Need that tissue sample, doctor? You may be laying aside your scalpel and forceps for a swarm of microgripping robots that you place and retrieve. David H. Gracias, PhD. and his Johns Hopkins team has developed star-shaped nickel metal discs of only 300 micrometers in size which snip bits of tissue. Using a magnetic catheter, the microgrippers are then gathered and removed–hopefully. Gizmag; study in Gastroenterology. Last week, the TakkTile, this week, piezotronic transistors. Thousands of them arrayed, and designed to give robots–and touchscreens–that extra and almost human edge in touch sensitivity. The transistors in thin, flat material can sense... Continue Reading
Search Results for robots
Electronic paper and tactile robots
...for a robot hand. The cutely named TakkTile, developed by grad student Leif Jentoft and postdoctoral fellow Yaroslav Tenzer at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, may be the answer. “At the heart of the device is a tiny air pressure-sensitive digital barometer, of the type already commonly used in things like cell phones and GPS units. A layer of rubber is vacuum-sealed onto it.” Beyond robots, uses envisioned are toy animals that respond to being petted and medical devices that assist with surgery. New sensor designed to give robots a gentler touch – on a budget (Gizmag)... Continue Reading
Your Friday robot fix: senior housing helpers, getting more humanoid
Care Innovations, which has no stakes (thus far) in robotics, highlights what robots can do and change in the senior housing area in this (sponsored) article in Senior Housing News. Featured: the ‘Hector’ assistance robot, developed by the EU’s CompanionAble Project [TTA 23 August]; ‘Monitoring Platform 3.0’ iPad and iPhone mobilizers such as Helios [TTA 2 Oct]; as ‘little armies of telepresence’ for non-emergencies (a small mention of telecare here); solving the worker shortage [TTA 19 May 11 on Robosoft and the Kompaï care robot, which Editor Steve has been following ever since, recently updated] and enabling independence [Robot &... Continue Reading
‘To Read’ lists for the holiday weekend
...abandon ever-costlier group plans–there is a huge future market in wringing out costs. Which Emerging Markets Are Best Bets for Health Care Returns? If you had $1,000 to invest, what countries would be best? The answers will surprise you! From last month’s 2013 Wharton Health Care Conference. Four Robots That Are Learning To Serve You. Your Friday Robot Fix courtesy of National Public Radio: FURo robot tour guide, Bestic eating assistant, EPFL’s amphibious ‘salamander’, mobility devices for smartphones including Botiful, Romo and SmartBot. For more on robots, quick search TTA. Five Fallacies of Remote Patient Monitoring. Another list from David... Continue Reading
Your weekend outrage: Indian government plans ‘alert device’ to stem crime
...easy for one or two very big players to dominate the telecare and telehealth markets: - it is elected by the populace who reject robots as carers because they do not understand, are not educated that technology can be a positive support for people. - Large companies pay large corporation taxes and at a time when the purse strings are pulled tight every penny in the Government coffers is precious. Whether we like it or not the current telecare and telehealth market in the UK is a political football field; politics and discrimination have no part in care - or... Continue Reading
One big step for iRobot, one small step for doctorkind (US)
It’s always been a gripe of ours that the telepresence/telemedicine carts used in hospitals were person-guided and therefore not ‘really worthy’ of being termed robots. However, according to the GizMag item (with video), iRobot receives FDA approval for physician avatar RP-VITA, iRobot “realized that they should not waste the time of either the physician or the hospital staff in guiding the robot around the hospital[so now] the doctor need only click on the location of the next patient to visit, and RP-VITA signals when it has arrived on site.” Oh, and there is that small matter of FDA approval.... Continue Reading
Another five ‘big defining innovations’ for 2013
...email, documents or structured creative work. Perhaps the two forms will morph together….. The ‘quantified self’ goes mainstream and creates a new regulatory battlefield: some progress into the educated next segment of early adopters, fitness buffs and the slightly hypochondriac, prices will decline, but the people who could really use the monitoring will continue to be uninterested or not smartphoned. Watch to see adoption trends by young diabetics and asthmatics. Manufacturing jobs continue to return to the US: maybe in tech. And robots are being developed everywhere other than the US. From big baloney to big opportunity in big data:... Continue Reading
Roboy & ….Mule?
A not-far-from-here-and-now take on the recent film Robot & Frank may be Roboy & Mule. The Roboy (left), an advanced humanoid robot, is being developed by engineers at the University of Zurich’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in only nine months (yes, the same as a human baby) for its debut at the Zurich Robots on Tour conference 9 March 2013. Kid-sized with a cute ‘face’ and tendon-driven locomotion, its artificial muscles will eventually be covered by a soft ‘skin.’ Its purpose is to help people in everyday environments. The Mule is an un-cute Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) four-legged pack... Continue Reading
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