Tag Archives: human health

New device translates sign language into words

sign language to words translation device

Prototype for MyVoice, a device that reads sign language and translates its motions into audible words. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Houston)

Too often, communication barriers exist between those who can hear and those who cannot. Sign language has helped bridge such gaps, but many people are still not fluent in its motions and hand shapes.

Thanks to a group of University of Houston students, the hearing impaired may soon have an easier time communicating with those who do not understand sign language. During the past semester, students in UH’s engineering technology and industrial design programs teamed up to develop the concept and prototype for MyVoice, a device that reads sign language and translates its motions into audible words. Recently, MyVoice earned first place among student projects at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) — Gulf Southwest Annual Conference.

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Injecting various drugs without needles made possible by new device

Needleless hypodermic deviceGetting a shot at the doctor’s office may become less painful in the not-too-distant future.

MIT researchers have engineered a device that delivers a tiny, high-pressure jet of medicine through the skin without the use of a hypodermic needle. The device can be programmed to deliver a range of doses to various depths — an improvement over similar jet-injection systems that are now commercially available.

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New portable measuring tool enables accurate determination of airborne nanoparticle size and distribution

Companies cannot protect workers from nanoparticle exposure unless first they can determine there is a potential problem. To date, the size and cost of existing nanoparticle size measurement instrumentation has been an impediment to routine industrial measurements.

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Investing in the environment more efficient in decreasing childhood disabilities than developing medicine

The United States government would get a better bang for its health-care buck in managing the country’s most prevalent childhood disabilities if it invested more in eliminating socio-environmental risk factors than in developing medicines.

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#Longevity lesson 1: How to add 14 years to your life?

So you stay fit and healthy longer at a lower cost to society – and stop complaining about that 65+ retirement age. There, we’ve said it. Usually when people think of Sustainability they think of garbage and how to recycle … Continue reading →

Carbon storage facilities have low risk of causing CO2 poisoning

As more and more countries around the world struggle to meet their carbon emission reduction targets, they are looking for all kinds of solutions to work around the problem. One of those is carbon capture and storage (CCS). This atmospheric … Continue reading →

New model predicts environmental effects of drugs

Pharmaceutical products although usually beneficial to human health often end up in the environment with just the opposite effect on wildlife. But we are at risk as well since increasing amounts of drugs end up in our drinking water. To … Continue reading →