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Brain Surgery Robot Running Linux
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?"
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The same reason computers don't fly commuter flights is the same reason they don't do heart surgery. Sure, they might assist some of it, but when something unexpected comes up, humans are able to come up with more creative ways to solve problems.
~S
... to let this thing operate on him if he were ever diagnosed with a brain tumor?
Would any of you kernel hackers feel safe if your own code operated on your brain?
But when the expected is occurring, a well-programmed robot is consistently better than a human. "Well-programmed" is the key. Of course, you still need an expert watching the machine because the machine can't tell whether what's happening is expected or unexpected.
Overall, I'd say this is one more example of better health care at higher prices - you pay for the brain surgeon AND the robot, but your surgery is more likely to be successful.
One hospital in Denmark is currently making knee operations using a programmed robot. The success rate for the "robot surgeon" were far above that of human surgeons.
In case anything goes wrong a human surgeon is standing by.
My brother once was anesthetized for lithotripsy to break up his kidney stones when the machine broke down. He was sitting there, basically unable to move his lower body, while the medical staff was placing ice on the machine, which had overheated. No techinicians were available, so eventually they sent him to recovery without having anything performed. Not quite BSOD, but it has to be unnerving watching people try to ice down a machine which they intend to use on your body.