Technology Trends

I’ve recently discovered AutoStitch, an automatic 2D image stitcher, thanks to a reader of Fred Langa’s newsletter (read his review). AutoStitch, developed at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, is truly amazing. This has been years since I’ve been that impressed by a piece of software. It works very simply: you select a collection of pictures and AutoStich analyses their contents and returns you one (or several) panoramic images. You can download AutoStitch for free from this page containing lots of graphics (780 KB) and try it yourself. Once you play with it (no Linux/Mac version yet!), you’ll be hooked. Read more…

Before going further, let’s see a real example. I took several photos of the Louvre Pyramid in Paris last Sunday. Below are these small pictures.

After starting AutoStich, I selected these pictures. And below is what I obtained in less than a minute.

Here is a link to a larger version (1,880 x 557 pixels, 142 KB).

I don’t know what you think, but I’m extremely impressed. However, I would like to add a warning. If you want to generate the largest possible panorama (Go to the Options panel, and choose to scale to 100%), be prepared to wait, until you got plenty of memory!

For more information, the research work has been published in the Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV2003) under the name “Recognising Panoramas” (PDF format, 8 pages, 820 KB).

If you decide to use AutoStich and are happy with the panoramic photographs it generates for you, please post a comment below with a pointer to your nicest images.

Sources: Various websites

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• Graphics
  
  
• Innovation
  
  
• Photography
  
  
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• Web Sites
  

Three months ago, I told you about a Boston-based company, Skyhook Wireless, which is using Wi-Fi networks to provide location-based services (LBS). But this solution relies on a static database of access points updated once a year. Now, a New-York-based start-up company, Navizon, offers a better solution, with its peer-to-peer wireless positioning system which relies on dynamic databases always up-to-date. Users need a free piece of software and a GPS device or a WiFi and/or Cellular enabled Pocket PC PDA. When you’re walking or driving, you’re able to get your exact location in real time, and companies can send you messages about a restaurant of a film opening near the place where you are. The beauty of this plan is that the company doesn’t need any support from big telcos or Wi-Fi providers. The company, which started the service last week in New York, Toronto and Miami, expects to be profitable soon.

Here is how the Peer-to-Peer “Software Only GPS” system works (Credit: Navizon).

“Software Only GPS”? Navigating without GPS? What does this mean? Here is Navizon’s answer.

Since Navizon knows the EXACT geographic locations of Wireless Access Points and Cellular Communications Towers in a specified city or neighborhood it’s able to use the Wireless Networking (WiFi 802.11) and/or Cellular Phone capabilities (or both) that are present within a similarly equipped Pocket PC device, to accurately determine your exact Latitude and Longitude on planet Earth (so let’s hope that’s the planet you’re on!) and then uses this positioning date to inform your Personal GPS Navigation Programs and other Location Based Software Applications on your Pocket PC.

The process is not totally automatic: you need to synchronize your PDA with the Navizon servers. Here is how this works (Credit: Navizon).

As I mentioned above, Navizon’s software is free for individuals. But the company plans to sell access to its databases to other companies. For example, a company giving restaurant ratings could access Navizon servers and give you the name of the best Japanese restaurant in your neighborhood. You also can think that taxi companies or delivering pizzas could track and optimize their fleets.

Of course, these applications will exist only if Navizon reaches a critical mass of users.

But the company doesn’t need to wait for big telcos and doesn’t need large investments. Contrary to Skyhook who relies on people to circle a city to check for updates, Navizon’s users will update the city landscape in real time. And Cyril Houri, who founded the company with own money, told me that he thinks that Navizon can be profitable in a near future.

Will this idea work? Will you download and use this software? Time will tell, but the concept itself is brilliant.

[Disclaimer: I met Cyril Houri once, but I have absolutely no financial ties with him or his company.]

Sources: Roland Piquepaille; Navizon web site

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Innovation
  


• Networking
  


• P2P
  


• Social Networks
  


• Wireless
  

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I’m sure that many of you are sick and tired to carry their laptops during your trips. Of course, you can use a USB key ring to carry your data to access it from any other PC. But what about having a handheld device, such as an iPod, containing the full image of your computing environment, and restoring this whole environment on another PC anywhere in the world? Thanks to researchers from IBM, it is now possible to use the SoulPad system, a portable device carrying a stack of software. The host PC, which can be of any variety, “boots an auto-configuring operating system (Knoppix) from the SoulPad, starts a virtual machine monitor, and resumes a suspended virtual machine that has the user’s entire personal computing environment.” Now, the IBM team is thinking to use cell phones as well to carry the SoulPad system as soon as they have enough disk storage capacity. This day, it will feel easier to travel…

Before going further, here is a diagram showing the multi-tiered architecture of the SoulPad (Credit: IBM Research).

Here are more details from IBM Research.

Essentially, SoulPad enables a user to hibernate a PC session to a pocket form-factor device and carry the device to some another PC and resume his session on that PC. SoulPad has minimal dependencies on PCs that can be used to resume a user session.

In specific, PCs are neither required to be network connected, nor have any pre-installed software. The only requirement is the support of a high speed local connection to a SoulPad device for an acceptable suspend/resume times and acceptable runtime performance.

The researchers note that their approach is very different from the Intel’s Internet Suspend/Resume (ISR) project because SoulPad doesn’t require a known stack of software on the second PC.

As you might guess, the second PC doesn’t boot instantaneously. But suspending and restoring times are very similar to the time it takes for your laptop to move to hibernating mode, about 2 minutes using a USB 2.0 connection.

And what about security if your SoulPad is stolen?

To protect user data if a SoulPad is misplaced or stolen, we encrypt the disk partition that holds the VM images using the AES128 block cipher. We used the publicly available loop-aes package for Linux in our implementation.

The encryption key is generated by hashing a usersupplied passphrase. After the Host OS boots, it prompts the user to enter the passphrase. If the user supplies an incorrect passphrase, the resulting hash will not correspond to the AES key and the mount operation will fail since the decrypted data will not correspond to a valid filesystem. In order to defeat brute force attacks that attempt to guess the passphrase, the loop-aes package requires the passphrase to be at least 20 characters long. For convenience, we permit users to supply this passphrase via an auxiliary USB flash key.

But will a friend allow you to use his PC? You can tell him that the SoulPad system doesn’t touch anything on his machine and will not leave any traces either.

The SoulPad project was presented at MobiSys 2005, the Usenix Third Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, which was held on June 6-8, 2005, in Seattle, WA.

The researchers received an award for Best Paper for “Reincarnating PCs with Portable SoulPads.” Here are two links to the abstract and to the full paper (PDF format, 14 pages, 187 KB).

The IBM Research site also provides a link to a video showing how the SoulPad concept works (5 minutes and 53 seconds, 14 MB).

Finally, you might want to read two other articles about the SoulPad project, “System carries PC soul” from Technology Research News and “Pocket-sized computer ’soul’ developed” from New Scientist.

Sources: IBM Research Project page about SoulPad, 2005; and various web sites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Computers
  


• Handhelds
  


• IBM
  


• Innovation
  


• Pervasive Computing
  


• Software
  


• Technology
  

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Wi-Fi networks are becoming increasingly common, but the one deployed on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, one of my preferred cities in the U.S., is unique. It is the only solar-powered wireless network in the U.S. according to internetnews.com. The first access points are now operational since July 15. This solar-powered network is composed of four dual units and needed only $10,000 to be deployed. And the company which developed this new kind of wireless access points, Lumin, is thinking to make portable and secure wireless networks in developing countries. Update (August 15, 2005): Jamais Cascio notes on WorldChanging that the Boulder’s solar wi-fi network is NOT the first one in the U.S.: for previous examples, check this entry at Daily Wireless.

Before going further, here is the official logo for this operation initiated by the Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District (BID) (Credit: BID).

You’ll find more details about this initiative by reading Surf for Free on the Bricks! and you’ll find other versions of the above logo on this informational flyer (PDF format, 2 pages, 569 KB).

Here are more details from internetnews.com about this project.

Lumin designed the units with more remote areas in mind, locations where there is little or no available power — obviously not the case in downtown Boulder. But the environmentally-friendly power source enticed the Pearl Street planners into becoming the first clients. The network cost $10,000 to deploy, but upkeep costs will essentially be nil. The rechargeable batteries need to be swapped out every so often, but the solar panels are built to run for 25-30 years.

Now, let’s look at the access points from Lumin.

Lumin’s first-generation product is the LightWave AP-1000 solar-powered access point, which comes in two models, single and dual. The Pearl Street deployment utilizes four dual units, each of which is located out of sight on a well-chosen rooftop, and features two hinged solar panels. (The single unit LightWave includes only one panel.) While each access point has a potential range of up to 30 miles, this deployment, which only covers a six-block area, required four APs due to the number of trees interfering with line-of-sight along the cobblestoned outdoor mall.

Below is a picture of one of these LightWave AP-1000 solar-powered wireless network access points mounted on a rock (Credit: Lumin LLC). And here is a link to a detailed description of the product.

I really like Boulder, but deploying solar-powered communication units there would not have been my first choice because of the weather which can be rainy or snowy. But the company says I’m wrong.

“The solar panels are so sophisticated that we can register a charge from the moon,” says Lumin co-founder Sally Lyon. “It’s a myth that it can only be used in the Southwest. In the complete, pitch black night is the only time when there’s no charge. On a cloudy day, it’s charging.”

“Even if you were in a complete snowstorm for a couple of days, you’ve still got a system running,” says Lyon. “The reality is, for all practical purposes, it’s a reliable system with an abundant energy source, and in the long term, it’s extremely cost-effective.”

And it can be exported too. After all, today’s company motto is “From Boulder To Baghdad.”

This first solar-powered wireless network went largely unnoticed outside Colorado. But several newspapers there mentioned it. Here are two links to articles from the Rocky Mountain News, “Solar WiFi: Boulder’s answer to surf and sun” and from the Denver Post, “16th St. Mall shopping for wireless.”

Sources: Naomi Graychase, internetnews.com, August 8, 2005, 2005; and various web sites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Environment
  
  
• Innovation
  
  
• Networking
  
  
• Technology
  
  
• Wireless
  

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I guess it was just a matter of time before someone thought about using DNA to identify robbers. According to two short articles from the The Telegraph and The Register, a security company based in Wales, U.K., has designed a spray that can mark the skin and the clothes of intruders. The i-powder contained in the spray carries a “uniquely-traceable DNA code” registered to the owner and can be easily detected for several weeks. And it seems to be efficient, with recent trials by several police forces resulting in 100 per cent conviction rates. But are these sprays safe for their owners if they have to give a verbal warning to the intruders before using them? Read more…

First, let’s look at the Telegraph.

Police are testing a new weapon against burglars — a spray that leaves indelible marks on intruders, making it far simpler to catch and convict them.

Each batch of spray has a durable red dye and a powder containing strands of DNA, in effect a “signature” that can irrefutably link a burglar to the scene of the crime. The stain left by the spray cannot be removed from clothes or skin for several days.

These sprays are being built and sold by Redweb Security and here are some pictures of the devices.

Now, let’s look at the Register article.

Redweb supremo Clive Smith explained: “The key feature of our technology is that it irrefutably identifies a criminal with the scence of the crime. Each device containing i-powder is registered either to its owner or a precise location, and the unique DNA code contained within the substance remains detectable for several weeks. In this way, RedWeb presents law enforcement agencies with a weight of forensic evidence to assist in securing a conviction.”

Before buying or using one of these ‘alarm’ systems, you should read this list of Frequently Asked Questions. Some of the answers are really fun.

Can Guarda be used more than once? No, because the DNA in each alarm is unique, it can only be used once. If Guarda was used in a legitimate emergency, RedWeb Security will replace your Guarda for a small fee.

Can I register it to my business so all my employees can use it? Unfortunately no, because a sole individuals information is registered to the unique code and agrees to it’s proper operation and use.

If it is registered to me can my spouse or friends use it? See above.

What if it gets on my customers? RedWeb Security recommends that Sentry should not be deployed during opening times.

I would really like to know how many systems will be sold annually in the U.K.

Sources: Jessica Berry, The Telegraph, July 24, 2005; Lester Haines, The Register, July 25, 2005; and RedWeb Security web site

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• DNA
  
  
• Forensics
  
  
• Innovation
  
  
• Police
  

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Printed maps are easy to manipulate, provide an easy way of interacting for multiple users, but are static and can be out of date. On the contrary, computer-based map displays can provide dynamic and more recent information than paper-based maps, but do not help a group of people to communicate. So why not mix them? This is what have done researchers at England’s University of Cambridge with their augmented maps, which add digital graphical information and user interface components to printed maps. Here is how this works: the printed maps are placed on a flat surface; an overhead camera linked to a PC tracks the map via the live video stream; and an overhead projector adds graphical information to the maps. This could be useful for many applications, and the researchers have applied it to a flood simulation of the Cambridge area. Read more…

First, here is a diagram showing the whole system and its components (Credit: University of Cambridge, UK).

And below is an augmented map showing the flooded River Cam. “The image browser to the right shows views corresponding to locations and different stages of the flood, while the PDA to the left controls a helicopter unit” (Credit: University of Cambridge, UK).

Here is a description of the system which has been developed by Dr T.W. Drummond, Dr G. Reitmayr and Ethan Eade.

Tom’s demonstration of the dynamic paper map comprises of a camera and a projector looking down at a paper map from above. The system performs interactive tracking of the map on a table top environment using the live video stream captured by the camera. Once the locations of the maps are known, the projector displays extra information directly on the maps.

The system also tracks user interface devices which can be placed on the map and which enable access to information that is linked to locations on the map. A simple physical prop, for example a piece of white card, becomes a selection tool and projection surface at the same time. Images referenced by the location pointed at are displayed in the white card.

So far, Tom and his colleagues have used their system to show how it could be used to monitor a flooding situation in the Cambridge area and how easy it would be to deploy emergency units, such as an helicopter, by controlling it with a PDA.

Now, the researchers want to move out from their labs and build a deployable and mobile system.

You’ll find more information on the project page, with more technical explanations and different images.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a link to a short video (2 minutes and 43 seconds, 25.2 MB) showing the different tools and components of the system.

And if you’re interested by these augmented maps, a technical paper will be published soon under the name “Localisation and Interaction for Augmented Maps.” This paper will appear in the Proceedings of the 4th IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2005), which will be held in Vienna, Austria, on October 5-8, 2005.

Sources: University of Cambridge, Engineering Department, News & Features, July 7, 2005; and various web sites

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• Computers
  
  
• Engineering
  
  
• Human Computer Interface
  
  
• Innovation
  
  
• Vision and Visualization Apps
  

If you travel through Sweden this summer, don’t forget to try the first genetically modified (GM) beer in the world. According to CNN.com in this short article, the Kenth beer contains “corn that has been genetically modified to protect it against pests.” Sometimes, corn is named maize in Europe, and the brewer chose to use this unusual Bt maize to ’spice up’ his beer. Of course, his goal is to produce a great new beer, but he also wants to introduce new technologies that will be good for the environment without compromising the consumers’ health — I guess he based his assumptions on a ‘reasonable’ number of bottles on a very warm day… Anyway, GM food products have been approved by the European Union since April 2004 — if they’re properly labeled. So you might find this beer outside Sweden anytime soon. Read more…

First, here is a picture of this delightful new beer (Credit: Oesterlenbryggarna brewery in Osterlen, Sweden).

Now, here are some excerpts from the CNN article.

Master brewer Kenth Persson is aware that the use of GM ingredients is not to everyone’s taste and admits the brewery is taking a risk.

“But I think it’s very interesting to be doing a new thing and that is what brewers like me want to do,” he said. “We cannot do things in the same way as the big breweries like Carlsberg. We try to do things differently.”

You’ll find more details on BioteknikCentrum.com by reading this page, “The ordinary beer that’s out of the ordinary.”

The fact that one of the ingredients of this beer comes from a GM crop (maize) does not mean, however, that the beer has any characteristics that would not be found in a beer made with conventional maize. The grain looks exactly the same, it tastes exactly the same, and Bt maize is at least as safe and healthy as conventional maize.

Rather, the difference is in the small yellow maize kernals sown in a field in the Oderbruch region of Germany, beside the River Oder.

This is somewhat ironic as Germany is — with France — one of the European countries most strongly opposed to GM foods.

But now, let’s look at why this GM maize can be better for us.

This genetically modified Bt maize has been imbued with a new characteristic, enabling the crop to defend itself against the dreaded European corn borer moth. This vicious pest has had many maize growers tearing their hair in despair over the years.

In conventional maize growing, insecticide sprays are used to fight off the corn borer. Thanks to the Bt gene — which can be described as a self-defence gene — farmers no longer need to rely so heavily on insecticides. This of course benefits the environment.

Halting the spread of the corn borer moth also reduces the risk of fungal attacks. Fungi can produce poisonous substances (mycotoxins) at levels that create major problems for producers of both human foods and animal feeds. In conclusion, the Bt maize actually enables safer food products.

I don’t know if the above statement is true, but if you try this beer, drop me a note to tell me if it tastes good.

Finally, you also can read another version of the document mentioned above, but with more pictures: “The story of Sweden’s first GM-labelled food product” (PDF format, 7 pages, 162 KB).

Sources: Tom Hayes and Liz George, CNN.com, July 15, 2005; and various web sites

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• Environment
  


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Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that puts computer-generated objects on the top of the real world. And now, AR is going to be used in poultry processing plants to improve communication between computers and workers. Researchers at Georgia Tech have designed two AR systems that project graphical instructions from an automated inspection system onto birds on a processing line, telling workers which chicken are ‘defective products’ and have to be discarded. For example, some workers will wear see-through head-mounted displays (HMD), which will allow them to see graphical instructions about a bird and what to do with it. ‘Right now, this inspection is done visually by human screeners, who communicate instructions to trimmers using gestures.’ AR technology should increase the throughput of poultry plants if their owners want to pay about $3,600 per device. Read more…

Here is the introduction of this Georgia Institute of Technology Research News article.

Technology that transfers computer-generated information onto the physical world is being tested for use in poultry plants to improve communication between computers and workers.

Using augmented reality (AR) technology, researchers have designed two systems that project graphical instructions from an automated inspection system onto birds on a processing line. These symbols tell workers how to trim or whether to discard defective products.

Below is a photo of these augmented reality systems (Credit: Gary Meek, for Georgia Tech, on this page). And here is a link to a larger version (1.09 MB).

One augmented reality system developed at Georgia Tech uses a location-tracked, see-through, head-mounted display (foreground) worn by poultry workers. It directly overlays graphical instructions on a trimmer’s view of the birds. A second solution uses a laser scanner, mounted in a fixed location near the processing line, to project graphical instructions (red square on bird illustration) directly onto each bird that requires some action, such as trimming.

But what has motivated researchers to use such a sophisticated technology in poultry plants?

“It’s easy to see this technology working in a poultry plant,” said Blair Macintyre, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech College of Computing and AR expert. “The question is, ‘What is the best implementation of the technology to satisfy the environmental constraints?’”

Researchers have had to consider that poultry processing plants are typically wet and slippery and have to be thoroughly washed down with high-pressured water streams daily. Also, trimmers need simple, graphical instructions and must have their hands free of any object except a knife for cutting defective bird parts.

This is why they developed two independent AR solutions, without knowing which one could be chosen by the food industry..

“Each solution appears to have advantages and disadvantages,” Macintyre said. One of the greatest benefits that both solutions provide is the potential for advance warning to trimmers of the workload coming down the line, he added. Current practices don’t provide this advantage.

“But our suspicion is that the laser-based system is the more practical in the near term and potentially in the long term,” Macintyre said. “The real disadvantage of the head-mounted system is its cost. Heads-up displays cost about $3,600, but they are getting cheaper. Two years ago, they cost about $7,000 each.”

These AR systems will not be commercially available before several years, and they might mot be even successful — for psychological reasons.

“We think these technologies have the potential to be better than current practices,” Macintyre said. “But, two humans working together over time have learned to use non-verbal cues and have developed a smooth communication system. That will be hard to beat at some level.”

Anyway, these AR solutions will be described during the 2005 Annual International Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, held on July 17-20 in Tampa, Florida. The research paper, “Augmented Reality Systems Applied to Poultry Grading & Inspection,” will be presented on July 18 at 11:45AM, but is not yet available online.

Finally, for slightly more information, you can visit the Augmented Reality for Poultry Inspection page at the Augmented Environment Lab (AEL).

Sources: Jane Sanders, Georgia Institute of Technology Research News, via EurekAlert!, July 14, 2005; and various web sites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Food
  


• Human Computer Interface
  


• Innovation
  


• Virtual Reality
  


• Vision and Visualization Apps
  

Admit it, typing an SMS on a cell phone takes time, and writing an e-mail on a PDA is only marginally better. But according to the San Jose Mercury News, a researcher at IBM has found a solution to this vexing problem. Instead of typing words on these ridiculous small keyboards, with the SHARK, an abbreviation for ShortHand-Aided Rapid Keyboarding, you use a grid and a stylus. The grid appears on the screen of your portable device. You put a stylus on the first letter of the word you want to type. Then you drag the stylus to draw a line connecting all the other letters of the word. When you release the stylus, the word appears almost magically. With SHARK, you can type between 50 and 80 words per minute, which is almost miraculous. So far, IBM hasn’t yet decided to release this software as a product. But if enough of you download it, which is currently free, and say you want it, IBM could release it as a paying product within a few months.

Here is the introduction of the Mercury News article.

Humans in their long history have invented only two ways for individuals to produce text: handwriting and typing on a keyboard.

Shumin Zhai, an IBM scientist, may have invented another way: SHARK, an abbreviation for ShortHand-Aided Rapid Keyboarding.

SHARK is intended for writing text with a stylus on small touch-sensitive screens, such as those found in cell phones and personal digital assistants. It uses a radically different approach that is easy to learn and fast.

Here is how the system works. Below is a screen capture of a user trying to finishing to type “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” On this capture, the user is moving its stylus to create the word “jumps” (Credit: IBM Almaden Research Center).

If you want to see SHARK in action without downloading it, here is a link to a video demo (4 minutes and 24 seconds, 29.7 MB). The above image comes from this video.

Here is how the Mercury News describe the system.

To write a word, you put the stylus on the first letter of the word and then drag the stylus to draw a line through the alphabet cluster, touching every letter in the word. When you lift up the stylus after hitting the last letter, SHARK figures out what word you want and displays it on the screen.

If SHARK makes a mistake, you tap the word and get a list of the most likely alternatives based on the path you traced through the grid.

You can check the system by yourself, and even download a beta version on the IBM SHARK Shorthand web site.

CNET News.com also described the SHARK system last week in “New-age keyboard: Trace, don’t write.”

But for more technical information, here is a link to the recent publications of Shumin Zhai and his colleagues.

In particular, you should read “In Search of Effective Text Input Interfaces for Off the Desktop Computing” (PDF format, 18 pages, 255 KB).

For the moment, the system is only working with a database of English words. If IBM ever needs beta testers for a French version, I’m available. Typing text messages is just a nightmare right now…

Sources: Mike Langberg, San Jose Mercury News, July 15, 2005; and various web sites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Computers
  


• Human Computer Interface
  


• IBM
  


• Innovation
  


• Software
  


• Technology
  
  
• Wireless
  

For many years now, R&D Magazine has given its R&D 100 Awards, also known as “The Oscars of Invention,” to the most innovative ideas of the year. The winners will be announced in the September issue of the magazine, but they already have been notified by — guess what? — fax. This year, the Department of Energy (DOE) labs have won 29 awards, and four of them went to Livermore Nat’l Lab (LLNL). Here I’ve chosen to focus on one of these awards, the bioaerosol mass spectrometer (BAMS). “BAMS has the potential to identify bioagents, such as anthrax, from only a single spore or cell and to clarify the molecular changes that occur in normal and cancerous cells.” But read more…

Below is a diagram showing this bioaerosol mass spectrometry (BAMS) system used to analyze bacterial spores and identify bioagents, such as anthrax, from only a single spore or cell (Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory).

Here are some more details from the LLNL news release.

Using a laser to peel cells apart and a mass spectrometer to identify the chemicals inside, BAMS can identify airborne pathogens at the single-cell level in about 100 milliseconds. Combining an understanding of laser-particle interactions, the biochemistry of bacteria and mass spectrometry analysis, BAMS is a prototype system that can identify pathogens and differentiate between harmful anthrax spores and benign agents.

BAMS is designed for operation in office buildings that could be targets for a terrorist attack using a biological agent such as anthrax, or at ports of entry such as airports or train stations to monitor for potential epidemic diseases. Future biomedical applications could include rapid detection of respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and SARS.

As you can easily guess, there are not many reference papers which have been published about this technology. But you can still read two previous articles published by Science & Technology Review, a LLNL publication.

Here are the links to “When Every Second Counts: Pathogen Identification in Less Than a Minute” (September 2003) and “Life at the Nanoscale” (May 2004). The first one gives additional details on the BAMS technique.

The premise of a detect-to-warn system is to allow time to react. “A minute gives people enough time to put on masks, leave the room, hold their breath. The challenge was to actually make a device that could provide answers in less than a minute,” explains Livermore chemist Eric Gard.

The BAMS technique, which Gard and others have been working on for nearly five years, can successfully identify a single airborne particle in about 100 milliseconds. This technique has other applications as well, Gard notes. “In the future, BAMS could also be used as a medical diagnostic to, for instance, track small subpopulations of cancerous cells that deviate from their normal development cycle. As such, BAMS may make far-reaching contributions in the fields of oncology, microbiology, and public health.”

The other article from Science & Technology Review discusses other techniques, but gives a very short summary of the missions of the Livermore’s BioSecurity and Nanosciences Laboratory (BSNL).

One of BSNL’s most important research goals is developing fast, sensitive, and accurate instruments to detect and identify a wide range of pathogens. In the area of airborne pathogen detection, Livermore researchers have worked with colleagues at the University of California (UC) at Davis to develop the bioaerosol mass spectrometer (BAMS). BAMS combines advanced laser desorption and ionization techniques with mass spectrometry, and its sensitivity is two to three times greater than that of other laser ionization techniques. In addition, BAMS’s response time is fast — it can identify a single airborne particle in about 100 milliseconds.

Sources: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory news release, July 11, 2005; and various web sites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Biotechnology
  


• Chemistry
  


• Innovation
  


• Medicine
  


• Military Apps
  

Several companies are currently developing ‘augmented reality’ systems to help surgeons to simultaneously see inside and outside their patients. In this short article titled “And No, It’s Not for Seeing Through Clothes,” Fast Company describes a solution from Siemens. This system consists of a custom video-see-through head-mounted display (HMD), two color video cameras attached to the HMD that provide ultrasound, magnetic resonance (MR), or computer tomography (CT) pre-recorded images, and a third infrared video camera for tracking what’s doing the surgeon. Such systems could become available in three to five years. But they will not be cheap. A complete augmented reality system should cost as much as $400,000.

Here are some short excerpts from the Fast Company article.

While current medical-imaging techniques such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance (MR), and computer tomography (CT) harvest a wealth of data from inside our bodies, the resulting images can be viewed only on light boards and computer screens. To a neurosurgeon plunging a seven-inch needle into a patient’s brain, that’s clearly an imperfect solution: He has to take his eye off the incision to see where he’s headed.

Siemens’s response, called “augmented reality,” starts with a headset that overlays prerecorded ultrasound, MR, or CT images with real-time video captured by a pair of cameras just above the physician’s eyes. A third infrared camera, also mounted on the headset, spatially orients the video in relation to a set of optical tracking markers placed around the patient’s body. The resulting picture is projected onto two tiny screens positioned directly in front of the physician’s eyes.

Below are two previous examples of Siemens technologies that will make patients appear transparent and may one day allow surgeons to operate through micro robots on a cellular level. (Credit: Siemens)

Using a head mounted display and marker bridge, a researcher checks how closely the image of a tumor corresponds with the position of an actual (mock-up) tumor. What the researcher sees is shown on the monitors with the tumor marked in red.

Virtual (also called “optical”) biopsies may provide an inexpensive method of pin-pointing individual cancer cells, thus opening the door to the potential of cellular surgery. The biopsies use a novel fluorescent agent that is activated when in contact with tumor specific enzymes.

Both of these images were extracted from the Fall 2001 issue of Pictures of the Future, a former online magazine from Siemens. Here is a short excerpt of what wrote Arthur F. Pease four years ago.

Probably the most far-reaching of these nascent technologies is “in situ visualization.” Also known as augmented reality image guidance, in situ visualization can use a head mounted display (HMD) or semi-transparent plate to superimpose 3D computer images of anatomical structures on the actual environment. The images may originate from just about any digital diagnostic modality, and can be dynamically introduced into the surgeon’s field of vision. Otherwise invisible structures such as deep seated tumors appear in their exact sizes, shapes and positions vis-à-vis visible objects such as the surface of a patient’s head, anchored in their real-world structures with an accuracy of +1/-1 mm. In short, in situ visualization is a revolutionary step that sets the stage for the symbiosis of all digital imaging technologies and opens the door to the transparent patient.

Now, let’s return to 2004 for more technical papers with the abstract of a paper named “An Augmented Reality System for MRI-Guided Needle Biopsies: Initial Results in a Swine Model.”

The system for augmented reality (AR) visualization enables the physician to perceive MR images in-situ. It consists of a custom video-see-through head-mounted display (HMD), two color video cameras attached to the HMD that provide a stereo view of the scene, and a third video camera for tracking. Optical marker sets are used for viewpoint adjustment and needle tracking. The system runs on a PC and achieves real-time performance (30 fps) with a latency of 0.1 sec, generating a stable augmentation with no apparent jitter visible in the composite images.

Finally, if you’re interested by augmented reality systems developed at Siemens, one of them was awarded the U.S. patent number 6,856,324 on February 15, 2005 under the name “Augmented reality guided instrument positioning with guiding graphics.” Here is a direct link to this patent.

Sources: Lucas Conley, Fast Company, Issue 96, July 2005, Page 32; and various web sites

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A team of researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has developed the first true, three-dimensional, holographic movies. These movies should appear on a screen near you in about a decade. For the moment, the initial markets for this holographic television system will be in medical visualization and military applications. The system is based on regular digital light processing (DLP) micro-mirror chips, but there is a twist. Instead of using regular lights, the researchers are using laser lights, which are using a unique wavelength. And they feed the chip with interferograms coming from regular 3-D imaging applications. This unique combination leads the micro-mirrors to project a 3-D moving image that appears suspended in air, like a 3-D hologram. Read more today, or wait until 2020…

Here is the introduction of the UT Southwestern Medical Center news release about this future projection system.

In a small research laboratory at UT Southwestern Medical Center, a grainy, red movie of circling fighter jets emerges from a table-top black box, while nearby, a video of a rotating human heart hangs suspended in a tank of gooey gel.

These images - the first true, three-dimensional, holographic movies - are the brainchild of Dr. Harold “Skip” Garner, professor of biochemistry and internal medicine at UT Southwestern.

Below are three images showing the — early — technology at work (Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center). You’ll find more explanations below.

So when will be able to watch holographic television in our living rooms?

“An important next step is to take our proof of principle technology that we have now and move it into a commercial entity,” said Dr. Garner. “We think the two initial markets will be in medical visualization and military applications, such as heads-up displays for helmets and military aircraft and coordinating battlefield information.”

In the long term, Dr. Garner said, entertainment uses could include 3-D multiplayer games, theme park or advertising displays, and “Holo TV.” He and his colleagues have worked with students in Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business to develop a tentative business plan that explores the possible commercialization of the technology, focusing on medical applications.

“I predict that by the year 2020, that being the year of ‘perfect vision,’ we will have Holo TV in our homes,” said Dr. Michael Huebschman, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Garner’s lab and one of the developers of the technology.

Back in 2005, the “What’s New” section of Popular Science dated June 16, 2005, carries a special report named “The Future Starts Here,” which takes “a look at five unbelievable technologies trucking toward reality” and includes a very interesting article about the “Holographic Television.”

For more technical information, you should read this page about Holographic Imaging from Skip Garner’s lab, which also has links to several video demonstrations.

Finally, you should read a paper published by Optics Express in March 2003, “Dynamic holographic 3-D image projection” (Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 437-445). Here is a link to the full paper (PDF format, 9 pages, 1.69 MB). The images above are extracted from this paper.

Sources: UT Southwestern Medical Center news release, June 14, 2005; Jonathan Keats, Popular Science, June 16, 2005; and various sites

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• Displays
  
  
• Future
  
  
• Holograms
  
  
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In “Foggy screen points the way,” Nature describes a technology invented by a Finnish company named FogScreen. But don’t let you be fooled by the name, the images are not blurry, even if the screen is made of water. You can even walk through the screen without feeling wet because the company uses ‘dry’ fog made of plain water without any chemicals added. The idea behind the technology is similar to the one used by laser shows for musical events. And the real beauty of this innovation is its ease of use. You just replace your conventional screen by a FogScreen, and you’re all set. But read more…

Here are the opening paragraphs of the article from Nature.

Forget plasma screens, here’s one made out of nothing but water. Inventors have fashioned an interactive computer display from a curtain of fog.

The FogScreen uses ceiling-mounted air jets to create a vertical, turbulence-free slice of air a few centimetres thick, into which a fine mist of water is pumped. An ordinary projector can be used to display images on the resulting wall of fog.

And you can even click on this wall of fog.

When the projector is hooked up to a normal computer, the FogScreen can function much like the large display from a desktop in a lecture theatre. But, with the help of a laser-scanning system, the FogScreen also allows users to click on the watery screen itself.

Poke a finger at the screen, and the laser beams scanning the surface of the fog are interrupted, allowing the system to detect where you have ‘clicked’.

Below is a photograph showing how a FogScreen could be used during a trade show or a cultural event (Credit: FogScreen Inc.)

Here is a link to a larger version of this image (579 KB).

Nature adds that these screens are based on simple technologies.

It looks high-tech, but the FogScreen relies on fairly simple technologies. Ceiling-mounted blowers create vertical sheets of non-turbulent air that flow side-by-side without mixing. High-frequency ultrasound vibrations vaporize water into tiny droplets that are pumped between air flows.

In this page about its technology, FogScreen adds some details — but of course, this is company literature.

The basic components of the screen are a laminar, non-turbulent airflow, and a thin fog screen (or any particles) injected into and inside a laminar flow. Created this way, the fog screen is an internal part of the laminar airflow, and remains thin, crisp, and protected from turbulence.

The fog is made within the device using water and ultrasonic waves. If you hold your hands in the fog flow, the fog feels dry and cool, and your hands do not get wet.

After the screen is formed, images can be projected onto it. The screen can be translucent or fully opaque.

And with two projectors, you can project different images on both sides of the screen.

The technology behind the FogScreen products has received the U.S. patent number 6,819,487 in November 2004 under the name “Method and apparatus for forming a projection screen or a projection volume.”

Finally, in “Click on air!,” innovations report, from Germany, describes what you would experience at a car show if an automotive company used such a display.

Imagine a stand at a motor show featuring a new convertible. There’s a screen ‘hanging in the air’ with everything you expect on your PC desktop. You can click your way through all the new features of the car just by pointing your finger, and when you’re done you can walk through the screen and on to the next stand.

A last note: I’ve never seen these displays in action. So if you read this note and have already walked through a FogScreen, please leave your comments below. Anyway, tt looks like serious fun technology.

Sources: Michael Hopkin, Nature, June 10, 2005; and various websites

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• Human Computer Interface
  
  
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This week, the cover story of BusinessWeek, “The Power Of Us,” reminds us that “mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business.” The long article covers all the new Internet technologies we are using today, from free phone calls using Skype to file-sharing, blogs, wikis and social networking services. As says Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs, a mix of different technologies such as the Web, mobile devices, and the feedback system on eBay “may make some new economic system possible.” In other words, these new Net technologies are creating a new world, where “the economic role of social behavior is increasing.” The whole BusinessWeek article is worth reading, but I want to focus here on InnoCentive, a web-based community matching 80,000 independent scientists (the “solvers”) to relevant R&D challenges facing leading companies (the “seekers”) from around the globe. Read more…

First, here is how some traditional companies are adopting these new tools to face this world of changes.

Traditional companies, from Procter & Gamble Co. to Dow Chemical Co., are beginning to flock to the virtual commons, too. The potential benefits are enormous. If companies can open themselves up to contributions from enthusiastic customers and partners, that should help them create products and services faster, with fewer duds — and at far lower cost, with far less risk. LEGO Group uses the Net to identify and rally its most enthusiastic customers to help it design and market more effectively. Eli Lilly & Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., and others are running “prediction markets” that extract collective wisdom from online crowds, which help gauge whether the government will approve a drug or how well a product will sell.

And here is Rheingold’s vision of this phenomenon.

Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, sees a common thread in such disparate innovations as the Internet, mobile devices, and the feedback system on eBay, where buyers and sellers rate each other on each transaction. He thinks they’re the underpinnings of a new economic order. “These are like the stock companies and liability insurance that made capitalism possible,” suggests Rheingold, who’s also helping lead the Cooperation Project, a network of academics and businesses trying to map the new landscape. “They may make some new economic system possible.”

Now, let’s focus on InnoCentive.

Back in 2001, the management of Eli Lilly decided to see if thousands of researchers around the world, and available via the Web, could help its own scientists to find new ideas. And it decided to invest a few million dollars in a young startup company, InnoCentive, short for “Innovation Incentive.” Eli Lilly was soon followed by PG, Dow, DuPont, Boeing and more than 30 other large companies.

Here is how this collaborative technology works. Imagine that you are a company needing to find an answer to a problem that your own teams have not solved. You, as a “seeker,” contact InnoCentive which will post your challenge on the Web, with all the guarantees of anonymity of course. And Innocentive will post the challenge on the Net. Its network of 80,000 independent self-selected “solvers” living in more than 170 countries, will then try to solve this problem.

After a solution is evaluated and accepted, the “solver” will receive an award ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.

If you’re a chemist, here is the list of current chemistry challenges you can solve. For example, if you find “a method to sequester menthol in a flexible sheet” before September 20, 2005, and if your solution is approved, you will earn $50,000.

And if you’re a biologist, you can look at the biology challenges. Imagine you have a good idea to find new “approaches for non-surfactant based laundry detergents.” Submit your proposal before June 24, 2005, and you might have a chance to get $20,000.

Here is a pointer to a list of recent winning solvers.

BusinessWeek confirms that this system is really successful.

More than a third of the two dozen requests P&G has submitted to InnoCentive’s network have yielded solutions, for which the company paid upwards of $5,000 apiece. By using InnoCentive and other ways of reaching independent talent, P&G has boosted the number of new products derived from outside to 35%, from 20% three years ago. As a result, sales per R&D person are ahead some 40%.

So, if you’re an expert in biotechnology or petrochemicals, you might want to join the InnoCentive network. And if you win an award, please drop me a note…

Sources: Robert D. Hof, BusinessWeek Magazine, June 20, 2005 Issue; and various websites

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• Chemistry
  
  
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Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have designed an interface for non-musicians to play music. This interface, part of the Expression Synthesis Project (ESP), is based on the fact that more people know how to drive a car than an orchestra. In “Baby, you can drive my song,” the researchers explain how they converted real musical scores into digital virtual roads. Then using a steering wheel and foot pedals, you ‘drive’ on this road to interpret the piece of music, becoming a real maestro. Such a system should be demonstrated in a public exhibit by 2008 and become available to everyone in the same time frame. Read more…

Here are some details about the ESP project, devised by a team led by Elaine Chew of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

ESP “attempts to provide a driving interface for musical expression,” according to Chew’s published description. “The premise of ESP is that driving serves as an effective metaphor for expressive music performance. Not everyone can play an instrument but almost anyone can drive a car. By using a familiar interface, ESP aims to provide a compelling metaphor for expressive performance so as to make high-level expressive decisions accessible to non-experts.”

Created by Chew, Alexandre R.J. François, a research professor in the Viterbi School, and graduate students Jie Liu and Aaron Yang, ESP starts with a piece of music in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format, one that has been converted from the printed score.

Below is a diagram showing how the system works, from a real musical score to a virtual digital road, and then from this road to real music played by you (Credit: USC Viterbi School of Engineering).

This image comes from this document about the Expression Synthesis Project(PDF format, 2 pages, 658 KB).

Of course, the difficult part is to convert a real musical score into a digital road.

The group is building tools to automate the process of creating such roads, applying artificial intelligence techniques to the analysis of the score. “Having the road build itself will be the most difficult part,” says François.

The road’s turns suggest to the driver when to slow down and speed up. however, the ultimate decision on what to do at each turn is entirely in the driver’s hands (or foot). The foot pedals control both the tempo and the volume of the music. Additionally, buttons mounted on the wheel act as the equivalent of the pedals on the piano, making the notes either sustain or cut off crisply.

This research work was presented at the 2005 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), held on May 26-28 in Vancouver, Canada.

Here is a link to the paper which was presented at this conference, “ESP: A Driving Interface for Expression Synthesis” (PDF format, 4 pages, 289 KB).

You can also find more information about this project by visiting the Music Computation and Cognition website (but it appears that some links are broken right now) or the USC Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC).

Finally, on this poster about the project (PDF format, 1 page, 439 KB), you’ll read that the goal is to have an interactive public exhibit in 2008.

Ready to drive an orchestra?

Sources: USC Viterbi School of Engineering news release, May 30, 2005; and various websites

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• Engineering
  
  
• Human Computer Interface
  
  
• Innovation
  
  
• Music