| Will we evolve into cyborgs?
Remember the climax of The Revenge of the Sith, in which a mutilated Anakin Walker is transformed into Darth Vader? Audiences applauded wildly as the scene played. Actually, they might just have been cheering the shape of things to come.
Think that's far-fetched? Think again. The world's first cyborg, with a nervous system 4,000 miles long, is already in our midst. Prof Kevin Warwick has a microelectrode array connected to his nervous system, which is linked to the Internet.
Sitting in New York, he can transmit brain signals to the UK, and operate a robotic hand there. Among other things, Warwick has switched on lights and sound alarms, and driven a wheelchair, in another city just by thinking about it.
Some will find this spooky. But why? After all, we already routinely use technology to enhance human capabilities.
U of C unveils robo-surgeon
Using technology from the space shuttle's Canadarm, Calgary researchers have developed the world's first neurosurgery robot. Its pinpoint precision will dramatically improve the lot of patients, said the robot's prime developer, Calgary neurosurgeon Garnette Sutherland. "Robotics will ensure a higher quality of life, it will maximize surgical objectives and make hospital stays shorter," he said. Poised over a patient's brain, the device's tool-grasping fingers boast a sense of touch. Magnetic resonance imagery allows the physician guiding the robot, by manipulating a set of controls, to view the entire brain rather than just the immediate surgical area. "For instance, we'll know the pressure exerted on a blood vessel before it breaks," said Sutherland.
Pope John robotics team takes act to world competition
Photo by Steve Novak/New Jersey Herald Some members of the Pope John robotics team show off a trophy and some pictures of their creations. Jessica Ruth, Eddie Deacon, both seniors, sophomores Tom Potter and Edward Yu and mentor Micheal Bloodworth. .
Scientists Develop Brain Surgery Robot
Boston (eCanadaNow) - Rocket scientists up in Canada have managed to develop a robot with the ability to perform microscopic operations on the brain. The neuroArm will take the riskiest jobs which doctors face when they do brain surgery on patients and make them a little easier with magnetic resonance imaging. The robot will be able to provide a full 3D image of the smallest nerves of the brain with great accuracy. The robot cost $24 million to create and should get action in his or her first operation this summer at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary. A steady hand of a doctor or surgeon is great, but the accuracy of the neuroArm will not be able to be matched. The robot was created by the same company who made the robotic arm CanadArm for NASA. How it works is an operator watches through a stereoscopic viewer and a touch-screen allowed a 3D graphic picture of the arms to be used any way they like.
|
