Webcams up to help military families stay in touch (sltrib.com)
Brent Taylor sings Disney songs with his nearly 3-year-old daughter and plays peekaboo with his 16-month-old son.
But that family time is unlike most, says his wife, Jennie Taylor.
After all, her husband is stationed in Baghdad and her children wouldn't know their dad very well if not for the Internet camera in their North Ogden home. Their youngest was only 3 months old when Brent left for Iraq.
"He might go into culture shock when my husband gets in and he sees he's in 3-D," Taylor said, adding that she and Brent wanted to do as much as they could to make his sacrifice in joining the military easier on the kids. more... 7/24/2008
Robotic surgery headed to area (heraldnews.com)
Southcoast Hospitals Group announced Tuesday it will open a robotic surgical program this fall. The purchase of Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Surgical System will allow surgeons to perform robotic-assisted, minimally invasive procedures with greater precision and expertise.
The da Vinci Surgical System at Southcoast will be used primarily for complex urological surgeries, such as radical prostatectomies, with plans to expand to gynecological procedures. It will be located at Charlton Memorial Hospital, the Fall River site of Southcoast Hospitals Group and will be used by surgeons from throughout Southcoast Hospitals Group. more... 7/15/2008
Mending bald eagle chick returns its home (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
A bald eagle chick named Skye will return to its native Santa Cruz Island home this afternoon, its broken wing mended after an unusual May 19 nest attack drew international attention via YouTube.
The 14-week-old chick received a celebratory send-off today from about 20 third-grade students from Lemonwood School in Oxnard. The students and their teacher, Regan Nelson, have been monitoring Skye’s welfare as part of a class project and sent get-well cards to the bird during its recovery, said Yvonne Menard, spokeswoman for Channel Islands National Park, which encompasses Santa Cruz Island and four other islands off Southern California. “They were very upset when this snatching occurred,” Menard said. more... 7/15/2008
CCTV Camera Identifies People by Race (pcworld.com)
The eye of tech-artist Benjamin Males' custom-made surveillance camera is engineered for a black and white world.
Black and white people, that is.
Males, 25, a mechanical engineer who recently graduated with a master's degree from London's Royal College of Art, wrote the software for a camera that determines a person's race.
The RTS-2 (Racial Targeting System) is essentially an automated racial-profiling tool, one that governments and police have not dared touch due to privacy and human-rights concerns, even though the technical capabilities already exist. more... 7/14/2008
TalktoaDoc Enables Patient Doctor Interaction Via Webcam (internetcommunications.tmcnet.com)
A new Web site TalktoaDoc.org has been launched that allows patients to talk to doctors online using text (keyboard), voice (microphone), and/or video (Webcam). This development shows that doctors have finally embraced the technology age.
The site provides a convenient way for patients to interact with their doctor using their computers. All they require is a PC, a Web cam and Internet connection.
TalktoaDoc.org gives patients the first minute of the conversation free and charges $2.98 per additional minute thereafter. This allows patients to get even simple questions answered without having to pay a high flat fee.
Those with no insurance can also use the site as TalktoaDoc.org does not go through insurance companies. And while this new service does not intend to replace regular doctor visits, it can supplement them and can provide doctors online at any time, not just during set hours. more... 7/11/2008
Marine sees birth, thanks to 6,000-mile Web hookup (nydailynews.com)
He was 6,000 miles from Brooklyn, but Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Cintron got a glimpse of his newborn son before his wife did.
"Hi, I'm your daddy," Cintron announced to his minutes-old son. "Look, your nose is squishy."
In a remarkable four-hour Web cast from a maternity ward at Maimonides Medical Center, mom Jeannine Cintron's delivery of son Michael James Cintron was beamed clear across ocean and land to his 26-year-old father in Iraq.
The baby weighed in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces and the new dad weighed in with a fatherly shriek: "Look! He's looking at me!"
In Maimonides' first-ever video conference of a baby delivery, Cintron first heard the baby's heartbeat. more... 7/10/2008
Wireless surveillance catching on in U.S. cities (securitydirectornews.com)
The same night this city attached a surveillance camera to a light post in a crime-ridden neighborhood, a convenience store across the street fell prey to a pack of looters.
Police saw it all happening in real-time video from their new command station and arrived in time to make five arrests. more... 7/8/2008
Webcam to monitor and promote skatepark (stuff.co.nz)
Lights and a camera will soon be catching the action at the new skatepark in Nelson's Neale Park to monitor skaters' and bikers' behaviour.
City council community projects manager Andrew Petheram said as well as the camera being installed for security purposes, it would also serve to promote the skatepark. The camera would transmit to the council's website, with real-time monitoring by staff and the public. more... 7/8/2008
