The Future of Cell Phones
Nokia’s head of R&D discusses technology that could shape the look, feel, and function of mobile devices in the next few years.
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17734&ch=biztech
Paralyzed man moves computer cursor through thought
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060712/hl_nm/science_brain_dc
The scientists implanted a tiny silicon chip with 100 electrodes into an area of the brain responsible for movement. The activity of the cells was recorded and sent to a computer which translated the commands and enabled the patient to move and control the external device.
Wireless Sensing Spawns the Connected World
I get too many articles on sensor networks these days that it deserves its own category.
Innovations in sensing, wireless communications, and computing technologies foreshadow ultra-intelligent environments and enhanced lifestyles.
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=12203
The cell phone will play an important role in the real-world application of many of these scenarios. Customers could use their phone, for instance, to pay for food at the grocery store, eliminating the need to carry cash or a credit card.
Wireless sensor networks and earthquakes
Another application for sensor networks. What struck me is the justification of using wireless, because the wires could get damaged!
Fitted with computer chips, sensors monitor a bridge’s health – and its ability to perform after a catastrophe
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/lu-wsn040606.php
Sensors deployed strategically on a bridge, can provide a high-resolution, multi-dimensional picture of the health of a structure, giving engineers vital information about a bridge's performance and, in the aftermath of a catastrophe, its ability to carry traffic.
2020 computing: Everything, everywhere
Interesting article about sensor networks and 'smart dust'.
Tiny computers that constantly monitor ecosystems, buildings and even human bodies could turn science on its head. Full article: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7083/full/440402a.html
Data networks will have gone from being the repositories of science to its starting point. When researchers look back on the days when computers were thought of only as desktops and portables, our world may look as strange to them as their envisaged one does to us.
