The emotional social intelligence prosthetic device

A problem people with autism have is understanding social cues. They often fail to notice that their stories are boring or confusing. Researchers are now developing a device that will let the autistic person know when others are bored around them.

The “emotional social intelligence prosthetic” device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.

The changing psychiatrists office

The psychiatrists couch may soon be gone?? Well, not that soon. Technology is going to change psychiatry for sure. last week I wrote a post that uses magnetic waves to stimulate neurotransmitters in the synapse. Continuing on that theme, is this article from TechReview.com. The article touches on a few new technologies that will someday (in the not so distant future) help psychiatrists and patients.

Follow this link th the Tech Review article.

“Psychiatrists don’t do procedures; they do talk therapy and write scripts,” says Mark Bausinger, chief financial officer of Neuronetics, a medical-device company based in Malvern, PA, that is developing a noninvasive treatment device. “So this is really going to change the way they work.”

A smart pill bottle

Vitality is a pill bottle, “Glow Caps”, that tells you when it is time to take your medication.  It does this by emitting a soft glowing light from the bottle cap when it is time to take your medicine.  Vitality will also send you and your physicians a monthly progress report.  Vitality also totes a service that will call your home phone if you forget to open the bottle.

This looks like a possible solution for patients with memory problems or Alzheimer’s.

The Vitality web page is here. 

High tech pill box

I first read about this new high tech pill box on Engadget. I provided a link to The San Antonio News Express Coverage. A new wallet-sized computerized pillbox helps people manage their medication and remember to take their pills on schedule.

The portable device beeps when it’s time to take a pill, and it records the time and frequency of the lid openings on its four drug bins. Lifetechniques Inc., which relocated from Santa Barbara, Calif., to San Antonio a year ago, invented the device, called MedSignals. It sits in a cradle that connects to a telephone and electrical line and is programmed to dial a toll-free number once a day to upload information.

Brain Stimulator to treat depression

I must admit that I am kind of a techy. I love technology. Much to my surprise, a piece of technology was presented at the APA conference in San Diego. What was presented, was a “transcranial magnetic stimulator”. It is scheduled to come to market by the end of this year. This devise is used to treat depression. The idea is that the magnetic pulse increases blood flow to the prefontal cortex, which in turn increases serotonin output.

TMS can be done in an office setting and doesn’t require anesthesia, which is needed for traditional ECT. Side effects include post-application headaches, muscle twitches and pain at the application site. The risk of seizure remains, but researchers worked very hard to avoid them, and they occurred very rarely.

 Looking for more info on Brain stimulation, visit Elsevier, the publisher of Brain Stimulator.

“Lifeshirt” monitors mental illness

The University of California, San Diego School of medicine will be reporting findings from a study with the use of “Lifeshirt”.

The patented approach developed at UCSD, using a novel device called a “LifeShirt” – a computerized vest that continuously monitors the patient’s movements – shows that patterns of movements differ between patients with the two disorders. The device, manufactured by VivoMetrics©, monitors hyperactive and repetitive movements, and collects data on respiration, heart rate and other physiological measures.

IPods can make pacemakers malfunction

A 17-year-old high school student led a study that tested the effect of IPods on implanted cardiac devices. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient’s chest for 5 to 10 seconds.

I don’t know what I am more impressed with, the IPod interfering with the pacemaker or a seventeen year old leading and presenting these findings.

CNN Article here.