This smartphone app can detect skin cancer

You can already use your smartphone to do things like hail a pimp ride home or order an artisan pizza, obviously the next step is cancer detection, right? Researchers at the University of Houston think they’ve created a smartphone app that can detect melanoma even better than your doctor. Called DermoScan, the app works by taking a photo of your odd-shaped mole, and then analyzing it to determine if it might be cancerous. Initial testing found that DermoScan was able to identify skin cancer roughly 85 percent of the time, making it just as effective as visiting a dermatologist and even better at diagnosing melanoma than the average primary care physician. Don’t head over to the app store just yet. The app requires a special $500 magnifying glass to make the magic happen — not exactly more cost effective than a trip to the old MD.

It might not make sense for the average American to shell out five bills for the necessary equipment to use DermoScan, but the app could be big news for developing countries and rural areas where there isn’t a primary physician for people to see. One device could potentially diagnose an entire village. Paired with something like Wello’s tricorder-esque iPhone case, an 5S could become a powerful tool in helping an entire town determine if they need to travel to see a doctor — all for less than your average trip to the ER.

Filed under: Wireless, Science, Mobile

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Via: Re/code

Source: EureakAlert

PBS gives parents a way to monitor what kids are watching on its site

The PBS KIDS website is a pretty great hub of entertainment for little ones. And even though there’s nothing but useful learning content to be enjoyed there, PBS still wanted to make it easy for parents to monitor what their kids are doing on the site. Enter PBS KIDS Super Vision, an iOS application which promises to give you, the parent, a powerful tool that lets you do anything from keeping track of what the kids are watching in real-time, to limiting the amount of time they can spend on certain activities.

But this isn’t just about having control over your children. PBS is also going to use Super Vision to recommend things you can be doing with your kids based on the type of stuff they access the most on PBSKIDS.org. Better yet, parents can keep track of all of this via the Activity Summary within the app, which breaks down the educational skills, games, shows and videos that your beloved children use every time they’re logged in. The network says we should expect Super Vision to get even more helpful with time, since it plans to use your feedback to drive features for the app in the future.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: App Store

United States credit card system begins complete overhaul in the next 18 months

The United States is lagging behind most of the world when it comes to credit card technology, but luckily it’s about to catch up. In the next 18 months, the US is gearing up to transition debit and credit cards away from the magnetic stripe to chip-and-PIN technology, which is already widely used in Europe, Asia and beyond. Who can you thank for the long-overdue upgrade? Target, whose data security breach earlier this year highlighted the security flaws in the magnetic stripe system. It’s a 50-year-old technology, after all, and it’s much easier to counterfeit than the computer chip in your next Visa card.

In addition to adding a chip to each of the 1.2 billion credit and debit cards circulating in the US, the rehaul requires upgrading card readers at retail locations, and there’s plenty of incentive for businesses to hop on board with the change. If your local WalMart doesn’t adopt chip and PIN readers, it will be held accountable for any fraudulent face-to-face transactions. Point-of-sale systems used by smaller businesses, such as Square and PayPal here, will need to reissue card scanners as well.

According to research firm Javelin, the upgrade could take about three years, with international and premium cards getting the switch to chip and PIN first. For the record, there are already several cards with the new tech available to Americans, from American Express and JPMorgan Chase among other institutions.

Filed under: Misc

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Via: Bloomberg

New Video for Phonebloks Shows Us Modules Not just for Phones

Phonebloks took the community by storm when the concept was displayed in a video that circulated throughout the internet. It is a beautiful concept of not having to upgrade your entire phone, and only just upgrading the parts you need. This is made possible by the modules that act like LEGO pieces, so if your WiFi antenna breaks, you can just detach it and attach a brand-new one. Project Ara is Google’s take on the concept, and hopefully we will see something innovative come out from them, but in the meantime, let’s dream about the Phonebloks concept not only existing in the phone world.

The video below shows us the Phoneblocks concept being used with common household appliances. Say you need some added storage for your smart appliances, you can easily accomplish this by attaching a new module to one of those appliances. This is where the people behind Phonebloks want to take the technology, and I fully agree with it. To expand the concept to multiple pieces of technology can only be beneficial to us tech enthusiasts. So check out the video below and let us know your thoughts about it.

Source: Android Police