] Siemens has developed a sweet little wearable,
] Bluetooth-based badge that lets you speak commands to
] control your house, talk to others in your house and
] accept and conduct phone calls. The system can
] recognize 30,000 words once you press the button on the
] badge to activate it.

ENGAGE!

siemens-develops-combadge-home-communicator

] As part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, CMS is
] sponsoring nine pilot projects involving 180,000 patients
] and using technologies administrators hope will improve
] preventive care. Officials anticipate that the program
] could, for example, help a diabetes patient get to the
] doctor before she requires a leg amputation, or allow a
] doctor to begin a new prescription or diet before his
] patient suffers heart failure.

Even more Remote Patient Monitoring goodness.

Medicare: Bring on the Tech

] But they%u2019re using a %u201CTeleCoach%u201D two-way
] video device to monitor Chantel%u2019s asthma across the
] miles. The program was developed by Sentara three years
] ago to help children with asthma better monitor their
] symptoms.

More Remote Patient Monitoring goodness.

Device helps nurses track patients, monitor conditions across the miles

Stiquito Controlled! is a widely accessible, user-friendly book that provides step-by-step instructions for building Stiquito, a small, multi-legged robot that resembles a "walking-stick" insect. The book includes comprehensive instructions and all the parts needed to complete assembly. Most notably, the kit contains a microcontroller board that allows Stiquito to walk on its own.

Making a Truly Autonomous Robot

] Memory mirror reflects a period of time (e.g. 24 hours of
] a day). As we use an item, it is visually posted to the
] mirror as shown in figure 1, and is recorded in a history
] log. If we had already used an item, an episode mirror
] reflects details of the previous number of usages. The
] memory mirror also warns of possibly lost items that have
] yet to be returned.

blogged for future reference. slightly different application than the MIT biometrics mirror.

everyday computing lab @ georgia institute of technology

] So is the mini a maxi value? For me, clearly, no. When
] I consider that a good deal of my time is spent running
] applications like Disk Defragmenter, Scandisk, Norton AV,
] Windows Update and Ad-Aware--none of which are available
] for the Mac platform--it doesn't make sense for me to
] "switch" to a Mac at this time. But will Apple's famous
] marketing team be able to sell the the emperor an
] invisible computer anyway and turn the mini into a maxi
] hit? That%u2019s the question that remains to be
] answered.

simply hilarious.

Mac Mini: The Emperor's New Computer

] The Sequel uses fuel-cell technology that until now has
] not matched the overall performance of gasoline engines.
] GM is introducing the car at the North American
] International Auto Show in Detroit as rival companies
] make similar announcements.

While I don't think that the ultimate market for fuel cells will be transport, it seems that the automotive industry has got far more capital and momentum than other areas.

Automakers Put Hydrogen Power On the Fast Track

] These experts are confident that the hydrogen economy
] will arrive%u2014someday. But first, they say, we have to
] overcome daunting technological, financial and political
] roadblocks. Herewith, our checklist of misconceptions and
] doubts about hydrogen and the exalted fuel cell.

Warning: The Hydrogen Economy May Be More Distant Than It Appears

] Economically, hydrogen devices remain highly
] unattractive: "Fuel cells are very expensive," Romm said.
] "The demonstration vehicles all cost hundreds of
] thousands of dollars."

So do concept cars which eventually get made into production cars. Hell, so do Ferraris and Aston Martins, both of which are hitting peak production numbers and generating record profits for both companies.

Next?

Road to hydrogen cars may not be so clean

] QuantumSphere, one of several companies investigating
] materials that could become alternatives to platinum, has
] developed a nano nickel material that costs only a
] quarter as much as platinum, according to the company's
] chief scientific officer, Douglas Carpenter. Platinum
] costs about $10,000 per pound, while nano nickel can be
] mass-produced for a fraction of that, according to
] Carpenter.
]
] Carpenter said the nano nickel can be created by boiling
] nickel and then re-condensing it into droplets smaller
] than 20 nanometers. "Nano nickel acts more like platinum
] than nickel," Carpenter said, in describing the
] material's physical properties. Carpenter said the
] company has applied for three patents for its production
] technology. "Nano nickel has the potential to replace
] platinum as the main catalytic material in a variety of
] hydrogen fuel cells," Carpenter said. "In 10 years, (nano
] nickel) will become commoditized."

I don't understand how nano nickel will become commoditized any faster or better than platinum membrane production. True, you could say that there's much more nickel production capacity than platinum, but we also figured out how to make synthetic diamonds too, so what's the big deal about platinum?

Fuel-Cell Vehicles Close the Gap