Tag: HEART

Having a snake burrow its way through your chest doesn't sound like a terribly enjoyable experience, but that's exactly what the Cardio Arm is designed to do to patients undergoing heart surgery. Created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the Cardio Arm is a snake-like robot capable of entering a patient's chest through a three-quarter inch incision in the solar plexus. The snake and ...

Today, a cardiologist in England will attempt to become the world's first doctor to execute a heart operation via a remotely controlled robotic arm and advanced 3-D mapping technology. The doctor, André Ng, is scheduled to perform an operation to correct an irregular heart rhythm, called atrial fibrillation (AF), in a 63-year-old man. To pull off the feat, he'll be using the Amigo ...

If you've followed our coverage of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, you'll know that the tech-lovin' artist has a thing for biometrics. Now, as part of his ongoing series of biometric objects and installations, Lozano-Hemmer has turned to iDevices with his 'Pulse Phone' app. Put simply, Pulse Phone is a heart rate monitor that gathers pulse data by using your iPhone's camera. As you lightly place your ...

IMEC, a Dutch research organization, has developed a wireless body area network (BAN), dubbed Human + +, which transmits data from the body, and sends alerts to a plain-old cell phone. According to New Scientist, IMEC uses electrocardiogram sensors, which are connected to a small transmitter hanging on a necklace, and short-range wireless nodes beam data every 100 milliseconds. After receiving ...

An MIT graduate student has discovered a way to check a person's pulse with a plain-old, low-res webcam. According to MIT, Ming-Zher Poh has used open-source face-tracking software, and measured the variations in brightness resulting from blood vessels pumping blood in the face. Poh's method, which doesn't involve any sensors, produced pulse readings that were within three beats per minute of the ...

Recent developments in medical science have enabled patients with heart conditions to experience unprecedented methods of surgery and rehabilitation. Tireless and precise remote-controlled robots provide doctors with "complete control" over surgical procedures, and an advanced and minimized artificial heart recently allowed a father to leave the hospital for the first time in two years. Aside ...

Approximately 2,000 hearts become available for transplants every year, but the waiting list of recipients consistently numbers close to 3,000. That shortage leaves many ailing people with no choice but to wait and hope for their names to be called. To combat the agonizing uncertainty, several international organizations continue to focus on developing artificial hearts that can at least help ...

Open heart surgery is dangerous, can be highly invasive and leaves a nasty scar. Doctors often opt for so-called "keyhole" surgery, whereby doctors enter the body through a small tube, and operate remotely with the aid of a video camera. The problem with most of these tools is that they're either inflexible and needle-like, thus requiring a straight line to the operating area, or are soft and ...

Surgery, by definition, has always been a hands-on endeavor. It gets messy, it gets fleshy, and it definitely gets a doc's hands dirty. But all that may soon change, thanks to a new, robotic procedure that doesn't even require a surgeon be in the same room as the patient. Dr. Andre Ng, a consultant cardiologist and electrophysiologist at Glenfield Hospital in the U.K., recently became the ...

We understand that there are plenty of new episodes of your favorite TV shows to watch this time of year. However, you might want to consider tuning out -- or, at least, to get up and move around the house every once in a while. According to Scientific American, a recent article in the medical journal Circulation states that a person increases his risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by ...

Carol Kasyjanski has lived with a severe heart condition for 20 years. Until recently, she's lived her life, often in fear, in strict obedience to the condition's limitations. Now, though, a medical breakthrough has given the woman a chance to live her life on her own terms. Kasyjanski is the first American to receive a wireless-equipped pacemaker, according to Reuters. The device gives her much ...

Featuring a setup made of pipes and rods running in and out of a still-beating heart, a lab at North Carolina State University (NCSU) could be mistaken for that of a mad scientist. Researchers there have recently created a computer-controlled machine that can keep a heart beating outside the body, according to NCSU's Web site. Researchers said they plan to use the machine (designed by NCSU ...

Headphone makers love to brag about the fancy magnets they use to drive their buds, but it turns out that hanging tiny focused magnetic fields around your neck can have unintended consequences -- a new study by Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center says that headphones can interfere with heart devices like pacemakers and defibrillators when held within an inch of the device. The ...

Here's your afternoon dose of cuteness, ready or not. David McGoran's Heart Robot has made its way into London's Science Museum, and for good reason. This intelligent robot not only possesses a face with moving eyes and an external heart that blinks depending on what's happening, but it actually encourages people to hug and cuddle it like a real human. Seen as being "among the first robots to ...

It's becoming more and more common to see portable defibrillator units hanging on the walls at places like airports and corporate offices. These small-ish devices are potential life-savers for those who suffer from irregular heartbeats. However, a device described in a patent could make those devices look a little -- large. Enter the cell phone defibrillator. The gizmo, which is just a concept at ...