Engineers Seek to Equip Operating Room of the Future

Drawing on advances in robotics and computer technology, Johns Hopkins researchers are designing new high-tech medical tools to equip the operating room of the future. These systems and instruments could someday help doctors treat patients more safely and effectively and allow them to perform surgical tasks that are nearly impossible today.
Source: Phil Sneiderman Homewood, Johns Hopkins Gazette, November 27, 2006

Sandia researchers develop better sensor detection system

By integrating readily available generic sensors with a more sophisticated sensor, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a detection system that promises to make it easier to catch perpetrators trying to infiltrate prohibited areas.
Source: Sandia National Laboratories news release, December 4, 2006

Robotics, laser and wireless technologies make driving safer for wheelchair users

Engineers at Lehigh and Carnegie Mellon universities, working with a Philadelphia-based start-up, have integrated robotics, laser and wireless technologies into a new system that promises to make it safer and cheaper for wheelchair users to drive a car.
The Automatic Transport and Retrieval System (ATRS), scheduled to go on sale next spring, allows wheelchair users to get in and out of their vehicles, stow and retrieve their chairs, and drive while sitting in standard automobile seats.
Source: Lehigh University, via EurekAlert!, December 12, 2006

Supercomputer dedicated to disease research in Africa

Scientists in South Africa unveiled the country’s most powerful weapon yet in their fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis when they switched on a new supercomputer dedicated to scientific research this week.
Source: Reuters, via CNET News.com, December 12, 2006

IBM to give birth to ‘Second Life’ business group

IBM will launch an official group in January to deal with Second Life and other virtual realms from which the company hopes to profit.
Virtual reality and other visual interface work is the next project on IBM’s plate, Irving Wladawsky-Berger said in an interview at CNET’s Second Life offices. Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technical strategy and innovation at IBM, led the company’s response to earlier technologies that rewrote the rules of the computing industry, such as e-commerce and Linux.
Source: Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com, December 12, 2006

A Window on the Environment From Tahoe to the Ocean

UC Davis environmental and computer scientists are utilizing a network of hundreds of sensors to study the interconnectedness of many different elements of the environment in a more efficient way than ever before. The NSF funded project, known as the Coast to Mountain Environmental Transect (COMET), covers coasts, forests, farmland, urban, and suburban areas to provide perspective on environmental issues and allow forecasting of how climate change will affect California. (Summary from ACM TechNews, December 13, 2006)
Source: UC Davis News & Information, December 11, 2006

The future for Orange could soon be Google in your pocket

Google is on the move. The internet giant has held talks with Orange, the mobile phone operator, about a multi-billion-dollar partnership to create a ‘Google phone’ which makes it easy to search the web wherever you are.
The collaboration between two of the most powerful brands in technology is seen as a potential catalyst for making internet use of mobile phones as natural as on desktop computers and laptops.
Source: David Smith, The Observer, December 17, 2006

Engineers Seek to Equip Operating Room of the Future
Drawing on advances in robotics and computer technology, Johns Hopkins researchers are designing new high-tech medical tools to equip the operating room of the future. These systems and instruments could someday help doctors treat patients more safely and effectively and allow them to perform surgical tasks that [...]