Air Hockey, it’s been a bar/arcade classic since aslong as I can remember. The game is simple, try to get the air hockey puck into your opponent’s slot. I don’t like to brag, but suffice to say I’ve become a pretty good player over the years. Of course I’m not undefeated like the Nuvation Air Hocket robot.

Nuvation has created a robot that is apparently unbeatable at the Air Hockey table. Through different mathematical and geometrical algorithms, the robot will respond to any shot that someone could throw at it. Get two of these things together, and I’d say you’d have an Air Hockey match that would be more about endurance than skill.

Enjoy the videos…and I’m pretty sure I could take the robot, I’ve got some crazy shots you can’t simply input into a computer (Amateurs)

When we were all playing Mortal Kombat back in the early 90’s, hoping our parents wouldn’t see the spouts of blood oozing around who knew that we’d be helping the advancement of medicine. Although this might be a slight exaggeration, it isn’t a complete lie. As the technology for video games advances, so does the applications in which they are being used for.

The largest commercial success for evidence can be found in active games such as Dance Dance Revolution, and Wii Fit. While they aren’t directly involved in medicine, they are providing people with ways to stay physically fit. Try and do a hour worth of activity of Wii Fit and tell me if you don’t feel the burn.

While Wii Fit might be great for the body, games are actually being used in the ‘field of medicine’. Most of the different games being used are in the field of psychology. The greatest example is how virtual reality games are being used to help soldiers deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This article by Defense-Update.com has the full details about the program, but I’ll try and summarize. Soldiers who come home suffering from PTSD will be exposed to a virtual environment of the setting they just left. For most this setting is the Iraq war; and the game representing it is called “Virtual Iraq”. The soldiers are exposed to virtual sights and sounds that were typically found in combat; the game engine is based of the video game ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’. As the soldiers are exposed to these experiences, their memory of the actual live memories become more tolerable. Along with Virtual Iraq, virtual reality has proven effective for Vietnam vets, 9/11 survivors, and amputee patients.

Trauma isn’t the only thing video games are being used to treat. People who suffer from migraines might end up using virtual reality for comfort. In a study, patients who suffered from migraines had sensors attached to their scalp. These sensors are used to navigate a virtual ship by way of brain waves. The research has proved to be turning out positive, but researchers are still trying to devise an answer as to why it works.

Games aren’t just being used to help treat patients, but to help train the doctors as well. Some virtual reality settings are being used to help doctors prepare for the chaotic situations that such places as the ER, and large scale natural disasters can have. Also research has shown that doctors who actively engage in video games are a lot of times a third less likely to make mistakes during laparoscopic surgery simulations.

So, all the times our parents told us playing video games wouldn’t help anything turned out to be quite false. In fact if research keeps going on pace as is, you could see video games pop up to treat all kinds of different problems. From physical rehabilitation all the way to serious psychological disorders. So just remember kids, keep slamming those buttons and moving the analog sticks because there’s no telling where it could lead you.

Most people who rent out apartments don’t have much to say about their residence. With apartments, you simply pay your rent and hope that your pipes don’t bust or your air conditioning goes out. Just imagine that if you lived at the top of a 80 story building, not only that but if the building moved by rotation. In this article from the BBC, we find out there is one such building in the works.

The Dynamic Tower has been known about for sometime, but its’ official unveiling just went underway in New York City. I would go so far as to say as this is probably the coolest bit of architecture technology I’ve ever seen. If you’d like to go ahead and skip the rest of this article and see the video, click here.

The building will be constructed in Dubai by Italian architect, David Fisher. The building will constantly be changing shape, as each floor will rotate independently of the other. So if you have an apartment on the 5th floor, your view will never be the same each day. The other amazing feature of the building is that it’s entirely energy sufficient, relying on wind turbines nestled between each floor.

The building will cost a whopping $700 million dollars to build. But the money will soon be made back as the apartments will cost anywhere from $3 million to $36 million.

As construction is going now, the building will be completed sometime in 2010.

Energy consumption has been a real hot issue in recent years. With the rise of greenhouse gases, and people running wild in the street over global warming, energy efficiency has seen key research. We now have hybrids on the road, and people are leaving their thermostats at 75 degrees. While a a lot of this technology might be yawn inducing to most, there is one mode of transportation that is taking a pretty cool route.

There is a company called the, “American Magline Group” which is trying to procure funding to develop a ‘maglev’ train in the United States. The ‘maglev’ train isn’t a completely new technology, as Japan and China already have them in use.

The term ‘maglev’ is short for magnetic levitating train. The scientific basics behind the train are quite simple. The train is propelled forward due to an electrical current created by magnetic force between the train and the tracks. If you up the current, the train will accelerate, and vice versa for slowing down.

So the question you might be asking is, “What’s so great about maglev technology?”. First is the speed that these trains can accelerate to. The maglev train in Japan can reach speeds of up to 360 mph, with the train being designed for the US reaching 310 mph. They still aren’t as fast as air travel (avg. 550 mph). The one factor that maglev trains have over air transport is that it’s a completely environmentally clean mode of transportation.

Japan and China already have maglev trains, but if the Magline Group’s proposal goes through America would have the longest maglev track. The track would extend all the way from Disneyland to Las Vegas.

Japan’s Maglev Train

The biggest roadblock (or track block) for the train is of course “funding”. A transportation bill that has just been passed by President Bush would see that the group has $45 million for funding. While that money seems like a lot to folks like you and me, it would only cover the pre-construction costs of testing and research. The actual construction of the train, and tracks would add up to a whopping $12 billion.

The Federal Railway Administration believes that the money could be better suited to improve already current forms of transportation. But the Magline Group states that if they are successful with their venture, it could lead to clean and efficient transportation.

Who would have thought that trains might become the solution to our energy needs. With people riding trains more and more these days as an alternative to air travel, the idea of the maglev might not be much of a stretch to believe.

We all remember the scene, when Skywalker get in over his head with Vader. The fight ending with Luke losing his hand to his *spoiler* father. Later on, Luke gets the hand replaced with a prosthetic one, that looks identically similar to his real one. He tries out the motions and everything looks spot-on. Here in our galaxy, and in our current time this technology looks to becoming more of a reality. BBC has released an article about the invention, and what it means for the prosthetic business.

In our neighbors across the Atlantic Ocean, an England based bionics company has developed the i-Limb. The device took home the MacRoberts Award; which is the most prestigious engineering award in the country. The i-Limb has been on sale since July 2007, and has been fitted on more than 200 people. Some of them being US troops who lost limbs in the Iraq war.

What makes the prosthetic limb so great, is the attention to detail for the intricate motions of hand gestures. Each finger has a motor which allows it to be move individually. The thumb can be moved in a 90 degree angle, just like our natural thumbs. While there are more advanced prosthetics out there, this is the most advanced for commercial use. The most impressive aspect of the i-Limb in this writer’s opinion is that it doesn’t require surgery to be outfitted. All it takes is two electrodes being attached to the skin, that picks up electrical signals indicating hand usage.

While doing my morning rounds through news sites and video site I stumbled across this. Anytime cancer research and treatment news is available I become instantly interested. So anyway here is a video explaining how Hyperthermia is being used to treat breast cancer, along with other types of cancers as well: