Medical Robots

Medical robots are one of the most helpful applications of robots. They are used in various medical practices, including difficult and precise surgical procedures. They are also used to assist patients in recovery and in the performance of routine tasks for patient care.

Medical robots have computer-integrated technology and are comprised of complicated programming languages, controllers, and advanced sensors. They also possess powerful control units, a programming terminal, and process-oriented software for various medical applications.

Medical robots are used for training surgeons and providing in-depth knowledge to students. These robots provide standardized operation, which reduces the time required to perform any medical operation. They provide positional certainty and confined movement, which can lead to improved post-operative outcomes. The major potential advantages of medical robots are precision and miniaturization in medical operations. Further advantages are articulation beyond normal manipulation and three-dimensional magnification.

Doctors can view the patient, ask questions, read patient records, view X-rays, and test results using these robots. Although the robot does not physically examine the patient it, allows face-to-face contact between the doctor and patient with the help of a screen attached to it. They are also used inward rounds when doctors are away from patients, which allow patients to establish direct contact with doctors.

Research is going on in the field of medical robotics that will create new robotic technologies and benefit the healthcare industry. The use of WiFi technology in the medical robots allows a medical expert to visually examine and communicate with a patient from anywhere in the world.

There are many doctors, who are using medical robotic technologies in their regular clinical practice. Doctors believe that it is a revolutionary concept, which opens new avenues for telemedicine research and integrates technology with healthcare while establishing necessary interface between patients, clinicians, and teaching staff.

Technology in the Year 2020

Imagine this for a second. The year is 2020 and you walk into an office, similar yet different to the one you may be in right now. Structurally, the features are similar to your 2009 office, there's a desk, a chair and a window with a view. Yet, there are noticeable differences. Gone is your clunky PC. The telephone is also nowhere to be seen. Books? Nope. Newspapers? Magazines? Nope. Nope. Instead, using a wearable device on your finger, you conjure up a hologram of a blank screen above your desk.

"Computer on," you state. Appearing before you is a virtual computer. You use voice demand technology to bring up documents, email your friends, write reports and check stocks on the internet. Then you decide to read a copy of the January 2020 issue of Exec Digital and relax. Welcome to the not so distant future.

WEARABLE COMPUTER

The above scenario is an idealistic view of the future created from the mind of a 23-year old science-fiction fan (yours truly). While predicting future technology is never an exact science, I went to the minds of people who might have an idea of what technology might look like in 10 years.

While my potential technology may be a bit idyllic, it is not far off from MIT's Wear Ur World. The WUW is a perfect example of potential future technology, very much inspiring my own tale. Developed by the MIT Media Lab and simply known as 'Sixth Sense', the wearer uses a small projector, a webcam and a mobile phone, ultimately allowing you to turn any flat surface into a computer.

Using hand gestures, it can do anything from tell the time to make a phone call. (For example, drawing a circle will prompt the WUW to show a clock). To get an idea of WUW, just imagine Tom Cruise using the Standard User Interface in Minority Report. Of course, WUW is a bit more high-tech than Cruise's SUI.

Smaller, faster and much more efficient is very much the ideal of tomorrow's computers, as is mobility. A number of industry experts say the idea of increased mobility technology is nearly certain in 10 years. A report from Pew Internet Research polling 1,000 technology execs indicates by the year 2020, mobile technology will be our main access for the internet. Furthermore, the same experts say most communications appliances will come with voice-demand technology.

CARS

Smaller and faster machines with increased mobility and efficiency aren't just the themes for future computers. Those qualities represent the cars of 2020 as well. Mitchell Joachim, co-founder and partner of Terreform 1, the New York based ecological non-profit design collaborative, designed a car for urban societies conceptualising this very thought. Joachim designed the City Car and Stackable Car as transports strictly for the city.

"One concept of the car was soft body, where it could adhere to gentle congestion. You wouldn't move in a shiny, precious metal box. It'd be more human like, you'd move in flocks or herds where it's okay to scuff against neighbour. We also thought of stackable cars that stand up and interlock in oddly directional ways. There's also a Hondagreat social aspect to the City Car. It doesn't tell you things like miles per hour. You don't need to know that in the city," says Joachim.

Designer Stefan Mathys led a team of visionaries to design a similar type car. The City Transport Cell, is a battery driven, zero emission car, which can easily navigate an urban society. It was built specifically for the year 2020 and comes with removable parts. It should be noted, most of these cars are the size of go carts.

ROBOTICS

In every futuristic vision, there are always robots present. From the Jetsons to Terminator, robots have always been a part of our foreseen future. Therefore, no technology in 2020 article would be complete without a mention of robotics. A few years back, the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (METI) set out a plan to introduce intelligent robots by the year 2015.

The Japanese Robot Association came out with a report indicating robots of all kinds would be present in the home and office by the year 2020. The Japanese, the leader in robotic technology, have predicted robots will be used to assist humans with everyday tasks and keep them company. They'll also be used for labor purposes. By 2020, robots may even be set into outer space to explore the moon and beyond. The Japanese government has developed a programme to achieve this very goal.

Car Technology - Latest and Future Trends

The rate at which technology advances in the world presently is amazing. The good thing is that it takes us all in its stride as it moves. For this reason, cars are not left behind. Car technology has taken new dimensions over the years. Each year, something new and different turns up. Some of these new car features are yet to hit the market. This piece contains some of the proposed advancements that will leave car users drooling.

Humans are incomplete and imperfect. Thus, we tend to be less conservative even in the face of depleting resources. When driving our cars for example, we could turn off our air conditioners to conserve fuel. However, we would rather leave the conditioner on than roll down the windows. This is because we 'feel cool' with the windows rolled up and the chill filling up all the spaces in our car.

Technology has introduced the economy mode in cars. This innovation allows the vehicle to make the decisions that affect its use and conservation of its features. When activated, it would simply determine what features are essential at any point in time. 

It could choose to turn off the air conditioner or the cruise control, depending on the prevailing circumstances. This saves fuel and ensures the longevity of the vehicle. These adjustments are made automatically. This technology has been test-run in many hybrids and it has been successful to say the least.

There is also the black box technology for cars on the horizon. If air planes can have them, why can't cars? The black box has been very important in retrieving information from planes especially when mishaps occur. The fact that it might allow people intrude into the privacy of the car owner is still being debated. At present, General Motors and Ford are making use of them in their new model vehicles. They have been renamed "recorders". These "recorders" store vital information about the speed the car was moving and the places it had visited amongst others. They also aid insurance companies in the event of an accident.

Great Security Option for SmartPhone Users - IRIS Recognition Application

A new smartphone with iris recognition has developed by Japan. Paynter-Krigman Professor in Engineering Science Stephanie Schuckers, who is the director for the Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR), said the iris recognition systems in the Fujitsu smartphone are offering people more options to safeguard their electronic devices. The application, convenience, price and cultural assumptions related to each system can influence personal choice.

Iris recognition systems use near-infrared lights to analyze the pattern of the muscles in the iris, not the color of the iris. Near-infrared lights are used in many technologies, including security systems, and are not dangerous to the user in this application. The iris recognition technology has improved in recent decades, the reliability of the biometric depends on the system itself and the sophistication of the software. Iris recognition is very high quality like a fingerprint, but no biometric--an iris or a fingerprint-is perfect. And this technology should be available in the United States in the near future.

Robotic Arm Technology Has Rapidly Improved

Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick professes to be the "first Cyborg." Project Cyborg began in August of 1998, when Warwick implanted a computer chip into his left arm, which later allowed him to open doors, move a robotic hand and operate an electronic wheelchair. The implant also allowed him to tap into the Internet at Columbia University in New York and control a robotic arm at the University of Reading in the UK.

Another one of the experiments tested telepathic communication between two individuals by way of implants. In the 70s, researchers felt that robotic arms would be a vital asset to the workplace. Little did they know, humans would consider fusing themselves with this technology to become super-human cyborgs!

Starting in 1975, robotic arms have been used for industrial purposes. In some cases, they do the work more quickly, more accurately and more efficiently than human workers ever could. Yet in other instances, they simply perform work that is too monotonous, dangerous or undesirable for men and women.

In the US auto industry, for example, there is one robotic arm for every ten workers. Industrial robots lift heavy objects, handle chemicals, and paint and assemble parts. Rather than replace jobs, the robotic system is intended to free up more creative, fulfilling work for people instead. After all, the Czech word "robota" translates to "drudgery work."

Using a modified robotic arm, Dr. Alon Wolf and Dr. Howie Choset have developed a machine that can perform minimally-invasive surgery with great accuracy. The invention is called the "CardioARM" and has been designed for abdominal surgery, heart bypass surgery and mouth surgery, but can also be used to perform a laparoscopy, colonoscopy, and arthroscopy.

The CardioARM is operated by a joystick and can navigate through the body to the problem areas. The flexible tele-operated probe is programmed to remember pathways and it can take tools into regions that surgeons would otherwise have to slice into. "Tools in operation rooms are not flexible. The CardioARM is flexible enough for remote and hard to reach anatomies," explains Dr. Wolf. "The heart is a good example... now we don't have to cut the person open."

Robotic arm technology has rapidly improved over the span of just thirty years. But what is the end goal of robotics technology? Is it to build robots that can work as our slaves? Is it to find minimally-invasive, infallible methods of performing surgery? Is it to treat injuries? Is it to teach? Or is it to become super-humans? There are a number of ways to approach this science, making it impossible to tell just what the future of robotic development holds.

The Many Uses of Robotics Technology

Robotic vehicles can do the jobs that are too dangerous, boring, or disgusting for people. Unmanned vehicles can plunge to the deepest parts of the ocean, the farthest corners of the galaxy, into the wells of a volcano, and inside combat areas which would be too perilous for vehicles driven by human beings. This technology won't replace drivers; it will help the current workforce with robots that will drive anywhere in the world under any conditions.

The US Army isn't a stranger to robotic vehicles. Military insiders say that a lot of their success is from small reconnaissance or tactical planes that are unmanned. The planes can fly for miles and miles from remote locations, while reporting video and photos back to the military stations. They will follow targets and hit them with extreme accuracy. One great benefit is that no US soldiers are put in danger, and the terrorists won't see or hear it coming. American soldiers use robotics technology to command drones in the Middle East.

A lot of effort is also being put into the development of robotic vehicles for a wide range of civilian applications. Synthetic Aperture Sonar is helping robots capture brand new images of deep sea beds. Farmers can use these to monitor their crops, and forest rangers can keep track of trees and wildlife in remote places in their parks. There are vehicles that can ride the surface of the water to monitor coastlines, and there are underwater devices used to recover old shipwrecks and unaccounted for lobster traps that threaten endangered marine animals.

The newest robotic vehicles will probably surprise you. Seven hundred ton Caterpillar trucks are currently being prepared by scientists that will allow trucks to transport 240 ton loads from mining productions. Automated trucks are supposed to be available in five to ten years, and they will save a lot of time and money. This new robotic innovation will be really popular due to a shortage of drivers.

Wireless Charging

Place a laptop on a table, and it will automatically start charging. No wires needed, no need to carry a power bank. That's how Intel views wireless charging for laptops, which could become a realism next year. Intel wants to make wireless chargers as easy to find as a Wi-Fi signal, and wants to bring the technology to coffee cafes, restaurants, airports and other public places so laptops can be recharged without power adapters. The first laptops with wireless charging could come out next year, and Intel has shown a few prototypes laptop being recharged on a table.