Activu Corporation

Activu will be exhibiting at Distributech - Booth 231

2012-01-23T05:37:00.000-08:00

With DistribuTECH, the premier conference for all matters pertaining to energy, starting tomorrow (Jan 24-26), it only made sense to dedicate this blog to it. Activu will be co-exhibiting with Mitsubishi at booth 231. So do come and see us, if you are going to be there.

So why are we going to this show? Activu’s visualization and collaboration solution is extensively used by major utilities like PG&E, Exelon, Centerpoint, to monitor, manage and optimize routine and mission critical operations - such as load redistribution, cyber security and keeping lights on through storms, floods, fires, etc. And with smart grids, a lot of this distribution is controlled by computers and data networks, and monitored by cameras – so Activu’s solution lets operators manage their grids better and respond more effectively to emergencies. Moreover, numerous concurrent users can access dozens of information streams on multiple fixed and mobile display devices – on large video walls in centralized control rooms or on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones – and, as a decision-making and response team, significantly benefit from having a common operating picture and real-time situational awareness.

Our solution also complies with North American Electrical Reliability Company (NERC) guidelines for reliability and security. Specifically, Activu meets the requirements of NERC CIP-007-1: Cyber Security. Our solution is easily customizable for audit trails of individual user account activity and can track hundreds of users and detail their activities to the millisecond. It also lets our clients enforce access authentication rights and privileges.

To find out more, come see us at booth 231. Have a great show!

How Does Your Emergency Management Agency Connect People and Information?

2011-03-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

Today’s Emergency Management Agencies are looking for new ways to reduce costs, speed response time and plan for future growth. Using an Activu solution, our clients gain the benefit of an IT based solution, utilizing the power of your network, to connect people and information, regardless of their location.

Just ask Emergency Responders at the Public Safety Emergency Operations Center of Bergen County, NJ. A recent case study outlines how they've streamlined communications and improved response.

Learn more about how your organization can benefit from integrating your existing applications and resources into a single network view.

Activu Mobility for Smartphones

2010-11-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

Activu Mobility, announced October 25 at IACP, allows command center and other mission critical visual information to be securely viewed in the field on Android smartphones, iPhones, iPads, rugged handhelds such as the Panasonic Toughbook® U1 and other mobile devices. Field personnel with smartphone cameras can also capture and instantly send photos and even full motion video to the command center, or elsewhere, for display, analysis and/or archiving.

Learn More

Panasonic and Activu Deliver Mission-Critical Command Centers for Public Safety Agencies

2010-10-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Join Activu and Panasonic at IACP 2010, located at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center from October 24-26^th..

At this year's event, the companies are working together to feature a demonstration command center in booth #3007. The power of the Activu software suite will be used to dirve the Panasonic Toughbook 52 and Toughbook® 31 computers, as well as Panasonic TH-103PF12U Professional 103-inch plasma and Panasonic TH-32LRU20 32-inch LCD displays

Our software suite allows public safety agencies to share, collaborate, and display mission-critical information at their command centers and in the field.

More information about the partnership can be found online.

State and Local Homeland Security

2010-09-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

When public safety is at risk, homeland security agencies, police, fire and emergency response units rely on flexible visualization and collaboration solutions to reduce response time. When conditions and resources are in constant flux, a distributed content management system enables multiple components to dynamically share visual information for improved Situational Awareness and mission posture.

Activu has helped many organizations achieve improved situational awareness through our solutions. Read some of our latest case studies and see a live demo of our solution at IACP in Orlando, Florida, Oct 24-26.

Activu Video Management SW Supports Cohu Helios family of products

2010-09-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Activu Video Management Software now supports Cohu Helios system compatibility. Every camera in the Helios family of products (3960HD, 3960SD, 3930HD) is now supported by the Activu video management software. In addition, Cohu's i-Lynx encoders/decoders (9900), Translinx encoders/decoders (9920), and .Net cameras (3940/3980) are all fully functional from within the Activu software console. Activu has created a powerful, open and scalable network-based software solution for large-scale visualization and collaborative decision making.

HD Video Over IP- Improving Views for TMCs

2010-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

Modern Traffic Management Centers (TMC's) are typically using HD IP video cameras for incident management and adaptive signal control. Incident management systems are used primarily to detect a traffic incident, verify and assess the problem, and respond to the incident. The response can range from notifying designat...ed authorities by phone or email, securing emergency personnel or simply relaying that information to appropriate organizations. Adaptive signal control systems utilize video cameras to detect the critical details that enable operators to react quickly to road conditions. Recently, Activu spoke with Cohu Electronics to better understand how IP video is being used in TMC's and how the latest advances in High-Definition (HD) IP video are enhancing these systems. Read Article.

NEW Activu Corporate Website

2010-08-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

Activu is pleased to announce the launch of our new corporate website. The new site provides easier navigation to rich content including whitepapers, case studies, and articles. Check it out today.

US Navy Contract

2010-07-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

Activu wins US Navy contract to provide a net-centric visualization and collaboration solution for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Consolidated Emergency Control Center.

'Activu vuPoint Newsletter'

2010-07-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Read the latest issue of the 'Activu vuPoint Newsletter'
This month's newsletter features our latest whitepaper "Evolution in Control Room Visualization" and NYPD's Real-Time Crime Center.

Evolution of Control Room Visualization

2010-07-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

There have broadly been two stages in the evolution of large scale control room visualization to date with a third stage currently emerging that should significantly increase the utility value and operational effectiveness of control room visualization.

Stages of Evolution Include:

Stage 1 - Hardwired Visualization

AV focus and implementation: circuit switched.
Hardware driven.
Sources are hardwired to proprietary processing hardware though a matrix switch.
Control is typically limited to positioning of sources.
Visual information sources must be local and can’t be shared.
Visual information display is typically quite static.

Stage 2 - Networked Visualization

IT/Network focus and implementation: packet switched.
Software driven. (Software runs on standard servers).
Sources are connected over the network.
Control is much more sophisticated, including collaboration tools.
Visual information sources can be anywhere and can be shared anywhere.
Visual information display is also typically quite static.

The next stage:

Stage 3 - Intelligent Visualization

Network software-based visualization (the visual layer) integrates with and is driven by monitoring and analytical software (the interpretive layer) determining, on an incident driven basis, exactly what, when and where visual information is displayed.
Incident response can be fully pre-programmed on a visual level to avoid extraneous information and information overload.
Only mission critical information is displayed during incidents. Evolves over incident lifecycle.
Critical visual information or a full common operating picture (COP) can be automatically pushed to other sites, to the field and up the command.
Visual information display is dynamic.

Read More about the Change Factors and Trends in this Whitepaper

Transitioning to a Smart Grid- Control Rooms

2010-07-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

The control room is the nerve center for grid management in the electric utility market. The information display system functions as a window into how everything is working. The right kind of information display system can either help or hinder compliance with the new CIP regulations and utility’s Smart Grid initiative.

Download our whitepaper examining critical issues emerging from the FERC Smart Grid ‘Proposed Policy Statement and Action Plan’ which has direct implications to a control room’s information display system.

Design Concepts for Effective Command and Control Rooms

2010-06-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Visual space and visual resolution are two important concepts to consider when designing effective information displays in control rooms. Understanding how to calculate the optimal distance at which the pixel size and operator's visual acuity are perfectly matched is key to ensuring a clear view of the display wall content. This topic is examined in more detail in this recent whitepaper, Visual Space in the Control Room: Optimizing Visual Information.

Optimizing Pixel Size for Control Room Operators

2010-06-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

In a recent white paper: Visual Space in the Control Room, I examined human visual space and visual acuity as it relates to choosing the optimal display technology in terms of pixel density and overall size, to match operator viewing positions.

The focus of the paper was on pixel size, which is critical to making the appropriate core display technology buying decision. However, in a control room environment, operators don’t look at pixels; they look at a mix, typically, of data and video sources.

The next step to consider is the optimal character size to use on your video display wall for text and numerical data. And if you are tasked with creating or formatting content, what font size should you use?

Learn More

Matrixed Display Technology for the Control Room- Whitepaper

2010-06-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

With many available video wall display options available for command and control room solutions, Activu has identified and analyzed the current matrixed display technologies that are best suited for large-scale data and video wall display. Our whitepaper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each option, providing suggestions to assist you in selecting the most apporpriate display technology for your enteprise environment.

The fundamental benefits of modular, matrixed display technology that make it particularly well suited to wall sized display in control rooms are: Size and shape flexibility; high brightness, high pixel density, andn low installed depth, among others.

Our whitepaper looks at rear projection cubes, near-seamless LCD panels, as well as Christie Digital MicroTiles(tm)

Download our whitepaper for more information

Eyes in the Sky

2010-05-11T08:05:00.001-07:00

Activu solution deployed for NYPD Counter Terrorism was featured on CBS News 60 Minutes

The iPad

2010-04-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

After a week with the iPad:

I believe:

It is an extraordinary, transformative product.
It will transform and help save the newspaper and magazine industry.
It will drive the evolution to an on-demand streaming model for films and television.
It will take over the poll position in eBooks.
It will start a shift in personal computing away from the current form factor (keyboard, mouse and plug-in media) and OS conventions such as the common file system.
It will continue the move towards cloud computing (see iWork.com)
It will absolutely dominate its space despite the best efforts of Microsoft, Google and sundry hardware manufacturers: HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc.
Its corporate and institutional market potential may rival its consumer sales potential: for sales forces, in schools, hospitals, industry, the military....
With an estimated gross margin of 54% for the base model, according iSuppli's estimate, and significantly higher for the step-up models, the iPad should have a significant impact on not only Apple's sales but its profitability and share price! Especially since the majority of its sales are direct: on line, in Apple stores and directly to institutions. Add to that the media, apps and advertising revenues (Apple will launch iAd for the iPhone and iPad with its 4.0 OS release) so I think Apple still offers an excellent investment opportunity, despite a nearly 200% increase in its stock price over the past 12 months.

The iPad:

Lasts 12 hours on a single battery charge, even constantly playing movies, with its screen at the default, really bright setting. It uses Apple's own A4 CPU and has two massive lithium polymer batteries.
Is astonishingly fast.
Is beautifully designed and comfortable to hold.

My experience so far:

I cancelled my print subscription to the Wall Street journal after 30+ years. It is simply easier to read on an iPad, not to mention the multimedia and hypertext (with multitasking OS 4.0). I can't wait for the New York Times to follow (so far only a free 'editor's choice'), along with all my magazine subscriptions. (I have been reading the NYT on my computer using Times Reader for a year or two - a very similar experience. Very different to newspaper web sites where there is no way to sequentially move through the newspaper from article to article, section to section.)
I immediately subscribed to NetFlix for their streaming service. A pretty limited selection of movies so far due to movie industry stonewalling, but it will change. Haven't turned on the TV since.
I downloaded Apple's three Office-compatible applications: Pages, Numbers and Keynote ($9.99 each) so I can read, display and create Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The iPad is great for PowerPoint presentations!
The virtual keyboard can be contextual, delivering only the functions required for a particular task at any moment. Using Apple's spreadsheet application, Numbers, the keyboard dynamically changes as you move from cell to cell, depending on whether a formula, a number, a date or text entry is required. OK, typing on glass is less than perfect from a tactile point of view, but wow! What potential to simplify interaction with a computing device.
I downloaded an ebook. To my eye, the iPad knocks the socks off the Kindle. Visually, functionally, in every way, but there is also a Kindle App so you can read all your Kindle formatted books on the iPad.
E-Mail: pushes mail from Exchange Server. The virtual keyboard, specially in landscape mode, is remarkably comfortable to use. Only problem for me: I hoard and constantly search old emails and for some reason Apple currently limits one to saving 250 emails each in the inbox and sent folders.
Games - not my thing but I downloaded RealRacingHD. Amazing. But I still suck trying to drive a supe'd up Subaru. Fortunately I fair better on the road!
Bloomberg: stock market, currency, bonds, financial news: really shows how iPhone apps grow up as iPad apps.
Xe - The Elements. Educational. Rave reviews. For me the animated Tom Lehrer song is nearly worth the $13.99 they charge. But not quite.
Public Radio: still only iPhone formatted but when traveling what a joy to be able to listen to WNYC while in the shower and the iPad speaker is seriously loud!
iCalendar: an elegant, intuitive application.
Things - the best To Do app on the market. From a German company called CultureCode. Just nine guys according to their web site. For the Mac, iPhone and iPad. Soon to have wireless synchronization between devices.

So, are there any downsides to the iPad?

Fingerprints!!!!! The screen is amazing, but it collects finger prints like crazy. However, being oleophobic (resistant to skin oil), it is very easy indeed to wipe clean.

That's it, seriously.

Does the iPad replace the laptop?

No. It really still needs a laptop or desktop computer to dock with and back up to (for now at least) in consumer use. But don't be fooled. It will, I believe, become the primary computing and media consumption device for tens of millions and with the increased adoption of cloud computing the need to dock with another computer will diminish in importance. (see iWork.com)
I will be heading to NAB next week with just my iPad.

For a really detailed review of the iPad I would recommend today's AppleInsider review. In my opinion AppleInsider is the best and smartest Apple related news and rumor site.

OLED

2010-04-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) was going to be the miracle successor to LCD screens: super-flexible, paper-thin, ultra-low power consumption, very bright, high contrast, super-wide color gamut, ink-jet printable...and yet after years of development and a fair amount of hype, OLED screens are still not on the market other than as cell and smart phone screens. Sony has been selling an 11" $2,200 OLED TV for a couple of years - but they have just discontinued it.

An article in this week's TV Technology is informative:

One of the major technical problems has been the lifespan of the organic material materials are used, particularly those that generate blue light. Uneven degeneration of the colors in OLEDs causes shifting color balance in the display. This somewhat rapid and uneven deterioration also generates the potential for burn-in on the screen, said to be more severe than burn-in on CRT screens.

Billions have already been spent on OLED development, by Samsung, LG, Sony and others, and they will surely overcome these issues, but this is why we can't yet offer a paper-thin, roll-up wall display!

The Superstar Effect - Wall Street Journal

2010-04-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Superstar Effect
From the playing field to the boardroom, when one competitor is clearly the best, the others don't step up their game—they give up. As Tiger Woods returns to golf, Jonah Lehrer looks at the nature of competition.

By JONAH LEHRER
The Wall Street Journal

Competitors playing a match against Bobby Fischer, perhaps the greatest chess player of all time, often came down with a mysterious affliction known as "Fischer-fear." Even fellow grandmasters were vulnerable to the effect, which could manifest itself as flu-like symptoms, migraines and spiking blood pressure. As Boris Spassky, Mr. Fischer's greatest rival, once said: "When you play Bobby, it is not a question of whether you win or lose. It is a question of whether you survive."

Recent research on what is known as the superstar effect demonstrates that such mental collapses aren't limited to chess. While challenging competitions are supposed to bring out our best, these studies demonstrate that when people are forced to compete against a peer who seems far superior, they often don't rise to the challenge. Instead, they give up.

According to a paper by Jennifer Brown, an applied macroeconomist at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Mr. Woods is such a dominating golfer that his presence in a tournament can make everyone else play significantly worse. Because his competitors expect him to win, they end up losing; success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.The negative effect of superstars has been most clearly demonstrated in professional golf, which for the last decade has been dominated by Tiger Woods. Next week, Mr. Woods ends his self-imposed exile from the game and returns to the PGA Tour at the Masters Tournament, in Augusta, Ga. It will be his first competition since November, when he won the JBWere Masters in Australia.

Ms. Brown argues that the superstar effect is not just relevant on the golf course. Instead, she suggests that the presence of superstars can be "de-motivating" in a wide variety of competitions, from the sales office to the law firm. "Most people assume that competing against an elite performer makes everyone else step up their game and perform better," Ms. Brown says. "But the Tiger Woods data demonstrate that the opposite can also occur. It doesn't matter if the superstar is an athlete or a corporate vice president. After all, why should we invest a lot of energy in a tournament that we're probably going to lose?"

Ms. Brown discovered the superstar effect by analyzing data from every player in every PGA Tour event from 1999 to 2006. She chose golf for several reasons, from the lack of "confounding team dynamics" to the immaculate statistics kept by the PGA. Most important, however, was the presence of Mr. Woods, who has dominated his sport in a way few others have.

The numbers back up the legend: When Mr. Woods's break from golf began, in November, he had a World Golf Ranking score of 16.169, which was nearly twice the total of the next two players. He has more career major wins than any other active golfer, and has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record 10 times.

The analysis is really an investigation into economic tournament theory, which looks at competitive situations in which success is based on relative performance, and not absolute metrics. (It's the difference between a sports game and a standardized test.) Modern management practice assumes that the best way to maximize employee performance is to institute sports-like tournaments, in which people compete directly against each other. Consider, for instance, the competitive structure put in place by former CEO Jack Welch at General Electric. He instituted what became known as the 20-70-10 rule: the top 20% of employees got generous financial bonuses, and the bottom 10% were "managed out."Such domination appears to be deeply intimidating. Whenever Mr. Woods entered a tournament, every other golfer took, on average, 0.8 more strokes. This effect was even observable in the first round, with the presence of Mr. Woods leading to an additional 0.3 strokes among all golfers over the initial 18 holes. While this might sound like an insignificant difference, the average margin between first and second place in PGA Tour events is frequently just a single stroke. Interestingly, the superstar effect also varied depending on the player's position on the leaderboard, with players closer to the lead showing a greater drop-off in performance. Based on this data, Ms. Brown calculated that the "superstar effect" boosted Mr. Woods's PGA earnings by nearly $5 million.

There is little doubt that, in many situations, such incentive structures lead to motivated employees, working hard for the top spots. But the presence of a superstar can reverse this dynamic, so that instead of trying our best we accept the inevitability of defeat.

According to Ms. Brown, the superstar effect is especially pronounced when the rewards for the competition are "nonlinear," or there is an extra incentive to finish first. (We assume that the superstar will win, so why chase after meaningless scraps?) Just look at golf: Not only does the tournament winner get a disproportionate amount of prize money, but he or she also gets all the glory.

Ms. Brown cites the competition among newly hired associates at a law firm as another example of a nonlinear incentive structure. "The lawyers know that most of them won't be retained," she says. "They either win the competition, or they're let go." The problem with such competitions is that when a superstar is present—when one of the legal associates is perceived as the clear favorite—every other lawyer is less likely to exert maximum effort. Because we assume we're going to lose, we decide to cut our losses, which leads to an overall decrease in employee effort. The cutthroat competition made people less competitive.

The same phenomenon seems to also affect students taking the SAT. In a paper released last year, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Haifa compared average SAT scores with the average number of students in test-taking venues in all 50 states, and found that students who took the SAT in larger groups did worse. They concluded that the mere knowledge of their competitors—the sight of all of those other students scratching in their answers in the same room—decreased motivation.

Ms. Brown argues that, unless firms with internal competitions take the superstar effect into account, they might actually end up with the worst possible outcome: Employees who are both unhappy and unmotivated. Sometimes, hiring the best job candidate might not be the best idea.

A little competition can be productive, of course. The relationship between rivals can take curious forms—Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were enemies as much as they were friends, but each helped the other's writing. "Rivalry adds so much to the charms of one's conquests," Louisa May Alcott has said.

When it comes to Tiger Woods's superstar effect, loss of motivation may not be the only factor. In fact, one alternative explanation is that golfers play worse against Mr. Woods because they are trying too hard. According to this theory, the mere sight of the superstar makes his competitors especially anxious, since they know that defeating Mr. Woods will require a perfect round. (They also don't want to look bad on national television.) And so they obsess over their swing, determined to not make any embarrassing errors. Unfortunately, such thoughts almost always backfire: We're so worried about hitting the ball straight that we send it careening into the weeds. In other words, we choke.

Sian Beilock, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, has helped illuminate the cascade of mental events that lead professional athletes to fall apart on the fairway. She uses golf as her experimental paradigm. When people are learning how to putt, it can seem like a daunting activity: There's just so much to think about. Novice golfers need to hold the putter properly and keep their shoulders square. Then, they have to make sure that they hit the little white ball with a smooth stroke, making contact at the center of the putter head and letting the club move to the inside after impact. For an inexperienced player, a golf putt can seem like an endless checklist of do's and don'ts.

But the mental exertion pays off, at least at first. Ms. Beilock has shown that novices hit better putts when they consciously reflect on their actions. The more time they spend thinking about the putt, the more likely they are to avoid beginner's mistakes and sink the ball in the hole.

A little experience, however, changes everything. After golfers have learned how to putt—once they have memorized the necessary movements—analyzing the stroke is a dangerous waste of time. Ms. Beilock has found, for instance, that when experienced golfers are forced to think about their putts, they hit significantly worse shots. All those conscious thoughts erase their years of practice; the grace of talent disappears. "We bring expert golfers into our lab, we tell them to pay attention to a particular part of their swing, and they just screw up," Ms. Beilock says. "When you are at a high level, your skills become somewhat automated. You don't need to pay attention to every step in what you're doing."

This is what happens when people "choke." Because the performers are nervous, they begin analyzing actions that are best performed on auto-pilot. When playing against Mr. Woods, for instance, golfers might start second guessing their drive, a skill they've honed through years of practice. Instead of elevating their game to compete with the superstar, his intimidating talent makes them think like a beginner. They regress before the crowd.

And it's not just physical performers who are vulnerable to choking during competition. When students are placed in a high-pressure competition solving difficult math problems—Ms. Beilock offers them cash rewards for winning—they perform significantly worse than students who are told to simply try their best. (The effect is especially pronounced among top performers.) According to Ms. Beilock, the anxiety triggered by the tournament eats up precious mental resources, thus making it harder to come up with the answer. We try harder and do worse.

In the early 1960s, the psychologist Sam Glucksberg demonstrated that the same effect could also inhibit creativity. He gave subjects a standard test of creativity known as the Duncker candle problem. The "high drive" group was told that the person solving the task in the shortest amount of time would receive $20. The "low drive" group, in contrast, was reassured that their speed didn't matter. Here's where the results get weird: The subjects with an incentive to think quickly took, on average, more than three minutes longer to find the answer. Experiments like this have led Ms. Beilock to conclude that people should be skeptical of evaluations based on a single high-stakes performance.

Competing against a superstar could make people even more likely to choke. "Anything that makes us more aware of superior performance will also make us more aware of our own performance, which can be a bad thing," Ms. Beilock says. "That's why it's always best to sit at the front of the class when taking a hard test. You don't want to start comparing yourself to anybody else."

Regardless of the precise explanation for the superstar effect—are golfers quitting on themselves or thinking too much?—it remains to be seen whether Mr. Woods's all-too-human errors will weaken the superstar effect.

Ms. Brown predicts that the long-term power of the superstar effect will ultimately depend on Tiger's golf performance, and not his marriage. "The effect all but disappears when Woods isn't playing well," Ms. Brown says. "And if he doesn't play well after returning, then it probably won't persist for very long." A superstar, after all, has to continually prove his superstar status. The pressure of that burden might even get to Tiger Woods.

—Jonah Lehrer is the author of "How We Decide" and "Proust Was a Neuroscientist."

There is additional multimedia material with this article WSJ site if you have a subscription: The Superstar Effect

The Economist - Network Theory

2010-03-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

A fascinating article from a wonderful magazine!

Network theory

Tree and leaf

The study of living things may shed light on urban planning. And vice versa

Feb 11th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

Alamy

CITIES are often described as being alive. A nice metaphor, but does it mean anything? And, if it does, can town planners and biologists learn from one another? Steven Strogatz, a mathematician at Cornell University, wrote last year that Manhattan and a mouse might just be variations on a single structural theme. His point was that both are, in part, composed of networks for transporting stuff from one place to another. Roads, railways, water and gas mains, sewage pipes and electricity cables all move things around. So do the blood vessels of animals and the sap-carrying xylem and phloem of plants. How far can the analogy be pushed?

Peter Dodds of the University of Vermont draws a particular analogy between the blood system and a suburban railway network. The commuter-rail system of a city ramifies from the centre. The farther out you go, the sparser it is. By analogy, Dr Dodds predicted, the network of capillaries (the tiny blood vessels that permeate tissues) would not be as dense in large animals (where many of them are far from the centre) as it is in small ones. They, too, branch ultimately from a central source—the heart. Surprisingly, no one had looked for this before, but in a paper published recently in Physical Review Letters Dr Dodds shows that this does indeed turn out to be the case.

Dr Dodds’s calculations overthrow a 70-year-old rule of thumb which is known as the ¾ law of metabolism. This suggests energy expenditure is proportional to body mass raised to the power of three-quarters. That a mouse expends more energy per gram than an elephant does is well known. But Dr Dodds’s calculations show that metabolic rates must fall off faster than had previously been believed as animals get bigger because less glucose than thought is being transported by the smaller than predicted capillary network. The law needs to be adjusted to something more like two-thirds.

Two other studies published in the same volume similarly overthrow conventional wisdom about plants. Traditionally, biologists have celebrated the trunk, branch and twig system of a tree as no accident. Many mathematical formulas have suggested it is the best, least wasteful way to design a distribution network. But the very end of such a network, the leaf, has a different architecture. Unlike the xylem and phloem, the veins in a leaf cross-link and loop. Francis Corson of Rockefeller University in New York used computer models to examine why these loops exist.

From an evolutionary point of view, loops seem inefficient because of the redundancy inherent in a looped network. Dr Corson’s models show, however, that this inefficiency is true only if demand for water and the nutrients it contains is constant. By studying fluctuations in demand he discovered one purpose of the loops: they allow for a more nuanced delivery system. Flows can be rerouted through the network in response to local pressures in the environment, such as different evaporation rates in different parts of a leaf.

Another group of researchers at Rockefeller, led by Marcelo Magnasco, also examined vein-loops in leaves. They found that as well as improving efficiency, they also help to ameliorate damage. They discovered this by injecting fluorescent dye into leaves to see if the vein network could distribute the dye to all parts of a leaf that had been damaged. They found the loops are structured in such a way that no matter which piece of a leaf’s supply mechanism is disrupted, there is usually enough capacity in the rest to distribute water and nutrients. “It was very surprising,” Dr Magnasco observes. “The famous theorems that tell us that the optimal structure is a tree failed in a spectacular fashion.”

The leaf, then, is a resilient distribution network—one whose principles could be applied to, say, electricity grids. Next time your power is cut off because a tree has fallen on the cable, remember that.

Edge.org

2010-03-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for intellectual stimulation, Edge is one of the smartest places on the web, I think. Scroll down one of the longest continuous home pages in history past the aggregated news links (something new) and you will find some interesting and very varied content.

For example: Time to Take The Internet Seriously By David Gelernter (Yale Professor of Computer Science and one of Unibomber Dr. Ted Kaczynski's parcel bombing victims - he lost most of his right hand).

Gelernter envisions:

10. Practical business: small computers have been the center of attention lately, and this has been the decade of the cellphone. Small devices will continue to thrive, but one of the most important new developments in equipment will be at the other end of the size spectrum. In offices and at home, people will increasingly abandon conventional desktop and laptop machines for large screen computers. You will sit perhaps seven feet away from the screen, in a comfortable chair, with the keyboard and controls in your lap. Work will be easier and eyestrain (which is important) will decrease. Large screen computers will change the shape of office buildings and create their own new architecture. Office workers will spend much of their time in large-screen computer modules that are smaller than most private offices today, but more comfortable. A building designed around large-screen computers might have modules (for example) stacked in many levels around a central court; the column whose walls consist of stacked modules might spiral helically as it rises….

If Gelernter's vision is correct it should be very stimulative for our business!

And something completely different: Pathways To and From Violent Extremism: The Case for Science-Based Field Research, Statement Before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats & Capabilities by Scott Atran (Visiting professor of psychology and public policy at the University of Michigan).

It's worth at least reading the summary section, at the end, titled:

De-radicalization, like Radicalization, is Better from Bottom Up than Top Down.

TED 2010 Conference

2010-03-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

Every February many of the media and technology elite (and anyone else who can score a very rare $6,000 ticket!) gather together in California for the TED conference to mingle and listen to an eclectic mix of some of the smartest, most gifted and most passionate people on the planet: scientists, writers, philosophers, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians...There is now also a Global TED Conference in Oxford, England, each summer.

Here are a few sessions from the 2010 TED conference. Enjoy!

Daniel Kahneman - The Riddle of Experience Versus Memory
Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate, Princeton professor and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness.

Tim Berners-Lee - The Year Open Data Went Worldwide

At TED2009, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Internet, called for "raw data now" -- for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the web. At TED University in 2010, he shows a few of the interesting results when the data gets linked up.

Temple Grandin - The World Needs All Kinds of Minds
Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

Mark Roth - Suspended Animation is Within Our Grasp
Mark Roth, biochemist, cell biologist and McArthur 'genius' award recipient, studies suspended animation: the art of shutting down life processes and then starting them up again. It's wild stuff, but it's not science fiction. Induced by careful use of an otherwise toxic gas, suspended animation can potentially help trauma and heart attack victims survive long enough to be treated.

James Cameron - Before Avatar...a Curious Boy
James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits "Aliens," "The Terminator," "Titanic" and "Avatar."

Justice - Harvard Lecture Series

2010-03-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

Professor Michael Sandel's Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, one of the most popular lecture series in Harvard's history and recently broadcast on PBS, is now on the web. 12 one hour lectures.

Watch the first lecture and you will be hooked!

Professor Sandel was invited to give the very prestigious Reith Lectures on the BBC last year, also worth listening to if you have a lot of time on your hands! 2009 Reith Lectures: Michael Sandel.

Trivia: Professor Sandel is believed to be the inspiration for the nuclear power magnate Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons cartoon. The series' creator Matt Groening and his writers (many of whom are Harvard graduates) included a host of references to Harvard in the television series. As a joke, Professor Sandel, famed for his Justice course, was turned into the cartoon's least just character.

Television and Social Media Converge

2010-03-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

There have been a number of interesting articles in the New York Times this week on the the convergence of television and social media.

On Monday David Carr wrote in his The Media Equation column about this convergence and also on Monday PBS announced that it would web broadcast its documentary 'Earth Days' on its Facebook site on April 11, eight days before its first television broadcast on PBS (April 19).

And then today it was revealed that Google is teaming with Intel and Sony (and Logitech) to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes. The article speculates that 'social networks....could be brought to television through the use of Google's Android operating system.'

And on April 3, the iPad arrives! Will the iPad integrate with Apple TV to deliver a powerful media convergence in the living room? I'd be willing to bet on it. Which might explain why Google and Sony are leaking their own plans well ahead of introduction.

PS: The Economist recently published a special report on social networking: A World of Connections. Fascinating reading if you have the time!

Esperanza Spalding - Jazz Music Prodigy

2010-03-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Half African-American, brought up in poverty in Portland, Oregon by her white mother. Got a full musical scholarship to Portland State at 16, moved shortly thereafter to Berkley School of Music in Boston, where she graduated and became the youngest ever faculty member at 20. Made a solo album at 21, another at 23. At 25 two more albums are on their way. She composes, plays bass and sings.

Here she is on CBS Morning Show, two years ago at the age of 23 with one of her compositions from her first major album.

And on the Jimmy Kimmel around the same time. She wrote this song too.

She has performed at the White House twice and was invited by President Obama to play at a concert in Oslo last year after the Nobel Prize Award ceremony. Lot's more on YouTube!

I discovered her very belatedly and through a recent feature article in the New Yorker. Watch the accompanying video interview.

'Esperanza' is still at #4 in jazz album sales ranking on Amazon, nearly two years after it's release.

NYPD Real-Time Crime Center

2010-02-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

The NYPD Real-Time Crime Center was recently featured in the New York Times.

This large-scale visualization and collaboration solution allows the Crime Center to create a dynamic working enviornment where information can be accessed from multiple data sources on their network and shared with key team members (via desktops and display walls) for real-time data analysis. This provides the NYPD with the ability to make faster, more accurate decisions to quickly resolve issues.

This is a very informative BBC Television tour of the center:

ISE Amsterdam

2010-02-05T07:52:00.000-08:00

Our chief technologist and I just returned from the Integration Systems Europe show in Amsterdam. It is sponsored by Infocomm and CEDIA.

We were particularly interested to see the latest multitouch sensing technology that will allow full multitouch functionality in Activu and we were not disappointed. Multitouch will allow Activu users to fluidly interact directly with tablets, panels and wall displays to access, position, scale, annotate and otherwise interact with visual information in briefings and other settings. Two elements are required: multitouch capable (Activu) software and the physical sensing technology, e.g. camera or laser based, appropriate to the display type and size.

Apple has really brought multitouch into the mainstream with their iPhone, multitouch pads on their MacBooks and now their iPad. The iPad should change the game with a touch-only user interface for a full range of computing and media needs. (OK, the iPhone already has, but the size of the device limits the range of touch gestures.)

Incidentally, two common complaints regarding the iPad are a lack of multi-tasking and lack of camera. Multi-tasking may well come to both the IPad and iPhone in OS 4.0 as Apple deems processing power sufficient for multi-tasking without impacting the user experience and the iPad is already camera ready: see this AppleInsider article. (My guess is that Apple kept it off the first version at the request of AT&T in return for great unlimited data rates.)

The camera should allow gesture and facial recognition (already mentioned by a Wall Street Journal executive as planned for the iPad to allow automated logon including switching between multiple users), in addition to video conferencing.

Add the multitouch functionality of Windows 7 and this is the beginning of a significant evolution in the HCI (human computer interface), away from the keyboard and mouse for all but data input intensive applications.

But I digress! Back to ISE! There were a surprising number of touch, multi-touch and gesture driven exhibits many focused on presentation, retail and other digital signage applications. From established companies and startups both.

Speaking of startups, a company out of Silicon Valley, Prysm, was showing very early prototypes of a laser based display technology: 'LPD' - Laser Phosphor Display. Not by their own admission close to introduction but certainly very interesting. Very efficient, high refresh rate (should allow 3D etc.), very long life....whether they bring to market themselves and/or end up licensing to others it has the potential at least to be a disruptive display technology down the road, assuming it all works.

The iPad

2010-01-28T04:27:00.000-08:00

It surpassed my high expectations, especially regarding its base price of $499. I am surprised to read some of the tech press doubters and naysayers, though certainly most initial reviews are very positive. The $14.99 (250 MB), $29.99 (unlimited) cellular data rate, and without any contract requirement, is terrific. AT&T's service in some metro areas less so!

Evidently the barrier to Apple enfranchising Verizon is a delay in a Qualcom CDMA + GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA chip set which may delay also a Verizon 4G iPhone. (LTE - 'Long Term Evolution', the unifying cellular standard is still at least a year away.)

One prominent analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, is already forecasting sales of 12 million iPADs in its first two years on the market. I'll wager that his estimate proves to be low.

Beyond the consumer market it also seems to have huge potential in the corporate, educational, medical, sales, presentation and POS markets, not to mention remote device and system control!

January 27, 2010 was a good day for technology!

Story Telling

2010-01-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday's '60 Minutes' had a one hour special edition tribute to Don Hewitt the show's founder.

By the time of his death last August, '60 Minutes', first aired in 1968, was already the longest-running prime-time show on American television. Don Hewitt remained its executive producer until 2004, when at the age of 81 he signed a ten year contract as producer-at-large for CBS News!

He was asked by a journalism student for the secret of journalistic success and he said "I can tell you in four words: tell them a story".

Much of the show comprised footage of Hewitt 'running the show' and being interviewed along with '60 Minutes' colleagues. And everyone agreed that the reason for the show's success was that it told and tells, each week, great stories, and that Don Hewitt, with his very short attention span, had a golden instinct for stories that would hold his audience.

He said: "I may be the only person I know who turned Attention Deficit Disorder into an asset!".

To watch the show on the CBS web site, click here.

Business Ethics

2010-01-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

From a Tom Friedman Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times:

Dov Seidman, the C.E.O. of LRN, which helps companies build ethical cultures, likes to talk about two kinds of values: “situational values” and “sustainable values.” Leaders, companies or individuals guided by situational values do whatever the situation will allow, no matter the wider interests of their communities. A banker who writes a mortgage for someone he knows can’t make the payments over time is acting on situational values, saying: “I’ll be gone when the bill comes due.”
People inspired by sustainable values act just the opposite, saying: “I will never be gone. I will always be here. Therefore, I must behave in ways that sustain — my employees, my customers, my suppliers, my environment, my country and my future generations.”

Avatar 3D

2010-01-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

I finally got to see Avatar in IMAX Digital 3D yesterday. Beyond the extraordinary blend of live action and computer graphics, there is a really compelling narrative. Needless to say James Cameron not only conceived, directed and produced Avatar, he wrote the script too.

This is an extract from an interview he gave to TV Technology magazine on how he integrated live action and CGI:

"Avatar" audiences will also notice the realistic appearance of the 3D characters' performances which was greatly enhanced by Cameron's use of a special "virtual camera" he developed 3 1/2 years ago.

"As the name implies, it is not really an optical device at all," Cameron said. "The actors' performances are recorded in a large motion capture volume, using head rig cameras for image-based facial performance capture and hundreds of other mocap digital cameras focused on the registration dots on the outer layer of both people's bodies and on-screen objects. Once enough of this marker data has been recorded, as a director I can view it on the monitor of the virtual camera to see what a computer would render based on where I am pointing it. The images I see on the virtual camera's monitor are simultaneously ingested into the Avid NLE we used for streaming. Once this has been recorded, it is transferred to the cutting Avid where either editor Stephen Rivkin or John Refoua can begin to edit the footage at the most, five minutes behind me."

So in "Avatar," the live action was stereoscopically photographed using the Fusion Camera, the 3D CG imagery was directed through the Virtual Camera, and the two workflows were integrated through Cameron's Simulcam to create the 3D illusion of adventure on the distant moon, Pandora.

"Instead of taking tracking data generated from a virtual camera as would have been done before, we put tracking markers on the live action camera," Cameron said. "Then, as I move the live action camera around on a lit live action set, the Simulcam lets me see virtual characters and virtual set pieces through a conventional HD eyepiece that aren't really there but have been composited in real time. And that has never been done before."

Peter Jackson's (Lord of the Rings) company, Weta Digital, in New Zealand, did the computer animation, using over one petabyte of storage, using its own developed MASSIVE rendering software.

The Fusion Camera system, BTW, comprises two Sony HDC-F950 HD cameras. And to give credit where it is due, the IMAX digital theater where I saw Avitar used two converged Christie Digital 2K DLP projectors. Since left and right eye both get a full 2K (or 1080P) raster, does that mean one is actually seeing twice the resolution? Visual quality was anyhow spectacular.

Although IMAX Digital 3D is not comparable to IMAX 3D film based projection in terms of resolution or screen size, it is a compelling way to watch Avatar and worth the effort to find an AMC IMAX theater. For anyone interested, a visit to Wikipedia's IMAX page is a feast of technical information on their technical processes.

Something else of interest: I chose a center row seat on the theory that the IMAX designers would have optimized the theater for a central viewing position, but my wife protested that we were too close. Watching the 2D pre-show advertising I had to agree with her. But watching the 3D movie (through polarizing glasses) the screen area felt smaller and more comfortable to watch. My guess (only) is that it relates to the different convergence of the eyes when watching 3D versus 2D.

So What's Not at The Show?

2010-01-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

We have a personal visual space (all the resolution we can see without craning our necks) in the range of 2,000 x 4,000 pixels which happens to be the pixel space of an advanced digital cinema standard: 4K (2,049 x 4,096) and an advanced computer graphics standard: QHD (2,160 x 3,840). Visual Space White Paper

So very, very useful would be, for work groups:

Large flat panel 4K/QHD displays suitable for very high resolution data display - think a high performance digital white board. Sony and Samsung were showing an 82" prototype last year but not alas this year. Sharp was planning a 64" QHD panel, but saddly, no more. 56" is still the largest (and only) QHD panel on the market. Really only suitable for 2-3 simultaneous viewers.

Panasonic is showing at CES a huge prototype 152" plasma 4K 3D (!) display but plasma is not really appropriate for data display and plasma as a display technology is half dead.

For individual immersive display:

HD+ video glasses. Still only standard video resolution novelty items on the market. What the world needs is at the least 1920 x 1080 resolution and very preferably four times that (4K/QHD) which would project into the eye while allowing one to optionally still see ahead normally (like a heads up display in a car or plane). Sony showed a prototype last summer and is talking five years out for full HD. Sony's Concept HD Video Glasses

CES 2010: 3D

2010-01-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

CES 2010 can be summed up in one 'word': 3D.

First shown by Sony and a few others at CES 2009, a universal standard has now been ratified (HDMI 1.4). Every manufacturer will have 3D flat screens by mid-year, also 3D Blue Ray players. All interoperable. Glasses are required, with active LCD shutters. A bit dorky? Yes. But 3D should be a slam dunk success story for the consumer electronics industry as it is already for the film industry where, for example, 75% of Avatar's US theatrical revenues so far have come from 3D theaters. In 2008 the 3% of movies that were 3D delivered 10% of the total US theatrical revenues. With Avatar, 2009 3D figures should be much better. 24 3D movies will be released in 2010, at least 50 in 2011.

In television: DirecTV will have a 24/7 3D channel by mid year (being promoted by Panasonic), ESPN is committed to producing sports content in 3D. Sony and IMAX are supporting a 3D Discovery Channel. The Soccer World Cup will be broadcast in 3D, and no doubt the Vancouver Winter Olympics will be taped in 3D. Every animated movie will be released in 3D (a pretty simple, automated process I believe to convert animation to 3D with a guaranteed revenue increase), every video game will be released in 3D (ditto). And 3D HD consumer cameras could be ready for the 2010 Christmas stocking.

And, what about the Blue Ray player or PlayStation 3 you already own? PlayStation 3 and many more recent Blue Ray players will be firmware upgradeable to 3D. Mid-year. No cost.

The television itself is the only component that will need to be upgraded, though just maybe some of the latest generation of 120Hz and 240Hz flat LCD TV's will prove to be upgradable to 3D, though this is pure speculation on my part. (They need IR transmitters to synchronize with the 3D glasses.)

So what is so wonderful about 3D? Have you seen Avatar in 3D? Wait until you see football in 3D, get to play a 3D computer game!

What is the potential for the commercial and government markets? Vastly improved training and simulation for a start.

CES 2010 - Beyond 3D?

2010-01-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

What else is happening in the consumer electronics space? Apple's about to be announced tablet. Everyone is preemptively positioning their tablet products and prototypes vis-a-vis Apple who are conspicuous by their absence, not only from CES, but also from MacWorld which will probably kill that show. Everyone wants to stake their claim before the game changes completely, I would predict, on January 27th.

Lot's of tablet computers (e.g. Microsoft/HP), weird hybrids (Lenovo), and lots of new eReaders (e.g. from Sony, Skiff, Plastic Logic, Bookeen, Spring Designs and Samsung), some real products, some just prototypes. Plenty presented only at press conferences or in hotel rooms.

Personally, I can't see purpose built eReaders such as the Kindle and Nook surviving the introduction of a full color, full motion, full function computing device with reading, writing, listening, viewing, conferencing and surfing functionality. And I'm betting that Apple will deliver a product that will leave other nascent and anticipated Windows and Linux tablets in the dust. At least for now. If I was betting on it, I'd put my money on Google being Apple's only real competition down the road in this and the smart phone space (really exactly the same space in pocket and purse sizes!)

So what is the relevance to the commercial and government markets? I would predict that the Apple tablet (in particular) will transform and significantly expand the market for mobile computing across many markets and functions: for mobile and field professionals from doctors to insurance agents, from survey to inventory takers....providing the instant-on, multitouch, intuitive simplicity of operation of an iPhone: for information gathering and access, transaction execution, presentation, etc.

And how about remote control? At least two startups already providing consumer AV remote control software for the iPone/iTouch have indicated they will move into commercial AV remote control once the Apple tablet hits the market, which could begin to challenge the Crestron/AMX proprietary hardware model.

Disruptive technology is a wonderful thing for the customer at least!

The Military-Consumer Complex

2010-01-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

First, an apology for having abandoned my blog shortly after starting it. My New Year's resolution is to blog away!

This article in the Economist recently caught my eye:

Dec 10th 2009

From The Economist print edition:

Military technology used to filter down to consumers. Now it’s going the other way

Illustration by Claudio Munoz

THE earliest computers were used to crack codes and simulate nuclear explosions. The internet grew out of a military research project. In-car navigation systems rely on satellites that were put into orbit to guide ships, troops and missiles. The Boeing 747, with its raised cockpit, was designed as a military transporter. In each case a technology created for military use has gone on to become widely used by civilians. That this happens so often is not surprising: the military is, after all, a deep-pocketed customer prepared to fund the development of expensive new technologies. As gizmos become smaller and cheaper—and they invariably do—they are then able to percolate from the soldier on the battlefield to the man in the street.

But lately some kinds of technology have been moving in the other direction, too. The United States Air Force has just placed an order for 2,200 Sony PlayStation 3 video-game consoles, which will be the building-blocks of a supercomputer (see article). Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are using Apple iPods and iPhones to run translation software and calculate bullet trajectories. Xbox video-game controllers have been modified to control reconnaissance robots and drone aircraft. Graphics chips that power PC video-cards are being used by defence firms to run simulations.

What has caused this shift? Global defence spending, at about $1.5 trillion a year, far exceeds sales of consumer-electronics, at around $700 billion a year. But only a small fraction of defence spending is devoted to developing electronics. The consumer-electronics industry can therefore outspend the military in research and development, and spread out those costs over a far larger market: more than a billion mobile phones are sold every year, for example. Electronics firms also move much faster than the slow, multi-year grind of military procurement programmes, with few products remaining on the market for more than a year before being replaced by something better or cheaper. And the emergence of open standards and open-source software makes it easier to repurpose off-the-shelf technologies or combine them in novel ways. (All those PlayStation 3s will have a customised version of Linux, an open-source operating system, installed on them and will be wired up using Gigabit Ethernet, the networking technology commonly used in offices.)

So much for the $1,000 screwdriver

All this is to be applauded. Where consumer technology can be used, it is much cheaper and quicker to do so. The air force’s new supercomputer will cost around one-tenth as much as a conventional supercomputer of equivalent power. Using an iPod to run translation software in Iraq makes much more sense than designing and building a dedicated device. America’s armed forces are also using commercially available green technologies to reduce their demand for fuel (see Technology Quarterly). Of course, there are limits to this off-the-shelf approach: it is no way to procure tanks, helicopters or missile systems. But the selective use of existing technology allows military planners to focus their spending on the development of new technologies, rather than reinventing the wheel. The consumer-electronics industry has been taking advantage of military innovations for years. It seems only fitting that it should now return the favour.

Copyright © 2010 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
Economist Article

It was followed a few days latter by another article in the New York Times:

December 16, 2009, 1:10 PM

The New York Times

The iPhone Goes to War
By ROY FURCHGOTT

One Force Tracker, iPhone software from Raytheon.

Is the iPhone going to war?

On Wednesday at the 2009 Intelligence Warfighting Summit in Tucson,Raytheon, the military contractor, announced an iPhone application that tracks friends and foes, shows their positions on live, real time maps and provides secure communications.

Called the One Force Tracker, the Raytheon iPhone software can also be used by first responders like police, firemen and emergency medical technicians.

The app works on a standard iPhone, said J Smart, chief technology officer for Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems. “We are really delighted to be leveraging Apple’s innovation.”

The adaptation of the iPhone to military use is somewhat unusual, as technology more often trickles from the military to the consumer market. But this is a rare case of consumer hardware and software concepts being adapted for military use.

For instance, crowdsourcing, which has volunteers use cellphones to report real-time traffic flow, could be adapted to turn each soldier into a reporting unit, delivering real-time data about position and status.

Communications resemble social sites like Facebook, in which your friends would be represented by a military unit and could be used to track the position of, and communicate with, other units.

Maps with an overlay of points of interest are familiar to every GPS user. The Raytheon app would use the same concept, but points of interest might be known sniper sites or safe fallback positions.

Field information would be transmitted to a central computer that would crunch the data, update it and push it back out to the soldiers. “This is hypothetical, but if there is a building with known terrorist activities, it could automatically be pushed to the phone when the soldiers get near that area,” said Mr. Smart.

Live information could also be used to reduce tactical errors and friendly fire incidents. “If there was another platoon that was supposed to arrive, and they were delayed or ahead of schedule, you could adapt your plan,” said Mr. Smart. “If one of the units you are counting on is redirected, you know that in real time.”

Mr. Smart also said that Raytheon was developing sensors that could be attached to phones so that they would serve other purposes. He declined to give specifics, however mobile phones have been outfitted as portable ultrasound machines, which would be useful for battlefield medicine.

Although the application that Raytheon has developed will work with an off-the-shelf iPhone, the company concedes that there would have to be alterations for the battlefield.

One iPhone limitation to be addressed is that it only carries out one function at a time unlike competing systems from Palm and Google, which can run several concurrently. If a soldier is to have position automatically reported, the GPS will have to run at the same time as other applications. Mr. Smart said it would be an easy adaptation to make. “Underneath the iPhone is a Mac OS X operating system, which is based on Unix, which gives us Unix multitasking,” he said.

But that raises another issue. Apple limits multitasking because it empties the batteries quickly. Because the iPhone doesn’t have a replaceable battery, a fresh one can’t be popped in when power gets low. Mr. Smart said that Raytheon may address that through a ruggedized phone case that would accommodate a larger battery.

Mobile phones are also known to be vulnerable to hacking attacks. Mr. Smart said that some safeguards were built in to the software, but especially sensitive transmissions could be passed through a more sophisticated scrambler that it would dock with.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Raytheon is developing other iPhone apps as well. It has also demonstrated an application that would serve to train air-traffic controllers. It would not completely replace current training, but would build skills in recalling aircraft and terrain, visual scanning, on-the-fly mathematics and rule-based decision-making, skills that also are used frequently by gamers.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
New York Times Article

Our own approach at Activu has always been to use COTS hardware, even consumer components where occasionally appropriate and Activu 5.0, released this quarter, will include an iPhone/iTouch application to allow Activu remote control. The hotly anticipated tablet (iSlate?) expected to be announced by Apple on January 27th could prove to be the perfect remote control interface.

Using Mac in a Business Setting

2009-10-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

I am a devoted Mac user. After 25 years using Windows, I bought a MacBook Air the day it came out and I haven’t looked back.

Until now I had to use the wretched Entourage (part of Office for Mac 2008) to access my email from Exchange Server. But with the release of Snow Leopard and its Exchange client I have removed Office and am now using Mail and Apple's very elegant (and inexpensive) iWork suite of Pages, Numbers and Keynote and so far so good in terms of Office compatibility.

Apple seems to have the ability to virally penetrate organizations, large and small. At one very large partner company of ours, iPhones are not allowed SSL access to their corporate network and yet many of their senior management have found a way to use them. A couple of years ago we swapped out all of our sales managers’ Thinkpad laptops for MacBook Pros, running Windows. At the time they were the only notebooks on the market that could drive a 2560 x 1600 external 30” display - required for an Activu demonstration we had developed.

We have recently decided to standardize on the MacBook Pro for all our staff going forward. With recent price cuts, they are a great value. They are wonderfully designed, very durable, and our employees love them. They run Windows perfectly, but I'm not any more the only one using the Mac OS and Mac applications!

The biggest plus to me of using the Mac OS in a business setting: no VPN required to access email and absolutely instant “on” from sleep mode. My MacBook Air acts more like an iPhone or Blackberry.

CLUETRAIN Manifesto

2009-10-01T04:15:00.001-07:00

I am reading the tenth anniversary edition of The CLUETRAIN Manifesto - “the pretentious, strident and absolutely brilliant creation of four marketing gurus who have renounced marketing-as-usual” to quote the original Wall Street Journal review!

They started with 95 Theses (in deference to Martin Luther) with the first ten as follows:

Markets are conversations.
Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.
In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.
These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.
As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.

It is in this spirit that we decided to launch vuPoint, a monthly newsletter focused on visualization and collaboration in the control room.