Tuesday, May 11, 2010
What's next for SIM cards?
Telenor's Fritjof Bogner Engelhardtsen and Sun's James Gosling look at a new experimental development platform for SIM cards. The Java platform allows programmers to design new mobile services including adding sensors and Wi-Fi radio directly on the car
A bright idea for wasteful office lighting
Commercial office buildings are one of the main culprits of the current climate crisis. They consume large amounts of electricity and release excessive carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Adura Technologies has developed a mesh-based lighting system that is reducing costs and consumption inside buildings. The technology consists of wireless radios that plug into florescent light fixtures giving employees more control over their personal lighting space. Adura has also created a dual motion sensing-personal control system that is being used at UC Berkeley that allows students to break the hard-wired connection and control their lighting from their desktop PCs.
Sweden: A concept country for clean-tech development
Sweden: A concept country for clean-tech development
At the Nordic Green conference in Menlo Park, Calif., Olov Hemstrom of the Swedish Trade Council discusses the history of Sweden's drive to go green. He says government and business officials decided on a concept called SymbioCity, where various city functions from waste-water management to landscape and urban planning are all interconnected into one integrated system. Hemstrom is hopeful the practices tested in Sweden over the past 30 years can be applied to cities within the U.S.
With HealthMap, real-time global data surveillance of H1N1 outbreak
With HealthMap, real-time global data surveillance of H1N1 outbreak
By Andrew Nusca | May 10, 2010 | 1 Comment
http://healthmap.org/en/
When the H1N1 virus began spreading in April 2009, a tool created by the informatics program at Children’s Hospital Boston was able to track it in real-time.
The automated tool, called HealthMap, plotted information about the virus outbreak on a map of the globe as it occurred.
The interactive map showed how Internet technology can support the traditional public health infrastructure and help disseminate information quickly.
The HealthMap infrastructure was used to track suspected or confirmed cases or deaths, as well as cases ruled out or not identified as H1N1, based on formal and informal reports, from the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control to news reports and blog activity.
Between April 1 and Dec. 31 2009, researchers analyzed more than 87,000 reports, revealing in retrospect insight to the epidemiology of H1N1 spread around the world, such as how quickly the virus spread, where and how.
The researchers also calculated the time elapsed between suspected and confirmed cases of H1N1 by country, finding a “significant” relationship between a country’s national gross domestic product and its robustness of public health infrastructure.
“We found that countries with high GDP demonstrated a short lag in reporting and were confirming cases in a few days, whereby countries with low GDP could experience lags of up to 85 days,” said John Brownstein, co-founder of HealthMap and a professor at the hospital.
According to the research, several factors contributed to lagging information during the pandemic:
Deficiencies in public health infrastructures.
Political pressures (trade, tourism).
Intense media coverage, which spurred many folks to get tested unnecessarily at the onset.
“Syndromic surveillance” is the seed of what could become real-time surveillance of health data — from Lyme disease to rabies to E. coli to influenza — using electronic medical records.
The challenge: ensuring that people and nations sign up for electronic health records and make that information readily available.
By Andrew Nusca | May 10, 2010 | 1 Comment
http://healthmap.org/en/
When the H1N1 virus began spreading in April 2009, a tool created by the informatics program at Children’s Hospital Boston was able to track it in real-time.
The automated tool, called HealthMap, plotted information about the virus outbreak on a map of the globe as it occurred.
The interactive map showed how Internet technology can support the traditional public health infrastructure and help disseminate information quickly.
The HealthMap infrastructure was used to track suspected or confirmed cases or deaths, as well as cases ruled out or not identified as H1N1, based on formal and informal reports, from the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control to news reports and blog activity.
Between April 1 and Dec. 31 2009, researchers analyzed more than 87,000 reports, revealing in retrospect insight to the epidemiology of H1N1 spread around the world, such as how quickly the virus spread, where and how.
The researchers also calculated the time elapsed between suspected and confirmed cases of H1N1 by country, finding a “significant” relationship between a country’s national gross domestic product and its robustness of public health infrastructure.
“We found that countries with high GDP demonstrated a short lag in reporting and were confirming cases in a few days, whereby countries with low GDP could experience lags of up to 85 days,” said John Brownstein, co-founder of HealthMap and a professor at the hospital.
According to the research, several factors contributed to lagging information during the pandemic:
Deficiencies in public health infrastructures.
Political pressures (trade, tourism).
Intense media coverage, which spurred many folks to get tested unnecessarily at the onset.
“Syndromic surveillance” is the seed of what could become real-time surveillance of health data — from Lyme disease to rabies to E. coli to influenza — using electronic medical records.
The challenge: ensuring that people and nations sign up for electronic health records and make that information readily available.
For e-cars, connectivity overkill?
At the GreenNet conference in San Francisco, automotive-industry executives debate how much connectivity is suitable for electric vehicles, which need to be networked to take advantage of utility prices. Could too much information alienate buyers?
Khosla VC details transformative 'green' tech
At the Nordic Green conference in Menlo Park, Calif., Khosla venture capitalist Jim Kim discusses why the most significant clean tech R&D is occurring at the university level instead of at large corporations. He also talks about the best growth opportunities, includes areas like pollution control, lighting, and wind energy.
Future of... airplane service
Virgin America is taking airplane service to new heights by offering features that cater to the techie in all of us. Passengers can text each other from their seatbacks, order food online, and connect to a Wi-Fi hot spot 35,000 feet in the air. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das reports on these and other in-flight innovations
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