AIM Institute Technology Blog

Archive for the ‘Business Trends’ Category

The Chevrolet Volt is one of the most technically advanced cars on the market today. It is currently 40 percent software (with approximately 10 million lines of code) and has more than 100 electronic controls. One important key to the operation of the vehicle was GM’s decision to work with IBM to utilize a “system of systems” approach.”

IBM has been helping GM standardize its vehicle design by minimizing software tools and creating a common, collaborative design process. For example, IBM’s supercomputers and simulation software allowed GM test teams to meet thousands of specifications and to validate each of the 2011 Volt battery’s 161 components.

For example, Gassenfeit says, “We are fusing the various propulsion systems of the vehicle, such as the electric motor, the battery, and power electronics.” In the past, these were mechanically coupled to a traditional power train. Now, they are coupled electronically, where the engine may only be there to run a generator and provide electric energy when needed to propel the vehicle.

Gassenfeit sees says the benefits of the system of systems approach are only starting to be realized. “For example, there will be a great deal of work to standardize interfaces and services in how these vehicles connect with the Internet,” he says. “In the future, a car will actually become a node on the Internet, having its own IP address.” In fact, the 2011 Volt already does have its own IP address built into each car.

As a technophile, I completely understand the benefits and usefulness of an associated IP address with just about any type of electronic device. I’m really not a conspiracy type of guy, but I can’t help but wonder what type of cyber-attacks these cars may be vulnerable to. Thoughts?

Dutch researchers recently demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network, or BAN for short. A BAN essentially gives the human body its own IP address, and the new techniques demonstrated at IMEC based in Eindhoven incorporate a dongle that plugs into the SD card slot of a cellphone, enabling the streaming of data from the sensors to the cellphone in real time. The demonstrated software, which runs Android OS and uses the nRF24L01+ radio wireless standard rather than Bluetooth. So what does this mean for the future of medicine? Well, with just a few EKG-like sensors, people with medical conditions such as heart problems, or athletes in training, will be able to monitor their own body on their cellphones. The technology is still in the demo phase, but it’s one we look forward to seeing in practice.

To me, this seems to hold great promise for those with heart conditions. In the not-so-distant past, a heart victim had to be rushed to the hospital (where monitoring equipment is available). More recently, paramedics were added to rescue crews to shorten the time to get monitoring on a patient. In the near future, it seems that a heart patient can begin transmitting with their own phone immediately upon sensing their own symptoms!

There’s a Toyota Prius in California, and a VW Passat halfway around the globe — each equipped with bucket-shaped contraptions that let the cars drive themselves. Following their research on autonomous autos in the DARPA Urban Challenge, a team at Germany’s TU Braunschweig let the above GPS, laser and sensor-guided Volkswagen wander down the streets of Brunswick unassisted late last week, and today Google revealed that it’s secretly tested seven similar vehicles by the folks who won that same competition. CMU and Stanford engineers have designed a programmable package that can drive at the speed limit on regular streets and merge into highway traffic, stop at red lights and stop signs and automatically react to hazards — much like the German vehicle — except Google says its seven autos have already gone 1,000 unassisted miles each. That’s still a drop in the bucket, of course, compared to the efforts it will take to bring the technology home — Google estimates self-driving vehicles are at least eight years down the road.

Though Google’s cars have driven 1,000 miles fully autonomously, that’s a small fraction of the time they’ve spent steering for themselves. We’ve learned the vehicles have gone 140,000 miles with occasional human interventions, which were often a matter of procedure rather than a compelling need for their human drivers to take control.

A recent study by the Battelle Institute gives our state mixed marks on overall economic and business development efforts. One note I found interesting was the fact that the report noted that “Nebraska could do a better job of linking talented in-state graduates with high-tech jobs being offered by businesses and industries across the state.” The report was done by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice of Columbus, Ohio. The company identifies itself as the world’s largest nonprofit independent research and development organization.

This is something that many organizations, including the AIM Institute is working to address, and the report serves as a reminder of the work still ahead of us.

The full report can be viewed online as a Powerpoint Summary or as an Executive Summary in .PDF format.

Some excerpts from the Omaha World Herald story are noted below:

The study outlined Nebraska’s economic strengths and weaknesses, concluding that our state was well-positioned for continued economic growth because of its diverse economy.

The “stars of the economy” for Nebraska are financial services, transportation and warehousing, precision metals manufacturing, biosciences and renewable energy.

Tripp said the $900 million in research and development funds now being spent in the state is among three “emerging strengths” for Nebraska, along with tourism/travel and health services.

Key industries that need more help, particularly in getting more skilled workers, were identified as agriculture and food processing; business management and administrative services; software and computer services; and agricultural machinery.

Heineman said a key to growth will be to better link the state’s education and business sectors, with training matching the needs of industry, so that more Nebraska students stay in the state and more high-paying jobs are developed.

One approach suggested was subsidizing internships offered by Nebraska businesses, which would be a new use of taxpayer funds.

Heineman and Richard Baier, his economic development director, said such an investment would keep young people from moving away. Baier said such an internship program in Philadelphia resulted in 80 percent of students staying in the area.

“The state now has a loss in our investment because students are leaving Nebraska,” Baier said.

The report also recommended a fine tuning of economic development incentives to support expansion of existing businesses and entrepreneurs. One suggestion: a new “angel investment tax credit” for “high net-worth individuals” who invest in startup companies, officials said.

Rumors have been buzzing about since June, but Google just made it official — the company’s added the ability to make Google Voice calls within Gmail today. Like the Google Chat text, voice and video chat integrated into the web-based email client last year, full phone calls are now completely functional. Calls to US and Canadian landlines are completely free of charge. Users can buy prepaid credits using Google Checkout for international calling, with credits available in a few weeks.  During this morning a product manager called Paris for $0.02 a minute. Incoming calls pop up as a chat window in Gmail (and ring your Google Voice-equipped phones simultaneously).  Users can press a “Call phone” button that appears near the top of the Chat window to send an outbound call, at which point a dialer appears where you can copy/paste numbers or tap them in manually. Users can screen incoming calls or send them to voicemail with a single tap.

For those of us that carry Google phones (Android OS), this service totally integrates email service, contacts, chat and voice calls.  As an example, if I receive an email from someone who is either a Google user (has a gmail account) or someone that I’ve added to my list of contacts already, I can simply click once on the user’s name, select “Chat” and I am given the choice of text chat, audio chat, video chat, or “Call.”  If I select “Call” the individual is called using Google Voice service which means I accrue no cell minutes whatsoever on my phone.