Scan Monthly No. 057November 2007 |
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Signals of Change
Designing a Competitive Advantage
SoC273
For an increasing number of markets, design has become the major factor in differentiating a company's products from those of its competitors, distinguishing a company's various product lines, building a successful branding strategy, and providing a unique selling proposition.
Online Destinations
SoC274
The information-access and social-networking ecologies of the Internet continue to evolve at a dramatic pace. One of the major uncertainties now concerns the utility or even viability of centralized online destinations such as Facebook, MySpace, and Second Life.
Brainware
SoC275
The availability of a range of analytical techniques is gradually allowing scientists to probe and characterize the inner workings of the human brain and advance our understanding of its intricate structural organization. Computer researchers are tapping the advances to develop brainware solutionscomputing architectures and technologies modeled on the brain that will offer advanced information-processing capabilities.
Making Sense of Motion
SoC276
The introduction of Nintendo's Wii video-game controller just one year ago added a new dimensionfull-body motionto video gaming and ended the tyranny of the thumb-controlled gamepad. Now product designers in a variety of fields are working on parallel tracks to harness the power of motion to move computer users into the three-dimensional realm.
The New Luxury Item: Food
SoC277
Food prices are rising, reversing a long-standing trend of decreasing food costs that has existed in much of the world for decades. Reasons include the effects of climate change and the emerging competition for arable land and water resources between food and fuel production as demand for biofuels increases.
Environmental Health Risks and Opportunities
SoC278
Our modern lifestyles together with the global impact on the environment of humans' collective activity are contributing to the emergence of risk factors to human health that are as yet poorly understood. Opportunities exist for those entities that seek to embrace a more holistic view of health and disease and that address the environmental and lifestyle risk factors that contribute to human disability and death.
Insights
| RFID-Enabled Medical Applications | View full summary |
| D07-2562 | Download this Insight |
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In September 2007, the Associated Press (New York, New York) released information to media outlets about studies that link implantable RFID (radio-frequencyidentification) chips to cancer. Although the media exposure highlights specific issues about RFIDs concerning health that have definite ramifications for RFID companies, the incident also raises a set of larger issues that are important for all industries implementing RFID solutions: Many companies, both RFID suppliers and customers, are developing applications that lack a solid business case. No company has, to date, made a case for a genuine need for implants. As a result, these applications and RFID technology itself often wind up at the center of attention for all the wrong reasons. This study examines some problems that RFID technology has encountered in the health-care industry but also examines the areas in which RFID technology is proving valuable for health-care providers. Author: Martin Schwirn. 10 pages. |
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| Scan Meeting Digest: 17 October 2007 Meeting | View full summary |
| D07-2563 | Download this Insight |
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This document is a digest of the Scan abstract clusters that participants in the 17 October 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 September meeting include state capitalism, living alone, how to improve eating habits, virtual diversity, printed electronics, cities and regions compete for talent, Wal-Mart physicals, automation of diagnosis, health farms, diagnostics@home, commoditization of health care, technologies for virtual environments, novel interface technologies, managing the sea, and robotic citizens. Compiler: Martin Schwirn. 34 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:
- 23 January 2008 at 9:00 am
- 19 March 2008 at 9:00 am
- 21 May 2008 at 9:00 am
- 23 July 2008 at 9:00 am
- 17 September 2008 at 9:00 am
- 22 October 2008 at 9:00 am.