Category Archives: Technology

ER patients check in at computer kiosks

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An emergency room might be the last place you’d think would have do-it-yourself check-in.

But Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas has three self-service computer kiosks, similar to those used by airport passengers and hotel guests. And so do a handful of other hospital ERs, where the long wait in line to register and explain symptoms can be grueling.

True emergency cases — gunshot or car crash victims with serious injuries — are still rushed in for treatment, but less severe cases can sign in using the kiosk.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-09-13-kiosks-hospitals_N.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (AP via USA Today)

CSI could benefit from computer sidekick

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A wearable GPS device that accepts voice commands, takes pictures, and logs evidence could speed up crime scene investigation and reduce errors.

The prototype consists of a small, thin computer about the size of a small book, which is equipped with GPS, a digital camera and an RFID tag reader. The computer is worn by the CSI, who uses a headset to give voice commands to the system – to trigger the attached digital camera, for example, or to record a verbal description of evidence.

[Read](http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12575&feedId=online-news_rss20 “Read the Story”) (New Scientist)

Toronto turns to lake water for air conditioning

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The Toronto Dominion Centre is the most distinctive set of office towers in the city’s financial district. Three of the five black buildings were designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in the late 1960s. So was their air conditioning.

The three original towers, which contain about 3 million square feet of office space, were among the first buildings connected to Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling System in September 2004, saving the local electric utility 7.5 megawatts of electrical demand every working day.

[Read](http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0830/p13s01-stgn.html “Read the Story”) (Christian Science Monitor)

Honda dropping Accord Hybrid

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The new Honda Accord, which will go on sale in September, will *not* be available in a gasoline-electric hybrid version, according to a company spokesman.

Honda claims that its hybrid system works better on smaller cars.

Honda previously announced that it will introduce a new hybrid car in 2009. That car will be smaller in size and less expensive than the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Hybrids accounted for 14% of Toyota Camrys sold last month, but just 1.4% of Accords, according to data from Power Information Networks.

[Read](http://www.cnn.com/2007/AUTOS/06/05/honda_dropping_hybrid/index.html?eref=rss_topstories “Read the Story”) (CNN)

Robots advance, consumers stall

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Fifty-one years after the first commercial robot went to work, the United States is approaching a tipping point. Within a decade, observers say, the average American household will include one or two simple robots, and though they may not look like the ones imagined in science fiction, these robots – some available now – will play pervasive roles in the lives of regular consumers.

But as roboticists prepare to unleash their creations, they’re confronted with a hurdle perhaps more daunting than the technical ones they’ve already cleared: consumer readiness – which includes such factors as skepticism, unrealistic expectations, confusion about what makes a robot, and a “Frankenstein complex,” or the fear of robots.

[Read](http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p13s02-stct.html “Read the Story”) (Christian Science Monitory)

States Compete for Deadly Disease Lab

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A dozen states are competing intensely to play host to a government research lab full of killer germs like anthrax, avian flu and foot-and-mouth disease – a prospect some of their residents want to avoid like the plague.

The states are bidding for a proposed 520,000-square-foot National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility that will cost at least $450 million to build. It would replace an aging, smaller lab at Plum Island, N.Y., where security lapses after the 2001 terrorist attacks drew scrutiny from Congress and government investigators. The Homeland Security Department facility promises at least 300 lab-related jobs, and more in construction.

Texas has a total of four sites in contention. Other states bidding for the site are California, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Georgia, Kansas and Mississippi are offering two sites each, while Kentucky and Tennessee are working together for one site in Kentucky.

In June, officials will narrow down their options to three to five sites. The winner should be announced in October 2008, with the lab operating by 2014.

Read (AP via Central Florida News 13)

*I can’t believe that Virginia passed up an opportunity and didn’t offer a site.*

EMI, Apple Remove Music’s Copy Locks

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Less than two months after floating the idea to strip copy protection schemes from digital songs sold online, Apple’s Steve Jobs has persuaded EMI to go along.

EMI said it will make its entire digital catalog available for purchase on Apple’s iTunes Store without Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection, beginning in May.

Rather than MP3, EMI and Apple will make the songs available using AAC and at a higher bit rate—256 bits—than most songs available online—which are encoded at a rate of 128 bits.

The price for singles will be higher, too. DRM-free songs will be $1.29, a 30-cent premium over the DRM-protected songs, but the price of albums will remain the same: $9.99.

Read (BusinessWeek)

Many Americans see little point to Web

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A survey found that 29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.

The second annual National Technology Scan found the main reason potential customers say they do not subscribe to the Internet is because of the low value to their daily lives they perceive rather than concerns over cost.

44% of these households say they are not interested in anything on the Internet, versus just 22% who say they cannot afford a computer or the cost of Internet service.

Read (Reuters via CNN)

Manure recycled into floors, furniture?

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Home-buyers of tomorrow could find themselves walking across floors made from manure. Fiber from processed and sterilized cow manure could take the place of sawdust in fiberboard, which is used to make everything from furniture to flooring to store shelves. Researchers hope it could be part of the solution to disposing of the 1.5 trillion to 2 trillion pounds of manure produced annually in the United States.

So far, fiberboard made with digester solids seems to match or beat the quality of wood-based products. One good thing about the manure-based fiber is cost. Farmers who currently pay to dispose of manure could soon be selling it.

Read (AP via MSNBC)

Coal in cars: great fuel or climate foe?

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Coal companies want to fuel your car and lately, they’re getting a lot of political support for the idea.

Turning coal into gasoline-like fuel has several advantages. It would use America’s vast coal reserves. It would reduce the nation’s thirst for foreign oil and help dampen spikes in energy prices. There’s just one problem: It is not “climate friendly” – at least, not yet.

Coal-to-liquids fuels could end up emitting nearly double the carbon dioxide that the equivalent amount of gasoline does, mostly because of the way it’s manufactured.

Read (Christian Science Monitor)

Woman with bionic arm regains sense of touch

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A prosthetic arm that moves and feels like the real thing is now a step closer thanks to a new surgical technique which allows the owner to intuitively control her limb and regain her sense of touch.

Surgeons working on an amputee in Chicago have re-routed the ends of the motor nerves – which once controlled her arm’s movement – into the muscles in her chest and side. The ends of the sensory nerves, which fed signals responding to heat and touch from her now-amputated arm to her brain, have been transferred to the skin on her chest.

The patient is already able to control her prosthetic arm with more skill than is possible with conventional devices. She can carry out simple tasks intuitively, such as cutting up food, and at four times the speed of someone with a conventional [prosthesis](http://www.answers.com/topic/prosthesis “Answers.com”). She has also regained the sensation of having her arm touched when someone touches the patch of skin on her chest.

[Read](http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn11094&feedId=online-news_rss20 “Read the Story”)(New Scientist)

FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

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The FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission adopted, but hasn’t yet released, the long-awaited Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235, the “Morse code” proceeding.

The FCC’s action **appears to put all Technician licensees on an equal footing: Once the Report and Order goes into effect, holders of Technician class licenses will have equivalent HF privileges, whether or not they’ve passed the 5 WPM Element 1 Morse examination.** The FCC said the R&O in the Morse code docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating privileges for the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees.

It wasn’t clear when the Report and Order would go into effect.

[Read](http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/12/15/104/?nc=1 “Read the Story”) (ARRL)

In Iraq, their weapon is data

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Inside a stronghold that commands a stretch of land between the river and the desert, the Hobbits work wonders in a windowless chamber.

In the ongoing fight against insurgents in Iraq’s Anbar province, the Hobbits — six Marines with computers and **self-designed databases** who compile information about the enemy, its strength and its position — have a clear mission as part of the Michigan-based 1st Battalion of the 24th Marine Regiment.

With their skills and smarts, they take tactical intelligence and put it to effective use killing and capturing insurgents who have turned the area around Fallujah into one of the most dangerous sectors in Iraq.

[Read](http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/NEWS06/612100622/1008 (“Read the Story”) (Detriot Free Press)

Nomadic herders go high-tech

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Satellites, cell phones and spectrometers: Probably not the first things you think of when you picture sheep and goat herders in Afghanistan. But those modern tools may soon make the lives of nomadic families a little more stable.

Afghanistan is the latest location for projects coordinated by the University of California-Davis and Texas A&M University, to provide early warning systems about animal health and to help pinpoint the location of the healthiest grazing areas.

[Read](http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/12/01/hightechherders/index.html “Read the Story”) (CNN)