Lifeboat Foundation

Cool Wearable! Actually does something useful & could help reduce energy waste.

Sitting in a stifling subway car or walking Boston’s cold winter streets may soon become more bearable, thanks to a “personal thermostat” wristband being released by MIT spinout Embr Labs.

For a design competition in 2013, four MIT engineering students created a smart wristband, called Wristify, that makes its wearer feel warmer or cooler through its contact with the skin on the wrist. After much fanfare, and a lot of research and development, the wristband will hit the shelves early next year.

Continue reading “Engineers create wristbands that keep wearers thermally comfortable” »

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., July 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Strathspey Crown LLC, a lifestyle healthcare company focused in ophthalmology, medical aesthetic and elective technologies and procedures, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,662,199 covering an implantable intraocular lens with an optic (including accommodating, multifocal and phakic configurations), a camera and an LED display, and a communications module that wirelessly transmit and receive information from an external device (e.g. PDA).

Robert Edward Grant, Founder and Chairman of Strathspey Crown LLC commented, “Video cameras are now a standard feature of smart phone technology and wearable cameras have become popularized by companies like Google and Snap in recent years. This patent represents a significant step forward in the rapidly growing sector of human cyborg technology. The eye, as a transparent medium for light, is ideal for advanced and rechargeable implantables that enable video capture of all of life’s experiences. Our broader vision is to develop ground-breaking medical-grade ocular smart implantables that integrate cellular, WIFI and 802.11 transmissions in an elegant cognitive interface that we believe will enhance human intelligence, augment perceived reality, and digitally capture experiences and individual memories. We look forward to several continuations and expansions on this important intellectual property portfolio.”

Grant further commented, “Although Samsung, Sony and Google have all recently filed patent applications related to the same field, Strathspey Crown is thus far the only company to hold an issued patent in this promising ocular smart implant category. Our first camera-integrated acrylic IOLs will be completed in 2018, upon which we plan to pursue an FDA Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) and subsequent Pre-Market Approval (PMA) and related clinical trial.”

A service lab has turned a lieutenant’s brainstorm into a testable prototype dubbed the GunnAR augmented-reality headset.

In just a year, a wearable headset designed to help U.S. Navy gunnery sailors cut through the fog of combat has evolved from a lieutenant’s brainstorm to a prototype being tested in various exercises.

Conceived by a junior officer aboard the destroyer Gridley, the idea for GunnAR was presented at last year’s ONR Innovation Jam, where it received first prize — and $100,000 to make it real. After rapid progressions through various development milestones, the blue-tinted visor was put to the test in the Trident Warrior 2017 experiment aboard USS Bunker Hill, where sailors used it to put live fire on targets.

Continue reading “US Navy Gunners Are Testing A Wearable Heads-Up Display” »

ELF emmit is the world’s first wearable mind stimulating headband, based on pulsed electromagnetic technology. Operates in five different modes: Sleep, Anti-stress, Superlearning, Concentrate, Meditate. Designed to assist you in every area of life. Powered by smart phone or tablet. Operated by free mobile application.

The age of the cyborg may be closer than we think. Rapidly improving medical robotics, wearables, and implants means many humans are already part machine, and this trend is only likely to continue.

It is most noticeable in the field of medical prosthetics where high-performance titanium and carbon fiber replacements for limbs have become commonplace. The use of “blades” by Paralympians has even raised questions over whether they actually offer an advantage over biological limbs.

Continue reading “What Happens When Cyborg Tech Goes Beyond Medicine?” »

Many rain jackets have zippers at the armpits that, when opened, let out perspiration and funk that would otherwise stay trapped inside. But researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a prototype of a wearable that vents itself automatically in response to sweat—and it does so using bacteria.

Wen Wang, the lead author of a new study about biohybrid wearables in the journal Science Advances, says that the garment with bacteria-triggered vents represents just a stepping stone on their way to creating shirts that do something even better: produce a pleasant smell when you sweat.

To make the prototype garment, the researchers experimented with different structures of latex and bacteria, says Wang, a bioengineer and former research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and the university’s department of chemical engineering. One such configuration involved just two layers: bacteria on one side, and latex on the other. But what worked best for creating the vented wearable was coating latex on both sides with a type of bacteria called B. subtilis.

Continue reading “MIT used bacteria to create a self-ventilating workout shirt” »

(Tech Xplore)—Researchers at the University of Bristol have figured out how you can whisper to someone up to 30 feet away. Their approach managed to translate facial expression into ultrasonic words.

David Lumb in Engadget said the researchers built a wearable system; its components are a speaker worn on the forehead or chest and electrodes placed on the lips and jaw.

The only “snag,” as New Scientist called it, is fairly substantial. How could one be a stellar secret message-passing agent in a crowd when staring people would find it odd that person is wearing a speaker on his head and walking around with electrodes around his mouth.

Continue reading “Project Telepathy: Team explores bioelectric signals produced” »

A pressure sensor printed directly on a hand is a step toward new biomedical devices, “on the fly” wearable technology, and more…

(Inside Science) — Wearable technology may soon be at your fingertips — literally. Researchers have developed a pressure sensor that can be 3D printed directly on your hand. The device, sensitive enough to feel a beating pulse, is made from soft, stretchy silicone that conforms to the curves of your fingertip.

Continue reading “3D Printing the Way to Bionic Humans” »