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#Post#: 422--------------------------------------------------
Prosthetics
By: AGelbert Date: November 21, 2013, 10:09 pm
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Prosthesis With Three Opposing Fingers
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcHa6q2RYhA&feature=player_embedded
Fighting Paralysis With Electricity
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rC1MfhIOGs&feature=player_embedded
#Post#: 555--------------------------------------------------
New Algorithm Helps Cochlear Implants Detect Music
By: AGelbert Date: December 15, 2013, 7:24 pm
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New Algorithm Helps Cochlear Implants Detect Music
Advancement allows patients to hear differences in pitch and
timbre.
.
Originally published: Oct 21 2013 - 3:00pm .
By: Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor .
(ISNS) -- People who have cochlear implants placed in their
heads had often never heard a sound in their lives before their
implant. Once the device is placed, they can experience hearing,
and often can even understand human speech.
Hearing music, however, has remained out of reach.
But now, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle
have developed an algorithm that vastly improves the sound
quality of existing implants to the point where music sounds
like something other than a random clamor.
People with the current versions of cochlear implants can hear
rhythm, said Les Atlas, a professor of electrical engineering.
Atlas himself has a partial loss of hearing. Subjects whose
implants have been given a "major tweak" with the new algorithm
can tell the difference between instruments.
"If they are hearing a single guitar, they can hear one note,"
said Atlas of current wearers. "If a person is playing fast,
they can hear that. If a person is playing slow they can hear
that."
However, the new algorithm does not allow their hearers to
discern melody; that's the next project.
The work is published in the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems
and Rehabilitation Engineering. Atlas' coauthor is Jay
Rubinstein, an engineer who went to medical school and became a
surgeon.
Cochlear implants relay sound from a microphone placed outside
the ear to a device connected to the auditory nerves inside the
ear. The sound a cochlear implant conveys is just a fraction of
the sound a person with normal hearing can detect. But, for
people with damaged sensory cells, they are the only hope of
hearing much of anything.
The Washington study deliberately set out to modify existing
devices so that people would not have to buy new implants to
hear music.
The new algorithm was tested on eight cochlear-implant patients,
and the researchers used anecdotal reports and computer
simulations to recreate what the subjects heard.
Atlas said what implant patients hear now is the equivalent of
someone playing a piano with their forearms. All the sound is
"mushed together," and it is impossible to pick out a tune. Or,
they can hear someone singing but cannot tell the difference
between a man or a woman, a baritone or a soprano.
Music is characterized by attributes such as pitch and timbre.
Pitch defines the melody notes of a song and the intonation of
speech. Timbre is the difference in sound between instruments.
For example, an A natural played on an oboe sounds different
from a trumpet playing exactly the same note.
It is the pitch and timbre Atlas and Rubinstein were trying to
improve. With the new algorithm, they could expand what most --
not all -- of the subjects heard from one octave to three. A low
note could have a frequency of 80 cycles a second, or Hertz,
something users of conventional implants can hear. With the new
algorithm, some could hear up to 320 Hertz, closest in pitch to
the E above middle C on a piano.
There is still a vast amount of aural information the new
algorithm misses. Subjects can hear individual instruments, but
a symphony orchestra is a cacophony. :(
The work is important because music is the hardest thing to
hear, explained Charles Limb, a professor of otolaryngology,
head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
in Baltimore, a faculty member of the Peabody School of Music
and science advisor to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He said
the Atlas-Rubinstein work is well-known in the cochlear-implant
community.
Speech is relatively easy, Limb said, because the purpose of
speech is to communicate a thought, which does not depend on
high-quality sound. For example, the voice of Siri on Apple's
iPhone communicates information effectively despite the
artificial nature of the sound itself.
Music, however, depends on the quality of sound, he said.
Cochlear implants are getting better, he said, but getting
better at speech. Little research has gone into music.
"Music is the hardest thing you can hear," he said. "If you can
hear music, you can hear anything. If you design the perfect
cochlear implant that could hear something like music very well
then you can hear anything there is in the world."
Joel Shurkin is a freelance writer based in Baltimore. He is the
author of nine books on science and the history of science, and
has taught science journalism at Stanford University, UC Santa
Cruz and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He tweets at
@shurkin.
HTML http://www.insidescience.org/content/new-algorithm-helps-cochlear-implants-detect-music/1454
#Post#: 898--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paralysis and prosthetics
By: AGelbert Date: April 7, 2014, 12:39 pm
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HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He6rll3DSKs&feature=player_embedded<br
/>
#Post#: 930--------------------------------------------------
This assisted reading device could one day eliminate the need fo
r braille
By: AGelbert Date: April 18, 2014, 12:17 pm
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[img width=640
height=480]
HTML http://m.theepochtimes.com/n3/eet-content/uploads/2014/02/fingerreader-586x450.jpg[/img]
This assisted reading device could one day eliminate the need
for braille ;D
By Shawn Knight on April 17, 2014, 2:15 PM
A handful of researchers at MIT’s Media Labs are working on a
device capable of helping visually impaired and blind
individuals read without the need for Braille. The FingerReader
is equipped with a small camera that scans printed text and
reads it out loud using a synthesized voice.
The current prototype is worn on the finger and is said to weigh
no more than a regular ring. It uses heavily modified open
source software and can read 12-point and larger printed text as
well as on-screen text from, say, a Kindle.
HTML http://www.techspot.com/news/56431-this-assisted-reading-device-could-one-day-eliminate-the-need-for-braille.html
#Post#: 931--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prosthetics
By: guest16 Date: April 18, 2014, 6:41 pm
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Very nifty. I know in my workplace the bank offers audio
PINSentry devices that enable customers to enter their PIN on
various terminals in the bank. We also have cheque holders so
they can write cheques in the right places without seeing. Small
things can go a surprising distance.
#Post#: 932--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prosthetics
By: AGelbert Date: April 19, 2014, 1:11 am
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[quote]Small things can go a surprising distance. [/quote]
They certainly can. I am blind in one eye so this is great news
for me!
#Post#: 1184--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prosthetics
By: AGelbert Date: May 22, 2014, 6:15 pm
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Wireless Charger Could Power Implants
A new technology allows for charging up tiny electronics from a
distance, perhaps powering devices deeply embedded within
tissue.
By Kerry Grens | May 21, 2014
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, AUSTIN YEE
Itty-bitty medical devices can be implanted in the human body to
do any number of tasks, such as stimulate nerves or regulate
heartbeats. The challenge to getting them way deep down into
tissue has been getting power to them, but engineers reported
this week (May 19) in PNAS that they’ve come up with a solution,
so-called “mid-field wireless transfer.”
“With this method, we can safely transmit power to tiny implants
in organs like the heart or brain, well beyond the range of
current near-field systems,” John Ho, a graduate student at
Stanford University and the lead author of the study, said in a
press release.
The new technology transmits energy wirelessly through the body,
rather than relying on batteries. It works by using near-field
electromagnetic waves—those that don’t typically travel very far
through tissue—but adapted them to propagate within the body
instead of petering out. The technology appears safe so far, but
it’s only been used in animals.
To demonstrate how it works, the team designed a pacemaker,
about the size of a grain of rice, that can be charged by
holding a card-size power source near the recipient, but outside
the body. To date it’s been tested in a rabbit, but Ada Poon,
the lead investigator on the project said in the press release
that she is now working on preparing it for testing in humans.
“I think that amongst the solutions that are proposed to power
an implant, this is going to be the most reliable,” Patrick
Mercier, an engineer at the University of California, San Diego,
told New Scientist.
HTML http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/40043/title/Wireless-Charger-Could-Power-Implants/
#Post#: 1185--------------------------------------------------
First prosthetic arm controlled by neural signals from the user’
s muscles Okayed
By: AGelbert Date: May 22, 2014, 6:32 pm
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FDA Approves Prosthetic Arm
The agency OKs the first prosthetic arm controlled by neural
signals from the user’s muscles.
By Jef Akst | May 14, 2014
[img width=640
height=480]
HTML http://www.geocities.ws/kwenndb/LukeHand_img.jpg[/img]
Luke Skywalker's Hollywood Imaginary Prosthetic ;D
[img width=640
height=380]
HTML http://www.darpa.mil/uploadedImages/Content/NewsEvents/Releases/2014/prostheticswebfeature2.jpg[/img]
The DEKA arm
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week (May 9)
green-lighted the sale of the DEKA Research and Development
Corporation’s prosthetic arm—called “the Luke arm” by its
creators—making it the first FDA-approved prosthetic arm with
movements controlled by electrical signals sent from the user’s
body—either from electrode attached to the muscles in the
remaining part of the amputated limb or in the user’s feet. The
New Hampshire-based company now seeks a manufacturer to be able
to put the DARPA-funded product on the market.
“In comparison to commercially available prosthetics, the new
arm offers powered shoulder movements and a wider range of wrist
movements,” noted MIT Technology Review, referring to a study
published last year. And data examined by the FDA as part of its
products fast-track review process demonstrated that
“approximately 90 percent of study participants were able to
perform activities with the DEKA Arm System that they were not
able to perform with their current prosthesis, such as using
keys and locks, preparing food, feeding oneself, using zippers,
and brushing and combing hair,” according to an agency press
release.
“Think about our military personnel, who can be great
beneficiaries of these devices: before DARPA made an investment
in this area the best we could give back to them was metal
hooks,” Justin Sanchez, a program manager in DARPA’s new
Biological Technologies office, told Bloomberg. “This is a
landmark moment for DARPA as an agency.”
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIvyiM5nFb0&feature=player_embedded<br
/>
HTML http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39976/title/FDA-Approves-Prosthetic-Arm/
#Post#: 3548--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prosthetics
By: AGelbert Date: August 3, 2015, 7:26 pm
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HTML https://youtu.be/azSpdF8CGPw
Advanced Soft Robotics Walking Suit
#Post#: 4117--------------------------------------------------
Re: Prosthetics
By: AGelbert Date: November 21, 2015, 2:07 am
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[center]Promise seen for wireless pacemakers placed without
surgery ;D [/center]
November 9, 2015 by By Marilynn Marchione
HTML http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-11-wireless-pacemakers-surgery.html#nRlv
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