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GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
Modded Cell Phone Analyzes Blood to Detect HIV, Malaria, and More
Diseases Not Yet Associated with Cell Phone Use
HealthMap Gives Lowdown on Disease Outbreaks, Could Save Lives
NMR Machine Shrunk to Make Portable Disease Scanner: Medical Tricorder V1.0
Genetic Disease, All Over Your Face

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infmom
06/10/09

In reply to GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
My father died from complications of Alzheimers. He was in a nursing home the last couple years of his life. All the doors to the outside had locks, where you had to enter in a code to get in and a code to get out. That did cut down considerably on the wandering-away, but boy, was it jarring the first time I encountered it.

I don't think having the tracker implanted in shoes is a good idea. As others have noted, the person who would wander away would not necessarily put on shoes to do it. Perhaps something like a Medic Alert bracelet, which doesn't come off easily, would be a better idea. I suspect if there's enough of a market for bracelets with chips, Medic Alert would sell them. Although going by what they charge for their watch, the price might not be comfortable for a lot of people. (Not to disparage Medic Alert; I've worn one of their tags since 1986 and they are a fine organization.)
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LuckyLakey
06/09/09

In reply to GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
Lets just skip the nonsense and barcode them and implant a chip.
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GitEmSteveDave_IsSlacking
06/10/09

@LuckyLakey: Tell em Alex!
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madara
06/09/09

In reply to GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
Great idea, except most Alzheimer's patients end up in a nursing home and would most likely not always be wearing their shoes. Why not incorporate it into a medical alert bracelet that may be more difficult to remove? Sounds like I need a patent.
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infmom
06/10/09

@madara: Medic Alert has a bracelet designed for Alzheimers patients, but no, they haven't put a chip in it yet.
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GitEmSteveDave_IsSlacking
06/09/09

In reply to GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
Also, if you ever encounter an Alzheimer's patient who doesn't remember anything, have them dial a phone. Just have them dial it. Most times they will dial a familiar number w/o thinking about it, and it can be a first step to tracking their identity down.
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92BuickLeSabre
06/09/09

@GitEmSteveDave: That is a fascinatingly useful piece of information!
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92BuickLeSabre
06/09/09

In reply to GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
We got something like this for my grandpa.

Turned out he had been wandering off to a little place called "Angel Delight!"
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Curves
06/09/09

In reply to GPS Shoes Help Locate Wandering Alzheimer's Patients
This could help me find my shoes. I dont have alzheimers, I just misplace my shoes sometimes. Its like they walk away on their own.
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OMG! Ponies!
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
And it only took House 42 minutes, 12 insults directed at Kuttner, 10 remarks about Cuddy's ass, 5 allusions to bisexuality directed at 13, and 5 glares at Forman to figure out.

Is there anything Hugh Laurie doesn't know?
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
02/24/09

@OMG! Ponies!: It took them that long to figure out it was Lupus?
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GitEmSteveDave_IsSlacking
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
Well, judging by other picts of her, the rash or sores don't appear to be anywhere else on her.

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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
02/24/09

@OscarWinner_GitEmSteveDave: Dunno man, she still has some bits strategically covered up.
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GitEmSteveDave_IsSlacking
02/24/09

@Lite: thinks they will listen to Reason (tm):
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
02/24/09

@OscarWinner_GitEmSteveDave: Those are sores. They're love blisters...
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
"PlayStation palmar hidradenitis."

Back in the day we used to just call it Rosy Palm...
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GitEmSteveDave_IsSlacking
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
Someone make sure to tell Ponies. I tried telling him, but he kept insisting I gave him the sores.
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BeautifulAgony
02/24/09

@OscarWinner_GitEmSteveDave: Well was he playing with your "controller" for an extended period of time?? If so, a little break from your "multiplayer gaming nights" might be in order.

I'm just sayin'...
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
"It tastes like salty garbage.."
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Liam Kinkaid
02/24/09

@Jrsy Devil's Food Cake®: I thought that was Christina Aguilera.
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OMG! Ponies!
02/24/09

@Liam Kinkaid: She looks like she tastes like salty garbage.
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IN THE FACE!
02/24/09

@OMG! Ponies!: but she smells like tequila and spermicide!
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timak
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
She can lick my.... hand
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caL
02/24/09

@timak:

funny thing about my hand is that its located on my...
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BeautifulAgony
02/26/09

@caL: And your head is located up your...
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admoseremic
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
Diisiise?
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BeautifulAgony
02/25/09

@admoseremic: Call Dr. Mario.
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jakebathman
02/24/09

In reply to PlayStation Skin Disorder Is a Real Disease
That picture is an irrelevant jailbait ploy, just admit it
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MeanMF
02/24/09

@jakebathman: Click on "Image credit" and look through the rest of the album for some real jailbait shots.
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BeautifulAgony
02/24/09

@MeanMF: Thanks for the heads up... She's a cutie.
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Hyman Decent
02/24/09

@jakebathman: Look at it this way, those photos were uploaded on May 1, 2005, so those chicks must be legal by now.
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BeautifulAgony
02/25/09

@Hyman Decent: So then it's ok to look at pics of underage girls, so long as the pictures are old enough that the girls are legal now!?

Oh, that's good... I find your ideas intriguing, and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.
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BeautifulAgony
12/20/08

In reply to Modded Cell Phone Analyzes Blood to Detect HIV, Malaria, and More
The basic concept only uses a cellphone because of the ability to write an app for the operating system. Once the software can be ported into a device such as a digital camera it would not only be more accurate, but could analyze higher resolution samples for increased capability. Right now there are virtually no digital cameras with OS's that can be written for by the consumer.

Average device cost would be little more than your average 3to 5 megapixel camera, with cost increasing due to software requirements, wireless capability, and advanced detection algorithms.

It will likely be a few years in the wings, with rigorous testing and refinement of the software before it's a comemrcially viable (and medically reliable) tool for common use. The concept is not only brilliant, but could potentially save hundreds of millions of lives.
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William_III_Earl_of_Dastardshire
12/20/08

@BeautifulAgony: Judging from the fourth pictures of the article, the resolution doesn't seem so critical. The way I understood it, the process works by revealing chemicals in plasma of bloodcells that are telltale for infections, by looking for changes in the absorbtion of certain light frequencies. So probably the ability to reproduce color correctly is much more important.
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BeautifulAgony
12/20/08

@William_III_Earl_of_Dastardshire: True, in which case better (glass) lenses, to reduce chromatic abberation, are probably more important. I'm do think another megapixel or two of resolution would help in making sure that the color information is accurate from the image/light received and not strange low resolution antialiasing, or compression artificating, etc. Lots of phones have a tendency to perform strange actions such as low-light noise reduction, slight blurring and other compensation to accomodate the fact that they use dodgy little cmos sensors and plastic (or low-quality glass) lenses.

I would like to see the results of a bouble-blind test based on multiple negative and positive samples and at two each of least a dozen different camera phones (without extensive modification of the built-in lens, only the added sample viewer/light).

I have a feeling this wouldn't work well across-the-board without some extensive phone-specific coding, since, as mentioned above, the manufacturers use all kinds of tricks to make people think their crappy little phone takes great pictures. (other tricks include boosting saturation of greens and reds, performing noise reduction on low-saturation reds (ie skintones), and performing soft blur on blue tones, and dropping saturation of pictures taken at night and increasing contrast.

These "tricks" aren't bad per se, as they result in decent looking images from relatively low-quality and very tiny hardware... the problem is that they lead to unreliability when you wish to apply them as tools in the medical trade for detecting infectious diseases.

"I wish to extend my apologies, sir, you do not, in fact have AIDS or syphylis.... damn it, I need to buy a better phone, but my carrier has a crappy selection! Anyway, have a great day, and my apologies for quarantining you for so long! Take care now!"
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