eye

For three years, Oraya Therapeutics out of California has been developing and fine-tuning a stereotactic device to treat diseases of the eye.

They call it the IRay system, by which researchers deliver low-energy X-rays to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which--as the leading cause of vision loss in people older than 50--afflicts some 25 million to 30 million people worldwide, according to AMD Alliance International.

This week, the IRay has been granted the CE mark, certifying that the IRay system conforms to European Union safety, health, and environmental requirements.

"The CE mark requirements for an early stage medical … Read more

Just a few months after receiving $42 million from the Australian government, Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) unveils its prototype bionic eye, which researchers hope will enable users to perceive points of light that the brain can reconstruct into images.

Announced this week at the University of Melbourne, the wide-view neurostimulator concept was developed by researchers at BVA and the University of New South Wales for patients with vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration.

The set-up includes a video camera mounted to glasses to capture images, a wireless processor to convert and send those images to the implant, … Read more

While the big Eye-Fi news this year was the company's move to SDHC and 802.11n Wi-Fi with its new Pro X2 card at CES in January, Eye-Fi now follows up by bringing its Explore and Connect cards into the X2 age, along with an expansion of its free hot-spot network.

Eye-Fi had a relationship with Wayport before it was engulfed by AT&T, and it seems to have taken a long time before AT&T's Wi-Fi network could get added to Eye-Fi's locations. It's finally happened, however, giving Explore and Pro users access … Read more

Today's show title is a little deceptive, and we should be clear that Alison Rosen's mother does not make an appearance on this episode, but Alison's all we need anyway because she's the future of television! We're excited to have her back after a long hiatus, and she updates us on everything going on in her life, including ALISON ROSEN IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND, a new weekly interactive show on Ustream that features guests like Michael Showalter and Andrew W.K., in addition to an upcoming segment where Alison will explore the world of online dating. Be sure to add her on Twitter to stay updated.

We're also super excited to show you guys a clip of Natali Del Conte on last night's episode of "The Daily Show"! In a segment called "Tech-Talch," Jon reports on Chatroulette, aka our new favorite Web site, and shows a clip of Natali shielding her eyes as she gives a demo and inevitably stumbles upon a a dude having too much fun. Alison has the common sense to stay off the Web site, even for professional research, so we try to offer her some suggestions on how to make ChatRoulette more fun if you're a girl.

What would you do for five bucks? Twitter posts on a new site called Fiverr attempt to answer that question, and a lot of people are offering compelling services for five bones. If you can scrounge together some cash, you can turn into a dead jedi, get your fortune read, and even get a private wake-up call! Ooooh, invasive!

Many thanks to Alison for joining us this morning; we always have a lot of fun with her, and you should too! Head over to AlisonRosen.com, read her blog, write her a poem, download her iPhone app, and look for her again soon on The 404!

Natali joins the dark side and immediately offends Justin and Wilson; Google introduces a new social network and gets pissed at Chinese copycat site Gojje; and GoldenEye makes its triumphant comeback--all this on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast, now featuring co-host Natali Del Conte!

Today marks a special milestone on the show as we welcome the newest co-host of the show, Ms. Natali Del Conte! She'll join in the fun every Thursday (with the exception of today), offering a fresh perspective on our usual collection of stories. Right off the bat, Natali sparks a little controversy and reveals her one true weakness, so tune in to hear it all unfold!

The 404 is also the perfect outlet for Natali to speak freely on topics like Google's newest social-publishing tool, Google Buzz. Announced yesterday, the service lets you explore status updates and automatically adds your contacts via Gmail, which we're still trying to figure out. Interestingly enough, messages can be made public or private, but Natali is justifiably hesitant to give out her e-mail address to everyone in her network. The service also has a recommendation engine that allows Google to "learn" your tastes and recommend incoming items--sounds suspiciously intrusive, we'll keep you updated on this story as we play around with it.

Speaking of Google, the site is adding another log to its flame war with China over a copycat site subtlety dubbed "Goojje." We're not sure what's up with the cease-and-desist letter since its logo looks nothing like Google's, but Goojje already pulled down the original site, so no harm no foul, right guys?

Finally, big thanks to everyone who's sent in a sticker picture submissions, we're trying our best to stuff and send all the SASEs back in a timely fashion, so please be patient! If you already got your sticker pictures, it's your turn to do work for us! Take a picture of where you stuck it, hopefully in a public setting, and send it to the404(at)cnet[dot]com. We'll show it on a future episode of The 404!

In these financially troubled times you can never be sure when a banker will go from filching money from your bank account to coming to your house and nicking your actual stuff. So why not prevent more banker-related woes by fitting a home security camera? The EyeSpy247PTZ is a very capable example.

Using a wired or wireless network to send images from your home back to you, wherever you are in the world, it's a smashing system for keeping an eye out for burglars, and handing video evidence to the police if someone does get in and take your … Read more

Galactica is an interactive light show, a relaxing app that lets you manipulate spacey visual effects to the sounds of ethereal background music.

As is often the case for apps like this (i.e., with arguably zero "usefulness") the value of Galactica comes down to how well it's designed and executed. Fortunately, Galactica makes excellent use of the touch screen, and the quality of the music and the app's cosmic "fireworks" are consistently good. The interface encourages playfulness, with a simple flick to send a stream of light shooting across the screen, a double-tap … Read more

We discuss the winners of this year's Best of CES awards, and make our very own picks as well. But the most important news of the day has to be the whole Facebook bra color meme. What...is it something I said?

Best of CES awards http://ces.cnet.com/best-of-ces/

Personal favorites Molly: Lenovo IdeaPad Hybrid, Boxee Box, PicoWatt power plug Jason: Eye-Fi Pro X2 is nifty/Boxee Box with Remote is pretty awesome. Brian Tong: Tivit Mobile TV/ New … Read more

Eye-Fi heads into the new decade with a completely rearchitected design for its Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards for digital cameras. The system, an integrated ASIC dubbed "Arcturus," powers the new Eye-Fi Pro X2 card, delivering higher capacities, theoretically better speed and power usage, and an overhauled software interface with more of a client-side focus. The Pro X2 builds on the feature set available in the currently shipping Pro card.

Most notably, the new $149.99 Pro X2 card, which inaugurates SDHC support with an 8GB capacity rated at Class 6 performance, moves up to 802.11n wireless from 802.… Read more