Motorola Not Ebony And Ivory (Harmony)

Motorola Solutions Fit Every Segment - Image Credit: Motorola.com

Motorola Not Ebony And Ivory (Harmony)

Enterprise mobility, and the solutions they provide are not necessarily compatible across the need level ecosystem, at least according to Motorola management.

About eighteen months ago, Motorola felt that purchasing a mobility Auto ID company, like industry leader Symbol Technologies, would bring along a synergy to their business model that few cellphone/radio communications companies in the world would have. Most analysts agreed to the proposition that the small form factor manufacturing commonality, combined with the different and unique focus in non-conflicting markets could be a strong asset going forward.

If this concept was ever true, Motorola blew it. If the concept wasn’t true, a lot of the misunderstanding to corporate culture in niche markets and the ability to remain relevant in an evolving WEB 2.0 world may have been the culprits.

Motorola handsets to be made a stand alone business unit. Image Credit: Motorola.com

This excerpted from CNET -

Motorola hits redial on handset biz
Posted by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.com March 26, 2008 7:37 AM PDT

Motorola is hoping two is better than one.

On Wednesday, the company, whose cell phone business has been in a death spiral for several quarters, announced that after a two-month formal analysis, it has decided to split the company into two publicly traded entities.

One will handle handsets and accessories while the other will continue to concentrate on wireless broadband and enterprise communication products.

"Creating two industry-leading companies will provide improved flexibility, more tailored capital structures, and increased management focus--as well as more targeted investment opportunities for our shareholders," CEO Greg Brown said in a release.

The Mobile Devices business will handle the designs, manufacturing, and sales of mobile handsets and accessories, and will license a portfolio of intellectual property.

The Broadband & Mobility Solutions business will handle service voice and data communication solutions and wireless broadband networks for enterprises and governments. It will also handle IP video, cellular, and high-speed broadband network infrastructure, and cable set-top receivers.

Investor Carl Icahn has been pressuring the company to separate out its mobile phone business, and has been engaged in a protracted legal struggle with the company regarding its future. Motorola offered up two board seats to Icahn this week, but the activist investor rejected the offer. Brown declined to comment on how this latest news will impact discussions with Icahn's camp.
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But many questions linger. For one, how will spinning off the business unit actually help the company get back on track? And then there is the question of brand. Motorola has an 80-year history as a communications provider. The company practically invented the cell phone industry in the 1980s. So what will it do with a brand it has spent billions of dollars and decades creating?

Brown gave vague answers to these questions during the conference call. He reasoned that splitting Motorola into two separate companies will allow management teams to focus and tailor their financials to the needs of those businesses.
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But even though it's easy to see how Motorola's other businesses might benefit from the separation, it's still a bit unclear what will really be different in the handset division. The company's problem is that it isn't making products people want to buy.
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Brown acknowledged that new products are key to turning around the handset business. But he said the division needs to be separated to help attract new, top-level talent to lead the recovery. Brown is currently searching for a new CEO to head up the new company.
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"The Motorola brand is strong and trusted and proven," he said. "It's valuable to mobile devices as well as other assets in parts of the business. We will refine the brand strategy in next several months going forward."

But Forrester's Daley believes that keeping the brand with the handset division really is the only viable option the company has.

"Good or bad--Motorola's brand is for mobile devices," she said. "The broadband and mobility solutions unit will have to grow and separate their brand/value from the consumer-device company."
Reference Here>>

So the name change from Symbol Technologies to Motorola really hasn’t helped ... Symbol Technologies already had great brand/value as an enterprise mobility solutions provider and NOW it has lost its "good" name - in only 14 months after Motorola's purchase.

Motorola enterprize mobility solutions (Symbol Technologies) to be made a stand alone business unit after only 14 months. Image Credit: Motorola.com

And this view excerpted from InfoWorld –

Update: Motorola to split in two
Reorganization mirrors moves Nokia, Ericsson have made
By Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Service / InfoWorld March 26, 2008

"Everyone agrees Motorola had to do something, the split will relieve some of the pressure from stockholders," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight, who at first glance thinks the split makes sense.
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"The mobile phone division has taken a bit of a beating, and this is what you get," said Richard Webb, directing analyst, WiMax, Wi-Fi, and Mobile Devices at Infonetics Research.

The split will provide improved flexibility, more tailored capital structures, and increased management focus -- as well as more targeted investment opportunities for shareholders, according to Greg Brown, Motorola's president and chief executive officer.

Analysts agree the split will bring improved focus, especially for the mobile phone company.

"[The mobile phone part] won't have to take the infrastructure side into consideration, and the split may also help raise its profile," said Webb.

But that can also be a bad thing. It was in part because of handsets that Sprint dared to make its big gamble on WiMax, which has proved problematic.
In the end, the mobile phone business needs a healthy and competitive Motorola, according to Wood.

"It's needed to provide some balance with Nokia. A Nokia-Samsung duopoly isn't good for anyone," he said.
Reference Here>>

Biometrics For The Greater Good | UPDATED

Pay By Touch at The FMI Show + Marketechnics 2007 - McCormick Place West Expansion, Chicago, Illinois. Image Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

Biometrics For The Greater Good
Pay By Touch ID Delivers Discounts, Rewards Recognition, Credit, & More
(UPDATED At Bottom)

Consumer services has become a pretty arduous process over the years.

In order for the average consumer to take advantage of the systems and processes that support loyal and local shopping, one had to scan the local paper for coupons and clip them, carry a host of store issued loyalty verification instruments (key fobs, cards, “speedpass” RFID tags, & etc.), then get out and shop … Oh! … and don’t forget the wallet.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be recognized as if all of the stores knew every shopper by name, you know ... as if one were living in an idealized small town in “RFD” America?

One would leave the house with a list of things to buy and that’s it! No coupons and the time invested to collect them, no store cards through which one qualifies for an additional discount off of the purchase, and no wallet to carry cash and credit card by which to pay for the items one needed.

This world view scenario is available here and now and it is a world envisioned by Pay By Touch that utilizes fingerprint biometrics for the greater good!

SmartShop Express station aids in converting customers to the benefits of the Pay By Touch process. Image Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

Excerpts from the Pay By Touch website and press releases –

Pay By Touch ID Delivers Discounts, Rewards Recognition, Credit, & More
Compiled & Edited by Symblogogy

Pay By Touch is the leading biometric authentication network for loyalty and payments, and the only company that integrates biometric authentication, payments, personalized marketing, and payment processing. The company's mission is to liberate consumers through biometrics and beyond by providing the most secure, convenient, and cost-effective electronic transaction solutions available.

Pay By Touch is a free service that allows you to pay for purchases and access loyalty discounts simply by placing your finger on a sensor when you check out. Your finger links you, and only you, to your accounts – completely eliminating the need to carry cards, checks or cash.

it's safe
Your finger is unique to you, which means only you can access your financial accounts. The Pay By Touch service helps protect you from physical or identity theft. Because there’s nothing to carry, there’s nothing to be lost or stolen.

it's fast and easy
Enroll once and use it anywhere! No writing checks. No cards to swipe. No fumbling with cash. No need to show your ID.

it's private
Because you don’t have to present your cards, check or ID when you pay, no one can see your account information. Your information is securely stored and will not be sold to third parties.

it's free
The Pay By Touch service is always free and there are no hidden fees.

... automatic rewards
Free yourself from all those rewards cards and keyfobs. Your savings and rewards are automatically applied when you check out.
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Pay By Touch SmartShop Express In-Store Coupon Claiming Demo - Video Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

SmartShop™ Service Alliance Announcement Press Release -

Biometric Pioneer’s Personalized Marketing Service Delivers the Right Offer to the Right Shopper at the Right Time
Shop n’ Save, Foodtown and Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers are Among Early Adopters
2007 FMI SHOW+MARKETECHNICS & SAN FRANCISCO, CA – (May 7, 2007)

To facilitate rapid consumer adoption and give merchants maximum flexibility, Pay By Touch has added a card-based option to its biometric SmartShop™ service. SmartShop, powered by Pay By Touch, gives shoppers customized offers on the products they buy most when they enter the store – before they shop.

Pay By Touch, the leader in biometric payment and personalized marketing, is offering card-based SmartShop in addition to the biometric SmartShop service, which launched at NRF in January, 2007. SmartShop provides merchants and consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) with an unprecedented return on investment (ROI) by enabling them to deliver the right offer to the right shopper at the right time – both in-store and online.

John Costello, President, Consumer and Retail - "At Pay By Touch, we understand that each retailer is unique. Card-based SmartShop enables merchants to immediately engage their best shoppers by letting them use their existing loyalty cards to get personalized offers,” said John Rogers, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Pay By Touch. “SmartShop offers unparalleled, automated targeting based on preferences in each particular store. There is no better way for merchants and manufacturers to reach their targets." - Image Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

Research shows that 70 percent of buying decisions are made in-store, and that less than one percent of grocery store coupons are ever redeemed . As a result, millions of marketing dollars are wasted every year. SmartShop turns every shopper into a uniquely qualified marketing lead and delivers value to consumers, merchants and manufacturers alike.

SmartShop enhances retailers’ existing loyalty programs by delivering added value to their most important customers. It also provides a robust loyalty solution for retailers who do not yet have a program in place. Best of all, SmartShop ‘learns’ from each shopping trip to generate the next set of relevant rewards.
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Card-based SmartShop has been implemented by Shop ‘n Save stores in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, as well as Foodtown stores in New York and New Jersey. These merchants will migrate to biometric SmartShop, and adopt Pay By Touch’s biometric payment solution, to let shoppers identify themselves, pay for purchases and redeem rewards with the simple touch of a finger.

“We are extremely pleased with the SmartShop service, which is branded ‘Shop ‘n Save Personalized Perks’ in three of our Pittsburgh-area stores,” said Greg Hartley, Owner of three Shop 'n Save locations. “The service is a huge hit with our shoppers, with kiosks in each store receiving more than 300 visits a day. We are excited to continue using the program and we are looking forward to seeing the kiosk in other Shop 'n Save stores."

Early results reveal the value of the SmartShop service. These merchants can experience:

•Twenty to 50 percent shopper adoption of SmartShop

•Eight to 12 percent sales lift among customers using SmartShop

•A 25 to 30 percent reduction in advertising and direct mail printing and distribution costs

SC Johnson Among Early CPG Adopters

Already, several leading CPGs have joined the program, including SC Johnson and more. These companies are leveraging the SmartShop platform to deliver personalized, highly relevant coupons and deepen their relationships with consumers. With SmartShop, CPGs can experience:
•Twenty percent+ sales lift

•Four to five times greater redemption rates than traditional FSIs

•Twenty to 50 percent reduction in marketing costs per unit sold at retail

•A significant reduction in handling costs

How SmartShop Works:

1.) When shoppers enter the store, they simply scan their loyalty card at the SmartShop kiosk to get personalized offers based on their purchase history.

2.) Shoppers receive an 8 ½ x 11 print-out with 16 customized offers on the products they buy most, and then head into the aisles to shop.

3.) Shoppers scan their loyalty card at check-out to redeem their offers. They do not need to bring the print-out to check-out; no paper coupons are required.

SmartShop gives merchants customer-based metrics and accurate data that improves the efficacy of marketing efforts. It is easy to implement, with a Web-based management system for algorithmic campaign creation and real-time targeting. The service provides robust analytics to make reporting and account settlement both easy and accurate.
Reference Here>>

UPDATE - March 24, 2008

Pay By Touch Shuts Down Tranaction Processing ... Goes Out Of Business

After filing for Chapter Eleven debt restructuring in December of 2007, the hope was that Pay By Touch would be able to continue its business of biometric identification aided transaction processing for is portfolio of strong and happy clients.

Sadly, today PBT shuts down its ability to care for its customers.

This excerpted from the Progressive Grocer -

Pay By Touch Shuts Down all Biometrics
Progressive Grocer - March 24, 2008

Solidus Networks, Inc., the San Francisco-based biometric solutions company that did business as Pay By Touch, ceased processing biometric transactions on behalf of its retailer customers and consumer membership last week, a move it said was due to "lack of funding and current market conditions."

Pay By Touch's biometric payment systems were being used by dozens of retailers, including Pathmark, Piggly Wiggly, Jewel-Osco and Cub Foods. Last year it released its Smart Shop offering, first developed and piloted at independent grocer Green Hills, and then later launched at high-profile independent Dorothy Lane Markets.

On December 14, 2007, Solidus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Solidus said as part of its planned restructuring it determined it could no longer support the biometric authentication and payment system. Other non-biometric Solidus Networks business units will continue operating, it said.

The company's move to pull the rug out from under the program came as a surprise to some, considering the successful track record it apparently with retailers.

At Dayton, Ohio-based Dorothy Lane, the Smart Shop loyalty and payment service was used in transactions totaling 24 percent of sales, just two weeks after it launched in July.
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Meanwhile, Pay By Touch's Web site currently displays just one active page, with a statement from the company that reads in part: "Solidus Networks extends its sincere gratitude to the shoppers, merchants, vendors, investors, partners, and employees who have been supporting the company's vision since its first biometric payment transaction in 2002."

Observers commenting on a story that ran on the Web site of The Wall Street Journal about the demise Pay By Touch suggested that the business, not the technology, was the problem.

"I'm an ex-employee, and despite the eventual demise of the company, there were some interesting things learned about mainstream biometrics for the consumer," noted one online poster.

"None of the management of the company had any notion of businesses that wage world class technology competitions, as did the famous Silicon Valley successes," commented another. "The management all came from a so-called 'solution' business, where technology is secondary and services are the identity. Contrary to belief, the biometric technology was not designed in house. They really had nothing to compete with. So the company had no identity and was doomed to failure from the outset."
Reference Here>>

At Symblogogy, we believe that a biometric pay paradigm as pioneered by Pay By Touch for retail and other type of transactions is not dead ... just in delay.

Peace Symbol Turns 50!

Before barcodes, RFID, Magnetic Stripe and other encoding technologies, there was Semaphore. The peace symbol was born from the flag positions that represent the letters “N” and “D” used to communicate nuclear disarmament. Gerald Holtom, a graphic designer who figured that the British anti-nuke movement would gain more traction if it had a logo, settled on this final approach and the symbol was developed. Image Credit: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament via BBC NEWS

Peace Symbol Turns 50!

That's right, one of the most recognizable symbols of this modern era ... almost as recognizable as the yellow "Happy Face" ... turns fifty years old today.

Symblogogy generally focuses on processes that help to automate our lives. Most postings have evolved through developments in automatic identification, and the systems that aid solution delivery and communication.

Peace Symbol Buttons - Image Credit: jnhkrawczyk

The Peace Symbol, however, needs to be noted because of its recognizability and awareness impact.

This excerpted from BBC NEWS -

World's best-known protest symbol turns 50
By Kathryn Westcott, BBC NEWS – Last Updated: Thursday, 20 March 2008, 10:49 GMT

It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised.

Good Friday march for disarmament to Aldermaston. Image Credit: BBC NEWS

It had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston.

The demonstration had been organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined in.

Gerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from West London, persuaded DAC that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The "Ban the Bomb" symbol was born.
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Holtom later explained that the design was "to mean a human being in despair" with arms outstretched downwards.
Reference Here>>

Some mistakenly think the three-pointed star symbol of Mercedes-Benz logo as the Peace Symbol ... this, of course, is not the case.

Get On The Stick! ... With Cuba’s IT Underground

Having a USB memory stick is like carrying a portable hard drive the size of a packet of chewing gum. USB memory sticks are the fastest in the flash memory card industry with transfer rates up to 60MB/s and capacities ranging from 64MB to 4GB. Caption & Image Credit: mediaheaven.co.uk

Get On The Stick! ... With Cuba’s IT Underground

Necessity is the mother of invention – or in this case adaptation. Information technology in Cuba, with its heavy-handed oversight of human activity, is in a process of breaking out of the grip of the government sanctions against the freedom of information sharing and publishing.

News, information, and entertainment media in Cuba, is hard to come by unless one is able to afford the time to log on to a computer in one of the few “Cyber Cafés”, have access to a tourist hotel internet portal, is a student, or has access to a smuggled dish and secretly grab the information for later viewing and sharing - OFFLINE!

Dutch made , USB Memory sticks manually selected for their natural beauty, and professionally handmade into unique and personal USB memory sticks. From ooms. Order Online - 256 MB - 45 Euro 1GB - 70 Euro. Caption & Image Credit: oooms.nl

OFFLINE in Cuba is an intranet (an in-country internet) patched together through a “postal service” email communication connection that the government is having trouble shutting down. The “Whack-A-Mole” process the government is left with can not stop the viral sharing aided with the use of USB memory sticks.

At an e-mail center in Havana, customers work under an employee’s watchful eye. Old Havana has only one true Internet cafe, down from three a few years ago. Caption & Image Credit: Jose Goitia - The New York Times

This excerpted from The New York Times -

Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State’s Limits
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. - New York Times, HAVANA - March 6, 2008

A growing underground network of young people armed with computer memory sticks, digital cameras and clandestine Internet hookups has been mounting some challenges to the Cuban government in recent months, spreading news that the official state media try to suppress.

Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly.

Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire through Havana, passed from person to person, and seriously damaged Mr. Alarcón’s reputation in some circles.
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“It passes from flash drive to flash drive,” said Ariel, 33, a computer programmer, who, like almost everyone else interviewed for this article, asked that his last name not be used for fear of political persecution. “This is going to get out of the government’s hands because the technology is moving so rapidly.”

Cuban officials have long limited the public’s access to the Internet and digital videos, tearing down unauthorized satellite dishes and keeping down the number of Internet cafes open to Cubans. Only one Internet cafe remains open in Old Havana, down from three a few years ago.

Hidden in a small room in the depths of the Capitol building, the state-owned cafe charges a third of the average Cuban’s monthly salary — about $5 — to use a computer for an hour. The other two former Internet cafes in central Havana have been converted into “postal services” that let Cubans send e-mail messages over a closed network on the island with no links to the Internet.
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Young people here say there is a thriving black market giving thousands of people an underground connection to the world outside the Communist country.

Swiss army knife with USB memory stick Memory size: 128MB 256MB 512MB 1GB 2GB 4GB 8GB. Caption & Image Credit: sz-wholesale.com

People who have smuggled in satellite dishes provide illegal connections to the Internet for a fee or download movies to sell on discs. Others exploit the connections to the Web of foreign businesses and state-run enterprises. Employees with the ability to connect to the Internet often sell their passwords and identification numbers for use in the middle of the night.

Hotels catering to tourists provide Internet services, and Cubans also exploit those conduits to the Web.

Even the country’s top computer science school, the University of Information Sciences, set in a campus once used by Cuba’s spy services, has become a hotbed of cyber-rebels. Students download everything from the latest American television shows to articles and videos criticizing the government, and pass them quickly around the island.
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The video of Mr. Alarcón’s clash with students was leaked to the BBC and CNN, giving the world a rare glimpse of the discontent among the young with the system.
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Another event many people witnessed through the digital underground was the arrival in the United States of Carlos Otero, a popular television personality and humorist in Cuba who defected in December while on a trip to Toronto.

Illegal antennas caught signals from Miami television stations, which youths turned into digital videos and shared. Though the event smacked more of celebrity news than politics, it would never have been shown on the official media.

Some young journalists have also started blogs and Internet news sites, using servers in other countries, and their reports are reaching people through the digital underground.

Yoani Sánchez, 32, and her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, 60, established Consenso desde Cuba , a Web site based in Germany. Ms. Sánchez has attracted a considerable following with her blog, Generación Y, in which she has artfully written gentle critiques of the government by describing her daily life in Cuba. Ms. Sánchez and her husband said they believed strongly in using their names with articles despite the possible political repercussions.

Shortly before Raúl Castro was elected president last week to replace his ailing brother, Fidel, Ms. Sánchez wrote a piece describing what sort of president she wanted. She said the country did not need a soldier, a charismatic leader or a great speaker, but “a pragmatic housewife” who favored freedom of speech and open elections.

Writing later about Raúl Castro’s first speech as president, she criticized his vague promises of change, saying they were as clear as the Rosetta Stone was when it was first found. Both essays would be impossible to publish in Cuba.
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Because Ms. Sánchez, like most Cubans, can get online for only a few minutes at a time, she writes almost all her essays beforehand, then goes to the one Internet cafe, signs on, updates her Web site, copies some key pages that interest her and walks out with everything on a memory stick. Friends copy the information, and it passes from hand to hand. “It’s a solid underground,” she said. “The government cannot control the information.”

It is spread by readers like Ricardo, 28, a philosophy student at the University of Havana who sells memory sticks to other students.
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Like many young Cubans, Ricardo plays a game of cat and mouse with the authorities. He doubts that the government will ever let ordinary citizens have access to the Internet in their homes. “That’s far too dangerous,” he said. “Daddy State doesn’t want you to get informed, so it preventively keeps you from surfing.”

Pedro, a midlevel official with a government agency, said he often surfed Web sites like the BBC and The Miami Herald at work, searching for another view of the news besides the ones presented in the state-controlled media. He predicted that the 10,000 students studying the Internet and programming at the University of Information Sciences would transform the country over time, opening up more and more avenues of information.

“We are training an army of information specialists,” he said.
Reference Here>>

Short Range Proximity Communications Breakthrough

GiFi (60GHz "millimetre wave" spectrum wireless communications) may have a function effect on all consumer and appliance electronics. Image Credit: bargaindealsonline.com

Short Range Proximity Communications Breakthrough

Short-range wireless technology is a hotly contested area for technology development. Many research teams around the world are racing to be the first to make and have embedded into small display devices, proximity technology that would deliver the capability to transfer a high volume of data at high-speed.

The assumption is that every display device (TV, cellphone, PDA, computer, portable game handset) would benefit from having the ability to be within 30 to 40 feet from a transmission source and be able to display high quality video images.

Applications range from having an information kiosk right in ones hand to high density/high speed data transfers from handset to computer or computer to TV and any combination therein.

Japan's NEC Corp unveiled a prototype cellphone handset capable of receiving digital broadcasting signals, enabling users to not only make calls and take photos, but to watch TV. Image Credit: WebTechGeek.com

Examples: One goes to a movie retailer, and 1) samples a movie from a kiosk via the cellphone display, decides to 2) purchase the movie for viewing later on ones home entertainment system – on the way home, one walks up to a transit terminal and 3) finds the best bus route to make it back home and 4) purchases the fare. At home, the movie is 5) transmitted and transferred to the computer or the home entertainment system for viewing.

This string of functionality can be made possible without a camera/scanner and is compatible to be embedded via a small computer chip that can be placed on circuit boards of any consumer appliance or device which would make them “GiFi” capable (60GHz "millimetre wave" spectrum wireless communications). Wireless, high speed, anywhere, anytime, any device, within 30 to 40 feet proximity … and nearly free – now that is a revolution in short range communicative power.

GiFi chips are smaller and more powerful than Bluetooth. GPS Chips -The smallest chip is the newest GPS chip from SiRF, the middle one includes a Bluetooth connection (for a wireless connection with other devices that can use GPS coordinates), the top one is last year’s GPS chip. Image Credit: Tarmo Virki

This excerpted from Fairfax Digital’s, The Age -

$10 chip puts Australia on the fast track
Nick Miller - The Age - February 22, 2008 - 1:18PM

A new silicon chip developed in Melbourne is predicted to revolutionise the way household gadgets like televisions, phones and DVD players talk to each other.

The tiny five-millimetre-a-side chip can transmit data through a wireless connection at a breakthrough five gigabits per second over distances of up to 10 metres.
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The "GiFi" was unveiled today at the Melbourne University-based laboratories of NICTA, the national information and communications technology research centre.

Professor Stan Skafidis of Melbourne University. Image Credit: Neil Newitt

"I believe in the longer term every consumer device will have this technology," said project leader, Professor Stan Skafidas, who with his team spent almost a decade developing the chip.
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Professor Skafidas said his team is the first to demonstrate a working transceiver-on-a-chip that uses CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology - the cheap, ubiquitous technique that prints silicon chips.

This means his team is head and shoulders in front of the competition in terms of price and power demand. His chip uses only a tiny one-millimetre-wide antenna and less than two watts of power, and would cost less than $10 to manufacture.

It uses the 60GHz "millimetre wave" spectrum to transmit the data, which gives it an advantage over WiFi (wireless internet). WiFi's part of the spectrum is increasingly crowded, sharing the waves with devices such as cordless phones, which leads to interference and slower speeds.

But the millimetre wave spectrum (30 to 300 GHz) is almost unoccupied, and the new chip is potentially hundreds of times faster than the average home WiFi unit. However, WiFi still benefits from being able to provide wireless coverage over a greater distance.
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For Professor Skafidas, the chip is several breakthroughs in one. It includes a world-first power amplifier that is only a few microns wide, with a micron being one 300th the width of a human hair.

It also has world's first signal mixing and filter technology, and a switch that isolates the transmitter and receiver so they do not interfere with each other.
There is about another year's worth of work on the chip before it is ready to be marketed to the public, he said, and the team still needs to develop technology that injects data into the transceiver.

Professor Skafidas said he sees several ways the technology could be put to use.
It could be used to transfer data-rich content such as video around the home between different storage and display devices, and it could help turn a mobile device into a "shopping cart" for data.

A mobile device could also become a fully-fledged computer through the GiFi, simply by placing it near similarly-equipped peripherals such as a screen, extra storage, optical drives, a keyboard and mouse.
Reference Here>>

Grammy For Math ... At The Wire

50TH ANNUAL GRAMMY® AWARDS 3-D Logo - Image Credit: grammy.com

Grammy For Math ... At The Wire

Math algorithms aid our lives in many ways. Here at Symblogogy, we have highlighted the use of math and the reading of symbols with regards to:

** Barcodes for retail transactions and item tracking identification
** Two-dimensional symbologies that are able to deliver small databases that can be attached to an item and decoded on-the-spot with out the need to refer to a database.
** Cameraphone 2-D codes used to acquire additional information through a connection with internet webpages (PWC/PWH - Physical World Connection/Physical World Hyperlink). Applications include having the code appear in print advertisements so that one could scan (take a picture of the code) and read from their display.
** Three-dimensional codes where a 2-D code includes the element of color discernment. This type of symbology was invented to allow one to transport even more information to be decoded on-the-spot. Information is decoded through a math algorithm and delivers enough information to display and play a twenty (20) second low resolution video … right there, in the phone … without having to reach out to a website or internet database.

Just this last weekend, the use of math algorithms were recognized in a big way. Math was able to retrieve sound information that was recorded on an outdated and almost unsupported recording technology known as magnetic wire sound recording.

Magnetone Model BK-303 portable wire recorder. Example of a typical portable magnetic wire recording machine. Image Credit: University of San Diego/Courtesy of The Brush Development Company

This excerpted from Science News Online -

The Grammy in Mathematics
Mathematician nominated for award for restoring the only known recording of a live Woody Guthrie performance
Julie J. Rehmeyer – Science News Online - Feb. 9, 2008

Shortly after September 11, 2001, a small, heavy package wrapped in brown paper arrived in the mail at the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City. Inside was a mess of wires.

Guthrie's daughter Nora eventually figured out that the suspicious package wasn't a bomb, but rather a recording of her father on a device that predated magnetic tape. After a year of searching, she managed to track down someone with the equipment to play it.

What she finally heard was a bootleg recording of her father singing a live performance in 1949. It was the first time she had ever heard him perform in front of a live audience. He had developed Huntington's chorea and stopped performing when she was a child, and she thought he had never been recorded live.

So she was determined to preserve the recording. For the first step, she and a team of engineers transferred it into digital format. It was a hair-raising experience. "The wire was really flimsy," says Jamie Howarth, a sound engineer on the job. "It was frustratingly, maddeningly fragile." It snapped over and over, and with every snap, a moment of the recording was lost. And when it didn't snap, it kinked and snarled.

After a 36-hour session, Guthrie and the engineers listened to the recording they produced. The pitch rose and fell independent of Guthrie's singing. They could hear him telling long stories, but only every few words were intelligible. The wire had stretched in places, slowing the recording down. The kinks produced moments of silence.

Howarth is the head of a company that specializes in restoring old analog recordings. If a tape slows down for any reason either during recording or playback, it lowers the pitch and stretches the sound out longer. If it speeds up, the pitch goes higher and the sound goes faster. Howarth had found that slight speed variations occur even in modern recording equipment, creating slight distortions that sound like "wow-wow" or a flutter.
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Fortunately, math can help. Howarth had developed algorithms to correct these recordings.
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When a recording is made, this background rhythm is even. But when it's played back, it speeds up and slows down in perfect timing with the errors in the recording. That allows Howarth to adjust the timing of the recording to make it much more similar to the original sound.
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The Guthrie recording was such a mess that it forced him to develop new techniques. He turned to Kevin Short, a mathematician at the University of New Hampshire who had done work on signal processing for sound compression.

The team discovered the many ways that wire makes a lousy material for sound recording. One problem is that wire's round. When the wire kinked, it would twist out of position and the head would no longer be reading the proper side of the wire. The machine still read the low and medium frequencies, but the very high frequency sounds dropped out—including the signal Howarth used as his foot-beat.

Short developed techniques to interpolate the missing information. "We could actually pick up a hum from the Con Edison power supplies," Short says. "It's a pretty nasty noise." Because that hum was lower frequency, it remained even in the twisted sections. Short also brought in more sophisticated techniques to shift the pitches once the algorithm had identified what needed to be done.

"When it was done, we were all just awed by this recording," Howarth says. "It was miraculous." Despite all the difficulties in the process, the wire recording was in many ways surprisingly good. "It sounds really, really, really good for its time," he says.

To test his algorithms, Howarth whapped a pencil eraser against the transport of a tape player during the recording of a single, steady tone, disrupting its even motion. The top sonogram shows the recorded pitch varying wildly with the disruption. He then corrected the recording using his algorithms and removed the distortion entirely, producing the bottom sonogram. Image Credit: J. Howarth / Plangent Processes

Sound File: Guthrie Clip 1—Before processing

Sound File: Guthrie Clip 2—After processing

To hear a sample of the recording, before and after processing, click on the sound file links above.
[Audio clips courtesy Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. Copyright © 2007, Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. Used by permission]

The restored recording was released last September and was almost immediately nominated for a Grammy. The award ceremony will be broadcast Feb. 10. [UPDATE BELOW]
Reference Here>

And the winner is ... Image Credit: grammy.com

The Grammy for Best Historical Album (category 91) was awarded to “The Live Wire” - Woody Guthrie In Performance 1949:

Category 91

Best Historical Album (winner highlighted in orange)

** Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings From The 1890sDavid Giovannoni, Meagan Hennessey & Richard Martin, compilation producers; Richard Martin, mastering engineer (Various Artists)[Archeophone Records]

** Forever Changing: The Golden Age Of Elektra Records 1963-1973 (Deluxe Edition)Stuart Batsford, Mick Houghton & Phil Smee, compilation producers; Dan Hersch & Bill Inglot, mastering engineers (Various Artists)[Rhino]

** The Live Wire - Woody Guthrie In Performance 1949Nora Guthrie & Jorge Arévalo Mateus, compilation producers; Jamie Howarth, Steve Rosenthal, Warren Russell-Smith & Dr. Kevin Short, mastering engineers (Woody Guthrie)[Woody Guthrie Publications]

** Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970Alec Palao, compilation producer; Dan Hersch, Bill Inglot & Dave Schultz, mastering engineers (Various Artists)[Rhino]

** People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938Christopher King & Henry "Hank" Sapoznik, compilation producers; Christopher King & Robert Vosgien, mastering engineers (Various Artists)[Tompkins Square]
Reference Here (field 27)>>

Mobile Power Supply Solution With Legs

Everyone has been through a day when their mobile phone’s battery has died, because of the absence of a charger. But, soon, up may just need to take a brisk walk to revive the charge of a dead battery in a cell phone. Researchers have developed a new device that will allow people to generate electricity while walking. Image Credit: Arthur Kuo, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineers, University of Michigan

Mobile Power Supply Solution With Legs

What is the essence of mobility (enterprise mobility) … is it not movement, the ability to move anywhere, anytime and be able to remain connected to the aid and information provided through technology?

What if one were able to recharge the tools that provide power to the devices we carry to remain connected to our information age? Well, here is an invention that never requires a person to ever be near a traditional power source in order to recharge the batteries of the devices we use to keep connected as we move about.

Engineers from three universities in Canada and the US have successfully developed a generator that is able to harvest and convert the energy we produce from walking into electricity. The generator is embedded in a brace that is worn above and below the knee to capture the motion power that walking creates in order to turn the mechanical energy of human muscles into electrical energy.

Out and about and completely tether free with the ability to power PDA’s, Cellphones, and all other enterprise mobility devices.

This excerpted from The Register (UK) -

Thigh-drive phone charger put through its paces
Let your legs help your fingers do the walking
By Lewis Page - The Register - Published Friday 8th February 2008 10:55 GMT

North American boffins have produced a knee brace which can generate several watts of power as the wearer's leg flexes while walking. The inventors believe the device could be useful for powering medical equipment - and even mobile phones.

In a paper for the boffinry journal Science, the researchers reveal their device's test results. The knee generator works on the same principle as the regenerative brakes used in battery-driven cars. It can clutch in and out, so creating resistance only during selected periods of the leg's motion.

If the gizmo engages itself only during the "braking" period, when the knee is bending to absorb the body's weight after a footfall - thus actually helping the leg somewhat with its task - it puts out an average of 5W when fitted to a man walking slowly.
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It compares well with the output levels offered by portable batteries. The knee brace could power ten mobile phones, or charge them up. And unlike ordinary hand-cranked or pedal generators, it doesn't require any attention from the operator - though he or she does have to keep walking.

According to biomedics and engineering prof Arthur Kuo of the University of Michigan, one of the inventors, the leg generator doesn't require a significant level of effort from the user - though it's still too cumbersome.
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"The prototype device is bulky and heavy, and it does affect the wearer just to carry. But the energy generation part itself has very little effect on the wearer, whether it is turned on or not. We hope to improve the device so that it is easier to carry, and to retain the energy-harvesting capabilities."

Kuo sees systems of this sort being used by soldiers, to charge the increasing load of electronics they carry. The idea could also power implanted medical gear like pacemakers or neurotransmitters.

One likely consumer app might be for hikers or other outdoorsy types wishing to keep their gadgets charged up. (Trade names: Walkman, ThighPod, You'll-never-walk-alone-Phone. Etc.) But it's hard to imagine regenerative knee braces being a big hit among those with frequent access to grid power.
Reference Here>>

Obviously, this Brit has never been forced to endure being without power (and the information it can provide) in a mission critical situation.

Solid State LapTop Delivers Linux Mobility Option

From the center ... out - a Sony VAIO UX490 on top of a Asus Eee PC 4G - Galaxy 7" PC Mobile Internet Device on top of a 15" Apple MacBook PRO. Image Credit: Glenn Reynolds/Popular Mechanics

Solid State LapTop Delivers Linux Mobility Option

Enterprise mobility devices take on many forms, WiFi enabled handheld datacollectors, smart PDA cellphones, and adapted laptop computers.

The problem with many computer systems that are programmed for deployment throughout an enterprise application (sales force management, route accounting, jobber automation, web 2.0 application development, and etc.) generally just comes with the choice of form factor and operating system.

Enter the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award - Asus EEEPC 4G - Galaxy 7" PC Mobile Internet Device (512 MB RAM, 4 GB Hard Drive, Webcam, Linux Preloaded).

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks/Asus Website

This edited from Popular Mechanics –

Top 20 Products at CES 2008
By The Technology Editors - Published on: January 7, 2008

Asus EEE WiMax PC

How it works: The EEEPC is a full-fledged computer in a tiny package. Costs stay low by integrating a free, Linux-based operating system that includes everything from Web-browsing software to sophisticated productivity applications such as a word processor and spreadsheet program.

It's a great little machine, but it's going to get a whole lot better: This year, Asus plans to integrate a WiMAX card, which will offer multi-megabit per second bandwidth that rivals current cable Internet connections.

Why it matters: Asus has already shrunk both the form-factor and the price of laptops with its $400 EEEPC, a 2-pound mini laptop that runs on the Linux OS and foregoes a hard drive with 4GB of solid-state flash memory. Now they're on the forefront of a wireless revolution.

This year, Asus will launch the EEEPC with an integrated WiMAX card, giving people real citywide wireless broadband Internet service on Sprint's new Xhom service.
Reference Here>>

Top 20 Products at CES 2008: PM Editor's Choice Awards - Asus EEE WiMax PC - Image Credit: Popular Mechanics

This review excerpted and edited from Popular Mechanics -

Asus Eee Is a Tiny PC That Hits the Mark: Hands-on Blogger Review
By Glenn Reynolds for Popular Mechanics – Jan. 30, 2008

Earlier this month, I reviewed two tiny PCs and concluded that neither was quite on the mark as a go-anywhere Web surfing and e-mail tool. ----So I kept hearing and reading about the Asus, and I finally just ordered one myself—at $399 it wasn't going to break the bank.

I've had it for a couple of weeks now, and I think it fills my need for an inexpensive tool for surfing, blogging and reading e-mail. It's cheap, fun and surprisingly full-featured.

There's no hard drive—4 GB of flash memory is standard, but you can upgrade, or just plug an SD card into the memory card slot and use that as a second hard drive. ----The Asus has a real, if diminutive, keyboard. Though the keys are small, it's pretty easy to hit the correct one without thinking—except for the right shift key, which is tiny and dangerously close to the up arrow (There's also no CAPS LOCK light, which is occasionally irritating). Still, it's easy to type on—I'm writing this review on it—in a way that the slide-out keypads on the Sony and Nokia [reviewed earlier] are not.

The screen is also tiny but, at 7.5 in., much bigger than those of the Sony and Nokia. I find it easy to read and navigate pretty much any Web page, and videos from YouTube play well. Plus, the speakers are surprisingly good for a laptop.

The Asus comes preloaded with a customized Linux operating system and some basic applications—word processing, photo editing, music management—but it's primarily an Internet tool.

The one thing it's missing is some sort of WWAN (i.e., a wireless wide area network such as EVDO from Sprint or Verizon or HSDPA from AT&T) functionality. It works fine with Wi-Fi, but without WWAN access you're limited to hot spots, though those are plentiful nowadays—and there's that version coming this year with an integrated WiMAX card to work with Sprint's super-speedy Xohm network).

For now, you could probably use a USB-based AirCard—the Asus comes with a generous three USB ports (more than the MacBook Air, but I haven't tried that yet). A look at the Verizon Web site shows that its software doesn't work with Linux, so any work arounds would be strictly home-brew. (Asus tells me there's no driver yet and won't be for at least a couple of months.)

Alternatively, it's possible to put Windows XP on the Eee PC, though you'd have to buy a copy, for a substantial chunk of the laptop's total price. The Eee PC also has an Ethernet port and a VGA out. So you get a lot of computer for the money, and it's also surprisingly chic—when I've pulled it out in public it's drawn a crowd.

Women, in particular, seem to like that it will easily fit in an ordinary-size purse.

Is it perfect? No. But for $399 it's pretty close.
Reference Here>>

Depending on type of enterprise mobility application and deployment, this laptop may be the best choice for size (a good bridge), durability (solid state hard drive), functionality (ample size QWERTY keyboard), open source (Linux OS for application development), road warrior (enough ports for any group of applications), and cost!
(HT: Instapundit)

SEARS, ScanBuy 2D Codes, And The Web 2.0

Web 2.0 application where the cellphone handset with a camera becomes an automated information retrieval device that delivers the the web displayed into ones hand. Image Credit: ScanBuy

SEARS, ScanBuy 2D Codes, And The Web 2.0

Last week, at the NRF 97th Annual Convention & EXPO 2008 held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, Sears discussed its efforts to launch an in-store test solution for providing customers access to information on products they were interested in purchasing. This test represents the first major retailer combined with selected product manufacturers in the United States to investigate the Physical World Hyperlink functionality of symbology and the cellphone handset.

In this test, that began its roll-out last month in a store located in Georgia, Sears was interested in testing ways on how to automate providing product information without having to place price checker/information kiosk systems in the aisles. The idea is to provide information through leveraging a tool the customer may already be carrying in their hand … the camera cellphone.

Sears has placed a special use two-dimensional symbology (read digitally on an X-Y axis) developed by ScanBuy on advertising displays located strategically next to participating manufacturers goods throughout the retail floor.

The cameraphone as a scannerphone using ScanBuy symbology. Video Credit: Face2099

Sears has its concerns with this specific application on a couple of levels in that not all phones have cameras, or if they have the camera – the phone does not have the software needed to have the phone decode the image captured and bring the information to the phone’s display.

Other technologies considered for this application include NFC or near field communications that would be triggered through cellphones that are equipped with an RFID chip. Normally this chip is used as the “wallet” in a PoS cashpoint application when the phone is used as a credit card for identification purposes, but can be adapted to trigger a Web 2.0 response when the customer is looking for additional information on products offered on the Sears sales floor.

At Symblogogy, we ask this technology question to Sears:

For the application of replacing the functionality of having to place price checker/information kiosk systems in the aisles and leveraging the cellphone as an information display tool, why not test Bluetooth broadcasting to the cellphone display (commonly referred to as Bluejacking)?

A high number of handsets already are equipped with Bluetooth capability and the technology is easy to implement in that no additional action is required from the customer except to opt-in by turning on the Bluetooth function while roaming the asiles in the store.

The cameraphone as a scannerphone. The camera picks up the ScanBuy symbology image, decodes it, then has the phone launch a webpage associated with the decoded information contained in the ScanBuy code. Image Credit: Face2099

This article excerpted from eWEEK -

Sears First Out Of Gates with 2-D Bar Codes
By Evan Schuman - 2008-01-18

Sears First Out Of Gates with 2-D Bar Codes

Sears is the first major U.S. retailer to start a public trial of 2-D barcode technology.

Efforts to implement retail 2-D bar codes are accelerating, with Sears becoming the first U.S. retailer to begin a public trial that started in mid-December at a store in Marietta, Georgia.
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There are multiple vendors pushing the technology in the United States; Best Buy and Target are working with a company called StoreXperience, while Sears and others are talking with an outfit called ScanBuy.
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The technique involves having a cell phone's digital camera "look" at a small 2-D bar code on an advertisement, which launches an applet. A server interprets the bar code and the phone then launches a Web browser and deep-links to a page on that site, typically the Web site of the advertiser.

Currently, the biggest concern, which is also likely to be the most short-lived, is that the service is available on a relatively few phones in the United States. The concern about a shortage of supported phones was mentioned by a Sears manager involved in the trial.

ScanBuy, for example, has worked out deals with only Sprint and Alltel, according to ScanBuy CEO Jonathan Bulkeley. Such negotiations are complex because it requires deals and programming for multiple browsers, carriers, hardware manufacturers, operating systems and camera manufacturers. A code or management change from any one of those players can make the whole package unravel.

At the Sears trial, several hundred product advertisements in the store have the code, Bulkeley said. To simplify matters, Sears is initially having store associates use the phone and then show the results to customers, as opposed to letting consumers do their own scanning. This sidesteps some of the hurdles, such as guaranteeing that the phones used are fully compatible with the demo and that the cameras are aimed properly. On some phones, if the bar code is not directly in the center of the screen, the application won't work.

Another concern is that consumers must download the application. The applications tend to be small—both the apps for StoreXperience and ScanBuy start at about 200K, depending on the browser and the required OS needed—and can be installed in less than a minute.
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The Sears trial is slated to end this June.

One IT manager with a Fortune 50 consumer goods manufacturer said that his firm is in talks with ScanBuy and that they were introduced to the firm by Verizon. That manager said he is impressed with the technology and is discussing it internally, but he believes that 2-D bar code will be pushed aside by NFC (near-field communications) devices, which are still a few years away. He sees 2-D as a short-term placeholder until NFC is real.

"Personally, I think that touchless NFC approaches will likely be more successful. No need to aim your camera. But Scanbuy's approaches are worth following," he said.
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That manager's thoughts about NFC were similar to others. But news this week—courtesy of a new NFC market share report this week from ABI Research—suggested that NFC is farther away than initially thought, giving 2-D more maneuvering room.

The new ABI numbers for NFC shipments dropped the 2007 estimate to 650,000 from a predicted 1.1 million and also reduced the projections for this year to 6.52 million, from a predicted 9.81 million.

Even so, Bulkeley predicts NFC and 2-D bar code co-existence based on pure economics. The nature of NFC will lend itself better for payment and POS interface but it's not practical to create one for every print ad in stores, streets and in publications. But 2-D bar codes, he argued, can be mass-produced for very little money.

"NFC will be for a payment mechanism but I'm not so sure it will be an information access mechanism," Bulkeley said. "Car and Driver (magazine) isn't going to print 400 near field codes."

Like all trials, it's not clear whether any will lead to actual deployments. And like all negotiations, it's not clear how many of the retailers who have expressed an interest will end up agreeing to a trial. A Nordstrom's manager, for example, said Thursday that the chain has decided to not pursue the discussed 2-D trial. One reason mentioned was that it was seen as placing too much of a burden on the consumer.
Reference Here>>

Heads Up! On An “Eyes Up” Contact Lens Display

Contact lenses with circuits and lights … a possible platform for superhuman vision - Science Central Video Link (click photo) - Image Credit: University of Washington

Heads Up! On An “Eyes Up” Contact Lens Display

Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I see the display of my cellphone (or any enterprise mobility device) without having to use my hands?”

Well, it looks as though the researchers at the University of Washington have asked themselves the same question and set about doing something to address this perceived need.

Eyes with a contact lens that contains circuits that will display images one can see while going about ones business.

Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests. The lenses were manufactured at the microscopic level by researchers at the UW. Image Credit: University of Washington

The prototype contact lens device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects.

This excerpt from University Week (University of Washington) –

Bionic eyes: Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision
By Hannah Hickey - News and Information - Jan. 17, 2008

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes -- visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the UW have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. "This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising."

The results were presented today at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz's now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other co-authors are Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW's electrical engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center's ophthalmology department.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle's speed projected onto the windshield. Video game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

Example Of A Heads Up Display (HUD) On A F16 - What A Pilot Sees! YouTube Video Credit: src66
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Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz said.
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Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across. They then sprinkled the grayish powder of electrical components onto a sheet of flexible plastic. The shape of each tiny component dictates which piece it can attach to, a microfabrication technique known as self-assembly. Capillary forces -- the same type of forces that make water move up a plant's roots, and that cause the edge of a glass of water to curve upward -- pull the pieces into position.

The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer's vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens, Parviz said. And all the gadgetry won't obstruct a person's view.
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Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens, Parviz said.

A full-fledged display won't be available for a while, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational "fairly quickly," according to Parviz.
Reference Here>>

Poll Answers
(originally posted at Oblate Spheroid)

At NRF, ArcaTech Introduces A “Bank 2.0” Solution

ArcaTech introduces the Arca8000D Cash Recycler on the show floor at this year’s NRF 97th Annual Convention & EXPO 2008 held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. Image Credit: Aubrey Meador/ArcaTech Systems

At NRF, ArcaTech Introduces A “Bank 2.0” Solution

Handling money really is a job and process of its own. One creates and has a successful retail enterprise and then the biggest problem becomes “How do we accurately count and keep what money we take in on our goods and services?”

Traditionally, tills would go to the backroom, the money physically counted, documented and pouched ready to transport to the bank.

For the bank's part, when they receive pouches from the many merchants they serve, the bank location would have the assistance of automated machines to count and document the currency received.

ArcaTech Systems (a company that manufactures automated currency handling machines) recognized that a need existed where the retailer could reap the benefits and advantage of automation by creating a device that could bring the automation of the bank right there to the backroom of the retail operation.

This excerpted from ArcaTech Systems NRF Press Release –

ArcaTech Unveils Industry's First Integrated Remote Cash Capture System With Currency and Coin Recycling and Bulk Cash Storage
News Release - MEBANE, N.C - Tracy Phelan, The Catevo Group – Jan. 17, 2008

ArcaTech Systems, a leading supplier of transaction automation solutions for the financial, retail and self-service industries, has introduced a unique solution for the control and remote capture of cash in retail environments.

Both currency and coin recycling devices are used in the Arca8000D, the industry’s first integrated cash control system that allows retailers to control the cash handling process and obtain provisional credit for cash that remains secured within store locations. Designed specifically for retail cash management, this system dispenses and reconciles cashier tills, sorts and counts deposits and enables remote cash capture, the electronic deposit of cash values.

ArcaTech introduces the Arca8000D Cash Recycler at the NRF 97th Annual Convention & EXPO 2008 held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. Image Credit: Marr International Ltd

Previously, cash had to be physically picked up and processed before credit would be granted by a bank. Remote cash capture systems allow funds to be electronically deposited to retailer-specified accounts as soon as cash is deposited into the RCC depository safe at the store. Cash can be transported to the financial institution at a later time.

Ideal for large retail operations, the Arca8000D is a cash recycler and high-volume, bulk storage system for banknotes. A bulk coin recycling and bulk storage device also can be added for till management and coin handling.

"We're proud to offer this first-of-its-kind technology and to make cash management easier and more efficient for retailers," said Mort O'Sullivan, president of ArcaTech. "We are confident that retailers will welcome the innovation."

ArcaTech officials say the most obvious benefit of the integrated system is the way it limits in-store cash touch points while enabling electronic cash deposits. By automating cash handling and deposits, the remote cash capture system limits the number of employees who must manually process cash, reducing risk, discrepancies and costly labor.

"Retailers know that more employees handling cash means more mistakes and discrepancies," said Jim Halpin, ArcaTech's Retail Solutions Director. "Our automated cash control system will eliminate human error and reduce shortages and deposit variances."

"We understand the challenges of processing and controlling cash in the retail environment,” Halpin continued. “That understanding guided the development of our systems. With this solution for retailers, we're bringing the bank to the store’s backroom."
Reference Here>>

"Bank 2.0" Solution - ArcaTech Systems introduces the Arca8000D at The Big Show 2008 on the 97th NRF tradeshow floor. Image Credit: ArcaTech Systems

And this excerpted from ArcaTech Systems website -

Arca8000D Cash Recycler
The most unique cash handling device in the world.

Combining the best of cash recycling technology with bulk cash acceptance, the Arca8000D allows you to deposit and withdraw money for your normal operational needs, and move excess cash into a secure, deposit-only safe. Once cash is moved to the deposit-only side, access to the cash is limited to only those who have been authorized to open the second safe.

Cash deposits and cash recycling in one.

The eight cash recycling cassettes allow users to deposit withdraw money for all kinds of transactions. You can create and settle cash tills, exchange large bills for smaller bills, sell excess cash, buy cash, or perform customer cash transactions.

The two removable deposit cassettes store over 8000 notes. The notes moved in here cannot be dispensed back out. This allows the money to be extremely secure and accessed only by authorized personnel. You can also automatically segregate fit from unfit currency and store them in separate cassettes.


Easy Access - The intelligent design of the Arca8000D allows users to have easy access to the note path. This allows greater uptime because most of the note path is accessible without having to open the safe. Image Credit: ArcaTech Systems

Large Deposit Cassettes - Each of the two removable deposit cassettes hold more than 4000 notes. Image Credit: ArcaTech Systems

Two Separate Safes - Because the recycling and deposit-only modules are housed in two separate safes, ownership and access to the money in each side can be easily segregated. Image Credit: ArcaTech Systems
Reference Here>>