DNI: Dumb Name iPad

Ah yes, been a while, but I thought I would suckle on the sweet, sweet nectar of iDevice frenzy. “Wha?!?! That’s not BCI related!” you say. I know, but I’ve posted in the past about my search for the perfect ereader, my love of tablets, and general techno-fetishism. How could I not post?

Want the short version? Completely unimpressed.

Sure the, oh gawd, do I have to actually type this name…., grrr… Sure the iPad could never live up to the hype the preceded it, but really, the iPad barely lives up to the abilities of the Apple Newton. Really? Sure the iPad has fancy things like color and 3G, but but the Newton had handwriting recognition and a PCMCIA card slot. Otherwise, both rely on a specialty OSes unable to run full desktop apps, cost about the same, and have the same ridiculous bezel to screen ratio. Okay, enough with the kinda ridiculous comparison.

What’s the bright side of the iPad’s annoucement?

I’m actually excited about the iPad. Not the iPad itself, but the interesting apps it inspires. Remember how unspeakably crappy the smartphone market was before the iPhone? It was mind-numbing. If you approach the iPad from the ebook reader perspective, you can see where that market is going.

10 hours of battery life while watching movie. Yes, very nice. Whether this is still true after a month of burn in and OS patches, we’ll see. There are a few magic numbers for battery life: 3 hours – plane ride, movie plus other activities, usage during single ‘events’. 6 hours – leave the house for an outing and recharge when you get back, equal to all day for semi-infrequent daily use. 10 hours – effective all day use for always on, but sleep capable devices. 16 hours – all day use with regular-heavy usage. After that it’s a matter of days between each step. There are netbooks that have made the 10+ hour mark, but cheers to Apple for being there right from the get go.

Really, that’s about it for the pluses. Minuses?

If you approach the iPad from the netbook perspective, there are plenty of app launchers on Windows that do everything from simulate the OSX dock, the iPhone springboard, and about a million other crazy options. How much access Apple will give devs to the GUI is yet to be seen, but if the iPhone or OSX are any indication, you’ll be lucky if they allow you to change the clock’s font.

The worst, unApple-like thing about the iPad is the near total lack of inspiring features. Where are the revolutionary interaction techniques, the device-centric interface reimagining, and those little bits of the unexpected? iPod – the navigation/click wheel. iPhone – multitouch, accelerometer, proximity sensor. iPad – ? Did they run out of ideas? Just make it a big fucking iPhone. That’ll be good enough. Um, no.

For all the crap that Microsoft has taken for the early tablet PC implementations, the iPad is downright embarrassing in comparison. They just took Windows and slapped a pen in your hand. Hey, at least you got a pen…

Which brings me to that. A stylus. The iPad could have gained all the whiz-bang features of a… pad of paper. It could have been used for class note taking, composing messages, drawing/sketching, and so much more. Instead you get an awkward keyboard with no tactile feedback (not even an attempt to make a keyboard you could use while standing up?) and fingerpainting. Not sure if they figured out a way to make the touchscreen pressure sensitive, but if not, what a mess.

Other quibbles are mentioned in this excellent rundown on Gizmodo titled 8 things that suck about the iPad. Enjoy your dongles, iKids. I’ll be over doing something exotic, like running TWO apps at once, swapping out a battery, opening an actual file, or placing an icon on the bottom of the screen before there are 20 above it. Put that on your SD card and… oh, no expandable memory slot. Right.

Sight and sound

Alright, Super Paper Friday will be tomorrow. I don't have the attention span to compile the whole list right now (about 1/3 done). Instead, here are a few stories...

An interesting idea here. Glasses that have embedded microphones and with attached hearing aids which amplify sounds that the wearer is looking toward and reduce background noise. Not BCI, but neat-o concept. (@ Medgadget)

Again, not BCI, but interface-y, the new JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) helmet prototype "augments skills and the senses". That's all anyone is saying right now. That and that it makes everyone pee themselves in fear. (@ Gizmodo)

And lastly, what robot programmers do when they get bored...

Flipping the bird, sans finger - Part 2

Gizmodo has an animation of the mechanical artificial finger which requires no power. It looks like at least part of the missing finger needs to be present to apply pressure to the articulating lever. Pretty neat! Even better, I found the above YouTube video! With the silicone sleeve, you can barely tell it isn't flesh.

Do you feeeel the POWAH?

Researchers at MIT do. Many sites are reporting on a recent MIT press release on work involving wireless power via magnetically coupled resonators. WiTricity - that's kinda snappy - works, as of now, at up to 2 meters (for those of us the US, that's about 400 miles ;) ) and works on the principle of resonant frequency. The transmitter is coupled with a receiver with the same resonant frequency as that give off, some type of voodoo happens, and that translates into power on the receiver end. Read the article for more specifics, but it is worth noting that this method interacts with all material between the transmitter and receiver, but only weakly on matter with a different resonance frequency.

I bring this up because providing power to implanted BCI systems is a major task that really has yet to share in the advances made in other areas of technological development. Right now there are three methods: External power (e.g.-BrainGate), induction (e.g.-Neurotrophic Electrode), and battery recharged via induction or replacement (e.g.-Medtronics). So what does the future hold? Well, the current generation of power systems will be able to piggy back on the advances in battery technology for some time, but will in part depend on better biocompatibility of coating materials. More power = more heat = greater dispersion of said heat. The easiest way to do that is modularize systems and let the body's natural cooling mechanisms deal with dissipation. That being said, something like WiTricity would be one technique.

Another would be harnessing the heat produced by the body to power small scale implantable generators. It might sound far fetched, but at least one lab I interviewed with while scoping out grad schools is working on it. Another option to assist with any power scheme is to take a page from hybrid cars and use the resulting movements to partially power the device. It takes lots of power to lift an arm, so why not harness gravity while it is lowered?

Feedback-wear

VivoMetrics has created a vest that records the movements of the wearer. It is currently being used to monitor the behavior of schizophrenics and manic-depressive patients, but could easily be applied to BCI. Something like this could be used as a failsafe for freely roaming patients, possibly as a way to signify the need to recalibrate or rebuild filters. Earth shattering? Nah. But worth a mention.

Robot arm on the cheap

Caught by the folks at TechEBlog.



This little ditty uses a variable resistor to infer the position of the arm, and sends the info to a bunch of servos. Sure it looks like anything heavier than a dime would cause it to collapse, but what a fun little weekend project that would make. I could think of a million non-BCI uses for something like this. For instance, if you happen to be in some sort of Feng Shui decorating, pepper the tree branches outside with these potentiometers, and tie them to ceiling mounted fake or artistic renderings of tree limbs. This would look great in a house with lots of windows because every time the wind blows outside, the internal fixtures would mimic the direction and magnitude. I so need to patent that. Guess who watched too much HGTV this week?

OMG! Does the news ever END!?!?! Maybe I'm in over my head! Nice to know implanting a cuff electrode on the vagus nerve is "at least as effective" as taking a pill.


I might be spreading myself a little thin and getting into any brain-technology topics. But, Hell with it, I'll see if I can carry the load.

Quick bits

Alright the real last TMS item. Neuralieve unit pictured below. Apparently 10 companies are now making home TMS system. More info here.

Hitachi is working on an optical topography unit, which detects local changes to cerebral blood flow. Kind of like an optical MRI. *ducks as MRI researcher throw rotten produce* Basically, the reflection and refraction of light shined through the scalp is altered by the change in need for oxygen and glucose of an active brain. It has to be cool - look at how old school this photo is!

Whisper: Cochlear implant inventor honored

From the University of Melbourne:

University of Melbourne scientist Professor Graeme Clark has received the 2007 Klaus Joachim Zulch prize for his research into neuroscience and the Cochlear implant, giving hearing to deaf people.

Amputees can now flip you the bird, sans finger!

One interesting aspect of BCI is the interaction between patient needs and scientific needs. There's always a tightrope to be walked when trying to enable a person to regain function - do you go for the surefire ability to restore apparently better solution, or the one that leads to greater scientific validity, which may give much greater returns, though further in the future? For casual BCI observers, the choice is usually pretty straightforward: do what will benefit the greatest number of people int he long run. But, sitting at a person's bedside and trying to express this importance is futile. No one wants to feel like they're being thrown under the train to save a nameless, faceless population. Martyrdom might work in a few moments of decision, but it rarely lasts long. Add to that the self-coercion that must occur should one decide to change their mind - if I back out now, I'm harming so many people - and the complications become staggering to any bioethicist.



Let's throw another monkey wrench into the whole setup. The best compromise would be to have experimental sessions in which alternative forms of communication are used - implants, EEG, etc. During 'normal business hours' patients are free to use whatever device they find most effective. Sounds great, huh? One word, and all the neuroscientists will cringe: plasticity. A) Is the new device being used long enough to induce long term changes in an optimal manner? That is, are they able to practice enough to really make the new device usable? B) Is the return to their 'comfortable device' washing out the effects of learning, or in some way altering it? This is particularly important as devices receive finer and finer signals. We'd expect less impact on EEG than individual action potentials. C) Is it better to use similar tasks, like spelling on an grid style keyboard, or radically different ones, like spelling versus drawing/tracing?



Anyhow, I'm sure someone can make a thesis out of that little bit, so you're welcome! This was sparked by a new artificial finger for amputees which is controlled by surrounding fingers, which provides 'life-like' articulation. He's a link to the MedGadget blog where more info, including videos can be found. Oh, and it's called the XFinger, because it is obviously 'X-treme'!