Nasa imaging software employed as breast exam tool: NASA scientist James Tilton has been working on new image enhancement software to help automatically analyze satellite data of the Earth. Hierarchical Segmentation Software, as the tool is called, identifies relatively homogeneous areas of an image and highlights them. Our eyes and brains are pretty good at image analysis, but large dense maps can be quite a challenge. Although originally designed for aerial cartography, the first commercial use of the software came in the form of a mammogram enhancement and analysis system. The lakes of northern Wisconsin (image left) are very much like dense breast tissue (right) to a NASA scientist it turns out, and porting over the code and optimizing it led to the MED-SEG system from New Haven, Conn.-based Bartron Medical Imaging. For example, an Earth satellite image may contain several lakes of different depths. Deep lakes appear dark blue, while shallow lakes are a lighter shade of blue. HSEG first finds each individual lake; then it groups together all shallow lakes into one class and the deeper lakes into another. Because lakes are more similar than they are to trees, grass, roads, buildings, and other objects, the software then groups all lakes together, regardless of their varying colors. As a result, HSEG allows the user to distinguish important features in the scene accurately and quickly. The system received Food & Drug Administration approval, and the researchers plan to conduct clinical trials evaluating how MED-SEG can benefit radiologists in cancer diagnosis. 
Surgical robot generates haptic feedback to enhance surgical procedures: While the advantages of robot-assisted surgery are many, these procedures also have a downside which is often overlooked: the surgeon receives no physical feedback while performing a robot-assisted procedure. To remedy this problem, a researcher at the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands developed the Surgeon’s Operating Force-feedback Interface Eindhoven robot, or Sofie. Sofie can alter the resistance of the surgical controls based on how much force it is exerting on the patient’s tissues, which will help surgeons keep track of how much pressure they are placing on the patient’s organs.
A handheld X-ray machine: A team of researchers at Kyoto University, Japan have developed a portable X-ray device measuring only three by five centimeters. Two D batteries power the device and it uses two tantalic-acid-lithium electrodes, which, when subjected to electric current, affect electron emission from a gas within the device’s glass enclosure. X-rays are routinely used in the elemental analysis of various samples, and the team, led by professor Jun Kawai, hopes that their device could be used with a portable X-ray detector to bring elemental analysis to the field.
Philips launches IntelliVue MX800 to further convergence of patient data: Philips (NYSE:PHG) introduced a new patient monitor, the IntelliVue MX800, that provides common vital sign data, but that can also display information coming from any other hospital database. The product essentially acts like a bridge that can deliver together patient information from different sources right to the point of care. Philips said “the MX800 also enables applications to run natively on the embedded informatics platform while keeping the real time patient monitoring separate and protected. This allows clinicians to easily view patient data from sources such as electronic medical records, imaging studies and other clinical applications, helping to save caregivers’ time and aid in clinical decision making at the point of care.”
A weekly roundup of new developments in medical technology, by MedGadget.com.
