injuries

As anyone who has broken a bone knows, keeping up with physical therapy post-injury can be painful and annoying, and without a clear way to gauge progress, the regimen is as tempting to avoid as a bland diet.

Recent Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design graduate Pedro Nakazato Andrade hopes to keep people motivated--and thus improve recovery time--via a prototype cast that employs electromyographic sensors, which measure the electrical activity produced by a muscle when it moves.

Called "Bones," his cast prototype can keep a running tally of how much the injured area is being exercised.

The idea behind the design is rooted in the idea behind weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers: people who can track their progress using real, hard data are more likely to stay motivated and keep doing what they have been told to do.… Read more

Most of us don't have to worry about getting a concussion on a daily basis. But plenty do (think hockey and football players, infantrymen, etc.), and without quick diagnosis, can risk long-term brain damage if they go back into the field too soon.

A new screening method developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute could make fast and easy diagnosis, right on the sidelines, far more common. The technique, which examines a person's cognitive and motor skills at the same time, will be presented this week at the SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing conference in Orlando, Fla.

Using a simple radar system--the kind police use to measure the speed of vehicles--the researchers found that they were able to pick up on differences between normal walking patterns and those impaired by alcohol, which has been found to have a similar effect on walking as concussion impairment.

To be clear, this preliminary study is just that, preliminary, with a sample size too small to offer information that is more than anecdotal. But the findings have given the researchers enough data to want to test their approach further.… Read more

Sure, laptop batteries have had a tendency to explode. I even had a Handspring Visor that randomly went pop and spilled smoke on a table next to me. But there aren't that many stories going around these days about smartphones exploding, except the curious case of Aron Embry, who claims that his Motorola Droid exploded in his ear as he was using it.

On one hand, it's hard to doubt him: he showed his injuries, as well as the cracked and blood-splattered phone, to the local news in Dallas Fort-Worth. On the other hand, some of us were skeptical, as you don't typically see that kind of behavior in smartphones. Embry seemed sincere, but we thought there might be something else going on. The phone, said to be post-explosive, still worked.

But then Gearlog caught word from an anonymous Motorola employee who says the phone in question didn't explode.

The theory is that Embry dropped the phone, which shattered the glass, and then put it up to his ear without first looking at it, likely when answering a call. The shattered glass then simply gashed his ear.… Read more

For many, getting hit in the head too many times might bring to mind famed boxer Muhammad Ali, but brain injuries across several sports, including hockey and American football, have prompted investigations into headgear and even the nature of the sports themselves.

For now, the only way to diagnose what is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is to inspect brain tissue during autopsies--in other words, after the point at which such a diagnosis could help the afflicted.

So while results from a study out of Boston of a noninvasive "virtual biopsy" technique on live subjects are both small-scale … Read more

Soldiers may soon be able to avoid an all too common injury associated with modern warfare, if a new helmet and visor design make it to the field.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the most common military injury is known as "blast-induced traumatic brain injury." Some 130,000 U.S. service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) as a result of explosions, according to the Department of Defense, which can result in concussions, long-term brain damage, and death. (And that number could be even higher.)

So a team of researchers at MIT have … Read more

Intel is using its technology know-how to pave the way for safer football helmets with the goal of reducing serious injuries on the field.

Working with football equipment designer Riddell and a host of universities, the chipmaker is tapping into its own supercomputers and workstations to simulate the effects of a football collision on the brain. Data from those simulations will then be used to help design safer football helmets.

Intel recently demoed the simulation at the SC10 conference in New Orleans. Simulated collisions on the football field are processed by groups of Intel Xeon-based workstations linked together. Using real-time … Read more

Professional skateboarder and entrepreneur Tony Hawk is back on CNET's The 404 Podcast to show off his newest video game Tony Hawk: Shred, a biography written with his sister, the Tony Hawk Foundation Stand Up for Skateparks events, and much more!

It's been almost a year since Tony Hawk first came on The 404 . Obviously a lot has happened since then, and Tony updates us with a legendary story about the aftermath of the pelvic injury he suffered earlier this summer while headlining the Action Sports Weekend at Disneyland.

Getting up after falling off the skateboard has always been an important lesson to Tony, and he talks about that central theme a lot in his new book, "How Did I Get Here: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO." Written with his sister, Pat Hawk, the book details his rise to success in the skate industry, and Tony is certainly a pioneer in terms of bringing skateboarding to new media.

The original success of the Tony Hawk: Pro Skater brand obviously paved the way for skate gaming, and Tony's back again with a new game called Tony Hawk: Shred. Shred takes a new angle on the franchise and aims for the younger market.

It features similar motion-sensing board control as Ride but transformes the experience with impossible skate and snowboarding tricks, building jumps, and cameos from pros like Louie Vito, Geoff Rowley, Corey Duffel, and more. And like all the Tony Hawk video games, the soundtrack features a variety of genres and artists, including Rival Schools, Jimmy Eat World, OK Go, and more. Tony Hawk: Shred comes out next Tuesday, October 26, for Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3.

After the break, Tony describes the importance of giving back to the skating community and his two charity events called Stand Up for Skateparks. The huge parties galvanize BMX riders, skaters, celebrities, and fans alike in an effort to raise money for high-quality public skateparks in low-income areas throughout the country.

Tony stresses the importance of not only making sure kids are safe in the parks, but also that the parks maintain a level of Tony Hawk quality. The next party is happening in Las Vegas on November 6 and will feature a performance by DJ Z-Trip--tickets are still available here!

There's plenty more to talk about with Tony, including some of his favorite skate videos, tips for future skate entrepreneurs, and the truth behind his involvement in the original "Back to the Future" movie!

Why trust the machines when you can trust your own eyes, your own brain, your own basic sense of survival?

This philosophical question comes to mind after reading the tragic tale of a woman, her eyes, her brain, her BlackBerry, and her Google Maps.

According to an exhaustive analysis presented by Search Engine Land, Lauren Rosenberg decided to take a walk in Park City, Utah, on January 19, 2009.

I will try and ignore just how fundamentally un-American this act was in order to focus on some of the ensuing action.

Rosenberg fingered her trusted BlackBerry and asked it to … Read more

You've got to admire Sami Haddadin. This researcher from Germany's Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics is not only crazy enough to arm an industrial robot with a kitchen knife in the name of science, he offered it his own arm.

In a study for IEEE ICRA 2010, Haddadin, along with Alin Albu-Schaffer and Gerd Hirzinger, equipped a robot arm with various sharp instruments, such as knives, a scalpel, and a screwdriver, to see what would happen if a robot accidentally struck someone.

The researchers had a DLR Lightweight Robot III strike, stab, and slice a leg of ham, … Read more