Infi-Zeal's Blog

Virtual reality is used in many areas of healthcare which range from diagnosis, treatment, e.g. surgery, rehab and counselling. It is also used to train the next generation of doctors, paramedics and other medical personnel and has shown a range of benefits from doing so. So what are the advantages of virtual reality in healthcare? There are several which are related to medical/surgical training, preventative medicine, counselling and architectural design of new hospitals and many more. Let’s start with virtual reality as a means of training healthcare professionals. It is used in medical schools and other similar settings as a means of education and instruction. It enables medical students to acquire knowledge and understanding about the human body by means of interaction within a virtual environment. Virtual Reality Dentistry But virtual reality isn’t only confined to medical schools. Dentistry is another area in which it plays a part. For example, there is a system kno...

1,000 Peppers are selling each month from a big-dollar venture between SoftBank, Alibaba and Foxconn; Jibo just raised another $16 million as it prepares to deliver 7,500+ units in Mar/Apr of 2016; and Buddy, Rokid, Sota and many others are poised to deliver similar forms of social robots. These new robots, and the proliferation of mobile robot butlers, guides and kiosks, promise to recognize your voice and face and help you plan your calendar, provide reminders, take pictures of special moments, text, call and videoconference, order fast food, keep watch on your house or office, read recipes, play games, read emotions and interact accordingly, and the list goes on. They are attempting to be analogous to a sharp administrative assistant that knows your schedule, contacts and interests and engages with you about them, helping you stay informed, connected and active. According to a research study by Tractica, annual shipments of consumer robots, a category that includes robot...

What was it that Ben Franklin said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” A recent paper, Robotic Surgery & The Law in the USA—A Critique, indicates that manufacturers of robotic surgical tools, a sizeable swath of the U.S. medical establishment and government officials seem to prefer the pound of cure. RBR50 company Intuitive Surgical‘s new da Vinci Xi just won the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), paving the way for the company to start selling it.  More than a decade previous, 2000, the FDA similarly approved Intuitive’s very first da Vinci; the company has since racked up some 1.5M robotic surgeries with its robots. However, as Sulbha Sankhla, author of Robotic Surgery & The Law in the USA—A Critique, points out: “Years after the FDA first approved the da Vinci, there is still no industry standard for training and credentialing of doctors to use the robot, beyond a basic course by the manufacturer.” It seems rath...

Mining for resources hidden under the surface of the earth has never been a job devoid of hazards. You can start with the fact the it’s under the earth, and there’s no natural light, and the spaces can get tiny so it’s clearly not a job even for the mildly claustrophobic. Then there’s the danger of cave-ins that do happen even with all the modern marvels that we have access to thanks to advances in structural engineering. When it comes to coal mining, however, the danger is several times greater due to added danger of highly flammable gases in certain parts. Other than the Japanese using them for what basically amounts to some amusing (robotic pets), and some disconcerting (robots that look like creepy versions of children or grown women, etc) toys, the use of robotic technology has almost overwhelmingly been either to go where man hasn’t or cannot go, or in some other cases to augment human ability to do what was hitherto very difficult. We have robotic rover vehicles landing on...

In Europe, strokes are the most common cause of physical disability among the elderly. This often result in paralysis of one side of the body, and many patients suffer much reduced physical mobility and are often unable to walk on their own. These are the hard facts the EU project CORBYS has taken seriously. Researchers in six countries are currently developing a robotic system designed to help stroke patients re-train their bodies. The concept is based on helping the patient by constructing a system consisting of powered orthosis to help patient in moving his/her legs and a mobile platform providing patient mobility. The CORBYS researchers are also working with the cognitive aspects. The aim is to enable the robot to interpret data from the patient and adapt the training programme to his or her capabilities and intention. This will bring rehabilitation robots to the next level. Back to walking normally It is vital to get stroke patients up on their feet as soon as pos...

The first bio-inspired microrobot capable of not just walking on water like the water strider -- but continuously jumping up and down like a real water strider -- now is a reality. Scientists reported development of the agile microrobot, which could use its jumping ability to avoid obstacles on reconnaissance or other missions, in   ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Qinmin Pan and colleagues explain that scientists have reported a number of advances toward tiny robots that can walk on water. Such robots could skim across lakes and other bodies of water to monitor water quality or act as tiny spies. However, even the most advanced designs -- including one from Pan's team last year -- can only walk on water. Pan notes that real water striders actually leap. Making a jumping robot is difficult because the downward force needed to propel it into the air usually pushes the legs through the water's surface. Pan's group looked for novel mechanisms and materials to build ...

Using piezoelectric materials, researchers have replicated the muscle motion of the human eye to control camera systems in a way designed to improve the operation of robots. This new muscle-like action could help make robotic tools safer and more effective for MRI-guided surgery and robotic rehabilitation. Key to the new control system is a piezoelectric cellular actuator that uses a novel biologically inspired technology that will allow a robot eye to move more like a real eye. This will be useful for research studies on human eye movement as well as making video feeds from robots more intuitive. The research is being conducted by Ph.D. candidate Joshua Schultz under the direction of assistant professor Jun Ueda, both from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "For a robot to be truly bio-inspired, it should possess actuation, or motion generators, with properties in common with the musculature of biological orga...