Health tech

Where exactly is the pituitary gland? You can find out with a new 3D body visualization site launched by Healthline Networks and GE Healthymagination that also works as a search engine.

The Healthline BodyMaps site lets users mouse over male or female bodies; rotate them in 360 degrees and click on various tissues and organs; and see various inner systems such as muscular, neurological, and skeletal.

For instance, the circulatory map includes a drop-down list of anatomical terms. Clicking on the heart leads to an enlarged image of the organ, from which you can click on its chambers and arteries to get relevant info.

You can also search for anatomical terms and read related articles on symptoms or treatments, as well as share info with friends. The site is the first of its kind available to all Internet users, according to the developers. Unlike Google Body, the site does not require WebGL. … Read more

It's hard to make a hearing aid sound cool, but it helps to refer to it as a "personal sound amplifier." Meet RCA's Symphonix RPSA10.

RCA isn't targeting the Big Band generation with the new device. It's geared more for younger buyers, some of whom, the company notes, may have damaged hearing from spending so much time hooked up to blasting headphones and exposed to booming car stereos.

RCA and its parent company Audiovox already make plenty of speakers and headphones and it's not a stretch to jump into the hearing aid realm … Read more

The folks at Engineering Degree have taken a scientific approach to answering one of the most critical questions of modern times--should toilet paper hang over or under? Check out their detailed infographic above, complete with Jay Leno's take on the issue and scientific equations to impress your postmodern nerd friends.

The in-depth look into the advantages and disadvantages of each toilet paper orientation was created as part of a viral marketing campaign for Engineering Degree, a resource for would-be engineers.

My personal take--if you really want to get good coverage in the trees and on the roof, it's essential to throw the roll with the paper hanging over. So, which way do you roll?… Read more

A new open and crowdsourced initiative to deploy more geiger counters all over Japan looks to be a go. Safecast, formerly RDTN.org, recently met and exceeded its $33,000 fund-raising goal on Kickstarter, which should help Safecast send between 100 and 600 geiger counters to the catastrophe-struck country.

The data captured from the geiger counters will be fed into Safecast.org, which aggregates radiation readings from government, nonprofit, and other sources, as well as into Pachube, a global open-source network of sensors. Safecast is one of the larger crowdsourced monitoring efforts, not unlike a similar effort in the United States that predated the Japanese disaster.… Read more

After being available for several years in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe, Swedish firm Sectra's digital mammography system has now been approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. (It was also approved for use in Canada in March and in Russia in April.)

The system, called MicroDose, uses technology called photon counting that results in two key changes over traditional mammograms: higher-resolution images at half the radiation exposure.

"Until now, digital mammography systems in the U.S. have managed to reduce the radiation dose slightly below those of film-based systems," Dr. Jesper … Read more

While microscopes might be affixed to cell phones, they don't usually look like them. But it seems the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Germany got the designer bug when they developed this one.

In this case, though, form is actually following function. The microscope is flat because it has been entirely rethought, with several tiny lenses to simultaneously scan one image instead of one that scans and then groups together many images.

"Our ultrathin microscope consists of not just one but a multitude of tiny imaging channels, with lots of tiny lenses arrayed alongside one another" Dr. Frank Wipperman, who managed the team, said in a news release. "Each channel records a tiny segment of the object at the same size for a 1:1 image."… Read more

Cameras are getting smaller fast. Just last week, the Naneye camera was declared the world's smallest at just 1mm x 1mm.

Now the Naneye can claim another prize--being the smallest for the shortest amount of time. Because today the Tel Aviv-based medical device firm Medigus has unveiled a camera that is just 0.99mm wide.

Making such a big deal of a difference that is but a fraction of a millimeter may seem like splitting hairs, but in the world of endoscopic devices, even a hair width counts.

"Medical procedures that have not been possible until now become possible with the world's smallest camera," said Dr. Elazar Sonnenschein, Medigus CEO, in a news release. "The advanced technology provides the medical community and patients with safe, quality and cost-effective treatment."

The silicon-based camera houses a dedicated 0.66mm x 0.66mm sensor with image resolution at 45,000 pixels (so not exactly high-resolution at just under 1/20th of a megapixel). Cost has yet to be disclosed, but Medigus says pricing should be "sufficiently low" for use in disposable devices.

The firm says it will be supplying samples in the coming weeks to companies in the U.S. and Japan for use in endoscopic and surgical devices in such fields as cardiology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, and gynecology.… Read more

Less than a year after unveiling a pair robotic legs that let paraplegics stand and walk, New Zealand's Rex Bionics has made its first commercial sale to a champion Paralympian who took his first steps in more than 30 years with the aid of the device.

New Zealander Dave MacCalman, who sustained a spinal cord injury diving into a shallow river, paid $150,000 for the customized exoskeleton that will have him walking up stairs, looking directly into other people's eyes, and reaching tall shelves once he has a bit more practice maneuvering it.

"It's just great, such a relief to be out of the chair," says the 6-foot 4-inch athlete as he stands up using the device in this TVNZ video. When he first tried the mechanical legs, "I was fascinated by my feet moving, so I tended to watch them more than anything." … Read more

GPS devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated and packed with features that at the very least create a sense of being, well, findable. One newcomer to the scene, the Laipac S-911 from Adiant Solutions, may be among the featuriest of them all.

Adiant is marketing the device to those who'd like to watch over children with autism or monitor elderly loved ones with dementia. But let's face it, this bracelet can do much more. Have teenagers you'd like to set virtual fences around? Aid workers to reach more easily in disaster zones? Registered sex offenders to keep outside of prohibited zones?

Look no further. The Laipac S-911 features a GSM cell phone with phone book and SOS button; AGPS for indoor tracking; G-sensing to alert when the wearer falls; and geo-fencing to alert when the wearer leaves--or enters--a given zone. The device even comes with a tamper detector in case said bracelet wearer does not want to, well, wear it.… Read more