Handheld diagnosis - GE's Vscan

This week I touch on a topic that is close to my heart but is not exactly consumer technology.

A set of engineers across the world are making machines smaller, portable, economical and more viable to ensure healthcare reaches everyone. Last week, GE took a huge step towards this goal by launching Vscan, a pocket-friendly machine — it is just 3 inches wide by 5.3 inches long and weighs about 500 grams, almost the size of a mobile phone — which houses powerful, ultra-smart ultrasound technology that provides an immediate, non-invasive method to secure visual information about the body. Vscan is battery operated and can easily be taken to any clinic, hospital or primary healthcare setting.

Vscan is designed to be complementary to the stethoscope, helping physicians go beyond what they can hear and see. It can scan up to 30 patients with its one-hour power backup and doctors can store results on its 4GB memory card, expandable up to 32 GB.
The high image quality, combined with simple, familiar, intuitive interface can be controlled using the thumb. Using a familiar dial key interface, physicians can zoom in and out, pan left and right for analysis and even add voice annotations. The docking station helps the transfer of data to a PC for organising or sharing the results with experts over the Internet.

Products like Vscan, which costs just Rs 6 lakh, can become a boon for countries like India where rural healthcare is in a bad shape. They can help state-of-the-art diagnostic technologies to primary health centres in small village without being reliant on the erratic power supply.

However, with this comes the added responsibility of ensuring that these devices are not misused by quacks for illegal gender determination and half-baked diagnosis

Companies like Siemens and SonoSite too are doing their bit with portable and cost affective medical equipments. What is required now is for the government to get these low-cost products to our primary health centres and make sure the technology reaches those who are in desperate need for it.
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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday Feb 28, 2010

For a better view of life - Review FARVIEW

Though we care a lot for the differently-abled in modern society, we often tend to forget about them as far as cutting-edge technology is concerned. This is why a show called Techshare held in UK in the middle of September caught my attention. Though I could not make it there to see things live, products from a company called Optelec did make an impression, especially a device called Far View.

While Far View might look like a regular digital camera, you soon realise that there is more to it than meets the eye. Far View is like any digital camera with a macro mode for viewing things up close and a tele mode for looking at things at a distance, up to 42x magnification. The 300-gram gadget has a battery life of approximately four hours and easily fits into any pocket. But here is why this gadget is special:

Firstly, it acts as a magnifying glass for those with impaired vision. For instance, if someone wanted to read a book with small fonts, the Far View can be used with a desk stand over the document and magnify the words on its 4.3" screen. It even has four LED lights to light up the area if you are in a dark environment. The screen switch to standard colour, high-contrast black and white, (also white on black), high-contrast yellow on blue and blue on yellow depending on the user’s requirements. Though the buttons on all four sides can be annoying at first, they are designed to ensure that the users remember what is where.

There is also a big LED on top of the device to show when it is on. It can also be switched from the macro to tele mode in one move. The tele view allows users to read things that are on display at a distance, like a blackboard in the classroom, or a display board at an airport.
The Far View can also be used to record information, be it a visiting card or an important notice. It is also helpful for those who find it difficult to write down everything on the board during a class.

The camera is positioned in the centre and the snapshot functionality allows users to capture close or distant objects, complete documents and multiple pages of a book or magazine, and then read through them later on the large screen with absolute clarity. Though the internal memory is designed for only 100 images, it can be extended using a memory card. The device also has a USB port for connecting it to a PC or a larger external monitor.

During my research I found that Optelec has a dealer in Mumbai called Barrier Break.
The Far View can be purchased for US$ 1,495 in the US; the special pricing for India is still not available.

For More information, please see Opeltec's Website

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The above review was printed in the Indian Express, Issue dated 4th of October 2009

Solving a Problem, Online

If a man fell off a plane from an altitude of 10,000 ft, how long will it take for him to hit earth? Well, this is no joke. It is actually a mathematical problem which will take some old fashioned brain slogging to solve.

I have always been in awe of mathematical equations and how using the relevant formula you can explain and solve any problem. However, I am not good at remembering anything but for basic equations from school.

So, the other day, while discussing the rate of evaporation of water for an Olympic size pool with an architect, both of us realised that we had no clue which formula to use, after all this wasn’t one of those problems we were faced with everyday.

Carrying a scientific calculator all the time is not really a practical option. I still do carry one, but not everyone can, and the old scientific ruler is not really available anymore. So how do you get to remember equations, and what happens when you are stuck with a problem.

My immediate thought was to Google the problem, or maybe checkout Wolfram Alpha, the search engine making all the waves. Then I decided to check if Casio—I love their scientific calculators—has put something online, may be a formula search.

And it had. Since June 1, the company has made available its Keisan portal—Keisan means calculation in Japanese—and it was online at www.keisan.casio.com.

The architect and me, both science students, were enamoured by the number of mathematical equations on the site. From the trivial ‘When is Easter for a particular year’ to the serious Bessel functions and probability calculations, they were all there.

The website is accurate up to 50 digit calculations, and users can select how many digits they want in the result. Another great feature is that you can paste both the calculation results and the chart into Excel and incorporate it in your report. So if you are a science student, or just enamoured by mathematical calculations, it is about time you checked out Keisan, 1,50,000 others do so every day.

That’s not all. In July alone, seven new calculations were added to the site, quite an achievement considering serious mathematics is no child’s play. With such interest being generated, Keisan should grow fast and become a useful tool for students and aspiring mathematicians.

By the way, it takes about the 70 seconds for the man to reach earth, Keisan says so.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, Dated 26th July 2009.

Smart Power Outlets - Now Why did no one else think of it

Electrical Fire, a very common thing that happens across the globe, what was meant to be a single outlet to connect a TV or a Bed Side Lamp, has become an extension cord, and has Cell phone chargers, Mosquitto Repellers, Laptops, and yes, the Bed Side lamps plugged into it, and chances are, that your outlet may soon burn down, or spark, and worst comes to worst, cause an electric fire.

While going through TED, I came across this brilliant talk / presentation by John La Grou, an Inventor, Designer, and Entrepreneur.

Now I Wonder, why the **** did no one else think of this ?

John La Grou unveils an ingenious new technology that will smarten up the electrical outlets in our homes, using microprocessors and RFID tags. The invention, Safeplug, promises to prevent deadly accidents like house fires -- and to conserve energy.

How to Grow Air - Mr. Kamal Meattle

I have always looked up to Mr. Kamal Meattle and the object of making green homes / green offices is very close to me. He has done some wonderful work with the Nehru Place Greens, and his continued research has helped me with my work of turning things Green in a lot of manner.

I had a chance to meet him in person, and pick his brains, sometime back, and he was courteous enough to not only help me with my ideas, but also spend a full hour explaning things, where I was going wrong.

I just got to know about his talk on TED, and I thought I must paste it. Though this is not one of the finest ways of projecting data, but he is good with his work, and if you think you want to grow air, he will teach you how to, in the next 4 minutes.

Where there is a Will, there is a Way - Home Made Windmill

I have always believed in the addage, where there is a will, there is a way, and you may call it Jugaad, or you may call it, putting together things because you have the need. The following video of Willian Kamkwamba, from Malawi, shows how he adapted a Windmill concept, using a Cycle, to Generate Power, to light up 4 Bulbs and 2 Radios in his Home.. This is one of the Jawdropping Videos from Ted

The Sixth Sense - Wearable Computing

Indian news papers for the last 2 - 3 days have been full of the news on how Pranav Mistry is making waves with Sixth Sense. In case you have also read the news, or are interested in reading more, read on

Computers are a great asset, but they were not designed for out of the box interactivity. Over the last few years computers have become friendlier, even for a child, but you still need to learn how to use it, the interactivity is limited through the use of a keyboard and a mouse, and you need to know what these are. You just can't put a computer in the hand of a person who has never used it, and expected them to use it. This is the biggest challenge that all of us tech geeks must solve, there is a huge movement already there to solve this.

A few days back, in a post What if computers were as simple as blocks, I shared with you the work David Merill is doing, going forward Pranav Mistry's work is another break through.

Keeping in mind that these kids managed to what is very simple, but yet no one did it before, and all by spending just 350$ on the hardware, the cost of software and implementation is separate.

It has it's wow factor, so even if you are not interested in technology, and landed here, just while browsing this massive Internet, click on the video below and spend the next 5 minutes, seeing what is possible.



For those of you wondering, how this works.

Pranav has used a Web Camera to capture what he is seein'g, a Mirror Based Projector to project the images that you see, and 4 colored finger tips (also he is seen using nail paint) to identify where his fingers move. Think about it, Simple, yet wonderful. WOW

An Ode to KK

No, I am not talking about the singer or the actor—the story is about a visually challenged programmer from Bangalore, named Krishna Kant Mane, whom I met at the Freed.in conference, where I was speaking this year. He codes programs, builds software—he is writing an accounting software called GNUKhata—and is an active speaker, teacher and activist. KK’s talk at the conference led to a huge discussion on which screen reader software works best for visually impaired users.

There have been thousands of white papers on how accessibility is important in a PC. If you have ever noticed those two small notches on the keyboard under F and J and wondered there are for, well they may not have been put there for visually challenged people, but they do help them.

There are no computers with a Braille interface, but with advances in Speech Synthesiser technology, screen reading software and other features, it is becoming easier for visually impaired people to use a computer.

A software called Orca, which is included in the Linux distribution, is what makes all this possible. Orca is a free, open-source screen reader. Though it works on a Gnome Linux box, people are trying to get it to work on other platforms. To know more about Orca, go to: http://live.gnome.org/Orca.

To know if his computer has shut down, KK has to place his finger next to the air vent of his laptop to see if the fan has stopped spinning. He wishes the machine could say goodbye.

I know this is not one of my usual tech stories, but we all have to contribute in some way to help brighten up the lives of other individuals. Hope this article inspires some of us to think and build solutions for other challenged people, and to help someone use a computer better.

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The above story was published in the Indian Express, on Sunday, March 1, 2009
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Photo Courtsey: Jace - Flickr

What If - Computers Were as Simple as Blocks

The value of unlearning is very big. A concept introduced to me by a great friend of mine, and it has helped me progress, as my friend said, the importance is not to learn, but to unlearn. Our lives have become complicated with things around us, technology, cultures, television, media, all trying to teach us something, making it more and more complex. Any technology that makes life simpler, and easier, is something that I welcome with open Arms. This year at TED, David Merrill presented a Talk on Siftables (tiny blocks of computers, that interact with each other). Though in very early stages of development, but this talk will show you endless possibilities that you can think about.

David's presentation is just 7 minutes 9 seconds, and uses both videos, stills and talk to deliver a message, that makes you think. A Must Watch



Want More details, check out www.siftables.com.

PS: You can't buy them right now, I know, I also want them.

Enabling the disabled

Last week, most newspapers carried an interesting article about an NRI making a touchscreen for the blind. This is a topic close to my heart and I have been inspired to dedicate my first article of the new year on latest gadgets for differently abled persons.

As a child, I had the opportunity to learn Sanskrit. The other student who took the class with me was visually impaired, though he could read and write. This was my first interaction with someone who couldn’t see. A few days back, at a Titan watch showroom, I came across their Braille Watch, launched in December 2008. The watch is pretty and very useful, an ideal gift if you know someone who is visually impaired. It is also priced at an affordable Rs 995. Though there are other manufacturers making such watches, I have to commend Tatas for taking the lead, and bringing out the best designed watch I have come across in the recent times.

Another great device is the Tango. Invented by Richard Ellenson, the father of a boy with cerebral palsy and made by a company called Blink Twice (www.blink-twice.com), this device lets people affected with cerebral palsy learn how to speak and use touch to convey how they are feeling. The Tango, priced at $7,000 is, however, not affordable for all and still not available in India.

Another great invention called the Frog Pad (www.frogpad.com) is a keyboard that lets you use the computer with one hand. Though not specifically designed for people with disabilities, this is a great tool (at US$150) to help people with just one hand use the PC. It comes in both left-handed and right-handed versions.

Similary, audio books are gradually becoming common, though they are still more popular among people who like to travel a lot. I recall a mail from a society in Pune which wanted help from people to dictate and record books, so that those who could not read could listen to them and acquire some knowledge. In fact, there is a big movement on the Web urging people to read a book, record it and send the MP3 file to the nearest blind school. This is not a tough process since most phones now have built-in voice recorders that create MP3 files.

This article can go on and on. We also have to remember people like Jaipur’s Mujib Khan, who has adopted normal cars to work for physically challenged people (http:// tinyurl.com/ mujibkhan), and all those mechanics who attach additional wheels to scooters so that they can be driven by differently abled people.

Assistive technology can do a lot to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. That is, if the technology is made available. Sometimes it can be very costly, and thus beyond people with low incomes. It is time Government programmes and private organisations came forward with assistance.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday, 11th January 2009

Time for Teamwork - On the Lean

Three solutions to share knowledge, virtually
THE corporate world has a lot of knowledge, but hardly any knowledge centres, and hence all this knowledge seems to be residing among individuals instead of organisations. This week I will show you some solutions that will let you share knowledge, interact, collaborate and work with distributed teams on common goals, all this without spending much money.

We will always be able to email presentations, documents and spreadsheets to colleagues and clients, but we will always end up asking for more. This is where tools like Zoho office (www.zoho.com) and Google docs (docs.google.com) come in. Both are effective when it comes to working with teams, but they still fall short of our requirements.

Both are great to share Word documents and to work on them together, but are unable to do the same while sharing an Excel sheet or making a guided presentation to multiple people. In my search for a solution to this problem, I came across three websites.

If you want to share a spreadsheet or work on graphs without having to install anything on your PC, then head for editgrid.com, open a free account, look at some standard templates and spreadsheets others have made, and start. You can send an invite to multiple people who can log on to slide-share and work with you live or otherwise on the same spreadsheet. You can do this from any PC, and so there is no need to carry all those files with you. The website has a paid version for enterprises that look at data security and support.

If you are familiar with modern day organisations, you would have come across a term called Webex (now a Cisco company). Webex allows you to share any application, do presentations remotely and work together as a team, but at a price of 33 cents per minute— sadly, meetings end up costing quite a packet. Now you have an option. Dimdim.com offers the same features for free. Though their $99 per year version offers higher speeds, it also has a free version which is sufficient if you audience is small—about 10 to 15 people—and you want to limit interactions to text or voice chat. You can also do video conferencing, though this feature is not very stable as of now.

We all need to send screenshots, whether it is for support on an application or getting advice, and the Print Screen button on your keyboard can’t always do the trick. Jingproject.com from Techsmith, the leaders in professional screen capture solutions, allows you to take screenshots—pictures or video—and annotate them using text, arrows, lines, boxes and highlights in multiple colours, all for free.
So go ahead, share that knowledge.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday, 21st December 2008

Messenger on the Move

Here is how to stay connected with Internet contacts through your GPRS phone
I recall when I got myself a BlackBerry about three years back. I kept thinking of a way to chat with my teams using the phone. Time went by and in came Google Talk. There were other third party utilities which could do the same, but all of them wanted money.

There wasn’t much you could do if you were on a general GPRS phone and still wanted to use all your messengers. Well, finally, I have the answer for you and it is called Nimbuzz. But only if you are on a Symbian Series 60 phone—not iPhone, Blackberry or Windows Mobile.
So, what is so special about Nimbuzz? After all, there are other players like IM+, Agile Messenger, E-buddy, and Fring which offer similar services. But I liked the Nimbuzz, and this is why.

I use ICQ, AOL Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Skype and Facebook, as well as an internal chat messenger that runs on a protocol called Jabber for our corporate team. At times I carry my Skype phone with me so that I can make cheap International calls—with tarrifs falling, we may not have to do that much longer. But carrying so many phones can be tough and I have always wanted to move Skype to one of my phones, so that I could skip to Skype when I wanted and stick to GSM during the rest of the time.

Facebook chat, too, is becoming more of a necessity, as most of my school/college friends don’t use messengers. Moreover, I did not want to load too many applications on the phone and wanted to stick to a single application — on my computer I use Trillian for Windows, Pidgin for Linux and Adium on Mac to give me one list of all my contacts, irrespective of the messenger.

And this is exactly what Nimbuzz does for your phone, and that too for free. Nimbuzz even has a client for the PC, so your experience on Windows is no different than the one on your cellphone.
So, is it all good? Well, not really. The Edge/GPRS services in India are far below quality and they need to be improved drastically. At times my messenger conversations went missing, and at times I could not make Skype calls because of the poor GPRS/EDGE service. On the upside,...3G will soon be available in the country. And if your phone has Wi-Fi, you can use Nimbuzz to chat or make Skype calls over the wireless network.

There is some serious competition too. Ebuddy, which offers MySpace, Google, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL and MSN, though without Skype, is also free and hence the nearest competitor to Nimbuzz. IM+ offers all that Nimbuzz has to offer, minus MySpace and facebook, but only if you pay $29.95. Fring offers Skype, MSN, Google, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL and SIP (another VoIP Provider), but no Facebook and MySpace. But Fring is still in Beta, and we should see other things added to it.

For now, Nimbuzz is the best way to stay connected while on the move. Download Nimbuzz from nimbuzz.com, and as they claim, join mobile freedom.
To know if your phone is compatible see tinyurl.com/tech2-nimbuzz

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The article appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday 21st September 2008.

Asus Eee PC v/s HP HP 2133 Mini-Note - Tech 2

This week in My Indian Express Article, I reviewed the HP 2133 Mini Note.

To read the review, click here, or buy the Indian Express, on Sunday, April 13, 2008, Across India.

I know some of you would like to know feature to feature comparison, so here it is

Spec	HP Mini Note	Asus Eee PC
Processor	VIA 1.0~1.6GHz	Intel UMA
Scree	8.9"	7"
RAM	512 ~ 2048MB	512 ~ 1024MB
Graphics	WXGA 1280x800	SVGA 800 x 600 - Unknown
Stroage	4GB SSD ~ 120GBHDD	4GB ~ 8GB SSD
Battery	2.5 Hours	3 Hours
Webcam	VGA	VGA
Bluetooth	Select Models	NO
Weight	2.63 lbs	2.02 lbgs

Eco Friendly Street Lights by Sharp

Japan is the place to be for technology innovation, sadly they speak another language that I don't understand, I tried, but I don't. Go Green seems to be on every body's mind, look at ICICI bank on how they are selling their e-statement feature, but this news on Akhiabara News, caught my eye.

The LN-LS2A1 produce 1800 lumens and can go running for upto 48 hours, in case of an earthquake (yes they have a built in sensor).

To read more, click here

GS

My Fav Camera is Diamond Studded and on Auction

When i saw the Canon IXUS 65 (a.k.a SD630), I just fell in love with it, and bought it. It is a great camera, I am seriouslly in love with it.. The News on Engadget, today about 10 cameras, to auction to aid Red Cross.

Via: Engadget

GS