Category: Stuff I want

FDA likely to say no to bionic eye

LiveScience.com recently posted this article about the FDA’s refusal to approve a bionic eye. I changed the headline to indicate the FDA is likely to say no. Here’s why:

In the 1970s TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man,” the strapping young astronaut got a bionic eye. A U.S. company had hoped that next year that might be your grandmother. Not so fast, a federal advisory panel said Friday.

A tiny telescope designed to be implanted in the eyes of some elderly patients should not receive Food and Drug Administration approval, the panel recommended on a 10-3 vote.

Later in the article:

The FDA typically follows the recommendations of its outside panels of experts, but isn’t required to do so.

So it is likely the bionic eye will be rejected, but it isn’t a final decision yet. Now, on to the story of the eye.

The first-of-its-kind device is called the Implantable Miniature Telescope. The telephoto lens could enable some patients to do away with the special glasses and handheld telescopes they now use to compensate for the loss in central vision caused by age-related macular degeneration, according to VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies Inc., its manufacturer.

. . .

The device is designed to be implanted only in one eye, which would provide central vision. The other eye, left untouched, would be responsible for peripheral vision, leaving the brain to combine the two views to form a single image. Getting used to that could require patients to undergo professional rehabilitation, the FDA said.

The surgery to implant the telescope is more difficult than conventional cataract surgery and can lead to damage to the inside of the cornea, according to the company. Patients also may experience a higher rate of loss of cells lining the cornea, which can require removal of the device and a cornea transplant.

In clinical trials, 141 of 193 patients implanted with the device showed after a year improved distance and near visual acuity, defined as the sharpness of vision in reading an eye chart, according to FDA documents. Ten patients reported a loss in acuity in either distance or near vision. Doctors removed eight of the devices, four of them from patients dissatisfied with how they worked, FDA documents show.

And more at the above link. And as a co-worker pointed out, that annoying sound whenever you use the bionics would probably drive people crazy. More so than everything slowing down around you when using a bionic leg.

[tags]Bionic eye, FDA[/tags]

The Vidco Copy Cart – old school video game piracy

(via RetroThings)
copycart.jpg

I actually knew someone who had one of these Atari 2600 cartridge copying things (well, I knew someone who knew someone who had one, but I actually saw the thing in action at my friend’s house). Plug an original Atari 2600 cartridge in one end, plug the erasable and reuseable copy cartridge in the other, push a button, and you have a copy. See – videogame piracy is not new. It’s just taking more clever hackers to make it possible for all you grubby little pirates to steal games. 🙂

[tags]Atari 2600, Atari VCS, Retro-gaming piracy[/tags]

Ricoh working to invalidate the next-gen format wars

(via Engadget)
Not wanting to let the petty squabbles of two industry consortiums get in the way of letting people take advantage of new technology, Ricoh has skipped past the “we’ll make a Blu-Ray player and a HD-DVD player and let the losers, erm, consumers pick” idiocy and produced a device that could potentially play all current and next-gen video disc formats.

Trying to bridge the gap between next-generation optical disk formats, Ricoh said it has developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats— Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD—with one pickup and one objective lens.

Ricoh will show the optical device at the International Optoelectronics Exhibition ’06 outside Tokyo on July 12-14. The company intends to begin sampling the device with OEMs by year’s end.

The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating.

. . .

Multiformat players and recorders can identify which format disk is loaded. Based on the disc information, Ricoh’s optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens. The lens then forms a beam spot at the appropriate depth for each disk format.

Potentially good for the consumer, and a bit of a “screw you for not making a good choice for consumers” snub of the big players. Let’s hope Ricoh can make the multi-next-gen-format player a reality soon so we don’t have to choose the winner.

[tags]Ricoh, Next-gen video format[/tags]

Your wife lied – size *DOES* matter

(via Engadget)
This falls under the category of “Things Randy will never, ever own, no matter how cool they are and how much he wants them” but I didn’t feel like adding that category to the site, since so much of the “Stuff I want” category already fits there, too.  That said, check out the monstrous 103 inch plasma display from Matsushita.   This sucker does 1080p, so you know you’ll get a sharp picture.  According to the manufacturer, it has a 3000:1 contrast ratio, but given the lack of standardization on that measurement, I’d just say it has a very high contrast ratio and leave it at that.

As the folks at Engadget point out, the only display to come close to this one is the 102 inch display from Samsung, but you can’t actually order one of those yet.  So assuming you come up with the (still unannounced price) necessary money for this display, what’s it going to take to get it on your wall?  I mean, this baby weighs 473 pounds (that’s almost 215 kilograms for those using a more sensible measurement system).  I’m not even sure my walls would support that.

[tags]Plasma display, High-def TV, Matsushita[/tags]

Laser Focus World magazine

With a name like Laser Focus World, are you even surprised I post it? With the tagline “The Magazine for the Photonics & Optoelectronics Industry” I’m interested in it just for the name. Hey, I like lasers. What can I say? Check out some recent Laser Focus World headlines:

Laser desorption of hydrogen could be boon to silicon-chip makers

Anything that smoothes the process of computer-chip manufacture even just a bit could mean millions of dollars in savings to the chip maker.

Terahertz mirror is omnidirectional and broadband

Though terahertz technology is receiving most attention for its homeland-security applications in checking people, mail, or luggage, it also has applications in short-range free-space communications.

Crack-free gallium nitride layers grow on silicon substrates

Researchers at Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) have reported successful growth of high-quality crack-free gallium nitride (GaN) epilayers on 6-in.-diameter silicon (Si) substrates using metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition to fabricate blue-emitting nitride multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

I don’t even know what most of that means, and I’m still feeling all tingly inside. Sadly, at $150 for a single year subscription, all this stuff I wouldn’t understand anyway remains out of my grubby paws. No word on frikkin’ sharks and their applicability to the world of lasers.

[tags]Laser Focus World, Lasers[/tags]

Build your own proximity detector

(via MAKEzine blog)

proximity-detector.jpg

Come on!!!! You know you want one! Here’s my thinking on this project – build this, figure how to link it to your PC, and put up a couple around your cubicle at work. Suddenly, no one can surprise you by sneaking up to your cube because they are too short to see and detect over the wall. The Instructables guide mentions hooking it up to a sound playback device, but I think if you could hook it up via USB and write a driver to make a pop-up onscreen whenever the detector activates, you’d have a nearly perfect boss-detection-system (BDS) for work use.

[tags]MAKEzine, Proximity detector, DIY projects[/tags]

Biped robot kit

(via boingboing)
All geeky readers here, please raise your hands. Now, those of you with raised hands, keep them up if you’d like your own bipedal robot. Good. So, everyone who put their hands down – you can leave now – you’re not sufficiently geeky to be here. I deal with only high-level geeks, thank you very much. Those of you still here, check out the new Robo-One bipedal humanoid robot.

ROBO-ONE type bipedal humanoid robots were first introduced a little over four years ago. Almost all of the current designs have at least 16 or more servo motors, advanced controller boards, and fairly involved kinematics. That’s fine for the real devoted (maniac) robot fans, but as the robots have gotten more and more complex they have become way too difficult for the novice fans to master.

. . .

At the same time, Iwaki-san, the head of the Robot Force organization and a dedicated robot builder and competitor himself, believes that in order for number of robot players to increase dramatically, it must be FUN. Believe me, the Robo-Fight and Robo-Gong events are more fun than the proverbial barrel of monkeys, as we know from personal experience.

With that in mind, Robot Force set some basic design criteria for a low end, simple robot kit. In order to be considered a ‘humanoid robot’, their new robot would have to:

  • Have two legs and arms
  • Be able to walk around
  • Swing its arms to punch and fight
  • Get up from the ring mat either from a prone position or from its back

In addition, it had to:

  • Be easy for the customer to understand, build, program and operate
  • Have a low parts count with a minimal number of servos, since they are the most expensive single component in any humanoid robot design
  • Be low cost enough so that a large number of customers could afford it
  • Be a lot of FUN!

There you have it. Fun, easy to make, inexpensive, blah, blah, blah. What matters is this is a 3 servo robot that is designed to be more accessible than previous generation robots. And apparently, usable in robo-fights!!! Who doesn’t love a good robo-fight?

[tags]Robots, Robo-Fights[/tags]

Run your own windmill

(via Engadget)

Wind Energy Goes Mainstream with New Residential Small Wind Generator

Skystream 3.7â„¢ uses new technology to help homeowners take control of skyrocketing energy costs with clean, renewable energy

FLAGSTAFF, Az., June 27 – A new small residential wind generator from Southwest Windpower will give homeowners a new weapon in the fight against rising electricity costs. Skystream 3.7™ is the first fully integrated wind generator designed specifically for the grid-connected residential market.

A combination of new technologies, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, resulted in a product that quietly produces electricity for a fraction of the cost of current technologies. Skystream’s low cost and low profile provides homeowners an affordable energy supplement that’s appropriate for installation in many residential areas around the country. With no batteries, Skystream 3.7 connects directly to the home to supply power. When the wind is not blowing, the home is powered by the electric utility. Depending on the local utility, excess electricity can be sold back to the utility or used at a later date.

Here’s your chance to save yourself some money on power bills.  According to the press release, typical payback is 5 to 12 years.  Of course, if you are thinking about getting one, you might want to check your local zoning codes before trying to set one up in the back yard.  And the company recommends at least an acre of land to install your new windmill  So those of you in major metropolitan areas might not want to buy one.  If you do get one, be sure to protect it from knights who might tilt your way.
[tags]Wind power, Windmills, Don Quixote[/tags]

Enermax’ new keyboard = t3h sexay!

(via Engadget)
crystal-keyboard2.jpgEnermax has just announced it’s Crystal keyboard, available for purchase in Japan beginning July 10th for the equivalent of $86. Made of aluminum and connecting to your system with USB port, the keyboard features a very-low profile make, 2 port USB hub, Audio control keys, Blue LEDs (because Blue LEDs are t3h sexi0rist), and extremely high duty cycle keys (rated at 10-million key presses). Keep in mind, however, that this sucker weighs nearly 2.5 pounds. That’s well over one-third the weight of my laptop. So carrying this will certainly be adding a bit of a load to your laptop bag.  It sure is pretty, though.  And Enermax warns the keyboard is “not safe to look at due to risk of hypnosis.”
[tags]Enermax, Keyboards[/tags]

Papercraft Pirates of the Caribbean ship

(via boingboing)
To celebrate today’s release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we’ll highlight a cool pirate themed papercraft project. I love looking at papercraft projects, but never have time to do them. This one, I’d really like to work on. After all, who doesn’t love a pirate?

wickedwenchpapercraft.jpg

[tags]Pirates of the Caribbean, papercraft, Pirate ship, Disney[/tags]