The new reality
If all goes as planned for EP Global Communications, Inc., in the near future, people will soon be able to communicate through their cellphones using not only their words, but their eyes! The company has announced it is working to build the first augmented reality contact lenses, together with a coalition of mobile app providers and at least one major mobile network service provider. Imagine you are running or cycling, and a message comes in from Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. An alert would appear in your field of view. Or, you are in a foreign country and require instant language translation. By switching the smartphone to eye mode, images or text streaming will automatically appear in your field of view. According to EP Global Communications, it’s inevitable that all social media and mobile content will be available in augmented vision formats in the future. The total market for augmented vision is estimated to be larger than $120 billion.
Time for something new
Integrated Device Technology (IDT), Inc. has announced that its wireless charging technology is powering the new generation of Ticwatch, a smartwatch offered by the Chinese company, Mobvoi. The second-generation Ticwatch integrates IDT’s wireless power technology for wire-free charging. The Ticwatch features advanced voice recognition and natural language processing via its Chumenwenwen service. Users can control their Ticwatch by motion, voice, gesture and a tickle strip, which permits them to scroll without the screen becoming blocked.
Personal health is an app away
Today machines can print artificial ligaments while a patient is in surgery; laboratories can grow kidneys; and artificially intelligent robots can assist patients with physical limitations. Technology is changing the way people approach their personal healthcare as well. Indeed, health and medicine have been affected by the surge of mobile and wearable health technologies, changing the way people access information and communicate with health professionals. Reports indicate there are over 4 million downloads of mobile health apps every day, and 52 percent of smartphone owners use their phone to gather health-related information. Personal monitoring of heart rate, blood sugar, cholesterol and calories burned/consumed is now commonplace. Doctors regularly receive patient data through the cloud, respond to patient emails through a security-safe portal, get up-to-date patient metrics and do consults on their smartphones. For those who have their mobile phone within arm’s reach all day, this translates to having highly personalized and relevant information whenever they need it, and an opportunity to assess and predict their health risks. To learn more visit: http://www.ph360.me/shae http://www.ph360.me/media.
Keeping the faith
Recent research from AT&T shows Americans believe their smartphones and tablets make their world a better place. Part of a national conversation AT&T refers to as Inspired Mobility, the report states that 71 percent of Americans consider their mobile devices to be digital portals to inspiration, using them to access everything from inspirational stories to faith-based content. As an example, hip hop icon and digital inspiration guru Rev Run estimates he reaches 4.5 million people with a single inspirational tweet from his device every day.
Mind over matter
While new life-saving technologies are continually introduced, findings recently published in Nature Medicine suggest that people have another important disease-fighting tool at their disposal: the brain. Researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Medicine have demonstrated that the brain’s reward system transmits messages via the peripheral nervous system, which positively affect the immune system. In other words, positive expectations are believed to make the immune system more effective. The findings suggest a potential mechanism of action of the placebo effect, and might one day lead to development of new drugs that utilize the brain’s potential to cure. Indeed, the effect of the mind on the immune system is well documented: Mental stress has been shown to lead to poor physical condition, and a good mood can alleviate the sensation of pain. Understanding the mechanisms connecting the brain to the immune system could lead to significant medical applications that could improve the prognosis of diseases, according to the researchers. The research, carried out by doctoral student Tamar Ben-Shaanan, examined the effect of the reward system – a brain region triggered in anticipation of a positive experience, and stimulated during the placebo effect. Using innovative technology, the researchers triggered the reward system in the brains of mice and examined the behavior of the immune system following this intervention. They found that triggering the reward system stimulates the immune system, specifically, causing it to operate more effectively and eliminate bacteria more quickly. The intervention also caused the immune system to create a more robust immune memory against the bacteria to which it was exposed, so that it will operate more effectively the next time it is exposed to the same bacteria.
Inside look
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology also have developed a life-sized artificial human lung – reportedly the first diagnostic tool for understanding in real time how tiny particles move and behave in the deepest part of the human lungs (alveolar tissue). The patented platform could provide a better understanding of the health risks associated with airborne pollution, and be used for the evaluation and design of drugs for the respiratory system. The results were published recently in Scientific Reports. According to the researchers, inhaled particles – or aerosols – are tiny particles that can originate in nature, as well as from industrial and transportation sources, and enter the lungs via inhalation. Although they are just a few microns in size, increased and prolonged exposure to these particles may interfere with the activity of the body’s organs, including neurons in the brain, and in some cases even lead to the onset of cancers (e.g. lung cancer). Up to now, monitoring the movement of aerosols in the respiratory system, and understanding how they are deposited in alveolar tissue, has posed a challenge for researchers – in part due to their tiny size, and because their movement is affected by airflow, gravity and other forces. In addition, the complex structure of the alveolar tissue, which contains hundreds of millions of tiny air sacs interconnected by dense texture of narrow ducts, also makes it hard to map the movement of aerosols. The walls of the artificial lung system provide a realistic simulation of a real human lung, expanding and contracting similarly to the actual respiratory system, making it possible to understand the behavior of both bad inhaled particles (pollution) and good particles that are administered as medication to the alveoli. The model could also reduce the need for animal testing in the study of the respiratory system.