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iCandy: Tech in Your Body

Devices that help humans see, drive, and feel better

Willie D. Jones

16 Mar 2011

The world’s first full-length marathon for bipedal humanoid robots began on 24 February in Osaka, Japan. The winner of the 42.195-kilometer race, Robovie-PC, made by Vstone Co., broke the tape at the finish line nearly 55 hours after it set out on the course.
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Photo: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

A researcher with the Artificial Intelligence Group at the Freie Universität Berlin is steering this modified Volkswagen Passat with his mind. Bioelectric signals picked up by the wireless neural headset are translated into commands that the BrainDriver software application sends to the car’s drive-by-wire system.
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Photo: Markku Ojala/EPA/Landov

You’re going to listen to music anyway… Finnish technology company Valkee has developed earbuds that emit light right where it’s needed to relieve the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, which causes depression during the winter months because sunlight is in short supply. The LEDs in the earphones shine light on the brain through the ear canal, the spot where the skull is thinnest.
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Photo: Martin Cleaver/AP Photo

Though he’ll probably never win an archery contest, Eric Selby’s quality of life has been significantly improved since he received the Argus II retinal implant in his right eye. The miniature camera on his glasses sends images that are translated into electrical signals that are wirelessly transmitted to the implant. Completely blind for 20 years, Selby still has some healthy cells in the back of his eye, which are stimulated, creating the perception of visual patterns that represent things like the edge of a curb.
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Photo: C.J. Gunther/The New York Times/Redux

The woman seen here is not about to be lowered into a mine. The gear she is wearing is not for protection but to make her feel old. The Age Gain Now Empathy System suit was developed by researchers at the MIT AgeLab. The aim is to help product designers and marketers experience the physical limitations of the elderly.
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Image: Rob Bullen/NASA

A photographer in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, England, captured this image of NASA’s space shuttle Discovery passing close to the International Space Station. The photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera attached to a hand-guided 21.6-centimeter Newton telescope.
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Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

A woman demonstrates the Fitness Assistant intelligent tracksuit, which uses an array of accelerometers embedded in the fabric to detect her movements. The white object on the back of the jacket is one of two that pool data from the accelerometers and route it to a PDA programmed with a personal exercise plan.
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Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

NTT DoCoMo showed off the latest and greatest products turned out by its development lab at an open house on 22 February. Among them was a video messaging service featuring a 3-D avatar that reads your text messages to you.
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Photo: MIM Software Inc./PRNewsFoto

Now doctors can check CT scans and MRIs from anywhere. Mobile MIM software allows iPads and iPhones to securely download and display radiological medical images. The medical imaging app is the first to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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Photo: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

The phone in this photo will begin charging the instant it’s placed on the base of the lamp. The handset’s case, made by Powermat, allows it to charge inductively, so there’s no need to lug around a cord or find an unoccupied outlet when the battery is depleted.
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Willie D. Jones

Willie Jones is an associate editor at IEEE Spectrum. In addition to editing and planning daily coverage, he manages several of Spectrum's newsletters and contributes regularly to the monthly Big Picture section that appears in the print edition.

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