In The World: Health care in the palm of a hand

Mobile technology has become more prevalent in today's society, and has even begun sneaking its way into the professional health world. The headline: MIT-led student team develops mobile-device software to help improve health-care accessibility in remote regions. Using Google's Android operating system, Sana (formerly known as Moca), works by collecting patient data, as well as pictures, and uploading that information to an electronic-record database, allowing for easy communication between medical clinics in developing countries.

The effort, known as "telemedicine" allows physicians to provide healthcare to patients through electronic or digital means in countries like India and the Philippines. The software was developed in a NextLab class by a group of students, who eventually formed a volunteer organization to distribute the code for free and help deploy Sana in developing countries. By distributing the application as an open-source software, developers can customize the application to suit their needs within a specific region. To view sample procedure on how the application works, visit here: http://www.sanamobile.org/demo.html.

The Problem

The only issue I see with the application, also mentioned in the article, is the cost of Android-equipped devices. An Android phone would cost between $365 and $725 in the Philippines and between $120 and $250 in India (regular mobile phones start at about $30 in the Philippines and $20 in India, in comparison). This means that other developers could offer a different mobile-health solution with the same or more functionality at a lower cost.

Otherwise, the application could prove to be very successful. By abiding to this idea of "shared responsibility"--basically meaning that Sana is really about countries training other countries to utilize technology--Sana seems to have a bright future. Their next steps include implementing data-encryption for security purposes, as well as spreading the use of the application on a large scale throughout India and the Philippines.

Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/itw-sana-0927.html

Sensor-laden SensoGlove helps you make smarter decisions than Tiger Woods

Patented Digital Golf Glove Instantly Corrects Grip for Continuous Real-Time

Sensosolutions, a leading provider of innovative sports analysis, motion and performance measurement systems, have developed the world's first golf glove with built-in digital sensors. The SensoGlove, evolved by the GmbH German-based company function by continuously reading the user's grip pressure to ensure a consistently accurate, smooth and powerful golf swing.

"SensoGlove avoids the Death Grip"

The death grip, a common term known among most avid golfers, is when a golfer has the high hopes of hitting the ball further. Thus, the natural instinct is to swing faster and harder to make this happen. Studies have showed that when golfers try to make this happen, it has the opposite effect; when one tries to swing their club that much harder, their grip tightens up, meaning their muscles tighten up, which in effect, surprisingly slows down the golfer's swing. SensoGlove looks to eliminate that. By constantly providing feedback at 80 times per second, the glove ensures golfers have a clean and powerful swing.

The only issue I see with the glove is the possibility of it interfering with the golfer's swing. From personal experience, I can definitely say that something like a watch can definitely impair your swing. So, I am only wondering how much this digital reader interferes the the swing. The one advantage the SensoGlove DOES have is that the actual digital reader is removable, so the it CAN be used as a regular golf glove.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/27/sensor-laden-sensoglove-helps-you-make-smarter-decisions-than-ti/

RemoteDroid Turns Your Android Phone into a Wireless Mouse and Keyboard

A website, remoitedroid.net has developed an application that allows users to use their Motorola Droid as a "touchpad" for their computer. In the following video it shows use with an Apple Macbook Pro.

RemoteDroid demo from Joshua Sera on Vimeo.

It's quite interesting how the application works. First you install the native application on the Droid, and then a Java server applet on the computer. The program uses your network connection as means of communication between the computer and handheld. After doing some research on their website, I still have not been able to fully understand the use of an internet connection as means of communication between phone and computer. I still wonder why they chose to use an internet connection instead of bluetooth...

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5602571/remotedroid-turns-your-android-phone-into-a-wireless-mouse-and-keyboard

Blog Entry Week 1-2

Over the weekend I made a trip back home to Cape Cod, MA (specifically Sandwich, MA). When I arrived here Saturday night, my mind was racing a little so it wasn't quite the time to look for good and bad design per say. However, I did come to realize that this was a perfect opportunity to use my home for my first blog post in User Interfaces (CSc 280). Once considered a summer home, this place has now become my family's full-time residence. So yesterday, and even this morning I was able to walk through the house with my mother and look for some design perfections and imperfections.

Starting with the basement (which used to be fully-finished and livable before flooding occurred), it is nice and spaced out. The only issue that I noticed with it however, is the placement of the staircase leading to the basement in relation to the front door on the first floor. Before we reconstructed the house (when it was only a one-story house with a basement), the front door was right next to the spiral staircase leading downward.

The kitchen (on the first floor) was very carefully laid out, as my parents didn't want to have to worry about tight quarters and minimal space to work around. All around the center island there is enough space for two people to walk by one another comfortably. And the fact that there are two countertops, allows for multi-tasking and multiple "events" to be going on at the same time.

Finally, the second floor to our home was completely expanded to allow for two bedrooms plus the master bedroom. The locations of the bedrooms are nice because both mine and my sister's bedroom are located on the opposite side of the house than that of our parents. This allows for some privacy for both parties. There is plenty more to be written about my home, but I figured that these design aspects were worthy of sharing for now. Pictures will be posted at a later time.