Welcome friends to our weekly Avatar technology digest report. As always, we are happy to inform you on the topics of cybermedicine, nano and biotechnologies, robotics and artificial intelligence. So many really interesting things have happened this week, here are some we have chosen for you.
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1) First paralysed person to be 'reanimated' offers neuroscience insights
Researchers at Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York have recently published in Nature an article where they describe successful results of the technology which sends signals from brain of paralysed person directly to his muscles. A volunteer patient Ian Buckhart paralised six years ago after accident when he broke his neck had a microchip implanted in his brain.Technology that bypass spinal cord allowed him to regain partial control over his left arm and he is even able to make isolated finger movements to the point of playing guitar player simulator. Such neural bypass technology has never been so successful, previously it has been tested on animals only, the technology sends decoded signals from the brain to computer which then after applying learning algorithms translates signals into electric messages and sends it through cable to flexible sleeve that stimulates muscles.
2) New 'e-skin' tech turns your body into a walking display
The recent paper in Friday’s edition of Journal Science Advances contain report from Japanese scientists on the new technology that could help to create electronic skin display. The technology is a ultra-thin and ultra-flexible film less than micrometers thick. Such a film is much more useful than glass and plastics that similar wearable devices use today. It is also impervious to air and moisture a quality extending it’s lifetime from few hours to several days.
The most obvious application of electronic skin display technology is health metrics and educational supplement, but as Professor Takao Someya of University of Tokio who had led the project has said, displays can add whole new dimention of how we communicate with each other.
3) Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner launch $100m star voyage
Last week Yury Milner a Silicon Valley philanthropist and Stewen Hawking a world-known physicist and cosmologist have announced Breakthrough Starshot. A third Breakthrough initiative that will launch a feather-weight robot spacecraft to our nearest star Alpha Centaury was announced on 55th anniversary of the first orbit of the planet by cosmonaut Yury Gagarin, after whom Milner was named.
The spacecraft is a microchip with thin fabric that will use it as a sail. Sail will be accelerated by laser-powered light beam and since it will gain momentum in space with no friction it will reach the speed of sixty thousands kilometers per second. The project thus could lead to advances in laser technology and power generation at relatively low-costs, nanotechnologies where fabrics with unique properties can be made to order, and integrated curcuit computer chips technology.
4) World's first surgery streamed in virtual reality live from London
On 14th of April, 2016, the first live broadcast of surgery through virtual reality has taken place in London. Cancer surgeon at the Royal London Hospital a pioneer of VR surgery, doctor Shafi Akhmed performed an operation on a patient with a colon cancer and streamed it to thousands of medical students watching on VR headsets.
The operation was filmed on 360 degrees cameras with multiple lenses. This has allowed viewers to be able to zoom in on Dr Ahmed's movements and to walk around the theatre to see the operation from different angles, even to help surgeon during the operation. As doctor Akhmed has said, virtual reality and augmented reality technology could revolutionize surgical education and training, particularly in developed countries that don’t have resources and facilities.
5) Robots could get 'touchy' with self-powered smart skin
The recent article by a group of scientists from Peking University, Beijing published in “ASC Nano” journal, has revealed a new low cost method to create artificial smart synthetic skin. New method is able to drastically simplify the system of such smart skin as it needs no external power source and uses much less quantity of electrodes, at the same time being no less sensitive. The technology of artificial sensorics such as smart skin presents unprecedented opportunities for artificial intelligence, because it endows robots and prosthetics with a human-like sense of touch.