Boy Do I Need This!Researchers Roberto Cipolla and Duncan Robertson at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. are developing photo recognition software that one day may help provide navigationally challenged travelers information on their location and how to get to where they're going. The user simply snaps a photo of a nearby building and presses send. A database matches the photo to a database of building images, and can accurately identify where the caller is standing to within one meter. This is superior technology to GPS or cell phone base station tracking systems, which are useless in cities with tall buildings interfere with direct line-of-sight transmissions. "Telling people 'You are in the vicinity of X' is no good to man nor beast," says John Craig of Cambridge Positioning Systems, which develops software for locating mobile phones. The Cambridge University software would give detailed instructions on how to get from point A to point B, such as "turn left and start walking." Cipolla and Robertson are currently working on a prototype that will cover all the buildings in Cambridge's central downtown area. (New Scientist 10 Apr 2004) http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994857
LEARNING, GAMING The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has launched the Education Arcade initiative, aimed at exploiting the educational benefits of videogames. The project plans to harness the talents of scholars, international game designers, publishers, educators and policy makers to develop videogames that would be fully incorporated into existing curricula. "We want to lead the change in the way the world learns through computer and video games," says MIT professor Henry Jenkins. "Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural and educational potential of games by initiating game development projects. We will also be information public conversations about the broader and sometimes unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education." (Herald Sun 10 Dec 2003) From News Scan Daily.
Physicists at Harvard University say they have managed to bring light to a complete standstill for a fraction of a second before sending it on its way. The research builds on work published in 2001 that described "storing" light pulses briefly when individual particles of light, or photons, were taken up by atoms in a gas. The new work actually stops the light pulse for a few hundredths of a second, says Harvard physicist Mikhail D. Lukin: "We have succeeded in holding a light pulse still without taking all the energy away from it." The research could allow scientists to use light particles for storing and processing data, and for highly secure communications transmissions. (AP/Edmonton News 11 Dec 2003) http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-12-11-0067.html
The Future Office Project is a research project organized by the Ars Electronica Center's FutureLab. Researchers are developing prototypes for telematic tools in the workplace, including:
School-Office table The table is both an instrument of work and of communication. The prototype, as an integrated tool for getting things said and done, forms the basis for a "conference office" that is equally capable of functioning as an interface for both types of users-those actually present on site and virtual participants. This project's objective is to create an integrated, flexible, intelligent environment for a wide range of communications options.
-VR Chart The VR Flip Chart can be used in conventional fashion with paper, as an electronic blackboard, and to run computer programs ranging from Powerpoint to stereoscopic VR applications.
Fast Forward: 25 Trends That Will Change the Way You Do Business
From e-mail to health care, and from artificial intelligence to the end of HR as we know it, here are forecasts of how different the world of workforce management will be 10 years from now.