Health and Wellbeing
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MediStick - carrying your medical history in your pocket
June 3, 2006 Yet another use for the ubiquitous USB flash drive is the Swiss MediStick which is claimed to be the world's first personal multilingual medical record device. The basic idea behind the MediStick is to carry your current medical history around with you so doctors can treat you quickly if you're in an accident or have a medical emergency. The software solution in memory stick format contains your blood group, allergies, current medication and any current health conditions) and administrative data such as your name, date of birth, next of kin contact information and family doctor contact numbers as well as health care insurance details. The software also contains a password protected area for storing your more sensitive data. It makes sense that we should seek to develop a standard for this type of device, though we suspect that the MediStick would not help much in most countries as the doctors could not legally trust the device. The ability to carry the records of up to five people on the Medistick would at first glance appear to muddle the issues rather than make a more appealing product. (read more...)
SOBERCHECK: an affordable personal breathalyser
May 23, 2006 Everyone has a different relationship with alcohol and that was never more obvious than during a year of trials with the Draeger SoberCheck - a compact, affordable handheld digital alcohol detector. By the time one reaches adulthood, almost everybody has had a number of experiences with alcohol and its ability to distort reality to a greater or lesser extent. The results of the trial changed everyone involved. The SoberCheck provided dozens of our associates with a reality check on just what their blood alcohol levels were in comparison to what they thought they were - almost invariably, everyone erred several points lower than they really were and we found that this errant judgement would often have been the difference between driving legally and illegally. Remarkably, the SoberCheck emerged as remarkable educational tool, not just in what you need to do to keep your obligation to society and ensure you are driving under the alcohol limit, but about alcohol and its effects in general. Education is about life preparedness – it is formally teaching us the things we need to know to contribute effectively and manage our lives effectively. The SoberCheck could be the enabling tool in the educational process. (read more...)
A hangover cure that works
May 22, 2006 The production, trade and consumption of alcohol dates beyond 10,000BC. The Sumerians, Egyptians and Babylonians produced and traded alcohol and the Romans and Ancient Greeks had wine Gods. Across the centuries, almost every culture has used alcohol medicinally, ritualistically and socially and in so doing, woven it inextricably into global society. We now consume more alcohol per person than ever before and at least 2.0 billion people drink it regularly. Which means the number of hangovers faced each day is also on the increase and why an effective hangover cure is the holy grail of “killer apps” – it is a “must have” product that no old wives tale has yet tackled successfully. As the word intoxication suggests, alcohol is actually a poison. That’s why we sometimes vomit when we drink it (to expel the poison), and why, if you drink enough of it, you will die. This new breed of hangover cure addresses the toxicity. The cure we tested and found to be remarkably effective is called Kampai, which is the Japanese equivalent to slainte, salute, prost, googy wawa (Zulu) and Cheerz, which is also the name for another clinically proven hangover cure we reported on but didn’t try. We tried Kampai and it works. We tried it every which way and it significantly reduces the after effects of a night on the town more than anything we’ve previously tried, though we invite any hangover cure peddlers to send us a box and we’ll report on them too. We think Cheerz and Kampai, or any other cures as good as they clearly are, should be stocked wherever customers are asked to “name their poison”, because now there’s an antidote, too. (read more...)
WHO announces new standards for registration of ALL human medical research
May 19, 2006 The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging research institutions and companies to register all medical studies that test treatments on human beings, including the earliest studies, whether they involve patients or healthy volunteers. As part of the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, a major initiative aimed at standardizing the way information on medical studies is made available to the public through a process called registration, WHO is also recommending that 20 key details be disclosed at the time studies are begun. The initiative seeks to respond to growing public demands for transparency regarding all studies applying interventions to human participants, known as clinical trials. Before making the recommendations announced today, the Registry Platform initiative consulted with all concerned stakeholders, including representatives from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device industries, patient and consumer groups, governments, medical journal editors, ethics committees, and academia over a period of nearly two years. (read more...)
Automatic Chemical Agent Detector Alarm (ACADA)
May 19, 2006 One can only imagine the horrors of finding out the hard way that one was in the vicinity, or indeed, the target of a chemical agent attack. Whilst it’s something most of us will never have to worry about, there are those in occupations where it’s a distinct possibility they might face such a scenario. Those people will be glad to have a GID-3 chemical agent detector in their vicinity. The ACADA is an advanced point-sampling, chemical warfare agent detection system that continuously monitors for the presence of nerve agents and blister chemicals using IMS (Ion Mobility Spectrometry) technology. It provides early warning of chemical attacks and can be remotely deployed, vehicle mounted or carried by soldiers. (read more...)
Cerealtop – solving the everyday problems
May 18, 2006 While there are any number of noble research pursuits, we have not yet solved some seriously basic problems with products we handle every day – like an effective seal on a cereal packet. It remains in most cases as an often large cardboard box (such as 750 g Maxi Packs) with a plastic inner pack, filled to the brim with crunchy stuff that doesn’t stay crunchy for long once it’s opened. Package design in cereals has not really evolved much. The lack of progress in the area has been such that you might consider the cereal producers have an interest in ensuring their product is consumed at its best or discarded. It is also without doubt that an effectively sealed cereal packet will keep its contents fresh much longer, so the Belgian-developed Cerealtop fills a much needed void in the market. Cerealtop is an adjustable cereal box lid (so it fits any box) with a dispenser flap. (read more...)
The pillow that helps you get pregnant
May 20, 2006 UPDATED Getting pregnant is one of those things that’s incredibly easy unless you actually want to – then Murphy’s Law ( the probability of an event occurring is inversely proportional to the desirability of that event) takes over and you need to stack all the odds in your favour. If that’s your aim (getting pregnant), then the Conception Curve might be handy. It’s a post-coital positioning pillow contoured to support a woman's hips, thighs and buttocks comfortably as gravity helps nature take its course. (read more...)
Learning lab to train surgical teams of the future
May 11, 2006 Surgical teams from the United States and around the world will learn advanced robotic and minimally invasive surgical techniques at a newly opened Surgical Learning Center at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. Traditionally, surgeons train by operating on patients under the supervision of highly experienced doctors. At the center, new surgeons can test their skills before ever stepping into an operating room, enhancing patient safety. Experienced surgeons can increase their capabilities. In addition, the new center will allow surgeons, nurses, anesthetists, technologists and other operating room personnel to train as a team. (read more...)
The World’s Largest Crossword Puzzle
May 6, 2006 Use it or lose it is the message for brainpower, so next time you see someone doing a crossword, just bear in mind that mental agility exercises of all forms are good for the brain and they’re exercising an important part of the brain. Now, the retailers of this crossword puzzle are claiming this to be the world’s largest crossword puzzle. We can’t verify that but we’ll suspend disbelief that the world’s largest can be just 2.1 metres by 2.1 metres (49 square feet) – yes, it’s still big, but, … shouldn’t the world’s biggest be bigger? It has 91,000 squares and 28,000 clues and even the clue book runs 104 pages. At AUD$59.95 (US$46), it’s probably the ideal present for a crossword nutter, or someone intent on staving off Alzheimers. (read more...)
Personal chemical warfare agent (CWA) detector
April 26, 2006 It might be handy to have one of these in the cupboard for a rainy day – or a really smoggy day if the smog, heaven forbid, should ever contain chemical warfare agent. The ChemRAE is a portable chemical warfare agent (CWA) detector available as stand-alone or as a wireless component of the AreaRAE rapid deployment hazardous environment detection platform produced by RAE Systems (read more...)
The four-wheel drive hybrid wheelchair
April 20, 2006 Technology is beginning to yield many new and wonderous devices to make life better, safer and more fun, but few can compare to the life-enhancement offered by a new wheelchair which offers mobility-impaired and aged people an unprecedented level of freedom. It is comfortable, all-terrain and safe - a four-wheel drive wheelchair with hybrid motor and electronic assistance system has the immense potential to enable the physically disabled live more independent lives, to enable Octagenarians to bushwalk, and paraplegics . The innovative system even checks pulse rate and blood values and calls for help in emergencies. (read more...)
Imitating Nature’s Scaffolding -scientists create artificial fibres that act as templates to grow new tissue
April 19, 2006 A team of researchers at Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have successfully created artificial fibres with nanometer-sized features that can be used to grow cells and tissue structures. These ‘fibrous scaffolds’ have been imbued with features of the natural extracellular matrix, the ground substance in which cells are embedded and a vital component in the engineering of human tissues. (read more...)
Eyeglasses with adaptive focus
April 15, 2006 The end is nigh for bifocals, and not a moment too soon. Optical scientists at the University of Arizona have developed new switchable, flat, liquid crystal diffractive eyeglass lenses that can adaptively change their focusing power. The new technology will open the way for a new generation of "smart" eyeglasses with built-in automatic focus. In the foreseeable future, with this technology, you won't change prescription eyeglasses but will have your eyes tested and the optician will dial in a new prescription into the specs you already own. Indeed, we can even see the possibility of geeks doing their own eye tests and creating superglasses designed to focus perfectly depending on what you’re looking at. (read more...)
Glasses with built-in hearing aid
April 11, 2006 A new and elegant hearing aid invisibly built into the arms of a pair of glasses will go on sale later this month in Holland. The Varibel hearing-glasses will offer hearing-impaired folk respite from the aesthetically unpleasing and technologically limited traditional hearing aid. In each leg of Varibel glasses frame there is a row of four tiny, interconnected microphones, which selectively intensify the sounds that come from the front, while dampening the surrounding noise. Tests have shown that the Varibel user can separate desired sounds from undesired background noise very effectively with the glasses’ technology, with the added bonus that natural sounds can still be heard. (read more...)
StressEraser wins the Frost & Sullivan 2006 Technology Innovation Award
March 28, 2006 Frost & Sullivan’s 2006 Technology Innovation Award has been won by Helicor for developing the breakthrough StressEraser device technology we wrote up last August. Intended for use by licensed psychological and psychiatric health care professionals, this handheld relaxation-training device is able to provide effective relief from chronic stress at the physiological, mental, and emotional level. Each year Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company (or individual) that has carried out new research; which has resulted in innovation(s) that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. This award recognizes the quality and depth of a company’s research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor. (read more...)
The world’s most advanced toothbrush
March 27, 2006 More than two thirds of the world population uses a toothbrush, with half those users replacing their toothbrush at least once annually. No wonder then that the global toothbrush market is worth US$5 billion annually and there’s a constant search for an edge which might garner a few percentage points. Market leader Oral-B has been pushing the boundaries recently with its disposable battery-operated “manual” Pulsar and now it has gone several steps better with electric toothbrushes by adding a microprocessor and a bunch of extra functionality. As such, being the first toothbrush with a microprocessor, the Oral-B Triumph is arguably the world’s most advanced toothbrush. (read more...)
GEL-BOT system provides energy AND hydration during endurance sports
March 23, 2006 The GEL-BOT water bottle system for endurance athletes is clever. It’s a sports bottle that provides access to both water and energy gel in one container and is hence perfect for cycling, running, triathlon or any sport where peak performance requires extensive refuelling and hydration. Athletes worldwide agree on the effectiveness of energy gels, but the combination of cumbersome packaging and the immediate need for water makes them difficult to use during activity. With GEL-BOT, athletes can drink water and imbibe energy gel from one bottle. The gel is housed inside the ENERGY-CORE, a piston-like device attached to the water bottle cap that is filled with gel before activity. It’s just the thing to enhance the high-tech persona at the gym too! Amazingly, the same company produces an interesting waterbottle and coffee press combination, presumably for geeks and sports where you aren’t penalised for a high caffeine blood level. (read more...)
Horseback Riding Machine for US market
March 22, 2006 Twelve months ago, we wrote up the Joba Horseriding machine and created a massive rod for our own back. You see, the incredibly clever machine (extensive article and images here), like so many products developed, refined and tested on the Japanese domestic market, was not available beyond Japan’s shores – and we got hundreds of emails asking where it could be purchased outside Japan. The good news is that the renamed and further developed Joba had its US commercial debut at the International Health, Racquet and Sports Club Association annual convention yesterday as the Panasonic Core Trainer. The Core Trainer maximizes the strength of the core body's abdominal, oblique and low back muscles while minimizing joint stress, impact and aerobic demand. The killer app though, is that it is best suited for those who normally hate strenuous physical exercise – the user just “rides” the Core Trainer and gets fit without actually having to do anything. The machine brings many core health benefits, with tests in Japan showing that users begin burning far more calories after just three months using the machine. Compared to walking or swimming, the riding machine causes less physical stress to knees and other parts of the lower body. Logically, the Core Trainer will quickly become an essential component of any fitness club or home gym. (read more...)
World's First Kitchen Garden Appliance – the self-watering, self-feeding, fully automated indoor garden
March 12, 2006 The advantages of having a garden close at hand are numerous – salads are tastiest when fresh ingredients are used, and any chef will tell you that freshly picked herbs add something extra to any preparation. Which makes the AeroGarden particularly relevant to the millions of people who live in a city apartment and don’t have access to a garden plot. Billed as the world's first kitchen garden appliance, the AeroGarden allows anyone to conveniently and affordably grow herbs, lettuce, tomatoes and more, all year-round, on their kitchen countertop, without dirt, bugs, weeding or mess. The AeroGarden uses NASA-proven, high-yield aeroponic technology and built-in grow lights to create a self-watering, self-feeding, fully automated indoor garden that grows plants faster and healthier than plants grown in soil. (read more...)
Multiquick all-in-one food preparation and preservation system
March 9, 2006 We’ve all seen those formulaic television adverts espousing the cleverness of a revolutionary kitchen utensil that slices, dices and numerous accessories that offer so much more functionality. Unfortunately, the in-yer-face marketing style has given many such a clever invention a jaundiced look. Indeed, we had to put our prejudices aside to look at this item because it is the epitome of a “do everything really well” with a “but wait there’s more” killer app thrown in as a kicker. So we’ll be succinct and straight. The Braun Multiquick Fresh System is based around a high-performance, variable-speed, 400 watt, hand processor that chops, whisks, slices and dices. The system also comes with a FreshWare container that can go from the oven, to the microwave, to the freezer. The killer app though, is that the processor has a vacuum attachment and when you slot it into the hole in the container you can use it to remove the excess air. So it’s both a food preparation system and a food preservation system that will enable you to safely store food up to three times longer plus a range of other benefits which make it a genuine winner. We can’t think of any reason, given the price, why every kitchen couldn’t justify one of these! (read more...)
How to get significantly smarter within a week
March 8, 2006 Fifty years ago the methods of preparing for sporting contests were positively backward compared to the event-specific preparation of today which involves dietary, physical and mental conditioning. Compare almost any measurable aspect of any sport and you’ll see that human performance has improved out of sight. So it’s logical that if we apply the same principles to improving our training and diet to improve the mind, it’s only a matter of time before we get smarter. Tests conducted for a new BBC (UK) television program entitled Get Smarter in a Week suggest that by healthy eating, physical activity, sound sleep and stimulating your mind with mental exercises, (such as playing Sudoku, remembering telephone numbers and taking a shower with your eyes closed) we can all get smarter by up to 40 per cent within seven days, not to mention be more confident and have better decision-making skills. (read more...)
Artificial limbs that walk naturally
March 2, 2006 German scientists have developed a new type of prosthetic foot that imitates the natural walking motion so convincingly that you have to take a second look to realize its user is wearing a prosthesis. The foot is purely mechanical and entirely without elaborate electronics. (read more...)
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) - a breakthrough in brain science
February 13, 2006 Everyone knows about brain scanning, but most of us have never heard of a new technology called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Non invasive and painless, it can temporarily inactivate an area of the human brain to let brain scientists study the effect. Twenty years ago we began the scientific dream of peering into the human brain while it is working. Brain scanning devices such as fMRI and PET scans can pinpoint precisely which brain regions are active as people respond to stimuli (including brands and advertisements) or as they go about making decisions (including brand choices). It is fascinating to see just what areas of the brain light up in response to a stimulus or a particular decision task but still we have to ask, what exactly can we conclude from this? Because an area of the brain lights up doesn’t mean that it is causal in that behaviour or decision. After all, ice cream sales correlate with drownings but they don’t cause them. You cannot conclude causality from correlation because there is no way of knowing if some other, unaccounted-for variable (like weather) may be involved. To sort out causality you need to be able to do experimentation. (read more...)
Drug-Free Solution from for insomnia sufferers
February 12, 2006 Approximately 30 million Americans suffer from chronic insomnia. Many of these people do not seek help for their sleep problems, while others rely on medications to help them sleep. Unfortunately, most of these approaches are not long-term solutions. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a State-of-the-Science statement concluding that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective long-term treatments for chronic insomnia. In the past, insomnia sufferers have not had the option of behavioral therapy in the comfort of their homes. A new product called SleepKey is designed to bridge this gap by delivering CBT as a self-help modality. (read more...)
The programmable vibrator for long-distance lovers
February 9, 2006 Je Joue is the world's first programmable vibrator - a non-penetrative vibrator controlled by digital files called Grooves, which instruct its soft massage pad to move in an infinitely variable number of patterns, creating a foreplay-like experience. Accordingly, long-distance lovers can now email their partners a sensual Valentine's Day treat - their own personal 'pleasure programme'. During the development process of JeJoue, the product was tested by 150 women – 90% said they would buy one, 75% said it was better than any other toy, and 24% said it was better than their partner. (read more...)
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