A "patient" choosing the Australia theme, one of 10 currently available in the Ambient Experience suite of the National Heart Centre Singapore's cardiac catheterization laboratory.
(Credit: Philips)Cardiac patients undergoing procedures at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) starting Thursday may find themselves either immersed in a Disney World setting or the African Savannah, with accompanying audio playing in the background. It's part of a testbed project by the center involving Philips' Ambient Experience to soothe patients through the intimidating clinical process of preparation, examination, treatment, and post-procedure.
The Ambient Experience takes patients on a multimedia ride, letting them personalize the lighting, projected images, and sounds in the examination or lab room. The 10 themes can be selected via a menu on a wireless touch-screen tablet, with more themes on the way. Once picked, the patient's choice is projected on the walls and ceilings and through TV screens, wrapping the user in a multi-sensory setting of his or her own choosing.
The wireless touch screen lets the patient instantaneously personalize the room's "theme."
(Credit: Philips)So far, the Ambient Experience appears to have had a positive impact on the three patients who earlier sampled it. According to 75-year-old Neo Bee, who was at the cardiac catheterization laboratory to have angioplasty to open her blocked arteries, "I saw birds and kangaroos on the ceiling and there was soothing music, too. I felt calm and relaxed."
... Read moreMy last post about "reverse switching" from an iPhone back to a BlackBerry generated a lot of great comments that I believe warrant a short follow-up (much shorter than the original post, I promise). I can't address all the comments, but here are a few thoughts.
For the record, in my post, I'm describing 3.1 software on an iPhone 3G.
Yes, the 3GS actually speed some things up, such as the camera; however, in my view, the iPhone's speed issue is not one of CPU horsepower, but because of its fundamental interface architecture. As I say in the article, the paned, step-by-step interface is "easy," but it puts a limit on how fast it can be used, simply because of the number of steps it requires to perform a task. Apple can speed the CPU all it wants, and it will only make a marginal difference to the key usability index of time on task (the amount of time it takes to start and complete an activity).
(As an aside, on the topic of doing great user interface with a low performance device, here's an old post I wrote about the UI design of the Palm. Palm beat the experience provided by Windows Mobile phones of the day, even though its CPU, memory, and screen were far inferior.)
As some point out, there are things that can be done with a jailbroken phone that address specific issues. However, I'm using a work-issued phone, so I'm not going to jailbreak a phone that doesn't belong to me. Besides, jailbreaking is something that only a tiny percentage of users will risk doing, or even know about. You may say I'm a BlackBerry power user (I don't really think I am; there are people who know way more about it than I do), but things like knowing one's way around the menu are way less geeky than jailbreaking. ... Read more
I know science thinks it can do everything.
I know robots will soon be ordering us around like wait staff at the Ritz.
But I am gravely concerned about an experiment that has been going on up there in space.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who returned to earth Friday, had been on the International Space Station since March. And, well, I don't know quite how I am to put this, but he didn't change his underwear for a month.
I know what you're thinking. We're both thinking the same thing.
Not even in the the darkest, most slovenly days of our student youth did we wear the same pair of knickers for 30 days. Around seven days was our limit. Then we'd at least manage a hand wash in a sink.
But here was the intrepid Wakata, prepared for the sake of all our futures to don anti-static, flame-resistant, odor-eating, bacteria-killing, water-absorbent underpants. Yes, water-absorbent.
I know that there was a lady astronaut a little while ago who wore diapers on a long car journey, but this is surely couture from another realm.
The London Times quoted Wakata as saying, pre-landing: "I haven't talked about this underwear to my crew members."
This is quite understandable. I rarely talk about my underwear to my clients. Not even my underwear clients. However, wasn't just the occasional merest stink caused by this novel eco-friendly fashion show?
"I wore it for about a month and my station crew members never complained, so I think the experiment went fine," he said.
Well, now, in polite society one doesn't normally comment when a fellow worker suffers something of a digestional malfunction, so how can Wakata be sure that his fellow astronauts weren't furtively making sniffy remarks about certain odors emanating from his person?
I know you'll be wondering what astronauts normally do with their soiled undies. Firstly, they take them off. Then they pack them up with the trash, which they shoot into outer space on human-less Russian cargo ships. On the way, the dirty undies are cremated.
But here's the thing with Wakata's undergarments: the Japanese space agency, Jaxa, which designed them, has no firm idea just how well they performed their task.
Which makes two pulsating thoughts thud around my cranium.
One: what if the anti-static, flame-resistant, odor-eating, bacteria-killing, water-absorbent qualities didn't work so well? Especially the last two. What effects might imperfect performance have on poor Mr. Wakata's inner well-being?
And two, I must do the washing.
(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET)
Apple fanboys, I have something for you.
According to data released by Forrester Research on Friday, during 2008 Apple enjoyed a decisive lead in the firm's Customer Experience Index (or CxPi). In short, this means Apple is supposedly the most lovely PC maker in the world, while Dell is the worst.
Forrester conducted its survey in October 2008 by asking 4,564 U.S. consumers about their interactions with a variety of companies, gauging the usefulness, usability, and enjoyability of those experiences. Based on these consumer responses, the firm calculated the CxPi for 113 firms in 12 different industries, including PC makers.
The ratings were compiled based on the answers to the following three questions: How effective was the company at meeting your needs? How easy was it to work with this firm? And how enjoyable were the interactions? Participants selected responses to these queries from a five-point scale. The individual indexes were calculated by taking the percentage of consumers who selected one of the top two points and subtracting from that the percentage of consumers who selected one of the bottom two points.
The research firm concluded in its report that Apple--whose rating is 80 percent, which is 14 points higher than that of the next firm on the list, Gateway--is the only PC vendor that earned a rating of "good"; the rest, including Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Dell ended up with designations of either "OK" or "Poor." Apple's reported "ease of use" largely helped it take the lead.
... Read more
Though the iPhone offers one of the best Mobile Web browsers around, surfing through full HTML pages can be a little tedious if you have a slow connection. So for those Goldilocks moments when a full HTML site is too much and a WAP site is just not enough, there's the new CNET iPhone experience.
Optimized for the iPhone classic and the iPhone 3G, the CNET iPhone experience offers all the content you'd find on the regular site, including product reviews, stories, and blogs from CNET News and Crave and videos from CNET TV. But unlike the standard site, which you can still access if you like, the iPhone experience offers a simplified design that will render quickly on your iPhone's display. Check it out today at http://iphone.cnet.com/.
On November 19, Microsoft is rolling out its most ambitious Xbox 360 system update yet -- an entirely new dashboard that bears little resemblance to the series of panels users currently use to navigate the gaming console.
Dubbed "The New Xbox Experience," this ground-up overhaul of the system's front-end interface also introduces several new features--most notably an avatar system to represent users online and the addition of streaming video content from Netflix, similar to that offered by the Roku Netflix settop box.
Others have gone into great detail about all the design and functionality changes, so having lived with the new dashboard update for the past week, we'll instead present some initial impressions--the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The new dashboard divides content, settings, and functions into eight categories, each represented by a horizontal row of boxes. The new look is clean, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing, although it all seems designed to push the maximum in Xbox marketing materials and advertising come-ons to the user.
... Read more
(Credit:
Engadget)
When Microsoft unveiled the plan for the new Xbox Live experience back at E3 2008, we were thrilled to hear that Netflix instant streaming was among the features announced.
That news just got a little sweeter now that Engadget HD is reporting that Xbox 360 owners will also be able to stream selected Netflix titles in HD.
While a list of HD-ready movies is not immediately available, some 300 titles will be ready for HD streaming when the service launches--along with the new Xbox Live experience--November 19.
Judging from the screen grab, it looks like the Netflix 360 player will gauge your Internet connection and decide whether or not your hookup can handle glorious high-definition content.
This is certainly big news for Xbox 360 owners, as no other device has the ability to stream Netflix in HD. Can you hear that? It's the sound of a Roku player crying.
For the full Xbox Experience, you'll need one of these
Do you own an Xbox 360 without a hard drive? Well on November 19, the new Xbox Live Experience will require you to have at least 128MB of memory available so that the update can properly install. If you find yourself in this position, you most likely purchased the since-discontinued Xbox 360 Core system.
In an effort to allow everyone who owns an Xbox 360 to enjoy the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft has announced the Xbox 360 Memory Upgrade Program. It will offer those who don't have the means to install the update two options. Customers can either enter their console's serial number on a special Web site and receive a free 512MB memory card or pay $20 for a 20GB Xbox 360 hard-disk drive.
We should note that the while the 512MB memory card will allow you to enjoy the new Xbox Live, you still won't be able to participate in Xbox Live Primetime (game shows and other entertainment) or enjoy video downloads. Because of this, we'd recommend going with the $20 offer for the 20GB hard drive. Not only is it a great deal, but you'll be able to fully enjoy everything the new Xbox Live Experience has to offer.
I smell a hint.
While nothing has been confirmed by Microsoft, a suspicious Xbox Live in-dash ad definitely points to November for the long-awaited dashboard relaunch. CNET sister site GameSpot reports that an ad for Rock Band 2 blatantly claims to "Check out the New Xbox Experience coming in November!"
We first learned details about the brand new Xbox Live dashboard at this summer's E3 2008 press conference, where it was also announced that the new interface would support personal avatars--think Nintendo Mii characters--and Netflix streaming capabilities. Other new features offered by the update will include the ability to completely install a game onto the system's hard drive, which will drastically reduce the strain on the console's DVD drive and potentially decrease loading times.
The Xbox 360 recently saw a price drop, making the entry-level system the lowest priced next-generation console on the market. We hope to have more information on the highly anticipated dashboard update when Microsoft makes an official announcement.
I had a charter family membership Seattle's Experience Music Project or EMP, which opened in 2000. But after a couple years, I gave it up. The exhibits didn't change enough to warrant a lot of repeat visits, our periodic out-of-town guests had all been at least once, and the promise of early alerts about live shows at the museum never seemed to come through. (The one show I really wanted to see, the Television reunion in 2001, was sold out before I was ever informed about it.)
With a teenaged niece in town and my daughter just getting old enough to enjoy the museum experience, we decided to rejoin yesterday. After facing a few years of low attendance, the museum has made a lot of positive changes, like lowering prices for memberships and daily passes and offering free admission on one evening per month.
As part of this revamp, they killed MEG. Also known as the Museum Experience Guide, MEG was a portable device about the size of a portable CD player with a laser scanner, headphones, and an LCD screen. Visitors would point the scanner at a point on the wall and hear information about the exhibit and maybe some relevant music--for example, famous guitarists like Vernon Reid shredding one of the museum's rare guitars. Nobody loved MEG: they were awkward to carry and hard to figure out, and I always ended up putting mine down somewhere halfway through my visit.
Their replacement? iPods with jukeboxes of music from featured artists like Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix. Given that Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen established the EMP, you might have expected them to replace the MEG (which was built on Windows CE) with a Zune. But no--even though the EMP has held Zune-sponsored events and even had a few Zunes on display for a while, they've apparently decided to go with the industry standard MP3 player instead.
