Cybernetics and Robotics News - January 2010 Archives
A tiny eye implant that clears scar tissue and delivers progenitor cells designed to replace photoreceptors damaged by disease passes early tests.
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A new study reported in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science found that UV-blocking contact lenses can reduce or eliminate the effects of the sun's harmful UV radiation.
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 | A team of Florida State University researchers will use a five-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a way to measure levels of the trace metal zinc in the human body. ...> Full Article |
Attaching cartilage to plates made of the resorbable material polydioxanone appears to facilitate corrective surgery on the nasal septum, the thin cartilage separating the two airways, according to a report in the January/February issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Children with cochlear implants in both ears appear to have difficulty controlling the loudness and pitch of their voices, but these measures improve over time, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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 | Surgeons from UC Davis Medical Center have demonstrated that artificial muscles can restore the ability of patients with facial paralysis to blink, a development that could benefit the thousands of people each year who no longer are able to close their eyelids due to combat-related injuries, stroke, nerve injury or facial surgery. ...> Full Article |
Even simple insects can generate quite different movement patterns with their six legs. The animal uses various gaits depending on whether it crawls uphill or downhill, slowly or fast. Scientists from Gottingen have now developed a walking robot, which can flexibly and autonomously switch between different gaits. The success of their solution lies in its simplicity: a small and simple network with just a few connections can create very diverse movement patterns. To this end, the robot uses a mechanism for "chaos control."
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More than 1,200 American soldiers have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq with missing limbs. To address this growing national need, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are laying the groundwork for a new generation of advanced prosthetic limbs that will be fully integrated with the body and nervous system. As part of the recently approved Department of Defense appropriations bill, WPI's Center for Neuroprosthetics and BioMEMS received a $1.6 million allocation to advance this groundbreaking work.
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Bone loss around dental implants is far more common than previously realised, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Around a quarter of patients loose some degree of supporting bone around their implants.
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 | A consortium of European researchers, coordinated by the Computer Vision Centre of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, has developed HERMES, a cognitive computational system consisting of video cameras and software able to recognize and predict human behavior, as well as describe it in natural language. The applications of the Hermes project are numerous and can be used in the fields of intelligent surveillance, protection of accidents, marketing, psychology, etc. ...> Full Article |
 | Remotely monitored in-home virtual reality videogames improved hand function and forearm bone health in teens with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, helping them perform activities of daily living for which two hands are needed. Researchers suspect using these games could similarly benefit individuals with other illness that affect movement, such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, arthritis and even those with orthopedic injuries affecting the arm or hand ...> Full Article |
A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created the strongest form of collagen known to science, a stable alternative to human collagen that could one day be used to treat arthritis and other conditions that result from collagen defects.
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 | Researchers at Purdue University have created a magnetic "ferropaper" that might be used to make low-cost "micromotors" for surgical instruments, tiny tweezers to study cells and miniature speakers. ...> Full Article |
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New species of ancient crocodile discovered
Kitchen gadget inspires scientist to make more effective plastic electronics
Making memories last
Forensic research extends detection of cyanide poisoning
Shakespeare's skill 'more in grammar than in words'
Detailed picture of how myoV 'walks' along actin tracks
Need muscle for a tough spot? Turn to fat stem cells
Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity
The wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies
What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?
Pictures of food create feelings of hunger
Mighty mesh
Sweeten up your profits with the right hybrid
Patterns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in Galapagos reptiles
Bilayer graphene works as an insulator
How seawater could corrode nuclear fuel
Patterns of chromosome abnormality: The key to cancer?
Advantages of living in the dark: The multiple evolution events of 'blind' cavefish
Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots
Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
Magnetic actuation enables nanoscale thermal analysis
A new artificial intelligence technique to speed the planning of tasks when resources are limited
'Tiger mothers' should tame parenting approach
Film coatings made from whey
Growing US violent extremism by the numbers
If a fat tax is coming, here's how to make it efficient, effective
Bobsled runs -- fast and yet safe
Fruit fly intestine may hold secret to the fountain of youth
Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue
Running robots
Rap music powers rhythmic action of medical sensor
New book on computational analysis of human eye
Hips that function better and last longer
Microneedle sensors may allow real-time monitoring of body chemistry
Researchers use a 3-D printer to make bone-like material 
Kilobots are leaving the nest