A new “robot soldier” commissioned by the IDF could cut casualty rates among flesh-and-blood troops. Called the Guardium, the four-wheeled robot can be mounted with cameras, night-vision sensors and guns and can be operated from a command room far from combat. A control panel includes two screens, a joystick, a steering wheel and pedals, and it can follow pre-programmed routes through cities or along borders. Not yet in operational service, the robot was developed by G-Nius Unmanned Ground Systems whose director Erez Peled told Ha’aretz: “Representatives of armies with troops who are taking high casualties from threats like roadside bombs get excited about this product.”
A psoriasis drug being developed by an Israeli biotechnology company avoids the common side-effects of existing treatment, its developers claim.
Ze’ev Even-Chen, CEO of DermiPsor, said that existing psoriasis therapies are steroid-based, so cannot be used for prolonged periods. He told bioisrael.com that the company’s drug DPS-101, which was based on non-steroid compounds “with a proven safety file”, has already entered the Phase III stage of clinical trial, just four years after being created in a technology incubator. US-based dermatologists professors Mark Lebwohl and Alice Gotlieb, who reviewed the drug at Phase II, describe it as “very promising”.
Could your rubbish solve the fuel crisis? Israeli start-up TGE Tech has developed a patented device to turn unrecycled waste into syngas, a combustible substance which can be used as a fuel source. Company CEO Jean Claude Ohayon told ISRAEL21C: “One ton of garbage can generate 0.4 kilowatts of electricity an hour, which isn’t a huge amount, but can definitely contribute to the energy pool in a locality.” Mr Ohayon suggested it could power all the street lights and traffic lights in a city on a particular day.
Sophisticated medical images could be sent by mobile phone thanks to a new process developed at the Hebrew University.
Professor Boris Rubinsky’s research could help provide “inexpensive and accessible” radiological diagnoses and treatment to people in developing countries which do not have the necessary technology. Data from a remote patient site, without image-display capability, is connected by mobile-phone technology to a central unit anywhere in the world. The central unit has advanced capacity for image reconstruction, which is then sent back to the patient site.
Israeli security strikes again. Petah Tikva-based Tikal Networks has developed an internet phone that scrambles messages before sending them down the line. The Cryptone phone, which uses coded internet protocol, was developed after a request from the Italian Navy for a secure telecommunications line. Interest has been expressed by spy and military organisations and businesses which fear corporate spying. CEO Alex Argov, told ISRAEL21c: “We create a ‘black hole’ through internet communications and send the voice conversation through that tunnel. Even with a full-blown decryption program on a computer, it would take more than a week to decrypt the key.”