Medical
Medical devices powered by the ear itself
November 9, 2012 9:24 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsDeep in the inner ear of mammals is a natural battery — a chamber filled with ions that produces an electrical potential to drive neural signals. In today's issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, a team of researchers from MIT, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) and the Harvard-MIT
Do you have what it takes to be a Roundtable expert?
November 8, 2012 11:11 am | Articles | CommentsIn October, we asked you for your words of wisdom for a brand-new design engineer and boy, did you guys have advice in spades. The responses we received were so good in fact, we’ve decided to open up our December Roundtable to our faithful readers in hopes that you can offer more words of wisdom.
Stem cells + nanofibers = Promising nerve research
November 8, 2012 9:00 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsEvery week in his clinic at the University of Michigan, neurologist Joseph Corey, M.D., Ph.D., treats patients whose nerves are dying or shrinking due to disease or injury. He sees the pain, the loss of ability and the other effects that nerve-destroying conditions cause – and wishes he could give patients
Virtual reality could help people lose weight, fight prejudice
November 7, 2012 9:17 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsInternet-based interactive games and social media outlets have become intertwined with the physical realities of millions of people around the world. When an individual strongly identifies with the cyber representation of themselves, known as an avatar, the electronic doppelganger can influence
Eldercare robots
November 6, 2012 5:08 pm | by Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report | Blogs | CommentsIn December, 2003, BusinessWeek Magazine interviewed Joseph Engelberger, the robotics pioneer. The article was entitled "How Robots Lost Their Way." Included in the article was a plea for money to build an eldercare robot which Engelberger thought could be built with then-current technologies...
Is glasses-free 3D ready for industrial/medical applications?
November 6, 2012 4:36 pm | by Dale Maunu, Senior Business Planning Analyst, Renesas Electronics America | Articles | CommentsHarking back to the good-old-days, before social media, before texting, before mobile phones – all the way back to when we (not me literally) received news from the wireless (radio), this new-fangled invention came along called the TV and sat down in living rooms everywhere.
LED drivers suit large industrial displays
November 6, 2012 1:44 pm | Endicott Research Group | Product Releases | CommentsEndicott Research Group (ERG) has introduced its Large Display Solutions: LED drivers and rails specifically designed for LCDs in the 19” to 27” diagonal range. The series includes the SFDZ, SFDQ and SFDT driver modules. The SFDZ Series driver provides
New mobile app helps migraine sufferers track and analyze pain
November 6, 2012 9:02 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsA new iPhone app developed at the University of Michigan lets migraine or facial pain patients easily track and record their pain, which in turn helps the treating clinician develop a pain management plan. Dr. Alexandre DaSilva, director of the Headache & Orofacial Pain Effort (H.O.P.E.) at the U-M School of Dentistry and one of the project developers,
Multiple Code Reading Applications Made Easy
November 2, 2012 11:32 am | by Cognex | White PapersReading more than one barcode at a time is a challenging application for many manufacturing and material handling engineers. In these applications there is a need to read multiple codes of the same symbology as well as multiple codes of mixed symbologies within one field of view (FOV). Even more difficult is reading one or more codes on multiple sides of a package to verify that the codes match or to output both sides’ read results as one piece of data. Laser scanners have difficulty reading codes that are poorly printed, damaged or defective, are at extreme perspectives and that are omnidirectional. They cannot manage when variations occur in part and package positioning. And they cannot read 2-D codes at all, which means that they have no way to compete in two of the four types of multiple code reading applications we commonly see. Image-based code reading technology can handle much more variation in barcode printing than traditional laser scanners and can also read codes presented at any angle or omnidirectionally. Additionally, the life of an image-based scanner, with no moving parts, is longer and more reliable than a mechanical based laser scanner. With this information, image-based barcode reading solutions make a great replacement for laser scanners even when reading single barcodes and are especially exceptional with multiple barcodes of the same or different symbology types
Top 10 must-see posts from October
November 1, 2012 1:49 pm | by The ECN Editors | Articles | CommentsHere’s a rundown of the most read, most popular, most awesome articles on the web. Take a look at what you missed the first time around or check up on an old favorite to see the conversation in the comments. Keep checking out the Lead at www.ecnmag.com and follow us on Twitter @ecnonline for our most up-to-date articles.
Genetic test results for Lynch syndrome improved with new computer program
November 1, 2012 1:33 pm | by EurekAlert! | News | CommentsMany patients who have genetic testing for Lynch syndrome, a hereditary predisposition to colon cancer, receive the inconclusive result "variants of uncertain clinical significance." This can be a problem, as people with Lynch syndrome have a much higher probability to develop...
Computational medicine enhances the way doctors detect and treat disease
November 1, 2012 1:21 pm | by Johns Hopkins University | News | CommentsComputational medicine, a fast-growing method of using computer models and sophisticated software to figure out how disease develops–and how to thwart it–has begun to leap off the drawing board and land in the hands of doctors who treat patients for heart ailments, cancer and other illnesses.
Design requirements for automotive displays
November 1, 2012 11:34 am | by Mike Mallory, Electrical Engineer, Ocular LCD | Articles | CommentsTouch panel demand continues to rapidly increase and applications utilizing this advanced technology are expanding into a wide variety of markets. According to DisplaySearch, projected capacitive touch panels have surpassed resistive touch panels in shipments and revenue.
90-W to 105-W medical & ITE AC/DC power adapters tout efficiency and up-to-date agency approvals
November 1, 2012 11:13 am | Product Releases | CommentsTumbler Technologies + TRUMPower launched the TMP105 Series of 90 W to 105 W AC/DC power adapters, which is approved to the latest medical and ITE safety standards. The series comes equipped with
Amputee to climb stairs of Chicago skyscraper using thought-controlled bionic leg
October 31, 2012 9:14 am | by CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsZac Vawter considers himself a test pilot. After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident, the 31-year-old software engineer signed up to become a research subject, helping to test a trailblazing prosthetic leg that's controlled by his thoughts. He will put this groundbreaking bionic leg to the ultimate test Sunday when
Study of 20,000 jumps shows how a hopping robot could conserve its energy
October 30, 2012 2:57 pm | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsA new study shows that jumping can be much more complicated than it might seem. In research that could extend the range of future rescue and exploration robots, scientists have found that hopping robots could dramatically reduce the amount of energy they use by adopting a unique two-part "stutter jump."
Selecting Hall-effect sensors for brushless DC motors
October 29, 2012 12:00 am | by Josh Edberg, Honeywell Sensing and Control, sensing.honeywell.com | Articles | CommentsBrushless DC (BLDC) motors need to operate more efficiently as energy and cost savings become bigger concerns for designers of electronic devices. One way to help ensure greater efficiency is by selecting the correct bipolar latching Hall-effect sensor IC for electronic commutation in BLDC motors.
ZOLL establishes Japanese subsidiary
October 24, 2012 12:19 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions and a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Asahi Kasei, has established Asahi Kasei ZOLL Medical Corporation (AZM) as its Japanese subsidiary effective November 5. AZM will advance the expansion and development...
Is a pacemaker capable of mass murder?
October 24, 2012 9:05 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Articles | CommentsWhen you are a patient in a hospital, you tend to expect that the electronics are either top of the line or at least functioning correctly. You expect that the devices doctors implant in your body are reliable and safe. These seem like safe assumptions. Unfortunately, you could be mistaken.
November 2012: Power
October 23, 2012 4:03 pm | Digital Editions | CommentsThe November issue of ECN focuses on the power application area. Executive Editor Chris Warner discusses net neutrality, Jon Titus presents his annual Kits for Kids column, and the Brainstorm Q&A section asks “What is the most significant challenge in the miniaturization of medical devices?”
Compact serial device server offers ease-of-use and flexibility for M2M connectivity
October 23, 2012 2:01 pm | Product Releases | CommentsLantronix announced the launch of its new xDirect device server -- a compact serial-to-Ethernet device server that provides quick and easy connectivity to virtually any device or machine with a serial interface. With plug-and-play simplicity and a small form factor, xDirect is suitable for a variety of markets from security to industrial automation to medical and more.
Letter From the Publisher: It’s Time to Grow Again
October 23, 2012 12:02 pm | by Nick Pinto, Group Publisher | Articles | CommentsWith the recent downturn in the global economy, countries throughout the world have struggled to celebrate growth opportunities within their various industrial sectors. The medical device market has not been immune to the downturn, but has been able to persevere better than most industries.
Scientists build 'mechanically active' DNA material
October 23, 2012 9:09 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsArtificial muscles and self-propelled goo may be the stuff of Hollywood fiction, but for UC Santa Barbara scientists Omar Saleh and Deborah Fygenson, the reality of it is not that far away. By blending their areas of expertise, the pair have created a dynamic gel made of DNA that mechanically responds
Japan’s first MR-conditional pacemaker system
October 19, 2012 11:38 am | by Medtronic | News | CommentsMedtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), today announced the Japanese regulatory approval and launch of the Advisa DR MRI™ SureScan™ pacing system. The Advisa MRI system is the first and only MR-Conditional pacemaker available to patients in Japan, the world’s second largest market for medical devices.
First-of-its-kind self-assembled nanoparticle for targeted and triggered thermo-chemotherapy
October 19, 2012 9:29 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsExcitement around the potential for targeted nanoparticles (NPs) that can be controlled by stimulus outside of the body for cancer therapy has been growing over the past few years. More specifically, there has been considerable attention around near-infrared (NIR) light as an ideal method to stimulate nanoparticles
