Jul
23

Intel is Getting Into The Medical Device Category of Embedded Devices

Intel Health Guide

Is it odd for a silicon vendor like Intel to get into the medical device business that they have to market and service as opposed to allowing another OEM to rebrand or license Intel’s IP?

I guess I need to look into this a little more, but that’s exactly what Intel has done. The device just received FDA approval and is called the “Intel Health Guide”. It’s considered a personal health system or a care management tool for healthcare professionals who manage patients with chronic conditions.

Essentially, your doctor sends you home with this, the patient can have the device take readings from the in-home patient (like blood pressure), then uploads the results to the Dr. who has a device or software on the backend to make assessments of the patient’s state.

I can definitely see a great use for this, especially for the elderly, but I would like to know the cost and what kind of revenue stream they’ll see from it since this is a gamble on their part.

Jul
23

Quality Portraits of Sci-Fi Fans in Costume

This is great stuff. Steve Schofield has a nice gallery of portraits. A handful of Star Trek fans with a few Star Wars fans with a smattering of Cowboys and Indians. Some of them are high quality portraits.

image

Jul
23

Great Fun With Captain Blasto

Captain Blasto

The main character in this superhero video web series is a ‘regular Joe’ high school geek that is living a dull life. To get out of the rut he creates his own superhero costume and hatches a plan. The crazy plan has him recruiting a middle-aged crew of comic crooks to stage bogus burglaries. When the crime goes down he appears on scene to foil it in the guise of his childhood comic book hero: Captain Blasto.

So he’s showered in fame and hero worship, what could possibly go wrong, right? Watch it and see, it’s pretty funny. This is a high quality story with surprisingly good writing and audio (effects & music) as well, I highly recommend checking this one out.

You can watch all five of the episodes at http://www.captainblasto.com, new episodes appear weekly.

Here’s the trailer:

Jul
22

Animal Tissue Rejection Advance

Science

I’m not so sure if this is a good thing to report on or if it could spell doom for the human species in the long run. But the BBC is reporting that scientists have found a workaround to the problem of the human body rejecting animal parts used in transplants.

Jul
22

NASA Eyes Japan’s ISS Supply Vehicle

Ares launch vehicle

You’ve probably heard in recent years that NASA is decommissioning the Space Shuttles (1970′s technology don’t you know) in the year 2010.

You may have also heard in recent weeks that the replacement for the Shuttle will be using the old school method of having a launch vehicle and a spacecraft mounted atop it. The launch vehicle Ares I and the Orion spacecraft are horribly over budget and behind schedule. So much so that NASA is at risk of having no method of boosting its own projects into space, especially wrt continuing to build out the International Space Station.

It now appears that NASA may be hedging its bets a little and quietly negotiating with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to purchase their H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) to ensure they can meet their obligations in the interim.