Health Tech

While wheelchair design is advancing, allowing chairs to do things like move sideways and diagonally and follow the person next to them, stairs and curbs remain a formidable hurdle for all but a few models. It's an obstacle, however, that Japanese researchers are looking to overcome.

A team at Chiba Institute of Technology has rolled out a new robotic wheelchair that can climb over steps, ditches, and other roadblocks. The four-wheel-drive, five-axis vehicle maneuvers like a typical wheelchair -- except when it encounters an obstacle. Then it uses its wheels like legs. … Read more

The X1 Robotic Exoskeleton looks like a cross between the legs of a Stormtrooper and a Transformer. The suit is a spinoff from NASA's Robonaut 2 humanoid robot project.

The X1 is focused on either helping or hindering a person's legs, depending on its job description. When it's set to inhibit, the X1 resists movement and could be used to help astronauts exercise in space. When it's set to help, it could be used to assist paraplegics and others with lower body injuries with walking.

Four motorized joints and six passive joints give the 57-pound suit a good range of motion. It also gives it some nice Iron Man flavor, minus the propulsion feet.… Read more

A little shock now and again can be good for you, if you happen to be a bedridden patient at risk of developing bedsores and the shock is delivered through your underwear at very specific intervals.

So says a team of doctors at the University of Calgary, who recently tested their "Smart-e-Pants" on 37 patients with spinal cord injuries -- some of the most challenging patients because they can neither move nor feel when bedsores are forming.

The researchers found that by placing two pads of electrodes on each, er, cheek, and stimulating each patient's backside for … Read more

I have not yet had the good fortune of getting poison ivy, and now perhaps I never will. A new spray that lights up in the presence of the oil that causes the rash might let me bail on that particular party should I ever be invited.

Rebecca Braslau, a professor of chemistry at the University of California at Santa Cruz, has concocted a nontoxic spray that goes fluorescent in the presence of urushiol, the oily sap on poison ivy leaves that can make life extremely unpleasant for you and your skin.

Braslau and colleagues describe their innovation in a recent issue of The Journal of Organic Chemistry. Their paper, titled "Urushiol Detection Using a Profluorescent Nitroxide," might just as well be called "Spray This Stuff on to Maybe Avoid Scratching Yourself Silly." … Read more

Those breast exams women are supposed to regularly give themselves in the shower are no joke. With one in eight women facing breast cancer diagnosis at some point, early detection -- most often in the form of simple self exams -- can be a literal lifesaver.

So First Warning Systems, a company founded in Reno, Nev., in 2008, is designing and testing a smart bra that is essentially a continuous exam, and that thus far appears to be more accurate that the somewhat controversial mammography.

The Breast Tissue Screening Bra incorporates a sensor that measures tiny temperature changes that occur as blood vessels grow and feed tumors, which the company says grow for an average of 12 years (to 4 centimeters in diameter) before being surgically removed.

That sensor, meanwhile, communicates with pattern recognition software to help spot possible tumors long before a hand or mammogram likely would.… Read more

Feeling a touch of terror as the dentist moves the drill closer to your face? Perhaps some tunes emanating from the tool will assuage your anxiety.

That's the idea behind Dr. Dhanni Gustiana's musical drill. The dentist from Java, Indonesia, modified a regular dental drill to play MP3s instead of its usual ominous high-pitched buzzing. The drill even takes requests, though I'd highly recommend staying away from Slayer or Cannibal Corpse. … Read more

Of all the kids who go to emergency rooms in the U.S., about 6 percent are there because of stomach pains, according to researchers analyzing a large national database.

And while that 6 percent rate has held steady over the past decade, with anywhere from 2 percent to 8 percent being diagnosed with appendicitis (the number fluctuated without any clear pattern), the percentage of kids getting CT scans has jumped from 0.9 percent to 15.4 percent between 1998 and 2008, the researchers wrote in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics.… Read more

Researchers are developing a special process meant to replace the custom "paper" found in home pregnancy and other tests with plain old office paper -- a way of creating ultracheap methods of medical testing that could quickly diagnose pregnancy, malaria, diabetes, and more.

Ultimately, the idea is to replace the current standard, which relies on a membrane called nitrocellulose that sticks to molecules of interest, with cheap and ubiquitous paper that can stick to a whole fleet of chemicals, including DNA, antibodies, and sugars. And a University of Washington researcher wants to make the already cheap tests even … Read more

Old McDonald had a farm. E-I-E-I-O. And on his farm he had a cow with a wireless intravaginal temperature sensor. E-I-E-I-O.

Swiss farmers are helping to test a new system that sends them alerts when their dairy cows are in heat. Stresses and supplements have led to cows showing fewer visual signs of being in heat. That's where technology is stepping in.

The system from Swiss company Anemon consists of a wireless sensor (installed where the sun don't shine) and a transmitter box that attaches to the cow's collar. An accelerometer in the transmitter collects activity data.

When the cow reaches an optimal temperature (also know as "feeling frisky"), the transmitter text messages the farmer to arrange for a bull rendezvous or artificial insemination. … Read more