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Brain Surgery Robot Running Linux

Posted by michael on from the brain-fondling dept.

hherb writes "Singapore has developed a robotic brain surgeon. The interesting bit: based on a Linux platform. Well, what else? Who in his right mind would like to have his brain fondled by a MS product?"

7 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. neither ms nor linux by guacamolefoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I only want a human fondling my brain, thank you.

    GF.

    --
    Lots of petrified grits
    1. Re:neither ms nor linux by nervlord1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How is a human more reliable than a computer? I'd trust a computer more. A computer doesn't have a bad day. A computer does not come to work drunk, a computer is either programmed bad, or has a hardware failure, and enough testing can severly reduce that

      --
      Microsoft IIS is to webserving as KFC is to healthy eating
  2. It is not Linux... by kitsook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... matters most. It is the software that do the drilling, cutting etc.

    From the article:
    The speed and precision hinge on the software program written by researchers at NTU's department of mechanical and production engineering.

  3. Unm by mcc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am not sure how comfortable with this i am, not becuase i at all think linux is prone to fail but becuase linux is capable of failing. Kernel panics still happen, like, once in a billion years. Linux just never struck me as an OS you need when, like, it is absolutely essential that absolutely nothing go wrong ever. Like when you are running some kind of control system for an airplane, or controlling a robot drilling holes in people's skulls. I don't think linux or even bsd would be a great choice in those cases, though i sure as hell don't think windows should even be considered given their track record in such situations.

    Aren't there any OSes about at the moment that are like all redundant and correctness-proven and stuff, like with NASA-like failure margins? Wouldn't it be better to be using those instead?

    Is this reasonable of me to say?

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    Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
  4. Funny thing is .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it odd that even though the story has nothing to do with microsoft the company still gets mentioned. Will the linux community ever get over their penis envy of the more successful counterpart? I doubt it.

  5. Re: You confuse safety with uninterrupted operat'n by Telcontar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the OS with the program driving the robot "crashes", the robot will certainly turn itself off. (It is unimaginable that such a product would be designed otherwise.) So nothing dangerous will happen, the operation will just be delayed by a minute until the computer is re-booted.

    Having said that, one might go a different route and produce all the software needed (including the driver itself) using formal methods, if you want 100.00% safety (minus epsilon for human errors in the formal requirement descriptions).

  6. The interesting bit? by dmauer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Okay, maybe I'm just a nut.

    But when someone goes and builds a robot that performs brain surgery (or even, as in this case, parts of brain surgery), how on earth is "The Interesting Part" that it runs Linux?! I, personally, would suppose that the interesting part is that it Does Brain Surgery.

    "Hey, I just designed a program that can perfectly predict storm patterns across north america a year in advance!"
    "Yeah, well, if it runs on Microsoft, go tell someone who cares."

    -d

    --
    === "Some people see the glass as half-empty. Others see it as half-full. I see the glass as too big." -G. Carlin.