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School buys telepresence robot to help sick student

School buys telepresence robot to help sick student

Without machines, Zachary Thomason wouldn't live very long. The boy has been on a ventilator for all of his 12 years because he suffers from a rare muscle disorder that makes him extremely weak.

Until now, X-linked myotubular myopathy has prevented him from going to school regularly. But since the Paragould School District in Arkansas purchased a $5,000 VGo telepresence robot, chances are he'll become an avatar-style student soon.

Zach likes to play PlayStation, so he can remote-control the VGo, which is basically a Webcam on wheels. At 4 feet tall, it's designed to project the user's presence into a remote location with two-way audio and video, allowing for richer interaction than a phone call or stationary Webcam.

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Zio stick-on heart rhythm monitor 'the Netflix of heart care'

Zio stick-on heart rhythm monitor 'the Netflix of heart care'

Arrhythmia, a heart rhythm disorder that affects millions of Americans every year, can lead to a stroke or even sudden cardiac death, if left untreated. And monitoring a patient's heart rhythm for a few minutes or even hours over the course of a doctor's visit often doesn't provide enough data for accurate diagnosis.

Enter the Zio Patch, a new wireless (and fully recyclable) device that adheres to the chest for up to 14 days of continuous monitoring, and can simply be removed and mailed in for results. "It's like the Netflix of heart care," Steven Higgins, more

Big data is worth nothing without big science

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Alex Yoder's bio below.

We are living in "the age of big data," according to The World Economic Forum. Renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil agrees. I do too.

As the likes of Google, Facebook, Adobe Systems, and IBM embrace big data with gusto, startups are also popping up with the promise to help companies discover what one of the most valuable assets in the world can accomplish for them. No industry is untouched by big data, which is notably transforming the way social networks work today. However, the key factor that will more

Multitasking too much? Brain sensor could lighten the load

Multitasking too much? Brain sensor could lighten the load

Researchers are tapping into the brain's signals to ease the downsides of multitasking and information overload, a worsening problem in digital lifestyles.

A group of researchers at MIT, Indiana University, and Tufts University last week presented the Brainput computer interface device at last week's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012) which explores new human-machine interface designs.

Brainput seeks to address the problem of people getting overloaded when working on machines and to improve people's ability to multitask. It's geared primarily at complex control systems, but its makers say the technique could eventually spill more

Google patents Project Glass wearable display

Google patents Project Glass wearable display

Google has received three patents for a "wearable display device" which appear to be the foundation for its Project Glass augmented reality glasses.

Company engineers submitted patent applications for a wearable display device last fall and they were assigned today.

There aren't detailed description attached to the patents, but the patent references the types of inventions you would expect, such as display designs for showing data and playing music.

Google's secretive research lab, Google X, announced Project Glass last month and showed off early prototypes of the device, some of which are now being tested by Google executives more

Hitch a ride through Google's cloud

Hitch a ride through Google's cloud

Your Gmail box lives somewhere in the jumble of servers, cables, and hard drives known as the "cloud" but it often migrates in search of the ideal location.

Google today released an animation that answers the question: what happens when I press send on Gmail? The company created the interactive feature called The Story of Send to highlight the security and relatively low energy footprint of its data centers. The graphics repeat Google's estimate that its data centers use 50 percent less energy than a typical data center and 30 percent of their data center energy is supplied from more

'Barcoding' viruses could help detect mutated strains

'Barcoding' viruses could help detect mutated strains

The influenza A virus ranks among our planet's least-controlled pathogens, resulting in seasonal epidemics and even global pandemics. The H1N1 virus of 2009 -- a new type of influenza A virus -- caused the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But despite the fast and furious spread of H1N1 that year, it turned out to affect the lungs much in the way the seasonal flu does. Using a new type of test developed at the University of Leeds "might have been a way to identify how lethal the more

White House aims to boost U.S.-made high-tech materials

White House aims to boost U.S.-made high-tech materials

"Made in USA." That's a designation that President Barack Obama and dozens of American companies, universities, and research labs want to apply to a new generation of high-tech materials, the White House said today.

As part of its Materials Genome Initiative, the Obama administration and partners in business, academia, and national labs are pushing the fast and efficient development and utliization of a wide range of new advanced, American-made materials. The goal is to cut the time it takes to discover, develop, and deploy these new materials in half, the White House said.

The theory behind the initiative is more

Step on it: Virus could lead to motion-powered gadgets

Step on it: Virus could lead to motion-powered gadgets

Scientists are genetically engineering viruses in the pursuit of better battery life, perhaps leading to smartphones charged from the motion of walking.

The Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory yesterday described a microelectronic device that uses a benign virus to build up electric charge from movement.

Its first prototype was able to display the No. 1 on an LCD display when a person pressed a postage-stamp size button.

That amount of current isn't useful enough to charge common electronics, such as a music player or phone. But the researchers' novel approach to harvesting energy from motion shows more

Boeing KC-46A flies through early review

Boeing KC-46A flies through early review

We've written here a number of times about U.S. Air Force aircraft designed way back in the middle of the 20th century -- the B-52 bomber, the U-2 spy plane, the C-130 all-purpose airlift aircraft -- that are still pulling duty in this second decade of the 21st century.

But of course, the Pentagon does buy its share of new designs to keep pace with changing times and the demands of modern war-fighting. (Consider the saga of the multibajillion-dollar F-35 joint strike fighter.)

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