Tired of pricking your finger all the time to check your glucose levels? Want a device that can continuously monitor your levels? Then PKvitality’s new wrist wearable may be right for you. The product has not yet been approved for marketing, but pricing has been announced. The tracker will cost $150 and the sensors will cost $100. The sensors will need to be replaced every month.
From the developer.
This Sticker from Energysquare Allows Wireless Charging of Your iPhone at CES 2017.
Energysquare has introduced a sticker that can turn almost any device into a wireless charging device, including the iPhone and iPad. A sticker is placed on the back of your device, and that sticker has a wire that plugs into your devices charging port. Now you can just place your iPhone on a wireless charging pad without searching for your charging cord.
Learn more by watching this video.
Aira Uses Smart Glasses to Help Blind People Navigate the World at CES 2017.
Aira is designed to make life a little easier for blind and visually impaired people. Using a pair of smart glasses or a phone camera, the system allows an Aira agent to see what the blind person sees in real-time, and then talk them through whatever situation they’re in. Aira promises to make everything from grocery shopping, calling an Uber or world travel more accessible for blind people across the globe.
Aira doesn’t replace existing assistance systems. Instead, it’s designed to enhance them. A blind person navigates the world using whatever tools they normally do, such as a cane or guide dog, and only calls the Aira agent when needed. When the agent picks up, he or she sees a live video feed and the location of the person calling on Google Maps, alongside general biographical information.
Vibrating Jeans Help You Navigate at CES 2017.
Spinali, a clothing manufacturer in France, continues to design high tech wearables for the future. This time, they have come up with vibrating jeans that help people navigate their surroundings, receive notifications, and transmit their location to their loved ones.
Braille Tablet Featured at CES 2017.
Accessibility products don’t often get allot of attention at mainstream events like the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But Blitab Technology is grabbing a great deal of attention with their Blitab Tablet which is a cool product to look at even if you don’t have a visual impairment.
Nikon Joins the Fight to Stop Diabetes Related Eye Disease.
Nikon Corporation (Kazuo Ushida, President, Tokyo, referred to below as “Nikon”) and its subsidiary Optos Plc (Robert Kennedy, CEO, United Kingdom; referred to below as “Optos”) today announced a strategic alliance with Verily Life Sciences LLC (Andy Conrad, CEO, United States; referred to below as “Verily”, formerly known as Google Life Sciences) in the field of machine learning-enabled retinal imaging. The companies will collaborate on creating technology and solutions for enhanced screening of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema by diabetes-treating physicians and others to assist in efficient referral of patients to eyecare specialists, and provide these specialists with assisted reading programs for easier diagnosis of disease.
Diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema are leading causes of blindness among adults around the world, and improved access and screening rates can prevent disease progression and blindness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of diabetic patients is increasing rapidly in many parts of the world, especially in low to middle income countries. As a result, the number of patients with vision impairment and the need to monitor these patients is also expected to grow.
Through an exclusive collaboration in numerous geographies, Nikon (including its subsidiary Optos) and Verily will co-develop solutions for the earlier detection of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. The partnership will combine Nikon’s leadership in optical engineering and precision manufacturing, its proprietary ultra-widefield technology and strong commercial presence among eyecare specialists, and Verily’s machine learning technology. Together, Nikon and Verily will work to provide innovative medical solutions to assist physicians, and address a broad population of diabetic patients.
Breath Test Can Detect Cancer and 16 Other Diseases.
We already use breathalyzers to detect alcohol levels, but We can now detect the presence of potentially deadly diseases.
Ancient Greek physicians figured that our breath was a strong health indicator, but researchers from the Israel Institute of Technology have proven just how true that is. They developed a device that uses nanoparticles to identify 17 different diseases, including lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease, from just a single breath. While the machine isn’t accurate enough yet for real-life clinical diagnoses, it shows high promise as a quick, non-invasive test that could catch diseases in their early stages
The team tested breath samples from more than 1,400 patients and identified 13 chemicals found in eight types of cancers, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, pulmonary hypertension, and other diseases. Each of those volatile organic compounds is present in varying amounts, forming a distinctive “fingerprint” for each ailment. “These odor signatures are what enables us to identify the diseases using the technology that we developed,” says research lead Prof. Hossam Haick.
To pick up the presence and ratio of the chemicals, the team built an “artificially intelligent nanoarray” called the Na-Nose. It uses specific sensors, like one made from gold nanoparticles and another that uses a network of carbon nanotubes, to sense the different compounds. The data is then analyzed by an artificial intelligence system, which considers age, gender, and other factors, picking out the right affliction 86 percent of the time.
For more information, watch this video.
Source.
Spotlight Interview with the Founder of Spotlight Gateway: A Project That Provides Free iPads to the Visually Impaired.
In this Spotlight interview, James Oates sits down with Dr. Howard Kaplan, a retina surgeon, and the developer of Spotlight Text. Spotlight Text is an app that works with Bookshare to make eBooks accessible to the visually impaired. The app displays white text on a black background, and can make the text as large as a reader needs. It works only on iPads, but can also be airplayed to a TV screen by way of a dongle or an Apple TV. This allows for much larger text than can be provided with normal magnification software. The application also works with VoiceOver and braille displays, so that anyone with a visual impairment can use it. Working in cooperation with Bookshare, the app can access more than 450,000 books, and this number is constantly rising.
To ensure that students with visual impairments have access to printed materials, Dr. Kaplan has founded Spotlight Gateway, an organization that provides free access to his app, a free Bookshare membership, and a free iPad to those who are in financial need. Students need to be certified as having a visual impairment by a licensed Ophthalmologist, and they need to show that there is a financial need for the program.
You can try out a light version of the application to see if it works for you.
Alexa Can Now Control Your Samsung Robotic Vacuum.
Want to clean your house, but don’t want to get up from your recliner? Well, now you don’t have to make that difficult decision. The Samsung Powerbot VR7000 can be controlled by voice commands with your Amazon Echo device. The company says that, in fact, all its Wi-Fi-enabled Powerbot vacuums will work with Alexa.
The 20 watt robo-vac is considerably smaller (28 percent) than past models, Samsung said, helping it more easily duck under couches or beds. It can also get as close as a half inch (15mm) to a wall and avoid objects as small as a quarter inch, thanks to the front placement of the wide 11-inch brush and “Full View Sensor 2.0.” Other features include a self-cleaning brush, room contour mapping, adjustable suction levels depending on the surface and full remote control with a smartphone (via Wi-Fi.
Samsung didn’t mention the price or availability, but it will show off the Powerbot VR7000 at CES 2017, which starts on Tuesday, January 03, 2017.
Source.
Microsoft Joins the Fight to Halt the Flow of Human Trafficking.
Microsoft Thailand last week organized a project to educate youth about computers and Information Technology to equip them with the knowledge and tools to fight human trafficking.
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