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While Optobionics and MnemoScience are busy adding bits of technology to humans, others are trying to make our machines a bit more like ourselves. Alex Zelinsky, CEO of tiny Seeing Machines, based in Canberra, Australia, has been keeping his eye on road wrecks, which kill 1.26 million people worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization. Working with Swedish carmaker Volvo, Seeing Machines is pairing small, driver-facing dashboard-mounted cameras with pattern-recognition software that analyzes whether the driver's face shows signs of fatigue, a top cause of traffic fatalities. "Our philosophy is that you cannot drive while you're fatigued. It's like driving drunk," says Zelinsky. If the system, called FaceLAB, spots a sleepy operator, an alarm of some sort goes off to rouse the driver. "Windows up and down, vibrating seats and God knows what," he explains. Volvo, which has invested in Seeing Machines, will deploy the technology "in the next few years,'' says Zelinsky, who expects other automakers to follow. He also foresees applications in trains, boats and planes as well as in the military as a way to keep drivers alert during advances, which can last days.
In Silver Spring, Md., the four-year-old research-and-development firm AnthroTronix is also using computer technology to promote well-being. One of the company's main interests is working with children afflicted with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities. Children with these conditions have trouble communicating and coordinating basic bodily movements. So AnthroTronix has come up with a robot called CosmoBot, which can help parents and caregivers teach the kids how to move and interact with others.
Former biomedical-engineering professor Corinna Lathan founded AnthroTronix while on leave from her teaching position at Catholic University in Washington in 1999. "I kept thinking, This needs to be out there, and I can't believe it's not," says Lathan. "When I started working with kids, it was mind-boggling to me, the lack of technology available to them." CosmoBot can help a child by testing motor and verbal skills. The robot plays games like Simon Says and mimics a child's movements. For example, when the child pushes a button on the robot's central-command, or mission-control, box, the robot moves in that direction. The robot also comes with a video game in which a computerized CosmoBot must jump to catch falling stars--an action that requires the child to push buttons and direct the robot on screen.
Sometimes the biggest health advances can come in the form of tiny innovations. In Foster City, Calif., drug company Gilead has a very simple plan to tackle HIV: make the drugs easier to take. The firm gained headway two years ago when it introduced its Viread antiretroviral (HIV is a type of virus known as a retrovirus), which lasts longer than other similar medications and is more convenient for the user. In 2002 Gilead took in an incredible $226 million, almost half its annual revenue, from Viread.