| Dirty Hands Detector
Blue-light scanning technology developed for meat processing plants to detect
fecal contamination on meat has been built into a device the size of an electric
hand dryer to detect fecal matter on human hands. A prototype has been
demonstrated to the Associated Press and a finished model could be on the market
by the end of this year. The primary markets are restaurants and healthcare
facilities.
The scanner can also record data on who used it and how clean their hands
were. However, it cannot detect all pathogens, such as salmonella from raw eggs.
In meat factories, the technology can check 500 beef carcasses in an hour,
and is more reliable than human inspectors. One leading meat processor is
installing the scanners in all its plants across North America. That alone could
have a very beneficial impact on public health in the continent.
Reference: Bridis, Ted (2004). “New
Technology Could Detect Dirty Hands.” Associated Press via Yahoo News, April
3.
E-books
Last year, Barnes and Noble stopped selling electronic books (e-books)
because there was little demand. But like the Apple Newton PDA, the electronic
book may be one of those technologies that was ahead of its time. Now, a joint
creation of Sony, Philips, and E Ink called the Libri� could do for the
electronic book what the Palm Pilot did for the PDA. The key may lie in
the device’s display, which is claimed to look more like paper than like an LCD
screen.
Libri� is about the size of a paperback book and can store the
contents of about 500 books. Its four AAA batteries are good for reading about
10,000 pages of text.
The ready availability of electronic versions of books could leave publishers
and authors in the same boat as music publishers and artists, fighting to
preserve the value of their copyrights. Libri� could be the iPod
equivalent, changing but not destroying the industry it serves. It is just now
going on sale in Japan for about US$380, with books available for download (on a
rental basis — they “self-destruct” after 60 days) for $5. Success or failure
in Japan will determine the product’s rollout in other countries.
Reference: Hesseldahl, Arik (2004). “The
Next Chapter In Electronic Books.” Forbes, April 26.
Reference: Zaun, Todd (2004). “Even in
Bright Light, an E-Book That’s Easy on the Eyes.” New York Times, April 22.
More on Vocera Star Trek Communicator
Badge
The University of Kentucky Hospital is one of some 60 US hospitals that have
adopted the Vocera Star Trek-like wireless communication badges we wrote
about last
month. Wearers press a button on the badge and speak the name of a specific
person or the name of a functionary, such as “radiologist.” The badge
immediately connects them with the named person or with the nearest available
named functionary, and facilitates a conversation. It can also connect wearers
to other people via phone — the wearer simply says “Call the fire department,”
“Page Dr. Jones,” or “Get me an outside line” and then recites a phone number.
The system’s voice-recognition technology not only enables it to recognize
what the wearer wants but also who the wearer is, from his or her voice print.
Unauthorized people can thus be prevented from using the badges, but multiple
authorized users (say, shift nurses) can use the same badge.
An ED nurse manager told Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Karla Ward:
“In the old days, we could find ourselves walking around for two minutes, three
minutes, five minutes trying to find someone, [but now] with the touch of a
button I can immediately be connected to any of those resources that I need.”
The badges also reduce, and could eventually eliminate, the noisy and
distracting loudspeaker paging common in hospitals.
The system cost the hospital, which is testing it first only in its Emergency
Department, US$85,000 for two computer servers, 35 badges, and 150 user
licenses.
Reference: Ward, Karla (2004). “UK Hospital badges
link up wearers.” Lexington Herald-Leader. April 29.
PDA for the Near-blind
A US$975 electronic magnifying glass for people with impaired vision is
composed of a tiny video camera and a four-inch LCD screen. It helps them read
books, newspapers, restaurant menus, and anything else, even in dim light, and
has other advantages over traditional optical aids such as magnifying glasses.
For $2000 more, a similar device is available in the form of a visor like that
worn by the blind crewman in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Reference: Chang, Kenneth (2004). “Sleek New Devices
Help Low-Vision Patients See.” New York Times, April 6.
Revolutionary Magnetic Motor
A Japanese inventor has made a magnetic motor that uses very little
electricity and appears to have genuine potential to produce what science has
generally held to be impossible — more power than it consumes; in effect, a
perpetual motion machine.
Judging by live demonstrations of the motor, the grant of worldwide patents,
the contribution of investment capital, an order from Japan’s largest
manufacturer of car air conditioners for a prototype car air conditioner powered
by the motor, and an order from a large Japanese convenience store retail chain
for 40,000 cooling fans powered by the motors, this is for real.
The engine is a rotor with magnets embedded at a critical angle. A small
external magnet starts the rotor spinning, but it then continues to spin without
further application of power. One demonstration unit spun at over 1,500 rpm and
produced 1.75 watts of output from 0.54 watts of input power. It runs cool and
silently, and is non-polluting.
The implications, writes John Dood in Japan.com, are enormous. In the
US alone, almost 55 percent of the nation’s electricity is consumed by electric
motors. The magnetic motor will save at least 80 percent of the power used to
run conventional motors, will be cheaper to manufacture, and is claimed to have
enough torque to power a vehicle.
Reference: Dood, John (2004). “The Techno Maestro’s Amazing
Machine: Kohei Minato and the Japan Magnetic Fan Company.” Japan.com,
undated.
Smell Phones
Even before fourth generation (“4G”) 100 Mbps cell phone services reach the
market in about 2010, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo researchers are already at work on 5G,
which will incorporate the telecommunication of all five senses, including
touch, smell, and taste. They are also designing phones that can literally point
in the direction of a calling party, a useful attribute for finding a friend in
a crowd or for telling who’s speaking during a teleconference, and on giving
camera phones the ability to read lips and translate it to spoken text for the
remote party — useful when discretion is required, silence must be observed, or
there is too much background noise.
According to the AAP news service, DoCoMo employs about 1100 engineers on
research and development in Japan, with an annual budget of nearly US$1.5
billion.
Reference: Unknown (2004). “Touch
and smell phone.” AAP via AustralianIT, April 27.
Spitting Image
Bus and train drivers in some parts of the UK are being supplied with DNA
kits to catch people who spit on them. The kits contain sterile swabs, latex
gloves, and an evidence collection bag. The drivers simply collect a sample of
the offending substance and hand it in for DNA matching against (and adding to)
the UK national DNA database. In the UK, anyone arrested for any offence can be
DNA-tested and his or her genetic profile added to the national database.
A transport agency that has been using the kits for some time says they have
been “hugely successful in obtaining first-class evidence which can be used to
secure a court conviction.”
Reference: Innes, John (2004). “DNA kits to
combat spitting menace.” The Scotsman, April 21. |
