New Device Uses Mobile Phone To Test Vision In Developing Countries June 28, 2010
We tend to think of mobile phones as a matter of convenience, allowing us to be productive and entertained while we’re on the go. But a team of researchers at MIT’s Media Lab has created a simple and inexpensive device that when used with a mobile phone can help diagnose vision problems.
The underlying principles of the NETRA (Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment) system are related to recent advances in adaptive optics. The test takes less than two minutes, during which the patient is asked to look through a small device attached to the screen of a mobile phone. The …
Email This PostMobile phones bring revolution to developing world June 23, 2010
We all know how fast technology can change markets and businesses. Now the web and the mass proliferation of mobile phones, as well as falling costs for all kinds of technologies, are allowing rapid change to affect more than just the developed world.
And advances in technology and the falling cost of delivery are driving big corporations as well as entrepreneurs to take new or renewed interest in solving some of the most seemingly intractable issues we face as a global community, from health care to education, from economic development and rolling out affordable alternative energy to coping with the social …
Email This PostText messages become a growing weapon in dating violence June 22, 2010
The text messages to the 22-year-old Virginia woman arrived during the day and night, sometimes 20 or 30 at once. Her ex-boyfriend wanted her back. He would not be refused. He texted and called 758 times.
In New York, a 17-year-old trying to break up with her boyfriend got fewer messages, but they were menacing. “You don’t need nobody else but me,” read one. Another threatened to kill her.
It is all part of what is increasingly called “textual harassment,” a growing aspect of dating violence at a time when cellphones and unlimited texting plans are ubiquitous among the young. It …
Email This PostInventor Proposes New Language for Cell Phone Messaging — Using Hieroglyphics June 16, 2010
Modern man no longer communicates via cave painting, yet hieroglyphs may be making a comeback — thanks to the cell phone.
Colorado native Kai Staats has invented a new language for cell phones that replaces words with pictures to represent actions, nouns, and places, making his invention essentially a modern form of the hieroglyphics used in ancient Egypt.
The language, which Staats calls “iConji,” consists of 32×32 pixel square images that convey either a single meaning, such as “sports car,” …
Bars Turn to Texting to Warn of Rowdy Patrons June 14, 2010
As patrons at Bull Feeney’s danced to a ’90s cover band and sipped from cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Eric Coulombe, the manager, fiddled with what he says is the latest weapon against the rowdiness and fighting that has long plagued the bar scene in this seaside city — an iPod Touch.
Bar owners and the police here have started a text messaging system to alert one another when a patron is removed from a bar, is overly belligerent or is seen fighting. The texts will include the person’s name, if it is known, a physical description or photo, and what …
Email This PostThe secret weapons in Nigers fight against hunger: Mobile phones and Photo ID’s June 10, 2010
I arrived in Niger three months ago to help the Concern Worldwide country team scale up and roll out an emergency program to respond to the emerging food crisis. It’s hard to say when exactly this shifted from an “impending crisis” to a real humanitarian emergency, but we are there now. And we are putting every bit of the planning this team has done since December to the test. The official Food Security survey of April 2010 states that there are 7.1 million people facing hunger: 3.3 million of those are considered to be facing extremely food shortages and unable …
Email This PostOrange’s Prototype Power-Welly Boots Are Made For Charging June 7, 2010
First the British invented waterproof Wellington boots; now they’ve invented a way to derive power from those boots. Could corduroy-friction-power be far off?The European telecom firm Orange, which sponsors the huge Glastonbury Festival at the end of June, is promoting its new “Power Wellies” as a means for festivalgoers to keep their cellphones charged.Users will have to stomp in the Pilton mud for about 12 hours to generate enough electricity to charge a cellphone for one hour, however — so the wellies are more notable for novelty than practicality.Read more: popsic.com
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Scotland texting program aims to prevent binge drinking, STDs June 4, 2010
Let’s face it, there’s a reason why “stupid” is a euphemism for “inebriated.” And to prevent young adults from acting irresponsibly while hitting the sauce, researchers in Scotland are launching a pilot program to send text messages to “hazardous drinkers” as a means of preventing binge drinking and stopping the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.The study, called “Talking or Texting?” will recruit 1,000 volunteers in their 20s to determine effective means of encouraging participants to drink in moderation via one of three methods: text messaging, leaflets or a brief, structured interview with a health professional, E-Health Insider reports. Those in …
Email This PostWorld Cup traffic could clog mobile networks June 2, 2010
he World Cup could lead to an increase in data usage on mobile phone networks and lead to the services becoming “oversaturated”, according to industry analysts at management consultancy firm Deloitte.
As technology has improved, it is now easy for users to stream entire football matches on their mobile phones, using BBC iPlayer’s iPhone-optimised website, for instance, but each user would need about 400mb of data per game. According to Ed Marsden, telecoms partner in Deloitte’s Information and Technology Risk team, that means …
