We’ve seen a few interesting apps built specifically for Google’s new headset but, to our knowledge MedRef for Glass is the first that recognize people’s faces. The basic functions aren’t anything terribly ground breaking: you can create and search patient files, and even add voice or photo notes. What makes Lance Nanek’s creation unique is its support for facial recognition. A user can snap a picture of a subject and upload it to the cloud, where it will search patient records for a match using the Betaface API. All of this can be done, relatively hands-free leaving a doctors well-trained mitts available to perform other necessary medical duties. There’s still a lot of work to do, and Nanek hopes that with more powerful hardware the facial recognition feature could be left running constantly, removing the need to snap and upload photos. In the meantime, if you’re one of the lucky few to have an Explorer edition of Google Glass you can install the package at the source link. Otherwise, you’ll have to make do with the demo video after the break.

Filed under: Wearables, Software, Google

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Via: SlashGear

Source: MedRef for Glass, NeatoCode

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MedRef for Glass uses facial recognition to identify patients, keeps health records

We’ve seen Emotiv’s Epoc headset control cars and trapeze acts, but now a small posse of students at Columbia University is teaching it how to control a robotic arm. The appendage, aptly named ARM for Assistive Robotic Manipulator, was envisioned as a wheelchair attachment to help the disabled. According to the team, the goal was to keep costs in the neighborhood of $5,000 since insurance outfits Medicare and Medicaid won’t foot a bill for assistive tech that’s much more than $10,000. To keep costs low, the crew built the limb from laser cut wood, and managed to keep the final price tag at $3,200. Since picking up EEG signals and interpreting them accurately can be tricky, the group says it settled on monitoring EMG waves, which are triggered by muscle movements, for additional reliability.

Lifting your eyebrows makes the device open its grip, clenching your teeth shuts it and moving your lips to the left and right twists the claw, while other motions are currently handled by using a PlayStation 2 controller. In the lab, the contraption has seven degrees of freedom, but it was reduced to five when we took it for a spin. It was hit or miss when this editor put the headgear on, between making sure facial gestures were spot on and the equipment’s attempts to pick up clear signals.

Filed under: Robots, Alt

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Columbia University’s low-cost robotic arm is controlled by facial muscles, we go face-on (video)

TitanArm already took home silver in a competition for senior projects at the University of Pennsylvania, and now the team behind it is visiting Orlando to compete in the Intel-sponsored Cornell Cup for embedded design. We stopped by the showroom and snagged a few minutes with the crew to take a look at their creation: an 18-pound, untethered, self-powered exoskeleton arm constructed for less than $2,000.

To wield the contraption, users attach the cable-driven mechanical appendage to themselves with straps from a military-grade hiking backpack, and guide it with a thumbstick on a nunchuck-like controller. If a load needs to be held in place, the wearer can jab a button on the hand-held control to apply a brake. A Beagle Bone drives the logic for the setup, and it can stream data such as range of motion wirelessly to a computer. As for battery-life, they group says the upper-body suit has previously squeezed out over 24 hours of use without having to recharge.

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Eyes-on: University of Pennsylvania’s TitanArm exoskeleton (video)

It’s no wonder people are interested in exoskeletons. Not only do they tap into our lust for the technology of science fiction movies, but among other applications, can make a significant impact on the lives of those living with disabilities. While many offer leg support, a team from University of Pennsylvania recently took silver in an engineering competition for its TitanArm prototype, a powered upper-body exoskeleton that, as the picture above shows, allows you to out-rep anyone at the gym.

Designed to be lightweight and cheap to produce, the robotic bicep upgrade uses a (mostly) aluminum frame, battery-powered DC motor, cable drive system, racket braking and thumbstick controller for movement, with a BeagleBone board supervising the electronics that pull it all together. The group at UPenn imagines TitanArm could be employed as a lifting aid, but more importantly, in healthcare applications like increasing mobility or physical therapy — sensors and other data from the exoskeleton could even allow docs to monitor patients remotely. More info on the project can be found at the source link, while a video below shows TitanArm in use and outlines the hardware that makes those heavy hammer curls a cinch.

Filed under: Robots, Wearables, Alt

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Source: TitanArm

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UPenn’s TitanArm exoskeleton prototype makes light work of heavy lifting (video)

Scientists working together from Japanese and American universities may have made a pretty large leap in restoring neural function for those with non-paralyzing spinal cord injuries. The researchers applied a “novel artificial neuron connection” over lesions in the spinal cord of a partially paralyzed monkey, partially restoring its arm / brain circuit and allowing greater hand control purely by brainpower. The team also created a reverse circuit where muscle activity from the arm stimulated the spinal cord, reinforcing the signals and “boosting ongoing activity in the muscle.” There’s no word on whether it would help those with full paralysis, though for lesser “paretic” damage, “this might even have a better chance of becoming a real prosthetic treatment rather than the sort of robotic devices that have been developed recently,” according to the team. See the source and More Coverage links for more.

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Source: National Institute for Physiological Sciences

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Research team restores monkey’s hand function with artificial neural connection