Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology is concerned with electronic and engineering methods of understanding and controlling nervous system function.

The market for neurotechnolgy products is poised to become one of the most dramatic growth areas of the 21st Century. Spurred on by medical developments and discoveries that cure disease, alleviate suffering, and generally improve the quality of life, many leading research institutions and health care firms have gained the world’s attention and respect in recent years. Within the biomedical technology industries, there is one field that stands out not only for its promise of restoring function to human patients, but also for carrying over biomedical concepts and processes to the industrial and information processing sectors. That field is what we call neurotechnology.

A very interesting and practical product, Actiwatch, is being marketed in this space by Cambridge Neurotechology. Actiwatch represents a new generation of ultra compact and light-weight wrist worn devices for measuring activity and a range of other physiological and environmental variables. The Actiwatch reader interfaces with a PC via a cable connected to the RS232 Comms port. It allows the downloading and configuration of all Actiwatch models.

Potential uses include:

• An aid in the diagnosis, assessment and monitoring of sleep disorders

• The assessment of treatment regimes
• Sleep and chronobiology research
• Clinical assessment of neurological and psychiatric disorders
• Monitoring and assessing effects of drugs on the central nervous system
• Neurological research and medicine
• Health and Safety monitoring

The possibilities are endless. One can easily imagine future iterations of this product that are far more invasive, contentious and probably implanted. I hope that doesn’t kill your entusiasm. It shouldn’t, but it does require that we, as designers, begin thinking of these and other implications soon.

And then of course there is Synchronicity City. They espouse “we are pleased to offer you the direct experience of Synchronicity technology via your connection to this web-site through our on-line meditation room. With stereo headphones, you will be able to experience a balanced state of meditative awareness in minutes with eyes closed, or if you wish, while watching the phasing mandala pattern on your screen.” They also have an online meditation room. Hmmmmm.

E-Book Era Not Here Yet?
“Last August, top executives from Microsoft (news/quote), Barnesandnoble.com and several book publishers assembled at a Midtown Manhattan hotel for a news conference to usher in the coming age of the electronic book.

“We believe the e-book revolution will have an impact on the book industry as great as the paperback revolution of the 60’s,” Jack Romanos, president of the Simon & Schuster division of Viacom (news/quote), told a crowd of reporters.” New York Times (registration required) More here…

Intel Presents Vision of Proactive Computing
On Monday at the Intel Developers Forum in San Jose California (August 27-30, 2001), Intel presented information on its proactive computing research. The research is being conducted in collaboration with several universities and seems to be centered around networks and technologies. Some of the language was interesting, specifically around the notion of putting humans on top of a device hierarchy. There was apparently a lot of focus on public safety and computers acting in advance of need for the well being of humans. And then there was some discussion about an interplanetary component and a four-node network planned for Mars. Confused? Me too. This could be going in many directions, but just might be a great piece of work. Check out this streaming video presentation by David Tennenhouse, University of Washington on Proactive Computing. Brief article here…

Brand, Branding & Adbusters!
In recent discussions on the AIGA Experience Design list a number of folks were seriously offended by the mention of brand. It seemed their view was that brand=commercialization and was a ploy to dupe consumers. Well maybe that’s a possible defintion for “branding” but even then I can’t get behind such extremist views. While I acknowledge much misuse of advertising and marketing in the past, not all brands or branding are inherently bad. In fact, I believe the consumers own the brands, because the brands only live in the hearts and minds of consumers. I also believe that business is slowly coming around and is taking a more respectful view of consumers these days.

This is a quote form the September/October Issue of Adbusters:

“A brief history of design: so much rebellion, so little revolution. Design constantly turns against itself, as designers search for the next big It.

Today, there’s a nagging suspicion that there is no “next.” Design is like a corpse - beautifully laid out but not going anywhere. It is caught in the endless re-telling of the same old story -the catch the eye! stimulate desire! move the merchandise! story.

Now a worldwide movement is naming commercialization as an enemy, along with branding and corporate power. From Seattle to Quebec City, Davos to Genoa, designers can’t fail to see which side they stand on in the defining cultural showdown of our time.

In 1999, Adbusters launched the First Things First 2000 design manifesto, an urgent demand for “a mindshift away from product marketing and towards the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning.” The debate became a movement, then a maelstrom. And out of it came an unavoidable question: Where do we go from here?”

Although I am a designer in practice and training, I tend to take a holistic view of my work and life in general. I found a great deal of the content in Adbusters to be quite cynical. That said, I did find some great nuggets in the current issue. Anyway, the point is I can certainly see now where some of the folks were coming from with their contempt for brand. This is a very different view than I take. I’m curious to hear other opinions on the matter.

SRI Pioneers of Social Research
University of Chicago Magazine recently profiled Social Research, Inc.(SRI), a Chicago research group that is credited for pioneering the use of ethnographic and anthropological methods in market research.

SRI’s Sidney Levy officially coined the term “brand image” for an article he and Burleigh Gardner wrote in 1955 for Harvard Business Review. He defined it as follows:

the “sets of ideas, feelings and attitudes that consumers have about brands.”

Also of interest to me was the definition Levy gave for “brand”:

“Each product or brand exists in people’s minds as a symbolic entity,” recalled Levy, “an integrated result of all their experiences with it in the marketplace.”

Whilre SRI never grew considerably large they did make significant contribitions to the way we understand consumers today. Check out the article here…

Charmed Technology to Showcase Top Technology Trends
Charmed Technology will present its “Fashionably Unwired World Fashion Show” at CTIA’s WIRELESS I.T. & INTERNET 2001 at the San Diego Convention Center, September 11-13, 2001. “Charmed Technology combines the latest in cutting-edge miniature technology, music and models to bring the wireless future to life.” With the fashionably show Charmed incorporates wireless technology into fashion, lifestyle and a variety of applications. It’s a combination of high fashion and the latest wireless technology trends. It’s well worth a look…

Japanese High-School Girls Rule
Interesting article about the use of teenage girls to identify and predict trends in the Japanese telcom industry. A couple of things interested me about this. First, I wondered why Japanese teenage females were more willing to share their opinions over their male conterparts. Second, I was intrigued by the “strong network” that exists among the high-school girls. This is obviously a marketers dream. As I read on a realized the goal was not just to glean information from the girls, it was also use the network to push information out! More here…

Hands-Free Cell Phone Use is Safe
General Motors released a study Wednesday that examined data from 8.1 million phone calls between October 1996 and May 2000. The results from GM–one of the largest providers of on-board, hands-free cell phone services–starkly contradict a wealth of academic research on driver distraction, including a report issued last week saying all cell phone use poses a driving hazard.

GM researchers found that, out of 8.1 million calls in nearly four years, users of GM’s hands-free cell phone services crashed only two times. Furthermore, researchers found “no evidence” that the phone played a role in the crashes. GM executives say their study is the most comprehensive analysis of actual–not simulated or estimated–data in the world. More here…