Stanford Center on Longevity competition challenges students to design products to help older adults
The design contest solicits entries from student teams worldwide and is aimed at finding solutions that help keep people with cognitive impairments independent as long as possible.The competition is currently accepting submissions in what is called Phase I of the challenge. Submitted concepts will be judged in January and finalists will be given financial help to flesh out their design and travel to Stanford to present it.From January until April, called Phase II, finalists will also have access to mentors in different schools and centers at StanfordThe final presentations, in April, will be before a panel of academics, in...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - November 16, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Brain training & cognitive enhancement Positive Technology events Research institutions funding opportunities Source Type: blogs
The poetry of Everyday Objects
Artist Javier Pérez turns everyday objects into whimsical illustrations. Here are some of my favourites. Discover more on his Instagram account. (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - November 3, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Cyberart Source Type: blogs
Neurocam wearable camera reads your brainwaves and records what interests you
Via KurzweilAI.netThe neurocam is the world’s first wearable camera system that automatically records what interests you, based on brainwaves, DigInfo TV reports.It consists of a headset with a brain-wave sensor and uses the iPhone’s camera to record a 5-second GIF animation. It could also be useful for life-logging.The algorithm for quantifying brain waves was co-developed by Associate Professor Mitsukura at Keio University.The project team plans to create an emotional interface. (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - November 3, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Brain-computer interface Emotional computing Wearable & mobile Source Type: blogs
Brain Decoding
Via IEETNeuroscientists are starting to decipher what a person is seeing, remembering and even dreaming just by looking at their brain activity. They call it brain decoding. In this Nature Video, we see three different uses of brain decoding, including a virtual reality experiment that could use brain activity to figure out whether someone has been to the scene of a crime. (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - October 31, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Information visualization Neurotechnology & neuroinformatics Research tools Virtual worlds Source Type: blogs
Mobile EEG and its potential to promote the theory and application of imagery-based motor rehabilitation
Authors: Kranczioch C, Zich C, Schierholz I, Sterr AAbstract. Studying the brain in its natural state remains a major challenge for neuroscience. Solving this challenge would not only enable the refinement of cognitive theory, but also provide a better understanding of cognitive function in the type of complex and unpredictable situations that constitute daily life, and which are often disturbed in clinical populations. With mobile EEG, researchers now have access to a tool that can help address these issues. In this paper we present an overview of technical advancements in mobile EEG systems and associated analysis tools,...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - October 31, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Mental practice & mental simulation Research tools Wearable mobile Source Type: blogs
Smart glasses that help the blind see
Via New ScientistThey look like snazzy sunglasses, but these computerised specs don't block the sun – they make the world a brighter place for people with partial vision.These specs do more than bring blurry things into focus. This prototype pair of smart glasses translates visual information into images that blind people can see.Many people who are registered as blind can perceive some light and motion. The glasses, developed by Stephen Hicks of the University of Oxford, are an attempt to make that residual vision as useful as possible.They use two cameras, or a camera and an infrared projector, that can detect the dist...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - October 31, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Neurotechnology & neuroinformatics Wearable mobile Source Type: blogs
Daniel Dennett – If Brains Are Computers, What Kind Of Computers Are They?
Source: Future of Humanity Institute (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - October 31, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Blue sky Source Type: blogs
Signal Processing Turns Regular Headphones Into Pulse Sensors
Via MedgadgetA new signal processing algorithm that enables any pair of earphones to detect your pulse was demonstrated recently at the Healthcare Device Exhibition 2013 in Yokohama, Japan. The technology comes from a joint effort of Bifrostec (Tokyo, Japan) and the Kaiteki Institute. It is built on the premise that the eardrum creates pressure waves with each heartbeat, which can be detected in a perfectly enclosed space. However, typically, earphones do not create a perfect seal, which is what gives everyone in a packed elevator the privilege to listen to that guy’s tunes. The new algorithm a...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - October 31, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Physiological Computing Wearable & mobile Source Type: blogs
Positive Technology at ICT 2013
Good news, our networking session proposal was acceptet at ICT 2013 Conference in Vilnius (6-8 November, 2013). Title: Positive Technology: Steps Towards Ubiquitous EmpowermentBooth 4, 07/11/2013 (18:00-19:30)More than 4000 researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, industry representatives are expected to attend the conference. That's indeed a great opportunity to explore the future developments of Positive Technology within Horizon2020.If you are also planning to attend the conference and you're interested in participating to this special networking session, drop me a message here:Networking Session Link: http://ec.europa.e...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - October 16, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Source Type: blogs
BITalino: Do More!
BITalino is a low-cost toolkit that allows anyone from students to professional developers to create projects and applications with physiological sensors. Out of the box, BITalino already integrates easy to use software & hardware blocks with sensors for electrocardiography (ECG), electromyography (EMG), electrodermal activity (EDA), an accelerometer, & ambient light. Imagination is the limit; each individual block can be snapped off and combined to prototype anything you want. You can connect others sensors, including your own custom designs. (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - September 10, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Physiological Computing Research tools Self-Tracking Wearable & mobile Source Type: blogs
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report
Authors: Garrison KA, Santoyo JF, Davis JH, Thornhill TA, Kerr CE, Brewer JANeurophenomenological studies seek to utilize first-person self-report to elucidate cognitive processes related to physiological data. Grounded theory offers an approach to the qualitative analysis of self-report, whereby theoretical constructs are derived from empirical data. Here we used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to assess how the first-person experience of meditation relates to neural activity in a core region of the default mode network-the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). We analyzed first-person data consisting of meditators' account...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - September 9, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Meditation & brain Neurotechnology neuroinformatics Source Type: blogs
Twitter reveals the happiest spots in New York
Sentiment in New York City: A High Resolution Spatial and Temporal ViewKarla Z. Bertrand, Maya Bialik, Kawandeep Virdee, Andreas Gros, Yaneer Bar-Yamhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1308.5010v1 (link to PDF full text)Measuring public sentiment is a key task for researchers and policymakers alike. The explosion of available social media data allows for a more time-sensitive and geographically specific analysis than ever before. In this paper we analyze data from the micro-blogging site Twitter and generate a sentiment map of New York City. We develop a classifier specifically tuned for 140-character Twitter messages, or tweets, using k...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - August 28, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Locative media Social Media Source Type: blogs
On Phenomenal Consciousness
A recent introductory talk on the problem that consciousness and qualia presents to physicalism by Frank C. Jackson. (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - August 7, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Research tools Telepresence & virtual presence Source Type: blogs
Welcome to wonderland: the influence of the size and shape of a virtual hand on the perceived size and shape of virtual objects
Authors: Linkenauger SA, Leyrer M, Bülthoff HH, Mohler BJThe notion of body-based scaling suggests that our body and its action capabilities are used to scale the spatial layout of the environment. Here we present four studies supporting this perspective by showing that the hand acts as a metric which individuals use to scale the apparent sizes of objects in the environment. However to test this, one must be able to manipulate the size and/or dimensions of the perceiver's hand which is difficult in the real world due to impliability of hand dimensions. To overcome this limitation, we used virtual reality to manipulate dim...
Source: Positive Technology Journal - August 7, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Research tools Telepresence & virtual presence Virtual worlds Source Type: blogs
Using avatars to model weight loss behaviors: participant attitudes and technology development.
CONCLUSIONS: This investigation revealed a high level of interest in an avatar-based program, with formative work indicating promise. Given the high costs associated with in vivo exposure and practice, this study demonstrates the potential use of avatar-based technology as a tool for modeling weight loss behaviors.Abstract (Source: Positive Technology Journal)
Source: Positive Technology Journal - August 7, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Tags: Cybertherapy Telepresence & virtual presence Virtual worlds Source Type: blogs
