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Scanadu Scout Hands-on: A Tricorder in Every Pocket
Look out, Dr. McCoy! By the end of next year, consumers will be able to pick up the Scanadu SCOUT, a small $150 palm-sized device, which will scan your vitals in less than a minute, and give you a diagnosis on your smartphone.
The SCOUT was invented by Walter de Brouwer, an entrepreneur who, among other things, established the European branch of One Laptop Per Child, Nicholas Negroponte's ambitious project to deliver affordable notebooks to children in Africa.
Inspired by a trip to a hospital--where his son was hooked up to machines that proved as confusing to nurses as himself--as well as the pervasiveness of cellphones in third-world countries, Brouwer set out to design a medical device that was portable and easy to use. Brouwer's "tricorder" had to meet three criteria: It must complete a scan in 10 seconds, it must do so in a non-invasive manner (meaning, no needles), and it has to be inexpensive.
The Scanadu SCOUT, whose look was designed by Yves Behar, is small and sleek. About an inch square, the top and bottom are white, with small ridges, and the black sides bevel in slightly. It's a very clean, and feels like it belongs in a medical setting. The front has a small infrared scanner, and the back a microUSB port for recharging the device. In the center of the top and bottom are two more sensors.
Simply hold the SCOUT to your temple, and in ten seconds (it took about a minute during our demo), it will record a number of your vitals: Heart rate, electrical heart activity, pulse transit time, temperature, heart rate variability, and blood oxygenation. It then transmits this information to an iOS app via Bluetooth.
Scanadu has two more tools in the pipeline, ScanaFlo and ScanaFlu. The first, which will be sold over the counter, is a urinalysis test for pregnancy complications, preeclampisa, gestational diabetes, kidney failure and urinary tract infections.
After you micturate on the ScanaFlo, little strips embedded in the disposable will change color; simply take a photo using your phone, and Scanaflu's app will interpret the colored strips and render a diagnosis. ScanaFlu works much the same way, but uses saliva instead of urine. The company says that it will test for Strep A, Influenza A, Influenza B, Adenovirus and RSV.
The SCOUT, as well as the ScanaFlo and ScanaFlu, should be out by the end of 2013, depending on FDA approval. The SCOUT will cost $150, and the ScanaFlo and Scanaflu will be sold in disposable packs for about $30.
Brouwer sees his devices helping not just hypochondriacs, but foreign aid workers all over the globe who need to diagnose illnesses quickly, cheaply, and safely. He's also looking to develop more comprehensive tests.
The ultimate aim, Brouwer says, is to make data collection and analysis much simpler, so that physicians can devote more of their time to actually treating patients. After all, they're doctors, not accountants.
This story was provided by Laptopmag.com, a sister site to TechNewsDaily.
Source: http://www.technewsdaily.com/15846-scanadu-scout-hands-on-a-tricorder-in-every-pocket.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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