Welcome to #13 Avatar Technology Digest. As always we bring you the latest news on Technology, Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence from the most trusted sources.
1) Scientists in Austria have created an artificial leg which allows the amputee to feel lifelike sensations from their foot. Prof Hubert Egger of the University of Linz, said sensors fitted to the sole of the artificial foot, stimulated nerves at the base of the stump.
Surgeons first rewired nerve endings in the patient's stump to place them close to the skin surface. Six sensors were fitted to the base of the foot, to measure the pressure of heel, toe and foot movement. These signals were relayed to a micro-controller which relayed them to stimulators inside the shaft where it touched the base of the stump. These vibrated, stimulating the nerve endings under the skin, which relayed the signals to the brain. The sensors tell the brain there is a foot and the wearer has the impression that it rolls off the ground when he walks.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33052091
2) Neuroscientists still do not understand how the activities of individual brain cells translate to higher cognitive powers such as perception and emotion. So far, even the best technologies have been composed of relatively rigid electronics that act like sandpaper on delicate neurons.
The Harvard team solved these problems by using a mesh of conductive polymer threads with either nanoscale electrodes or transistors attached at their intersections. Each strand is as soft as silk and as flexible as brain tissue itself. Free space makes up 95% of the mesh, allowing cells to arrange themselves around it.
http://www.nature.com/news/injectable-brain-implant-spies-on-individual-neurons-1.17713
3) Monkeys may be next in line to receive successful head transplants that enable them to survive "at least for a little while" -- possibly paving the way for similar surgery on humans.
Researchers at China's Harbin Medical University, led by surgeon Xiaoping Ren, are looking to perform the pioneering transplants on long-tailed macaque monkeys after performing similar surgery on more than 1,000 mice.
During a 10-hour operation in 2013, a mouse was able to move, open its eyes a few hours and even drink some water after receiving its new head - although it was unable to survive unaided much longer.
However, Ren and his team claim to be in the process of refining the highly complex and painstaking procedure, using tiny tubes to allow oxygenated blood to travel from the rodents' brains to their new bodies, and monkeys look set to be next under the knife. The surgery will only connect a tiny amount of the primates' spinal nerve fibres, but it's hoped that it should be enough to retain voluntary muscle movement and other of the monkeys' vital functions.
4) A South Korean robotics team has won the Darpa Robotics Challenge that took place on June 5 and 6 th. The challenge was the first where robots performed without being tethered and caused a lot of laughter from the crowds at the contest in Pomona, California. The contest is a battle of robots on an obstacle course meant to simulate conditions similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo humanoid robot defeated 22 others to win the top $2m prize from the US Department of Defense's Darpa research unit.
Sources: www.scientificrussia.ru, www.bbc.com, www.ria.ru, www.nature.com, www.lenta.ru, www.wired.co.uk, www.us.tomonews.net, www.wsj.com, www.geektimes.ru, www.spectrum.ieee.org
YouTube: Euronews, News First, TomoNews US, The Wall Street Journal, DARPAtv, IEEE Spectrum
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