Namiki Lab air hockey robot can play with strategy

Robots playing air hockey can play strategically as a result of work by researchers in Japan at Chiba University's Namiki Lab. The system they constructed consists of an air-hockey table, a Barrett four-axis robotic arm, two high-speed cameras, and an external PC. This is not the first air hockey playing robot. Back in 2008, for one, there was the Nuvation Air Hockey robot that grabbed admirers. This was an industrial robot equipped with an optical sensor programmed to follow and react to a moving object.

The differentiator with the Namiki Lab robot is that this one is able to strategize playing against its human opponent. Professor Akio Namiki and his group have designed a robot that can shift its strategy based on the opponent's playing style. The robot isn't just playing but is making its plays specifically against the opponent in any one game.

"The robot observes the speed and position of the player's paddle in relation to the puck. This data can be described by what is known as a Motion Pattern Histogram (MPH). The robot uses this data to estimate whether its opponent is playing aggressively or defensively.

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-namiki-lab-air-hockey-robot.html#jCp

Future vaccines could be delivered via patch

A skin patch that can deliver vaccines cheaply and effectively has been shown off at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.

Using a patch rather than a needle could transform disease prevention around the world, said its inventor.

Prof Mark Kendall said the new method offered hope of usable vaccines for diseases such as malaria.

"Half of vaccines in Africa are not working properly because refrigeration has failed at some point in the chain," said Dr Kendall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22882446

A low-cost, implantable electronic biosensor

Ohio State University engineers are developing low-cost electronic devices that work in direct contact with living tissue inside the body.

The initial objective is to develop an in vivo biosensor to detect the presence of proteins that mark the first signs of organ rejection in the body. Such biosensors could also be used for detecting glucose, pH, and diseases such as cancer.

Other materials such as titanium could also work, and such coatings could even be tailored to boost the performance of sensors or other biomedical devices, Berger suggested.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/bodyelectric.htm

Nanorods found better than spherical nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery

Conventional treatments such as drugs for diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease can carry harmful side effects, mainly because the treatments are not targeted specifically to the cells of the body where they’re needed.

“The elongated particles are more effective,” said Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute’s Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D. “Presumably the reason is that … the curvature of the sphere allows only so many of those binding sites to interact with membrane receptors on the surface of a cell.”

Nanoparticles have been studied as vessels to carry drugs through the body. Once they are engineered with antibodies that bind to specific receptors on the surface of targeted cells, these nanoparticles also can, in principle, become highly specific to the disease they are designed to treat.

The studies demonstrate that nanorods with a high aspect ratio attach more effectively to targeted cells compared with spherical nanoparticles. The findings hold promise for the development of novel targeted therapies with fewer harmful side effects.

http://beaker.sanfordburnham.org/2013/06/why-the-shape-of-nanoparticles-matters/

Sensing individual biomolecules with optical sensors inside ‘nanoboxes’

Researchers at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille and ICFO, Institute for Photonic Sciences in Barcelona have designed and built the smallest optical device capable of detecting and sensing individual biomolecules at concentrations similar to those found in cells.

The device consists on a tiny dimer (dual) sensor made out of two gold semi-spheres, separated from each other by a gap as small as 15nm (size of a protein molecule). Light sent to this antenna is enormously amplified in the gap region where the actual detection of the biomolecule of interest occurs. Because amplification of the light is confined to the dimensions of the gap, only molecules present in this tiny region are detected.

The optical device offers a highly efficient platform for performing a multitude of nanoscale biochemical assessments with single-molecule sensitivity at physiological conditions. It could be used for ultrasensitive sensing of minute amounts of molecules, as an early diagnostic device for biosensing of many disease markers.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/iiop-cim061013.php

Microsoft’s robot touch screen lets you palpate a brain

Microsoft Research is developing a prototype of a haptic feedback touch screen called TouchMover, IEEE Spectrum reports.

The robotic system behind a curtain pushes back with a pressure that reflects the physical properties of virtual objects on the screen.

Researchers uploaded a full set of MRI brain scans and demoed how doctors might scroll through them and annotate specific slides.

Wth some additional programming, the researchers could also make the TouchMover provide haptic feedback based on the material properties and texture of the skull bone and pulpy brain tissue, making the screen feel like palpating an actual brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UjGA9nY9_yM

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a highly sensitive exhaled-breath sensor, using tin dioxide (SnO2) fibers assembled from thin, wrinkled SnO2 nanotubes.

These metal-oxide nanofiber-based chemiresistive gas sensors allow for portable real-time breath tests that could be available on smart phones or tablets in the near future.

They sensors allow for diagnosing serious diseases such as diabetes or lung cancer quickly and effectively by simply breathing into a small nanofiber breathing sensor, mounted on a phone or other device.

“The sensor technology can be compatible with various types of smartphones, portable electronic gadgets, and medical devices,” he added. “We believe that there can be many ways to incorporate our technology based on particular needs of industries, not just in the medical device field, such as detecting hazardous chemicals or gas at manufacturing factories.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/tkai-nsd061113.php

New tasks become as simple as waving a hand with brain-computer interfaces

Small brain-computer interface (BCI) electrodes placed on or inside the brain allow patients to interact with computers or control robotic limbs simply by thinking about how to execute those actions.

This technology could improve communication and daily life for a person who is paralyzed or has lost the ability to speak from a stroke or neurodegenerative disease.

Now, University of Washington researchers have demonstrated that when humans use BCI technology, the brain behaves much like it does when completing simple motor skills such as kicking a ball, typing or waving a hand. So learning to control a robotic arm or a prosthetic limb could become second nature for people who are paralyzed.

A future wireless device could be built to remain inside a person’s head for a longer time to be able to control computer cursors or robotic limbs at home.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/06/11/new-tasks-become-as-simple-as-waving-a-hand-with-brain-computer-interfaces/

Video gamers capture more information faster for visual decision-making

Hours spent at the video gaming console probably train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke University researchers.

“Gamers see the world differently,” said Greg Appelbaum, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the Duke School of Medicine. “They are able to extract more information from a visual scene.”

Earlier research by others has found that gamers are quicker at responding to visual stimuli and can track more items than non-gamers. When playing a game, especially one of the “first-person shooters,” a gamer makes “probabilistic inferences” about what he/she is seeing — good guy or bad guy, moving left or moving right — as rapidly as he/she can.

This study was supported by grants from the Army Research Office, the Department of Homeland Security, DARPA, and Nike Inc.

http://today.duke.edu/2013/06/vidvision