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Augmented reality wearable technology assists in cancer surgery

| February 21, 2014

Google Glass helped to enhance the way that a surgeon can perform various procedures.

Two surgeons from the Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital have started using wearable technology in the form of Google’s augmented reality glasses to be able to boost their ability to make appropriate surgical decisions.Augmented Reality - Medical Research

These doctors use the wearable tech’s voice control to access the information that they require, when they need it.

The two physicians, Dr. Szotek and Dr. Browne, became the first in the hospital to start using the augmented reality glasses during abdominal surgeries. They now each wear Glass during this procedure, which typically lasts around four hours. With them, they can access medical information – including records specific to the patient – as they remove tumors.

The augmented reality glasses can provide X-ray and MRI data on its floating display.

This information can all be shown by the wearable technology without getting in the way of the surgeon’s line of sight for the actual surgery itself. As it is commanded by the surgeon’s voice, there is no need to take hands away from where they are most needed and without upsetting the operating room’s sterile environment.

That said, this is only believed to be the start of the uses for Google Glass for these surgeons. They believe that these mobile devices will be more broadly helpful in the medical field as a whole. While other surgeons have used the gadgets’ point of view video streaming in order to educate themselves and have provided students with a live insight into every different phase of a surgery, Dr. Szotek sees this tech going further. He hopes to be able to use biological tracers so that his AR glasses will be able to actually differentiate between healthy tissue and the tumor, itself.

He stated that being able to automatically differentiate between these two tissues “could revolutionize the field of cancer surgery”. This would help to make certain that the tissue could be more completely removed while leaving the maximum amount of healthy tissue behind.

It could also be beneficial for emergency first responders to wear augmented reality glasses so that they would be better capable of handling unusual types of accident or medical condition, and to be able to provide them with accurate remote instructions.

Mobile apps are changing the dating game

| February 20, 2014

While the internet has already greatly changed the way that people meet, smartphones have taken that to a new level.

When it comes to the dating scene in the United States, smartphones and mobile apps are starting to play an increasingly important role, as these applications help to make the process convenient in busy lifestyles.

The primary feature that these applications seem to have to offer consumers is convenience.

While they don’t appear to be any more successful – so far – than any other types of online dating services, the fact that they are convenient appears to be making them highly appealing to consumers is that they can be quickly and easily accessed over a mobile device instead of having to use a website on a computer.

These mobile apps don’t yet seem to have all of the details hammered out quite yet.

While consumers don’t seem to be completely satisfied with the experience, quite yet, the number of users of these applications is rapidly increasing. This is likely due to the effect of word of mouth, and the increasing reliance that many people have on their mobile devices for their day to day activities. Moreover, these apps can give people the chance to discover new people in real time, based on their actual location.

Daters can use apps to post their pictures and view those of other people who are located nearby. If they happen to spot someone they find attractive, they can swipe the picture and indicate that they are interested. If the owner of the picture reciprocates the swipe, the app allows them to contact each other so that they can arrange to meet.

Data from the Pew Research Center has shown that approximately 3 percent of Americans have tried the online dating experience with traditional websites. Aaron Smith, from that organization, pointed out that when it comes to dating apps, those who are using them are typically “quite young, primarily people in their mid-20s or 30s” and very tied to their smartphones.”

These mobile apps have now been around for a while and offer a broad range of different features and opportunities, including integration with social media.

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