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Solar roads that could power the entire U.S. are on the horizon

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A company is raising crowd-sourced funds to turn the U.S.'s roads into giant energy farms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Image: Solar Roadways</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to their <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home" style="color: #4c5398; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">Indigogo page</a>, a company called <a href="http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml" style="color: #4c5398; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">Solar Roadways</a> want to cover every highway in the U.S. in thick LED-lit glass solar panels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are around 30,000 square kilometres of roads in the U.S., so if their plan is successful, the energy-generating potential is huge - in fact, is every paved surface was covered with their solar panels, they would produce more energy than the U.S. consumes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Solar Roadways' hexagonal solar panels can generate enough power to light the road, melt ice and snow, and send leftover energy to cities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The was first presented in 2010, but now the founders Scott and Julie Brusaw have actually set up a working prototype in a parking lot outside their lab in Idaho. And it works</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The tempered glass panels not only generate energy sustainable, they also offer a superior road surface to traditional materials - they're around 1.5cm thick and withstand fully-loaded tricks and even 113,000kg trucks driving over them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And although they're glass, the surface isn't slippery and won't ever get iced-over as it's self-heating. It will also be able to show road markings and send up-to-date traffic messages to drivers through the inbuilt LED lights, and won't ever get potholes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even cooler, if rest stops or parking lots were paved with the solar panels, they could offer charging stations for electric cars. In the future, the Brusaw's think electric car users might even be able to charge the cars directly through the road as they drive - which means they'll never have to stop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what the hell are the downsides?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, the system would require a trench down one side of the road to hold power cables,<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/09/solar-highway-indiegogo/" style="color: #4c5398; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">Engadget reports</a>. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing as it could also be used to store cables for a future high-speed data network. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And because each panel is wired, it makes repairs extremely easy. When one panel becomes faulty, the others around it let a repair person know their location.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Perhaps the main downside is that the project is expensive. The company is currently trying to raise $1 million to do more testing and refine their current product, as well as paving some smaller roads and parking lots. They'd need a lot more money if they wanted to pave the entire U.S. road system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But when you compare that to the price of relying on fossil fuels, maybe it's not that steep.</span></div>
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Solar roads that could power the entire U.S. are on the horizon

A company is raising crowd-sourced funds to turn the U.S.'s roads into giant energy farms. Image: Solar Roadways According to ...

A complete overview of i phone 6 leaks(hardware,specs,design,software)

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With
 its August/September release date fast approaching, the usual bevy of 
iPhone 6 design and hardware leaks are flowing thick and fast. With the 
pressure on Apple to innovate in the mobile space, and Android (and 
Samsung) continuing to steal away market share, the iPhone 6 will need 
to be seriously impressive on multiple fronts — which could be 
difficult, considering this may be the first iPhone designed without 
help from Steve Jobs. As usual, there’s an utterly insane number of 
iPhone 6 hardware and design rumors, spanning everything from multiple 
screen sizes (up to 5.5 inches!) to close integration with an upcoming 
(and still unannounced) iWatch smartwatch.<br />
Read on for our iPhone 6
 hardware leak and rumor round-up. We’ll do our best to point out which 
leaks and rumors are most likely to be true, and which are probably just
 wishful thinking.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_182299" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/13980843316_43a7189aa8_o.jpg"><img alt="iPhone 6 concept render, next to an iPhone 5S" class="size-large wp-image-182299" height="480" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/13980843316_43a7189aa8_o-640x480.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
iPhone 6 concept render, next to an iPhone 5S. The render was made by <a href="http://www.martinhajek.com/iphone-6-with-a-twist-ehm-curve/">Martin Hajek</a>, based on the various rumors and leaked cases. The image at the top of the story is from Hajek as well.</div>
</div>
<h3>
iPhone 6 design</h3>
Like
 last year, there are again insistent rumors that there will be more 
than one iPhone 6. This time, instead of a cheaper model, hardware leaks
 suggest that we could be in for a couple of iPhones with different 
screen sizes (4.7 and 5.5 inches to be exact). Other leaks suggest that 
these new iPhones could be very thin, too — perhaps as thin as 6mm. 
(Will the iPhone 6 be called the iPhone Air? Who knows.)<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_182300" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-6-dummy-colors.jpg"><img alt="iPhone 6 dummies, in a range of colors" class="size-large wp-image-182300" height="445" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-6-dummy-colors-640x445.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
iPhone 6 dummies, in a range of colors</div>
</div>
One
 leaked photo, pictured above, appears to show some iPhone 6 design 
dummies. It’s generally unwise to infer too much from early prototypes 
like these, but it does suggest that the iPhone 6 will be larger (4.7 
inches) than the iPhone 5S, have a more rounded design, and come in the 
same three colors (champagne, silver, and space gray).<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_182292" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-6-dummy-curved.jpg"><img alt="Will the iPhone 6 have a curved display?" class="size-large wp-image-182292" height="426" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-6-dummy-curved-640x426.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Will the iPhone 6 have a curved display? [Image credit: <a href="https://twitter.com/SonnyDickson/status/464441572352749568/photo/1">Sonny Dickson</a>]</div>
</div>
There was also another dummy design with a <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/curved-displays">curved display</a>,
 but again, we shouldn’t read too much into these dummy designs. Still, 
if we can draw one correlation between all of these dummies, is that 
they’re mostly much larger. It seems fairly likely that there will be at
 least one iPhone 6 with a larger, ~4.7-inch screen.<br />
When it 
comes to the iPhone 6′s construction and materials, aluminium — like the
 iPhone 5S — seems likely, again with some kind of different 
material/texture at the top and bottom. We also <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/computing/181990-apple-secures-exclusive-sapphire-glass-production-for-the-iphone-6-and-beyond">expect sapphire glass to play a role in the iPhone 6</a>
 — though the latest estimates suggest that sapphire glass is still a 
bit too expensive to cover the entire front of an iPhone. There’ll be 
the usual sapphire glass camera cover and fingerprint sensor, at least.<br />
<h3>
iPhone 6 hardware specs</h3>
As
 far as hardware specs go, we don’t know a whole lot about the iPhone 6.
 If there is indeed a 4.7- or 5.5-inch screen, the display will probably
 pack more than the 1136×640 resolution found in the iPhone 5S. Stepping
 up to 1920×1080 would be the most likely resolution, but Apple might go
 for something crazy — like 2560×1440 — to retake the Retina 
resolution/PPI crown.<br />
The fingerprint sensor will still be there, 
of course. I doubt the underlying hardware will change much (it’s 
already far superior to other sensor designs, <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/computing/177204-samsung-galaxy-s5-hands-on-gimmicky-but-still-the-best-phone-money-can-buy">like the one found on the Galaxy S5</a>). We will probably see some changes on the software side of the equation, in iOS 8 (but more on that later).<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_179478" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/apple-a7-soc.jpg"><img alt="Apple A7 SoC" class="size-medium wp-image-179478" height="165" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/apple-a7-soc-300x165.jpg" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Apple A7 SoC</div>
</div>
There
 will almost certainly be a new A8 SoC in the iPhone 6, but there’s no 
hard data on what specs the chip might have. Both the A6 and A7 were big
 departures from previous Apple SoCs, but I’d be surprised if the A8 
continued that trend. As we’ve covered previously, <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/computing/179473-apples-a7-cyclone-cpu-detailed-a-desktop-class-chip-that-has-more-in-common-with-haswell-than-krait">the A7 is a beast of a chip</a>,
 with a lot of performance gains to be realized by turning the clock 
speed up. In Intel chip release parlance, I’d expect the A8 to be more 
of a “tick” than a microarchitectural overhaul “tock.” I’d expect the 
iPhone 6′s CPU to be clocked at around 1.5GHz, and perhaps to feature a 
new or tweaked GPU, but otherwise it’ll be mostly unchanged.<br />
Finally,
 the camera: The iPhone 6 will almost certainly have a new, advanced 
camera — but the rumors don’t seem to agree on what form that camera 
might take. Apple recently hired Nokia’s camera engineer Ari Partinen, 
but that’s more likely to have an affect on the iPhone 6S or 7. Apple 
received an optical image stabilization (OIS) patent, and it’s about 
time that the iPhone gained OIS (Nokia and HTC have had OIS tech for a 
while now). You can count on there being a bigger or better imaging 
sensor, too — not necessarily more megapixels, <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/151334-beyond-megapixels-the-future-evolution-of-smartphone-cameras">but bigger and better pixels</a>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_182295" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-ios-8-healthbook-app.jpg"><img alt="iOS 8 Healthbook app" class="size-large wp-image-182295" height="565" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-ios-8-healthbook-app-640x565.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
iOS 8 Healthbook app [Image credit: 9to5Mac]</div>
</div>
<h3>
iPhone 6 software specs</h3>
The
 iPhone 6 will almost certainly be released with iOS 8, which itself 
will almost certainly be unveiled at WWDC at the beginning of June. 
Where iOS 7 featured a massive design overhaul, iOS 8 is expected to 
return us to Apple’s usual <em>modus operandi</em> of gradual evolution.
 The biggest addition is expected to be a new app called Healthbook, 
which is all about collating data from a variety of sensors — on the 
phone, but also presumably from external devices like fitness bands and 
smartwatches — to help you track your health and fitness. If there is an
 iWatch in the offing, expect it to integrate tightly with Healthbook.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_182297" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/maps-transit.jpg"><img alt="Maps in iOS 8" class="size-large wp-image-182297" height="566" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/maps-transit-640x566.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Maps in iOS 8</div>
</div>
Apple’s
 Maps app is also expected to receive some love, including clearer 
labels and the addition of public transit directions. Following its 
acquisition of Beats, something may occur on the music front as well.<br />
Overall,
 then, the biggest change you can expect with the iPhone 6 is a larger 
screen — but even then, given how resistant Apple has been to increasing
 screen size, I still wouldn’t be surprised if the iPhone 6 debuted with
 a normal 4-inch screen. It’s not unusual for a hardware company to try 
out dozens of prototypes before settling on a final design. These leaked
 images could easily be of early prototypes that Apple has since 
dismissed.<br />
But then again, the market clearly wants large-screen 
devices, and unless Apple has something groundbreaking to release — like
 an entirely new product — then pandering to the market with a 
larger-screen iPhone is probably a good idea. Just as Apple trialed a 
“cheaper” device with the iPhone 5C, the company could quite easily 
release two versions of the iPhone 6 — one with a 4-inch screen, and one
 with a larger screen. (I don’t buy the rumors that Apple will release <em>two</em> large-screen iPhones.)<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_182303" style="width: 650px;">
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-6-5s-concept-side-by-side.jpg"><img alt="Another iPhone 5S vs. iPhone 6 (concept) image" class="size-large wp-image-182303" height="480" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iphone-6-5s-concept-side-by-side-640x480.jpg" width="640" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
Another iPhone 5S vs. iPhone 6 (concept) image</div>
</div>
Apple
 usually unveils its new iPhones at a special event in September, but 
there’s a rumor that it might move that forward to August this year. In 
either case, we’ll know more once WWDC rolls around and we comb through 
iOS 8 looking for iPhone-related strings and variables — and then, after
 that, it should only be a couple of months until we see the iPhone 6 in
 the flesh. Depending on how you interpret the scripture, the iPhone 6 
might also be the first iPhone designed without input from <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/computing/93914-the-technology-legacy-of-steve-jobs-former-ceo-of-apple">Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs</a>.
 He was apparently working on the “next two iPhones” prior to his death 
just after the iPhone 4S was announced. Whether that means the 5 and 5S,
 or the iPhone 5 and 6, we’ll probably never know.</span></span></div>

A complete overview of i phone 6 leaks(hardware,specs,design,software)

1 in Share With its August/September release date fast approaching, the usual bevy of iPhone 6 design and hardware leaks a...

Lean Skateboard initiates sure turns with tilting, multi-link wheels

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The Lean skateboard</div>
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At first, the term "Lean skateboard" seems like it could refer to any board. After all, pretty much every skateboard relies on a leaning action for turning. Usually that turning is controlled by the rubber bushings in the trucks, but the Lean replaces the standard truck with a multi-link truck that allows the wheels to tilt into the turn, which the Lean's creator claims adds power and stability.</div>
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<li style="float: left; height: 105px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 7px 5px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="image" href="http://www.gizmag.com/lean-skateboard-multi-link-wheels/31791/pictures#1" style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #1e8dd7; float: left; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Lean Board trucks include an adjustable spring rate" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/leanskateboard-0.JPG" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="The Lean Board trucks include an adjustable spring rate" /></a></li>
<li style="float: left; height: 105px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 7px 5px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="image" href="http://www.gizmag.com/lean-skateboard-multi-link-wheels/31791/pictures#2" style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #1e8dd7; float: left; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Evolution of the Lean Board " src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/leanskateboard-1.jpg" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Evolution of the Lean Board " /></a></li>
<li style="float: left; height: 105px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 7px 5px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="image" href="http://www.gizmag.com/lean-skateboard-multi-link-wheels/31791/pictures#3" style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #1e8dd7; float: left; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Lean skateboard's large 120-mm wheels provide more stable riding over cracks" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/leanskateboard-2.JPG" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="The Lean skateboard's large 120-mm wheels provide more stable riding over cracks" /></a></li>
<li style="float: left; height: 105px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 7px 5px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="image" href="http://www.gizmag.com/lean-skateboard-multi-link-wheels/31791/pictures#4" style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #1e8dd7; float: left; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Lean Board is available for pre-order on Kickstarter" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_tn/leanskateboard-3.jpg" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="The Lean Board is available for pre-order on Kickstarter" /></a></li>
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"I love having big wheels on a skateboard because they allow you to go faster without compromising the smoothness of the ride," explains Lean designer and Pramash LLC founder Enzo Prathamesh Shinde. "However, the problem with having big wheels on a regular skateboard is that it raises its center of gravity, producing a higher risk of tipping over while making sharp turns. This makes big wheels particularly not suitable for downhill."</div>
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To get past this inherent design problem, he developed an alternative truck. The sprung four-bar linkage trucks allow the wheels themselves to tilt when the rider leans into a turn, which is meant to create quicker, smoother turning and prevent the wobble and rollover risk introduced by the larger wheels. By making the board easier to turn, it is purportedly more responsive to the rider, providing a tighter, more fluid connection with the ground below, similar to surfing or snowboarding.</div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/lean-skateboard-multi-link-wheels/31791/pictures#6" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="The four-bar multi-link system gets the wheels leaning into your turn" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/leanskateboard-5.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="529" /></a></div>
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Of course, the average skateboard wheel isn't designed to tilt, so Pramash has developed a spherical design for the Lean's 120-mm wheels. The company says that each wheel has the ability to turn in three dimensions thanks to each wheel having its own individual axis that moves in a conical shape. This design lets the wheels lean and rotate smoothly at the same time.</div>
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The Lean Skateboard's design also has a low center of gravity, which enhances its handling and control. The bigger wheels, meanwhile, offer faster speeds and roll more easily over cracks. The spring in the trucks can be softened for quicker turning or hardened for a stable, high-speed ride.</div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/lean-skateboard-multi-link-wheels/31791/pictures#8" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Testing the Lean Board " src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/leanskateboard-8.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></a></div>
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After working through several prototypes, Pramash has landed on the final design and is moving toward production. It's turned to kickstater in an effort to cover the initial tooling and manufacturing costs. A pledge of US$215 gets a set of truck and wheel hardware, which you can mount to your own deck. The company says that the trucks are designed to fit standard boards, but some board shapes may cause mounting issues. A complete board starts at the $275 pledge level. Estimated delivery is October 2014.</div>
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The Lean Board is far from the first spin on skateboard wheel design we've seen, a fact we were reminded of by the mention of snowboard/surfboard-style feel. Many other designers have attempted to give the skateboard a more fluid feel with elements such as surfskate rotating trucks and aris carving wheel<br />
<img alt="The Lean Board trucks include an adjustable spring rate" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/leanskateboard-0.JPG" /></div>
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Lean Skateboard initiates sure turns with tilting, multi-link wheels

The Lean skateboard Image Gallery (14 images) At first, the term "Lean skateboard" seems like it could refer to any...

Google Glass now available for anyone in the U.S. to buy

Google Glass now available for anyone in the U.S. to buy

If you want to buy Google Glass, today is your lucky day Image Gallery (3 images) Have you been chomping at the bit to buy Go...

Electronic cuff in neck could keep blood pressure in check

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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/electronic-blood-pressure-cuff/32048/pictures" id="hero_link" style="background-image: none; color: #1e8dd7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="The prototype blood pressure-moderating cuff " height="297" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/bpc.jpg" style="border: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="The prototype blood pressure-moderating cuff " width="530" /></span></a><div class="pic_caption" style="background-color: #444444; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #eeeeee; height: auto !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 30px; padding: 5px 5px 10px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The prototype blood pressure-moderating cuff</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">High blood pressure can be a very serious condition, and is usually controlled via medication along with lifestyle changes. For approximately 35 percent of patients, however, that medication doesn't work in the long run. That's why a team of researchers from Germany's University of Freiburg are developing an implantable electronic cuff, that may one day control peoples' blood pressure via electrical pulses within the neck.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In tests on rats, the cuff has been implanted in the vagus nerve. In both rats and humans, the vagus nerve extends from the brain stem into the thorax and abdomen, running through the neck along the way. It relays signals that control unconscious body procedures such as heart rate, digestion and breathing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Using a technique known as BaroLoopTM, the cuff is able to determine which of its 24 electrodes is closest to the nerve fibers responsible for transmitting the blood pressure signal from the brain to the heart. It then activates that electrode, to selectively stimulate only those fibers. As a result, it is able to "overwrite" the brain's faulty signal, lowering the blood pressure to a safe level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because no other nerve fibers are stimulated, no other bodily functions are affected. In the rat trials, the animals' mean blood pressure was decreased by 30 percent, while their heart rate and respiratory rate remained largely unchanged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The current prototype uses leads that extend out of the body, but the scientists are now working on producing a completely implantable device. Because of the stringent safety standards that such implants must meet, however, the finished product isn't expected to be available for at least 10 years.</span></div>
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Electronic cuff in neck could keep blood pressure in check

The prototype blood pressure-moderating cuff High blood pressure can be a very serious condition, and is usually controlled via...

FDA gives approval for DEKA prosthetic arm controlled by muscle impulses

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The FDA has given approval for commercial marketing of the DEKA Arm</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Prosthetics have come a long way in recent years, with many artificial limbs incorporating advanced robotic and cybernetic systems that include everything up to and including <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/braingate-clinical-trials/22586/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">mind control</a>. Unfortunately, for all these advances, the lack of prosthetics capable of complex motor control means that most users see them as tools rather than replacement limbs. However, that may be changing as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced approval for marketing of the DEKA Arm system, the first prosthetic arm set to hit the market that translates signals from a patient’s muscles to carry out complex tasks.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Manufactured by DEKA Integrated Solutions in Manchester, New Hampshire, the DEKA Arm was developed under DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program that aims to develop arm prostheses with near-natural control. DARPA sees the DEKA Arm as a way of expanding the options for amputees, especially those using the split-hook hand developed in 1912. It says a lot about how far prosthetics have to go that something developed over a century ago is still so widely used.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The DEKA Arm is aimed at aiding those who are using muscle-powered prosthetics; providing them with an arm that is not only less exhausting to use, but also one with finer and more complicated control. Designed for those with limb loss occurring at the shoulder joint, mid-upper arm, or mid-lower arm, the DEKA Arm uses electrical signals from the muscles picked up by electromyogram (EMG) electrodes to control the arm. This isn't new. The Boston Arm had similar capabilities over forty years ago.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>What’s different is that the battery-powered DEKA Arm allows simultaneous control of multiple joints with ten powered movements using a variety of input devices, including wireless signals from sensors attached the the user’s feet. In addition, the hand has six user-selectable grips. That’s not bad for an arm that’s the size and weight of a natural adult arm.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>DARPA says that creating the arm required eight years of work on miniaturization of motors, computer controls and sensors, as well as developing new lightweight materials that were up to the job. All of this had to be put together into a rugged package that could handle day-to-day punishment.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The FDA says that for approval of the DEKA Arm it used its de novo classification process intended for novel low- to moderate-risk medical devices that are first-of-a-kind. Based on clinical studies of 36 DEKA Arm study participants, the FDA concluded that 90 percent could use the arm for everyday tasks that previous arms couldn't deal with, such as using locks and keys, preparing food, eating, using zippers, and brushing and combing hair. The agency also examined the arm’s software and electrical systems, and tested it for impacts and durability under exposure to common environmental factors such as dust and light rain.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The approval opens the way for DEKA to pursue a commercial release of the arm.</b></span></div>
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FDA gives approval for DEKA prosthetic arm controlled by muscle impulses

The FDA has given approval for commercial marketing of the DEKA Arm Image Gallery (3 images) Prosthetics have come a long way ...