Augmented Physics

With just an iPad, students in any classroom across the world could soon re-imagine the ordinary diagrams in any physics textbook transforming these static images into 3D simulations that run, leap or spin across the page. The tool relies on a model called Segment Anything from the tech company Meta. It’s a computer visualization tool that allows users to click on a photo to isolate particular objects (a dog, or maybe a face). Similarly, through Augmented Physics, students and teachers select various objects inside a diagram, such as the skier and the ski jump, and assign those objects roles. 

The AI then applies some basic physics, such as the force of gravity, to make those objects move. It works for several different kinds of diagrams, too. They include optics diagrams, so students can simulate how a prism refracts sunlight, for example, and electrical circuits, so they can see currents zip along wires. The team also designed its product with feedback from real students studying physics and with science teachers. The tool isn’t perfect yet and it can only turn a brand-new diagram into an effective simulation about 60% of the time. But the team is working to improve those success rates.

More information:

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/11/01/textbooks-come-alive-new-interactive-ai-tool

Wearable Robot for Paralyzed Individuals

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have introduced a wearable robot for paralyzed individuals. This innovative robot can walk to the user, allowing them to put it on directly from their wheelchairs without needing assistance from others. WalkON Suit is a wearable robot designed for individuals with paraplegia.

This robot is designed to assist individuals with the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale – A (complete paralysis) grade injuries, which represent the most severe level of paraplegia. Its development purpose differs from other rehabilitation therapy and muscle strength assisting robots currently supplied nationally by Angel Robotics.

More information:

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/wearable-robot-walks-fits-itself

Blind People See by Eye Implant

An experimental eye implant from medical technology company Science Corporation allowed study participants to see well enough to read, play cards, and fill in a crossword puzzle despite being legally blind. The Prima implant consists of a 2-mm square chip surgically placed under the retina. A pair of glasses with a camera captures visual information and beams patterns of infrared light to the chip, which converts the light to electrical pulses and sends them to the brain. The trial enrolled people with geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, that causes gradual loss of central vision. People with the condition still have peripheral vision but have blind spots in their central vision, making it difficult to read, recognize faces, or see in low light.

The trial enrolled an initial 38 participants ages 60 and older in the UK and Europe, but six people dropped out of the study before the one-year mark. To measure improvement in vision acuity researchers used a classic eye chart. The volunteers started off with an average visual acuity of 20/450. Normal visual acuity is 20/20, and legal blindness is defined as 20/200 or worse. After a year, the 32 people who stayed in the trial were able to read nearly five more lines down the vision chart, or 23 letters, on average compared to what they could at the start of the study. It was enough to improve their eyesight to an average of 20/160. Some participants are even able to see at 20/63 acuity using the implant’s built-in zoom and magnification feature. While most of the participants saw a notable improvement after a year, five didn’t see a benefit at all.

More information:

https://www.wired.com/story/science-corporation-neuralink-eye-implant-restored-vision-blind-people/

On-Skin Electronics

Two new kinds of on-skin electronics allow users to build and customize them directly on the body with potential applications in biometric sensing, medical monitoring, interactive prosthetic makeup and more. SkinLink, developed by the Hybrid Body Lab, is an on-skin electronic interface that can be fabricated right on the body, providing flexibility in design depending on the intended use.

ECSkin is an electrochromic display interface that also can be fabricated in situ and features modular design through tiles that can be arranged as desired. Some of the potential applications for SkinLink include vital-sign and posture monitoring, proximity sensing and body art. Both are modular prototyping toolkits, to enable much more intricate on-skin circuitry prototyping.

More information:

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/10/body-electronics-can-monitor-health-support-creative-expression