"Dean of Invention" tv show

Dean Kamen is a globally renowned inventor with more than 400 patents, including the Segway, the insulin pump and the robotic prosthetic “Luke Arm.” This fall, the inventor will play the role of investigator—leaving his private island to jet around the world in search of the technologies of tomorrow.

In the world premiere original series Dean of Invention, Planet Green joins Kamen on his quest to find the next scientific breakthroughs that will improve life for all mankind.

There are a bunch of cool clips from the tv show around topics like: BCI interfaces, flying cars, cybernetics, renewable energy sources and alot more.
You can find them herehttp://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/dean-of-invention/dean-of-invention.html

Imec BCI to be unveiled in feb 2011

At the heart of the system is IMEC’s 8-channel ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) which consumes ultra-low-power (200µW only) and features high common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 120dB and low noise (input referred noise of 55nV/√Hz).

A brand new wireless brain-reading headset debuts this week at the Medical Design and Manufacturing conference and exhibition in Anaheim, California.


The Belgian Imec and Dutch Holst Centre say their device will enable continuous ambulatory monitoring, it could improve safety in the future (no more sleeping while driving a car) and also improve the joy of video games by adjusting the action and the environment to the player’s cognitive state (just like Emotiv EPOC). With future medical applications the headset might functioning as warning system for epileptic patients and even enabling typing text by thoughts to people with motoric disabilities to communicate.

The prototype headset doesn’t look worse than any other consumer brain-computer interface on the market, it has a unique futuristic shape. The flexible and magnetic dry electrodes could be practical in use, hopefully
they don’t cause too much pain on the skin.

The electronics, including the integrated circuit, radio, and controller chips are integrated in a small wireless EEG system of 25 x 35 x 5 millimeters, that can easily be embedded in headsets, helmets or other accessories.

This wireless EEG system has been integrated in a prototype EEG headset. The prototype headset can be easily adapted to the head of the user by extending a plastic bridge near the back of the head and by moving the part that contains the electronics upwards or downwards. On top of that, a spring suspension, guaranteeing improved robustness, and a magnetized pivoting mechanism can be used for fine adaptation to the head. The magnetic connection of the electrodes allows quick and easy replacement making it a hygienic solution. Gel injection is still possible if required for certain applications. Today the system relies on commercial off-the-shelf Ag/AgCl electrodes, which may lead to certain level of discomfort. According to Imec, in a few years, research on dry electrodes will result in increased comfort and higher signal quality.
According to Imec’s is mentioned in press release, the industry can get access to this technology by joining the Human++ program as research partner or by licensing agreements for further product development.

Will it be a real competition to existing market leaders such as Emotiv and NeuroSky? Future will tell.

Talk with a dolphin via underwater translation machine

A DIVER carrying a computer that tries to recognise dolphin sounds and generate responses in real time will soon attempt to communicate with wild dolphins off the coast of Florida. If the bid is successful, it will be a big step towards two-way communication between humans and dolphins.

Since the 1960s, captive dolphins have been communicating via pictures and sounds. In the 1990s, Louis Herman of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, found that bottlenose dolphins can keep track of over 100 different words. They can also respond appropriately to commands in which the same words appear in a different order, understanding the difference between "bring the surfboard to the man" and "bring the man to the surfboard", for example.

But communication in most of these early experiments was one-way, says Denise Herzing, founder of the Wild Dolphin Project in Jupiter, Florida. "They create a system and expect the dolphins to learn it, and they do, but the dolphins are not empowered to use the system to request things from the humans," she says.

Since 1998, Herzing and colleagues have been attempting two-way communication with dolphins, first using rudimentary artificial sounds, then by getting them to associate the sounds with four large icons on an underwater "keyboard".

By pointing their bodies at the different symbols, the dolphins could make requests - to play with a piece of seaweed or ride the bow wave of the divers' boat, for example. The system managed to get the dolphins' attention, Herzing says, but wasn't "dolphin-friendly" enough to be successful.

Herzing is now collaborating with Thad Starner, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, on a project named Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT). They want to work with dolphins to "co-create" a language that uses features of sounds that wild dolphins communicate with naturally.

Read the rest of the original article by MacGregor Campbell at New scientists magazine