 |
CoE
NewsFlash | Vol. 2, No. 8 | November 26,
2008 |
NewsFlash is a monthly email of press items featuring our College's researchers. For a more complete and regularly updated list of COE media coverage, see In the Media.
Click on a headline to read that article on the web. Some links may require a subscription or no longer be active.
NewsFlash is a service of the UW College of Engineering and the UW Office of News and Information. If you have a newsworthy result about one month from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Hannah Hickey at (206-543-2580, hickeyh@uw.edu). |
|
| |
| |
| |
Nov. 20, 2008 | The
Oregonian (blog)
Pocket
personal trainer
With a
bit of hacking, your cell phone can do double duty as personal trainer.
UbiFit, a cell phone application developed by researchers at the
University of Washington and Intel, continuously tracks your activity
level and offers gentle encouragement: a display of flowers sprouting on
the phone's background screen as you reach workout goals.
SOURCE
MATERIAL
Track your fitness, environmental impact with new cell
phone applications | Nov. 19, 2008
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
Nov. 17, 2008 | Newsweek
A Violent Virtual
Cure
Imagine
standing on an empty street corner when you hear the rumble of a bus
coming around the corner. The breaks squeal as the vehicle stops in
front of you. Its doors open; passengers begin to step off. A moment
later, the bus explodes into flames, temporarily blinding you with
light, and showering the street with shards of glass and burning
shrapnel. The ground shakes. Body parts lie on the pavement around you.
You hear screaming and the sound of sirens. And then you take off your
headset—safe and sound in your therapist's office. Survivors of
suicide-bomber attacks in Israel are using this virtual-reality
simulation as part of their treatment for post-traumatic stress
disorder, or PTSD. Hunter Hoffman of UW mechanical engineering is
quoted.
|
| |
|
|
| |
Nov. 13, 2008 | Chronicle
of Higher Education (blog)
3-D
Game May Help Soldiers Burned in Combat Deal With Pain During Physical
Therapy
Snow
World, a virtual-reality game that has been helping victims of fires
cope with painful physical therapy for nearly a decade, is now part of a
military study to examine whether or not virtual reality could provide
relief for soldiers burned in combat. The project is a collaboration
between Christopher Maani, chief of anesthesia at the surgical-research
institute, and Hunter Hoffman, one of the creators of Snow World and the
director of the University of Washington’s Virtual Reality Analgesia
Research Center.
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
Nov. 11, 2008 | Sciencentral
Virtual
Reality Helps War Heroes Recover From Burns
It’s
pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, let alone our veterans. But
now, a cool, high-tech virtual reality game gives soldiers an escape
during excruciating wound treatment.
|
| |
|
|
| |
Nov. 5, 2008 | New
Scientist
How
online games are solving uncomputable problems
Aristedes
is a typical 13-year-old boy. He plays basketball after school, is
learning the clarinet, and in the evening sits in front of his computer
playing games. There is one game that he is especially keen on, however,
which marks him out from his peers. Every day he logs on to
www.fold.it, where, under the nickname "Cheese", he plays a game that
involves twisting, pulling and wiggling a 3D structure that looks a bit
like a tree's root system.
RELATED
MATERIAL
Computer game's high score could earn the Nobel Prize in
medicine | May 8, 2008
|
| |
|
|
| |
Nov. 3, 2008 | ABCNews
Borderline
Security
RFID
chips in U.S. passport cards and some driver's licenses are at risk of
being counterfeited or tracked, researchers say. For some U.S.
travelers, border crossings can be sped up by enhanced driver's licenses
or by passport cards, wallet-sized plastic cards that are issued by the
federal government and permit passage by land or sea to Canada, Mexico,
Bermuda, or the Caribbean. Both types of cards are cheaper than
ordinary passports and contain radio frequency identification (RFID)
devices that can be read at a distance. However, a recent analysis by
researchers at the University of Washington and RSA Laboratories, based
in Bedford, MA, shows that attackers could use the RFID signals sent by
the cards to create counterfeit documents or to spy on cardholders.
|
| |
|
|
| |
Nov. 3, 2008 | The
Seattle Times
Inflexible
security? Lighten up
As
more of our casual lives are spent online, we need to find a middle
ground on security and privacy. Not every transaction and gateway needs
the digital equivalent of a scowling paramilitary guard demanding to see
our papers. Yet most of us aren't comfortable letting it all hang out
online. That's why I'm intrigued by an easy-access control system
called Friendbo, which is being developed by a group of students and
professors at the University of Washington.
|
| |
|
|
| |
Nov. 1, 2008 | Seattle
Magazine
Our
Power 25
The
history-making election may be dominating national headlines and dinner
conversations around the country. But we looked at the year’s local
headlines—and behind them—to ferret out the people who are changing the
landscape and driving conversations in Seattle and the greater Puget
Sound region. Yoky Matsuoka and Oren Etzioni of computer science and
engineering made the list.
|
| |
|
|
| |
Oct. 31, 2008 | Technology
Review
Borderline
Security
RFID
chips in U.S. passport cards and some driver's licenses are at risk of
being counterfeited or tracked, researchers say. For some U.S.
travelers, border crossings can be sped up by enhanced driver's licenses
or by passport cards, wallet-sized plastic cards that are issued by the
federal government and permit passage by land or sea to Canada, Mexico,
Bermuda, or the Caribbean. Both types of cards are cheaper than
ordinary passports and contain radio frequency identification (RFID)
devices that can be read at a distance. However, a recent analysis by
researchers at the University of Washington and RSA Laboratories, based
in Bedford, MA, shows that attackers could use the RFID signals sent by
the cards to create counterfeit documents or to spy on cardholders.
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
Oct. 29, 2008 | Chemical
Technology
Sweet
solution for on-card reagent storage
University
of Washington scientists have developed a method for storing dry
reagents on low-cost disposable cards. They claim the cards could be
used for point-of-care diagnostics in the developing world, where high
temperatures and a lack of refrigeration make it difficult to preserve
reagent functions.
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
If you have a newsworthy result about one month
from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Rachel
Tompa, rtompa@u.washington.edu. Notice
of student and faculty awards and grants is also welcome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
