The National Geographic published an article that inspired me to share my thoughts about it. Though much of my focus in finding solutions to the healthcare needs of people in developing nations is on creating a system where communities will not need to depend on traditional healthcare, the current reality is that those traditional organizations are still the only access …Continue Reading
One of the most amusing things I’ve seen recently has been the video of UPenn’s quadrotors playing the James Bond theme. Watching this video, I can’t help but be reminded of a swarm of cartoon bees, all working together to bring pollen back to the hive and make honey. As funny a picture as that is, it points directly at …Continue Reading
One of the top ten medical breakthroughs expected in 2012 is Harnessing Big Data to Improve Healthcare. As Trustee of the Board at X PRIZE Foundation, I am focused on finding entrepreneurial solutions to address the global challenges in education, poverty, agriculture, health, and clean water. With so much data in the world of cyberspace, it only makes sense that …Continue Reading
One of the biggest hurdles an entrepreneur faces when considering entering the marketplace is whether production of the product can be scaled to be accessible to the largest amount of consumers. There are lots of factors when considering scalability, many of those being production costs. For example, time of manufacture, materials, and labor all contribute to the inherent costs of …Continue Reading
An Iowa startup called Dwolla has come up with an innovative new way to deal with online payments that sidesteps credit cards completely. The 28 year old who started the company has no finance background, yet his little operation is moving about $350 million per year. In the founder’s words, “Ultimately we’re trying to build the next Visa, not the …Continue Reading
India introduced a cheap tablet computer Wednesday, saying it would deliver modern technology to the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty. The computer, called Aakash, or “sky” in Hindi, is the latest in a series of “world’s cheapest” innovations in India. Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce …Continue Reading
Simply speak into your phone, flip the phone over, and Vocre will speak for you in any of six languages (with more on the way). Using the accelerometer in the iPhone allows Vocre to theoretically give you a ‘touchless’ and more natural way of having a conversation in a foreign tongue. According to the maker’s website: “Vocre is a new …Continue Reading
A team at Stanford University in California used computer learning software to sort through data generated by brain scans and detect when people were in pain. Currently, doctors rely on patients to tell them whether or not they are in pain. And that is still the gold standard for assessing pain, Mackey said. But some patients — the very young, …Continue Reading
Driverless “pod cars” already exist in London’s Heathrow Airport. The small, four-seater automated cars, manufactured by the company ULTra PRT, move along a track like a rollercoaster, and are environmentally friendly in two key ways: they’re electric, and they run on demand. The pods ferry 800 people along 2.4 miles of track daily. The company has proposed systems similar to …Continue Reading