Walyou

Little Moe Uses Ultraviolet Pulses to Fight the Ebola Virus

Posted: 03 Oct 2014 01:52 PM PDT

Recent infections with Ebola have caused a lot of distress all over the world, especially since the virus isn’t confined in a single area, but on all major continents. As scary as it may be, the Ebola virus is quite easy to destroy, and the Little Moe robot seems to be a trusty ally in preventing infections.

Light can kill viruses. That’s not exactly news, but a few more details wouldn’t hurt. Ultraviolet light is able to destroy bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms, but that only happens at certain wavelengths. UV mutagenic irradiation has been in practice for more than a century, as the first attempts to disinfect water with it took place in 1910 in Marseille. However, in hospitals and anywhere else it may be installed, Xenex’s Little Moe Ebola fighting robot will do more than just disinfect water.

This medical robot cannot automatically from one room to another, the way Roomba robots vacuum through an entire home. Instead, they need to be setup. After entering the room type and number, Little Moe starts shooting UV rays all over the room in order to disinfect all the surfaces. Mark Stibich, Ph.D, provided a very simple explanation on how the germ-zapping robot works: “What’s inside here is a xenon bulb.”

Little Moe is said to be extremely efficient. Two such robots can rid an entire hospital of dangerous microorganisms in 5 minutes, and can destroy the Ebola virus on any surface in just around 2 minutes. Its function may not sound like much, but Little Moe only has one job, which means that it was built to do this task as efficiently as possible.

The University Health System in San Antonio and the Dallas hospital represent only two of the 250 locations from across the US that are equipped with a Little Moe robot. At Dallas hospital doctors are currently treating the first patient infected with Ebola in America, and while Little Moe can’t do anything about that, it’s good to know that it will prevent the virus from spreading (even though it’s not an airborne virus and it can only be transmitted through exchange of bodily fluids).

I get it how the manufacturer’s name refers to the Xenon bulbs these robots are equipped with, but it sounds uncomfortably close to Xanax. Other than that, it’s good to see that medical robots are getting popular, especially since they can help humanity in such difficult situations.

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TomTom’s GPS Smartwatch Helps Golfers Keep Track of Strikes and Holes

Posted: 03 Oct 2014 01:18 PM PDT

TomTom Sport Watch Golf GPS Smartwatch 2

Golf widows have yet another reason to be sad. Their husbands will probably spend even more time on the golf course after getting TomTom’s new GPS smartwatch.

Knowing how large are the areas golf courses usually cover, playing this sport without a GPS doesn’t seem to make much sense. And to think that modern golf originated in 15th-century Scotland! Considered a sport for the rich (poor people don’t have the luxury of getting that bored), golf is not an activity for people lacking patiences. After all, depending on the skill of the players, a match can take between 4 and 6 hours. Since a GPS smartwatch could reduce that time drastically, what was that about husbands spending more time on the golf course? Well, with the TomTom Golfer GPS smartwatch around their wrist, they’ll surely need a bit to brag about it and show it off.

Corinne Vigreux, managing director of TomTom Consumer, explained that “Understanding the challenges ahead will help golfers to improve their score. The TomTom Golfer provides at-a-glance graphics to critical course data helping golfers to make smarter decisions and improve how they play.”

It’s interesting how smartwatch manufacturers (or GPS manufacturers, in this case) find a niche they can exploit without fearing the competition. There’s plenty of such wearables with fitness tracking capabilities out there, but not many can tell you where exactly you are located on a golf course. You guessed it, TomTom Golfer can do that simply by correlating the data from the GPS sensor with the 34,000 preloaded golf courses from all over the world (didn’t even know there were so many!).

In terms of technical specs, the TomTom Golfer is not exactly spectacular. It sports a 22x25mm (1.29 inches) display with a 144×168 resolution. With the GPS function turned on, the battery life is said to last up to 10 hours, which is a lot more than the duration of a golf match. That is, unless winning golfers give losers a new chance in the form of a return match.

The following video is in German, but it should give you an idea about how the TomTom Golfer smartwatch looks and works in real life:

TomTom Golfer can be pre-ordered now on the company’s website. At the equivalent of $325, it’s among the most expensive smartwatches out there, but anyone affording to play golf will most probably afford buying gadgets like this one.

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