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Brain-Twitter Program Offers Hope to Paralyzed Patients

Brain-Twitter Program Offers Hope to Paralyzed Patients

On April 15th, Adam Wilson and Justin Williams, two researchers at the University of Wisconsin, made a huge breakthrough in the area of communication for people with "locked-in" syndrome. This is when people with perfectly normally functioning brains are "locked-in" to a body that cannot function, due to injury or brainstem stroke or a myriad of other diseases. Wilson and Williams have discovered a way to combine two existing technologies- the commonly used Twitter, and the not-as-commonly-used cap with electrodes that can determine when and on what you are focusing. By flashing the alphabet across the screen, the cap can figure out which one you are focusing on, allowing the locked-in patients to essentially "type" that letter, minus the keyboard. The researchers used Twitter as their mode of communication due to its simplicity. With email, there are 101 things to do: choose a recipient, reply, hit send, add attachments, copy/paste; all things that we do on a daily basis without thinking about it, but things that would become close to unmanageable for a locked-in patient. With Twitter, it is simply type, and then post. Although the product is not commercially available yet, in May preclinical trials will begin with patients in New York and Germany.

This new science gets at the heart of serving the needs of locked-in patients. As Kevin Otto, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue University, stated in the article, "A lot of people think [locked-in patients] want to walk and want fancy prosthetics, but a lot of times what they want are bladder control and basic communication skills." Now Twitter doesn't provide the bladder control, but it certainly provides them with an easy way to communicate long-distance. I can't even imagine what it would be like to not use my body, as I love athletics and will take any chance I can get to use my body. But I do know that if I ever were unable to move around, something that I would miss more than sports would be that daily interaction with people. The ability to walk around and simply say "hi" in passing to acquaintances or even complete strangers. The camaraderie that comes with being able to walk into a group and give hugs all around. Sure, as a paralytic in bed I'd probably have a care taker, and a few friends that would visit me from time to time. But that daily interaction with large groups of people simply wouldn't be there, and that's something I, and almost all humans, would miss. We were built as gregarious creatures, desiring sociality and communication. One of the great things about this Twitter project is that people on the other end of the locked-in patients Twitter posts may not even know of their disability. And that is something that is quite empowering for locked-in patients- this is something that normal, physical, functioning people can do, and now they can too.

The Bionic Body 2.0

The Bionic Body 2.0

This article talks about the cutting edge of bionics- devices that extend, repair, or enhance natural sensory abilities. This definition covers a wide range of devices, including a tiny camera implanted into a prosthetic eye by Rob Spence. This camera will be used in a documentary that will examine how "recorded image and video intersect with humanity". The article goes on to talk about other advances that are doing more than providing a new look at the world, but are changing the lives of people that have experienced disabilities previously thought to be permanent. Second Sight, a California company, has found a way to put a camera into glasses of those with damaged retinas that allow them to gain some of their sight back. These cameras capture images that are sent to the retain, which then send them to the brain, where they are interpreted again as images.

Another absolutely mind-blowing achievement comes in the field of brain machine interface. Scientists are currently studying monkeys with probes inserted into their brains, who are then able to control machines using their mind. Computers in the machine are able to pick up signals from electrodes and turn them into movement. This advance may lead (eventually) to mind-controlled prosthetic limbs. In fact, a project called Walk-Again is working on a wearable exoskeleton made of mind-controlled limbs. However, limits still exist, as it is incredibly risky to attempt to implant probes into human tissue.

These advances are just another example of how technology is pushing the limits of human body. Actually I take that back... it has extended beyond the limits of the human body. The fragility of skin and organs are increasingly being replaced by mechanics, as the human body can no longer keep up with the rigors of today's society, especially now that with other medical advances we are able to live well past the ages that our bodies used to be subject to. Aside from old age, however, these advances will allow us to even further honor our veterans and others who have served our country to the point of losing limbs. Although there are many who will take a while to overcome privacy concerns of implanting a chip in their body and fears of superhuman cyborgs taking over the world, I have nothing but praise for these advances and hope that these scientists will continue to amaze.

21st-century life's too short for dial-up

21st-century life's too short for dial-up

This article presents the point of view that dial-up connections are now so outdated that they are, in fact, more expensive. It takes the stance that although broadband can be about $20 more expensive per month, the direct savings in other aspects more than makes up the difference. For example, one's phone bill and cable bills can both be slashed from your budget, as so much of the same content is available online for free. Dial-up, due to its limited speed, cannot provide you with these services. So essentially, although your bill only has one title ("broadband"), it encompasses a wide range of services. Also, of course is the time-saving feature; dial-up simply takes forever and a day to load a single page, and as the saying goes, "time is money". However, I do wish this article went a little more in-depth on this idea. Exactly how much time is someone wasting by using dial-up? However, the most interesting point that this article brings up is the notion that this idea of broadband internet (especially in the context of replacing a multitude of other services), while radical now, will soon become as well-accepted as libraries are today. I definitely agree with him on this statement; in fact, I believe that it has already become the standard. Few people I know still have dial-up Internet, although this may be colored by the fact that I (like much of Miami) come from a upper-middle-class suburb. Nevertheless, broadband's speed is becoming almost necessary, as more and more of the popular services offered by the Internet (such as VOIP and online TV) are really only accessible by broadband users due to speed issues. This brings up the issue of the digital divide- as broadband is still more expensive, and web sites are increasingly becoming more sophisticated (thus needing more Internet speed to easily view them), is it hurting the minority populations that probably only have access to dial-up if anything at all? At what point do we sacrifice this minority for the greater good of those that do have access to these services. While there is no right answer to this question, it is definitely one to be explored further.

No joke in April Fool's Day computer worm

No joke in April Fool's Day computer worm

This article talks about a new worm, called Conficker C, working its way into millions of computer systems. Experts currently estimate that between 5 and 10 million computers are infected, with only more to come. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find, as it is very deeply imbedded into the systems it has infected. Furthermore, part of its code prevents Windows from updating its antivirus software that would eliminate it. Although it is unsure what the eventual goal of the code author is, experts guess it is to make money off selling fake spyware. However, an even more malicious possibility is that it will record one's keystrokes to figure out passwords and secure information from your computer. The true purpose of the program will not be known until it becomes active on April 1st- a kind of a cruel April Fools Joke.

Obviously, this is a potentially huge issue, especially if the software can determine secure information from your keystrokes. However, I believe the bigger issue at hand is: is open-source software worth the security problems that it has the potential to cause? This worm is just one example of the problem- it was developed from a free security program function. There are hundreds of other examples of malicious code being developed from normal programming. Hackers just pick bits of good code here and there, putting together a fully functional system, then simply have to add a few twists of their own to turn once good code into a tool for chaos (or simply to make money, in many cases). However, this argument is far too easy to simply pin this on open-sourcing and leave it at that. I don't really think it's that simple. For instance, even if that free function from the security program wasn't free, this hacker is obviously very skilled- wouldn't they be able to obtain that code somehow, either by hacking in or simply writing the code themselves? Furthermore, I believe that open-sourcing creates a lot more good than bad. Sometimes you simply have to weigh the benefits against the risks, and unfortunately, this one time the risks came back to bite us. But nevertheless, open-sourcing has given us such tools as Firefox, Linux, Wikipedia, etc... and any student can tell you that the creation of Wikipedia is well worth any computer worm.

Why Fantasy Sports is a Billion Dollar Market

Why Fantasy Sports is a Billion Dollar Market

This article from CNNMoney.com discusses the burgeoning market of fantasy sports. Recently, it became a billion-dollar industry with upwards of 15 million players in the U.S. alone. Of these fifteen million players, there are remarkable similarities, leading to this article's discussion of the "average" fantasy player. As you can probably guess, it is a white male who is well-educated, and earns over $50,000 a year. Less easy to guess, however, is that most of these white males are married, yet most spend over an hour a day "just thinking about their fantasy team". Rabid fantasy players are typically presented as overweight middle-aged gurus who live out of their parent's basement, crunching numbers and spending hours pouring over statistics. However, this appears to not be the case. However, this brings up the question: because most fantasy players appear to have jobs, and still spend at least an hour a day thinking about their team, how much lost productivity does fantasy sports cause? The answer, according to this study, is approximately $196.1 million during the NFL season alone. However, the study also found that 24% of players put $500 or more into their fantasy team, so at least they're putting something back into the economy.

This begs the question, "Should workplaces outlaw fantasy sports?" The answer, while it seems clear-cut, is actually quite complicated. In light of the amount of lost productivity, the answer would seem to be yes at first glance. However, other studies have found that fantasy teams within the workplace increase cohesiveness between workers and increase the relationships that coworkers will form. Also, one must think about the potential backlash of outlawing such a popular activity. It may cause so many disgruntled workers that the decrease in job satisfaction may merely push productivity down even further than fantasy sports did. This seems counterintuitive, but is similar to the process by which many employers reduce absenteeism- by giving more paid (and planned) days off. This increases job satisfaction, leading to higher productivity and lower rates of absenteeism, and since the absent days are planned in advance, managers are not left scrambling to find replacements at the last second. The matter it still obviously up for debate, but managers may want to think twice before outlawing fantasy sports in the workplace.

So this is not the actual image... this is the negative of the actual image... I'm not sure why it's doing that, but it looks fine when I open in on my computer, then switches to the negative when I upload... so I uploaded anyways just so you know I did something... Oh well