Tag: Tech

Feature

Smart tracking technology aims to build a road block for human trafficking

This article is part of a collaboration with iQ by Intel. When their aunt was abducted and traded into a pipeline of human trafficking while crossing the Mexico-US border, sisters America and Penelope Lopez turned to Internet of Things (IoT) technology to find a way to help other women. Human trafficking is a humanitarian crisis that affects nearly 21 million adults and children worldwide, according to recent statistics from the International Labor Organization (ILO). These victims are usually coerced into forced labor or become victims of sexual exploitation. They work for non-existent or slave wages and feel trapped, with seemingly…
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Stupid Hackathon celebrates the creativity of useless tech

San Francisco’s residents can’t escape the blossoming tech start-up culture, no matter how hard they try. It’s a strange place where it’s not out of the ordinary to hear of another “techie” (an affectionate term San Franciscans use for the influx of tech workers) pitching their app to an unassuming local at a public place, be it yet another dating app or a Yelp-esque knock off. Apps and start-ups are everywhere in San Francisco—techies alongside ‘em, fiending to throw their business cards at you even while you’re enjoying a Japanese curry at the city’s outskirts. The most bewildering part of living…
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This real-life injury simulator is fascinating if a little gross

Researchers from the Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology at the University of California, Los Angeles used detailed CT scans of human legs to create lifelike simulations of leg injuries to train medics. “Our goal in this specific project is to train medics to be able to deal with these sorts of injuries quickly and efficiently,” said one of the researchers, Jeff D. Eldredge, in an article for Motherboard. “When they train they have to feel the anxiety of seeing a real injury, and that’s the important aspect that’s hard to recreate.” The injury simulations, featured in the video…
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A Star-Trek-style medical scanner could be here in the near future

A team of Stanford University electrical engineers have taken large steps towards creating a portable scanning device to detect hidden objects, with possible applications in the medical field as a detector of tumors in the brain. The team says the device could be ready for practical use within the next fifteen years, despite the technology sounding like something out of science fiction—specifically, the medical tricorder tool from the world of Star Trek. In the Star Trek universe, a tricorder is a handheld multifunctional tool used for data collection, sensor-scanning, and status analysis. Medical tricorders are used by doctors to scan…
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This is the Battle Against Ebola Simulator 2014

Seattle-based med-tech startup Shift Labs held a hackathon last month where a mix of 40 game designers and clinicians collaborated on a simulation that replicates an ebola treatment center in Liberia. The WHO-endorsed simulation could be used to prepare health workers for the rigorous procedural stressors they would face in West Africa, where every action has to be appropriately measured to avoid infection, right down to removing a hazard suit’s gloves (Of which there are two layered sets that both need to be cleaned and purified in chlorine.) The simulation is less geared toward mental and emotional preparedness, which it…