If I can know the constant "health" of a network or website, I would like the same for my body. It's 2013, I think monitoring all aspects of personal health is key. I hope to see more of this in the near future. The X-Prize tri-corder especially.
Karen, Excellent article. I didn't think about how wireless could be an enabling technology but I can see how that is true. Is that primarily being used as a way to log data collected by the device in health care settings? Thanks.
Thank you all for your fantastic comments re QoL and MEMS! @Rich - I am especially pleased you see the enabling tech of MEMS as a way to bridge the gap between doctors and their patients (especially since you are the Design News Editor). :) I love how MEMS is "taking healthcare to the streets" - and giving it back to "the people, for the people" rather than how technology oftentimes de-humanizes so much of healthcare. I see MEMS as empowering folks to take care of themselves - to LOSE that Weight, to take that medicine and sit up straight (as I adjust my lumbar...eh hem).
Hi, Karen, it's great to hear an industry perspective on these devices and hear how they are changing the game for personal healthcare. I've actually written about both the Body Media and Proteus technologies (http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=257818) in an article on a very similar topic. I, too, find this an exciting space.
Science fiction writers have written numerous stories about MEMS in medicine and are not shy about intrusive use of the technology (Asimov's Fantastic Voyage leaps to mind).
Think of something like angioplasty or heart catheterization. Procedures like those are invasive already, and include some degree of risk. Injecting MEMS designed to navigate to the arteries of the heart and scavenge plaque buildups would mean safer procedures.
It's also worth mentioning, Karen, that MEMS is saving a lot of lives in electronic stability control for autos. I've heard estimates that when all vehicles on the road have ESC (many older vehicles still don't have it), we'll be saving 7,000-10,000 lives a year in the U.S.
Excellent post. It's interesting that the really simple user interface is allowing the use of consumer electronics to pervade into the healthcare space. Pretty soon doctors will speak to you via Facetime (if they aren't already). MEMS is definitely oneof the enablers there. Without those senors, a lot of these applications aren't possible.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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