Now technologies are developing so rapidly that we do not realize
how quickly fantastic ideas become reality. We remembered the most incredible
inventions of this year and realized that the future will come sooner than it
seems.
Automatic doors, the light turning on by cotton, cleaning robots
- this is how the houses of the future looked like in science fiction films.
Everyone has long been accustomed to doors and “smart” lights. Now the
inventors are thinking about how to make life easier for us.
A tooth sensor, a printed heart, an antenna in the skull -
and all this for the sake of immortality. Leonid Andreev, Room485 agency
strategy director (part of the RCG group of companies), talks about how the new
digital reality is changing our usual areas of life.
Internet technology continues to have an impact on the principles
of health care. One of the dominant trends in medicine and healthcare is the
gradual transition from the treatment of symptoms to predictive medicine, that is,
to work to prevent disease. In turn, the growth of predictive medicine allows
the markets for devices, services and applications to develop.
Predictive medicine
and cyborgs
Over the past ten years, medicine has actively developed
services for the diagnosis of diseases and for receiving remote consultation,
as well as devices that allow remote monitoring of health conditions.
This is confirmed by the results of a survey conducted by
Ericsson (12 countries, 6,600 people): eight out of ten smartphone owners in
the future are considering implanting devices that improve body functions under
their skin or brain.
The main innovations in this category are related to the
possibility of monitoring the patient’s condition in real time. There are
contact lenses for eyes from Google that measure blood sugar levels, their
domestic counterpart is the Brain Beat non-contact glucometer.
The University of Illinois has developed an ultra-thin
tattoo sensor for continuous measurement of body temperature, a similar
development exists in Russia - the Ctrack children's thermal plaster. And
scientists from Tufts University have created a tooth sensor that allows you to
track a person’s diet.
In addition to simple data collection, there are already
developments in the world that allow you to integrate and analyze the
information received for medical purposes.
The largest diagnostic project is owned by Validic, which
produces software for integrating data from wearable devices and sensors into
the cloud map of a medical clinic. And the Russian company TeleMd took a step
further and is already using artificial intelligence in the diagnosis and
assessment of risks.
Overall life expectancy is growing thanks to innovations in
the field of transplant ology: now we can transplant, grow from artificial
tissues or print almost any organ on a 3D printer.
In 2017, in Australia, a tibia printed on a 3D printer was
first transplanted to a person . And just recently they introduced the world's
first printed heart. In 2017, Organovo successfully transplanted printed liver
tissue to mice in the United States - the first such human operation is planned
for 2020.
Another area that improves the quality of life is radically
different. If something cannot be grown or transplanted, then it can be
mounted, thereby significantly improving the quality of life. Biohacking,
cyborgization and other technological methods to intervene in the human body
can slow down the aging process, as well as get rid of diseases and other
restrictions. Already there are living examples of cyborg people.
Director and author of the Eyeborg project (derived from
"eyes" and "cyborg") Rob Spence is one of the most famous
biohackers in the world. Having lost his eye in his youth, Spence installed a
camera in an empty eye socket and takes videos with it.
