One form of 3D printing technology is made up of inkjet printing systems. Fine powder layers made of resins, corn starch or plaster is bonded selectively on adhesives produced by the inkjet print heads. This kind of technology makes it possible to print a full color prototype and is considered to be one of the fastest methods.

Another technology involves the use of machines that feed liquids like photopolymer using an inkjet print head to create every layer of the model. This kind of photopolymer machine uses an ultraviolet flood lamp that is placed on the print head so that each layer is cured once it is deposited.

Fused deposition modeling is also used as a 3D technology and is mainly applied is traditional prototyping. This technology makes use of nozzles to place the molten polymer on a support structure. The molten polymer has to be deposited layer by layer.

Selective fusing is also a 3D printing technology that involves the use of printing media on a granular bed. In this type of technology, the media that is not fused is used to provide support for overhangs and thin walls in the areas that are being produced. This reduces the need to use auxiliary supports to hold the workpiece. A laser is used for sintering the media to create a solid.

Some companies use 3D micro fabrication which involves tracing the 3D object that you want to create on a gel block using a focused laser. The gel will only become solid on the parts where the laser is focused. [Source]

Artificial corneal implants proved to be beneficial because: it caters for the huge number of people who are waiting for corneal transplants and operations for instance Europe has a waiting list of over 40000 people and a worldwide list of 10 million. They are also biocompatible ensuring that there are no complications when in contact with the eye surface. In cases where traditional corneal transplants (also referred as corneal grafts) have failed to work, artificial cornea can be used. The risk of getting diseases from donors is also reduced. It prevents astigmatism and enhances rapid visual recovery.  Additionally, they are useful to patients who have not qualified to get living cornea donors.

The artificial cornea implants are made from hydrophilic polymer and protein. The hydrophilic polymer is capable of surviving thermal sterilization of the cornea without getting damaged. It coats the artificial implant which covers the optical front and is at most times moistened by tear fluid. This enables it to move freely with the eyelid. The device is clear and rim shaped. Similarly, in modern cases the artificial cornea has an optically clear central core, porous and a biocompatible skirt the covers the periphery of central core. The central core is made of an inter-penetrating double network of hydrogel. It is nowadays made of a polymerizing double network hydrogel. However, when performing the implants, there are stringent conditions. The most important of this is that it has to fit the human eye around its edges and stay unclouded by the cells at its center. If this goes wrong then the vision becomes blurred and the patient will be required to get a new prosthesis after a short period of time.

Further developments and technology in the world of cornea implant and transplant include the introduction of lasers which provide accurate incisions during surgical operations, the bioengineering method of using stem cells to create corneas and its components. The stem cells are surgically stitched into the patient’s eye around the damaged part.  The DSEK is also another method to treat the dreaded cornea diseases and injuries. Further Information.

There are extensive projects that are being undertaken to sensitize the artificial corneal implants like the EU project to produce artificial cornea has boosted the efforts of Joachim Storsberg of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Germany. His work has led to creation of new versions of the artificial corneal implants which has proven to have fewer risks in terms of injuries to the eyes.

The hippocampus underpins the ability of a person’s mind to navigate, form, recollect memories and imagine future experiences. The mind reading and scanning is done by using multivariate pattern classification and high resolution functional MRI to decode activities across the population of neurons in the human medial temporal lobe while the participants navigate in a virtual reality environment. The position of an individual can be predicted accurately even when the visual input and task are held constant. Reading precise locations or other types of memory is difficult because fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) resolves the activity of thousands of neurons at a time.

There are companies that are developing softwares that can be used to determine what people are thinking about. This analyzes the magnetic resonance imaging scans to determine which parts of the brain are being activated when a person thinks. This guesses which of the two words the person was thinking about. This could help disabled people to communicate or lead to mind controlled devices. The vision of this technology is interfacing information to the device and other people without having an intermediary device. It scans the brain while a person is thinking of several nouns. When choosing the subject is asked to pick the nouns the software uses the earlier results to determine what the subject is thinking.

Brain reading can also be used in the visual aspect of a subject. It is able to see the contents of someone’s visual experiences. It is used for dream analysis and psychotherapy. It has been used to explain how the human visual system works. In the predictive response the subject are given several discrete of pictures then the scan is used to determine the picture the person is looking at. However this works when they are few pictures and when the subjects’ response to the pictures is already known. The complex response is the next step that involves the interpretation of what a person is seeing without having a set of known images. This requires a very good model of the brain, better measure of brain activity and better understanding of how the processes things like shapes and colors seen in complex daily images. Brain reading is mainly used in medical and psychotherapy treatments and analysis of human brain and the responsive activities of the brain. Complete brain reading and scanning has not been fully successful so far and researchers are still in the process of formulating better approaches that will help in complex brain reading and scanning of the human brain. [Source]

But perhaps one of the latest inventions, that is a clear manifestation of humans getting even closer to humans, is a machine that has been made and which can imitate the human voice. The machine was invented as part of a completion, for the Artificial Conversational Entities, known as the ACE. Several machines that could imitate the human voice were entered for the competition and the winner was really awesome. During the competition, judges selected some of the five best machines and competed for five minutes, to get the best. This comprised if a five minute kind of interrogation, where there were unrestricted conversations with the machines, which tried to pass of as human beings. So real did these machines sound, that one would not tell whether one was a machine, or a human being.

However, the competition organized borrowed from original one performed by Alan Turin in the year 1950. Alan came up with his seminal paper, where he observed that if during the test for the conversation by the machine, a machine is found to be very similar to the human voice, then the machine could be said to be thinking and as such possess intelligence. But in this recent competition, any machine that was able to fool over 30% of the human interrogators was deemed to have passed the test. It is also worth noting that any of the machine that was identified by the interrogators as having passed, did have conversational ability score of around 80 – 90%.

The fact that this competition attracted many entries from all over means that it was indeed a thorough competition, where only the best were considered. The winner of the competition, dubbed as the Loebner Prize, pocketed a cool US$ 3000 in cash. It was observed that if a machine could score an average of 80 or 90% in terms of sounding like the human voice, then this was an indication of greater things to come. This is was a milestone in the field of communication and means that in the near future, we could have machines that communicate with us in a language we understand, without sounding like they’re really machines. Such technology is expected to be incorporated in the making of robots. In other words, robots could not only be able to follow orders given to them, they will also be able to talk and respond to human communications.

Researchers are now working on software that will help them design a perfect and functional robotic hand. This is being done by using artificial intelligence, coupled with advanced software, which means that the robotic hand will have the ability to learn new things and perfect them.

These Vibro wind panels will work like the solar panels do, where they will be fitted on top of buildings, where they will not only generate electricity, but will also convert even minor wind breezes. Unlike windmills and turbines that need plenty of space for them to be installed, the Vibro wind panels will herald a new dawn, where smaller and equally effective wind set ups will be used. It is worth noting that this project is being done in conjunction with engineers and architects, to ensure that it does not flop. This is also meant to ensure that the mechanical energy is easily converted to electrical energy. Conversion of the mechanical energy to electrical energy is being made possible by using a piezoelectric transducer.

The transducer used is a type of device which is usually made of ceramic or even polymer. Basically, it works by emitting some electrons when it is stressed.  But the scientists and researchers developing these Vibro wind set up, are also looking into alternatives to the piezoelectric transducer. In other words, they are also checking and evaluating the feasibility of using electromagnetic coils rather than the transducer. However, the advantages and disadvantages of using the latter are still being accessed, before a final decision is made.

The truth of the matter is that Vibration energy has been there for many years now, only that governments and policy makers have not accorded the necessary resources in making it better. But this form of generating electricity is ideal since it is clean, renewable, and does not pollute the environment in the slightest way. Once complete, this project has the ability to provide many households with clean and affordable electricity. Besides, it could set the precedent for better things to come, since the technology could be used elsewhere. Analysts observe that in the near future, soldiers for example will not need the heavy and bulky batteries they carry, and instead, they will make use of electrical energy as they walk. Even civil engineers, who usually rig buildings with sensors that can detect fires, may rely on vibration energy too to power those sensors. Otherwise, vibration energy is not a difficult concept, and is the same energy contained when a wind blows, and the leaves move and flutter.