Openwater’s breakthrough portable MRI could get around smartphone pricing. They will need improved AI so that reading of the MRI image does not require thousands of dollars in training.
Openwater is creating MRI-resolution wearables that leverage consumer electronics manufacturing facilities and techniques with a physics breakthrough based on a now half-century-old technique, mostly forgotten, and re-invented every decade or so by a group that didn’t know about the previous go-arounds. They figured out how to build this half-century-old physical principle into consumer electronic devices that can be made in the world’s high volume manufacturing facilities and also leverage the awesome compute power and AI methods we have at our fingertips today.
The result can drive the size and cost of the best medical imaging systems down to consumer electronic prices. They will not guarantee the first systems that they ship hit smartphone pricing; in our first products they may choose to cover development and amortization expenses. Yet at volume production, they see no reason why they can not achieve consumer electronics pricing. As the systems evolve they can ultimately both read (image) and write (perform surgery, ablate, provide targeted therapy, accelerate drug testing, etc) to specific areas of the body or scan the entire body. And beyond.
The very same systems can be used to read thoughts and pull the images that you are thinking of, the words that you are about to say, and whether you are really listening to what I’m saying or no. This has been shown for the past 5 years by dozens of research groups using fMRI machines to do this. These fMRI machines image 10 cubic mm voxels of oxygen use in the brain to achieve these results. Openwater systems can go well beyond this.
Openwater is a moonshot to telepathy; to reading and writing thoughts and connecting our minds directly to each other and to our computer networks. Our approach is incremental – we are enabling a suite of products along the way towards our moonshot that can be transformational in healthcare.
Some of the best diagnostic tools in healthcare are the multi-million dollar MRI, PET and CT scanners that can see inside of our bodies at high resolution. They diagnose conditions, more accurately than was possible before, earlier than possible before, and save millions of lives.
At Openwater, theyare transforming diagnostic imaging tools to make them widely available and portable. The portability together with low cost enable something not yet possible – continuous monitoring of the body with high-resolution images of our insides. We are working to provide high-resolution continuous imaging systems that leapfrog the room-size multi-million dollar systems of today and can be deployed in homes, ambulances, doctor’s offices, and throughout the developing world. That means better, faster and cheaper – lowering the cost from millions of dollars to consumer electronics levels all in the size of a portable.
They are creating a wearable with the resolution of a multi-million dollar MRI system that can fit into a ski hat, a bandage, or a piece of clothing. This could enable diagnosis of all kinds of conditions from cancers, to clogged arteries, to internal bleeding to never-before-possible monitoring of brain diseases – from mental diseases to neurodegenerative diseases that currently disable approximately one billion people globally and account for together, by far, the highest healthcare expenditure in the world. Non-invasive continuous monitoring of neurological conditions can enable better care, better therapy, the ability to titrate therapy or localize therapy and will likely help us better understand and someday cure mental diseases and neurodegenerative diseases.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
$20 says that millions of naive morons will hook their system up to some sort of social media site (Brainbook) and then 5 years later it turns out that various groups were using the data for commercial and political manipulation. Much whining and shock to follow. Who could have known? How could we have prevented this? There should be a law! Exact reaction depends on whether the manipulation was more successfully done by right-think or wrong-think political parties.
$20 says that millions of naive morons will hook their system up to some sort of social media site (Brainbook) and then 5 years later it turns out that various groups were using the data for commercial and political manipulation. Much whining and shock to follow. Who could have known? How could we have prevented this? There should be a law! Exact reaction depends on whether the manipulation was more successfully done by right-think or wrong-think political parties.
When I read an article on Elon Musk’s Neuralink a while back, I had the idea of a future social network where people could share full experiences, instead of photos and text. Other users could then view these as if they were experiencing them themselves, first-hand. There could be major societal implications from that, including better mutual understanding and empathy. But as you correctly note, there are also serious privacy and other concerns.
When I read an article on Elon Musk’s Neuralink a while back I had the idea of a future social network where people could share full experiences instead of photos and text. Other users could then view these as if they were experiencing them themselves first-hand. There could be major societal implications from that including better mutual understanding and empathy. But as you correctly note there are also serious privacy and other concerns.
When I read an article on Elon Musk’s Neuralink a while back, I had the idea of a future social network where people could share full experiences, instead of photos and text. Other users could then view these as if they were experiencing them themselves, first-hand. There could be major societal implications from that, including better mutual understanding and empathy. But as you correctly note, there are also serious privacy and other concerns.
$20 says that millions of naive morons will hook their system up to some sort of social media site (Brainbook) and then 5 years later it turns out that various groups were using the data for commercial and political manipulation.
Much whining and shock to follow. Who could have known? How could we have prevented this? There should be a law! Exact reaction depends on whether the manipulation was more successfully done by right-think or wrong-think political parties.