A VOICE LIKE YOURS: Millions of people have severe speech impediments and may use a computer to speak for them. Those computer voices are notoriously robotic though and VocaliD would like to humanise them, with prosthetic voices created from a Human Voicebank Initiative. VocaliD first assess what the voice of the person they're helping might be like, based on sounds they can produce. A voice might be high-pitched, raspy or breathy, for example. Then they record several thousand sample sentences from a donor who is similar in age and the same sex. Finally they use software to blend the surrogate's voice with the recipient's, stripping it down into tiny components that make up speech. It's a time-consuming process that the team hope to speed up by having donors record their voices with an iPhone app. That's one time when you really can speak for someone else.
EASY AS ONE TWO: When people are prescribed opioids it can be too easy to accidentally overdose, especially if they're using other prescription medicines too. In case of an overdose an injection of naloxone hydrochloride can save their life. But such injections are tricky to administer and probably require a trip to a medical centre or hospital. Evzio is a handheld device that can be prescribed alongside the opioid and that anyone can use to deliver the lifesaving injection, following either written or verbal instructions. A user removes a safety guard then presses the gadget against the thigh for 5 seconds. The Evzio delivers the injection and also advises calling for qualified medical help. Almost anyone should be able to remove a safety guard and press.
STICKY SOLUTION: If you earn less than $2 per day you're hardly likely to own a computer, and that's a reality of life for millions of people around the world. Keepod though aim to bring computers to some of the poorest, including the half million people in the slums of Nairobi. Keepod is a USB flash drive that includes a unique desktop version of Google's Android 4.4 operating system. The idea is that the drive can be plugged into old PCs without hard drives to boot the computer and as a place for saving files. It also keeps settings, passwords and browser history. That means that schools could use old PCs without the problems associated with multiple users. Keepod aim to extend the plan to India, Israel, southern Italy, and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. That's a slick solution to a big problem.
HEART IN HAND: When one surgeon in the US faced a particularly tricky operation on the heart of a 12 month old child he discussed the case with colleagues who gave him conflicting advice. The next step then was to create a 3D printed model of the child's heart, in 3 sections, and at twice the size. With the heart in hand, the surgeon could see what he had to do. The model was built using additive printing with a flexible polymer called Ninja Flex that is similar in feel to that of the heart. The replica took around 20 hours to print. What a difference a day makes.
CUTTING EDGE: Surgeons removing cancerous tumours must cut carefully to remove cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. Even with high-powered magnifiers it's hard to spot cancer cells. Special glasses from Washington University will make it easier. The glasses use video, a head-mounted display and a targeted molecular agent that attaches to cancer cells, making them glow when viewed with the glasses. Tumours as small as 1 mm in diameter can be spotted with the aid of the glasses. That's a great boost to precision and accuracy.
