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Research@Intel Day: A Feast for the Senses

Jason Lopez — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:10:55 +0000

Intel’s invitation-only event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., showed off the company’s diverse research projects in areas like visual computing, health, life sciences, green-friendly technologies, and wireless, to name a few. “Intel scientists can propose research on any topic they envision a solution for,” said Manny Vara, Intel’s technology marketing director at Intel’s R&D Labs. “It can start when a scientist comes across a problem, even outside of work, and says, ‘Hey, I could do something about that.’” Intel scientists have engaged in diverse research projects from digital money to mobile antennas that provide access to cell phone services in developing regions of the world. This year’s Research@Intel Day featured more than 70 projects.

Tags: Intel, visual computing, Manny Vara, digital money, mobile antennas, Research@Intel Day, Research@Intel

Voices of Shanghai: IDF 2008

Jason Lopez — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:13:28 +0000

This year’s Spring IDF, in Shanghai, brought the global community of Intel developers to one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, to discuss one of the most rapidly-changing technologies, and the incredible impact that all of that change is bound to have. Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger, referred to Intel’s efforts broadly as “architecture for life.” If it sounds ambitious, it is.

The speed of change in the software world is daunting. In his own keynote, SVP and General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group at Intel, Anand Chandrasekher, noted that everyone is trying to “unleash the Internet, unwire it, and make it go mobile.” Again, the words sound almost obvious, like common sense. They’re not.

It’s true that Intel specializes in bringing incredible advancements to technology on a tick-tock product development schedule that allows industries to grow and thrive. You can see in the matter of weeks and months that Intel’s efforts go from being rumor to being confirmed technological advances (like the recent Dunnington news) that the world is watching itself change in real time. It’s true that a lot of time at IDF in Shanghai was devoted to presentations on specific technologies, platforms and products.

We heard a lot more about Nehalem, about visual computing, about multithreaded CPUs (And just for fun, compare this detailed look at Intel’s sometimes-inscrutable codenames with a detailed look at those same codenames, from a slightly different perspective). Keynotes from Gelsinger and Chandrasekher, along with Software and Solutions Group General Manager and Intel Vice President Renee James and Intel’s Andrew Chien helped to clarify just how much more mobile our technology will allow us to be.

But always in the backdrop was Shanghai. In this video podcast, Jason Lopez connects the dots between Intel’s efforts to push technology past its limits and Shanghai’s amazing journey to pass its own.

Tags: IDF, Shanghai, Intel developers, Pat Gelsinger, architecture for life, Anand Chandrasekher, unleash the Internet, Dunnington, Nehalem, visual computing, multithreaded CPUs, Renee James, Andrew Chien, Jason Lopez, IDF2008, Silverthorne, Intel Atom, mobile Internet device, Nehalem, Dunnington, Multithreading, virtualization, high performance computing, wireless technology, Centrino, WiMax, 45nm, 32nm

IDF Shanghai: Sights and Sounds

Jason Lopez — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:51:47 +0000

In this video podcast, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger explains Intel architecture and its wide-ranging capabilities (”architecture for life”), and Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Mobility Group, Dadi Perlmutter and Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher update the crowd on the latest on the mobile Internet devices and their innovative technology, powered by the Intel Atom processor.

This year’s Spring IDF took place in Shanghai.

Tags: Intel, Pat Gelsinger, Dadi Perlmutter, Anand Chandrasekher, Intel Atom, Shanghai, IDF2008, Silverthorne, Intel Atom, mobile Internet device, Nehalem, Dunnington, Multithreading, virtualization, high performance computing, wireless technology, Centrino, WiMax, 45nm, 32nm

IDF Shanghai: Keynote Demos Showcase Mobility, Innovation

editor — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:27:59 +0000

In this video podcast straight from Intel’s Spring IDF in Shanghai, the spotlight is on the keynote demos that showed power and performance in newer, smaller and more innovative form factors, many powered by the Intel’s Atom processor. Many of the demonstrations focused on mobility, and they all provided an exciting look at some of the technologies that are just around the corner.

Dr. Ren Ng, president and CEO of Refocus Imaging, led a demo of his company’s light field cameras, which record the full light field as it enters the camera, ultimately extending the capabilities of conventional digital cameras and “turning camera hardware into software.” Ng explains that by doing this, light field cameras “bring the economics and power of Moore’s Law to the camera system.” (snapshots from their Web site illustrate the demo, which they re-created live, on stage at IDF!).

Also on hand was Dr. Mendel Rosenblum, co-founder and chief scientist at VMware. He shared the stage with Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger, to demonstrate a flex migration across four generations of hardware as well as the value of the deep collaboration between Intel and VMware.

There was a live demo by Classmate PC, following the news-making announcement of the new, second generation classmate (”featuring a 9-inch LCD screen, 6-cell battery, 512MB memory, a 30GB hard disk drive and a built-in webcam“), the unveiling of Intel’s Tukwila Itanium processor (“Two billion transistors in one processor”), and a mobility-focused Asianux demoonstration of the breadth of Moblin Usage, including a new way to play video from the Web and a new way to order Chinese food.

A Montevina demo was noteworthy after Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Mobility Group, Dadi Perlmutter, revealed that Intel’s next generation mobile platform, Montevina, will provide twice the 3D processing power of any current integrated solution.

Demos showcasing Neusoft driver assistance, Fuwa robot, Adobe Air, Sobey real-time rendering and MID & mobile designs rounded out the event.

Tags: Intel, IDF, Shanghai, mobility, Ren Ng, Refocus Imaging, light field cameras, Mendel Rosenblum, VMware, Pat Gelsinger, flex migration, Classmate PC, Tukwila, Itanium, processor, Moblin, Montevina, Dadi Perlmutter, Fuwa, Adobe Air, Sobey, IDF2008, Silverthorne, Intel Atom, mobile Internet device, Nehalem, Dunnington, Multithreading, virtualization, high performance computing, wireless technology, Centrino, WiMax, 45nm, 32nm

HP iPAQs, Notebooks Help Small and Medium Businesses with Mobility

Catherine Girardeau — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:00:28 +0000

In this video podcast, find out how HP’s line of handheld PCs and business notebooks bring mobility and connectivity to SMBs, and how HP Total Care helps business users get the experience they need from their mobile devices.

HP’s notebook portfolio has expanded, with offerings designed for small business users with a fresh look. These new standard-series business notebooks round out HP’s comprehensive portfolio of mobile offerings. Their sleek, silver-finished style underscore the company’s focus on delivering design-savvy products. The 2710p offers the functionality of an ultra-light notebook plus the flexibility of an ultra-slim tablet. Featuring widescreen displays, the latest processor technology and multiple wireless technologies, the HP Compaq 6720s and 6820s Notebook PCs offer a balance of mobility and value. They come with the latest Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors, WiFi certified WLAN, integrated Bluetooth, ExpressCard 54 (vs. PC Card), 3 USB ports (vs. 2), and security, reliability and ease of use features. For security, HP offers Device Access Manager for HP ProtectTools, HP ProtectTools Security Manager, and HP Disk Sanitizer. For reliability, HP Drive Guard protects from shock and data corruption. And for ease of use, the notebooks feature an integrated Secure Digital (SD) Card reader to easily transfer files to other digital devices and the optional DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe Drive to burn custom high-quality labels and artwork on to your disc.

HP Total Care is a broad portfolio of support, services and solutions to help small and medium businesses get the most out of their technology choices and focus on what they do best – run their business.

The iPAQ 100 and 300-series bring reliable handheld productivity and connectivity tools to SMB customers. The HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld is a stylish personal organizer to keep your emails, calendar, contacts and tasks up-to-date. The HP iPAQ 310 Travel Companion is a sleek personal navigation system that provides a unique 3D travel experience. The high resolution 4.3-inch touch screen display and high-performance GPS technology make it as beautiful as it is helpful.

Tags: HP, HP Total Care, HP Notebook, 6720s, 2710p, iPAQ, HP Protect Tools Security Manager, HP Disk Sanitizer, HP Drive Guard

Mobile Internet Devices Make a Splash at CES 2008

Catherine Girardeau — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:00:25 +0000

Intel continues to develop smaller and smaller microprocessors, and to fit them into elegant platforms to run just about any kind of computer, from sophisticated server arrays to a brand-new class of ultra-portable devices, known as Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). MIDs created some genuine buzz at CES 2008 in Las Vegas. Intel’s MID bar at the show was packed with consumers eager to get their hands on these ultra-portable devices, which Intel said combine performance, battery life and wireless connectivity to deliver the “full Internet in your pocket”. Adding everything you can do on your laptop or desktop to lifestyle features, like cameras, messaging, music and video-sharing, the seven brand-new MIDs at the Intel show will be manufactured by various Intel partners and are slated to hit the market by mid-2008. Intel MIDs are powered by the latest in Intel technology in a platform codenamed Menlow, based on a 45-nanometer microprocessor known as Silverthorn and a chipset codenamed Poulsbo. The Menlow platform will deliver state-of-the-art performance to an impressive variety of ultra-small devices, from iPhone-like touchscreen models from Aigo and Clarion, to devices resembling PDAs with slide-out keyboards, to some combination of the two, such as the Samsung, Toshiba, and Lenovo MIDs.

PodTech spoke with Warner Crocker, of GottaBeMobile.com, who posted his own report on the sixth iteration of Samsung’s Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC, (which features Intel technology), as well as Kevin C. Tofel, of jkontherun.com, which also covered Intel’s MID display in a post from the CES show floor.

Tags: Intel, microprocessors, server arrays, Mobile Internet Devices, MIDs, Menlow, 45-nanometer, Silverthorn, chipset, Poulsbo, Warner Crocker, Kevin C. Tofel

Technology in Nigeria

Jason Lopez — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:24:42 +0000

Nigerians are optimistic that basic technologies like mobile telephony and the Internet can change their country and their lives. As knowledge becomes power in emerging countries, people are making these technologies their own. In Nigeria, local companies are offering IT services to the developing market. One has even launched a mapping services for drivers in Lagos. The photograph pictured is of the Nigerian wireless communications regulatory agency — equivalent to the FCC in the U.S. — and figures prominently in the country’s technological direction. PodTech’s Jason Lopez traveled to Abuja, Nigeria and filed this podcast.

USB 3.0 & Wireless USB Technology - Intel Chip Chat - Episode 24

editor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:00:23 +0000

Explore the latest innovations in one of the most successful interconnect technologies in computing history – the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

Related Stories: Intel, IntelMooresLaw, IDF

Tags: interconnect, Universal Serial Bus, USB, Intel, IntelMooresLaw, IDF

ICT Access for Africa: Intel, UN and ITU Efforts to Globalize Broadband

Jason Lopez — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:44:35 +0000

Broadband, connectivity, Wi-Fi, accessibility and education efforts are all priorities for the ongoing efforts in developing nations and regions around the globe. Intel, along with the United Nations and International Telecommunication Union (ITU), among others, is participating this month in the Connect Africa Summit, which aims to bring together human, technical and financial resources to speed development and improvement of Africa’s Information and Communication Technology, or ICT infrastructure. Expanding broadband, wireless and mobile access technologies is the current push, after indications that Africa’s general ICT development is lagging behind its unprecedented adoption of mobile phone technology (400 percent in just a few years - well ahead of projections).

Dr. Hamadoun Touré is secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union. His call for what he refers to as a “Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa,” has been heard by the United Nations, and particularly by Intel Chairman Craig Barrett who, leading the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development, or UN GAID, is working to bring the leading ICT companies in Silicon Valley and around the world to the challenges in Africa.

The United Nations’s Millennium Development Goals are driving innovation around the world, as the challenge of reducing global poverty by half by 2015 looms. The Connect Africa effort brings together private enterprise and non-governmental organizations for a two-day summit in Kigali, Rwanda, beginning on October 29, hosted by Rwanda President Paul Kagame and John Kufour, president of Ghana and chairman of the African Union.

Intel’s World Ahead Program, established in May 2006, has already seen the chip maker pledge more than $1 billion over five years to bridge the digital divide and bring full access to technology to the developing world.

WiMAX: Pervasive Connectivity - Intel Chip Chat - Episode 13

editor — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:46:57 +0000

Explore how Intel is working to enable new freedoms in mobile information, interaction, user-generated content, and social networking with WiMAX broadband wireless technology.

Esquire North - Where Chic Meets Geek

editor — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:23:14 +0000

Top fashion designer decked out each room of Esquire Magazine’s “Esquire North” with flavor and style while the latest entertainment and lifestyle computer gear connects everything together and to the Internet thanks to Intel technology, including Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad.

Gaming PC with quad core Intel processors. Wireless laptops with Intel Centrino Duo processor technonlogy. Wireless ultra mobile PC with Intel. A central HD-capable entertainment hub with Intel Viiv processor technology inside.

Related Stories: IntelDigtalHome, IntelGaming

Tags: Esquire, Esquire North, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Centrino Duo, Viiv processor, IntelDigtalHome, IntelGaming

Live from IDF: WiMAX and the Future Wireless Broadband Internet

Catherine Girardeau — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:00:35 +0000

Keynotes from two Intel executives — David (Dadi) Perlmutter and Anand Chandrasekher — kicked off Day 2 at Intel’s Fall IDF in San Francisco. First up, Dadi Perlmutter, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Mobility Group. He covered the latest trends in mobile computing, touching on the key elements for mobility — performance, battery life, form factor and wireless communications. Mobile WiMAX will play a big role in wireless networking connectivity, as he explains in this keynote podcast.

In other news, Intel will launch Santa Rosa Refresh in January 2008. It’s an update to Intel Centrino processor technology that includes the next-gen 45nm high-k mobile processor (codenamed Penryn).

Perlmutter also showed the next generation Montevina processor technology that is set to roll out in mid-2008, which includes the Penryn mobile processor and the next-generation chipset with DDR3 memory support. This is notable for being Intel’s first Centrino processor for notebooks to offer the option of integrated Wi-Fi, WiMAX wireless technologies for greater wireless broadband access.

Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, discussed the personal mobile Internet, and Intel’s “silicon roadmap” that will deliver radical reductions in power requirements and package sizes. He also announced a range of leading industry players working with Intel to establish the MID and ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) categories. In a talk entitled, “Unleashing the Internet Experience,” he also covered the upcoming Intel Menlow platform (including a new processor, codenamed Silverthorne - lots of detail can be found on John Spooner’s blog), and the Intel “Moorestown” platform — System on Chip plus a Communications Hub.

The talk also amounted to a check-in after last April’s announcement at IDF Beijing of the MID Innovation alliance with Asus, BenQ, Compal, Elektrobit, HTC, Inventec and Quanta. Chandrasekher was able to show working prototypes from many of the partner companies, emphasizing the significant progress that’s been made over the past six months.

Also announced were strategic collaborations for MID and UMPC efforts — a step forward for Intel’s “Full Internet in Your Pocket” vision.

And the keynote included what Intel billed as the “world’s first demonstration of Adobe AIR Application on Intel Menlow-based platform” — designed to extend the reach of rich Internet applications.

Go Mobile - Click Here for MIDs and UMPCs

Tags: David (Dadi) Perlmutter, Anand Chandrasekher, Fall IDF, Dadi, mobile computing, WiMAX, networking connectivity, Santa Rosa Refresh, 45nm, mobile processor, Penryn, Montevina processor, Anand Chandrasekher, Ultra Mobility, ultra-mobile PC, UMPC, Intel Menlow, Silverthorne, Moorestown, System on Chip, MID Innovation, Full Internet in Your Pocket

IT Pros Finding Reliable, Remote Security and Manageability for Business Laptops, 24/7

Catherine Girardeau — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:44:11 +0000

In this Intel podcast, Matt Trevorrow and Jeff Wade of IT-outsourcing firm EDS explain how Intel’s vPro and Centrino Pro technology together are making the three million desktop and laptop computers they manage worldwide more secure, and more manageable. They also discuss how the innovation of remote security and manageability on the chip keeps the enterprise network safe and functional, wherever the company’s Internet wired or wireless users are located. vPro technology isn’t just making life better for IT professionals, says Wade; it’s offering, “an order of magnitude better performance for that end user,” who is what this technology should be all about. PodTech’s Catherine Girardeau reports.

Related stories:
IntelBusiness, IntelSecurity

Tags: Intel, Matt Trevorrow, Jeff Wade, EDS, vPro, Centrino Pro, wireless, IT, IntelBusiness, IntelSecurity

iPhone Hype in India

Kamla Bhatt — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:42:35 +0000

Apple’s iPhone has created quite a bit of hype in India since Steve Jobs unveiled it in January of this year. (India’s mobile phone market is growing by a few million subscribers every month.) I caught up with two techies — Thiyagarajan (Rajan) and Rajiv, who have their fingers on the latest and greatest mobile technology in India — to find out what they thought of the iPhone and the impending June 29, 2007 launch date.

Rajiv and Thiyagarajan are both entrepreneurs in the mobile space and also started the Mobile Monday chapter in Bangalore. Rajiv’s start-up is called Sedna Wireless and Thiyagarajan’s is Motvik.

Tags: iPhone, India, Steve Jobs, Rajan, Rajiv, entrepreneurs, Motvik

Interop 2007: Cisco’s Mobility Vision

Catherine Girardeau — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:20:28 +0000

Cisco’s VP of Mobility Solutions, Alan Cohen, and Zeus Kerravala, senior VP for Enterprise Research with Yankee Group, talked about Cisco’s vision for the Unified Wireless Network, and about the mobility landscape, with PodTech’s Catherine Girardeau, at Interop Las Vegas 2007. Cohen discussed some of Cisco’s mobility solutions in the retail arena, including the 7921G Wireless IP phone, and location appliance and asset tags — and for the oil and gas industry, using wireless mesh network technology. This video was commissioned by News@Cisco.

Tags: Cisco, Mobility Solutions, Alan Cohen, Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group, Unified Wireless Network, Catherine Girardeau, Interop, 7921G

Charleston Southern University’s CIO on Alcatel-Lucent’s Latest Technology

editor — Mon, 21 May 2007 12:00:00 +0000

Rusty Bruns, chief information officer at CSU, has witnessed the university quickly go from “wired” to “wireless.” The university was ranked 37th by Intel in 2005 for “Most Unwired Campus.” In this audio podcast, Bruns talks about how Alcatel-Lucent is helping CSU manage and secure their mobile laptops to increase productivity, protect data and reduce risks associated with mobile devices by leveraging their newest product, the OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian.

Tags: Rusty Bruns, CSU, Intel, Most Unwired Campus, Alcatel-Lucent, OmniAccess

Intel Releases the New Centrino

Jason Lopez — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:00:16 +0000

Intel has released its newest Centrino technologies for notebook computers. The company says the new hardware and software platform has improved processor and graphics performance, wireless connectivity, battery life, startup and loading time, as well as enhanced security and machine management for IT departments.

The new technologies are Centrino Duo, for consumer machines, and the Centrino Pro, for business notebooks. The release of the new laptop technologies comes four years after Intel first launched the platform that made wireless connectivity and mobility a standard characteristic of notebook computers. “It really was a tipping point,” said Karen Regis, a manager in Intel’s Mobile Platform Marketing Group. “It really became the new norm. People expect to be able to sit on their couch and be on the Internet.”

“Now, what we’re doing is we’re just raising the bar on ourselves with what people can do with that wireless,” she added. Regis says the new technology allows people to use their laptops at home or in business in ways that are more seamless. “Once you have that kind of throughput, coverage and reliability, you can start doing interesting things like high definition content.” The rise of Internet-delivered video is one of the factors in the design of new Centrino technologies. Both the Centrino Duo and Pro technologies are based on Core2Duo chips.

Centrino Pro laptops are designed to work within Intel’s vPro environment where I.T. departments can more easily manage fleets of PCs and stay on top of security issues.

Related Stories:
IntelMobility
IntelBusiness

More Information
here and here

Tags: Intel, Centrino, notebook, Centrino Duo, Centrino Pro, Karen Regis, IntelMobility, IntelBusiness

PayMate Founder Ajay Adiseshann on E-Commerce via SMS

Kiruba Shankar — Wed, 02 May 2007 18:13:52 +0000

Ajay Adiseshann is the founder and managing director of PayMate. He helped set up the company in May 2006. As managing director of PayMate, he is responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing, business development and overall strategy.

PayMate is the first-of-its-kind mobile payment service in India, which helps customers buy things online by sending an SMS from their mobile phone. The Mumbai-based wireless transactions platform provider has created a viable ecosystem to enable wireless transactions connecting banks, switches, merchants and customers using a simple, secure and seamless technology

A serial entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering, Ajay founded founded Coruscant Tec, a mobile content developer and aggregator and Webresource, a Web applications and design company.

Tags: Ajay Adiseshann, PayMate

Making Mobile Productive and Secure for Small Business Travelers

Catherine Girardeau — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:00:47 +0000

Mobile technology isn’t just cool; it’s essential for today’s small business. Our experts separate the hype from the hard truth when it comes to getting business done securely on the road. Join Anita Campbell, founder of Small Business Trends and small business thought-leader; Jeff Zbar, “The Chief Home Officer” and nationally-recognized expert in living the home-office lifestyle; and Pamela Baker, technology guru for Success Magazine, as they share their insights into making mobile technology pay off for you.

This podcast was commissioned by Success Magazine.

(more…)

Tags: Mobile, Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends, Jeff Zbar, Pamela Baker, Success Magazine

Silicon Valley to Host Historic Meeting

Jason Lopez — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:04:58 +0000

The United Nations is embarking on something new: a partnership with the private sector to address some of the developing world’s most vexing issues in areas such as education, health care, economic development and government. Craig Barret, the chairman of Intel, has been appointed to chair the UN initiative called the Global Alliance for ICT and Development. GAID meets with Silicon Valley leaders for the first time at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., for a series of panels and discussions about the ways IT solutions can help the U.N.’s efforts. PodTech’s Jason Lopez spoke with Sarbuland Khan, executive coordinator for GAID.

The podcast was made possible by Intel.

Hospitals Ready for C5

Jason Lopez — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:12:13 +0000

The University of California, San Francisco Medical center says its pilot study using a portable computer called the C5 helped nurses to be far more productive than with conventional personal computers. The current setup in most hospitals is called a COW, or “computer on wheels,” which is composed of a laptop along with non-networked diagnostic equipment, all on a cart. Medical personnel generally rely on pen and paper to write down data such as blood pressure and then enter it into the PC. The C5, developed by Intel and manufactured by motion computing, provides wireless convergence and it networks with diagnostic devices. Intel made this video possible.

This is an Intel podcast.

The Motion C5: Mobile Computing for Health Care

Michael Johnson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:46:26 +0000

In San Francisco, Intel, with Motion Computing and the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, announced the launch of the Motion C5 mobile clinical assistant, a lightweight tablet computer specifically designed for use in hospitals, for nurse patient care. It features a camera, barcode scanner, interoperability with medical devices like blood pressure monitors and EKG machines, bluetooth and 8.211 wireless connectivity.

More photos available at Flickr

This is an Intel podcast.

Related Stories: IntelDigitalHealth

Transcript:

Host: Michael Johnson – PodTech
Guest: Scott Eckert - Motion Computing
Guest: Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF

Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF
It’s one of the first times I’ve seen an information technology be put into the environment and the nurses are smiling about it and they’re saying, “This is helping me do my job”.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
This is Michael Johnson. In San Francisco, Intel along with Motion Computing and the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, announced the launch of the Motion C5, a lightweight tablet computer designed specifically for use in hospital, for nurse patient care. It features a camera, barcode scanner, interoperability with medical devices like blood pressure monitors and EKG machines, Bluetooth and 802.11 wireless connectivity and it replaces what’s sometimes referred to as the COW (computer on wheels) basically a laptop on a cart. After the initial announcement by Intel’s Paul Otellini, I spoke with Motion Computing CEO, Scott Eckert. Motion Computing designs computers for health care use and I asked Eckert, how the C5 project began?

Scott Eckert - Motion Computing
We first talked with Intel at IDF for about a year-and-a-half ago and heard the initial idea. I think they might have had the wooden model at that point probably not much else, but a vision to actually make this a reality and we engaged very quickly as health care has been Motion’s primary market from the outset. Here is an opportunity to take a market we were already serving and try to do something very different and unique with Intel and their breath of vision and willingness to start from scratch with end user input was a terrific way to get started in this industry and we were interested in engaging with them. So it was a pretty short conversation about how quickly we would start working with Intel.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
What is it about this particular form that has been working for people that are working with it?

Scott Eckert - Motion Computing
The slate form factor is intuitive for the end user because it feels like a clipboard, a piece for paper that they would have carried, maybe a scratch pad, and navigating the computer with a pen, also feels very natural. So, what we’re trying to do is make a computer that mimics the way that the end user — inclination in health care environment for instance — it mimics the way they actually work and so they can almost forget the fact that they’re using a piece of technology because its just like they’re using pen and paper. That’s the market we’re going after and if the software works really well with the hardware device, that’s the type of experience they have and they see enormous increases in productivity because they’ve replaced pen and paper with a computer for the very first time in most of our applications.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
Now, I know that this sort of looks like I think some of the model of where computing is going in general, not just for health care. Where people are working with thin clients not much resident on the device itself but it’s sort of in the cloud, in the background. Tell me a little bit about what some of the challenges would be for security with this particular device because I know it operates on XP and also on Vista as well, the two platforms, but then tell me a little bit about security concerns.

Scott Eckert - Motion Computing
For clarity and whether it’s implemented in a thin client or a thick client it’s often at the end customer’s request. They can do it either way and we have examples of both. What we focused on from a security standpoint is authentication, having multiple levels of authentication. So, finger print log on or RFID badge log on and having that authentication tied to a TPM module. So, you can have inscription within the device and then we also have a technology called Computrace that is often known as Low Jack for laptops that allows you to track if the device actually leaves the premises, you can scramble the hard disk.

So, there are a bunch of different safeguards around capturing the data on the device and making sure that the device doesn’t carry the data outside of the building. Then how you implement security for the data in the cloud or in the backend becomes the feature of how that software or that backend architecture is implemented.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
Now where do you see this going in as far as deployment within the next few years, I know the question was asked earlier about why has all this sort of converged now and where do you see it in five years?

Scott Eckert - Motion Computing
Part of the reason, it’s converged now; if you think back in the last five years, we’ve now got the ability to do thin and light mobile computing platforms. We’ve got an operating system from Microsoft that enables tablets, we’ve got high performance wireless that even a few years ago 80211 was just getting started and we’ve got a push from Intel into the health care industry to embrace the software vendors that are making clinical information systems.

So, there is a number of different technology factors that point to why now, for this class of product in this particular market, the health care market. If I look forward over the next five years, we’re just getting started on getting these devices into the hands of clinicians and health care. We now have the right device, we’ve just now got the software that works with this device, so now it’s a matter of taking examples like UCSF Medical Center where we are right now and doing similar sorts of deployments in a number of different health care institutions across the US. Today, as it stands, we have 40 customers lined up to do trials and usability studies just like what we’ve seen at UCSF and that’s just the beginning of how big the opportunity could be.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
Are any of those trials happening in other places other than the United States?

Scott Eckert - Motion Computing
Yes, there are trials in the UK, there are trials in Singapore. We have some trials in Canada and over time I would expect many, many more. Our focus is US, Canada, all major European markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand. So, all those markets are areas where the Motion C5 product will be launched effectively now and we’ll be shipping in a couple of months into 25 different countries.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
That was Motion Computing CEO, Scott Eckert. I also spoke with UCSF’s Chief Medical Information Officer Dr. Michael Blum, about the development of the C5 from a medical practitioner and administrator’s point of view.

Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF
We’d worked with motion on some of their previous products and got together with a group of clinicians in an advisory capacity to really review the functionality and the features that they were talking about including and really work together to say how would this work in a clinical environment? Where were they on the mark? Where were they missing the mark? And what they really needed to do to introduce the concept of infection control and how important that is in the environment today. And really that’s some of their early beliefs about infection control. For example, the original thought was that the thing had to be — the device actually, had to be completely submersible to be disinfective which turns out not to be true. It actually needs to be wipable and that led to a lot of further modifications in the design. Things such as reducing any of the cracks and crevices came out of those sessions.

We also worked a lot with them around the importance of the software vendors, the applications really being customized to take advantage of the mobility and a lot of the team members brought their particular software providers, the GEs, the McKessons, the Cerners and the Siemens to really work with Motion and really developing their application specifically for it and that took the better part of the year, year-and-a-half until we ended up but today where the launch happened.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
It’s a pretty massive structure in which to deploy this, I mean, this is a world known campus here. Many people come here from all over the world to study medicine and also to get treated as well. What were the challenges, some of the main challenges you had in deploying such a device in such a large infrastructure as UCSF?

Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF
So one of our goals in designing the device was actually to make it so that it was as lightweight as possible from the infrastructure’s perspective, from the organization’s perspective that you didn’t have to go back and do a major change. So, it runs on common wireless infrastructure which we have deployed here and it runs on typical Windows platform.

So there is not a tremendous amount of re-work and learning. Having said that, it is a culture change and a technology change to move from a typical Notebook computer that people know how to work and so on, to bring them to using hand writing recognition, to using a bio metric sign on requires some training of the nurses and we’ve gone through that process and found that the nurses readily adopted this technology because it’s easier to use as opposed to when you try to do that kind of culture change and something that’s a challenge and you train and you train, and you train.

This is a pretty quick training cycle and the nurses adopted pretty well. Some of the other challenges are building the images, which way the software’s loaded onto the tablet so that you don’t have to touch each tablet individually, it requires a little bit of a specific build for the tablet, so we went through that hurdle. It was not nearly as bad as everyone had feared and it adopted a pretty standard image pretty well and the connectivity with the wireless has turned out to be excellent as well. The next step will be how are we going to plan to acquire and deploy them throughout the facility as we get some more experience up here.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
I know that we’ve been reading a lot of newspapers writing about security concerns with their laptops being stolen from the VA, the FBI and then you know hundreds of thousands of documents and records being on the individual laptop. What’s the situation with the motion C5 as far as it being for I guess to develop thick client or thin client? How much information is resident on the C5 as you walk around with it?

Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF
So, that’s an excellent point and tremendous concern of ours is the protection of the patient information and the patient privacy and it’s a focus of everything we do. The way it’s been designed is that no patient information is resident on the device itself. The entire client application and all the other applications are running off backend servers so that if this device was taken out of the environment, or broken, none of the information would be lost or would be taken out of the environment. In those situations, where you do have thefts of the devices, if there is patient information there, it’s a huge problem and as you point out the VA and several of the Universities of California have run into issues, so we’ve designed it and that was another part of the measure feedback from the clinician design team was that no information should need to be resident on the device in the environment.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
So, we’re not going to see a C5 on eBay any time soon?

Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF
Well, I’m sure you will, someone will steal one of these as soon as they can. As it was pointed out earlier today, a couple of things were built into it, the RFID locationability so we can see where they’re tracking through the environment. There is also platform features that are built in. So, should it be taken out of the environment? It can become disabled. There is essentially low jack for computers that you can’t employ things like that but people are going to steal anything that they can. Our goal was to make sure that if they do steal it, they don’t get any patient information with it.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
So, what’s the most exciting thing about this implementation for you?

Dr. Michael Blum – UCSF
I think it’s really the nursing satisfaction, the nursing adoption and the fact that we’re actually making it easier for the nurses to care for the patients. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen an information technology either a software application or a device, we put in the environment and the nurses are smiling about it and they’re saying, “This is helping me, do my job.” That’s a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

Michael Johnson – PodTech
That was Dr. Michael Blum, Chief Medical Information Officer for The University of California at San Francisco. We also heard from Motion Computing CEO, Scott Eckert. They spoke at the launch of the Motion C5 Tablet Computer for nurse patient care developed with Intel and UCSF. In San Francisco, this is Michael Johnson.

Tags: Intel, Motion Computing, tablet, IntelDigitalHealth