







Sure, the iPhone’s touch screen capability is super cool. And if previous reports proved true, a Newton Touch may be just over the horizon, then touch screen may be the interface of the future. Microsoft surely thinks to, having announced the SURFACE last year as a tabletop interface for hotels and other corporate concerns.
LG/Philips is on the touch bandwagon as they are set to rock CES with Multi-touch Screens that recognize input from either a touch of a finger or more precise writing instruments.
In addition to it’s multi touch capability, the screens also feature built in software for handwriting recognition, split screen displays from up to 3 sources, and transflective backlighting for outdoor use. But here’s the wild part … the technology can split light from the panel into separate paths, which can show three completely different images to people standing at different angles relative to the display. Yikes!
Available in ranges from 32 to 84 inch models, the Philips Multi Touchy displays use infrared image sensors that recognize two separate touch points as well as gestures. The result is a 1080p HDTV display which can be used for shopping malls, airports, public areas and home theater of the rich and famous.
In 2001, Morris created that better way by designing a new software product called BMIST, which allows medics to enter casualty information into a handheld device. Short for Battlefield Medical Information System-Tactical (and pronounced "bee mist"), the software allows medics to generate an electronic health record about a soldier for later retrieval by frontline doctors or a stateside hospital. In addition, it acts like a medical textbook, so medics can look up diagnostic and treatment information in a combat zone. Already, BMIST software has been licensed to military departments and civilian hospitals in the United Kingdom. Pilot programs are being set up in France and Canada. First responders in the United States are also using it to record medical information on victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
But BMIST is only one of several advances revolutionizing the management of patient information. Since 2005, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command has experimented with the Electronic Information Carrier. The EIC is a dog-tag-size wireless data device worn by soldiers that can store up to two gigabytes of data--literally thousands of pages of records. Rather than having to search through a soldier's uniform for information on blood type or allergies, medical personnel can easily access that information up to 30 feet away with the electronic dog tag.
At the same time, all the military branches are adopting an all-digital medical information system through an initiative called Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA). Its goal is to electronically track the illnesses, allergies and prescribed medicines of all 9.2 million service members and veterans. When these advances are combined, medical workers will have access to the complete health records of even unconscious soldiers. This will allow them to determine whether a person has been exposed to a chemical agent, and it will also prevent deadly drug interactions. Over the past five years, AHLTA has identified and resolved more than 200,000 potentially life-threatening drug conflicts.
But Morris believes these benefits are only the beginning. He foresees integrating BMIST with a sensor that will automatically alert a doctor when a veteran's pacemaker is malfunctioning--"like in Star Trek," he says. And medics in the near future will be able to wave a handheld BMIST device over a wounded soldier, save the patient's vital signs on an EIC, and take comfort in knowing that the medical chart will follow the patient for the rest of his life.
Smart Pain-Blockers"A wounded soldier may get one dose on the battlefield that can take care of any pain until he's evacuated to a hospital days later," says Brett Giroir, MD, deputy director of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office in Arlington,
The next goal is to adapt the technology to people, says Dr. Ling, and scientists are conducting the first human trials with paraplegics and patients who have Parkinson's disease. DARPA's timetable calls for completing a working prosthetic arm and hand by the end of the year that will look, feel and perform like natural limbs. Two years later, it hopes to apply for
Having served as a military physician in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dr. Ling knows the urgency in bringing these advances to life--"for the good of the troops," he says. But he also knows that medical breakthroughs born of war aid all humanity: Blood banks, penicillin and reconstructive surgery all emerged from past conflicts. "Perhaps thought-controlled prosthetics will be one of the miracles that comes out of the war in Iraq," says Dr. Ling. "In adversity, there's opportunity."
They begin with one simple idea: to make vehicles as friendly as possible, and as easy to drive. To that end, they have produced 3 concept vehicles, and have updated the little VW Up!. The vehicles shown range from the Room, a family vehicle; the Ego, a two seater; and the One, a single rider urban vehicle.
All of them are fitted with technologies which are staples of science fiction, but are not quite possible yet – at least not in the mass produced scale which is required for them to be economically feasible. Think fully electric vehicles powered by the sun; vehicles that drive themselves, fitted with an all encompassing internet; cars that can tell the mood that you are in, and which are able to speak to other cars in the road.
It is a bit too far fetched, and at the same time, extremely exciting look at what the future will look like. Now if we could now start focusing on how the cars are made.