Health tech

Ever thought a smartphone could detect what was in your urine? Well, now it can. A new iPhone app, developed by MIT entrepreneur Myshkin Ingawale and unveiled at the TED conference this week, lets people take urine samples with their mobile device.

Obviously, pee and electronics don't mix, so this app instead uses the smartphone's camera to determine what's in urine. Dubbed Uchek, the app involves the user peeing into a cup, putting a color-coded urinalysis strip into the cup, taking of photo of the results, and then letting the app work its magic.… Read more

Now that I've spent the past week using Able Planet's newly released behind-the-ear "personal sound amplifier," I've learned that I don't hear as well as I like to think. Everything sounds crisper and perkier with the device.

Of course, that isn't necessarily what I want in every environment. I'll spare you the details, but you don't really need to amplify sound when you're going to the bathroom. Nor should crossing your legs in corduroys or pulling a slice of bread out of the plastic bread bag feel so... tingly. With the rather clumsily named PS1600BTE, sometimes the smallest background noises become so bright that it's downright distracting.

In the intended noisier environments, however, these amplifiers feel like magic, even to someone who likes to think she's got stellar hearing. What's interesting is that it wasn't until I removed the device from each ear that I realized how much duller and more jumbled the sounds in noisy environments were. The PS1600BTE is like icing on a cake I didn't know existed.… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--We all need a bit of direction in life, especially when we're getting on in years. With the Fujitsu New Generation Cane, a prototype superconnected walking stick, seniors can find their way, stay healthy, and keep loved ones posted on their progress.

The cane prototype is on show at Mobile World Congress, proving that "mobile device" doesn't just mean a phone or tablet. Packed with GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it not only guides you to your destination but records data to make sure you're not in trouble.

The cane is topped by a contoured handle made of glossy plastic, which curves all the way around the hand in a loop. The handle flares at the front, a bit like the pommel of a sword, where there's a screen of large light-up colored dots that displays useful information to the walker. It displays either big green arrows pointing you in the right direction, or big green numbers to tell you your heart rate. … Read more

Cardio med tech company Biotronik today announced Food and Drug Administration approval of the world's first implantable cardiac defibrillator that uses just one lead to sense atrial arrhythmias.

Say what?

For those unfamiliar with the mechanics of the heart, let's back up. Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common heat arrhythmia, occurs when the electrical signals in the atria (the heart's two upper chambers) fire fast and frenetically, causing the atria to essentially quiver instead of pulse regularly, which can result in blood pooling or clotting and thus greatly increase the risk of stroke and congestive heart failure.… Read more

Hair of the dog? Lots of water? Cup of coffee? The quest for an effective hangover cure has never really led to a Holy Grail fix-it-all solution. What if you could counteract the impact of alcohol in your system before you ever even got to the hangover stage? Newly published research shows one potential path to the creation of a "sober pill."

We're a long way off from popping down to the local drug store and grabbing a bottle of B-Sober-Now pills, but the use of nanocapsules to reduce the blood alcohol content in mice might be the first step in that direction.… Read more

A man who lost his hand in an accident is due to receive the first bionic hand designed to more fully simulate the sensation of feeling.

Scheduled for later this year, the surgery will connect the bionic hand directly to the man's nervous system. The goal is for him to not only move the hand but also receive touch signals from the sensors across the hand, according to a story published Sunday by The Independent.

Specifically, the hand would be attached through electrodes connected to the median and ulnar nerves, two of the main nerves in the human arm, … Read more

It's no secret that the standard hand-eye coordination tests doctors use to monitor neuromuscular deficits -- typically when a patient is injured or as a patient ages -- can be subjective, relying on, say, descriptions of reflexes and cognitive status such as "mild," "moderate," and "severe."

So researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the Beth Israel Medical Center, and Hebrew SeniorLife have been developing what they call a rapid neuroassessment device, nicknamed NeuroAssess, to measure neuromuscular performance quantitatively instead of qualitatively.

They've recently tested it on 150 … Read more

For most of us, light-sensitive cells that line our retinas convert light rays into electrical impulses that travel through the optic nerve to the brain to be assembled into images. But for an estimated 1 in 4,000 people in the U.S. with a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, those cells are damaged, which most commonly impairs vision at night. What's more, treatment to prevent eventual (if unlikely) total blindness remains elusive.

Enter the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, which the FDA approved today to treat a very specific population: adults 25 and older with severe to profound RP who have bare or no light perception in both eyes but inner layer retinal function and a history of the ability to see forms.

Though the bionic eye doesn't restore vision to these patients, it could allow them to detect light and dark, which in turn could help them identify the movement or location of objects.… Read more

New research out of UC Davis suggests that when couples who are romantically involved interact, their heart and respiratory rates sync up.

But that doesn't mean you should bring a pair of heart rate monitors to scout out potential partners on your first date. When study participants were paired with someone outside their relationship, neither their heart rates nor their breathing closely matched.

To conduct their research, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology and Emotion, the psychologists in one study placed couples a few feet apart in a quiet, calm room and instructed them not to talk or touch. In another, the couples were asked to mimic each other without speaking. In both instances, heart and respiratory rates were closely matched.… Read more