Curing Chronic Pain without Medication and Other Science New

We usually cover the latest current events around the world. However, enough of tech – what about science? Let’s find out what’s been shaking up the scientific community recently.

Curing Chronic Pain without Medication

Chronic pain affects more than 1.5 billion people around the world. To counter it, most people turn to painkillers and other prescription drugs and, in most cases, end up abusing the medication. Now, researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) have used electrical stimulation to alleviate chronic pain effectively.

Using electrical signals blocks pain signals directly at the spinal cord and spurs the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that controls the reward and pleasure functions of the brain.

“This is the first study to use a wireless electrical device to alleviate pain by directly stimulating the ventral tegmental area of the brain. While still under laboratory testing, this new method does provide hope that in the future we will be able to alleviate chronic pain without the side effects of medications,” said Yuan Bo Peng, Professor of Psychology at UTA.

Facebook Unveils Not-For-Sale 360 Degree Video Camera

Facebook is pretty optimistic about virtual reality after acquiring Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. It seems like a short while ago, however, the company unveiled a 360 degree camera at the Facebook F8 developer conference. But there’s a catch – it’s not for sale.

"We're not planning on getting into the camera business. We're open-sourcing the hardware and software for all of this. If you're a hardware hacker, if you're a professional, we hope that you find in here some solutions that will help you figure out how to contribute back to this ecosystem," said Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer at Facebook.

Called Surround360, the device consists of 17 cameras that can capture 2 hours of 8K "super-high vision" video clip at 60fps. After capturing, the software does the rest and outputs the final 360 degree video which can then be viewed on VR devices like Cardboard, Oculus, Vive, etc. So, if you’re willing to shell out $30,000 for the hardware & software, the Surround360 VR camera will be on GitHub, the popular open-source code repository.

"There's something about how high-quality the experience is that immediately makes you believe in 360 film," Cox adds.

Japan Wants to Use Fingerprints Instead of Credit Cards

In a bid to promote tourism in the country for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Japan has plans to introduce the concept of using fingerprints instead of credit cards.

More than 300 hotels, restaurants and tourist shops are already testing the system in popular tourist destinations around the country. The Aeon Bank in Tokyo will start testing the system by the end of May.

Read more at www.bit.ly/q3newsblog. Q3 Technologies is a large diversified technology company which develops custom mobile applications and software products including cloud applications, enterprise applications across all platforms and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) across various verticals such as healthcare, retail, etc.