Kenya Coconut Production Presentation by Dr. Lalith Perera
TR
1. the mystery of the genome
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p40 br ie fing
The sMarT
grId
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Published by MIT
Searching for
TV’s future
Can the
Net swallow
another mass
medium?
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electric Car
Winners
and Losers
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Hacking
Microsoft’s
Kinect
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The Authority on the
future of Technology
February 2011
www.technologyreview.com
5. worldmags
contents Volu me 114, NumBeR 1
32 Searching for the Future g raph iti
20 Making Friends
of Television Facebook still has lots of
Google and the geeks from Silicon Valley aim room to grow.
to revolutionize the 70-year-old TV industry. By Tommy McCall
and Matt Mahoney
Conquering the Internet was easy by comparison.
B y RoBeRT D. Hof
Special Section
coVe r
retro google tV logo by The Human Genome,
the heads of State a Decade Later
40 Ten years after scientists finished mapping our
DNA, they have a far more complex picture of what
determines our genetic fate.
B y JoN CoHeN
46 The cancer genome could provide clues to
treating the disease.
B y e mIly SING e R
52 Joseph Nadeau is searching for the genome’s
dark matter.
By STepHeN S. HAll Q&a
22 Paul Sagan
the ceo of a company that
58 Will Electric Vehicles delivers a large portion of Web
traffic isn’t worried that the
Finally Succeed? internet is running out of capacity.
By Brian Bergstein
The success of new plug-in hybrids and
all-electric vehicles will depend on overcoming
a familiar nemesis: battery costs.
photo eSSay
B y peTeR fA IRl ey
24 Rebuilding
Architecture
Software is allowing architects
6 Letters 11 Disease Decoded to design buildings in radically
8 From the Editor Sequencing the human genome new ways.
has profoundly changed our By Katherine Bourzac
understanding of biology and
note B ookS disease.
By David Altshuler B r i e Fi ng
10 Watching Viewers
Making television smarter to Mar ket 65–73 The Smart Grid
requires understanding why adding intelligence to the elec-
13–18 Technology tric grid will reduce carbon emis-
it is our favorite gadget.
Commercialized sions and make power more
By Genevieve Bell and
Sony internet tV, pocket ultra- reliable—if we’re willing to foot
Brian David Johnson
sound scanner, medical exoskel- the bill.
10 Electric Dreams etons, robotic surgical assistant,
Success for vehicles with a plug, digital dashboard, and more. ■ www.technologyreview.com/
smartgrid
not a gas cap, rests on more explore the technologies behind
than just technology. the smart grid.
By Dan Sperling
2 technology review January/February 2011
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24
r eVi eWS
74 Serious Games
the virtual world of Second life seemed
like the next big thing, and then it was
largely written off. neither hypers nor
detractors understood it.
By Julian Dibbell
76 Start Me Up
online crowd-funding, supported by
social technologies, provides a new
business model for book publishing.
By Emily Gould
78 The New, More
Awkward You
robots that stand in for remote workers
could force people to learn how to toler-
84
ate a new breed of social failings.
By Tom Simonite De Mo FroM th e laB S
■ www.technologyreview.com/ 84 Printing 88 Biomedicine
telepresence Electronic Skin 89 Information Technology
Watch the robot in action at TR.
nanowire transistor arrays 90 Materials
form sensors that match the
sensitivity of human skin.
hack By Katherine Bourzac
70 year S ag o i n TR
82 Microsoft Kinect ■ www.technologyreview.com/demo 92 Chaos in TV Land
how the device responds to your voice See researchers make electronic skin
if you think the future of television is
and gestures. from nanowires.
uncertain now, look at the issues it
By Erica Naone
faced before it took off.
■ www.technologyreview.com/hack By Matt Mahoney
See the Microsoft kinect taken apart.
w w w . t e ch n o l o g y r e v i e w . c o m 3
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4 technology review January/February 2011
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9. worldmags
Letters and Comments
Don’t DisregarD nuclear in the form of loan guarantees. These are google Vs. Facebook
That nuclear power is at least somewhat not handouts but, rather, insurance poli- In “Google Misses You” (November/
more expensive than fossil fuels was never cies to cover the unforeseen. The renais- December 2010), Paul Boutin calls Face-
in question (“Giant Holes in the Ground,” sance will happen because there is simply book’s user interface “a pain in the ass” and
November/December 2010). no alternative. claims it’s in conflict with 40 years of UI
The question is whether we Ulrich Decher research. Do Google products, desktop or
are going to do anything to Granby, Connecticut mobile, shine in their UIs? Google’s prod-
move away from fossil fuels, ucts may be cleaner and more stable than
and how nuclear power The dismissal of China as “a some others’, but they seem to be built by
compares economically with tiny player” in nuclear power and for geeks. Designing Web and social
other non-emitting options. is cavalier to say the least. UIs, I rarely meet people craving the
Nuclear is stalling because The build rate for new reac- Google Calendar experience or the Picasa
current policies give it no sig- tors in China is beginning to experience.
nificant advantage over fos- approach what it was in the Edo Elan
sil fuels, while renewables November/December ’10 U.S. in the heyday of nuclear San Francisco, California
are being built by government mandate, plant construction. And contrary to our
essentially regardless of cost. I disagree experience here, China has been complet- the MeMex
with Matthew Wald’s characterization of ing projects ahead of schedule and under I was 13 when Vannevar Bush described
nuclear’s loan guarantees as a significant budget. The agonizing in the U.S. over the the Memex in 1945, which you reflect on
subsidy. This support is tiny compared with future of nuclear power grows increasingly in “Future Perfect” (November/Decem-
the massive subsidies given to renewables. irrelevant. ber 2010). The Memex, a technology that
For a fraction of what the government has Roger Arnold promised to give individuals access to the
spent supporting renewables in just the last Sunnyvale, California world’s collection of information, inspired
few years, it could provide loan guarantees my dreams of what might be. Over the
for all reactors built from this day forward. What the Web really neeDs years, science and the marketplace have
In any fair competition among non-emit- Without detracting from HTML5, I have given us increasingly powerful computers,
ting sources, nuclear would do very well. to object to the title “The Web Is Reborn” software, and networking.
Fortunately, there is a movement afoot to (November/December 2010). Rather In the eighth decade of my life I work
pass a Clean Energy Standard that includes than more optimal displays of video, the with a company that specializes in docu-
both nuclear and renewables. Such a policy Web needs an architectural solution to its ment management software with artificial-
would solve all the “problems” nuclear is nearly fatal security issues. The resources intelligence assistants. These tools enable
having right now. that are wasted on professional security me to construct my own little “Memex,”
James Hopf services, firewalls, and antivirus software which holds collections totaling hundreds
San Jose, California and its maintenance are far more than a of thousands of documents that interest
minor inconvenience. me. The cost of the devices that let me do
Wald’s conclusion that the nuclear renais- David Korenstein this today is far less than would have been
sance has failed is premature. The financial Wayne, Pennsylvania required to construct Bush’s Memex. My
hurdles are real but not insurmountable. computer and scanner total ten pounds, less
The renaissance requires government help It seems that the Web’s future is being than Bush’s vision of a bulky device.
driven by technical arguments and com- My Memex operates at speeds that would
panies beholden to their customers. What have delighted Bush, but we are still in early
join the Discussion, or contact us about the public interest? The Web has stages of what could be done. The author is
■ technologyreview.com/community emerged as the major place where the correct in stating that looking back at the
e-mail letters@technologyreview.com
discourse necessary for democracy takes present from the perspective of 77 years
Write Technology Review, One Main Street,
place—akin to the new radio and TV air- in the future would probably elicit pity for
13th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142
Fax 617-475-8043 waves. Don’t we need regulations to guar- the primitive state in which we live and
Please include your address, telephone number, antee access and fairness? work today.
and e-mail address. Letters and comments may John Fisher William DeVille
be edited for both clarity and length. New York, New York Nashville, Indiana
6 Letters and Comments technology review January/February 2011
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From the Editor
A Decade of Genomics
on the 10th anniversary of the Human Genome Project, we ask:
where are the therapies?
T he Human Genome Project, whose results were announced
in June of 2000 and published in full 10 years ago, took 13
years and $3 billion to complete. For biology, it was unprec-
which gene expression can be influenced by mechanisms other
than changes in the underlying DNA sequence (dubbed “epi-
genetics,” because the field studies mechanisms above—“epi”—
edented in scale: it determined the sequence of three billion the genome); and whether we have extra or missing copies of
units, or base pairs, of human DNA. What life scientists wanted genes (copy-number variation).
from the project was equally ambitious: they hoped sequencing This “missing heritability” problem—the fact that individual
our DNA would reveal the genetic causes of disease and lead to genes cannot account for much of a disease’s heritability—has
diagnoses, treatments, and cures for intractable illnesses like significant implications for medicine. It turns out (as Hall
many forms of cancer. explains) that “a person’s susceptibility to disease may depend
In this issue of Technology Review, we explore what happened more on the combined effect of all the genes in the background
to those hopes. than on the disease genes in the foreground.” Therefore, mapping
Over the last 10 years, many advances in genomics have been this complex nest of genetic relationships offers the best hope for
made. As Jon Cohen explains in the introduction to our pack- turning genomics into therapies or cures.
age of stories on the topic, which begins on page 40, “The price Consider cancer. In “Cancer’s Genome,” starting on page 46,
of sequencing DNA has dropped … to mere thousands [of dol- Emily Singer, Technology Review’s biomedicine editor, describes
lars per person]. The number of single-gene aberrations known how research has proved that cancer genomics are “even more
to cause disease … has jumped from 100 to nearly 3,000. The complicated than scientists had supposed.” We now understand
growing list of common diseases that have been traced to mul- that five to as many as 20 mutations are needed to trigger can-
tiple genetic variants includes everything from types of blindness cer’s cellular proliferation. But cheaper, faster sequencing tech-
to autoimmune diseases and metabolic disorders like diabetes. nologies may, in the not-too-distant future, make personalized
Studies have linked more than 200 genes to cancer.” cancer medicine a real possibility. Singer reports on Foundation
But taken as a whole, it was a long, hard decade for genomics. Medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which wants to create
Researchers and clinicians will disagree about how quickly they clinical tests that reveal which mutations have caused a patient’s
imagined the Human Genome Project would bear fruit, but no particular cancer, how severe that cancer is, and what drugs
one will contest that the genome has turned out to be bafflingly will affect it. According to Singer, early results from Founda-
complex and that genomic information has yielded few new tion “suggest that about half the patient tissue samples analyzed
cures. Cohen describes some of the difficulties in his introduction, would yield plausibly ‘usable’ information, meaning that the
and Stephen Hall provides more detail in “The Genome’s Dark analysis might suggest a particular class of drugs or better define
Matter,” beginning on page 52: “Large-scale genomic studies … the type of cancer.” If readers are looking for hope that genomics
have mainly failed to turn up common genes that play a major can lead to cures for intractable diseases, companies like this are
role in complex human maladies. More than three dozen specific appropriate inspiration.
genetic variants have been associated with type 2 diabetes … but In Cohen’s introduction, Eric Lander, who was one of the lead-
together they have been found to explain about 10 percent of ers of the Human Genome Project and now directs the Broad
the disease’s heritability … Results have been similar for heart Institute (and who is also a founder of Foundation Medicine), says
disease, schizophrenia, high blood pressure, and other common we should not be surprised that the genome is so complicated.
maladies.” He counsels a historically informed patience as we work on new
In short, we have expended enormous energy on search- genomic medicines: after all, 60 years passed between the devel-
ing for disease genes, but it has become clearer that a variety of opment of germ theory and the creation of antibiotics. Genomics
other factors, once thought minor, are in fact as important to is harder. Lander asks, “How simple did you think it would be?”
mar k o stow
our health as genes themselves. These include how much or how Write and tell me what you think at jason.pontin@
little of a protein is produced (gene expression); the degree to technologyreview.com —Jason Pontin
8 From the Editor technology review January/February 2011
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notebooks In 2005, our group at Intel took a fresh E nEr g y
approach. Instead of trying to build a
television with PC-like features, we asked Electric Dreams
people how their TV experience could success for vehicles with a plug,
be improved. Instead of starting with not a gas cap, rests on more than
assumptions about how TV had to change, technology, says dan sperling.
we began by finding out what people
loved about it.
Our ethnographers visited India, Japan,
the U.K., and the United States, some-
T he history of alternative transporta-
tion fuels is a history of failure. It is a
story of one fuel du jour after another—a
times watching people watch TV, some- frustrating cycle of media and political
times watching with them. We wanted to hype followed by disillusionment and
understand how people lived with their abandonment.
TVs and the other people around them. The cycle is all too familiar, from syn-
The results directly informed the design of fuels in the late 1970s to methanol in the
the processors at the heart of new devices ’80s, and then electric vehicles, hydrogen,
like those running Google’s TV software and ethanol. Only corn ethanol has sur-
and D-link’s Boxee Box (see “Searching for vived in the United States, but it would be
ME di a the Future of Television,” p. 32). a stretch to call it a success, given its big
Watching The first thing we learned was that
people love TV just as it is. They love their
carbon footprint and relatively high cost
(subsidized at about $6 billion per year in
Viewers shows and they love its simplicity. TV is
always there and doesn’t ask too much of
the United States today). A new wave of
electric vehicles are now at risk of enter-
Making television smarter requires them. A story they care about is always ing the cycle again.
understanding why it is our favor- just one button away. When we asked Replacing petroleum will be difficult
ite gadget, Genevieve Bell and
people what they would want from a TV and slow. Its hegemony creates huge bar-
Brian david Johnson argue.
with computing power, they didn’t talk riers for new fuels, in terms of econom-
about computing. They talked about TV. ics, legal liability, public skepticism, and
D o you want a Web browser on your
TV? If history is any indication, your
answer is probably a resounding no. We
Their top three answers were that they
want access to their regular broadcast
TV, want access to broadcasts they have
media sensationalism. Our three best
hopes—hydrogen, electricity, and biofu-
els—all face large challenges.
don’t blame you. missed, and want to know what shows Hydrogen would require us to trans-
In the past few decades, the technol- their friends recommend. form our fuel supply system. Electricity
ogy industry has labored under the delu- Delivering on all three requests does must overcome the shortcomings of bat-
sion that consumers would love their require computing. Giving viewers the teries (see “Will Electric Vehicles Finally
TV sets to behave like computers. Many shows they missed takes a combination Succeed?” p. 58). Advanced biofuels need
tombstones now stand in place of devices of DVR and Web services. Telling them a lot of land and leave a large carbon foot-
built by very smart people, with incred- what friends enjoy is a mix of social net- print. However, no other green energy
ibly smart technology inside, that made working and automatic recommendations. technologies will come into being easily
no impact. Our own company, Intel, had But it doesn’t require building a TV that or quickly. At least one of these three—
multiple failed attempts. behaves and feels like a computer. Recog- and probably all—must eventually thrive
Even today, with more consumer elec- nizing that, using social science to inform if we are to change the kind of energy we
tronics to choose from than ever before, computer science, has given us a new gen- use for transportation.
the TV remains the most-used electronic eration of smart TV devices like nothing For plug-in hybrid and all-electric
device in the home. It is often at the cen- that has come before. Let’s hope they fare vehicles, I see two possible scenarios.
ter of our living rooms and bedrooms. It better than their predecessors. The most likely, judging by failed fuels
N i c k r e d dyh o F F
is where we go to relax and to gather with of the past and recent experiences with
friends and family. For many, watching GeNevieve Bell is director oF iNteractioN aNd expe- hybrid cars like the Prius, is slow invest-
rieNce research at iNtel; BriaN david JohNsoN is a
TV defines being at home. Futurist aNd director oF Future castiNG. ment. After 10 years in the U.S. market-
10 Notebooks technology review January/February 2011
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14. worldmags
gE noM ic s I was trained to view scientific data as
Disease the private property of each investigator.
Human genetics research groups were
Decoded locked in a “race” to discover each disease
gene, and there were winners and losers.
sequencing the human genome This often led to fragmentation of effort
has profoundly changed our and yielded results irreproducible by oth-
understanding of biology and dis- ers. Data was collected by hand and stored
ease, writes david altshuler. in paper notebooks.
The Human Genome Project held the
place—13 in Japan—hybrids have gained
only 3 percent of the country’s market
W hen I was in school at MIT and
Harvard in the 1980s and 1990s, I
was taught that there were 100,000 or
revolutionary view that data collected
should be freely available to all. Today this
view prevails in genomics and many other
for new cars. Plug-in electric vehicles are so human genes, every one encoding a fields of biology and medicine. Data is
more costly, require large-scale invest- protein. The properties of those genes shared online by scientists the world over.
ment in recharging infrastructure, and were unknown. Today, I teach that our
are more alien to consumers. Absent any genome contains only 21,000 protein-
dramatic change to market conditions, coding genes. To our surprise, there are
can we really hope they will be more pop- thousands of additional genes that don’t
ular than hybrids? encode proteins. All of these genes have
A more optimistic scenario would been described in great detail.
require strong national standards for I was taught that the parts of the
new vehicles, similar to regulations genome not encoding proteins were “junk.”
now being contemplated by California Today, we know that this junk makes up
and the U.S. Environmental Protection three-quarters of our functional DNA.
Agency. The EPA already requires 40 Parts of it help exquisitely control where
percent reductions in fuel consumption and when genes are active in the body.
and greenhouse-gas emissions by 2016, I was taught that “genetic diseases,”
and it is considering further mandatory such as cystic fibrosis, are caused by muta- Today, thanks in no small part to the
decreases of up to 6 percent per year tion of a single gene, with only a small genome project’s example, investigators
from 2017 to 2025. Automakers could handful of these mutations known. Today, working on the same disease often publish
meet such standards at first with better precise causes are known for 2,800 of together. Combining clinical and genetic
conventional engines and gas hybrids. these rare single-gene disorders. data this way increases the statistical
But they would later be forced to invest I was taught nothing about the more robustness of the claimed findings and
in advanced plug-in technologies, to complex genetics of common diseases. makes for highly reproducible results.
achieve the steep improvement needed to Today, we are learning at dizzying speed Of course, knowledge of the human
keep pace. about the interplay of genes and environ- genome alone is not sufficient to cure
This optimistic scenario is supported ment in diabetes, heart disease, and other disease. It will always be the case that
by the existence of large federal and state common conditions. In the past three creativity, hard work, and good fortune
subsidies for plug-in electric vehicles, and years alone more than 1,000 genetic risk are needed to translate biological data
by a strengthening commitment to them factors have been found (an increase of into medical progress. But without the
in China. While battery technology will perhaps 50-fold), contributing to more information, understanding, and cul-
always be expensive, the right combina- than 100 common diseases. tural changes brought on by the genome
tion of strong policy, strong competition, Such advances would have come far project, the benefits to patients would be
and consumer enthusiasm could speed later, if at all, without the Human Genome much further off.
the adoption of these cars. Project (see “The Human Genome, a
david altshuler is a FouNdiNG MeMBer, the deputy di-
Decade Later,” p. 40). But a body of knowl- rector, aNd the chieF acadeMic oFFicer oF the Broad
iNstitute oF harvard aNd Mit, aNd proFessor oF
daN sperliNG is director oF the iNstitute oF traNs- edge is not its only legacy. It also changed GeNetics aNd oF MediciNe at harvard Medical school.
portatioN studies at the uNiversity oF caliForNia,
davis, aNd author oF the Book Two Billion Cars. the way biological research is performed.
www.technologyreview.com Notebooks 11
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were moving genuine tank and truck con- has received national attention for the seum of Discovery and Science, includ-
trols and operating the machinery. Today, company’s eye-catching interactive web- ing an augmented otter habitat display.
researchers at the international company sites. He notes that advances in cameras Says Eileen Smith, the lab’s director,
SAIC, working at their Orlando office, and computer speeds and smart phones “We decided to go with stylized virtual
have reengineered the architecture of the have dramatically enlarged the possibili- creatures, instead of attempting to make
system from the ground up, so that entire ties for augmented experiences. Barker them look exactly like the real thing. ”
virtual systems, complete with the appro- describes a scenario where “for fashion, The point, she continues, is to offer just
priate hardware to create the necessary you’ll want to know what a particular enough verisimilitude to let the user’s
effects, can be shrunk down to fit into one piece of clothing will look like. So you’ll imagination take over.
trailer. These systems can also easily be stand in front of the webcam and interact
reconfigured for different vehicles. with the camera, change the clothing that Download the Augmented
“We’ve taken the entire system and you’re checking out, so you can get a feel- Reality in the Real World white
made it mobile, says David Rees, senior
” ing of what it will look like on you.
” paper to learn more about
vice president. “We’ve already built 13 or At ESPN’s Innovation Lab, in Orlando, • augmented reality games for
14 trailers for the Army, and they can now Florida, the engineers have developed rehabilitation;
take those trailers to wherever the troops virtual team members for many different • new tools for movie-making; and
are located. ” sports. The on-air sportscaster appears • military training.
The vehicles have external arms that can to interact with the computer-generated
Download the full story and more at www.technologyreview.com/spotlight
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WEB
Search Screen
THE FIRST high-definition set to have Google TV software built in,
the Sony Internet TV lets viewers search for content on both television
channels and the Internet (see “Searching for the Future of Television,”
p. 32). It also provides a platform for third-party Android-based appli-
cations. The downside is a monster of a remote control, with 80 buttons.
W Product: Sony Internet TV Cost: $600 to $1,400 Availability: Now
Source: www.sonystyle.com Companies: Google, Sony
S O NY
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to market
b iome di Ci ne
Medical
Machines
Assistive robots help patients
out of wheelchairs and aid
doctors in surgery.
Fancy Footwork
ThIs ProsTheTIC actively senses the wearer’s position and uses a motorized
spring to imitate how the ankle, calf muscle, and achilles tendon work to push
off the ground. The result is a more natural gait and less pressure on the hips
and back.
W Product: PowerFoot bioM Cost: Not available Availability: Now Source: www.iwalk.com
Company: iWalk
Torso Control
rewalK features stabilizing crutches,
motorized gears that move the legs, and a
computer-equipped backpack holding a
battery that powers the device for three to
four hours. Motion sensors and onboard
Stand Alone processing monitor the wearer’s upper-
UNlIKe oTher exoskeletons, this one body movements and center of gravity;
C o U rTe Sy o F iWAlK, r e X b I o N I C S, Ar G o
doesn’t require crutches or a backpack; when the person shifts his or her torso,
two giant legs support and lift the user, the device steps appropriately.
who controls the system with joysticks.
W Product: reWalk-I Cost: $130,000
while bulkier than the other systems, it Availability: early 2011 Source: www.argomedtec.com
allows wearers to ascend steps and ramps. Company: Argo Medical Technologies
W Product: rex Cost: $150,000 Availability: Now
Source: rexbionics.com Company: rex bionics
14 To Market technology review January/February 2011
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Surgical Precision
DURING joint replacement surgery, the patient’s
bones have to be sculpted so that the implant can
be fitted securely. This robotic surgical device
uses tracking arms to monitor the position of
the patient’s bone and track the tip of the rotat-
ing burr being used to shave material away. It
will restrain the burr if the surgeon attempts to
remove bone from the wrong location.
W Product: Acrobot Sculptor and Navigator Cost: Not available
Availability: 2011 Source: www.acrobot.co.uk
Company: Stanmore Implants
Sensitive Soles
ATTACHED with clips and Velcro straps, these motorized leg sup-
C O U RTE SY O F AC R O B OT, B E R K E LEY B I O N I C S
ports and foot sensors enable paraplegics to move themselves between
sitting and standing positions, walk in a straight line, and turn.
Crutches help stabilize the walker. Sensors in the foot pads tell the
supports how to flex the knees in a natural manner, allowing wearers
to move over mixed terrain. The system draws power from batteries
carried in a backpack.
W Product: eLegs Cost: $100,000 Availability: Mid-2011 Source: berkeleybionics.com
Company: Berkeley Bionics
www.technologyreview.com To Market 15
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Com P utin G
Digital Dashboard
Ford has developed a new interface
for drivers. Two lCd screens on either
side of the speedometer can show a
range of information, selected using two
game-pad-style thumb controllers on the
steering wheel. The screens can display,
for example, fuel level, distance traveled,
engine temperature, or the presence of
another car in the vehicle’s blind spot.
W Product: MyFord Touch dashboard Cost: $1,000 as
an option Availability: Now Source: www.ford.com
Company: Ford Motor
ComPut i n G
Transform Your Car
The aUToBoT can be retrofitted into most cars made since
1996, allowing you to remotely tap into your vehicle’s engine
diagnostics port and get information about issues such as
cylinder misfires or fuel pressure. The device uses a 3g con-
nection to transmit data; the information can be accessed
through a website or a smart-phone app. If you need direc-
tions to your parking spot or your car is stolen, a built-in gPs
will provide the car’s location. and if you get into an accident,
the autoBot can send text messages to emergency services.
W Product: Autobot Cost: Under $300 Availability: Mid-2011 Source: www.mavizontech.com
Company: Mavizon Technologies C o U rTe Sy o F Fo r D M oTo r; MAVI Z o N Te C H N o lo G I e S
16 To Market technology review January/February 2011
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biom ed iCin e
Pocket
Scanner
UsINg a smart-phone touch screen
to display results, this portable ultra-
sound system is designed to provide
cheap diagnostics in remote areas.
with training, nonexpert field work-
ers can use the device to take ultra-
sounds; images can be transmitted to
off-site doctors for analysis.
W Product: Smart Phone Ultrasound Imager
Cost: $5,000 to $10,000
Availability: Mid-2011, subject to FDA approval
Source: www.mobisante.com Company: Mobisante
Commun i C ati o n s
Peer-to-Peer Radio
ThIs dIgITal radIo supports a new wrinkle in wi-Fi. wi-Fi
direct, as it’s called, lets devices such as printers, laptops, and tele-
visions discover and communicate with each other without having
to first connect to a wi-Fi base station. For example, the technol-
ogy could allow a business visitor to use a printer in the office with-
out being given access to the corporate network.
W Product: Centrino Advanced-N 6000 Cost: Not available Availability: Now Source: www.intel.com
Company: Intel
Web
Social Animals
C o U rTe Sy o F I NTe l; M o b I SANTe; MATTe l
Now everyoNe on the Internet will know if you’re a dog. Intended for owners
looking for a connection with their pet when they can’t be together, the Puppy Tweets
device is attached to a dog’s collar and sends a signal to the owner’s computer, which
then updates to Twitter throughout the day. Posts consist of preworded messages
based on how active the dog is and whether or not it has been barking.
W Product: Puppy Tweets Cost: $25 Availability: Now Source: puppytweet.com Company: Mattel
18 To Market technology review January/February 2011
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playlists and much more. Get it today.
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THE ROAD TO HALF A BILLION
Over the past two years, Facebook has been solidifying its international presence. It has
crowdsourced the translation of its site into dozens of languages, opened new offices
abroad, and launched Facebook Zero, a stripped-down version aimed at countries where
people are more likely to connect using a cell phone than a PC.
graphiti Launched
February 2004
FACEBOOK USERS
1 million 5.5 mil.
2004 2005 2006
Romania
12-MONTH GROWTH
350 % S. Korea
SOUTH KOREA The EASTERN EUROPE Having
world’s most connected reached saturation in most of
country has resisted Western Europe, Facebook
western Web companies. is spreading rapidly through
300 Facebook shows signs of countries that were in the Hungary
breaking through. Soviet Bloc.
Thailand
250 Ukraine
Dominican Republic
Iraq
Brazil INDONESIA The Muslim
Russia Honduras
Ecuador nation is now Facebook’s Portugal
second-largest audience. Costa Rica
Poland
India
200 Paraguay
Estonia
Nicaragua El Salvador
Mexico
INDIA Last year, Facebook
surpassed Orkut as its most Guatemala
popular social network. Philippines
Malaysia
Indonesia
150 Ghana Lithuania
West Bank and Gaza Germany
Pakistan TAIWAN This country and
Peru
Nigeria Oman Hong Kong offer clues about
Bulgaria how popular Facebook could
Morocco Saudi Arabia
Japan
become in mainland China.
Jamaica Jordan
Egypt Netherlands
100 Bangladesh Slovakia
Kuwait Czech Republic Uruguay
Kenya
Tunisia Austria Serbia
Bolivia
Sri Lanka Bosnia and Herzegovina Argentina
Panama Colombia
Turkey
Spain Venezuela Taiwan
50 China Greece
Vietnam South Africa
Lebanon Croatia
Belgium
France
CHINA The Great Firewall stymies Facebook’s Italy
Switzerland Finland
efforts to reach one-fifth of the world’s population.
0 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
MARKET PENETRATION
20 Graphiti technology review January/February 2011
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Opens headquarters for Europe,
Middle East, and Africa in Dublin
21 additional languages launch
German launch
500 million
Spanish and French launch
200 million Facebook Zero launches
in 45 countries
100 million
50 million Opens o ce
12 mil. 20 mil. in India
2007 2008 2009 2010
Making Friends it now has to work harder to establish a
presence in markets like Japan and South
Information graphic by
TOMM Y McCA LL and
Facebook still has lots of Korea, which—partly because those coun-
MAT T M A HONEY
room to grow. tries already have successful homegrown
Web services—have been hard for west- Sources: Audience data is from Inside Net-
W
work’s Facebook Global Monitor report for
ith three-quarters of its 500 million ern companies to crack. November 2010; 2009 population data from
users outside the United States, However, one success story suggests the World Bank was used to calculate market
penetration.
Facebook has spread to every corner of that the company can do well in East
the globe. But there are still plenty of Asia. In Taiwan, which also has a well-
people who have yet to be lured into the established Web ecosystem and is similar
social network—and could be soon. As to Japan and South Korea in terms of
this graph shows, Facebook is only just broadband connectivity and technical
beginning to ripple through the popula- literacy, nearly a third of all residents and
tions of such large countries as India and half of all Internet users have a Face-
Brazil. It is also still a minor player in book account. One factor in the growth
Japan and South Korea. And it is banned has been a ready supply of social games
in China, the biggest Web market of all. for Taiwanese to play on Facebook. Such
For most of its first six years, Face- games are often created by developers in
book was largely able to sit back and let mainland China, even though the govern-
its audience expand naturally, thanks ment prevents most of their countrymen
to the power of the network e ect. But from playing them. —Matt Mahoney
Regions Audience size
North America 143 million
Latin America
Europe
U.S., U.K., AND CANADA These countries still account
for a third of Facebook’s audience and, most likely, the Australasia
vast majority of the company’s revenue. Africa 25
Middle East 10
2
United Arab Emirates
1
Israel
Ireland United
States ICELAND Facebook has benefited
Chile Singapore from intensified network effects in a
New Zealand Hong Kong small, densely settled nation.
Sweden Canada
Australia Denmark Iceland
United Kingdom Norway
35% 40% 45% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70%
www.technologyreview.com Graphiti 21
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