Space Surgeons

Hello guys and welcome. Now we have a rather creepy kind of robot. If anyone has seen the Matrix you’ll remember that creepy belly-button-bug-thing that the bad guys (the agents) put into Neo. From the company Virtual Incision and  developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as part of Nasa’s Human Research Program, this robot is designed to perform surgery via the belly button. I know it sounds strange; why not just get a doctor? Well this robot is designed for uses in remote areas, (really remote) like space. Now at first it doesn’t seem really necessary but imagine you’re an astronaut in space and suddenly develop appendicitis. What’s great about this is that this robot is linked to a remote interface. The robot is sent commands from a linux machine within the surgeon interface. The surgery would be performed from a different location (probably Earth in this case) and the robot would send visual feedback what’s going on inside the abdomen. The robot would use carbon dioxide gas to inflate the stomach for better visibility. The robot is said to be controlled via Phantom Omni haptic devices, a monitor and foot pedals.

The robot surgeon weighs 400g. It begins by making an incision in the belly button and then, once inside, can begin to removing a diseased organ or infected appendix. The research team says that the robot can "facilitate minimally invasive surgical resection of abdominal emergencies" including appendectomies, gallbladder removal, prevention of abdominal bleeding and perforation of gastric ulcers. Once the robot is inside, half of the robot remains outside of the body so that the no carbon dioxide gas escapes and the seal is maintained. The robot has a torso and two arms. Each arm has a shoulder and elbow joint which are powered by a DC motor and an onboard control system. The forearms are fitted with specialized interchangeable tools such as a grasper, a tool for cauterising wounds or surgical scissors.

Now obviously this robot has not been actually made available. Virtual Incision will begin testing the robot in zero gravity on a parabolic flight in 2015. Prototypes have been tested in pigs, so there is still some way to go, but I can imagine that this is the first step to robot surgery. Maybe in the future we will see robots that perform multiple different surgeries and all automatically. Without a doubt this robot is the first step to the future of medical practice.

Sources:

Article: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/02/belly-button-surgery-bot-space 

Neo image: http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2014/04/matrix-stomach-bug-real-life.jpg 

Space Surgeon image: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/02/article-2595059-1CC39B9B00000578-629_634x474.jpg 

New USB and Time Warp Photos

Hey guys. I just wanted to let you know that I will not be able to post any blogs for about two weeks as I will be in South Africa and probably without any internet, so I will post two blogs, one tonight and then one tomorrow afternoon.  I hope you enjoy! Thanks for all the support!

So I think many of you have had problems with USB cables. It usually takes me about two tries to actually insert the USB and however this may only be a first world problem it is a pet peeve of mine. Now this invention is definitely not going to change the world - maybe it will, who knows - but it is pretty cool and useful. USB type C is a different kind of USB. It’s incredibly small and almost looks like an iPhone 5 charger. Another important factor is that it’s reversible which means that you don’t have to worry about the direction it needs to go in. This is a very early design concept so there aren’t very many tech specs, but I can tell you it offers a bandwidth of 10Gbps (I have NO idea what this actually means but it means something). Obviously no computers actually have this plug so I think it has to actually be approved and then put into manufacturing so I can imagine it will take some time for it to be available on the market. Still I believe that something like this idea will definitely be produced.

Now I’m going to leave you some time warp photos. These pictures are modern day pictures from six different cities that are morphed with pictures of that exact same place from an older time period. It is quite touching and interesting to see how much these areas have changed. I’m only going to pick out my favourite ones, so be sure to check out the link below to see the rest of the photos. Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Sources

USB: http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/2/5573680/first-images-of-the-reversible-usb-cable 

Time Warp Photos: http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2014/04/these-time-warp-photos-show-six-cities-in-the-past-and-present/

Space Generator

Sorry this post is coming slightly late. I’m in Paris and the internet in my hotel is really dodgy but I’ll try and post this on Sunday morning. This next concept you are about to read about might the single coolest invention I’ve seen this year. Please welcome the Space Generator.

Designed by Maria and Grigory Malitskaya, Space Generator is a field of height adjustable modules that can transform to create multiple structures. It is quite hard to explain so here are a couple of pictures. Each cell is called a jack plate (the blocks) and can have different designs such as squares, circular, elliptical, trapezoidal and so forth. The cells are driven by hydraulic or electrical means and can be made of different materials. The cells can even have LED screens to display messages.

These cells are then raised and lowered out of the floor to make different floor arrangements. The cells could create areas such as presentation, exhibition, leisure or art spaces. Some of the examples we can see are of a maze, a motorbike and vehicle driving course, and fashion runways however I can imagine that the uses of this are limitless. According to the Red Dot article, Space Generator is self cleaning and can also be installed on walls or on ceilings either outside or inside. Unfortunately this was all I could find whilst researching this concept but I will edit this post if I find anything new.

What I love about this concept are the endless possibilities there are. Personally I would love to see a transformable sports field. For example you could have grass on a cube and then change that material to hard wood allowing for a basketball court without needing to build or find another sports venue to play in. It would be very convenient and save a lot of money. I also believe that Space Generator could be used to also create art exhibits or even build buildings that have never even been thought about being built before allowing the user to express his/her ideas in 3-D. Imagine being able to make a staircase out of the ground just by pressing a button! I can’t wait to see if Space Generator will actually be created and see how it will perform in real time.