Links For open source and Research Papers

Bio line International - http://bioline.org.br/

Bio med centrol - http://www.biomedcentral.com/

High Wire Press - http://highwire.stanford.edu/

Indian Academy Of Sciences - http://www.ias.ac.in/

Indian Journals - http://indianjournals.com/

Journal Of Digital Information - http://jodi.tamu.edu/

Journal Of Post Graduate Medicine - http://www.jpgmonline.com

MedInd - http://medint.nic.in/

Medknow - http://medknow.com

Molecular Diversity Preservation International - http://www.mdpi.org/

Public Library Of Science - http://www.pios.org

pubmed Central - http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/

Trials - http://www.trialsjournal.com/

Bionic Eyes - Hope for the blind!

Abstract

Technology has done wonders for the mankind. We have seen prosthetics that helped overcome handicaps. Bio medical engineers play a vital role in shaping the course of these prosthetics. Now it is the turn of Artificial Vision through Bionic Eyes.

Chips-designed specifically to imitate the characteristics of the damaged retina, and the cones and rods of the organ of sight are implanted with a microsurgery.

Whether it be Bio medical, Computer, Electrical, or Mechanical Engineers – all of them have a role to play in the personification of Bionic Eyes. This multidisciplinary nature of the ‘new technology’ has inspired me to present this paper.

There is hope for the blind in the form of Bionic Eyes. This technology can add life to their vision less eyes!

Introduction:

“There is no lovelier way to

thank God for your sight

Than by giving a helping hand

To those in dark.”

There is no replacement for human sight. It is simply incomparable because of its capacity to see. Our life is full of pictures we daily see. Life without sight is dark. And blind people lead dark lives. As capable human beings, we need to do something more than just helping a blind person cross the road.

Belonging to the community of engineers – there is no frontier that we cannot conquer. If scientists give birth to ideas, then it is we engineers who put life into those ideas. Today, we have every tool in our hand. The ball is in our court! It is our turn now, to return what mankind has given us. What about bestowing sight for the blind? There is no magic wand to do this in a jiffy. But yes! We certainly know the magic route to reach our goal: Science and Technology.

Today, we talk of artificial intelligence that has created waves of interest in the field of robotics. When this has been possible, why not artificial vision? It is with this dream that I present this paper on Bionic Eyes. Sooner or later, this shall create a revolution in the field of medicine.

It is important to know few facts about the organ of sight i.e, the Eye before we proceed towards the technicalities involved.

How are we able to see?

Having seen the anatomical part of human eye, lets try to know as to how we are able to see – how is an image being formed?

For vision to occur, 2 conditions need to be met:

1.An image must be formed on the retina to stimulate its receptors (rods and cones).

2.Resulting nerve impulses must be conducted to the visual areas of the cerebral cortex for interpretation.

Four processes focus light rays, so that they form a clear image on the retina

1.refraction of light rays

2.accommodation of the lens

3.constriction of the pupil

4.convergence of the eyes

How is vision impaired?

Damage or degeneration of the optic nerve, the brain, or any part of the visual pathway between them, can impair vision. For example, the pressure associated with glaucoma can also damage the optic nerve. Diabetes, already cited as a cause of retina damage, can also cause degeneration of the optic nerve.

Damage to the visual pathway does not always result in total loss of sight. Depending on where the damage occurs, only a part of the visual field may be affected. For example, a certain form of neuritis (nerve inflammation), often associated with multiple sclerosis, can cause loss of only the center of the visual field – a condition called scotoma.

A stroke can cause vision impairment when the resulting tissue damage occurs in one of the regions of the brain that process visual information. For example, damage to an area that process information about colors may result in a rare condition called acquired cortical color blindness. This condition is characterized by difficulty in distinguishing any color – not just one or two colors as in the more common inherited forms of color blindness.

A more common treatment for curing blindness has been corneal transplantation. More about it:

Corneal Transplants:

Surgical removal of opaque or deteriorating corneas and replacement with donor transplants is a common medical practice. Corneal tissue is avascular; that is, the cornea is free of blood vessels. Therefore corneal tissue is seldom rejected by the body’s immune system. Antibodies carried in the blood have no way to reach the transplanted tissue, and therefore long-term success following implant surgery is excellent.

What are Bionic Eyes?

An artificial eye provokes visual sensations in the brain by directly stimulating different parts of the optic nerve.

There are also other experimental implants that can stimulate the ganglia cells on the retina or the visual cortex of the brain itself. There is more concentration given to the production of artificial retinas.

Here is the description of a Bionic Eye:

Many types of artificial eyes have been designed and research is still going on . There is no standard model in this case. Researchers are working out different types of concepts. Here are a few examples:

The prototype devices are 2 millimeters across and contain some 3,500 micro photodiodes. Placed behind the retina, this collection of miniature solar cells is designed to convert natural light to electrical signals, which are then transmitted to the brain by the remaining healthy parts of the retina.

A Belgian device has a coil that wraps around the optic nerve, with only four points of electrical contact. By shifting the phase and varying the strength of the signals, the coil can stimulate different parts of the optic nerve, rather like the way the electron guns in TVs are aimed at different parts of the screen. The video signals come from an external camera and are transmitted to the implant via a radio antenna and microchip beneath the skin just behind the ear.

Implants of a microchip, smaller than the head of a pin and about half the thickness of a sheet of paper were used to remove blindness.

Engineering details of the Bionic Eye:

First, for visually impaired people to derive the greatest benefit from an enhanced-vision system, the image must be adapted to their particular blind areas and areas of poor acuity or contrast sensitivity. Then the information arriving instantaneously at the eye must be shifted around those areas. The thrust of all prosthetic vision devices is to use an electrode array to give the user perceptions of points of light (phosphenes) that are correlated with the outside world. Thus, to achieve the expected shift of the image across the stimulating electrode array, the camera capturing the image must follow the wearer's eye or pupil movements by monitoring the front of the eye under infrared (IR) illumination. The eye-position monitor controls the image camera's orientation. If the main image-acquisition camera is not mounted on the head, compensation for head movement will be needed, as well. 

Finally, if a retinal prosthesis is to receive power and signal input from outside the eye via an IR beam entering the pupil, the transmitter must be aligned with the intraocular chip. The beam has two roles: it sends power, and it is pulse- or amplitude-modulated to transmit image data. Under the control of eye movement, the main imaging camera for each eye can swivel in any direction. Each of these cameras--located just outside the users' field of view to avoid blocking whatever peripheral vision they might have--captures the image of the outside world and transmits the information through an optical fiber to a signal-processing computer worn on the body.

The surgery!

This concept of Artificial Vision is also interesting to engineers, because there are a number of technicalities involved in this surgery apart from the anatomical part.

The microsurgery starts with three incisions smaller than the diameter of a needle in the white part of the eye. Through the incisions, surgeons introduce a vacuuming device that removes the gel in the middle of the eye and replaces it with saline solution. Surgeons then make a pinpoint opening in the retina to inject fluid in order to lift a portion of the retina from the back of the eye, creating a pocket to accommodate the chip. The retina is resealed over the chip, and doctors inject air into the middle of the eye to force the retina back over the device and close the incisions.

During the entire surgery, a biomedical engineer takes part actively to ensure that there is no problem with the chip to be implanted.

Some facts about Bionic Eyes:

Scientists at the Space Vaccum Epitaxy Centre (SVEC) based at the University of Houston, Texas, are using a new material, comprising tiny ceramic photocells that could detect incoming light and repair malfunctioning human eyes. Scientists at SVEC are conducting preliminary tests on the biocompatibility of this ceramic detector.

The artificial retinas constructed at SVEC consist of 100,000 tiny ceramic detectors, each 1/20th the size of a human hair. The assemblage is so small that surgeons can’t safely handle it. So, the arrays are attached to a polymer film one millimeter in size. After insertion into an eyeball, the polymer film will simply dissolve leaving only the array behind after a couple of weeks.

The Analogy:

There is a great degree of coherence between the way our eyes function to that of a camera. Perhaps – our eyes had been the inspiration behind the camera’s invention. Here’s more about it:

From the structural point of view the eye may be compared with a camera. The eyelids act as a shutter and there is an entrance window for light – the cornea; a diaphragm to regulate the aperture and therefore the amount of light entering – the iris; a lens to focus the image; a darkened interior formed by the choroid, and a light –sensitive plate which receives the image – the retina.

Brain Implants:

There is one more concept similar to Bionic Eyes that is also making waves in the medical field and that is the use of Brain Implants to remove blindness.

In recent years, progress is being made towards sensory substitution devices for the blind. In the long run, there could be the possibility of brain implants. A brain implant or cortical implant provides visual input from a camera directly to the brain via electrodes in contact with the visual cortex at the backside of the head.

If we try to do a fair and objective comparison between auditory display technology and brain implant technology it should first be stressed that result of any comparisons can of course change over time as the respective technologies are further developed and refined.

The Challenges:

There are many very many obstacles to be overcome before Bionic Eyes become a success story. 

Our eyes are perhaps the most sensitive of all organs in the human body. A nano-sized irritant 

can create havoc in the eye. 

There are 120 million rods and 6 million cones in the retina of every 

healthy human eye. Creating an artificial replacement for these is no 

easy task. 

Si based photo detectors have been tried in earlier attempts. But Si 

is toxic to the human body and reacts unfavorably with fluids in the eye. 

There are many doubts as to how the brain will react to foreign signals 

generated by artificial light sensors. 

Infection and negative reaction are the always-feared factors. It is 

imperative that all precautionary measures need to be ascertained.

Conclusion:

Restoration of sight for the blind is no more a dream today. Bionic Eyes have made this true. 

Though there are a number of challenges to be faced before this technology reaches the

 common man, the path has been laid. This paper has tried to present the concept of 

Artificial Vision through a engineers viewpoint. Engineers play a major role in the design 

stage of Bionic Eyes. 

It is just a matter of 4-5 years, that the blind will be able to see through these Bionic Eyes;

 thanks to Science and Technology.

References:               

1.Neural Implants – First Bionic Eyes by Victor Chase.

2.Hitting the Nerve (from the New Scientist).

3.Doctors Test Chips in Eyeballs to Restore Sight from azcentral.com

4.www.dobelle.com

5.Anthony’s textbook of Anatomy and Physiology - Gary A Thibodeau, Kevin T Patton 

6.Science Reporter (December 2004)

Geneva atom smasher sets collision record

The world's largest atom smasher has set a record for high-energy collisions by crashing two proton beams at three times more force than ever before.

The $10 billion Large Hadron Collider directed the beams into each other Tuesday as part of its ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces.

The collisions start a new era of science for researchers working on the machine below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

Scientists at a control room at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, broke into applause when the first successful collisions were recorded. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links.

Pictures Taken At Classroom

The following are the pictures taken today afternoon before the start of our college intra departmental symposium at our classroom....

I am at the middle......

My First Paper Presentation

Hi friends, today is really a miraculous day in My Life... Today I presented my first paper on 'DNA computing'. It's really hard man. When i walked up to the stage i nearly died. On the stage i cant see the audience. I forget the whole thing i studied. But managed to do. Wow, a nice experience. I don't get any price but i participated and appreciated by others. The feedback from the judges are first the paper is based on theory and is not yet discovered and second is there is no references other than websites. This time I learned a lot. By the next time if got chance will do well...

Projects and Papers

Projects and Papers

HI friends..... I have many circuit designs for mini projects and other projects tested and verified and also the paper presentations on my yahoo group and it will be useful for you and make use of it....

Here is the link to access the files.....

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/eliteeceians/files/

India is a Spamming Hub

Wonder where all those annoying spam messages come from? Who sends them? Well, you have got some answers here. Panda Security, a player in antivirus and preventive technologies segment, has stated in its report that India is the world's number two spammer. Surprised? Even we were.

Panda Security has released a report stating that Brazil, India, Korea, Vietnam and U.S. head the list of countries from which most spam was sent during the first two months of the year 2010. With respect to the cities from which spam was being sent, Seoul was first in the list, followed by Hanoi, New Delhi, Bogota, Sao Paulo and Mumbai.

The five million emails analyzed by PandaLabs came from a total of almost one million different IP addresses. This shows that the spam is mostly sent from zombie computers belonging to a botnet. This way, the computers of the infected users themselves are those which send the spam. The cybercrooks have thousands of computers at their disposal, which do the dirty work for them.

Spam is nothing but a business and is used primarily either to distribute malware or sell/advertise all type of products. Therefore, as long as there are users, no matter if they are few, who trust these messages, it's enough to continue betting on it.

Frenchman arrested over hacking Obama Twitter feed

A 25-year-old unemployed Frenchman has been arrested for hacking into the Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and Britney Spears, the pop star.

The man, known by his online pseudonym is Hacker Croll, was arrested on Tuesday in central France, where he lives with his parents. French police and FBI agents had been tracking him for months.

The man is accused of breaking into dozens of Twitter and Google accounts and posting screen shots of private pages on online hacker forums.

Investigators said Hacker Croll used common sense more than hacking skills to penetrate the micro-blogging website by simply guessing users' passwords. He did so by working them out from information on blogs or online pages users had created about themselves, police said.

He struck lucky by answering the "secret question" on web-based email accounts, such as a user's maiden name or the name of his pet, to gain access to Twitter passwords.

But he did not profit financially from his activities on Twitter, a micro-blogging service on which users can send out messages of 140 characters or less to registered followers.

"He was a young man spending time on the internet. He acted as a result of a bet, out of the arrogance of the hacker. He is the type who likes to claim responsibility for what he has done," said the local prosecutor, Jean-Yves Coquillat.

Hacking into a database is a crime in France and carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

The man has been released on bail and is due to appear in court on June 24.

The FBI notified French authorities of the hacker's activities in July after a leading US technology blog, TechCrunch.com, reported that it had received a file containing 310 confidential corporate and personal documents from Hacker Croll about Twitter and its staff.

These included executive meeting notes, partner agreements, financial projections, calendars, phone logs and office plans. The San Francisco-based company at the time confirmed that some documents had been seized but insisted the hacker had not gained access to any of its user accounts.

The hacker had also attacked Facebook pages and email accounts operated by Google and other providers, police said.

Twitter has not responded to the man's arrest and the FBI said it was looking into the report.

Cyber security experts said that Hacker Croll's success should act as a wake-up call to users whose passwords are too short or easy to predict.

Bernard Ourghanlian, cyber security chief of Microsoft France, said a password should be long and contain "at least eight characters and ideally 14 or more". Mixing small and capital letters, numbers and signs such as a question mark make a password almost impossible to crack, he said.

Laser security for the Internet developed

Laser security for the Internet developed and Hacker Proof Internet

Experts have come up with a new security system for Internet using a special laser that may help keep hackers' prying eyes off for good.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed a digital security tool with existing fiber optic and computer technology that transmits binary lock-and-key information in the form of light pulses.

The device, invented by Dr. Jacob Scheuer, TAU's School of Electrical Engineering, allegedly ensures that a shared key code can be unlocked by the sender and receiver, and absolutely nobody else.

Dr. Scheuer explained: "Rather than developing the lock or the key, we've developed a system which acts as a type of key bearer."

The researchers continued: "The trick is for those at either end of the fibre optic link to send different laser signals they can distinguish between, but which look identical to an eavesdropper."

Dr. Scheuer added: "We've already published the theoretical idea and now have developed a preliminary demonstration in my lab. Once both parties have the key they need, they could send information without any chance of detection. We were able to demonstrate that, if it's done right, the system could be absolutely secure. Even with a quantum computer of the future, a hacker couldn't decipher the key."

The findings were due to be presented at the next laser and electro-optics conference at the Conference for Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, California.

Dna Computing

Abstract

Silicon microprocessors have been the heart of the computing world for more than forty years. Computer chip manufacturers are furiously racing to make the next microprocessor that will topple the speed records and in the process are cramming more and more electronic devices on to the microprocessor. Sooner or later the physical speed and miniaturization limits of silicon microprocessors is bound to hit a wall.

Chip makers need a new material to produce faster computing speed with fewer complexities. You won't believe where scientists have found this new material. DNA, the material our genes are made of, is being used to build the next generation of microprocessors. Scientists are using this genetic material to create nano computers that might take the place of silicon computers in the next decade.

A nascent technology that uses DNA molecules to build computers that are faster than the world's most powerful human-built computers is called DNA computing. Molecular biologists are beginning to unravel the information processing tools such as enzymes, copying tools, proofreading mechanisms and so on, that evolution has spent millions of years refining. Now we are taking those tools in large numbers molecules and using them as biological computer processors.

DNA computing has a great deal of advantage over conventional silicon based computing. DNA computers can store billions of times more data than your personal computer. DNA computers Have ability to work in a massively parallel fashion, performing many calculations simultaneously. DNA molecules that provide the input can also provide all the necessary operational energy.

DNA computing has made a remarkable progress in almost every field. It has found the application in fields like biomedical, pharmaceutical, information security, cracking secret codes, etc.

Scientists and researchers believe that in the foreseeable future DNA computing could scale up to great heights.

Introduction

Man's thirst for knowledge has driven the information revolution. Human brain, a master processor, processes the information about the internal and external environment and sends signals to take appropriate actions. In nature, such controls exist at every level. Even in the smallest of the cells has a nucleus, which controls the cell. Where does this power actually come from? It lies in the DNA. The ability to harness this computational power shall determine the fate of next generation of computing.

DNA computing is a novel technology that seeks to capitalize on the enormous informational capacity of DNA, biological molecules that can store huge amounts of information and are able to perform operations similar to that of a computer, through the deployment of enzymes, biological catalysts that act like software to execute desired operations. The appeal of DNA computing lies in the fact that DNA molecules can store far more than any existing conventional computer chip. Also, utilizing DNA for complex computation can be much faster than utilizing a conventional computer, for which massive parallelism would require large amount of hardware, not simply more than DNA.

Structure of DNA

All organisms on this planet are made of the same type of genetic blueprint, which bind us together. Within the cells of any organism is a substance called Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), which is a double-stranded helix of nucleotides, which carries the genetic information of a cell. The data density of DNA is impressive. Just like a string of

binary data is encoded with ones and zeros, a strand of DNA is encoded with four bases, represented by letters A (Adenine), T (Thymine), C (Cytosine) and G (Guanine).

For more please visit the following link and sooner i will post the full paper here...

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/eliteeceians/files/

My Life

My Life...

Here this is all about the student's life...

Hi friends I am starting this blog to help you (me too). Here you can find Paper Presentations, Projects, Career guidances and you can demand your request and if possible, here i afford for you....

Actually I am here trying to build my career and to exchange my ideas and sometimes other's ideas too......

Here I post some of the important links for you the students, Bookmark them it will be really helpful for you........

1. www.maanavan.com

This is the official website Anna university for its students. here you can find the important dates for important exams, previously asked question papers, news regarding Anna University, events news, scholarships, solved question papers and notes. SO make use of it....

2. www.symposiumz.net

The above link provides details about all the symposiums, Technical events, Workshops and other national events(India). This will be helpful for you to build your career and extra curricular activities....