Thursday, November 20, 2008
Video Kiosks to Speed Up Clinic Reception ala Airline Ticketing
OKI Printing Solutions, a Tokyo based company, is showing off its video kiosks at the ongoing Medica 2008 conference in Germany. The company believes the touch screen devices can provide an increased level of efficiency in handling patients at hospitals and clinics.
From the press release:
Realized in partnership with the Protonia IT Foundation and FIRMENNET Thiel GmbH, a systems/network provider, eGis is a comprehensive solution based on an exceptionally user-friendly kiosk concept developed by OKI. This electronic healthcare information system, the first practical application of the kiosk terminal, allows doctors, hospitals and other caregivers to provide their patients with easy access to all types of useful information regarding health and medicine, while at the same time creating an interactive communication channel. For example, patients can use the kiosk terminal to research the contra-indications and side effects of specific medicines, to find out new medical products and services available on the market, or to set up a medical appointment. Moreover, the patient can use an electronic health ID card (eGK) to easily input a wide range of personal medical data into the system.
Press release: OKI Printing Solutions to Showcase New Healthcare Solutions at MEDICA 2008 in Germany ...
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Monday, November 10, 2008
Tiny Electric Generator May Replace Batteries in Implants
A flexible tiny pump that generates electricity could power future implantable medical devices. Georgia Tech researchers used zinc oxide wires that scratch against an electrode to generate a current, clearly showing potential for use within the constantly moving body.
From Georgia Tech:
The new generator can produce an oscillating output voltage of up to 45 millivolts, converting nearly seven percent of the mechanical energy applied directly to the zinc oxide wires into electricity.Earlier nanowire nanogenerators and microfiber nanogenerators developed by Wang and his research team depended on intermittent contact between vertically-grown zinc oxide nanowires and an electrode, or the mechanical scrubbing of nanowire-covered fibers. These devices were difficult to construct, and the mechanical contact required caused wear that limited how long they could operate. And because zinc oxide is soluble in water, they had to be protected from moisture.
“Our new flexible charge pump resolves several key issues with our previous generators,” Wang said. “The new design would be more robust, eliminating the problem of moisture infiltration and the wearing of the structures. From a practical standpoint, this would be a major advantage.”
To boost the current produced, arrays of the flexible charge pumps could be constructed and connected in series. Multiple layers of the generators could also be built up, forming modules that could then be embedded into clothing, flags, building decorations, shoes – or even implanted in the body to power blood pressure or other sensors.
When the modules are mechanically stretched and then released, because of the piezoelectric properties, the zinc oxide material generates a piezoelectric potential that alternately builds up and then is released. A Schottky barrier controls the alternating flow of electrons, and the piezoelectric potential is the driving force of the charge pump.
Constructed with zinc oxide piezoelectric fine wires with diameters of three to five microns and lengths of 200 to 300 microns, the new generator no longer depends on nanometer-scale structures. The larger size was chosen for easier fabrication, but Wang said the principles could be scaled down to the nanometer scale.
Press release: Flexible Charge Pump: New Small-Scale Generator Produces Alternating Current by Stretching Zinc Oxide Wires ...
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
Real Money from Virtual Walk For Breast Cancer
Not quite a gadget, but it's worth stretching a bit to support a great cause. Designhergals.com has come up with a very clever way to raise money for breast cancer patients and their families...a virtual cross-country walk! Users can create a look-alike avatar that walks from virtual Harvard Square in Boston, MA, and travels all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, visiting 29 cities along the way.
The event occurs between October 1-31 and "walkers" can sign up at any time for $5. Participants are encouraged to log in and view the change of scenery as they "cross" the country or chat with other people along the way. With the goal of raising $250,000, many celebrities have already endorsed the product with their likeness...no word on Elvis sightings as yet!
Links: Design-her Gals Website, 2008 Gal to Gal Walk Press Release, Gal to Gal Virtual Walking Website
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Exam Rooms A la Mode
Chameleon Architecture, a Melbourne design firm, converted a 19th century Victorian interior into a surreal 2001 Space Odyssey style medical clinic. We like the pods, but the interior paneling is a little gloomy.
(hat tip: The Cool Hunter)
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Friday, August 8, 2008
GE eXplore 120 Preclinical CT Scanner
General Electric is releasing a new CT scanner for laboratory work involving unlucky rodents. The unit can scan the speedy beating heart of a lab mouse with a shutter rate of over 600 clicks per minute.
From the press release:
The GE eXplore CT 120 scanner is an all-new design based on years of research CT scanner experience. Using x-ray source technology derived from clinical systems, the eXplore CT 120 features 100 times the output of previous GE laboratory research imaging systems. This power enables x-ray exposures fast enough and detailed enough to capture the motion of a beating mouse heart, and brings the power of cardiac CT imaging to a popular mammal used in disease research and drug development.The power of the new x-ray source also allows for more effective filtering of the x-ray beam, reducing the x-ray dose to the research subject compared to previous scanners, while greatly reducing the scan time.
Features from the product page:
Rapid scans facilitated by a 5 kW pulsed high-output x-ray tube Application flexibility enabled by adjustable imaging parameters: Tube potential 70-120 kV, current up to 50 mA, exposure time as short as 8 ms Rodent cardiac imaging made possible by less than 1 millisecond pulse precision, capable of capturing over 600 beats per minute Multi-modality support built-in for hybrid imaging X-ray filtering reduces animal dose, decreases image artifacts
Press release: GE HEALTHCARE INTRODUCES NEWEST TECHNOLOGY IN PRECLINICAL COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IMAGING...
Product page: eXplore CT 120...
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Thursday, July 3, 2008
Minimize Brain Injury With Spackle-Like Substance for Cells
A new paper published in the Journal of Biological Engineering describes an experiment in which poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) was used to minimize traumatic brain injury in rats.
In the experiment weights were dropped on lab rats' heads (ouch) to cause the brain injury. Some of the rats were treated with PEG shortly after the injury (within 2-6 hours), or received a placebo treatment.
The scientists found that the rats that were given intravenous PEG within 4 hours after brain injury had a better recovery than the less fortunate rats. The material works by helping neurons "seal up" leaky membranes.
If further studies prove to be successful we could soon see PEG being carried in ambulances for immediate use in head trauma victims.
Read more in Nature here...
Image: jesusali
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Two-Legged Puppy Overcomes Disability With Unbearable Cuteness
The aptly named puppy Hope was born without two front legs. But her problem appears to be solved thanks to her incredible level of adorability, and a talented team of puppy professionals that includes a rehab therapist and an orthotist.
A custom prosthetic was made for Hope using a molded body piece attached to hinged model airplane wheels. The device allows her to turn, lie down, and propel herself forward easily using her hind legs.
Before the prosthetic Hope had to move around by hopping. Puppy healthcare experts were worried that this would soon damage her bones and internal organs. Hope's only concern now will be running/rolling away from her innumerable instant-fans.
Read the full story here...
(Hat Tip: Gizmodo)
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Monday, June 16, 2008
UV Monitor Lets You Know When You're Done Roasting
The Personal UV Monitor from Oregon Scientific is the only tool you'll need to know at exactly what second to run for cover on days when the Ozone layer is on vacation. Sunbathers can use the power of science to maximize their tans and minimize burns.
To set up your personal exposure timer, enter the SPF of the sunscreen you have on, and your skin type (ranging anywhere from "alabaster" to "distinctly pigmented"). Now when out in the sun hit the UV button , and the UV sensor will detect the current UV level. Now you can sizzle at ease knowing that your monitor will beep when it's time for you to set yourself on a cooling rack.
Product page: Personal UV Monitor with Exposure Timer ...
Check out the user manual here...
(Hat tip: Gizmodo)
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
New HC100 Patient ID Printing System from Zebra
The new HC100 printer from Zebra Technologies streamlines the creation of patient wristbands, all while saving space with its compact design and wireless capabilities, and saving lives by using antimicrobial coated wristbands. The printer spits out a patient wristband directly, instead of having to juggle labels and lamination. Here is more from the printer's very own press release :
Designed for maximum ease of use, Zebra's newest patient I.D. solution combines the small-footprint HC100(TM) thermal printer and easy-to-load cartridges containing Zebra's Z Band(R) direct thermal wristbands -- the only antimicrobial coated wristbands currently available in the market. In contrast to many laser solutions, the HC100 Patient I.D. Solution generates individual wristbands on demand. There is no need for staff to load labels into a special tray, print the labels, attach them to wristbands and apply laminate coatings, resulting in less waste and lower costs.Featuring a smart card that optimizes print intensity and automatically calibrates for band size, the patient I.D. solution facilitates quick and accurate scanning at the point of care by producing bar codes and text that withstand water, blood, soap and other liquids while remaining smudge-free longer than the average patient stay. The HC100 printer accommodates Zebra's complete line of white and color Z Band cartridges, which are available in a variety of infant, pediatric and adult sizes as well as in both adhesive tab and clip closures. An antimicrobial coating protects Z Band wristbands from MRSA Types II, III and IV, in addition to S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and E. coli -- the leading causes of hospital infections in the United States.
Nothing like a MRSA-free wristband to make your hospital stay more comfortable.
Read the press release or check out the product website...
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Friday, May 23, 2008
Virtual RFID Walls Allow for Closer Equipment Tracking
A new system that allows hospitals to track equipment using RFID down to a section of a room is being introduced by GE and CenTrak.
GE Healthcare, through a collaboration with CenTrak, Inc. of Newton, PA, today announced the availability of a new RFID technology capable of dividing a room or segmenting a bay by creating radio frequency identification (RFID) “virtual walls.” The technology was developed to meet the needs of healthcare providers to track tagged mobile medical equipment down to portion of a single room. This sub-room-level distinction in certain areas of the hospital provides an important enhancement to RFID room-level accuracy.The Asset Optimization System gives hospitals the ability to accurately locate assets within a monitored area as small as 6’ x 8’, which is the size of a typical small patient bay, whether curtained off or wide open. “Our customers tell us that reliable accuracy, along with cost, are the two most important factors in choosing among current RFID systems,” said Bret Barczak, general manager of Services & Solutions for GE Healthcare. ”Most systems capable of providing higher than room-level accuracy, like ultra wide band, traditionally have been cost prohibitive. The Asset Optimization System allows healthcare providers to create virtual RFID rooms where higher level intelligence, tracking and reporting are more valuable, particularly in places like the OR and ED.”
Product page: InTouch Care ...
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Monday, April 28, 2008
Swisslog PillPick Robot Mixing It Up at Loyola
Loyola University Hospital in Chicago has installed a robotic pharmacist on premises in an attempt to reduce the effect of human error from the pharmacy storage, packaging, and distribution system. The robot, dubbed PillPick, is produced by Swisslog of Buchs, Switzerland
The robot places single doses of medication in small plastic bags. Each bag has a bar code that identifies the drug. When the system is fully implemented, the nurse will scan the bar code on the medication bag, along with the bar code on the patient's wrist band. If the computer detects it's the wrong drug or wrong dose, a pop-up warning will appear and the computer will sound an alert.Hospitals around the country are beginning to use robotics in the pharmacy. Loyola is the first hospital in the Midwest to use the most advanced system of its kind. It's called PillPick,® manufactured by SwissLog Healthcare Solutions.
"We looked at five systems, and this one was the most innovative," said Richard Ricker, administrative director of the pharmacy department, Loyola.
The system is 28 feet long and 13 feet wide. At the front end, a robot arm packages medications in single-dose bags. At the back end, a patient's medication bags are arranged in order of administration and attached to a plastic ring. A card attached to the ring specifies each drug, along with important patient information.
The robot packages 3,200 medications, including tablets, capsules, vials, ampules and suppositories. It works around the clock.
The robot is designed to eliminate the type of serious human error involving Quaid's twins last November. The infants were supposed to receive 10 units per millimeter of the blood thinner Heparin. Instead they received 10,000 units. The 10-unit vials and 10,000-unit vials looked similar, and a pharmacy technician mistakenly placed them in the same drawer.
Product page: PillPick automated unit dose packaging, storage and dispensing system...
Press release: $1.5 Million Robot at Loyola Cuts Risk of Drug Errors...
(hat tip: Medical Quack)
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Friday, April 18, 2008
Device That Sorts Through Structural Isomers of Neutral Molecules
The Max Planck Society is reporting about research by a group of German investigators from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin that created a novel biomolecule sorting device, currently in an experimental stage, but with a possible future applicability for a variety of clinical or experimental tasks:
"Our filter for conformers works like a quadrupole mass filter," explains Frank Filsinger, who, as a doctoral student, carried out most of the work. Quadrupole mass filters are used in many laboratories to separate molecules by their mass-to-charge ratio. The apparatus used by the researchers in Berlin sorts the particles in a very similar way, with the difference that they isolate them on the basis of their mass and their dipole moment. Dipole moment is a measure of the strength of a dipole.The scientists tested their new method on an aminophenol - on two conformers in which the hydroxide group of the molecule is oriented differently. This group consists of an oxygen and a hydrogen atom, and is characteristic of alcohols. Their different orientations in the aminophenol are called cis and trans positions. In the cis version, the hydroxide group points to one side of the molecule, in the trans variant it points precisely to the other side. For this reason, the dipole moment of the cis-aminophenol is approximately three times greater than that of its trans counterpart.
In order to isolate the two conformers with the hydroxide "arm" in different positions, the researchers vaporized a small quantity of the substance and bundled it into a molecular beam. The beam travels exactly one metre in the Berlin researchers’ equipment. In order that the cis and trans versions separate over this distance, Küpper and his colleagues apply electrical fields that exert forces on the molecules: they group four electrodes - live metal rods that form a sort of tube - around the molecular beam. The beam moves through this tube. Alternating voltage runs through two electrodes, causing the positive and negative poles to repeatedly jump backwards and forwards. The direction in which the force of the electrical field acts on the molecules changes accordingly.
The frequency of the alternating field is decisive; that is, the speed at which the poles change places. Different dipoles vary in their response to the alternating field. Finally, at a certain frequency of the alternating field only molecules with a certain dipole moment, or more precisely, only those with a certain mass-to-dipole-moment ratio, reach the end of the apparatus. All the others gradually drift out of the trajectory of the beam.
The researchers working with Frank Filsinger in Berlin not only isolated only one specific conformer in this way. They can even sort the conformers by the amount they rotate. Molecules rotate constantly, but not always at the same speed. There is a measure of the speed of rotation - the rotation quantum number, which increases with the rotational speed of the molecule. However, the dipole of the particle becomes thereby increasingly weaker and the electric field has a weaker effect on it. "We also filter out the molecules in the lowest rotation quantum states," says Küpper. This allows the molecules to be oriented in space particularly well. The researchers hope that, in future, they will be able to get all the particles with arms facing in the right direction moving.
Press release: Casting for molecules
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Stronger Balls and Thinner Condoms: Promises, Promises...
Dr Darren Martin at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland, developed a militarized polyurethane coating by adding special nanoparticles that tend to increases the strength of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers:
Dr Martin, a materials scientist with UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, has developed a unique polyurethane coating that is thinner, stronger and more flexible than what is currently available and could lead to better golf balls and condoms.The secret to his discovery is synthetic nanoparticles – nanoscale disc-like particles –that can be added to conventional thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to extend its benefits and performance. TPUs are used in everything from surfing leg ropes and rollerblade wheels, to soles on shoes and textiles and fabrics like Lycra.
And while many great scientific discoveries can be attributed to a burning desire to help humankind, Dr Martin's inspiration was much simpler.
“I'm a single-figure golfer and I was getting frustrated with paying a lot of money for balls that only end up getting damaged after a few holes,” Dr Martin said.
“We had been working with these nanocomposites for a while and this just seemed like a natural fit.
“By coating the ball in a thin layer of our new polyurethane it can make them much more scuff resistant.”
While in talks with a golf ball manufacturer now, Dr Martin and his team are also exploring other applications.
“The condom is another example of where our technology might be applied,” he said.
“We could make softer and thinner condoms that allow greater sensitivity and are actually stronger than current ones, while also reducing the risk of allergic response which some people have to latex rubber. We can all see the advantages of that application.”
Not limited to the golf green and the bedroom, Dr Martin said the potential applications for the technology are expanding.
“Wherever polyurethane is used, our technology can be used,” he said.
The university wants to commercialize its nanotechnology via TenasiTech Pty Ltd, a start-up company, whose prospectus you can see below:
Press release: Thinner, stronger and more flexible research...
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Smaller, Cooler Gallium Nitride (GaN) LEDs for Medical Devices
CNET is reporting about a new design for light emitting diodes (LEDs), developed at the Tyndall National Institute in Ireland, which are considerably smaller and more efficient, hence running at lower temperatures than current diodes. Because of these properties, the institute envisions its technology to be initially most useful for medical technology applications.
Tyndall will initially likely try to market the device as an alternative to lasers, particularly in medical equipment. Lasers are far from perfect. They wear out, they create safety problems for people handling them, and they can also produce heat, a problem when you are trying to harvest or examine fluid or tissue samples from a patient. By contrast, these micro LEDs could be placed at the tip of fiber-optic probes or used inside chips designed for examining blood samples without changing the state of the materials it is studying.
Details about µLEDs, taken from the technology page at Tyndall:
The microLED (µLEDs) has been developed as a next generation source for miniature lighting applications. Based on free standing GaN the microLED has a number of excited new features. At present the Photonics Sources Group is optimising the device structure to best suit the needs of industry. We are eager to produce customer-specific prototypes, under an EI funded project.Advantages include:
• 10 fold reduction in the active light emitting layer.
• Minimal power consumption
• Optimum extraction efficiency (up to 8 time more efficient that conventional LEDs).
• Collimated beam
• Formation of addressable arrays.
• Lowest power optical indicator.
• Colour range: UV – blue – green – yellow – orange.
• Excellent coupling efficiency both glass and plastic optical fibres.Applications:
Initial applications have been identified in the areas of:
• microsensors,
• microfluidics,
• fibre coupling,
• handheld devices,
• mounted displays (HUD / HMDs)
• Low power visible indicators.
Technology offer and oveview of µLEDs:
More from CNET...
Technology page: MicroLEDs...
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Organic Metal Hybrids Promise Materials of the Future
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a fairly new class of hybrid materials that combine organic molecules with metal atoms, is thought to have a bright future for various applications, from medicine to the automotive industry. They could be used to create a variety of innovative materials that are described to have a complex architecture, such as thin or thick films, microparticles and fibers, for use for diagnostics or treatment.
So what are the MOFs? The European Science Foundation explains:
The materials called MOFs (Metal Organic Frameworks) represent one of the biggest breakthroughs in solid state science whose potential is only just being realised, according to the ESF workshop convenor Gérard Férey. “The domain is currently exploding, and there are so many potential applications that it is difficult to decide how to prioritise them. The only limit is our imagination,” said Férey.There is no doubt though that the first big application of MOFs - storage of gases - will be highly important, given the urgency of developing alternatives to fossil fuels for automobiles. “For hydrogen storage, MOFs are already used, and many carmakers have these products in prototypes,” said Férey.
MOFs are porous materials with microscopic sized holes, resembling honeycombs at molecular dimensions. This property of having astronomical numbers of tiny holes within a relatively small volume can be exploited in various ways, one of which is as a repository for gases. Gas molecules diffuse into the MOF solid and are contained within its pores. In the case of gas storage, MOFs offer the crucial advantage of soaking up some of the gas pressure exerted by the molecules.
This makes hydrogen derived from non-fossil energy sources such as fuel cells, or even genetically engineered plants, potentially viable as a fuel for cars while the alternative of pressurised canisters is not. The key difference is that the amount of gas stored in a conventional cylinder at say 200 atmospheres pressure could be accommodated in an MOF vessel of the same size at just 30 atmospheres, which is much safer.
The porous nature of MOFs enables them to be exploited in quite another way as catalysts to accelerate chemical reactions for a wide variety of materials production and pharmaceutical applications, although this field, as Férey noted, is still in its infancy.
Yet already the field is gaining interest beyond academia from serious companies, with a significant development at the ESF workshop being the presence and support of German chemicals giant BASF. This in turn has provided high endorsement of the field’s potential and has stimulated interest from other companies, according to Férey.
But several challenges remain before this potential can be realised, the first one being to assemble research and development teams with the right body of skills. As Férey noted, many of the skills already exist but the researchers need to expand their horizons and focus more broadly on the big picture beyond their specialised domains.
There is also the technical challenge of learning first how these materials are formed, and then applying the knowledge to design MOFs matched to specific requirements. MOFs are crystalline solids that form in highly regular patterns from solutions, just as salts and sugars do. Researchers need to learn how to manipulate the starting conditions to obtain just the crystalline composition and arrangement they want.
ESF: Novel organic metal hybrids revolutionise materials science and chemical engineering ...
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Electricity Generating Fabric
At Georgia Tech researchers have developed material based on nano technology that harvests electricity from the fabric's bristles and could potentially power all sorts of mobile devices, including implants and prostheses.
The research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and described in the Feb. 14 issue of Nature, details how pairs of textile fibers covered with zinc oxide nanowires generate electricity in response to applied mechanical stress. Known as "the piezoelectric effect," the resulting current flow from many fiber pairs woven into a shirt or jacket could allow the wearer's body movement to power a range of portable electronic devices. The fibers could also be woven into curtains, tents or other structures to capture energy from wind motion, sound vibration or other mechanical energy."The two fibers scrub together just like two bottle brushes with their bristles touching, and the piezoelectric-semiconductor process converts the mechanical motion into electrical energy," says Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Many of these devices could be put together to produce higher power output."
Wang and collaborators Xudong Wang and Yong Qin have made more than 200 of the fiber nanogenerators. Each is tested on an apparatus that uses a spring and wheel to move one fiber against the other. The fibers are rubbed together for up to 30 minutes to test their durability and power production.The researchers have measured current of about four nanoamperes and output voltage of about four millivolts from a nanogenerator that included two fibers that were each one centimeter long. With a much improved design, Wang estimates that a square meter of fabric made from the special fibers could theoretically generate as much as 80 milliwatts of power.
So far, there is only one wrinkle in the fabric, so to speak - washing it. Zinc oxide is sensitive to moisture, so in real shirts or jackets, the nanowires would have to be protected from the effects of the washing machine.
National Science Foundation press release: Remarkable New Clothing May Someday Power Your iPod®
More from Nature: Fabric may make the first real power suit ...
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Friday, February 8, 2008
Material That Can Go from Repellant to Wettable
Investigators from University of Wisconsin-Madison and their colleagues from Bell Laboratories developed a surface material that can go from superhydrophobic state to superhydrophilic one with a switch of electricity. It turns out that tiny specially designed nanonails give this material its interesting properties, and a possible bright future of being used for all kinds of biomed applications:
Sculpting a surface composed of tightly packed nanostructures that resemble tiny nails, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and their colleagues from Bell Laboratories have created a material that can repel almost any liquid.Add a jolt of electricity, and the liquid on the surface slips past the heads of the nanonails and spreads out between their shanks, wetting the surface completely.
The new material, which was reported this month in Langmuir, a journal of the American Chemical Society, could find use in biomedical applications such as "lab-on-a-chip" technology, the manufacture of self-cleaning surfaces, and could help extend the working life of batteries as a way to turn them off when not in use.
UW-Madison mechanical engineers Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor and their team etched a silicon wafer to create a forest of conductive silicon shanks and non-conducting silicon oxide heads. Intriguingly, the ability of the surface of the structure to repel water, oil, and solvents rests on the nanonail geometry.
"It turns out that what's important is not the chemistry of the surface, but the topography of the surface," Krupenkin explains, noting that the overhang of the nail head is what gives his novel surface its dual personality.
A surface of posts, he notes, creates a platform so rough at the nanoscale that "liquid only touches the surface at the extreme ends of the posts. It's almost like sitting on a layer of air."
Nanowerk ran a story about this material back in Oct. 2007: 'Nailing' superlyophobic surfaces with nanotechnology ...
Press release: With a jolt, 'nanonails' go from repellant to wettable ...
Paper: Nanonails: A Simple Geometrical Approach to Electrically Tunable Superlyophobic Surfaces Langmuir, 24 (1), 9 -14, 2008.
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Monday, February 4, 2008
Thin-Film Keypads with Organic Light-Emitting Diodes
In our humble opinion, this technology should be incorporated into new medical devices. It will make operation of complex gadgets by clinicians more intuitive, and might actually improve the safety of patients:
Time for a coffee -- yet on large coffee makers, it is hard to tell which button to press for cappuccino or espresso unless they are illuminated. And once the drink has been selected, usually only a tiny LED reveals whether the appropriate button on the machine has been pressed hard enough and the desired coffee drink is about to bubble into the cup. In a joint project with colleagues at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, the University of the Arts HfK in Bremen and the Neuruppin-based company TES-Frontdesign GmbH, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Golm have developed a keypad based on organic light-emitting diodes, OLEDs for short. The really striking feature is that the illuminated symbol can change and is itself the switch. In other words, the buttons do not need captions, the function can easily be recognized by the respective illumination. If the “espresso” button has been selected on a coffee dispenser, for instance, the selected button will indicate a half-filled cup instead of an empty cup. If the button has been pressed twice for a double espresso, the full-cup symbol will light up. There is no need for any additional illumination of the buttons. “The novel OLED keypad has numerous advantages – and that applies equally to the control panels of large machines used in industrial production,” says IAP head of department Dr. Armin Wedel. “The buttons even show the user whether the machine is switched on and which application is running – even in very dark rooms.”The keypad comprises two layers, the flat OLED display and the thin-film keypad. These two layers must be superimposed with great accuracy, as otherwise the button that the user sees and pushes will not fulfill the desired function. There is another challenge to overcome, too: The OLED is rigid. When the user presses a button the finger pressure is distributed too evenly across the underlying keypad, making the switching mechanism inaccurate. “To ensure that the finger pressure on the appropriate button really does trigger the desired function, we have slightly raised the top of the switching element to focus the pressure on the button,” explains Wedel. The first prototypes of the thin-film keypad, which are only two millimeters thick altogether, are already in use: The keypad is integrated in a coffee machine.
Press release: Illuminated thin-film keypads with OLEDs ...
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Zorolight For Medical Devices
Bookham, a precision optical manufacturer based in San Jose, California, has decided to enter the biomedical market with the introduction of their Zorolight system.
The device offers significant brightness, efficiency and size advantages over the traditional approach to LED combining methods. Rather than using lenses to capture light in free space, the ZoroLight LED module traps light in a tunnel of highly-reflective dielectric coated surfaces that are geometry optimized for efficient source light collection and filter performance. Patent applications have been filed on the innovative design."The ZoroLight LED module offers manufacturers of healthcare, pharmaceutical and diagnostics technologies a compact and cost-efficient LED illumination solution based on proven Bookham filter technology that is well-established for precision optical filter OEM applications in the instrumentation and telecommunications industries," said Santa Rosa-based Product Line Manager, Ben Standish. "To meet the diverse and specific needs of these manufacturers, the ZoroLight LED module is customizable for OEM applications, accommodating multiple wavelengths and meeting different intensity and size requirements."
"The use of LEDs is attractive in fluorescence applications due to their 10x-20x longer lifetime compared to bulbs and their cost savings over lasers. At Bookham, we believe we are the only company able to offer a compact device that combines a filter and LED light source solution bright enough for OEM analytical applications. Using this approach, the ZoroLight LED module multiplexes up to six wavelengths in the visible range, or red, green & blue for white light, in less space than any other approach of comparable efficiency," concluded Standish.
Press release: Bookham to Enter Biomedical Illumination Market