A Wider Net

I look forward to the day when a computer will sense what’s wrong with me and prescribe a solution, whether it be a prescription, a trip to the ER, a good night’s sleep, or a lengthy discussion about my childhood.

As we head there in baby steps, there’s this. A device of such obviously clinical design that it almost can’t live in plain sight in any household. It screams “I need constant medical attention” but it also represents one more step towards effective remote diagnosis.

I believe iRobot is working on a robot for health care purposes and I bet this is the sort of application for which it is being designed. My other guess is that it is designed to pump epinephrine into the hearts of overdose victims ala Pulp Fiction, but while that vision is the stuff of future-shock sci-fi horror magic, I somehow doubt that’s the case.

In the meantime, as we struggle to help companies establish connections with their customers, it looks like Pharma (doctors, actually) may establish the most wired remote connection of them all. Wouldn’t everyone like a feedback mechanism that tells them how their product is working? Frankly, I’d probably let them plant a tiny sensor in my noggin if it meant I never saw another popup “how do you like our website” survey ever again.

Apple is looking at this and thinking they can do it all with an iPhone

Found on Twitter and about Twitter - a fabulous index of brands currently active on Twitter.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve been asked “ok, so what companies are using Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Second Life/etc”. This is a fantastic answer to one permutation of that question.

I’d thank the author by name but I couldn’t find it on his blog. Thanks, though!

And thanks again, Pistachio, for another great link.

At Cramer, we have inserted little video displays into some crazy places. But so far, we’ve never had the call to stick them into people’s armpits. There are, I suppose, a few other undiscovered bodily territories that we have thus far avoided turning into video billboards. I’m sure Ridley Scott has tried them all.

According to Ananova, who also deserves credit for the image, and through Engadget, we learned of Right Guard’s underarm video displays that are, fortunately, not scratch-and-sniff. They do manage to redefine awkward as one leans in to get a better, um, look.

I’m still waiting for the “back of head display” so we can give everyone at a general session a “jet blue” experience.

The bottom line here is that - if you can think of a cool reason to put video somewhere, it can be there. I would just try to think of places that people WANT to look and where people are ALLOWED to look.

Check out HP’s Twitter Feed to see how they’re handling a scavenger hunt at the “BlogHer” event.

Thanks Pistachio for the tip (also through Twitter - check out how she has designed her Twitter page - very nice lesson in personal branding)

“Tentnology”

“Very Intents”

“The Ultimate Strip T’s”

Ok, Tentnology, you get a mention just for three clever puns in one banner ad (maybe one was a sniglet.)

Not since Vari-Lite introduced moving lights to rock concerts back in the 80’s with bands like Genesis has there been a major shift in the way we light big events. Not until the recently, that is, with the introduction of super-bright LED lighting instruments that produce rapidly changing brilliant colors and cool low energy consumption operation. Going away fast are the tungsten halogen, xenon, and metal-halide fixtures that each generate enough heat to cook a steak and consume more power than an industrial air conditioner (unfortunate, considering the heat thing).

Now there’s a whole slew of LED-based lighting fixtures for large events in all different shapes, sizes, and functions. The new High End Systems Showpix is one new entry that, had it entered on April 1st, I would have dismissed as a joke for fools. This moving head lighting instrument is rather large at 3 feet by 2 feet, and hernia-heavy at 108lbs. It contains 127 of the big 3 Watt LED elements on it’s face, allowing it to produce dazzling color washes and blinding strobe effects. This is the biggest, and most expensive, moving head washlight fixture you can buy (I think).

That’s because it is way more than a washlight. Some maniac at High End Systems decided to enable those 127 LED’s spread across the face of the fixture to produce moving images like a low resolution video wall or a super-expensive robotic lite-brite. It’s kind of like a lighting “sprite”, if you remember your early computer graphics terms. So you have this moving light that can face the stage and wash it with lovely color, then turn towards the audience and produce a smile, or a peace sign, or a logo, or a letter - whatever you want. The fixture has it’s own media server on board, which partially explains the $16,500 pricetag. Scissor lifts and burly union crews are extra.

Why do you need an array of light fixtures hung over your stage that can spell “George Bush is an Idiot?” Well, obviously, you don’t, because that’s quite clear, but when WOULD you need this ability?

To tell you the truth, I’m not completely sure. I see it as a very cool fixture to place in a grand hallway or foyer at a conference center, painting the ceilings and walls with light then suddenly turning to the audience and displaying a message or logo. This fixture can appear to have a personality and a playful one at that. I would put it front-and-center and give it the chance to be a character all by itself. From there, if you do have a stage show that needs something more than moving lights and video screens, this might be a twofer solution that gives you a versatile light palette AND a versatile effects palette all in one. Hang a dozen of these instead of a dozen plain washes and a dozen LED display specials.

I also like the idea of putting two of them in a foyer on a remote control, using them as ceiling washlights, then turning them both towards the crowd, displaying big eyeballs on them, and following people as they walk by. Creepiness has legs.

UPDATE 7/308 - see below

I love it, I hate it, and it’s my favorite Outlook plugin. The Xobni toolbar scans all of my email, including all of my old Outlook PST files dating back almost 10 years, amounting to nearly 100GB of data, and makes it astonishingly easy to find things. More than a simple indexing search, Xobni allows you to identify social networks within your email structure by helping you identify frequent connections, conversational threads, topics, etc. Conversational threads become far easier to find and read. For each person, sender or recipient, you get an at-a-glance profile of how often you send and receive mail to that person, what conversations you’ve had recently, who else has been involved in the conversations with this person, and what files you have shared. You can even tell what time of day they are most likely to send email and divine the best times to reach them! They also provide detailed analytics so you can look into your own email habits, how long it takes for you to respond to emails, how many emails you get and receive each day, and so on.

Xobni has been a bit of a system hog, resulting in about 10 minutes of frustrating startup in the morning when keyboard response frequently drops from “snappy” to “10-year-old-cat-who-is-proudly-ignoring-you”. Today, that appears to have taken a big step in the right direction with the release of version 1.4 which contains, among other improvements, performance boosts. I could not be more thrilled by any incremental release of a plugin. Ok, I could… and I’m talking to YOU del.icio.us.

The biggest addition in version 1.4 is the integration with massively useful business social network LinkedIn. Thank the social network gods that they chose LinkedIn over Plaxo because my Plaxo profile simply says “Find me on LinkedIn”. Xobni now pulls in updated information from LinkedIn for any of your contacts within your email thread, including photo, company, and phone number. Have you ever attended a meeting with seven people you’ve never met, only to get home and not remember which person was which? Oh man, that happens to me all the time and this feature is my foggy brain salvation! Hopefully more people will add photos to LinkedIn now. Outlook just got a lot more useful!

Update 7/3/08 - Xobni now sucks down my processor constantly. I can’t type a single email or word doc or blog post without constant pauses and delays. I recommend staying away from this new version for a while, based on my experience