Here are our summaries of noteworthy news events of the week. Today, we want to start off by saying happy 25th birthday to the World Wide Web! Internet, You’re so young, yet you have changed our lives in so many ways. We will also look at the use of Google Glass in a Boston Hospital and the eye gaze technology which enables communication for people with speech impairments. Read all about it and more here!
- Happy Birthday, Internet!
Wednesday marks the 25th birthday of the Internet, a tool that changed everyone’s lives, from the way we communicate to how we find and share information. On March 12, 1989, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee first proposed an online system to help people access information more easily. Before the rise of the Web, music was on the radio, news was fit to print, TV was by appointment and movies were either viewed in a theater or on the VCR. Flash-forward to present day, and nearly everything we do involves the Web. (News 13)
- Eye-tracking Technology That Makes ‘Life Worth Living’
For most people, the prospect of losing control of your physical capabilities while your mind is still active seems like a fate worse than death, forcing patients to become locked inside their own bodies. However, as part of its Brain Awareness Week campaign, the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (RHN) in London is showcasing how eye gaze technology can give people with locked-in syndrome the ability to communicate, express themselves and make full use of computers and the world wide web. (The Telegraph)
Doctors Use Google Glass to Identify Patients
A tech-savvy hospital in Boston has developed a custom information-retrieval system for Google Glass, which lets ER doctors scan a QR code on the wall of each room to call up information about patients. “When a clinician walks into an emergency department room, he or she looks at [a] bar code (a QR or Quick Response code) placed on the wall. Google Glass immediately recognizes the room and then the ED Dashboard sends information about the patient in that room to the glasses, appearing in the clinician’s field of vision. ” (Ars Technica)
Panasonic to Pay Expat Workers in China a Pollution Bonus
Japanese electronics maker Panasonic will pay its employees working in China extra for putting up with the poor air quality, according to the Financial Times. It’s common for international companies to pay employees in China “hardship pay,” but Panasonic might be the first to compensate specifically for pollution. The extra cash will only go to employees sent to China from other countries, not to Chinese workers already living there. (Tech in Asia)
- Internet in 2025
What will Internet look like in 2025? That’s the question the Pew Research Center posed to nearly 1,500 science and technology experts for a new report celebrating the Web’s 25th anniversary. Their answers ranged from optimistic — citing improved education, better global partnerships, and positive changes to the healthcare system — to foreboding: privacy as a luxury only for the rich, an expanded global wealth gap, and the amplification of loss and abuse. Here are some predictions from researchers, professors, authors, and scientists. (Information Week)
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