As in, "Say, what's with the Google Puss?" if someone approaches me wearing them without asking whether I mind.
Another thought is to develop a GPS-based facial avatar app, possibly combined with wearable sensors to detect not only the orientation of the head but also the body ala Kinect. In this way, we could apply settings to our social networks that allow only those we know to "see" our faces when wearing Google Glasses, else they get only a view of whatever virtual mask or costume we adorn.
"For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in
advance Google Glasses," the post reads. "And ass kickings will be
encouraged for violators."
"I'm a thought leader," deadpanned Dave Meinert, the bar's owner, in an interview on Seattle's KIRO-FM.
"First you have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a
sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be
not known...and definitely don't want to be secretly filmed or
videotaped and immediately put on the Internet."
Meinert admitted he was having a bit of fun: "Part of this is a joke, to be funny on Facebook, and get reaction."
"But part of it's serious," he continued, "because we don't let
people film other people or take photos unwanted of people in the bar,
because it is kind of a private place that people go." (To listen to the
complete interview with Meinert, click here.)
Seattle is a famously tech-savvy town, of course, and the 5 Point
sits close to a new Amazon campus. But it's that same tech savvy that's
leading business owners like Meinert to consider the implications of
having customers with face-mounted cameras, snapping pictures of a
diverse and sometimes intoxicated clientele.
It's safe to assume the 5 Point won't be the last establishment to tell customers to leave Glass at the door.
Update: A Google spokesperson responds: "It is still very
early days for Glass, and we expect that as with other new technologies,
such as cell phones, behaviors and social norms will develop over
time."
Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed,
researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal
gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
“Our
hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use
this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” says
Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, a research instructor in medicine.
The study appears in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy.
Bee
venom contains a potent toxin called melittin that can poke holes in
the protective envelope that surrounds HIV, and other viruses. Large
amounts of free melittin can cause a lot of damage. Indeed, in addition
to anti-viral therapy, the paper’s senior author, Samuel A. Wickline,
MD, the J. Russell Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences, has shown
melittin-loaded nanoparticles to be effective in killing tumor cells.
The
new study shows that melittin loaded onto these nanoparticles does not
harm normal cells. That’s because Hood added protective bumpers to the
nanoparticle surface. When the nanoparticles come into contact with
normal cells, which are much larger in size, the particles simply bounce
off. HIV, on the other hand, is even smaller than the nanoparticle, so
HIV fits between the bumpers and makes contact with the surface of the
nanoparticle, where the bee toxin awaits.
“Melittin on the
nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope,” Hood says. “The melittin
forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope,
stripping it off the virus.”
According to Hood, an advantage of
this approach is that the nanoparticle attacks an essential part of the
virus’ structure. In contrast, most anti-HIV drugs inhibit the virus’s
ability to replicate. But this anti-replication strategy does nothing to
stop initial infection, and some strains of the virus have found ways
around these drugs and reproduce anyway.
“We are attacking an
inherent physical property of HIV,” Hood says. “Theoretically, there
isn’t any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a
protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus.”
Beyond
prevention in the form of a vaginal gel, Hood also sees potential for
using nanoparticles with melittin as therapy for existing HIV
infections, especially those that are drug-resistant. The nanoparticles
could be injected intravenously and, in theory, would be able to clear
HIV from the blood stream.
“The basic particle that we are using
in these experiments was developed many years ago as an artificial blood
product,” Hood says. “It didn’t work very well for delivering oxygen,
but it circulates safely in the body and gives us a nice platform that
we can adapt to fight different kinds of infections.”
Since
melittin attacks double-layered membranes indiscriminately, this concept
is not limited to HIV. Many viruses, including hepatitis B and C, rely
on the same kind of protective envelope and would be vulnerable to
melittin-loaded nanoparticles.
While this particular paper does
not address contraception, Hood says the gel easily could be adapted to
target sperm as well as HIV. But in some cases people may only want the
HIV protection.
“We also are looking at this for couples where
only one of the partners has HIV, and they want to have a baby,” Hood
says. “These particles by themselves are actually very safe for sperm,
for the same reason they are safe for vaginal cells.”
While this
work was done in cells in a laboratory environment, Hood and his
colleagues say the nanoparticles are easy to manufacture in large enough
quantities to supply them for future clinical trials.
"The company is redesigning its desktop user interface in a way which 'standardizes the feed across mobile devices and desktop computers, is designed to keep users active and interacting
as well as appeal to advertisers.' According to the article, 'Greater
emphasis is given to images — which are now much larger. Photos now make
up nearly 50% of news feed stories and are now front and center. If you
see shades of Instagram — or Google+ — in the new feed, you aren't
alone. We see them too. Facebook says it is following trends on where
design is headed and it is clear that trend includes big photos and a
clean, navigable design."
Facebook introduced a visually richer, mobile
device-oriented “newsfeed” on Thursday, in the most significant changes
to date for the social network’s most recognisable feature.
The changes to the newsfeed, whose look and feel has remained largely
unchanged since its inception, include a division into several
sections, with separate areas for photographs and music. They will begin
rolling out in limited fashion from Thursday.
The overhaul, which standardises the feed across mobile devices and
desktop computers, is designed to keep users active and interacting as
well as appeal to advertisers, as Facebook battles Google for Internet
market share.
Facebook’s newsfeed, an ever-changing stream of photos, videos and
comments uploaded from friends, is the first page most users see upon
logging in. It is one of three “pillars” of the service, along with
search and user profiles.
The last major update to the feature occurred in September 2011.
Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and
has shifted its focus to creating “mobile-first experiences,” because
more people now access the social network from smartphones and desktops
than from desktop computers.
The addition of advertising, however, prompted complaints from users
who preferred an unblemished stream of personally relevant comments,
underscoring the difficulty in balancing advertiser-friendly formats -
such as larger images - with keeping its 1 billion-plus members engaged.
Facebook versus Google
The world’s largest social network is moving to regain Wall Street’s
confidence after a botched IPO last year, addressing concerns about its
long-term prospects - many of which centre on an industry-wide shift
toward the use of mobile devices.
Facebook shares, which are still more than a quarter off their IPO
price of $US38, were up 2 per cent at $US27.99 on Thursday afternoon on
the Nasdaq.
Facebook and Google, which both got their start on desktop computers,
are now managing a transition of their products onto smartphones and
tablets, which typically yield less revenue than on PCs.
The two internet mainstays are also waging a war for revenue in
mobile advertising - a market that is still small compared with the
traditional desktop but that is growing exponentially.
In terms of overall mobile advertising, Google commanded a 53.5 per
cent share in 2012, aided by its dominance in search-based ads. Facebook
had just 8.4 per cent, a distant runner-up, according to estimates from
research house eMarketer.
But in terms of mobile display ad sales, Facebook narrowly edges out
its rival with 18.4 per cent of the market versus Google’s 17 per cent,
the research outfit estimated.
Facebook announced Thursday it is giving its venerable news feed a new look and feel.
The new news feed represents the first major overhaul of Facebook's core service since the launch of Facebook Timeline at the end of 2011.
"The news feed is one of the most important things we've built,"
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the press event.
Likening news feed to "the most personalized newspaper," Zuckerberg
added that "the stories around you deserve to be displayed with more
than just text."
"How we're all sharing is changing and the news feed needs to evolve
with those changes. This is the evolving face of news feed."
The new news feed features three major components:
Bigger Images
Multiple Feeds
Mobile Consistency
A New Focus on Imagery
The new look is a radical departure from the Facebook of old. It's mobile-inspired and consistent across devices.
When it comes to the feed itself, the focus on stories is now much
more visual. Greater emphasis is given to images — which are now much
larger. Photos now make up nearly 50% of news feed stories and are now
front and center.
If you see shades of Instagram — or Google+ — in the new feed, you
aren't alone. We see them too. Facebook says it is following trends on
where design is headed and it is clear that trend includes big photos
and a clean, navigable design.
More Feeds, More Control
As for the "feeds" aspect of news feed, users now have access to more
types of feeds and have more control over how those feeds are
displayed.
Users can subscribe to different types of feeds, including feeds from
all friends, close friends, music, photos, games and those who a user
"follows."
And, for those of us who hate how Facebook sorts news feed content, a chronological view is now available.
It's not clear how these new feeds will affect promoted stories and
content or the longer-lasting impact it may have on brands and pages.
Mobile Consistency
The new news feed design was inspired by mobile. It takes significant
cues from the Facebook mobile apps for phones and tablets, adding a new
side navigation bar and more white space.
Understanding that more users are accessing Facebook from mobile than
ever, Facebook is focused on making the overall experience more
consistent, regardless of platform.
If you’ve recently chatted with your Web development team, you may
have heard about responsive design. A growing trend for today’s
businesses, publishers and developers, responsive design is an approach
to Web development that many brands are considering to optimize their
online content for multiple devices with varying screen sizes across the
traditional Web, tablets, smartphones and beyond.
Like any philosophy, responsive design is a choice, and a tempting
one at that. Many pro-responsive developers affectionately term RD
“one-Web,” which emphasizes the single set of code a responsive site is
based on. This design principle utilizes coding language that responds
to the device being used – whether an Android smartphone or an iPad – in
order to display content relative to the size and orientation of its
screen.
Amid an overwhelming amount of mobile options and solutions, it’s
easy to see why responsive design’s singular code seems like an alluring
universal panacea for mobile optimization. However, while responsive
design aims to scale web content fluidly across multiple devices with
different screen sizes, it may not represent the best option for
organizations aiming to deliver unique and innovative experiences to
customers.
A good example of this dilemma can be found in LinkedIn’s
recent approach to developing its iPad app. According to Kirin Prasad,
LinkedIn’s head of mobile development, responsive design doesn’t work
for complicated sites like the LinkedIn iPad app, 95% of which was
developed with HTML5 to target a specific set of user tasks. This
approach allows LinkedIn to create different experiences on different
devices based on use case and context. For the majority of sites that
require an interactive experience like LinkedIn’s, responsive design
limits the different designs necessary to deliver functionality for each
use case.
So when is responsive design an appropriate solution?
When the only changing factor in the Web experience is the user’s
device, responsive design is a useful solution. It works very well for
content sites like magazines and newspapers, because content is simply
being reformatted. If you’re accessing a publication’s website on a
smartphone, for example, you still want to read the news, just smaller
parts of it.
People magazine recently adopted responsive design to great
effect in order to scale traditional Web content across screens. This
works well for magazines and other content publishers, as users are
coming to consume content, not necessarily to interact or search for
certain answers.
At the device level, responsive design works best if the page
contains the type of text and image-based content often found on
publisher sites. However, content delivery on responsive sites has the
potential to deter users. For instance, if you’re trying to deliver
complex functionality built with CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, and other heavy
Web development technologies, pages will be heavy and the experience
will be dramatically slower on a smartphone or tablet. Time lost equals
users lost, as page load times have a direct impact on your ability to
deliver users a positive experience.
Beyond device-specific content display, the two other pieces to
consider when designing your mobile strategy are use case and context,
two realms in which responsive design does not contribute meaningfully.
Use case covers the driving reasons behind a user’s foray onto your
mobile site – what the user is looking to do and how it can be
accomplished on your site. Take an airline website, for example. When a
user visits an airline’s site from their smartphone, they typically want
to be able to do a few very specific things like check their flight
status, check-in for a flight, or access local information related to
their destination. The user expects a completely different experience
from when they access the airline site from a computer, which more
easily facilitates detailed flight searches.
On the other hand, the mobile user’s goals are often context-driven.
In “The Future of Mobile eBusiness is Context,” Forrester analyst Julie A. Ask
defines “mobile context” as “the sum total of what your customer has
told you and is experiencing at his moment of engagement.” Because user
experience and context are the new benchmarks of a mature mobile
strategy, they should drive the decisions you make when designing your
mobile experience.
Responsive design implicitly suggests that mobile is a subset of the
traditional Web, but it is clear that people use mobile for a very
different end. Consider what a user is searching for when accessing a
mobile site. The user does not wish to browse on the same site that is
available on desktop PC, but expects a different experience for
different end goals – an experience that is fast, convenient, relevant
and contextual.
Many banks have done a great job of optimizing the mobile experience
to help users accomplish specific goals. This is why responsive design
does not work across the board – it is not able to deliver the
individual experiences, like the ability to deposit a check by snapping a
picture, required by mobile banking customers. The limitations of
responsive design in adapting for use case and context means that it is
more hindrance than help in mobilizing distinct, device-specific
experiences that impart user value, such as more complicated web
applications.
The future of digital business depends primarily on mastering the
mobile channel. Mobile’s mushrooming numbers are due to the convenience
of remote access and a new reliance upon the delivery of information
when and where little to none was previously available. When developing
your approach to engaging customers via mobile, it is key to ensure your
strategy accounts for the rising expectations your customers have for
this important channel.
Once you understand the kind of mobile experience you want to create,
you can decide whether adopting a responsive design philosophy can
deliver upon these expectations and goals. While responsive design can
help you achieve a certain measure of consistency across channels, the
real prize lies with the ability to create unique experiences. A broader
multi-screen approach designed dynamically by channel will enable the
sort of customer experiences that yield higher engagement and contribute
to overall success.
Set to market 2014. Cool tool, but goodbye privacy, hello stilted social behavior and ego projection.
A phone camera is one thing, but glasses on all the time is quite another.
The first bionic hand that allows an amputee to feel what they are
touching will be transplanted later this year in a pioneering operation
that could introduce a new generation of artificial limbs with sensory
perception.
The patient is an unnamed man in his 20s living in Rome who lost the
lower part of his arm following an accident, said Silvestro Micera of
the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
The
wiring of his new bionic hand will be connected to the patient’s nervous
system with the hope that the man will be able to control the movements
of the hand as well as receiving touch signals from the hand’s skin
sensors.
Dr Micera said that the hand will be attached directly to
the patient’s nervous system via electrodes clipped onto two of the
arm’s main nerves, the median and the ulnar nerves.
This should
allow the man to control the hand by his thoughts, as well as receiving
sensory signals to his brain from the hand’s sensors. It will
effectively provide a fast, bidirectional flow of information between
the man’s nervous system and the prosthetic hand.
“This is real
progress, real hope for amputees. It will be the first prosthetic that
will provide real-time sensory feedback for grasping,” Dr Micera said.
“It
is clear that the more sensory feeling an amputee has, the more likely
you will get full acceptance of that limb,” he told the American
Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.
“We could be on the cusp of providing new and more effective clinical solutions to amputees in the next year,” he said.
An
earlier, portable model of the hand was temporarily attached to
Pierpaolo Petruzziello in 2009, who lost half his arm in a car accident.
He was able to move the bionic hand’s fingers, clench them into a fist
and hold objects. He said that he could feel the sensation of needles
pricked into the hand’s palm.
However, this earlier version of the
hand had only two sensory zones whereas the latest prototype will send
sensory signals back from all the fingertips, as well as the palm and
the wrists to give a near life-like feeling in the limb, Dr Micera said.
“The
idea would be that it could deliver two or more sensations. You could
have a pinch and receive information from three fingers, or feel
movement in the hand and wrist,” Dr Micera said.
“We have refined
the interface [connecting the hand to the patient], so we hope to see
much more detailed movement and control of the hand,” he told the
meeting.
The plan is for the patient to wear the bionic hand for a
month to see how he adapts to the artificial limb. If all goes well, a
full working model will be ready for testing within two years, Dr Micera
said.
One of the unresolved issues is whether patients will be
able to tolerate having such a limb attached to them all the time, or
whether they would need to remove it periodically to give them a rest.
Another
problem is how to conceal the wiring under the patient’s skin to make
them less obtrusive. The electrodes of the prototype hand to be fitted
later this year will be inserted through the skin rather than underneath
it but there are plans under development to place the wiring
subcutaneously, Dr Micera said.
The US Food and Drug Administration today approved what it says is
the first bionic eye, or retinal prosthesis, that can partially restore
the sight of blind individuals after surgical implantation.
Clinical trials demonstrated that totally blind individuals could
safely use the device to successfully identify the position and
approximate size of objects and detect movement of nearby objects and
people, the FDA stated.
Specifically the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System
includes a small video camera, transmitter mounted on a pair of
eyeglasses, video processing unit (VPU) and an implanted artificial
retina. The VPU transforms images from the video camera into electronic
data that is wirelessly transmitted to the retinal prosthesis. The
pulses travel to the optic nerve and, ultimately, to the brain, which
perceives patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to the
electrodes stimulated. Blind individuals can learn to interpret these
visual patterns and ultimately should improve a patient's ability to
perceive images and movement, the FDA stated.
The systems is aimed at helping those afflicted with a disease known
as retinitis pigmentosa, which is a genetic eye condition that damages
the light-sensitive cells that line the retina, the FDA says. The
National Institutes of Health to affect about 1 in 4,000 people in the
United States. " In a healthy eye, these cells change light rays into
electrical impulses and send them through the optic nerve to the area of
the brain that assembles the impulses into an image. In people with
retinitis pigmentosa, the light-sensitive cells slowly degenerate
resulting in gradual loss of side vision and night vision, and later of
central vision. The condition can lead to blindness."
The artificial retina, dubbed the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System
was developed and manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products Inc.,
with significant investment - over $100 million from the US Department
of Energy National Laboratories, National Eye Institute at the National
Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
The DOE notes that other bionic eye projects are under way in the
United States Germany, Japan, Ireland, Australia, Korea, China, and
Belgium. "These programs pursue many different designs and surgical
approaches. Some show great promise for the future, but have yet to
demonstrate practicality in terms of adapting to and lasting long-term
in a human eye. Thus far the projects that have progressed to clinical
(human) trials are the collaborative DOE effort, a project at the
now-defunct Optobionics (Chicago), and two efforts in Germany at
Intelligent Medical Implants AG and Retinal Implant AG," the DOE stated.
Posts
Google Glass won't be available to consumers for months, but there's at least one Seattle bar where the eyewear will not be welcome.
Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff
