ApplySci - Deep Tech Health + Neurotech
FingerReader is a 3D printed reading device, worn on the index finger. It was designed for the vision impaired, but could also be used as a translation tool. Its camera scans text when a finger is moved over it. Software tracks finger movement, identifies words and processes the information. Wearers receive audio feedback of the words and haptic feedback of the layout, helping them maintain a straight scanning motion. The prototype was developed by Roy Shilkrot at the MIT Media Lab.
University of Washington researchers have designed a sensor that could be placed permanently in one’s eye to track pressure changes. It would be embedded with an artificial lens during cataract surgery. The sensor would detect pressure changes instantaneously and then wirelessly transmit the data using radio frequency waves.
Eye pressure is thought to vary throughout the day and with activity levels. Currently, one must visit an ophthalmologist to check intraocular pressure. Changes are often noticed too late, when the patient has glaucoma and cannot be treated effectively.
The team built a prototype that uses radio frequency for wireless power and data transfer. A thin, circular antenna spans the perimeter of the device – roughly tracing a person’s iris – and harnesses enough energy from the surrounding field to power a small pressure sensor chip. The chip communicates with a close-by receiver about any shifts in frequency, which signify a change in pressure. Actual pressure is then calculated and changes are tracked and recorded in real time.
The prototype must be miniaturized to fit into an artificial lens, and the research team is working to decrease its size. They have successfully tested the sensing device embedded in the same flexible silicon material that’s used to create artificial lenses in cataract surgeries.
Students at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have created a system for the visually impaired that detects obstacles and uses audio messages and signals to alert users before a collision.The “seeing app,” developed by Tzahi Simkin, Gal Dalal and Danny Zilber, uses a Kinect 3D camera, a computer and an Android phone for audio interaction. They adapted the Kinect to feed its images into a mini-PC, where the images are analyzed. The system determines if there are objects or obstacles in the path of the camera, how close they are, and how far to the left or right the user must move to avoid them. That data is analyzed and a sound interface directs an Android device, using voice commands or a series of beeps to guide the user around obstacles.
Ultrahaptics uses ultrasound waves to make one feel as if he/she is touching virtual objects and surfaces with bare hands.
It’s creator, a University of Bristol graduate student, claims that it improves upon touch-free interfaces such as Kinect and Leap Motion by reflecting air pressure waves off the hand to create different sensations for each fingertip.
Applications could include interacting with moving objects in virtual reality games, or improving navigation for the visually impaired by projecting the sensation of Braille letters onto fingers in midair.
Indiana University professors Ann Elsner and Stephen Burns have developed an optic imaging method to detect the earliest stages of diabetic retinopathy.
The device uses small mirrors to reflect light into the eye to overcome optical imperfections. It detected damage spread widely across the retina in early disease states, including changes to blood vessels not thought to occur until the disease advances. Researchers were able to observe a magnified version of eye capillaries in in video format, enabling them to watch blood cells moving through blood vessels.
Sensor based products can assist the visually impaired with mobility, and continue to be released in various forms and at different price points.
Samsung’s ultrasonic cover for the Galaxy smartphone sends alerts through a vibration or TTS feedback. The user holds the cover in front of him/herself, and it senses the presence of a person or object up to 2 meters away.
Indian Institute of Technology researchers have created an affordable, ultrasonic SmartCane. The device detects objects in its path, up to 3 meters away, and generates vibrations that differ according to the distance of the object.
Companies such as I-Cane have added navigation systems to sensor based walking aids.
Hebrew University professor Amir Amedi has used an augmented reality device to allow the blind to “see” by converting images to complex sounds. The user is able to form a mental image of objects, including people, in front of them.
The cerebral cortex is activated when sighted people see an outline of the human body. The extrastriate area responds more strongly to human body images than it does to other objects. Blindness stops the usual flow of information from the eyes to this part of the brain, and people who’ve been blind since birth have never seen a human form. Their brains must change as they they learn to perceive body shapes using sound.
Ella Striem-Amit and Amir Amedi scanned the brains of seven congenitally blind people who’d trained for an average of 73 hours on the augmented reality system. The surprising result was that the visual cortex was activated by the auditory stimuli. Participants classified three different types of objects: people, everyday objects, and textured patterns.
Professor Amedi’s lab does groundbreaking research on perception and multisensory relation, sensory substitution approaches and dynamics of brain processes. Among other innovations, they are now experimenting with an ultrasound stick that measures distances from objects, providing auditory indications.
In an effort to compete with Google Glass, gesture control company EyeSight Mobile has partnered with smart glass company Lumus. The combination allows one to browse Facebook, play games, or control navigation instructions shown in a head-up display by holding out a finger to tap on icons or swipe away notifications. EyeSight plans to add the ability to drag items around the display.
The Lumus glasses mount a transparent 640×480 display onto the lens of the battery-powered, head-tracking glasses. The wearer can see information overlaid on top, and the glasses change what’s shown according to the wearer’s orientation. The glasses have a camera, an OMAP 4 processor, and Android 4.1.2, to run EyeSight’s gesture recognition software, which recognizes fingers and hands even against a cluttered or moving backdrop.
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982214000050
Professor Aaron Seitz, Professor Daniel Ozer , and Jenni Deveau at UC Riverside combined perceptual learning approaches to determine if improvements gained from an integrated, perceptual learning based training program would transfer to real world tasks. They found that the brain-training technique significantly improved the vision of baseball players.
Before the start of the 2013 NCAA Division 1 baseball season, 19 baseball players completed thirty 25 minute sessions of a vision training video game. 18 team members received no training. Players who participated in the training saw a 31 percent improvement in visual acuity — some gaining as much as two lines on the Snellen eye chart — and greater sensitivity to contrasts in light. The researchers claim that the trained players had 4.4 percent fewer strikeouts and scored 41 more runs during the season.
https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/26496.aspx
Washington University Professor Samuel Achilefu has developed surgical glasses that detect tumors by making cancer cells glow and appear blue in color. This is accomplished through custom video technology, a head mounted display, and a targeted molecular agent that attaches to cancer cells. Tumors as small as 1 mm in diameter could be detected. The glasses are designed to enable surgeons to distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells, helping to ensure that no stray tumor cells are left behind during surgery.
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/holographic-diagnostics-0
Cambridge researchers are developing responsive, color-changing diagnostic holograms. Silver nanoparticles are formed into three dimensional holograms of predetermined shapes in a fraction of a second using a single laser pulse. They will be used for portable medical tests and devices, to monitor diabetes, cardiac function, infections, electrolyte or hormone imbalance easily,inexpensively, and non-invasively.
The ‘smart’ holograms can be used to test blood, breath, urine, saliva or tears for a wide range of compounds, such as glucose, alcohol, hormones, drugs, or bacteria. When one of these compounds is present, the hologram changes color, potentially making the monitoring of various conditions as simple as checking the color of the hologram against a color gradient. Clinical trials of the holographic sensors to monitor glucose levels and urinary tract infections in diabetic patients are currently underway.
http://www.visionsense.com/hp.html
Visionsense’s miniature 3D sensor optically maps the surgical field, based on (and imitating) the eye of a bee. A single sensor is divided into hundreds of thousands of tiny “eyes” looking in different directions, using an array of micron-sized elements. The elemental information is translated into left and right eye images, resulting in a clear stereoscopic view, bypassing the diffraction limit that restricts current miniature cameras.
In neurosurgery, scopes must be very small in diameter to pass through narrow ports, such as the nose. Most 3D scopes rely on two optical channels, each containing a single sensor. Each sensor collects two separate images that are combined to give the appearance of three dimensions as a user looks at the screen – mirroring the sight of the human eye. Using their single sensor system, Visionsense has developed a high quality image producing scope that is small enough to operate on the brain.