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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • While I’m sure the obvious systemic issues contribute to not looking for alternatives, that does sound like largely an issue inherent to optical pulse oximeters. Engineers aren’t miracle workers, they can’t change physics to their liking.

    I’m sure pulse oximeters now are more accurate than they were 20 years ago. The fact we’re still using them is because no alternatives have been found which are as easy to use, reliable, and non-invasive as pulse oximeters, even with the known downsides.







  • Eranziel@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyz[Thread] Mental Math
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    8 months ago

    I mean, that’s easy enough if you’re trying to catch the ball with your face. Usually that’s not the goal, so you’ll be standing slightly to the side or the object is moving toward your stomach. ;)

    Even then, that’s discounting the whole image analysis part of the equation, which your brain does dozens of times per second with incredible accuracy. Your waste bin example would have had to do enough to differentiate the ball from the background, and that definitely qualifies as a complex algorithm.

    ETA: also, closing your hand at the right time does require your brain to know how close the object is, not just that you’ve positioned yourself in its path.


  • I worked on an industrial robot once, and we parked it such that the middle section of the arm was up above the robot and supposed to be level. I could tell from 50 feet away and a glance that it wasn’t, so we checked. It was off by literally 1 degree.

    Degrees are bigger than we think, but also our eyes are incredible instruments.