The portability aspect of this half meter wide briefcase is debatable, but what’s inside is what makes it cool, in a CSI kind of way. NEC is calling it the first portable DNA analyser. That’s right, now it’s official. Anybody who has watched even one hour of crime-time television can be their own detective and solve murders.

The briefcase can be used for all 5 stages that make up the DNA analysis process. It is also a real time saver if you only plan on being a part time crime solver, since it can fully analyze DNA within only 25 minutes.

It’s heading for full production in 2008. Ok, so this is mainly marketed to law enforcement, but we all know that in the future regular folks like us will have them too. For now, this could really help law enforcement by providing quick …

Patients in a Canadian hospital are getting a good dose of physical rehabilitation gaming by using the Nintendo Wii and its new controllers to work on movement and balance issues while recovering.

Therapists at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton report using the Wii Sports boxing game to help a patient who is recovering from a brain injury from, well, boxing in fact. The therapists stated the playing the Wii boxing game was much more motivating for the patient than traditional therapies, and describe the patients progress as “incredible”. The Glenrose Rehab Hospital is the first in North America and a pioneer in using the Wii game console to treat patients.

“We try to use activity but there is only so many times you can bat a balloon around back and forth. And only so many times you …

Today Intel and Motion in Computing have both announced the Motion C5 mobile clinical assistant (MCA). The C5 is the first product built on Intel’s MCA platform and is designed for use in the health care setting to allow providers to spend more time near patients while staying connected and can also help with medication administration.

The MCA platform is the Intel’s first built specifically for healthcare and works towards connecting clinicians on health care facility floors to real-time information with a light, durable and easily-disinfected device. The Motion C5 features wireless connectivity to send and receive data in real time, security through fingerprint biometrics or RFID badges, a built-in digital camera and Bluetooth connectivity to connect wirelessly to monitors that track patient vital signs.

The mobile healthcare device has a bar code reader that allows users …

An artificial heart that doesn’t beat? The Food and Drug Administration approved the first fully implantable artificial heart. The new innovative design is based on a pulse-free, continuously-pumping architecture. The ground-breaking design brings hope to patients near death from certain heart failure, although some problems remain with its large size and relatively short lifespan.

The new device is dubbed the AbioCor and is made by Massachusetts-based Abiomed. The AbioCor uses a hydraulic pumping system to simulate a natural heart beat. An alternative design formulated by O.H. “Bud” Frazier, a prominent heart surgeon, pumps blood through the body in a continuous cycle, rather than with the systematic beat of a normal heart. In Frazier’s continuous flow design, a severely damaged heart is removed and replaced with two rotor-based pumps that continually cycle blood through the body.

Bring on the bacon and the chili-cheese fries.

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