Bill Gates' Energy Future TED Talk Online

Earlier this month at this year’s TED conference, Bill Gates gave an informative talk on his vision of eliminating CO2 emissions.  You can watch it online now at TED.

[TED]

First Wireless Connected Pacemaker

Carol Kasyjanski is certainly connected.  She is the first person in the United States to be implanted with a wireless pacemaker.  The wireless pacemaker sends information to a wireless home monitoring system that transmits information to her doctor.

According to Dr. Steven Greenberg – director of St. Francis Arrhythmia and Pacemaker Center:

“If there is anything abnormal, and we have a very intricate system set up, it will literally call the physician responsible at two in the morning if need be. It is a tremendous convenience for the patient from even interacting with a telephone to call the doctor. On a larger scale it enhances our ability to pick up and evaluate any problems with their pacemaker and certain other rhythm disorders that could be potentially dangerous or life threatening in ways we really could not do before.”

St. Jude Medical Inc., received FDA approval in July 2009.

[St. Jude Medical Inc.] [PCMAG]

Toyota's Humanoid Robot

Toyota’s recent prototype humanoid robot is able to run an average speed of 7 km/h.  The robot is able to remain balanced if pushed when in motion.

Check out the video below to see the robot in action.

Solar Powered Airplane

Solar Impulse is the first 100% solar-powered airplane.  The project began on November 28, 2003 and the plane is going to fly around the world.

The plane will travel at an average speed of 43.5 mph and has a 262.5 foot wingspan.  The pilot will be Bertrand Piccard who flew around the world non-stop in a balloon with Brian Jones in 1999. [Computer Weekly]

Boy Hit By Meteorite

Gerrit Blank was hit by a meteorite traveling at 30,000 mph.  This 14 year-old boy story was confirmed by scientists at Germany’s Walter Hohmann Observatory.

“At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder. The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road.”

Scientists tested the highly magnetic rock.  The rock is the size of a pea and did come from outer space.  It hit him on his hand, leaving a 3 inch scar.

You have one in a million chance of being hit by a meteorite.

Stem Cell Contacts Restore Sight

Australian scientists restored the sight of three patients in less than a month.  Using contact lenses cultured with stem cells.

All three patients were blind in one eye.  The researches extracted stem cells from the patients working eye, cultured the contact lenses for ten days.  Within two weeks of use, the stem cells repaired the cornea.  Two of the patients were legally blind, but can now read the big letters on an eye chart, while the third, who previously could read the top rows of the chart, is now able to pass the vision test for a driver’s license.  The procedure is inexpensive, which means this could be carried out in poorer countries.

World Builder

Here is an interesting video with a lot of futuristic concepts imbedded. It is very creative and also tells a story. Pretty cool.

Wheelchair Controlled By The Brain

The University of Zaragoza in Spain has developed and built a brain-controlled wheelchair.  The wheelchair is controlled using an EEG cap worn on the head.  Along with using a P300 neurophysiological protocol and automated navigation.  They have successfully tested this on five different participants.  This is truly amazing technology.

Everything is amazing and nobody is happy…

A humorous perspective on technological progress. To some degree, we are a little spoiled and need to chill a little. I love tech progress, but lets stop and smell the flowers… seriously.

Hat Tip: The Long Now Blog

The Dream Machine

This is a pretty impressive advancement in mind-computer interfaces. Their technology can actually read and interpret the visual cortex, reconstructing what you are seeing. This would apply to actual visual images coming thorough the eye, or things you “see” in a dream.

Dream Recorder: New Technology Could Display Your Dreams on Screen:

“In a nutshell, the device converts electrical signals sent to the visual cortex into images that can be viewed on a computer screen. In their experiment, they showed test subjects the six letters in the word neuron and succeeded in reconstructing the word on screen by measuring their brain activity.”

Gizmodo

UPDATE***************************

Here is a video I found of tests where images are shown taken from the brain an compared with the actual images.