Archive for September 16th, 2009

A Gadget To Detect Autism In Children

LENA provides accurate and critical information about children’s language environment and speech patterns to help detect autism.

What is LENA? LENA is the only technology that automatically collects and analyzes information about a child’s natural language environment and development. The LENA feedback reports help parents improve a child’s cumulative language experience and accelerate that child’s language and cognitive development, and preparedness for school.
Who is LENA for? Parents and caregivers of children ages 0 to 4.

Why is it important? Several hundred research studies over the last 50 years document the importance of talking to and interacting with your baby, especially during the first three years. Groundbreaking research by two renowned university researchers, Drs. Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Todd Risley, Ph.D., revealed that the quantity of talk a child experienced between birth and age 3 directly correlated with the child’s IQ and vocabulary size. The LENA Foundation was founded based on the key elements of this study and our own normative study shows that saying 17,000 words per day, which is equal to the 85th percentile, will greatly enhance your child’s potential.

Who developed it? A team of world-class scientists, including experts in linguistics, speech recognition technology, computer engineering, speech analysis, statistics, speech language pathology, language research and developmental pediatrics. Recognizing that achievement gaps already exist at kindergarten entry, LENA was developed to give parents useful information to help ensure they are providing the richest language environment possible to their children during the critical years between birth and age 4, before they enter school.

How does it work? Parents follow a simple three-step process, 2-3 times a month:

1. In the morning, slip the LENA Digital Language Processor (DLP) into the pocket of specially designed LENA clothing.
2. At the end of the day, plug the DLP into your PC. The audio data will transfer and software analysis begins.
3. View your reports to analyze your conversations, identify patterns of talk throughout the day and receive percentile rank information.

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Bloodbot Stabs You, Because it Can…Well, Most of the Time

Technological improvement is usually great, but the invention of the bloodbot may have taken things a bit too far.

Wired posted a gallery on Friday of surgical robots, and Bloodbot here caught my eye, largely because it seemed to be the most practical. The robot consists of an arm with a needle and a probe. In order to find an accessible vein, the robot probes around your arm until it finds an area of flesh that is a little bit less squishy than the rest. Then it jabs you with a needle, and when it feels a little pop indicating that it’s punched through into a vein, it knows to stop the jabbage, lest it go right through the other side of your vein, out the back of your arm, and into your femoral artery, causing a massive amount of hemorrhaging that will no doubt kill you in minutes.

So far, the robot is accurate about 78% of the time.

78% accurate? Are you kidding me?!!! That means that there’s a 22% chance that I would probably die. In the future, when accuracy rates reach ~100%, then maybe I’d consider, but until then, it would be safer to play Russian Roulette, whilst climbing up a live pylon in the middle of Baghdad.

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Unbreakable Umbrella Protects Against Rain and Muggers

An unbreakable umbrella which protects, not only against the rain, but also against muggers has been unveiled and is proving to be a big hit in the UK and Europe.

The umbrella which costs $180 and weighs just 775g, is made from ABS (hi-tech steel), making it as strong as a steel pipe, enabling it to support the weight of a man, whilst acting as a hidden weapon to surprise any mugger you may come across into submission.