Petman walking bot strides like a human

I'm sure you are all well-acquainted with the crazy quadrupled BigDog robot, but if it had a master to walk with, it would probably look something like the Petman.

Actually, the similarity is not surprising considering that the walking robot was designed by Boston Dynamics, the same company behind BigDog. Petman has been in development for some time now, but this is the first chance we have had to view his human-like stride.
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Mantis shrimps unlock future DVD technology

These mantis shrimps native to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia are not only a sight to behold, they may also unlock a piece of the puzzle in future DVD technology. The key interest here is their powerful vision which differentiates four times more colors than human eyes. This unique capability is due to the special light-sensitive cells in the shrimp's eyes, which can recognize the full light spectrum unlike the narrow-band electronics sensors found in current DVD players.

The University of Bristol's School of Biological Science is studying this new discovery, together with the University of Maryland, in a bid to incorporate these properties into future optical devices. Who knows? Maybe this research may pave the way for a new Blu-ray successor. Shrimp-ray for all your HD fixes, anyone?

Via New Launches

Wheeled robot helps scientists to understand the visually impaired

Researchers at Caltech have developed a mobile, four-wheeled robot that could help refine artificial retinas and other prostheses used by the visually impaired.

At first glance, Cyclops resembles a bot you might find on the battlefield, and it's hard to imagine what connection it could have to restoring sight. But dig a little deeper and it starts to make sense that a remote-controlled robot with an onboard camera could deliver some very useful data.

The digital camera can emulate left-to-right and up-and-down head movements. The idea is that as artificial vision prostheses increasingly become a reality, scientists could use the mobile robotic platform to mimic those devices--and more importantly, to get a better sense of how well they work for people who wear them.
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Interactive 3D autopsy table

Finally. That fantastical 3D interactive autopsy table seen in Bones and CSI: NY, and poohed-poohed by a friend as a product of Hollywood ingenuity, is about to take the leap from reel to real. Thanks to progress in multitouch and 3D technology, this area of science, technology and fantasy is merging to give forensic scientists another tool in their investigative arsenal. The 3D virtual autopsy table, developed by the Swedes, takes a CT scan of a body in under 20 seconds. Then using a specially developed technique known as "quantative synthetic MRI", the software converts the layer by layer data sets provided by the scans to render a 3D hologram of the victim's body.
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GE debuts miniature ultrasound scanner

SAN FRANCISCO--In a wide-ranging interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, announced a low-cost and very portable ultrasound scanner called the Vscan.

"It's about the same size as a BlackBerry," Immelt said, holding up a white device that appeared to fold in the middle like a flip-phone. The top of the device showed an ultrasound image (of a patient's liver, we were told), while the bottom showed control keys.

"This is Moore's law," he said, saying that the device had the same power as a console ultrasound from two to three years ago that would cost US$250,000.

The price of the device was not revealed, but Immelt asked the audience to imagine these devices going to Africa and helping health care providers there determine "if a baby is breech," for example. "This could be the stethoscope of the 21st century," he said.

Immelt also gave a demo of an enhanced online medical records system, in which patient data is combined with clinical outcome data and research to help caregivers apply effective and current treatments to patients. Medical records, he said, don't win only because they give patients portable electronic files, but rather, "it's about making better clinical decisions faster."
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