The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Doctors look to treat sick children in virtual worlds Posted: 31 Dec 2011 05:55 PM PST  Photo dated July 2, 2011 courtesy of Societe des Arts technologiques (SAT) shows a child following the movements on screen of an avatar during a demonstration of a new therapy in Montreal, Canada. — AFP pic Sensory stimulation could be used to make a burn victim feel she is encased in a block of ice. Three-dimensional images of a child's bedroom at home could make him forget he is in a hospital. "You could take a child suffering from burns and put him in a polar environment, crossing the threshold of reality, to dull his pain," said Patrick Dube, who is leading a team of medics from Montreal's Sainte-Justine hospital and software engineers at the Society for Arts and Technology. "We know that cognitive illusions have an effect on the perception of pain," he said. At the Satosphere, an 18-meter-wide dome originally designed to provide spectators with a 360-degree view of art projections, the team has set up a hospital room, or "living lab", to try out new treatment ideas. The dome, touted by Satosphere president Monique Savoie as a "cinema for the 21st century," is a scion of the Circle-Vision theatre unveiled at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition's Bell Pavilion in Montreal. "We can, through multiple projectors, create immersive environments that integrate not only walls, but also the furniture in a room," Dube said. Another tool being tested by the doctors would allow them to give medical gadgets the appearance of fantastical, non-threatening toys. Children would in theory be able to familiarise themselves with "scary" medical instruments, like syringes, easing common fears over medical tests and treatments. In the hands of a little girl, a syringe is transformed into a storybook rocket. "I'm no longer scared of injections," said Maxime, 11, the daughter of one of the researchers. The researchers are also looking into avatars that could one day allow doctors and nurses to communicate with children traumatised by sickness or a crippling accident, who may not be comfortable opening up to an adult. Such high-tech puppetry might be used to build a child's confidence or help re-socialise them. The person controlling the avatar from another room could ask a child to mimic its movements as part of physical rehabilitation. The ultimate aim is to apply the technology to help the children "overcome their fears and discover things about themselves," said Patricia Garel, head of Sainte-Justine's psychiatry department. "There's enormous potential in our discipline, but we're still at a very early exploratory stage." Virtual communication and video games are known to sometimes have a negative impact on the socialisation of children, particularly the most emotionally fragile, who might shut themselves in. But Garel insists that if the tools are used correctly they could carve a virtual path back to normal life. — AFP-Relaxnews Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Electricity sparks new life into Indonesia’s corals Posted: 31 Dec 2011 05:45 PM PST  In this handout photograph young corals grow on metal frame in the shape of a flower attached to a stone figure in the seabed of Pemuteran in Indonesian island of Bali. — AFP pic Based on "Biorock" technology it is implemented in 20 countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific. In the turquoise waters of Pemuteran off the north coast of Bali where the project was launched in 2000, a metal frame known as "the crab" is covered with huge corals in shimmering colours where hundreds of fish have made their homes. "It's amazing, isn't it ?" Rani Morrow-Wuigk says proudly. The 60-year-old German-born Australian first dived in Pemuteran bay back in 1992, to see its beautiful reefs. But at the end of the nineties rising water temperatures had led to the near-disappearance of the reef, already badly affected by cyanide and dynamite fishing in the area. "I was devastated. Basically, all the corals were dead. It was gravel and sand," Rani recalled. But when German architect and marine scientist Wolf Hilbertz told her about a discovery he had made in the 1970s, the diver's ears pricked up. Hilbertz had sought to "grow" construction materials in the sea, and had done so by submerging a metallic structure and connecting it to an electric current with a weak and thus harmless voltage. The ensuing electrolysis had provoked a build-up of limestone, in a kind of spontaneous building work. When he tested out his invention in Louisiana in the United States, Hilbertz saw that after a few months oysters progressively covered the whole structure, and colonised the collected limestone. More experiments were carried out and the same phenomenon was confirmed for corals. "Corals grow 2-6 times faster. We are able to grow back reefs in a few years," Thomas J. Goreau, a Jamaican marine biologist and biogeochemist, told AFP. Goreau began working with Hilbertz in the mid-1980s to develop Biorock technology, and he has continued their work since Hilbertz's death four years ago. When Rani saw the discovery, it gave her an idea for how she might save "her" bay. She decided to expand the project to 22 structures using her own money with the help of Taman Sari, the holiday resort in front of the coral restoration project. Today there are around sixty of these "cages" in Pemuteran bay, across a surface of two hectares, and the reef has not only been saved from near-death, it is flourishing better than ever before. "Now we've got a better coral garden than we used to have," said Rani. Biorock not only revives the corals but it makes them more resistant, in particular against bleaching and global warming. "Biorock is the only method known that protects corals from dying from high temperatures. We get from 16-50 times higher survival of corals from severe bleaching," Goreau said. The evidence of this has been on show in Pemuteran, said Rani. "We had coral bleaching happening in the last two years. The water temperature was 34 degrees (93 Fahrenheit), instead of 30. Only 10 per cent of the corals were affected and two percent died. Whereas, in 1998, they basically all died". The local community in Pemuteran has also been won over after early reticence on the merits of the project. "At first, I thought he was a crazy 'bule' (white guy) putting iron in the water," Komang Astika said, recalling his first meeting with Goreau, but in 2000, Komang joined the project when he left college. Today he is the diving instructor and manager in charge of the Biorock information centre, located on Pemuteran beach and set up with funds from the sponsorship programme, "Adopt a baby coral" The tourists have also cottoned-on. "It was a poor village when I arrived," Rani said, "since 2000, the number of dive shops doubled." And the local fishermen have also seen the merits of the project they initially regarded as a threat to their livelihoods. "At the beginning, the fishermen didn't want Biorock because we were trying to stop them fishing. They were saying 'It's my ocean,' but now they see the fish coming back and the tourists coming," said Astika. — AFP-Relaxnews Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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