Bionic Hands: Soon we will all be cyborgs

A company in the UK called Touch Bionics, has developed the first artificial hand with individually powered digits. The hand is controlled entirely by the nerves that remain in the patients arm. So a person who has this hand installed can receive almost the full use from the prosthetic that they had from their own original hand. Pretty cool.

Via Engadget: Touch Bionics i-LIMB bionic hand

Tiny generator runs off of vibrations

Scientists at the University of Southampton, UK have created a tiny generator that can harvest electricity off of minuscule vibrations from its environment. It doesn't generate a lot of power, but it does generate enough to power sensors installed on heavy machinery and equipment. Eliminating the need to hook those devices up to a battery.
The scientists hope to be able to miniaturize it further. Allowing it to be placed inside of a human to power devices such as pacemakers. Pacemakers currently have to have their batteries changed periodically. A process that involves surgery. With a generator like this, all of the power needed for the pacemaker could be generated by the beating of the individuals heart.
Between generators powered by vibrations and generators powered by glucose in human blood, we are well on our way to being able to power all the cybernetic devices we might ever need. Using nothing but our own bodies.

Via BBC News: Good vibes power tiny generator

Robotic Falcons to fight Pigeon menace

The city of Liverpool is beginning a campaign to fight the pigeon menace that is plaguing their city. As part of the campaign, they are purchasing 10 robotic falcons to be placed around the city to scare the pigeons away.
The flying rats, as many people are calling them, are all getting fat from eating trash rather than seeds. Their population has also gone through the roof. But rather than killing them, which would seem to be a more logical solution, the city is buying robot falcons to scare them away. I really wonder (sarcasm) how well that is going to work. The robots cost about $4,000 each. So it seems scaring pigeons isn't cheap.
What I would like to see, is a grudge match between Liverpool's robot falcons, and the Chinese cyborg pigeons. That would be fun. LOL

Via Popular Science: Robotic Falcons Take on English Pigeons and
BBC News: Robotic birds scare 'fat' pigeons

Cybernetic memory

Back in the 90s a movie came out called Johnny Mnemonic. The movie was based on a short story of the same name by William Gibson. The short story is actually pretty good, and if you haven't read it, you should. William Gibson writes some of the best cyberpunk stories out there. The movie adaptation sadly wasn't very good. In fact, I would say it was really awful, despite having Keanu Reeves in the staring role.
But all that aside, both the movie and the short story share a common theme, the storage of memories in an implanted cybernetic module hardwired to a persons brain.

It seems that a neuroscientist, Ted Berger, has created the first artificial memory chips and found a way to connect them to living brain cells. He currently has them interacting with rat brain cells. This is the first step towards truly cybernetic enhancement of our own brains. Ted Berger initially sees this as a tool for people with extensive brain damage who seem to have memory problems.

Read the full story at Popular Science: The Memory Hacker

Chinese pigeon cyborgs

A group of Chinese scientists is reporting that they have found a way to control pigeons in flight. they accomplished this by implanting electrodes into the pigeons brain. By sending signals to those electrodes, they can remote control the pigeons while they are flying. The scientists say they have no idea what this technology might be used for, and can't think of any practical reasons for doing this. Basically, in true geek fashion, it sounds like they did it just to see if they could.
You can read about it here and here