News Card #7
More Bionic News.
The first in bionic fingers have recently been showcased, costing in the area of 35,000-45,000 pounds sterling, they are controlled directly by the brain and require no surgery. The prototypes allow recipients to grip a glass to drink, to hold a knife and fork they also allow the user to write. Truly a great step forward for people with badly damaged fingers and hands, and also those people born without fingers. The partial hand amputee population is estimated at around 52,000 in the EU and 1.2 million worldwide. The Pro-Digits provide a powered device with a grip and they can return these people to a level of functionality and independence. Each set is tailor made for its user and thus comes at a large price, but at what price is the use of hands considered to be expensive. With the advancement of today’s technology we are seeing the reality of the 1970’s sci-fi show the bionic man, are we entering an age of super heroes, people who would have once been forced to live a life at a disadvantage, maybe as it stands it truly does look like Steve Austin can be rebuilt.
Source: www.thetimes.co.uk 8th Dec 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Digital Library
David sanderson
News Card #6
Building a digital Britain.
The Britsh National Library and the BBC are currently reviewing a partnership on one of their biggest projects to date. The partnership will seek to digitalise the entire contents of the library’s publications which numbers some 150 million items which have been collected over the last 250 years. The BBC will also digitalise the entire archive of the past 90 years with a huge vault of almost 1 million hours of T.V. footage. “ Unlocking the wealth of content in the British Library and BBC archives is a great opportunity as well as an immense challenge" said BBC director general, Mark Thompson. In doing this the BBC and The British National Library believe that they are appeasing the British government by developing atruly digital Britain. The benefits for the nation and indeed the world will be untold with ease of access to materials for researhers and the general public.
Source: www.theguardian.co.uk 11th December 2009
News Card #6
Building a digital Britain.
The Britsh National Library and the BBC are currently reviewing a partnership on one of their biggest projects to date. The partnership will seek to digitalise the entire contents of the library’s publications which numbers some 150 million items which have been collected over the last 250 years. The BBC will also digitalise the entire archive of the past 90 years with a huge vault of almost 1 million hours of T.V. footage. “ Unlocking the wealth of content in the British Library and BBC archives is a great opportunity as well as an immense challenge" said BBC director general, Mark Thompson. In doing this the BBC and The British National Library believe that they are appeasing the British government by developing atruly digital Britain. The benefits for the nation and indeed the world will be untold with ease of access to materials for researhers and the general public.
Source: www.theguardian.co.uk 11th December 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
More bionic news
A Tongue-Tracking Artificial Larynx
It could soon be possible for individuals whom have lost th power of speech to regain this function with the aid of a digital device which tracks movements and contact between the tongue and the palate. South African researchers are currently working on the artificial larynx which wont have the raspy or robotic sound of currently used devices. The artificial Larynx which can detect words that are being said via movements in the mouth will rely upon a sound synthesizer to generate the sound which should be emmited from the mouth.
The Palatometer which is fitted into the mouth works on the principal that the speaker will mouth the words then the movements will be synthesized into real speech paterns. Though the development is far from finished, or from being able to recognising a whole language (the researchers have currently reached a fifty word vocabulary recognition model) the scientists do say that the future for people who have lost their speech ability could look a whole lot brighter and the results given by the palatometer could be a whole lot more natural than those of devices available today.
It could soon be possible for individuals whom have lost th power of speech to regain this function with the aid of a digital device which tracks movements and contact between the tongue and the palate. South African researchers are currently working on the artificial larynx which wont have the raspy or robotic sound of currently used devices. The artificial Larynx which can detect words that are being said via movements in the mouth will rely upon a sound synthesizer to generate the sound which should be emmited from the mouth.
The Palatometer which is fitted into the mouth works on the principal that the speaker will mouth the words then the movements will be synthesized into real speech paterns. Though the development is far from finished, or from being able to recognising a whole language (the researchers have currently reached a fifty word vocabulary recognition model) the scientists do say that the future for people who have lost their speech ability could look a whole lot brighter and the results given by the palatometer could be a whole lot more natural than those of devices available today.
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