Microsoft Kinect hack used to help robotic surgeons

It's already been used to make giant shadow puppets, light sabres and give people robotic alter-egos, among a host of other applications.

Now a group of students at the University of Washington are using a hack of Microsoft's Kinect controller to help give robotic surgeons a greater sense of touch when they are performing operations. It's like a giant, high-tech version of the classic 1980s game Operation, in fact.

While robot-assisted surgery is far from new, what robots lack is the ability to tell their human counterparts when they have grazed a vein or are scratching bones. The team have changed all that by hacking the Kinect and combined it with gaming force-feedback - or haptic - technology to create a 3D model of a human body which tells them when they might be too close to a vital organ.

The code written for the Kinect lets it react to incursions by the robotic surgeon's scalpel into restricted areas of the body and sends information back to the joystick used to control the robot, stopping it from moving.


The Kinect's relatively poor resolution would need upgrading for the hack to work in real operations. Still, the university team say that a piece of hardware to do the same job would normally have cost as much as $50,000. By contrast, the Kinect costs a scant $150, so it could be modified extensively to get it ready for surgery while remaining a comparative bargain.

Apple App Store reaches over 10 billion downloads

Less than three years after it begins, the Apple App Store reached its goal of over 10 billion downloads this morning. 

To promote the milestone, Apple had promised to give away a $10,000 App Store gift card to whoever bought the 10 billionth download. Apple said the winner of the gift card was Gail Davis of Orpington, England.
The store launched in July 2008 with just 500 apps and now touts the availability of more than 350,000 free and paid apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Growth of the store's popularity has been swift; in its first nine months, the store hit 1 billion downloads and followed that up with 5 billion downloads in June 2010.
The App Store has been such a resounding success for mobile computing that Apple's competitors have been forced to launch similar ventures. Google, Microsoft, Research in Motion, Nokia, and Samsung all offer apps through their own app storefronts. 



But the venture has not been without controversy. Early on, Apple's app approval process often frustrated developers, who were sometimes left in the dark about the reason an app was rejected. But Apple recently announced plans to publish its App Store Review Guidelines and to allow developers to create applications with just about any tool they want.

Facebook joins hunt for missing kids with Amber Alerts

Facebook will send alerts on users' news feeds
by Sharon Gaudin
In an effort to find missing children faster, Facebook will deliver Amber Alerts to its users.
Facebook users in all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands can now sign up to receive Amber Alerts for their state as part of their news feed.

With the new service, which went into effect on Wednesday, users will also be able to share the alerts with their Facebook friends.
"Everyone at Facebook feels a responsibility to help protect children and, as a former federal prosecutor and a father of two, I am particularly proud that we are now part of the Amber Alert program," said Chris Sonderby, Lead Security and Investigations Counsel at Facebook.
"We are hopeful that today's announcement offers these dedicated officials another useful tool to find and safely recover abducted children," Sonderby said.
The announcement came on Wednesday during a joint press conference with Facebook, the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
The news also came out the day before the 15th anniversary of the abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who became the namesake of the national Amber Alert Program.
"That's a nice thing FaceBook is doing," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "It has some potential. It's probably not that great on short-term emergencies, but a lot of people spend a lot of time with Facebook. Certainly more than looked at the back of milk cartons, back in the day."