Wednesday 13 February 2013

Apple developing smartwatch "iwatch"


A few months ago I published a couple of posts Google Glass Project and 
TshirtOS about wearable technology, well, this seems to be becoming fashionable; Techradar has been told wearable computing is the next big thing Apple is working on. This time the device is a watch obviously called iwatch.

At the moment there is no much official information but there are certainly some leaks circulating on the internet and the press; The Telegraph wrote that fresh leaks suggest that the device is far more advanced than previously thought and Bloomberg wrote that a team of 100 Apple staff headed by senior executives has been assembled to work on the product.

Some other rumours suggest that iWatch will incorporate a curved glass display which wraps around the users wrist increasing the potential screen-size. It will be able to connect with an iPad or iPhone to receive text messages, social networks and it might even make calls. It is likely to include a GPS sensor and could include a heartbeat monitor.

I wonder what is coming next, iglasses? ikeyring? ishoes? I would truly like to see this stuff.

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Sunday 10 February 2013

The world's first bionic eye to go on the market

This reminds me of an American television series “The Six Million Dollar Man” about a former astronaut with bionic implants, I used to watch as a child. On Wednesday news.discovery.com posted that after years of research, the first bionic eye will soon be available in the United States. We may not see a bionic superhero saving the world, but it could certainly be the beginning of a bionic humans era.

According to Discovery this bionic eye, the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, created by Second Sight Medical Products has already benefited 60 people in Europe and some of them were completely blind. "The way the prosthesis works (is) it replaces the function of the photoreceptors," Brian Mech, the California-based company's vice president of business development told AFP. 

The system consists of 60 electrodes in the retina and a pair of glasses with a mini camera. Argus II is meant to benefit people with retinitis pigmentosa, unfortunately not everybody with this disease will be able to afford this bionic implant since Mech claimed "Argus II is already available in several European countries for 73,000 Euros (£61,800 / $97,500)" and he believes the price for the US would be higher, what makes me think of a bionic millionaires era?



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