Gadgetory

need to get your head examined this new virtual reality technology makes it a no-brainer hope you guys like brain teasers welcome to what the future on today's show brain surgery goes VR robotic skins let you turn inanimate objects into robots and a Rubik's Cube that solves itself we're diving in headfirst let's get to it for a long time surgeons have had to rely on two-dimensional MRI and CT scans to get a look inside a patient's brain but that's changed thanks to a new use of virtual reality technology called snap which stands for surgical navigation advanced platform made by a company called surgical theater it combines traditional 2d brain scans to create a 3d model of a patient's brain that can be explored in virtual reality for patients and their families this technology makes these complex and frightening processes easier to understand brain tumors aneurysms malformations and blood vessels can all be easily observed vr also allows surgeons to test different approaches with virtual surgical tools so that they can find the best entry point close to the targeted area and with the least probability of causing damage to the brain the technology was cleared by the fda in 2013 and is being tested in research hospitals right now so far it's been used in over 6,000 surgeries who the heck wants to carry a bunch of heavy robots into space not NASA that's why researchers at Yale have developed these robotic skins instead of spending the money transporting several bulky robots into space to perform different tasks these robotic skins allow astronauts to create simple functional robots on the fly here you can see three different examples of ways these robots can move the skins are modular meaning you could combine several skins to create more complex motions the Yale research team isn't stopping it inanimate objects want to improve your posture just wrap some robotic skins around your back to prevent slouching in this configuration the skin can give you a tactile reminder to sit back up when you slouch past a certain threshold last but not least the Rubik's Cube that doesn't need any help from you Takashi kaburagi is the mastermind behind the world's smartest rubik's cube he spent two years making this dream a reality just listen to his reaction when it solved itself for the first time there's something oddly soothing about watching this little robotic cube spinning around trying to sort itself out sometimes in its efforts to set itself right it veers off course into danger luckily for the cube there's a loving hand to guide it back to safety if only all of life's problems could sort themselves out with such grace it's time for a question from one of our viewers Gio hard asked us on Facebook where can I buy a self solving Rubik's Cube thanks for the question Gio unfortunately you can't at least not yet for now the only way to get the sweet satisfaction of a salt cube is to do it yourself there are lots of tutorials online so I'm sure you can figure it out jump down to the comments and let us know what makes you say WTF that's all for this week I'm Jessie Orel we'll see you next time on what the future