Robotics lets a girl be part of the class
Like most children her age, Brookline third-grader Jerilyn McLean has school every weekday. [...] But unlike most of her classmates, Jerilyn hasn’t actually set foot inside her William H. Lincoln School classroom in almost 17 months.
Since she was diagnosed in September 2005 with aplastic anemia, which severely compromised her immune system and required a bone marrow transplant, Jerilyn has had only a virtual presence in the classroom.
Source: Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe, January 22, 2007 (Free registration)
IBM’s answer to medical mashup: A search engine
IBM has created a medical records search engine that, if implemented, would produce a mashup of an individual’s records from hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories and physicians.
The company unveiled the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) on Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. IBM had a one-year contract with the agency to develop a prototype network that would allow standards-based medical records systems to communicate with one another.
Source: Candace Lombardi, CNET News.com, January 23, 2007
BBC plans online children’s world
CBBC, the channel for 7-12 year olds, said it would allow digitally literate children the access to characters and resources they had come to expect.
Users would be able to build an online presence, known as an avatar, then create and share content. Bosses said CBBC World would not have the financial aspects of other online worlds such as Second Life.
Source: BBC News Online, January 23, 2007
Data-visualization tools and community policing help keep Digg’s social news site legitimate and valuable to its readers.
Source: Kate Greene, Technology Review, January 24, 2007
U.K. health service plans ‘telehealth’ rollout
The U.K.’s National Health Service is planning to deploy so-called “telehealth” systems in homes around the country. Richard Granger, NHS director general of IT, said Wednesday that this extension of health technology into the home–probably based at first on proprietary systems–would “free things up in terms of time and place” within the NHS.
Source: David Meyer, for CNET News.com, January 25, 2007
N.Y. scanners spark union cries of “geoslavery”
Every morning Dennis Colson, a surveyor at New York City’s Department of Design and Construction, begins his work day by placing his hand on a scanner to log his time and attendance at the office. [...]
But the planned roll-out of hand geometry scanners in all New York City government agencies has sparked union cries of “geoslavery” and assertions that technology developed for security will be used to track, label and control workforces.
Source: Michelle Nichols, Reuters, January 26, 2007
Computers and Emotion: Sentimental Journey
Many science-fiction stories begin with a premise of computers gaining sentience, self-awareness, or the ability to feel — or fake — emotion. In these utopian (or sometimes, dystopian) stories, humanity demonstrates its underlying assumption that “being human” means “feeling emotion.” Yet, for business purposes, it isn’t necessary for a computer to emote — as long as it can respond to our emotions.
Source: Esther Schindler, CIO Magazine, January 23, 2007
