Our Skull is new Biometric Identifier

                Researchers have developed a new Google Glass-based biometric system which uses the skull to provide access to devices. People use laptops and smartphones to save and organize their entire life – protected only by a password or a PIN. However, these are often not secure, because users do not choose or store them well. With so-called biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, voice or iris scans, users can be identified more easily and securely.

                The new system called ‘Skull-Conduct’, developed by scientists from University of Saarland and University of Stuttgart in Germany, uses the skull to provide a digital access code. In the future, this method could also secure smartphones. Eyewear computers such as Google Glass are already being used in companies and universities, for helping with physics experiments and in chemistry labs, documenting medical examinations and assisting pediatricians during operations.

                Not only may the users have no hands free to enter a password, they often share a Google Glass among each other and save sensitive data in the device. The researchers used components Google Glass already has. Besides the miniature microphone, they use the so-called bone conduction speaker, embedded in the frame near the right ear. Using bone conduction, it transmits sounds to the ear the same way as special hearing aids do. Because the skull is individual, the sound signal is changed in a way which is unique for every person. Hence, we can use it as a biometric identifier. The new method showed an accuracy of 97%, with tests being conducted in a room with no background noise.

Robot-in-a-Capsule to heal stomach wounds

                Scientists have created a tiny origami robot that can unfold itself from a swallowed capsule and crawl across the stomach wall to patch a wound. In the experiments, the robot was to pick up a button battery lodged inside a synthetic stomach and oesophagus model. “It’s really exciting to see our small origami robots doing something with potential important applications to health care,” said researchers.

                “For application inside the body, we need a small, controllable, untethered robot system. It’s really difficult to control and place a robot inside the body if the robot is attached to a tether.” said researcher. The robot can propel itself by using “stick-slip” motion, in which its appendages stick to a surface through friction when it executes a move, but slop free again when irs body flexes to change its weight distribution.

                It consists of two layers of structural material sandwiching a material that shrinks when heated. A pattern of slits in the outer layers determines how the robot will fold when the middle layer contracts. The robot’s envisioned use also dictated a host of structural modifications over an earlier origami robot built by the researchers. Stick-slip only works when, one, the robot is small enough and, two, the robot is stiff enough. However, because the stomach is filled with fluids, the robot does not rely entirely on stick-slip motion.

                20% of forward motion is by propelling water thrust and 80% is by stick-slip motion. In this regard, researchers actively introduced and applied the concept and characteristics of the fin to the body design, which we can see in the relatively flat design. It also had to be possible to compress the robot enough that it could fit inside a capsule for swallowing; similarly, when the capsule dissolved, the forces action on the robot had to be strong enough to cause it to fully unfold. The researchers tested about a dozen different possibilities for the structural material before settling on the type of dried pig intestine used in sausage casings.

Silk may help preserve blood samples without refrigeration

                Encapsulating blood samples in air-dried silk protein can preserve them for long periods at high temperatures without refrigeration. The technique developed at Tufts University in the US has broad applications for clinical care and research that rely on accurate analysis of blood and other bio-

fluids. The scientists successfully mixed a solution or a powder of purified silk fibroin protein extracted from silkworm cocoons with blood or plasma and sir-dried the mixture. The air-dried silk films were stored at temperatures between 22 and 45°C. at set individuals, encapsulated blood samples were recovered by dissolving the films in water and analyzed.

New malaria vaccine blocks infection for over one year

                An experimental malaria vaccine protected adults from infection for more than a year in a clinical trial in US, an advance that may help control and eradicate the deadly disease. Researchers at the University of Maryland conducted the tests, which involved immunization and exposing adults to the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The PfSPZ vaccine, is composed of live, but weakened P falciparum sporozoites – the early developmental form of the parasite. “Malaria remains one of the most devastating diseases in the world, especially in Africa,” said Anthony S Fauci, director of US National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases. The phase 1 trial enrolled 101 adults aged 18 to 45 years who had never had malaria. Of these, 59 received PfSPZ vaccine; 32 served as controls. The results showed the Vaccine provided malaria protection for more than one year in 55% of people without prior malaria infection. In those individuals, the vaccine appeared to confer sterile protection, meaning the individuals would be protected and could not further transmit malaria.