Robots are most definitely helpful, and they have certainly assisted in ensuring the industrial revolution has moved at a breakneck pace. Most factories these days have robots do all the heavy lifting at assembly lines, although these robots are more of machines than the common bipedal form factor that science fiction movies employ. Robots in the realm of medicine, too, have helped surgeries be more efficient than ever before. Well, here we are today presented with the Veebot, a robot that is capable of drawing human blood.
Veebot also happens to be the name of the very same California start-up behind it, where it will merge robotics alongside image-analysis software in order to locate the most ripe vein possible in your arm before it starts with the blood drawing process. It will first restrict the blood flow to your arm in order to have some veins pop up (hopefully), before an infrared light is shone on your skin while a camera gets to work by looking for a suitable vein. Before it plunges in the needle, ultrasound is used to ensure that it is an actual vein and not something else. The entire blood drawing process takes up to a single minute, and is said to come with an 83% accuracy in locating a vein. Veebot will need to touch 90% accuracy levels before it can proceed with clinical trials, now that is certainly going to induce a sigh of relief, no? [Veebot Page]
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