electrodes

Future humans may look back on this mind-controlled stabbing robot as a forerunner to battle mechs and Gundams. But the one-armed stabber failed to win out in the latest Robo-One competition held in Toyama, Japan over the weekend.

Neuroscientists have developed a fingerless glove that automatically translates hand motions into text by way of electrode sensors. Michael Linderman and his colleagues published the results of the first phase of their research project in last Wednesday's PLoS ONE. In this phase, six volunteers, using a digital pen, wrote the numerals 0 to 9 fifty times while wearing the prototype glove, which recorded the electrical activity of eight muscles in their hand and forearms.

Dolphins are elegant swimmers, but waterlily leaf beetle larvae take first place for the simplest stroke. The insect just arches its back to manipulate a basic physics principle that lets it glide across water. Now engineers have borrowed this technique to make a tiny boat that could autonomously patrol water reservoirs for months on just a watch battery.

For six years after a brutal beating, a 38-year-old man lay in a minimally conscious state, effectively unable to communicate. Then, with the permission of his family, a team of neuroscientists at New Yorkâ€Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation attempted a last-resort experimental treatment known as deep brain stimulation, or DBS. Using brain scans as a guide, they implanted tiny electrodes deep in the man´s head and wired them to a pacemaker-like device beneath his collarbone.

Watches are hopping on the tactile bandwagon. With six electrodes in its sapphire face, the Tissot T-Touch puts smart functions at your fingertips: thermometer, altimeter, chronograph, compass, alarm, and weather. We'd like to see a larger LCD, but smarts and good looks make this watch appropriate for the office or the Appalachian Trail.


Price: $595
www.t-touch.com