Major advancements in technology like this one are what makes the future worth looking forward to. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have invented an artificial cornea that may well be the key to restoring sight for our people with damaged corneas.

“Our artificial corneas are based on a commercially available polymer which absorbs no water and allows no cells to grow on it,” says IAP project manager Dr. Joachim Storsberg. “Once our partner Dr. Schmidt Intraokularlinsen GmbH has suitably shaped the polymers, we selectively coat the implants: We lay masks on them and apply a special protein to the edge of the cornea, which the cells of the natural cornea can latch onto. In this way, the cornea implant can firmly connect with the natural part of the cornea, while the center remains free of cells and therefore clear.” What is special about this protein is that it can survive the later thermal sterilization of the artificial cornea without being damaged, as it does not have the three-dimensional structure typical of large proteins. Such a structure would be destroyed during the sterilization process, leading to changes in the material’s properties. The optical front part of the implant is coated with a hydrophilic polymer, so that it is constantly moistened with tear fluid.

Researchers in Dr. Karin Kobuch’s working group at Regensburg University Hospital have already tested these corneas in the laboratory and found that their cells graft very well at the edge and cease growing where the coating stops. The optical center of the implant thus remains clear. The first implants have already been tested in rabbits’ eyes – with promising results. If further tests are successful, the technology will be tried on humans in 2008.”

Any breakthrough technology that helps our body and health is technology worth mentioning. A new project by Queensland University of Technology has created a device that can speed up the time taken to heal fractured and broken bones by two times. Figuring out how bone cells heal is the key.

“This device is about trying to grow bone tissue in the same environment our body grows bones. I have taken bone cells and put them in the physical environment they would experience in the body, and then varied the stimulants to extract a beneficial environment for tissue growth,” he said.

In other words, they have not tried it on a human yet. Let us hope it’ll be completed before we all get old and start slipping on our bathroom floor, breaking bones here and there.

A team of researchers from University of Electro-Communications has developed a breakthrough prototype of a mind-controlled wheelchair. Yes, the simple act of conjuring up the thought of “move left” or “move right” will move the wheelchair in the appropriate direction.

All the person on the wheelchair need to do, is wear a skullcap that is fitted with brain waves sensors. The sensors pick up the user’s thoughts and response to directional commands such as “move left”.

It has an accuracy of 80 percent, very amazing for a prototype unit!

Definitely a priceless product for the disabled that couldn’t have managed to move a wheelchair by themselves. But imagine how the technology could also be used for many other applications. Gaming or entertainment in general comes to mind.

Dr. Claus-Dieter Ohl and his team of researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands has created a device that mimics the movement of sea scallops, which can be used to carry drugs to difficult-to-reach places of our bodies.

What’s amazing is that the device needs no power and hence no wires. It also has no moving parts. By taking on a tube shape and with the help of a bubble of air in the device, the researchers are able to move the device by simply bombarding it with sound waves. The waves causes the bubble to expand and contract, creating a sucking and blowing motion that generates thrusts. Just like how sea scallop moves.

“Our acoustic technology could be a big improvement. You could drive one inside the human body by placing the skin in contact with a loudspeaker. The sound needed to drive the device is loud but bearable,” Dr. Ohl said.

As the current speed of the robo-scallop is only a couple of millimeters per second, it is not sufficient to overcome the flow of blood inside the body. But just an increase of about three to four times the current speed is all it takes to accomplish that, which Dr. Ohl thinks is possible to achieve.

There’s even the possibility of reducing the current size of the robo-scallop to as small as one-quarter. More parts of the human body would be made accessible by the size reduction.

Now, I wonder what happens if the air bubble somehow bursts. Would you ever allow these robots to swim through your body?

Dr. Keith Mathieson from the University of Glasgow’s department of physics is all set out to combat the two common forms of blindness. And what he uses is a technology very similar to the digital cameras that we’re all familiar with.

Dr Mathieson said, “By implanting a device into the eye, we hope we will be able to fool the brain into believing the retina is still in working order.”

I’m sure this is something that many of us have thought of. But the difficult lies in wiring the device to the optic nerves. Now that the scientists have done it, this is great news for the many unfortunates around the world.

The current prototype implant has only 100 pixels, not enough for patients to recognize faces just yet. But looking at how technology is progressing, Dr. Mathieson is confident that achieving the 500 pixels necessary for facial recognition is very attainable.

“Beyond where we are today it might be possible to make smart chips which have memory in them which would allow action replay and slow motion”, said Dr. Mathieson.

With “action replay” and “slow motion”, I shudder at the thought that even the non-disabled might just want to be a part of this as well.

OmniVision Technologies has developed a breakthrough camera chip that is only 1/18-inch in size. That makes it the world’s smallest camera thus far, as the closest thing in the market right now is merely a 1/12-inch. The entire of this OV6920 camera chip measures only 2.1mm by 2.3mm!

It is meant for usage in the medical field. By swallowing together with a pill, the camera can reach into the patient’s digestive system and allow medical observations that would otherwise be more invasive for the patient. The camera offers color video and requires only a single 3.3-volt DC supply to operate.

I bet some smart alec would use this tiny camera for some voyeur action.