technologizer

Pondering a cyborg future

I saw a video today of a wheelchair-bound man who moved his hand for the first time since he was stabbed in the neck two years ago.

Blown away?

Totally.

So for that matter was the rest of the audience listening to John Donoghue talk about the progress being made helping paralyzed people regain lost motor skills.

Donoghue, who directs the Brain Science program at Brown University, showed the brief clip Thursday during a panel discussion at a San Francisco conference organized by Fortune magazine.

Unfortunately, the experiments with brain implants being undertaken these days provide only limited and temporary … Read more

Pump up the volume in style, boomers!

Intergenerational tech musings today: The New York Times has an interesting report about new advances in hearing aid technology. Companies are motivated to meet the needs of aging baby boomers facing progressive hearing loss.

But how to overcome the stigma of hearing aid use for this potential market of 78 million people? Recent innovation has led to new devices that look more like Bluetooth headsets or iPod headphones than older models that resembled "a chewed Circus Peanut."… Read more

My inspirations from science fiction

I really enjoyed going through this image collection over on CNET's News.com. It lists ten influences from the world of science fiction on today's high-tech industries:

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Minority Report William Gibson's Neuromancer Bruce Sterling's Distraction Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Arthur C. Clarke's 1945 invention of the geosynchronous communication satellite Isaac Asimov's I, Robot Star Trek Karel Capek's R.U.R.

I'll go along with the Heinlein and Star Trek references, … Read more

Photos: Where ScanEagle drones dare

Unmanned aerial vehicles, "drones" or "UAVs" for short, are getting to be pretty impressive affairs. Target-tracking software allows one drone to fly by its own wits, even above 15,000 feet. Overseen by humans, these planes can chase down a moving vehicle, send reports to a human operator by cell phone, collect photo images and video, and even relay information via VoIP.

Even with the new autonomous capabilities in the ScanEagle, surveillance efforts will often dictate that a human maintain a greater degree of oversight. One major objective of these flyers is to reduce the risk … Read more

HP looks to the future of shopping

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Despite the digitization of nearly everything else in our daily lives, the Sunday circular ad for beef and bags of baby carrots has remained. Hewlett-Packard is developing a technology to bring even the banal task of grocery shopping into the Digital Age.

At HP Labs here, researchers are developing an in-store kiosk solution called Retail Shopping Assistant (RSA) that will make shopping for food, clothes and electronics easier for buyers and make selling things easier for retailers.

The idea is this: imagine walking into a grocery store, and instead of bringing your shopping list along, simply swiping … Read more

What teens can teach you about tech

Last week, I attended a few panels at an SDForum event titled "Generation Tech: Plugging In With Teens," and I learned two things. One, I hate commuting and am perfectly happy to keep spending obscene amounts on rent to live in the city where I work. And two, teens are fascinating creatures. They offer some excellent insights about technology, and not only about what is "in" (though they're a great measure of that). What is most eye-opening is what a testament they are to the exponential progress of technology. The thing is, I wasn't … Read more

Google acquires GreenBorder Technologies

GreenBorder Technologies has been acquired by Google.

The acquisition, according to a posting Monday on the Google Operating System blog, should provide the Internet giant with a Web "sandbox" for its users. Basically users could enter the sandbox, search and interact with various Web sites, and leave any viruses they encounter back in the sandbox when they exit.

As it turns out, a couple weeks back GreenBorder customers had been wondering the company's discussion board if something was afoot.

On its Web site, the security software developer noted it would discontinue sales of its GreenBorder Pro products, … Read more

Celebrity bear builds media presence with Web site, book deal

The world's youngest celebrity is building quite a media career. Five-month-old polar bear, Knut, is already a star at the Berlin Zoo. He also stars in more than two dozen YouTube videos, which have accumulated millions of plays. When you visit Knut's new personal Web site you'll see pictures and e-mails from adoring fans.

But today we learn that Knut and a human co-author have a book deal. One purpose of the book will be to draw attention to global warming, says the human writer. The book'll be published by Scholastic, which has a track record … Read more

If the iPhone morphed into a watch

If anything can be said of the people at SMS Technology, it's that they don't waste any time. Only two months after the appearance of their "world's smallest phone"--a Dick Tracy-style watch communicator--the Australian company has already filed for a next-generation version that some say looks like an iPhone for the wrist.

Gadgetell reports that plans for the "M500," as it's called, have been filed with the FCC and that it includes "all your basic phone functions plus SMS texting, audio, video and Bluetooth." It also alsos feature a … Read more