Forget Career Builder, consider Second Life!

Businesses are now getting into the online virtual reality business in creative ways and especially in new media fields are using virtual environments to hold meetings, launch products and make hiring decisions.

Check out this video:



Then readthis article from the Wall Street Journal

Election day technology

It was good to hear that the widespread concerns with new voting machines did not cause serious problems this year, although Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri seemed to have a larger share of those problems (perhaps because they have a larger number of new machines). Some polls in Indiana stayed open later than 6pm because equipment failed to work when polls opened this morning. There were reports throughout the nation of such problems.

A number of reports are commenting on blogs and YouTube as new media influences on the political process, as in the New York Times article this morning. They report on 2 blogs, Redstate.com and Bradblog.com as active followers and reporters throughout yesterday's election. Particularly, the Times notes the use of YouTube to enhance blog reports:

And in a new twist this year, many bloggers buttressed their accounts of electoral shenanigans with links to videos posted on the video Web site YouTube.....Erick Erickson, RedState’s chief blogger, also included a report of poll watcher intimidation in Philadelphia, along with a link to a video on YouTube that appeared to show a certified poll observer (armed with a video camera) being blocked from a polling station.www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-HK_VT81Pk&e

Analysis of the influence of these tools on the political process will continue post-election, but Harvard Law professor Jonathon Zittrain had this to say in the Times article:

That the blog now has a firm place in the choreography of national events — and in elections perhaps more so than in any other cultural exercise — is a boon to the democratic process, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Internet governance at Oxford University and a co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

“In a lot of ways they’re helping to set the agenda for the mainstream media in fast-moving events like this,” Mr. Zittrain said. “They just need to be able to produce enough that’s credible quickly to give a lead.”

If others have heard interesting stories, or have thoughts about technologies that were (or not!) used, please post/comment.

New uses for expanding fMRI since early this semester

This is your brain...this is your brain on an fMRI scan

As engineers continue to create more and more new technologies, it is interesting to see how many of these are applied to the health field. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a new technology that allows doctors to see into patients’ brains, and to see what parts of the brain are used during what applications. Although doctors can currently determine a general area the activity takes place, they are unable to determine the exact location of the activity, until now.

How does it work?
The fMRI works a lot like the MRI, but with fMRI, doctors can determine exactly which neuron is active at which time. The fMRI still detects magnetic pulses through the brain, like the MRI, but it also enables the doctor to see activity in the brain. The neurons in the brain are set off as certain images are shown, or activities are done. What the fMRI detects is the neuron activity. As each neuron fires, oxygenated blood rushes to that site and produces a different magnetic content than deoxygenated blood, thus registering as activity on the fMRI scan.

How Can Society Use this Technology?
Doctors are able to understand which neurons are used during what activities and can more accurately detect what neurons need to be operated on or treated. In addition to doctors detecting activity, each scan produces a map of the individual’s brain that allows the doctor to create a surgical map of the brain. This surgical map allows less room for error when operating on the brain in order to remove a tumor or to distinguish which area of the brain is not correctly producing activity. This technology, developed early in the nineties, has just recently been put to use in a variety of situations outside the surgical arena.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have been able to located and isolate the area and neurons in the brain that are associated with time-lapse. What this means for the medical world, is a possible new cure for Parkinson’s disease. The researchers found that Parkinson’s disease affects the amount of time that has passed and targeting the specific neuron will allow researchers and doctors to create a cure for the disease.

What are the Latest Applications of fMRI?
The latest developments in fMRI technology have allowed researchers to find that it is possible to reduce or completely avoid chronic pain. Researchers at Omneuron, a brain-imaging company in California, have found that it is possible to reduce chronic pain by targeting a certain set of neurons in the brain. Through fMRI, the researchers were able to pinpoint the exact neuron that creates the pain for these individuals and through therapy, they were able to alleviate the pain for these individuals.
Recently, studies have shown that certain neurons are hyperactive when drug-abusers are shown images or objects related to drug use. The stimulation causes the neurons to become apparent on the fMRI, thus allowing the researchers to work with the individual to reduce the cravings they feel.
In order for the research done at Omneuron to be effective, they are working to create a monitor that simultaneously shows the patient and the doctor the brain activity of the patient. By allowing the individual to see his or her own brain activity, it would enable them to decrease the cravings they often battle. Creating a self-stimulating reaction to beat the craving would give the patient the ability to decrease their dependence on the other drug stimulant.
Doctors and researchers are turning more and more to fMRI’s in order to reduce the necessity to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs and give the patients more control over their lives. With the new fMRI technology, patients are given more control and are able to put to use biofeedback therapeutic techniques. These techniques are also used to lower heart rate or blood pressure.

Why is fMRI a better choice?
As a substitute for the old magnetic resonance imaging machines, the fMRI is better because it allows doctors to pinpoint specific different neurons in each individual. Because most individuals experience different symptoms and have different trouble segments in the brain, it is difficult to say exactly which part of a brain area is effecting the function. Before the development of this technology, doctors understood that certain functions occurred in certain parts of the brain, but could not exactly determine the neuron that is malfunctioning, or over stimulating the body in the case of drug addicts.

The article was retrieved from MIT Technology Review at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17674&ch=biotech&sc=&pg=1

Other Sources:
http://www.fmri.org/fmri.htm
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=fmribrain

Cell phone book readers

Think you could read a book if the words were flashed at you one at a time on your cell phone? New software from ICUE has introduced this to the market, and this is all the rage in Japan.

On Thursday, Ashley discussed the new Sony e-reader, with its improved readability for electronic books. I'm a long devoted fan of the printed book, and an avid reader, and yet haven't found an electronic substitute I've liked yet. I'm planning to look at the Sony reader.

But, to think I might be able to read any book one word at a time on a cell phone just seems beyond comprehension to me. The MIT report discusses research-based evidence that indicates the processing and comprehension of this text information might be plausible through a cell phone device using tachistoscope-like presentation.

And, yet again, the industry is saying that the cell phone is truly the device of the future, soon to replace our desktops for information delivery, entertainment, personal productivity. The reason according to MIT?:

"The difference is that there are a billion new cell phones made every year--nothing like that for any other such devices."

Smart Carts

On Tuesday Dr. Sypher talked to us about innovation and emerging technologies, and shared a video about IDEO. You'll recall IDEO was charged with building a better shopping cart. Today, new "smart carts" is indeed an area attracting much innovation in developing emerging technologies for the shopping experience.

MIT's Tech Review just released an article about the use of RFID tags, tracking, targeted consumer marketing, and knowledge of swarming behavior (think SmartMobs) to influence (and enhance?) the grocery shopping experience:

It's an established fact that consumers are more influenced by other people's purchasing decisions than they are by discounts, says Menezes. Furthermore, it's well-known that people will flock or swarm in certain conditions, such as when a fire alarm goes off. The idea here was to exploit both of these inclinations in order to create a swarm of impulse shoppers.

The introduction of so-called smart shopping carts should make this possible. Already being used experimentally by a number of supermarkets, these carts are capable of knowing what a customer has put in them by scanning the contents for an RFID tag: a sort of wireless bar code that is being introduced in products. And some carts, such as the Shopping Buddy, developed by Cuesol, in Quincy, MA, have touch screens.

So by monitoring the contents of everyone's carts, the screens could possibly feed information back to customers as they shop. For example, a customer entering a particular aisle may be informed, via the cart's screen, that 60 percent of customers currently have a specific product from that aisle in their cart. Similarly, when the customer places an item in the cart, he or she may be notified about other products purchased by customers who bought this one.

What do you think? Cool tool, or annoying intrusion? Are we seeing tools that benefit the consumer or the business?