Also:

• Sony has patented a device design to transmit sensory data directly but non-invasively into the human brain, using ultrasound. This will mean being able to touch, smell, taste, see, and hear things at any distance. Though essentially a concept for now, the fact that Sony has seen fit to take out a patent suggests that such a device will be made. When it is, the revolution will be bigger than the Internet.
• A therapeutic armchairdeveloped at Carnegie Mellon University incorporates sensors and robotic technology to monitor and respond to its occupant’s behavior.
• A light-activated shape-memory plasticcould be useful as a catheter which could be directed, at the appropriate point, to assume a corkscrew-shape and serve as a stent.
• A new lithium ion battery from Toshiba recharges in a heartbeat relative to today’s slow recharge times.

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At US$22,900, 3D Systems Corporation’s Israeli-made InVision LD 3-D Printer is a relatively affordable desktop 3-D printer with the simplicity and functionality of ordinary (2-D) printers. It can print complex geometrical shapes from 3-D CAD drawings, one slice thickness at a time by fusing, masking and trimming layers of an engineered plastic into solid parts. It is aimed at designers, engineers and marketers for communication and concept modeling, and is also useful in engineering and industrial design departments in schools and colleges.

Gene Chips

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Moving a step further toward medicine personalized to the individual’s genome, biotechnology firm Illumina has introduced mass-produced, low-cost, disposable “gene chips” or DNA micro-arrays of unprecedented power and sensitivity. Gene chips are vital to the proposed nine-year, US$1.35 billion Human Cancer Genome Project, which aims to compare the genetic sequences of thousands of tumor samples with healthy tissue to identify mutations that cause cancers. They also play a major role in drug development, and are beginning to appear in the doctor’s office — Roche Diagnostics’ US$525 recently approved AmpliChip predicts an individual’s ability to metabolize prescription drugs for heart disease, depression, and other conditions. Illumina and Roche have many competitors in the gene chip market and the technology is subject to rapid obsolescence.

Illumina aims to shortcut the need to sequence every individual’s complete genome by focusing on the 0.1 percent of the genome containing the ten million or so single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that dictate uniqueness, susceptibility to disease, and responses to drugs for every individual. The genomic location of an SNP may determine such things as the color of one’s eyes, or whether one will be susceptible to a disease. Two years ago it cost 50 cents to identify one SNP; today, using Illumina’s chips, it costs 2 to 3 cents – but multiply that by ten million and it is still a major expense to sequence just one individual.

Illumina and other chips are being used in the International HapMap Project, due for completion this year, which aims to cut the cost of genetic analysis down to a few thousand US dollars per person.

Psychohaptics

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Sony has obtained a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain. The (presumably hypothetical) totally non-invasive device described in the patent would fire pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating “sensory experiences” ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims, but clearly it would be stunning to everyone.

If the method described by Sony really does work, says the New Scientist, “it could have all sorts of uses in research and medicine, even if it is not capable of evoking sensory experiences detailed enough for the entertainment purposes envisaged in the patent.” Sony is not saying anything beyond “There were not any experiments done. . . . This particular patent was a prophetic invention. It was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us.” A leading German neuroscientist who has created devices that let people control devices via brain waves told the magazine he had “looked at it [the patent application] and found it plausible.”

Robotic Chair

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The therapeutic SenseChair prototype developed at Carnegie Mellon University uses robotic technology to monitor and respond to the sitter’s behavior. The chair has embedded sensors, motors, sounds, lights, and a wireless computer. The sensors continually measure vital signs, sleep patterns, and the person’s normal level of activity. If the sitter stays in one position too long, motors located throughout the chair gently stimulate a shift of position. Voice or music can be programmed to wake the person from a nap, and if it is dark, lights beneath the chair turn on. In-home trials are just beginning.

Shape-shifting Plastics

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German and US scientists have created a plastic that can be deformed into a new shape by illumination with light at a certain wavelength – and returned to the original shape when exposed to light of specific different wavelength. Such plastic could be useful as a catheter which, when activated by light via a fiber-optic probe, could assume a corkscrew-shape and serve as a stent.

Some of the researchers behind this breakthrough have already demonstrated the use of a thermoplastic, biodegradable shape-memory polymer as a smart suture that ties itself into the perfect knot.

Batteries Recharge in Record Time

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Toshiba has applied nanotechnology to create lithium-ion batteries that can recharge 80 percent of their energy capacity in just one minute, and have more energy density to boot. It loses only 1 percent of capacity after 1,000 recharges and can operate at temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. The battery will be on the market in 2006, initially for automotive and industrial applications including hybrid electric vehicles.