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Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Oldest Patient Yet Cure of HIV After Stem Cell Transplant
Oldest Patient Yet Cure of HIV After Stem Cell Transplant
The latest patient, the fourth to be cured in this way, is known as the "City of Hope" patient after the U.S. facility in Duarte, California, where he was treated, because he does not want to be identified. As well as being the oldest, the patient has also had HIV the longest, having been diagnosed in 1988 with what he described as a "death sentence" that killed many of his friends. He has been on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control his condition for more than 30 years. [...] Scientists think the process works because the donor individual's stem cells have a specific, rare genetic mutation which means they lack the receptors used by HIV to infect cells."Scientists think the process works because the donor individual's stem cells have a specific, rare genetic mutation which means they lack the receptors used by HIV to infect cells," adds Reuters.
"After the transplant three and a half years ago, which followed chemotherapy, the City of Hope patient stopped taking ART in March 2021. He has now been in remission from both HIV and leukaemia for more than a year, the team said."
Researchers in Spain also presented a case of a 59-year-old woman who is considered to be in a state of viral remission. "She has now maintained a fully suppressed viral load for over 15 years," reports NBC News. "Unlike the handful of people either cured or possibly cured by stem cell transplants, however, she still harbors virus that is capable of producing viable new copies of itself. Her body has actually controlled the virus more efficiently with the passing years, according to Dr. Juan Ambrosioni, an HIV physician in the Barcelona clinic."
Friday, July 22, 2022
Google to Publicly Test AR Prototypes Starting in August
https://www.roadtovr.com/google-ar-glasses-testing-2022/
By Scott Hayden - Jul 20, 2022
Google announced that the company will be conducting real world tests of its early AR prototypes starting next month.
The company says in a blog post that it plans to to test AR prototypes in the real world as a way to “better understand how these devices can help people in their everyday lives.”
Some of the key areas Google is emphasizing are things like real-time translation and AR turn-by-turn navigation.
“We’ll begin small-scale testing in public settings with AR prototypes worn by a few dozen Googlers and select trusted testers,” the company says. “These prototypes will include in-lens displays, microphones and cameras — but they’ll have strict limitations on what they can do. For example, our AR prototypes don’t support photography and videography, though image data will be used to enable experiences like translating the menu in front of you or showing you directions to a nearby coffee shop.”
Critically, Google says the research prototypes look like “normal glasses.” This was no doubt partially informed by their rocky experience with Google Glass starting in 2013 which spawned the neologism ‘glasshole’ due to the device’s relative high visibility and supposed privacy concerns of wearing a camera. Glass is still around, albeit only for enterprise users.
Google says it wants to take it slow with its AR glasses though and include a “strong focus on ensuring the privacy of the testers and those around them.” Although the units will clearly pack camera sensors to do its job, Google says after translating text or doing turn-by-turn directions, the image data will be deleted unless it will be used for analysis and debugging.
“In that case, the image data is first scrubbed for sensitive content, including faces and license plates. Then it is stored on a secure server, with limited access by a small number of Googlers for analysis and debugging. After 30 days, it is deleted,” the company says in a FAQ on the program.
Testers will also be prohibited from testing in public places such as schools, government buildings, healthcare locations, places of worship, social service locations, areas meant for children (e.g., schools and playgrounds), emergency response locations, rallies or protests, and other similar places. For navigation, testers are also banned from using AR prototypes while driving, operating heavy machinery, and engaging in sports.
Google’s inclusion of displays in its public prototypes is a step beyond Meta’s Project Aria, which started on-campus testing of AR prototypes in 2020 that notably included everything you’d expect from AR glasses but the displays. We’re waiting to hear more about Meta’s Project Nazare however, which are said to be “true augmented reality glasses.”
As for Apple, well, there’s only rumors out there for now on specifications and target launch dates for the company’s MR headset and follow-up AR glasses. It’s clear however we’re inching ever closer to a future where the biggest names in established tech will directly compete to become leading forces in what many have hailed as a class of device which will eventually replace your smartphone.