments. And if it’s not covered by your health insurance you’ll need to fork out between $3,500 to $6,000 for the treatments.
If you’re curious what Tinnitus sounds like you can actually listen to some samples on the Neuromonics website. However I recommend turning down your speakers or headphones, as I’m sure listening to the samples at full volume didn’t help my hearing at all.
While this might look like a concept design for the next version of the Nintendo Wiimote, it’s actually a ’smart’ wand designed to replace the traditional long stick used by the visually impaired. Created by Jin Woo Han it uses a sensor on the front to detect nearby objects and provides feedback about how far away they are with varying levels of vibration.
And even though it’s not illustrated too well in the photos, the wand includes a tactile strip where you place your thumb that will actually indicate the position of objects around you. Both of these methods of feedback are considered much better than using audio cues which can be easily missed if the user happens to be walking where there’s too much background noise. Unfortunately the Tactile Wand is just a concept right now, and given the time needed to perfect the design and the thorough testing that will be required, we probably won’t see it hitting the market anytime soon.
Your standard thermometer can only reach so far, so if you’re really curious as to what temperature your insides are reading you’ll need to upgrade to this CorTemp Temperature Monitoring System. It consists of a monitoring device you need to carry on your person and an ingestible sensor you need to swallow. As the sensor travels through your body’s digestive tract it wirelessly transmits the core body temperature readings to the receiver, which then displays the temperature in a digital format in real time.
The receiver will also store the readings as measured over time for later analysis, and is capable of keeping track of the temperature data coming from 99 individual sensors. While I’m sure it’s not recommended to swallow 99 of the sensors at one time, the feature is probably convenient for medical professionals dealing with multiple patients.
The CorTemp starter kit which includes 10 free sensor pills will set you back $2,500, while 20 additional pills runs $800.
Related Tags: Medical
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By Andrew Liszewski
By Andrew Liszewski
By Andrew Liszewski
