Contact Lens with Superimposed Displays

Ghost In The Shell is here.

"Engineers at the UW have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering."

This is just too exciting. There are way too many applications for this tech aside from gaming. GPS(me), first-person view of another person(armed forces), image filters/enhancers(everyone), too many, just too many. Any app on the computer could be ported.

But, from comments I read, some people aren't really comfortable with contact lenses. Would certainly gain more acceptance if they did superimposed displays on spectacles instead. (Dennou Coil, anyone?)

Futhermore, in cases when the displays malfunction/get hacked, users can conveniently remove the specs. Sensitive eyes are common too. Eyes sometimes become sensitive from wearing contact lenses 24/7. And then, there's the question of hygiene.
IMO, this is certainly more viable and non-invasive compared to bionic eyes like those in GitS.
It would be nice to have a user interface too. Primitive and currently viable ways would be to tracking eye-movement or blinks. Or we could just implants electrodes into the brain(previous post).

Functionality aside, there's aesthetics to be considered too. Coloured contact lenses no-es, metallic contact lenses FTW.

100% WANT!!!
I don't care whether it makes it into the mainstream market, as long as I get to use them, I'll be more than happy.

Monkey Controls Robotic Limbs With Brain Implants

Duke University teamed up with Japan Science and Technology Agency(JST) to carry out an experiment that utilized brain activity to remotely control a robot. The experiment was led by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis (Duke U.), collaborating with Mitsuo Kawato (JST).

Prior to the experiment, two monkeys were trained to walk upright and had electrodes implanted into the part of the brain that controls walking. Later, they hooked up one of the monkeys, Idoya, to a robot, Computational Brain Project, in Japan.

With latency at a quarter second, it came close to real-time synchronization. But the most interesting part was when the researchers stopped the treadmill Idoya was walking on. With only visual feedback, Idoya's Japanese counterpart continued walking, controlled by the monkey's thoughts.

Wow, this would be really good news be for amputees and paralysed people. On a side note, cyberimplants could be on the way too.

• Video & Interview

Lifespan Increased By Ten-fold

Looks like Methuselah's record as the longest-living man in recorded history may be challenged. Well, almost, just short of 169 years.

Researchers from University of Southern California annouced that they can "slow aging and extend life span in organisms ranging from yeast to mice". By tinkering with some genes, researchers are able to increase the life span by 10-fold.

They say can extend the lifetime of yeast to 800 years. Awesome, but erm, who's gonna be the one testing whether yeast can still be used to bake a cake 800 years later?

• Research article
• Summary from io9
  

Sarcos Exoskeleton

スゴイ!!!

Crowd Behaviour

Here's a simulation on how a crowd will probably react during an emergency, rushing towards an exit.

http://www.geosimulation.org/crowds/

This reminds me of my secondary school. There's only one exit when the school bell goes off. And its 1 1/2 meters wide. I estimate about 600-700 students trying to cram through that gate within 10 minutes. The school principal had the second gate closed due to ' safety' concerns.

Go figure.