Scan Monthly No. 051May 2007 |
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Signals of Change
Engineering Serendipity
SoC237
Serendipity is the phenomenon of finding valuable or desired products that one did not seek. It has become the holy grail of online commerce as service providers try to give consumers suggestions of products that are right, new, and exciting for them.
Mind Games: Neurofeedback Applications
SoC238
Inexpensive and effective neurofeedback devices are arriving, and they will continue to become less intrusive and more effective at sensing brain waves. But companies looking to use the devices need to be aware of the tangle of very thorny privacy and security issues that will follow closely on the emergence of everyday applications of neurofeedback.
Building New Biomimes
SoC239
Scientists, researchers, and engineers are becoming increasingly adept at developing new and interesting materials, structures, and processes by mimicking nature. The new biomimes imitate structures and behaviors at various biological levels, including those of the organism, the individual cell, and even molecules.
Moving from Participatory to Collaborative Virtual Worlds
SoC240
Although the popular and business media have now picked up on the topic of virtual worlds, one distinction among the various virtual worlds has received little attention: the difference between participatory worlds and collaborative worlds. When do virtual worlds move beyond being a forum for self-expression and social interaction to being a forum for collaborative work efforts by groups to accomplish real-world goals and create real-world value?
Managing Human Mindwidth Using IT
SoC241
A long-standing challenge for computer scientists has been to use information technology (IT) to augment or replace humans and address various human limitations in cognitive capacity. But research indicates that a purported assist from IT can compound human vulnerabilities as easily as it can enhance human cognitive abilities.
Breaking New Sound Barriers
SoC242
Recent Scan abstracts have picked up early indicators of significant new ideas about (and uses for) sound. The types of sound run the gamut from ultralow to very high frequencies.
Insights
| Sensing and Sense-Addressing Technologies Enter the Market | View full summary |
| D07-2550 | Download this Insight |
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Sense-related technologies comprise two distinct types. The first typesensing technologiesenables products and devices to sense and perceive input that relates to human perception by sensing the external world and turning the results into digital data. Such technologies include orientation sensing, smell identification, or pressure sensing. The second typesense-addressing technologiesallows products to create a sensory experience for a human that the human can relate to and derive information or an experience from. Although many of the examples in this study indicate that use of these technologies is often still experimental, a direction is clear, and in the near future, companies are likely to have a plethora of technologies at their disposal as research and development continues to progress at a rapid pace. Author: Martin Schwirn. 12 pages. |
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| Scan Meeting Digest: 18 April 2007 Meeting | View full summary |
| D07-2551 | Download this Insight |
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This document is a digest of the Scan abstract clusters that participants in the 18 April 2007 Scan meeting identified. The digest includes a description of the Scan process for people who have never attended a Scan meeting, a list of the clusters that meeting participants identified, and a one-page description of each cluster's premise and supporting abstracts. The document has active links that allow the reader to access the supporting abstracts for each cluster in Scan's online abstract database. The document also has links to previously published Scan documents relating to the particular cluster. Clusters of abstracts for this April meeting include information therapy for an ailing system, be friendly to Big Brother, retirees as the new teenagers, the media's skewed view of the world, high-cost India, new treatments for common ailments, green cars, the changing fortunes of Asia, the new warranty, virtually worthwhile, recycling precious metals, the brain business, new computing ecologies, living innovation, mind control and controlling minds, bioprinting, paradigm busters, the DNA-dependent supply chain, mediating cultural differences, and artificial learning. Compiler: Thomas M. McKenna. 39 pages. |
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Calendar
Scan Abstract Meetings
Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI [now SBI] staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client observation/participation on:
- 18 July 2007 at 9:00 am
- 19 September 2007 at 9:00 am
- 17 October 2007 at 9:00 am
- 23 January 2008 at 9:00 am
- 19 March 2008 at 9:00 am
- 21 May 2008 at 9:00 am.