The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems

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“Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Well-being with Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (A/IS) represents the collective input of several hundred participants from six continents who are thought leaders from academia, industry, civil society, policy and government. The goal of Ethically Aligned Design is to advance a public discussion about how we can establish ethical and social implementations for intelligent and autonomous systems and technologies, aligning them to defined values and ethical principles that prioritize human well-being in a given cultural context.”

Source: https://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/ec/autonomous_systems.html

Request for public input (by 12 March 2018) : “Public comments are invited on the second version of Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Well-being with Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (A/IS) that encourages technologists to prioritize ethical considerations in the creation of such systems.”

HP Notebook and Mobile Workstation Battery Safety Recall (worldwide)

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“In January 2018, in cooperation with various government regulatory agencies, HP announced a worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program for certain notebook computer and mobile workstation batteries. These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers. For this reason, it is extremely important to check whether your battery is affected.”

Source: https://batteryprogram687.ext.hp.com/en-GB/Home/ProgramSummary

“HP has received eight reports of battery packs overheating, melting, or charring, including three reports of property damage totaling $4,500, with one report of a minor injury involving a first-degree burn to the hand,” CSPC said in a statement

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/hp-laptop-battery-alert-were-recalling-these-models-due-to-overheating-fears/

 

Product safety recall: Marlee Watch Co — Children’s Timepiece Watches | Product Safety Australia

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What are the defects?

The backing of the watch may detach if dropped.

What are the hazards?

Small parts, including the battery can be exposed if the back is removed. If young children gain access to the button batteries and ingest them, they may suffer internal burn injuries, which can result in serious illness and even death. In addition, the batteries may pose a choking hazard to young children.

 

Source: Marlee Watch Co — Children’s Timepiece Watches | Product Safety Australia

‘Electronic skin’ takes wearable health monitors to the next level: A soft, stick-on patch collects, analyzes and wirelessly transmits a variety of health metrics from the body to a smartphone — ScienceDaily

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The electronic skin contains about 50 components connected by a network of 250 tiny wire coils embedded in protective silicone. The soft material enables it to conform to body, unlike other hard monitors. It wirelessly transmits data on movement and respiration, as well as electrical activity in the heart, muscles, eyes and brain to a smartphone application.

The entire system is powered wirelessly rather than being charged by a battery.

Source: ‘Electronic skin’ takes wearable health monitors to the next level: A soft, stick-on patch collects, analyzes and wirelessly transmits a variety of health metrics from the body to a smartphone — ScienceDaily

Electric Shock Drowning: Causes and Prevention, G. S. Cargill III, eBook – Amazon.com

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Available as an e-book from Amazon

A short book but I highly recommend it to electric safety experts. USA-centric, but the principles can be built on for other geographies.

Victoria’s Secret Liquid Glitter Phone Case Recall | Product Safety Australia

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What are the defects?

The phone case contains white spirit (turpentine). If the plastic phone case is cracked or broken the fluid contained in the case can leak out.

What are the hazards?

In some individuals, contact with the fluid from the phone case may cause skin irritation (redness, soreness and rashes). Prolonged exposure can cause chemical burns.

Source: Victoria’s Secret — Victoria’s Secret Liquid Glitter Phone Case (various designs) | Product Safety Australia

David Schwebel – product injury prevention through predicting child behaviour

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Interview podcast and transcript with Professor David Schwebel of the University of Alabama on product injury prevention through predicting child behaviour.

“Children naturally learn about the world by trying things and therefore we have to assume that our products will be tried and explored and sometimes used improperly.”

Source: Podcast interview – David Schwebel – Product Safety Solutions

IBM Watson Makes a Treatment Plan for Brain-Cancer Patient in 10 Minutes; Doctors Take 160 Hours – IEEE Spectrum

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IBM’s Watson for Genomics took just 10 minutes to analyze a brain cancer patient’s genome and suggest a treatment plan, where human experts took 160 hours to make a comparable plan. IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform, with its natural language processing abilities, was able to go through 23 million journal articles currently in medical literature, government listings of clinical trials, and other existing data sources without requiring someone to reformat the information and make it digestible.

Source: IBM Watson Makes a Treatment Plan for Brain-Cancer Patient in 10 Minutes; Doctors Take 160 Hours – IEEE Spectrum

Fidget spinner recalled for failing the button battery test

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“Fidget Spinners help people channel their nervous energy into a toy conducive to one-hand fidgeting. Think of them as the modern equivalent of a stress ball. But a model … that features LED lights has been recalled for failing to conceal its button battery securely. Infants who swallow a button battery are exposed to serious health risks, warns Product Safety Australia.”

Source: Fidget spinner recalled for failing the button battery test

RELATED ARTICLES:

Fidget spinners probe launched in WA after reported eye injury, battery size concerns:

“An investigation has been launched …after an 11-year-old boy in Victoria reportedly suffered a serious eye injury from one of the models. A 10-year-old girl in the United States has also reportedly swallowed a small part of one of the models.”

Source: “http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-19/fidget-spinners-probe-launched-in-wa/8540730

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Fidget spinners banned in schools after boy almost loses eye – Kidspot

“He threw the spinner up a little higher,” Molly said, “and he didn’t manage to catch the spinner but it came down and clipped the corner of his eye and crunch. He was very lucky not to lose his eyesight let alone his eyeball.”

Source: http://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/warnings-over-fidget-spinners-after-aussie-school-boy-nearly-loses-his-eye

Are Fidget Spinners Bad for You? Texas Girl Has Surgery After Swallowing Metal Toy Part

A young girl aged 10 in Houston was taken “to the emergency room after the girl swallowed part of her fidget spinner. (She) had put a metal piece of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it, and it went down her throat. (She was taken) to the Texas Childrens Hospital, where an X-ray revealed the part—called a bushing—was stuck in her esophagus. The girl had to have surgery to “endoscopically locate and remove the object,” which was about the size of a quarter…

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/fidget-spinners-injuries-kids-choking-611491

Grandmother warns popular toy could be a choking hazard | WSB-TV

She had just bought her 3 year old grandson the Fidget Spinner, and he and his mother were riding with her in the car. “He was playing with it going down the road,” then the child’s mother noticed the spinner had come apart and the child had the parts in his hand, including a small battery that lights up.

Source: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/grandmother-warns-popular-toy-could-be-a-choking-hazard/517930032

 

IBM Researchers Store Data on a Single Atom

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IBM announced it has created the world’s smallest magnet using a single atom – and stored one bit of data on it. Currently, hard disk drives use about 100,000 atoms to store a single bit.

Source: IBM News room – 2017-03-08 IBM Researchers Store Data on World’s Smallest Magnet — a Single Atom – United States

How they did it: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2017/03/meet-ibm-nanoscientists/

Dell, unlikely protector of the oceans | News | Eco-Business | Asia Pacific

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The computing giant wants to create a global market from ocean-bound plastic, with Asia as its main production base.

Source: Dell, unlikely protector of the oceans | News | Eco-Business | Asia Pacific

Are lead bullets at shooting ranges a health risk?

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bullets picThere are calls to ban lead bullets at shooting ranges due to the potential health risks.

Lead released when people fire weapons at shooting ranges creates such a health risk that lead bullets should be phased out, according to new research.

Source: Are lead bullets at shooting ranges a health risk? | Safe To Work

Death of child from falling television – Coroner’s Report (West Australia)

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Two-year old Jasmine died at the Emergency Department of Fremantle Hospital on 11 February 2013 due to an injury to her chest caused by a television set falling on her.

She had been known to climb the wooden cabinet in the family room of her home to get closer to the television set that was placed upon it. While the her mother was temporarily out of the room, the child climbed on top of the 65 cm high wooden cabinet and then fell backwards to the floor, with the 37 inch LED television set also falling and landing on top of her. As a result she sustained a fatal injury to her chest.

The television set had been purchased new from the store in 2010 when Jasmine was about three months old. It weighed 15.8 kilograms. The heaviest part was at the base, being the part that impacted upon Jasmine’s torso.

Jasmine weighed approximately 21 kilograms and was 80 centimetres in height. She would not have been able to reach and pull the television set down by standing next to the cabinet.

Her death was preventable, and the inquest focused on drawing the public’s attention to the potential risk posed to a young child of a television set becoming unstable and toppling over.

The State Coroner found that she died from a chest injury, and death occurred by way of accident. The State Coroner highlighted the dangers of not adequately securing television sets to a fixed point.

Full report PDF available from the Source: Inquest into the Death of Jasmine Lilian CAMMERILLI