According to the research paper, they inserted the electrodes into the patient's brain, installing signal amplifiers and transmitters under the scalp. The circuitry—powered by an induction electric supply—transmits the signals to a laptop via FM radio. The software then converts the analog signal to digital data that the neural decoder interprets these into speech commands, which are then sent to the synthesizer.

The whole process takes 50 milliseconds, which is the same amount of time it takes to any normal person to do the same process, using their nerves, vocal chords, and mouth. According to Neuralynx project leader Frank Guenther—from the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems and the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University—their system is going to get even better soon.

The results of our study show that a brain-machine interface (BMI) user can control sound output directly, rather than having to use a (relatively slow) typing process. Our immediate plans involve the implementation of a new synthesizer that can produce consonants as well as vowels but remains simple enough for a BMI user to control. We are also working on hardware that will greatly increase the number of neurons that are recorded. We expect to tap into at least 10 times as many neurons in the next implant recipient, which should lead to a dramatic improvement in performance.

Obviously, this is going to be a miraculous invention for people who can't talk because of nerve damage or any other reason. It could also mean the beginning of something bigger, perhaps enabling new kinds of communication. Imagine an implant that could do the same thing on reverse, basically enabling long distance telepathy. Or an jet fighter that can take mind commands in Russian!

Hmmm... on second thought, this may be the best worst idea ever created. [Physorg]

IOLs have been around since the late ‘40s, but recent developments have made them pretty amazing. The newest procedure involves inserting the lens into the eye with the basic focus worked out. Then, once the eye heals, doctors can direct UV light at highly specific areas on the lens to fine tune the focus. The end result is amazing, custom tuned vision, better than 20/20 in many cases.

Not a new idea, sure, but one that resonated with me. I've always thought about getting LASIK, but I'm scared by how once that laser burns away at your cornea, there's no going back. If my vision ever got worse, it'd probably be back to glasses and contacts. I'm sure plenty of you readers have had wonderful experiences with the procedure, but I'm really risk averse.

The amazing thing about most IOLs is that they're reversible. If my vision ever changed, I could just get a new lens implanted. The surgery may not be as easy as that right now, but maybe someday the procedure will be so minimally invasive replacement will be a non-issue.

Unfortunately, this new procedure only corrects for cataracts and farsightedness right now. Here's to hoping nearsightedness is next on the list. [Sky News via SmartPlanet via @editorialiste]

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]

The company is testing the implementation of their lighting technology alongside their medical technology in Ambient Experience suites across the world.

And luckily, the other 9 modes appear far more serene than the "Australia" theme in our lead shot. Patients, in fact, are allowed to choose their own color palette, along with accompanying sounds and video that will surround them during procedures. In fact, this media environment can be so relaxing (or simply distracting) that it was said to reduce sedation needs by 28% in one Chicago-based study.

Actually, on second thought, that pink freaks me out even more than the red. [Philips via CNET]

Researchers at Iowa State University have designed software that can quickly and simply render a detailed 3D model of a patient's MRI and CAT scan results. The software, called BodyViz, claims two core advantages over similar technologies: It's easier to use, and it's set up to use with an Xbox 360 controller out of the box because, let's face it, to the latest crop of med school grads, old-school mice and trackballs are lame, bro.

Add a couple of stock FPS weapons, hook this thing up to some robotic arms with knives, fire up the laparoscope and bam: surgery, revolutionized. [IA State via BoingBoing]

This week, Gizmodo is exploring the enhanced human future in a segment we call This Cyborg Life. It's about what happens when we treat our body less as a sacred object and more as what it is: Nature's ultimate machine.

I'm not sure how serious this is, but it certainly reflects the design mentality of 50 years ago: If something doesn't work right, it must be lacking features. Here are the most unexpected add-ons recommended by industrial designers, anthropologists, engineers and biologists:

• Folding ears, something like the old-fashioned ear trumpet, to catch low-pitched sounds

• Hooks on heads for straphangers on subways who wanted to read the papers

• A device resembling a giant clamshell can protect internal organs and be opened easily for surgical purposes

• 20 teeth would be an improvement over the present 32, according to dentists

• A long snout to do away with the nose's confusing air flow and related sinus troubles

• Detachable arms so that you can sleep in comfort

• An extra pair of hands coming out of ears to hold hats in high winds

• Antennae concealed in the head that could pick up sound waves, lights and shadows

• A protective covering for the eye, containing substances which would screen out harsh ultra violet rays

• A small food storage compartment like the camel's

• Built-in pockets, such as kangaroos have

• The spine as a solid column, to greatly increase load-carrying capacity and protect vital nerves

Only this last one comes with an admitted downside: "Man would not be able to twist and turn as he does now but the semi-flexibility of the cylinder would allow enough bending for every ordinary purpose." Meanwhile, the only one from the list that may actually be a product soon—the UV protective eye covering—was a suggestion "meant frankly for fun."

In the intervening years, sometime between the Don Drapers and the Gordon Gekkos, the finger stopped being pointed at our inherent form, and was redirected at how we treat it. Not surprisingly, only one of the experts consulted has any real legacy at all, and he—design god Raymond Loewy—is most famous for artifacts like a locomotive engine (the S-1) and a packet of cigarettes (Lucky Strike). Besides, I'm pretty sure Loewy was joking when he suggested the hat hands. [Modern Mechanix via Secondhand Smoke]

Until now, body-embedded circuitry was very limited. The electronics were hard, or had to be separated from the body. With this new technology, flexible circuits can be directly implanted anywhere in the body, protected by a cocoon of silk, which is human friendly. The silk melts away over time, leaving a small substrate of silicon circuitry inside that can't be noticed.

This opens the door to things like LED tattoos, which can monitor and display sugar levels in the bloodstream, other kinds of sensors, and chips that connect to the nervous system. You know, so the government an their extraterrestrial allies can deactivate our will at any time and convert us into alien egg nests. [Technology Review]

Yes, the study, published in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, suggests that "electromagnetic fields emitted by cell phones may have a harmful effect on bone density." And you've already suffered with the shame that comes from wearing a belt holster for your phone. When will the bad news end? [HealthDay News via Textually]

The full story is over at Wired, and is quite interesting, but one of the effects achieved was to basically reverse Parkinson's disease in mice. You should head over to find more, including what they'll do to get around the need to thread fiber through your skull. [Wired]

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 entire article is 9 pages of well-reasoned scenarios involve wireless devices galore, dynamic health monitoring and remote doctor consultation. Some of the technology looks to be lifted from Star Trek, but most of the ideas could be implemented tomorrow, should someone bankroll the cash, time and necessary legislation. (Keep in mind, US healthcare won't even acknowledge devices as practical as the iPhone.)

My personal favorite idea was this Smart Mirror (and not just for the PG-level cartoon nudity). It's a touchscreen monitor that can track most vitals through your hand. But it does a lot more, from listing your recent exercises to tracking your sleep patterns to performing bi-weekly body scans to test for melanoma.

From these short, daily checks, a doctor is left with a ton of analyzable trend data (surely software could be employed to summarize trends) that's potentially more reliable than general self-reporting. The user is left with a mirror on their bathroom wall—something they had in the first place.

Very cool stuff. [Fast Company]

First, patient data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is rendered into a 3-D, high-resolution model of an individual's brain. After the model is loaded into the system, doctors can touch and manipulate tumors and other virtual objects on screens in real time using a physical instrument resembling a scalpel. The instrument has six degrees of freedom and re-creates the force-feedback of the real tool and the varying resistance of tissue in brain regions with differing toughness. Meanwhile, photo-realistic on-screen imagery shows the simulated surgery, including bleeding and pulsing gray matter.

How long until this thing is ported to the Wii? [Technology Review via PopSci]

The team devised a sensor system made from nine chemiresistors that could respond to the biomarkers by altering their electrical properties. The chemiresistors were assembled from gold nanoparticles that are 5nm in diameter and functionalized with different organic compounds that allowed them to sense the biomarkers.

When the researchers exposed the sensors to untreated breath samples, they obtained readings that clearly distinguished between the exhalations of healthy patients and those with lung cancer. Regardless of the humidity of the breath, the gender of its source, or their smoking habits, the sensors were able to detect the lung cancer biomarkers. The sensors were also capable of working with a wide range of concentrations, and the process was reversible, meaning the nanoparticles can be reused.

It's not clear if the new breathalyzers can detect the cancer in its early stages—the study focused on stage-3 or stage-4 patients—but it's a significant step forward in detection nonetheless. Next time you get pulled over on your way home from the bar a DUI may not be the worst news you get. Harsh. [Ars Technica]

It's sure not the sexiest piece of footage I've ever seen, but it's interesting. I guess? What's great is that the researchers were pretty upfront about there being no real point to this study other than just seeing if they could do it. Look at their objective!

Objective: To find out whether taking images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and to find out whether former and current ideas about the anatomy during sexual intercourse and during female sexual arousal are based on assumptions or on facts.

This is exactly the kind of thing we'd do if you gave us any kind of equipment—test the limits of it. Also, can you imagine trying to have sex in an MRI tube? That's got to make the back seat of a compact car feel like a king-size bed by comparison.

Now that sex is done, we need to start the MRI on other bodily functions. Urination, defecation...I guess that's it. [Improbable Research]

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]

If there is anything abnormal, and we have a very intricate system set up, it will literally call the physician responsible at two in the morning if need be. It is a tremendous convenience for the patient from even interacting with a telephone to call the doctor. On a larger scale it enhances our ability to pick up and evaluate any problems with their pacemaker and certain other rhythm disorders that could be potentially dangerous or life threatening in ways we really could not do before.

That's what Dr. Steven Greenberg —director of St. Francis' Arrhythmia and Pacemaker Center—says, predicting that this will change the way people with heart problems manage their condition, and interact with their doctors. Happy news indeed. [PC Magazine]

That secret is Brilliant Blue G dye, a variant of Blue Number One, which is a common and harmless food coloring product. Scientists dropped weights on the rats' backs to break their little spinal cords, injecting the Brilliant Blue G dye in their bodies. The dye turned their skins blue, but within weeks all motor functions returned to normal. The rat could walk, run, jump, have sex, and do whatever it wanted.

According to the study, the dye prevented inflammation of the spinal cord. Not only it is as simple as that, but one of the neurologists—Maiken Nedergaard—says that they can't find "clinical effects on the rat." This is one of the things that they should start trying in humans as soon as possible. Better to look like a smurf than neer walking again. [National Geographic]

To achieve this, the researchers used filters to block out background light and convert the light source—a simple LED—into the 460-nanometer wavelength required to excite the green fluorescent dye in the sample. After that they were were able to take fluorescent images of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (which causes TB in humans) with a 3.2-megapixel off-the-shelf phone camera. The images were then automatically analyzed using software to show the total of bacteria in the blood sample.

Traditional instruments with the same capability can be bulky and extremely expensive, which is why the CellScope can have a profound impact on health care in developing countries. It is still in the prototype phase at the moment, so there is no telling when it might go to manufacturing. [CNET]

I am not a cyborg, but I am getting closer and closer to being a terminator. My back is already full of titanium, and I've got a radio-controlled device in my abdomen that feeds medication into my spinal canal. If the trials go well, I hope to get my chance at being the female Hardiman with the ReWalk system. You can start calling me Ripley when that happens.

It is when I read these things that I become fully aware of both my limitations and the tiny dimensions of any troubles I think I may have. Go read Sarah's interview at BBG. [BBG and Sarah's Blog]