 |
|
Ambient Experience Suite For KIDS Link The Ambient Experience suite uses Philips' electronics to create a patient-friendly environment for children undergoing medical scans.  Featuring a computed tomography scanner in a room with curved walls, it lets young patients choose a theme for the room by waving a radio frequency card over a reader to project cartoons and animation themes onto the walls and ceiling using Philips technology. They can also use the Kitten Scanner which will let them "scan" a stuffed elephant or their own toys at the touch of a button. Animation appears on a screen that shows children what doctors are looking for inside the toy and tells them a story about each one. The aim is to show them how the machine works and help ease any anxiety they may be feeling. Ambient Experience recently won a gold medal in the annual Industrial Design Excellence Award. [ permanent link to this entry ]
House_n Link From the website: "The widespread adoption of digital technologies is leading to profound changes in how we communicate with others,shop for goods and services,receive news,manage our finances,learn about the world, participate in politics,deliver and receive medical care,conduct business,manage resources,find entertainment,and maintain autonomy as we age.Increasingly,these activities will take place directly in the home. As our notion of banks,bookstores,universities,communities,and cities change in response to new technologies,the home will take on extraordinary new importance". [ permanent link to this entry ]
Flexible Smart Paper Link Fujitsu just announced a new form of "bendable color electronic paper," one that maintains its image without electricity. While Fujitsu sees it as a medium for price tags, menus and advertisements inside trains, it seems to me this would be ideal for low-power-consumption wireless mobile devices used largely to display text and static images (smart paper technology can't yet refresh fast enough for appealing animations). It also has obvious uses in wearable systems, as well as for "environmental" displays on walls, tables, and the like. The target for commercial release is late 2006-early 2007. The question, of course, is how much it will cost.  [ permanent link to this entry ]
Wiring the Brain at the Nanoscale Link Researchers from NYU medical school, the University of Tokyo and the MIT have demonstrated a technique that may one day allow doctors to monitor individual brain cells and perhaps provide new treatments for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's. In an experiment, the team guided platinum nanowires into the vascular system of tissue samples, and then used the wires to detect the activity of individual neurons lying adjacent to the blood vessels.  They envision connecting an entire array of nanowires to a catheter tube that could then be guided through the circulatory system to the brain. Once there, the wires would spread and branch out into tinier and tinier blood vessels until they reached specific locations. Each nanowire would then be used to record the electrical activity of a single nerve cell or small groups of them. If the technique works it would be a boon to scientists who study brain function. The technique could also help pinpoint damage from injury and stroke, localize the cause of seizures, and detect brain abnormalities. Better still, the nanowires could deliver electrical impulses as well as receive them. One challenge is to precisely guide the nanowire probes to a predetermined spot. One promising solution is to use new conducting polymer nanowires. The polymers conduct electrical impulses, change shape in response to electric fields, are 20 to 30 times smaller than the platinum ones and will also be biodegradable, and therefore suitable for short-term brain implants. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Beijing Clinic Treats Online Addicts Link The context to this statement is the convergence of the virtual and the physical worlds and the proliferation of multiple identities and online avatars. Although not putting as fine a point on it, this news story from Personal TechPipeline describes how the Chinese government has begun to deal with the issues. The Chinese government has opened a computer- and game-addiction clinic in Beijing. Many of the clinic's patients are teenagers who play online computer games so obsessively they don't sleep enough and end up losing weight. The clinic's treatments include electric shock therapy and a mystery medicine delivered through an I.V. that a nurse refused to discuss with an AP reporter. [ permanent link to this entry ]
|
 |
