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Innovative Insight by Brian T. Horowitz (bio)

Staying ahead of tech's next curve

November 2, 2008, 9:02 PM

Innovation threatened by economic crisis

Reports are starting to emerge about innovation taking a hit due to budget cuts. This is a disturbing development.

As The New York Times reports, companies are struggling to stay afloat in the present, and the future is taking a backseat. Despite the economics, we have to keep an eye on the future.

Howard Lieberman, founder of the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, tells the Times that "creative people don't care about the time or the season or the state of the economy; they just go out and do their thing."

The Institute has an inspiring motto from T.S. Eliot on its site: "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 9:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

October 23, 2008, 8:31 PM

Open source museum in Second Life?

thetech.jpgThe Tech Museum of Innovation, in San Jose, California, has announced the winners of its UCanTu virtual exhibit competition -- but are they real or virtual? The museum says the exhibits benefit humanity and will be displayed in the virtual museum in Second Life and at the physical museum in California.

Tech Virtual exhibits encompassed health, education, environment, economic development and equality, and were based on past award winners in the real world. The winning projects involved creating solar boats and human-powered irrigation systems.

The Tech Museum calls the virtual exhibits part of an open source venture, though it's unclear what makes them open source. Cool to see what museums can do online.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 8:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Share

October 6, 2008, 2:12 AM

The flick of a touch pad

In June, I wrote about new touch pad "gestures" such as momentum from Synaptics.

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The company recently rolled out these upgrades in touch pads, which are coming from various laptop manufacturers.

One new gesture is called a pinch, in which you bring two fingers away from each other or closer depending on which direction you want your article or spreadsheet to move.

We may now find ourselves using a two-finger flick or a pinch rather a simple scroll. Check out this demo of a two-finger flick:

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Too bad I still have my optical mouse attached to my laptop...

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 2:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 19, 2008, 6:05 PM

The storage cloud goes Cucku

NEW YORK -- Last night at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular I learned about a new way to store your data in the cloud. A startup company called Cucku (seriously!) is pushing what it calls social backup.

It entails automatically backing up your data to a friend's PC or from your home to your office. According to the company's Web site, security is covered by encrypting the files as they're sent from one computer to another.

But can we really trust storing your data somewhere out there in the clouds? Check back on InternetNews for more on this next week.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 6:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 15, 2008, 6:26 PM

Texting and tragedy

commutertrainwreckagereuters.jpgApparently a crash in Los Angeles last week between a commuter train and a freight train was preceded by the engineer exchanging text messages.

According to reports, cell phone records are being examined to see if texting did play a part. Unfortunately, the engineer's eyes may have been on the texts rather than the tracks.

This is one case where technology can be a hindrance rather than a help.

We're all tempted to check a text or see who's calling while driving, or even texting or talking while crossing a busy intersection.

Let's hope this is not a trend that grows.

(Photo credit: Reuters)

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 6:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 2, 2008, 5:43 PM

Google's Picasa puts a name to the face

picasa.jpgTwo years ago, InternetNews.com reported that Google's acquisition of biometric technology company Neven Vision could lead to innovation in face-recognition technology for its Picasa photo-sharing site.

Today the search giant finally unveiled this functionality in Picasa 3 by adding a Name tag feature to help users identify subjects in their photos.

Unlike the tagging features found on sites such as Facebook, Picasa helps you figure out who's in the photos using biometric technology.

This opens up new opportunities for social networking and photo-sharing sites to incorporate similar face-recognition capabilities. Stay tuned.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 5:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 21, 2008, 5:07 PM

Intel shells out the bucks for big ideas

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In his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) on Tuesday, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett announced a contest to award four $100,000 checks for innovation.

The competition focuses on four areas: education, health care, economic development and environment. The contest, called the Inspire Empower Challenge, is a great idea. There's nothing like a little dough to get people thinking big things.

As my colleague Andy Patrizio reports from the scene in San Francisco, Intel has discussed a few innovative ideas of its own this week, from new solid state drives to closing the gap between humans and machines. Micro-robots in 2050? Long wait, but interesting.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 5:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 14, 2008, 3:04 PM

Olympic-size innovation in Beijing

sr-generic-200x180-olympics08-8.jpgIn its August 18 issue, BusinessWeek shows how companies are testing out innovative technologies at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

This year's innovations include motion sensors to guard against false starts in track and field, GPS systems to locate rowers and an energy-efficient MRI machine at the Olympic hospital, according to BW.

Meanwhile the Xinhua News Agency reports that China used some of the same technology to build its spaceships to construct the cauldron holding the torch. The Chinese tested its stability in a wind tunnel.

With YouTube showing Olympic coverage online, swimsuits that allow you to kick faster and microfiber volleyballs giving players a firmer grip, athletes at the first Athens Games would be lost in this world.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 3:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 8, 2008, 4:46 PM

The bionic eye on its way?

close_b.jpgThere's been a lot of buzz this week about the bionic eye. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University have developed an electronic camera (left) the shape of an eye. This could be heaven for for the visually impaired and those of us looking for a sharper view of the world.

According to a University of Illinois release, not until now could an artificial eye be developed to act as a camera.

We may soon opt to replace our eyes with single-crystalline silicon detectors.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 4:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 6, 2008, 3:35 PM

Secretary of Technology for the White House?

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It's been reported that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., would appoint a technology czar to keep the government current with tech.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., hasn't announced anything similar, but perhaps both candidates should stir up more talk of tech and innovation on the campaign trail?

Isn't that what change is? Innovation?

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 3:35 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 4, 2008, 12:24 PM

Innovative tech on display at the Beijing Olympics

As we close in on the Beijing Summer Olympics this Friday, it's worth noting the innovative technology that will be present at the Games.

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EE Times has put together a cool slide show exhibiting innovations of note, such as the 440,000 LEDs of a giant Water Cube, driverless trains and the RFID technology embedded in tickets.

Panasonic says its giant Astrovision LCD scoreboards can be seen clearly in direct sunlight. Even the athletes' swimsuits are high-tech, EE Times reports.

According to the site, China will drop iodide pellets into the clouds to keep the rain away. Should we do that in New York?

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

July 31, 2008, 5:11 PM

Samsung opens wireless-innovation lab at Georgia Tech

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Wireless innovation will be brewing at Georgia Tech, as the university opens a new wireless-technology laboratory with Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. at the university's campus in Atlanta.

At Georgia Tech, Samsung will expand its work with researchers to focus on developing next-generation communication systems, especially CMOS-based system-on-chip devices for modem, digital and RF.

We see the phrase "next generation" often in tech stories, but wireless is a hot field, so let's see what they come up with at Georgia Tech.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 5:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

July 25, 2008, 5:39 PM

Direct PC vendor Gateway goes indirect

In 1997, I bought a state-of-the-art Pentium II Gateway desktop direct from the manufacturer. I was proud of myself at the time for going direct and customizing the system according to my desired specifications.

gatewayeditedlogo.jpg

But today, more than 10 years later, Gateway (now owned by Acer) has dropped its 1990s way of doing business and will concentrate on retail, e-tail and channel. Wasn't the Internet supposed to be the hip way to sell PCs? How things come full circle.

According to Gateway, the change in strategy should help the company cut costs.

Gateway began moving in this direction when it acquired retail PC vendor eMachines in 2004 and ran the short-lived Gateway Country store chain.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 5:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

July 23, 2008, 4:15 PM

E Ink in Esquire: Magazine tech for the future

Chalk one up for print in the battle to stay alive in the world of online media.

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Esquire magazine will put out a cover featuring E Ink electronic, foldable display technology on the newsstands this October. The 100,000-copy distribution of this special issue culminates the magazine's 75th anniversary.

Ford (NYSE: F) will also participate in the project, using E Ink's Vizplex flexible display technology in an ad on the inside cover flap.

This could be a nice boon for print to stay innovative and relevant as ad dollars move online.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 4:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

July 22, 2008, 1:26 PM

Will a GENI build the next Internet?

There's been talk of a second Internet in the works for years -- yes we do have Web 2.0 -- and just as the original Internet started at the university-level, so does a project from technology solutions firm BBN Technologies called Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI.

GENI is a local network infrastructure for science and research projects -- think of it as a network testbed for innovation, suggests an article by the Chronicle for Higher Education. According to the academic journal, the current Internet could fall apart from all the spam attacks and viruses.

BBN Technologies today received a three-year, $4 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to build a prototype of GENI with the help of 29 university teams.

This project will provide fresh bandwidth for companies to work on experiments in all fields from economics and social sciences to computer engineering.

It will be interesting to see what form this futuristic network takes.

Posted by Brian T. Horowitz at 1:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

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