Babies with Cerebral Palsy Develop Motor Skills Thanks to This Device & Other Tech News
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Babies with Cerebral
Palsy Develop Motor Skills Thanks to This Device
Cerebral palsy is a disease that develops in infancy or
early childhood and permanently affects body movement, muscle coordination, and
balance. But now, thanks to a research by a team led by physical therapist Thubi
Kolobe seeks to impart motor and cognitive skills in babies.
“Effective robotic assistance of infants with or at risk of
developing Cerebral Palsy (CP) has the potential to reduce the significant
functional limitations as well as the potential deficits in cognitive
development. This project focuses on the development and testing of a sequence
of robotic assistants that promote early crawling, creeping, and walking,
[along with] a model of infant-robot interaction that encourages the continued
practice of movement patterns that will ultimately lead to unassisted locomotion,”
they explain.
Typically, learning in infants is completely reward-based,
i.e. the infant’s brain sends a signal to the brain to move in a particular
direction; however, when the body is unable to do so – the infant eventually
stops trying, and the brain removes its spatial & motor connections. The
device, known as Self-Initiated Prone Progression Crawler, or SIPPC consists of
a suit fitted with sensors; and rewards an infant’s attempts by providing the
relative movement needed to carry out the instructions. A larger trial with 56
infants is scheduled to be held later this year.
Crowdsourced Study
Reveals 15 Genes that Cause Depression
A Genome-wide association study is “an approach that
involves rapidly scanning markers across the complete sets of DNA, or genomes,
of many people to find genetic variations associated with a particular disease.”
Pfizer, in partnership with California-based 23andMe, carried out a study
involving 400,000 people – 141,000 who had been diagnosed with depression, and 337,000
who reported no signs of depression. They detected over 15 genes connected with
serious depression – providing further insight into the genetic composition of
depression.
“The big story is that 23andMe got us over the inflection
point for depression,” says Douglas Levinson, Psychiatrist at Stanford
University, “That is exciting. It makes us optimistic that we are finally
there.”
Making Smart Cars
Even Smarter
The Intelligent Car Interior project, or InCarIn, is a
camera-based technology that analyzes a smart car’s interior and provides smart
assistance to a driver using sensors.
“We are expanding sensor technology to the entire interior. Using
depth-perception cameras, we capture the vehicle’s interior, identify the
number of people, their size and their posture. From this we can deduce their
activities,” says Dr. Michael Voit, Group Manager at Fraunhofer IOSB.
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