The system utilizes a palatometer, a device traditionally used in speech therapy, to track the movement of the tongue. A cluster of 118 pressure sensors collect the data and send it off to be reproduced by a small sound sythesizer that's kept on the person. The device can also be calibrated to recognize inflection, which helps to generate a voice that is far more natural than the raspy or robotic sounds of current devices. Plus, it doesn't require any surgical implants.

Of course, several problems need to be addressed before this technology is ready for prime time. Accuracy can be as high as 94.4 percent, but the library of recognizable words needs to be vastly increased. The system also needs to be converted to wireless and the processing speed needs to be improved. At the moment, there is a one second delay between when the word is mouthed and the sound is produced—making it seem like you are acting in a bad kung-fu movie dubbed in English. The good news is that it probably won't be long before those issues are corrected. [Technology Review via PopSci]

This custom Band-Aid machine is a mere concept at the moment. And while being able to make custom-sized Band-Aids seems like a good idea, the fact that this can really only make very long and thin Band-Aids make me wonder how useful it would really be. If I lose a finger, for example, I'll need something that's more of a square. That'd be the more sensible choice than wrapping one long one around the stub. I mean, come on! [YankoDesign]

You'll need to attack your old stethoscope with a pair of scissors to make it fit the $30 iStetho Adapter, but they'll provide full instructions. Once connected, the iStethoscope Pro app (iTunes link) "amplifies the signal and eliminates audio outside of what is important for diagnosis." Kinda crazy. [RidRx via The Undercover Scientist, MedGadget and CNET]

As you can see in the video above, you simply blow into this thing and it uses sound waves to vibrate all the mucus out of your lungs. Then, all you need to do is cough up some serious loogies for the sweet relief you so desire.

Today, doctors in Japan use the $40 Lung Flute as a tool to collect sputum from patients suspected of carrying tuberculosis, and in Europe and Canada it's used to help test phlegm for lung cancer. Clinical trials in the U.S. have shown that it is at least as effective as current COPD treatments. At press time, Hawkins expected the device to receive FDA approval any day, and says the reusable device could also provide home relief for patients with cystic fibrosis, influenza and asthma.

[PopSci via Boing Boing]

I mean, I'm sure it does wonders to your scalp while functioning properly, but aren't you worried about your hair getting caught up in any of the moving parts in there? That would be very, very bad. And if you're running around frantically looking for help as this gigantic helmet slowly eats your head, you'll look even crazier. I'll continue to let my scalp exist un-massaged, thanks very much. [Aving via Engadget]

Harvard Medical School has just released HMSMobile Swine Flu Center, a $1.99 app that offers all sorts of stuff that doesn't quite seem worth $1.99. This includes:

-Videos on how to protect yourself (spoiler: wash your hands)

-A quiz on whether or not you have swine flu (spoiler: you don't)

-An outbreak tracker to see if the fever has swept through your area

-Advice about survival kits, just in case shit gets really fucking serious

Combine this with the Pedophile Finder app and the HealthMap app and you'll scare yourself into never leaving the house. Awesome? [HMSMobile Swine Flue Center]

These things use a lattice of thin steel laces that can be tightened with one hand and loosened using a clicky dial knob. You can set it once and leave it be, or you can continually adjust it for the best fit. The best part? You don't need a damned saw to get the thing off. [Exos Medical via Fast Company]

The thing about electroscalpels is that they put off gaeous ions, which, besides being something you shouldn't breath in, it so happens are perfect for being analyzed via mass spectrometry—a method of identifying molecules based on their mass and change. A spectrometer pulls in the fumes from the electroscalpel, and analysis of the chemical sample happens almost instantly, allowing surgeons to, in near real time, "draw a map and say this part is healthy liver, that is connective tissue, this is adipose tissue, that is cancer" according Zoltán Takáts, a Justus-Liebig University professor who came up with the idea.

Like any other technology-driven medical advance when it comes to cancer, it's not cheap to implement: The electrosurgery setup alone is 8 grand, while the mass spectrometry setup is $120,000. I wonder how much the first medical tricorder is gonna cost. [Technology Review]

The chip, encased in titanium to withstand the tortures of the human body for 10 years, sticks to the outside of your eyeball. The eye's lens still seems to be used, but light strikes implanted electrodes that in turn cause the chip to fire image information directly into the optic nerve.

Users will still need to wear glasses, but not for the reasons you'd think. The glasses house a power source to transmit necessary energy to the sight chip wirelessly.

Researchers admit that the footage won't be a 1:1 replacement for normal vision, especially at first when trial participants will help refine MIT's algorithms. But the device should theoretically enable someone to navigate a room and even recognize faces, making social tasks quite a bit easier. [Wired via Newlaunches]

You're looking at "teeth", a visual work by Hong Kong-based radiologist, Kai-hung Fung. He runs 3D computed tomography (CT) scans of his patient's hearts, teeth, and other body parts, and generates images directly from his medical workstation; no Photoshop-like tools are involved. According the Telegraph, his mix of science and art has been shown in galleries around the world.

"The imagery is packed with information. Each line or point represents specific anatomical structures in the body in normal or diseased state. It creates an unusual perspective."

[Telegraph]

Stacked with the same bone conduction technology we've been seeing in Bluetooth headsets for some time now, along with wired and wireless device connectivity, a new class of hearing aids in making its way into patients' ears—or more accurately, their skulls. Bone conduction makes a big difference to hearing aids' core functionality, eliminating all manner of noise issues, but the heart of these new plugs is a powerful processing platform, with a gadgety twist:

[T]he newer processors, costing about $6000 (AUD) each, shut out background noise, giving users up to 25 per cent better hearing, and can be attached directly to MP3 music players or wireless headsets for talking on the phone

This makes a lot of sense—wearing earbuds or a Bluetooth headset on top of hearing aids would feel a little redundant, no? Anyway, as they are, the systems, made by Australian company Cochlear, aren't as cyborgian as you might imagine. The processor, with its headphone jack and wireless radio, isn't actually drilled into your head—that's just the cochlear implant—but instead worn around your ear, headset-style. The company's even got a range of "Freedom Accessories" which, let's be clear here, are consumer tech accessories meant to indirectly plug into your bone. It's a great time to be an old.

UPDATE: It looks like we got a few things wrong first time around. Here's an in-depth explanation of how this tech works:

What your recent article refers to is the Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid or BAHA. This device has been around for at least the last 4 years and is not a fully implantable device nor is it a cochlear implant. The BAHA is designed for people who are unable to wear conventional hearing aids because of chronic ear infections that prevent occlusion of the ear canal, or because they have congenital skull abnormalities including failure of the middle ear and/or ear canal to form.

The BAHA consists of a titanium screw and abutment which is implanted into the skull. Titanium is capable of osseointegration, which basically means that the screw is integrated into the bone when it heals, while the skin grows around the abutment. After the healing process is complete, an external processor is then clipped to the abutment. An external processor allows for regular maintainance, and easy removal and adjustment and battery replacement.

The BAHA processor is amplifies the incoming sound waves and vibrates the skull. These vibrations stimulate surviving hair cells within the inner ear which in turn convert sound into signals that the brain can interpret. They work just like a conventional hearing aid, except vibrations are transferred via the skull, rather than being captured by the eardrum and amplified by the middle ear bones before passing to the inner ear.

A cochlear implant (the picture in your post is of the Nucleus Freedom speech processor which is the external portion of a cochlear implant system) on the other hand converts sound into an electrical signal which is passed across the skin to a receiver-stimulator which provides electrical current to an electrode array implanted into the inner ear, to directly stimulate auditory neurons, providing a perception of sound. Cochlear implants are only recommended when the level of sensory hair cell damage is so severe that even with hearing aids, speech perception cannot be supported.

Cochlear is a manufacturer of both the BAHA and the nucleus implant. That cochlear is touting the 'noise-cancellation abilities' of their new device is more a reflection of the fact that advanced signal processing is now possible with the updated processor, unlike their first generation device. On the other hand, noise cancellation technologies are touted as being the greatest thing since sliced bread by every hearing aid manufacturer, yet no peer-reviewed studies have shown any more than minor improvements in speech understanding with noise cancellation technologies, and these improvements have been limited to very specific listening laboratory testing situations that tend not to generalize well to everyday life.

If you want to find out more, check out Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Anchored_Hearing_Aid They have pictures to help explain things better.

—Thanks, Chris! [Sydney Morning Herald via Neatorama via BoingBoing]

Italian scientists have developed a new "wood-derived bone substitute" that promises to be better than ceramic or metal implants. They start with a block of wood like red oak, burn it until the block is essentially charcoal and then coat the substance with calcium.

The "bone" takes about a week to produce at a cost of around $850. And while it's not quite as cool as titanium, the spongier structure handles natural impacts better, and other bones prefer the calcium carbon mix to space shuttle alloys.

So much for my awesome robot legs. [Discovery]

All three patients were blind in one eye. The researchers extracted stem cells from their working eyes, cultured them in contact lenses for 10 days, and gave them to the patients. Within 10 to 14 days of use, the stem cells began recolonizing and repairing the cornea.

Of the three patients, two were legally blind but can now read the big letters on an eye chart, while the third, who could previously read the top few rows of the chart, is now able to pass the vision test for a driver's license. The research team isn't getting over excited, still remaining unsure as to whether the correction will remain stable, but the fact that the three test patients have been enjoying restored sight for the last 18 months is definitely encouraging. The simplicity and low cost of the technique also means that it could be carried out in poorer countries.

This is incredible and potentially game changing. It's stuff like this that makes you realize that we live in the future, and it's awesome. [UNSW via The Australian via GizMag]

"Researchers can obtain pig hearts from a pork processing facility and use the system to test their prototypes or practice new surgical procedures," says Andrew Richards, a Ph. D. student in mechanical engineering at NC State who designed the heart machine.

The computer-controlled machine, which operates using pressurized saline solution, also allows researchers to film the interior workings of the pumping heart - enabling them to ascertain exactly which surgical technologies and techniques perform best for repairing heart valves.

By using the machine, researchers can determine if concepts for new surgical tools are viable before evaluating them on live animals. They can also identify and address any functional problems with new technological tools. "There will still be a need for testing in live animal models," says Dr. Greg Buckner, who directed the project, "but this system creates an intermediate stage of testing that did not exist before. It allows researchers to do 'proof of concept' evaluations, and refine the designs, before operating on live animals." Buckner is an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State.

Using the system could also save researchers a great deal of money. Once the machine is purchased and set up, the cost of running experiments is orders of magnitude less expensive than using live animals. "It costs approximately $25 to run an experiment on the machine," says Richards, "whereas a similar experiment using a live animal costs approximately $2,500."

[Medgadget]

Because of it's compact size, users can move about in tight spaces easier than they could in a wheelchair or scooter—and it can travel at speeds of up to 12 mph making it a efficient method of transport. Essentially it's a Segway that you can wear. Yeah, it sort of makes people look like a vacuum, or like they are wearing some sort of robotic skirt—but there is no doubt that this concept is certifiably badass.

Production versions of the Chariot should be available sometime in the near future, and there are plans to integrate a feature that would allow users to switch from a standing to a seated position as needed. [Business Wire via Gizmowatch via Botopolis]

And yes, it does have some great high-tech features:

•Noninvasive and continuous detection of carbon monoxide (SpCO), oxygen saturation (SpO2), and methemoglobin (SpMET) through integrated Masimo Rainbow technology.
•The CPR Metronome with audible prompts has been proven to aid users in performing compressions and ventilations within the recommended range of AHA Guidelines.
•Energy dosing to 360J for difficult-to-defibrillate patients.
•Easy to acquire pre-medication 12-lead ECG and reliable, continuous monitoring of all 12 leads in the background to alert you to changes via our ST Trending feature.
•Large, high quality dual-mode color LCD screen with one touch switching to high-contrast SunVue™ mode for use in bright sunlight
•Advanced Lithium-ion battery technology to give you up to six hours of operating time-enough juice to run a shift
•A platform with a new state-of-the-art processor and more memory so the 15 can grow and adapt as your needs change

The Medtronic LIFEPAK 15 has just been given the go-ahead by the FDA—so treat yourself to another donut. Your gonna be just fine fatty. [Checkoutthefuture via Medgadget]

He's built with a pair of metal rods that run down his face, and over forty screws are bolted to his head holding his jaw and skull together.

Surgeons were forced to construct the biotechnological terror now known as Robo-Croc after a car crushed his formerly ordinary-but-endangered crocodile head last year. He's not eaten in three months. They're hoping that by reinforcing his snout and reconstructing his head and face with a similar texture, they can get him to eat again.

Perhaps they should start with one-handed pirates that have cybernetic limbs. I wonder if he's still going to get his brains scrambled by magnets, though? [Telegraph]

The photo above depicts a portable x-ray machine at Walter Reed hospital during World War I. Some of the crude, early prosthetic limbs (WARNING some photos are highly disturbing), combined with the photos' sepia tone, make these very real people remind you of those mangled toys in the original Toy Story. Just compare them to the i-Limb bionic arm.

They've got over 500,000 scans and are working to digitize another 225,000 this year. So this curated set of 800 is just the beginning, but I don't know if I can bring myself to look through any more. [Flickr via Wired via BoingBoing]

As you can see in the TechFlash interview, the Vioguard works by automatically retracting into the monitor base for a germ-killing UV bath. Obviously, this could be a matter of life and death in a hospital but, by the looks of things, the average Joe could benefit from this technology as well. [Vioguard and TechFlash]