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Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

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41–46 of 46 posts

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#41
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't amaze me, the FDA and organisations like it are brilliant (without them the world would be a worse place) but they do put a retard on a lot of the cool stuff by demanding exhaustive testing (which in fairness I can't disagree with, medical stuff isn't a website where you can just patch it later - people will die). It's not a perfect system though as substandard stuff does get through and the barriers to ef…

I think you're supposed to call them mentally handicapped.

I must be unaware of the other meaning of the noun "retard".

As an alternative in this case, I might suggest, "brake".

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#42
I got a glimpse into this when I talked to someone who was following the nightscout program for their child.

http://www.nightscout.info/

They were non-technical people. Yet they had an android phone connected to a medical device using a 3d printed bracket and short usb cable. The android phone was reporting to a windows azure instance. Pebble watch polling the azure instance for updated levels.

The sysadmin in me recoiled at the myriad operational deficiencies and potential failure modes. Yet they don't have a better option. I get that the FDA has standards it has to apply, but I imagine that many things they would reject would still be vastly better than this. Is there a term for 'the risks people will take anyway rather than wait for something perfectly safe'. Like if you make wait times at crosswalks too long will more people get killed crossing the street?

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#43
post #13

Calling a glucose monitoring system with an insulin pump an artificial pancreas is a bit misleading, considering all the other functions the pancreas has.

This also isn't an artificial pancreas because you still have to wear an insulin pump and insulin pumps aren't artificial pancreases. To me, an artificial pancreas acts like the pancreas I already have - it monitors and excretes insulin so I never have to think about what my blood sugar is or think about it dropping low or spiking.

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#44
post #41
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're supposed to call them mentally handicapped.

I must be unaware of the other meaning of the noun "retard". As an alternative in this case, I might suggest, "brake".

Not really, it was the correct word appropriately used.

> Retard - delay or hold back in terms of progress or development.

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#45
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be unaware of the other meaning of the noun "retard". As an alternative in this case, I might suggest, "brake".

Not really, it was the correct word appropriately used. > Retard - delay or hold back in terms of progress or development.

Yes, and that's "retard", the verb. A totally different word! (Maybe it depends on dialect, but as I've always heard it spoken, it doesn't even sound the same.)

"They do put a retard" - here, the word "retard" is used in a noun position. Therefore, it is a noun. Therefore, it must refer (and with an implication of cruel disaparagement) to somebody who is mentally handicapped.

I wonder if they use the same person each time?

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#46
post #18

While I am a big fan of DIY bio, my experience with Raspberry Pis is that they are highly prone to failure. Becoming dependent on a device- that is, expecting it to work with close to 100% reliability- and then using a device that is easy to disable and prone to failure (I run a fleet of Pis and they mangle their SD cards a lot)- seems like wishful thinking. It may work 95% of the time, but that's not good enough. Th…

I'll just leave this here: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?tag=mediatek
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