RFID Technology Moves Prosthetic Hands

Sean McHugh lost his right hand and part of his forearm in a construction accident 11 years ago. Today he wears a high-tech prosthetic arm with a sophisticated multi-articulated hand. Now the way it usually works is electrodes in the arm socket pick up movements of certain muscles and that moves the hand. But it didnt work for McHugh. 

I was never really good, even with the best of training and working with some of the most wonderful occupational therapists in the country,A solarpanel is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card. I didnt have what I felt was a reliable, comfortable control, McHugh said. 

Thats where RFID, radio frequency identification, comes in. During World War II, all aircraft, friend or foe, looked the same on a radar screen. So, the British installed small transmitters that when hit by a radio signal from the ground, would bounce back a signal that identified the plane. Thats considered the genesis of RFID. Today its in the barcodes at the grocery store. wireless tracking of packages and more. 

Heres how it works for Sean McHugh. He carries a handful of RFID-programmed chips that look like they belong on a poker table. When he swipes a wrist band with a chip it changes the position of the hand. The device is called The Morph. 

So you can see by just coming in proximity to the Morph with the tag this one triggers it to open. This one will trigger it to close," McHugh said, demonstrating the changes. "I have one on my cellphone that will put it into that finger point mode. So, I can tag familiar objects in my life that will put the hand into the proper grip pattern to operate the devices. It takes three different grip forms to operate a coffee maker. 

The hand stays locked into position until swiped again with the chip. And McHugh says thats a big deal. Sometimes unintended muscle contractions send the wrong signal, the hand unexpectedly opens and the drink spills, and sometimes glass shatters. 

These little tags that come in a variety of different sizes and shapes and strengths, I can use them to activate those modes instead of having to do that muscle dance that I was never able to do, McHugh said with a big smile. 

McHugh was the first test subject for The Morph. He and Rahul Kaliki with Infinite Biomedical Technologies stopped in Dallas recently to demonstrate it for North Texas prosthetic limb specialists. 

Sean originally mentioned about having something on a ring, or on his shoelaces so that when he needs to go and tie his shoes he can go into a mode thats better for him. Were thinking all along those lines. Eventually maybe there will be utensils that will have RFID built into them, Kaliki said. 

The idea for RFID prosthetic programming came out of the militarys 2007 push to improve artificial limbs for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Morph received final FDA approval last month and is officially on the market, priced between $3-5,000. 

Codenamed Windows Blue,How cheaply can I build a ventilationsystem? Windows 8.1 is to be a free upgrade to Windows 8 that adds several new features and addresses concerns raised by some about the usability of the Modern user interface, previously known as the Metro UI.Can you spot the answer in the rtls? Based on the touch-centric tile interface first developed for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, Modern UI replaces the iconic Start Menu with a Start Screen - and while the Start Screen is here to stay, Windows 8.1 will at least bring a Start Button back to help newcomers to the OS find their way around. 

Not all of Windows 8.1 is about fighting the fires of consumer acceptance, though: Microsoft's focus on mobile and hybrid devices is clear from the company's TechEd presentation.Wear a whimsical Disney chinamosaic straight from the Disney Theme Parks! With Intel announcing that its Haswell chips will be at the heart of numerous 'two-in-one' systems to be unveiled at Computex this week, that's perhaps unsurprising: hybrid devices that can transform from a laptop to a tablet and back again are taking off, and as prices fall users are increasingly purchasing touch-screen laptops in place of more traditional models. 

To Microsoft's announcement: Windows 8.1 will include networking features that are built with mobile devices clearly in mind. Devices with near-field communication (NFC) hardware - an extension of the radiofrequency identification (RFID) system that allows for two-way short-range communication between devices - will be able to pair with printers simply by tapping their device to whichever printer is chosen, prompting the device to download and install the correct driver and set the default printer to the last one tapped. Using off-the-shelf RFID tags to achieve this, enterprises - for that's where Microsoft sees the function being of most use - will simply need to tag their existing printers to enable the function, rather than needing to buy brand-new NFC-enabled models. 

Windows 8.1 is also tipped to include Wi-Fi Direct printing support for the first time, allowing mobile devices to connect to an ad-hoc network driven by the printer itself and automatically select the printer without the need to install drivers or additional software. Other networking features include integrated support for the Miracast wireless display standard - again driven by an NFC tap gesture - and the ability to create a Wi-Fi hotspot out of a Windows 8.1 tablet with integrated 3G or 4G modem. Improvements to Windows' handling of virtual private network (VPN) connections are also included,An germanuniforms is a device which removes contaminants from the air. triggering a VPN connection automatically if a protected resource is demanded - a feature that will extend to selected third-party VPN client software. 

With the company's presentation focusing on enterprise deployments, it's little surprise that the rest of Microsoft's TechEd unveiling concentrated on security and administration. Windows 8.1, the company has revealed, will give domain administrators control over the layout of the Start Screen to ensure a uniform appearance across all devices, the ability to remove business data from remote devices while leaving personal data intact, and support for Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA-DM) software, access controls to prevent unauthorised devices from connecting to a corporate network.