Thanks Stem Cells! Vision Restored!

Attempted hero, Russell Turnbull, lost most of the sight in his right eye. At 25, Russel after tried to break up a fight on a bus and ended up being sprayed in the eye with ammonia. For him, the reward for said heroism was what’s known as Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency.

Nature.com - Limbal stem cells act as a physiological barrier to the ingress of conjunctival cells across the cornea. Deficiency leads to conjunctivalisation of the cornea, with the epithelium being of conjunctival phenotype typified by goblet cells, surface irregularity, and vascularisation.

This affliction which caused him great pain, is all behind him now. Russel went through a grafting procedure which removed healthy tissue from his fully functioning left eye, and had it implanted into his winkey, ammonia sprayed, right eye. To see him muttering out his description of the fight and taking an eye exam, check out the video below.

The video states that the procedure was performed 3 years ago, so I don’t know if it took that long for his vision to return or if news of it’s working took 3 years to make it’s way state side. He’s still wearing glasses too, so I wouldn’t recommend anyone running out and getting it done just yet. I also recommend that, if some bloke is acting a fool on the bus, just hit him in the head from behind with a cricket stick. That’s what they play over there, right? Cricket?

Link -via Engadget, Channel4

Unreal Engine on the iPhone?

So this un-named person at AnandTech met with Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games recently and was allowed to play with an iPod Touch running an Unreal Engine 3 demo loaded on it. Looks cool so far. The control scheme needs to be worked out though, (as playing a first person shooters with your thumbs blocking a third of the screen can’t possibly help your kill score). People who’ve tested it must have said the same thing since Mark stated that they are experimenting with different control schemes.

As of now, there is a virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen which is used for controlling movement, while the camera is tracked by moving your right thumb around the screen. To fire, just tap the screen. I don’t know what they’re doing for jump, maybe ackwardly shaking the device. Here’s a video of the demo, looks fun but pointless since there is only a single respawning enemy.

So why is this interesting, you ask? Well, perhaps it’s because Epic is planning to make the engine available to licensees in the near future; allowing anyone and their mom, (who can afford the license), to make a decent looking game on a mobile device. The current engine doesn’t run on the iPhone 2G or 3G as it requires  OpenGL ES 2.0.

From AnandTech - “For Epic, expanding UE3 into the portable market makes a lot of sense – it will eventually increase the base of paying UE licensees as well as help move the entire portable gaming industry forward… by releasing iPhone and other portable versions of UE3 it helps secure Epic’s position as a supplier of game engines, regardless of platform“.

Epic is looking to the future and never looking back, so too bad for you folks who jumped on the bandwagon early, (HAHA). Mark also said that Epic is going to be seeing the engine on another mobile platform at CES. Could that mean UT or Gears of War on Android? We’ll have to wait an see.

Art Lebedev’s See-Thru Truck Concept

I’ve been begging for this to be invented since I went on my first road trip with my parents. I really wanted to see it once I started driving in LA traffic. If you don’t know, these trucks are always in the way and prevent drivers from being able to see what’s happening in front of you at all. This tech needs to be rolled out and made mandatory ASAP. I got really excited a few years ago when that kid made the “invisible cloak” with essentially the same technology. Alas, I waited and apparently will continue to wait as this is only a concept. Once someone can find a way to make a profit by selling them, I’m running for office to make sure these become required in California. Now that I think about it, wouldn’t it be great if you could hack the image displayed? I definitely wouldn’t mind watching some summer CGI blockbuster on this while heading to Mammoth.

Head over to Art Lebedev’s site to check out their other concepts and gadgets.