FDA Approves Segway Inventor's Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm

The era of real cyborgs has begun. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its first approval for the sale and marketing of a prosthetic arm that translates signals from a person’s muscles on Friday.

Informally known as the "Luke" arm (a reference to Luke Skywalker's robotic arm in Star Wars), the Deka Arm, which is controlled by electrical signals from electromyogram (EMG) electrodes connected to the wearer's muscles, can now move from research experiment to full-fledged commercial product. That's right, bionic limbs are about to go mainstream

" The Deka Arm System may allow some people to perform more complex tasks than they can with current prostheses in a way that more closely resembles the natural motion of the arm," said Christy Foreman, the director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health in a statement.

In a demonstration video (see above) released on Friday, Fred Downs, one of the recipients of the Deka Arm, is shown using the prosthetic hand to delicately pick up and move a carton of eggs. Like the device's nickname, the demonstration is indeed reminiscent of the dexterity exhibited by Luke Skywalker's robotic hand, a technology that was pure science fiction just a few decades ago, when the movie was first released.

The Deka Arm's electrodes, which are attached to the muscles of the wearer, transmit signals to a processor in the prosthesis, which then interprets those signals and turns them into up to 10 distinct movements.

In yet another video (see above), Downs is shown using the Deka Arm to open up a piece of mail, a seemingly simple demonstration that is nevertheless indicative of the device's precision.

And while the project was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Office, Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, and his team at Deka Research were instrumental in its development, hence the name.


IMAGE: DARPA

Read full Article…

Scientists 3D Print a 'Tumor' of Cancer Cells

Using 3D printing, researchers have made a tumor-like lump of cancer cells in the lab, and they say this lump shows a greater resemblance to natural cancer than do the two-dimensional cultured cells grown in a lab dish.

This more realistic representation of a tumor could aid studies on cancer and drug treatments, the researchers said.

To build the tumor-like structure, the researchers mixed gelatin, fibrous proteins and cervical cancer cells, then fed the resulting mixture into a 3D cell printer they had developed. Layer by layer, the printer produced a grid structure, 10 millimeters in width and length, and 2 millimeters in height.

That structure resembles the fibrous proteins that make up the extracellular matrix of a tumor, the researchers said.

The cells were then allowed to grow, and after five days, the growth took on a spherical shape. The spheres continued to grow for three more days.

The cervical cancer cells used by the researchers were HeLa cells, the "immortal" cell line that was originally taken from a cancer patient, Henrietta Lacks, in 1951. HeLa cells can multiply indefinitely and are the most common type of cells studied in cancer research.

In general, cancer studies involve cancer cells grown in the lab, which help scientists better understand the behavior of these abnormal cells. New cancer drugs are usually tested on such cells, in the lab, before being evaluated in human studies. Therefore, 2D models of cancer that consist of a single layer of cells grown in a dish have been created to assist research and testing of new drugs.

However, compared with such 2D cell cultures, the additional dimension of a 3D culture better reveals the tumor cells' characteristics, including their shape, their proliferation, and gene and protein expression, the researchers said.

"With further understanding of these 3D models, we can use them to study the development, invasion, metastasis and treatment of cancer using specific cancer cells from patients," said study researcher Wei Sun, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering at Drexel University, in Philadelphia.

"We can also use these models to test the efficacy and safety of new cancer treatment therapies and new cancer drugs," said Sun, who is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Biofabrication, in which the new research is published April 10.

The researchers also found that using certain parameters during printing made it possible for about 90% of cells to survive the printing process. The mechanical force of printing can damage cells.

This article originally published at LiveScience.

IMAGE: NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MICROSCOPY, TOM DEERINCK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Read full Article…

Apple Prepping Sensors That Predict Heart Attacks, Report Says

We now know that Apple held closed-door talks with Tesla, a meeting of two innovative companies that hints at a number of possibilities. But buried in that same report from the San Francisco Chronicle is the news that Apple may also be preparing to release a heart-attack prediction device.

According to the report, Apple is developing sensor technology that would be able to predict heart attacks. The effort, led by audio expert Tomlinson Holman, the inventor of THX and 10.2 surround sound, will reportedly focus on the sound blood makes as it travels through a person's arteries.

However, in order for Apple's supposed sensor to monitor the sound of a person's blood, that device would likely have to be worn on a person's body. Therefore, this new information directly points to the continued rumors of an upcoming Apple wearable device, commonly referred to as the iWatch.

The iWatch implications of the San Francisco Chronicle report are further backed by last week's news that Apple hired medical-device expert Marcelo Malini Lamego. What's more, a report in January claimed that Apple is also working on new health-focused apps for iOS.

If this new report regarding Apple's heart sensor research pans out — barring a surprise move by the company to enter the medical scanner bed industry — Apple's rumored iWatch will turn out to be far more broadly impactful than anyone could have guessed.

Image : KIN CHEUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Read full Article…

Archos Beats CES Rush and Unveils Step-Counting Fitness Tracker

Wearable fitness trackers are sure to be a big trend at the 2014 International CES next week, and Archos is beating the rush by unveiling its candidate a few days early. The Archos Activity Tracker is a wristband that can measure your steps, view your history and let you compete with friends.

Similar to the Fitbit Force, the Archos band has a small display that can relay basic data, like the number of steps taken in a day or the amount of calories burned. A full charge of the battery is said to last an entire week, and it charges via USB, just like the Nike+ Fuelband.

Of course, the Activity Tracker pairs with a dedicated app, which gathers the data from the band wirelessly. In addition to rendering the data graphically, the app will let you compete with up to eight people, similar to "teams" and small-scale social networking favored by other fitness-tracking ecosystems, such as Jawbone's.

In addition to the wristband, Archos is planning a whole line of connected devices for unveiling at CES, including a connected scale, a blood-pressure monitor, a home weather station and a 7-inch tablet designed specifically for "smart home" applications.

No prices or release dates have yet been announced.

Image: Archos

Read full Article…