Nintendo Wii Diagnoses Eye Malady

R. Colin Johnson 
• The inexpensive Nintendo Wii game console can be repurposed to detect eye maladies by making use of its infrared camera and micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) motion sensors.
• Consumer-grade infrared cameras in the Nintendo Wii game controller have enabled motion analytics capable of identifying an important eye disorder. A proof-of-concept demonstration showed that affordable medical-grade systems can be built from consumer-grade infrared sensors and opens the door to ultra-precise instruments that harness the Wii's inexpensive micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers and gyroscopes.
  Today medical diagnostics is often dependent on the precise measurement of body posture, to determine if abnormalities fall into a known pattern. If the diagnosis is accurate enough, known conditions and therapies can be quickly invoked to help patients who otherwise might have to wait until symptoms become so acute that no cure is possible.
  
  Dual Nintendo Wii remote controllers can be head mounted to track motion with their integral MEMS accelerometers, infrared sensors, and a snap-on gyroscope (right) for detection of rotation.
  Unfortunately, precision diagnostic instrumentation is often expensive and cumbersome, opening an opportunity for MEMS sensors to downsize traditional posture measuring instruments using inexpensive components.
  Medical researchers at Seoul National University (Korea) recently demonstrated that the consumer-grade infrared camera in the Nintendo Wii controller could be harnessed to create a medical instrument that could diagnose ocular torticollis--an abnormal twist of turn of the neck that patients with ocular defects adopt in order to adopt to maintain binocular vision.
  "Accurate measurement of the angle of the abnormal head position is crucial for evaluating disease progression and determining treatment," said medical professor Jeong-Min Hwang at Seoul National University's College of Medicine.
  Two Wii remotes were used to jury-rig a three-dimensional (3D) motion sensor the researchers called an infrared optical head tracker (IOHT). A four light-emitting-diode array was used as an invisible infrared beacon that the Wii infrared camera could use to evaluate the distance and orientation of the patient's head.
  "We believe IOHT has the potential to be widely used as a head posture measuring device in clinical practice," said Hwang.
  Software analytics performed feature detection and pattern recognition on the Bluetooth data streams from the infrared camera to measure and record the angle of the head in real-time. The results were found to comparable those obtained from an expensive laboratory-grade Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) instrument. Sensor readings from the MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes could be used to further enhance accuracy and real-time tracking capabilities.
  For the future, the team hopes to develop a working prototype of an instrument that could rival the clinical utility of a CROM. More extensive analytics could also enable even more precise readings obtained from the MEMS accelerometer and gyroscopes in the Wii remote.

Motivational Moment

There isn’t much one can do for the individual who will not try to do something for himself.

One of the keys to success is Personal Initiative. Most people — including those who will play a key role in the level of success you achieve in your life — will not give you their full assistance and support unless you first take the initiative. If you see something that needs to be done, just do it. Wendy’s founder, Dave Thomas, says, “A little initiative will improve your luck nine days out of ten.”

Permanent link to this post: There isn’t much one can do for the individual who will not try to do something for himself.

Focus: HOPE is hosting a FREE Open House and Career Fair

Sponsor Communication from Detroit IT User Group

Please help spread the word to your friends, neighbors, relatives, church, clubs, etc.

 Focus: HOPE is hosting a FREE Open House and Career Fair
on Wednesday, March 21, 2012
from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
in the Center for Advanced Technologies (CAT) Building
at 1400 Oakman Boulevard, Detroit, MI.

 Here is some basic information:

Focus: HOPE will begin accepting students into two job training programs later this month after being awarded a $2.35 million grant from the Workforce Development Agency for the State of Michigan. The new funding through the Southeast Michigan Talent Enhancement Program (SEMTEP) targets young adults, ages 18 to 24.

The Machinist Training Institute (MTI) will offer a 12-week course designed to train individuals to become machine operators. The Information Technologies Center (ITC) will offer a 15-week class which enables students to get two certifications and become eligible for entry level jobs in customer service. The (ITC) certifications will be as Microsoft Office Specialist and Certified Business Professional Customer Service Support.

These programs provide tuition, books, certification fees, and placement services for eligible students.

Thank you for your assistance.

Focus: HOPE Admissions / Student Services Team

 

Has Jim Crow Moved To Silicon Valley? Racism In The Tech World

Created by: Online IT Degree

Wordless tribute to a machine that moved millions of voices

Short 1974 film features assembly of AT&T's Electronic Switching System

By Paul McNamara 

AT&T has given new life to "The Hello Machine," a 1974 wordless film that celebrates the hand-crafting by Western Electric workers of a complete Electronic Switching System, which at the time was not yet 10-year-old technology. Directed by Carroll Ballard ("Never Cry Wolf," "The Black Stallion"), the 11-minute "film-poem" was posted to the AT&T Tech Channel on YouTube earlier this month.
The Ballard film starts at the 1:54 mark of this video after this introduction from George Kupczak of the AT&T Archives and History Center:

"The film examines the building of an Electronic Switching System in Southern California. The new system replaced the electromechanical system that came before it, tripling the number of calls that could be placed over AT&T's long-distance network. It was the culmination of nearly 20 years of research at a development cost of nearly $500 million, 10 times its original budget. By 1974, when this film was made, more than 5 million customers would have had their calls routed through such a system and it's this kind of human-to-human connection that Ballard tries to spell out in this poetic film. He especially lingers on shots of the hands building the system, the people at Western Electric weaving, sewing and wrapping the wires that would soon carry voices."
The first Electronic Switching System - known as 1 ESS -- was activated in Succasunna, N.J., on May 30, 1965, and initially connected 200 subscribers.  And because your curiosity knows no bounds, here's a paper written the year before that spells out how everything worked.



Finally, the YouTube introductory notes for the film add this tidbit: "There's a little irony in the title: 'The Hello Machine' used to be a nickname for the telephone, but Alexander Graham Bell, the machine's inventor, always thought that 'Ahoy' would be a better greeting for a phone call than 'Hello.' 'Hello' was more of Thomas Edison's idea, and is, of course, the one that stuck. In fact, the word wasn't quite as popular as a greeting in English UNTIL the telephone became widely used."

Flying model of the DeLorean from Back to the Future 2 takes the skies in Russia

Russian quadrotor enthusiast Native115 — who previously dolled one up one of these machines as the Dragon C-21 gunship from Avatar — has built an RC model of the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future: Part II. It's certainly impressive, but I will not sleep until one of you converts your entire house into Biff Tannen's casino.
[Via Make]