So when Motorola teased its “faster, thinner, smarter, stronger” event we were pretty sure that was a not-so-subtle reference to the 7mm-thick Droid RAZR. As it turns out, the company was also being quite literal. Instead of a Xoom 2, the outfit rounded out its New York City presser with Motoactv, an iPod Nano-like touchscreen device that plays music and keeps track of your various fitness vitals. While we couldn’t take it more than a few feet away from the pedestal where it was on display, we did get to poke around its UI for a few minutes and put that 600MHz processor to the test. We’ll be updating this post with impressions and video very shortly, but for now, check out our gallery of pics below.

Continue reading Motorola Motoactv hands-on

Motorola Motoactv hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a busy year for NTT DoCoMo’s research and development division, with the company presenting a goldmine of future accessories at its CEATEC booth. We’re not seeing anything terribly exciting in the smartphone department, beyond a wider adoption of Android, but from the battery with a 10-minute charge time that we saw yesterday to the bad breath, hunger, body fat and food analyzers that you’ll find below, there are certainly quite a few gadgets worth checking out. We’re bundling a few of them here, so jump past the break for our hands-ons with three different health accessories (including a bad breath analyzer!) and a clever food analyzing app.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo bad breath, body fat and food analyzers hands-on (video)

NTT DoCoMo bad breath, body fat and food analyzers hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Fitbit Ultra review

Fitbit Ultra review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barely 24 hours after we told you about printing your own bones, the franken-science continues with the announcement that blood vessels are next on the body-parts-you-can-print list. Unsurprisingly, you’ll need more than just regular toner if you want to start printing your own at home, but pioneering work by application-oriented research organization Fraunhofer has claimed to have cracked it by adding some good old ‘two-photon polymerization’ into the mix — yeah, obvious once you know. The added photon special sauce is what makes the printed synthetic tubes biofunctionalized, which in turn enables living body cells to dock onto them — we’re guessing that’s important. Sounds cute, but how long until we can start printing whole people — Weird Science, anyone?

Continue reading Print your own blood vessels, no need for red toner

Print your own blood vessels, no need for red toner originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After tackling your tech support woes, the famed Watson is moving on to mop up the health insurance industry. That’s right, the IBM showstopper we all know and love for trouncing trivia kings on Jeopardy has been hired by one of the largest health insurance company’s in the US. WellPoint Inc. will make use of the system’s breakneck speed and healthcare database alongside patient records — allowing the supercomputer to guide treatment options and prescribe medicines. Once implemented, data will be combined from three sources in a matter of seconds: a patient’s chart / records from a doctor, the insurance company’s patient history and the medical knowledge that Watson already possesses. A pilot program will roll out next year to a number of cancer facilities, academic medical centers and oncology practices. No word yet on when The Watson School of Medicine will start accepting applications.

IBM’s Watson set to tackle health insurance, takes ‘Diagnosis for $1,000′ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Instead of lugging a heavy microscope into the field, doctors and nurses in remote regions may have a more portable choice — a lightweight microscope that replaces lenses with holograms. Researchers at UCLA announced a prototype dual-mode microscope that’s lightweight, costs between $50 and $100 to produce and is similar in size to a banana. Like a hologram that uses interfering rays to create an image, this device shines light on a sample where its sensor chip (apparently also found in iPhones and BlackBerrys) and a cloud-based software program analyze the interference pattern and reconstruct an image of the sample. Since it’s dual-mode, both large samples and small samples can be analyzed through processes called “transmission” and “reflection,” and doctors could potentially use their laptops or smartphones to access the images remotely. Although still considered a prototype, researchers think the development has the opportunity to revolutionize health care by allowing doctors to test things like water, blood and food. Check out the full PR after the break.

Continue reading UCLA creates portable microscope that uses holograms, not lenses

UCLA creates portable microscope that uses holograms, not lenses originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Checking blood glucose levels used to mean a finger prick and a test-strip, but researchers at the University of Tokyo are offering a different approach: a glowing skin implant. After being injected with the 1 mm wide filament, it monitors your blood sugar by glowing when your level changes. Based on existing glowing glucose sensor technology, this hydrogel fiber is considered more accurate and stable than its predecessors, plus it requires no oxygen to function. So far, it’s worked in mice for up to 140 days. Note to future human patients: don’t eat a candy bar before you go to bed unless you want your arm looking like a nightlight.

Glucose sensor skin implant glows when blood sugar spikes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Because all you ever really wanted was an $800 bracelet that counts calories… enter the Bite Counter. It’s the retro-lookin‘ lovechild of two Clemson University researchers that helps its hosts approximate caloric consumption by counting how many bites they take. Color us skeptical, as the meatbag wearing the gizmo has to — gasp! — actually remember to both start and stop the device each time they feast. The duo is hopeful it’ll glean useful data for future research, as the contraption can be used “anywhere, such as at restaurants or while working” — you know, places where scribbling how much you eat in a secret diary is frowned upon. Best of luck fellas, but until it hits a sub-century price point, we’ll just stick to eating salads. PR after the jump.

Continue reading Bite Counter knows how many donuts you devoured, shames you into eating less

Bite Counter knows how many donuts you devoured, shames you into eating less originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIKEN’s original RIBA healthcare robot was already fairly adept at lifting patients while not completely terrifying them but, as is the case with such things, it’s now been succeeded by a new and improved model. While its outward, bear-like appearance hasn’t changed, the new bot boasts a series of upgrades that now lets it bend over and lift patients up directly off the floor, not just off a bed or wheelchair. It’s also now able to lift patients that weight up to 176 pounds (41 pounds more than before), and it packs an array of new sensors that let it more accurately gauge a person’s weight and carry them more comfortably — not to mention some touchscreen controls on its back for when it needs a bit of direction. Hit the source link below for a video.

[Thanks, robotbling]

Continue reading RIBA-II healthcare robot now stronger, smarter — still a bear

RIBA-II healthcare robot now stronger, smarter — still a bear originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Concerned that a decade and a half of regular cellphone will have a long-term effect on your health? Hopefully the latest study conducted by members of the World Health Organization (WHO) will put your mind at ease. The examination followed nearly 3 million Danish adults, studying links between phone use and the formation of acoustic neuromas — non-cancerous, slow-growing brain tumors that form on the main nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain. The study concluded that people who’ve used a handset for 11-15 years weren’t any more likely to develop a tumor than those who don’t use cellphones at all, though scientists are unsure that this is a long enough period of time to determine a significant correlation (or lack thereof). Still, this comes as refreshing news two months after the WHO released a study revealing that RF waves coming from phones are “potentially carcinogenic,” due to a limited link to glioma and acoustic neuroma. Of course, none of these reports can actually conclude that cellphones cause cancer — only that the two may be correlated. So, what does this latest study really do? It legitimizes the need to conduct more studies.

Cellphones are dangerous / not dangerous: Danish chatterbox edition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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