The world is one step closer to a future where tiny ship-like vessels travel through our veins and fix our health problems. Recently, doctors across the United States implanted the world's smallest pacemaker into cardiac patients. The device is roughly the size of a large vitamin and is attached directly to the heart without invasive surgery.
The Medtronic Micra TPS is indeed futuristic. One-tenth the size of a normal pacemaker, the miniaturized technology doesn't even require wires. Unlike existing devices which are installed into a cavity beneath the skin that doctors carve out through an incision in the chest, the Micra TPS is inserted through a large vein in the thigh and pushed up to the heart using catheters. It latches onto the muscle with metal ties and regulates the heartbeat with electrical impulses.
Believe it or not, the Micra TPS isn't necessarily the most advanced pacemaker in development. That honor might go to the these internet-connected devices or this Tic Tac-sized pacemaker. However, it looks like the Medtronics device could be the first to hit the mass market. The current trial involves 780 patients at 50 medical centers around the world. If all goes well, getting a pacemaker could be almost as easy as getting an IV in the future.
Expensive up front but much cheaper in the long run. I hope they start making circular ones. I have a lamp I'd love to put one of those in.
Just a few months ago, we go our first look at the 3D photo-app Seene. But now, instead of just turning photos into a parallax party trick, the app's next update will let you make full fledged, textured 3D models. And judging from the preview below, it looks positively awesome.
[YT]2CqFbJNVgiU[/YT]
The app itself doesn't require any sort of external sensor or hardware. Instead, Seene breaks the object you're shooting into individual points and calculates depth based on how they distort as you move your phone.
It's the same basic idea behind the parallax-dependent version, but now, it's been turned into something that's actually useful. Because if what we're seeing is actually true, you could even turn your models into something to be used for 3D printing.
That being said, there's always the possibility this won't work quite as well as we hope. But at the very least, it should be a hell of a lot of fun to play with.
Bang & Olufsen is jumping into the UHD fray with the BeoVision Avant, a 55-inch 3940 x 2160 LCD panel housed in an impressive hunk of aluminum. But it wouldn't be Bang & Olufsen if it didn't come with some luxury automation featuresand a crazy price tag.
We had the opportunity to check out the BeoVision Avant at media event in New York, and more than the extra resolution, this TV is all about automated movements that you can program to the exact specifications of the room it lives in. You can either use a wall or table mount or a burly silver stand. All three are motorized and move to different positions depending on the use case and the layout of a room.
The default standby state is supposed to be tucked out of the way. The idea is that the TV should stay out of your way when you're not using it, rather than serving as the default centerpiece of a room.When you turn the TV on, it springs to life, popping out from the wall or rotating on the stand to one of several settings. For example, you might, have one setting that points the TV right at Dad's easy chair, and another setting for watching movies with the whole family. Flipping on the TV also reveals, a three-channel built-in sound panel that slides out from a hiding spot. All, this movement is controlled by a slender unibody aluminum remote, that Bang & Olufsen said is programmable so it can be the only one you need.
[YT]7MKHP8P8kt4[/YT]
The 4K panel didn't look remarkably different to others we've seennot without a direct and more detailed comparison anyway. The motorized movement, however, is elegant and impressive, although, it's a little slow and I could see it getting annoying like a painfully sluggish automatic minivan door.
The BeoVision Avant comes with usual connectivity options: 5 HDMI , 2 USB, plus Wi-Fi and ethernet. The $8000 price tag is way more expensive than the 55-inch UHD panels offered by Samsung and Sony, but as with all Bang & Olufsen products, this baby's for people who can afford to pay for a cut above the rest.
For wannabe thieves, nothing is more tantalizing than an empty street and a vulnerable ATM. Soon, though, they could be facing more than just failure. Taking design cues from mother nature herself, researchers are building ATMs that fend off thieves with a spray of hot, steaming foam.
The inspiration for this dastardly defense mechanism comes from none other than the bombardier beetle, which sprays near-boiling acid at any foes who coming knocking. It keeps the ingredients for its deadly concoction (hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone) in two separate chambers in its abdomin. That way, the chemicals don't mix until they come shooting out, at which point the resulting reaction heats up and nearly vaporizes the noxious liquid. Here's our little friend in action.
Researchers at ETH Zurich University took cues from the deadly beetle and built two chemical filled honeycomb chambers. Except this time, hydrogen peroxide was paired with manganese dioxide. Since the two are only separate by a thin sheet of lacquer, any tampering will cause the chamber to break immediately, triggering a reaction that produces water vapor, oxygen, and heat. A much less expensivenot to mention non-face meltingvariation on the bomardier's own tactics.
Even though the thief might not walk away with a half-eaten face, this is a much more effective way of rendering ATM-theft useless. The oozing foam from the reaction will be laden with dye, marking the banknotes (rendering them useless) as well as the thieves themselves. What's more, researchers say that including DNA nanoparticles will allow them to trace the cash back to the source. Thieves may be able to run, but thankfully, it's getting much harder for them to hide.
Hopefully that barrier is thick enough to withstand the occasional (and inevitable( innocent, frustrated shake. And while this all still just being testedno plans for immediate rollout yetwe could all use a few more acid-spitting objects in our lives.
