Microsoft establishing "smart headband for the blind"

The aim of the undertaking is to produce a detailed knowing of the difficulties faced by blind and partially sighted folks as they travel in and about cities. A concept video launched in 2012 outlined some of characteristics of the gadget:

More info on the Alice band is anticipated to be revealed in the up coming handful of months.

The news comes following researchers at Oxford University unveiled a pair of wise glasses that can assist people with constrained vision to navigate and avoid walking into obstacles.

The intelligent glasses, which consist of a video camera mounted on the frame of the glasses and a personal computer processing unit that is tiny sufficient to fit in a pocket, are created to increase people’s awareness of what is close to them.

Photos of close by folks and obstacles – this kind of as kerbs, tables and chairs – are processed by specially-designed software, and projected onto transparent electronic displays, the place the glasses’ lenses would usually be.

Meanwhile, Google has filed a US patent for embedding microscopic cameras into make contact with lenses, which could be programmed to detect light, colour, specific objects, faces and motion with no obstructing the vision of the wearer.

The device could be potentially lifestyle-modifying for blind end users, as the camera and evaluation elements could method image data to establish the wearer is approaching a active road, for example.

The lens could then concern a command to a remote device, such as a smartphone, to omit a voice-created warning about the impending road.

Microsoft establishing "smart headband for the blind"

Vasectomy can increase chance of establishing lethal prostate cancer

Last night charities stated the study was “extremely important”. Spokesmen suggested that males needed to be advised a lot more about the risks of vasectomies.

Prostate cancer is the most typical kind of cancer in guys, affecting 40,000 a year in Britain and causing ten,000 deaths.

A single in eight males will produce the condition, with most situations taking place following the age of 65.

The vast majority of circumstances are “slow growing” and medical advice frequently advises maintaining the disease below surveillance.

Several men with the cancer will suffer no harm from it, even though therapy options, like surgical procedure and radiotherapy, can have severe side results, this kind of as erectile dysfunction and incontinence.

Researchers at Harvard Health care School tracked 50,000 guys, aged in between forty and 75, from 1986 to 2010.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, discovered throughout these 24 years that 25 per cent of males had vasectomies and 6,023 circumstances of prostate cancer were diagnosed.

In complete, less than two per cent produced the most aggressive kind of the disease, the investigation discovered. Some prior studies had recommended a connection in between sterilisation and cancer.

This new research is the initial to remove “bias factors”, this kind of as that men who have a vasectomy are a lot more regularly diagnosed simply because they are far more very likely to have typical checks.

Prof Malcolm Mason, Cancer Analysis UK’s prostate cancer specialist, said: “The extra chance of creating prostate cancer following getting a vasectomy seems to be tiny but of the couple of that do go on to build the condition, a larger variety will build an aggressive type.

“Vasectomy is nevertheless an critical selection for contraception but this information must kind portion of the discussion before a man helps make an informed determination as to no matter whether or not it is right for him.”

About a single in six males in Britain has a vasectomy. Authorities mentioned it was not clear why the process would influence cancer incidence but it could relate to modifications in the proteins in semen.

Lorelei Mucci, the research writer and associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard College of Public Health, mentioned the findings recommended improved risks among people who had a vasectomy prior to the age of 38.

She mentioned: “We saw that in males who had a vasectomy earlier in existence there was a greater risk of creating sophisticated or lethal kinds of the condition.

“This could be because of the timings and the affect on the prostate.”

Though the relative improve in dangers linked with a vasectomy was substantial the absolute danger remained little, researchers explained.

Cancer charities said the enhanced risk in aggressive circumstances, though large in relative terms, did not translate to a large total number of instances.

Dr Iain Frame, of Prostate Cancer United kingdom mentioned: “We require to be cautious about how the final results are interpreted. Even though there seems to be an increase in aggressive prostate cancer in guys who have had a vasectomy, it translates as a fairly modest boost in the variety who build aggressive prostate cancer.”

Vasectomy can increase chance of establishing lethal prostate cancer