Yahoo new technology

I’ve seen an amazing short movie in YouTube showing that Yahoo adds new technology to their website so people with disabilities can browse the internet easily. 

Yahoo has accessibility lab, where they bring product team where they has to make sure that their invented product is accessible. They try to experience by them selves how does the person with disability interact and use the computer. And then they try to invent new technology where they can remove the barrier for the disabled individuals.

For example, people with physical disabilities who cannot use keyboard, can have access to computer with banging a switch.

Another way is to have the engineer Places a Reflective dot on their forehead, so they are able to move their forehead and move the cursor.  I would say this is an amazing and a caring technology where people with disabilities are really considered.

You can access to the video on YouTube by clicking on this link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmUDPu8Tmcw

Tango Video Call‏s

One of my first posts in this blog was about making video calls through i phone. I was suggesting that if apple downloads a video call application that uses 3G will be much flexible to use specially in areas without internet connection. Couple of weeks ago, an apple application was developed that uses 3G for calls and video calls! The name of the application is Tango Video call. Any two person using i phone and can download the application can call and watch each other through the application. Personally, I really like this technology because now I can call anybody using tango back home for free. I heard that there are other applications that do similar job.  It is amazing that now I can call through tango while being anywhere without concern about internet connection; all I need is my 3G.  I wonder what would be next for video calls!  

The future of touch Screen technology

The Touch screen technology is based on touch, where you can change and control what is on the screen with your finger. TAT is Swedish company that work to combine aesthetic with technology are proposing how touch screen technology will be in the coming couple of years.  TAT is imagining daily life of a person in an interesting video. You can click on the link below to see the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PbW-H02lh8

Another approach of screen technology is the multi touch technology. Multi-touch displays enable two or more fingers to tap and trace on a surface. When combined with software, these screens could allow large-scale collaboration among many people. This can be useful in several of things such as in brainstorming screen, or other type of screens where you need the collaboration of people.

E-book Reader

Since 1970s, the e-book were invented t be for specialty areas and limitied audience. But with the availability of internet since 1990s, people are receiving bunch of information digitally. Some books were able to be read digitally, although there was still some limitation. In 1998 U.S libraries began to provide e-book to the public.

In 2009 a new hardware comes to life which is e-book reader. Three dominant model of e-book readers are Amazon kindle, sony’s PRS, the barnes and nobles’s nook. Through e-book reader you can download electronic books with lower prices. In the last months of 2010, amazon sold 180 e-books for every 100 hardcopy book. The e-book are cheap in price comparing to hardcover book; you can get popular books from amazon for example with only 9,99 $, and also you can get some books for free.

Besides competible price for books, e-book reader saves a lot of space one might need specially when buying tons of books. The e-book reader is a compact electronic device that can store thousands of books, newspapers, magazines or images/songs and can provide the same reading experience as on a regular book



Also you can search your word easily. You can put the word you are looking for in the search tab and it will show pages that have this word.

With a regular digital display one might experience difficulty of reading because of long time viewing or reflection of strong light. However, the e-book reader uses a different technology: e-ink displays. These screens simulate a regular page from a book. Reading from them is exactly as reading from a printed paper, but you get more advantages: you can adjust the levels of darkness desired for the texts, you can re-size fonts, you can search inside books, and others.



Before buying an e-book device, have a look at the different features of the different devices. This will help determining which is better to purchase.

Future Store

Future Store

The idea of future store is based on smart technology. Once you enter the store the future cart will recognize your smart card and get all information needed. The link below shows a scenario of the process of purchasing in the future store, starting from getting into the store, until paying, all with the smart technology.

Please have a couple of minutes looking at the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUcuqhduWao&feature=related

AED Technology saves lives

Each year, more than 250,000 Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of adult death in the U.S. The department of health in Pennsylvania states that Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Pennsylvania, resulting in 31 percent of all resident deaths in 2000. The patient needs to return to a normal rhythm. Every minute late of returning to a normal rhythm means a person’s chance of survival drops 10 percent.


How can technology saves patient’s life?

An AED is a device that analyzes the heart’s electrical rhythm and, if necessary, prompts you to deliver a shock to a person experiencing Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Thanks to technology now, AED device can increase survival rate to more than 90%, if it is available within 3 minutes of the place of incident, and if there is someone able to use it.

Straddling Bus in China: The Future Bus

There are many types of public transportation such as normal bus, Subway, BRT and Light-rail train. All for types have advantages and disadvantages; however traffic jam, pollution and using huge space for parking are continuing to be unsolved problems.  

Straddling Buses are proposal for future buses in China to solve all these problems. Building the straddling bus includes two essential parts:

1.     Remodeling the road

2.     Building Station Platform.

The most advantage of the Straddling bus is saving road spaces, and its capacity and height are efficient as well; the vehicles pass underneath the Straddling Bus.

The straddling bus has sensors that warns the vehicles underneath the bus when they too close to its side. The construction life cycle is short (1 year to build 40 Km whereas building the same length of subway takes three years). Also the straddling bus doesn’t need the large parking lot that normal buses need. It can park anywhere in its path without affection the roads. It also powered by municipal electricity and solar energy completely. The Interior has huge skylight that eliminates passengers’ sense of depression.  

Click on the following link to see a Prototype of the Straddling Buses

Cheaper Local and International Phone Calls by using the technology of Magic Jack

Land lines and telephones are expensive; especially if you are an international student at Penn State and you would like to be in touch with your family in your home country.  However, nowadays if you have a high spend Internet connect, you should not worry as much. This is because of the emergence of Internet Phone service sine 1990s. MagicJack, and Skype are two Internet phone service that provides modern communication line to international countries with lower rates.

MagicJack is a matchbox-sized device that converts your normal phone jack to a USB outlet.  First you should plug in the USB device into the computer to install the software. Then you plug a phone into the USB. Finally you can pick the phone and make your calls. You need to have Internet service to be able to use Magic Jack

By using magic jack you can make unlimited phone calls within the US and Canada for free with no monthly service fee. You can also make free international calls if the receiver out side of the country is using magic jack too.  And if he doesn’t use one you can call internationally using this device for much lower rates.

Technology Saves Energy in Hotels

 Light, air conditioning, heaters are energy consuming especially in buildings with hundreds of occupants such as hotels. Usually hotels’ clients don’t care very much of the electricity they consume in the hotel rooms.

Many Hotels solved this problem by using technology to maintain sustainability through sufficient use of energy. When a client enters his room, he cannot turn on the power until he put his key card in a key Card Switch beside the door. When a client leave the room, he cannot leave the power on while being outside the room anymore; because he has to get the card out of the switch and put it in his pocket to be able to get into the room next time.

Know about your Fines!

When someone park his car illegally, exceeds the permitted speed or any other kinds of actions against the law, usually he is supposed to pay a fine. It happens that sometimes the person is late to pay because he didn’t know about his violation then he might get into more trouble because of not paying the fine. To solve the problem we can have an electronic service where people know about their violations by messaging. The court would have a database of the car board number and the drivers contact information, so whenever he does an action against the law, they send him a massage or an email about the fine he should pay. In this way, the court is doing all the effort to make the driver knows about the fine he should pay, and he would not get in trouble of late payments.

Key Reminder

I face a problem sometimes forgetting my apartment's key inside the apartment when getting outside. This problem can be solved technologically if the door knob was connected through a technological system to the key hanger. So, when getting into the apartment, the key should be hanged on the key hanger. When holding the knob to get out, the system will send a sign to the key hanger so the hanger light on or ring. In this way, there will be always a reminder of the key when getting out. 

video calls using iphone 4

Iphone 4 has many features over the earlier iphone products; such as better image quality, ability to browse multiple applications at the same time, and having two cameras.
Furthermore, iphone 4 users can make video calls using wifi, which means one cannot make a video call in some areas such as when driving at highways.  Enabling the use of video call through 3G would solve the problem and will make access to video calls all the time.