CHIP IMPLANTED IN BRAIN TO AID COMPUTER USE BY DISABLED

With approval from the Food and Drug Administration, a company called Cyberkinetics Inc. is planning a clinical trial of a system in which a tiny microchip will be implanted in the brains of five paralyzed people so they can operate a computer by thought alone. (Several research groups have already implanted devices in monkeys, allowing them to control cursors on computer screens or move robot arms using their brainpower alone.) CalTech neuroscientist Richard A. Andersen says, "Among many people in the field, there's a feeling now that the time is here for moving the technology to test in humans." To implant the chip, a small hole will be cut in the patient's skull, and the chip will be placed on the surface of the brain at the motor cortex, which controls movement. (New York Times 13 Apr 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/health/13BRAI.html (From News Scan Daily)

NEW PHOTO FEATURE IS ALL ABOUT LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

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 and Gaming

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.

Stop Light

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

Think Outside the Box?

The Trouble with Out-of-the-Box Thinking "Many of the revolutionary ideas in the technologies and arts don't come from the person who solves the problem by thinking out of their box. It comes from the person who has seen the right solution already somewhere else -- who has other boxes to think in..." (Andrew B. Hargadon is an Associate Professor of Technology Management at the Graduate School of Management at University of California, Davis, and Director of Technology Management programs - His Book How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth about How Companies Innovate (Harvard Business School Press, June 2003).

Tools of the Future

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.

Mind Wide Open

The author talks about his book .."The book, Mind Wide Open, is an attempt to look systematically at the question of what brain science can tell you about yourself as an individual. There are a number of great books that ask questions like: How did the brain evolve? Or: how does the brain work? This book asks a related, but more intimate question: how does your brain work? In what ways can science shed light on your own personality traits, emotional habits, mental blindspots or strengths?" -- To be published in 2004 -- Author Stephen Berlin Johnson

Mind Wide Open

The author talks about his book .."The book, Mind Wide Open, is an attempt to look systematically at the question of what brain science can tell you about yourself as an individual. There are a number of great books that ask questions like: How did the brain evolve? Or: how does the brain work? This book asks a related, but more intimate question: how does your brain work? In what ways can science shed light on your own personality traits, emotional habits, mental blindspots or strengths?" -- To be published in 2004 -- Author Stephen Berlin Johnson

Robo Cleaner

Robo Cleaner vacuums and sweeps all by itself...

Picture Your Fridge

If you forget your shopping list... "The MMS Fridge by Electrolux lets users with cell phones that have multimedia messaging service, or MMS, remotely snap a picture of their fridge's interior. The refrigerator comes installed with Web cameras to capture the image of all the items inside the fridge, said Electrolux spokesman Tony Evans."

Expect the Unexpected

Peter G. Neumann talks about out-of-the-box thinking, the events of Sept. 11, and breakfast with Einstein.

From Stephen Downes Blog - The Secrets of Successful Idea People

"My job - quite literally, these days - is to come up with ideas. So of course I measure an article like this against my own practice. First: think outside your discipline. "Read — and not only in subjects that are directly related to your profession." Yes, but don't just read (that traps you into linear thinking). But seek out things like Idea City and soak in the wisdom of a hundred disciplines. Second: "Check the fit" by evaluating the idea and, according to the article, ask, "is the idea aligned with your sphere of influence?" Piffle" More...

How Breakthroughs Happen

"The best ideas won't come looking like they're just right. Fred Stratton, the CEO of Briggs & Stratton, once said that genius lay in the ability to see how two things that nobody else sees as related *are* related. This ability to make distant analogies unlocks a world of potential. And it's all a matter of looking for how things are the same, not for how they are different. "How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate" by Andrew Hargadon

Fast Forward: 25

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.