WirelessDoc

Voice (speech) recognition is the killer app for mobiles

And, it's a workable solution now, based on my experience with Google's Voice Search on the Android platform that I blogged about yesterday.

Once you can reliably use speech recognition on a mobile, the issues of small keyboard and small screen, even on a netpad computer, vanish.

The most important aspect of this is that it changes how you think about finding information. I was lying in bed, and for some reason I was thinking about my sister's wired haired terrier, and I remembered that her vet said the dog may have a form of Cushing's Syndrome. At that moment the term "canine cushing's syndrome" popped into my head. I did the voice search on the HTC Hero, and sure enough the first hit did come up with a Web page devoted to this subject. I quickly looked it over, and it seemed to be well research, so I chose to send the link to my sister via e-mail. All this was done within minutes.

If I had to type this search term using the Hero's virtual keypad, I wouldn't have done the search.

Besides performing Web searches, this potentially could be used by patients to record symptoms, or ask questions that could be sent via e-mail. Of course, you still have the issues of privacy and confidentiality, but encrypted e-mail is already available.

Another aspect of this is that more Web sites will have alternative mobile sites that render well on small screens. This is long overdue, perhaps because it limits the number of ads that can appear on the page.

Adobe Flash is another problem for the mobile Web. Eventually it will be universally supported, but here you run into the problem of overloaded cellular networks by power users watching videos.

I think all this points to the fact that soon smart phones will look and act very differently in the near future, as well as changing how people approach information management and communication.

Medical search using Google Voice Search on the Android HTC Hero

I stumbled upon Google Voice Search when I was testing the Sprint Navigation app on the HTC Hero smart phone. In order to chart a course from your present location, you have the option of speaking the address of the destination, then Google finds on the map and shares it with the navigation app, giving you turn-by-turn navigation.

Then I noticed that the voice search was a standalone Android app. I tested it with a medical term search as I mentioned in a previous post. Now, here's the video:

Here's some screen shots of the app in action:

Ultrasound imaging with smartphones using a USB-based probe

This is the application developed by Washington University scientists led by Associate Professor William Richard and researcher David Zar which uses commercial USB ultrasound probes with Microsoft Windows smartphones. (The images are from their poster session presented at the 2009 meeting of the World Health Congress.)

Along with the traditional uses of clinical ultrasound imaging, its convenience can be utilized for imaging veins arteries for starting IVs and central lines (I wish I had this while a surgical resident), as well as for gathering data in remote regions of the developing world for analysis on the spot, or sneding that data back to a centralized service if needed.

Here's their Wiki.

Here's the press release

Docs are seeking to replace their old Palm PDAs, but sticking with the old OS

I've seen a couple of posts on the mostly inactive palm-med listserv about MDs looking to replace their old Palm Tungsten PDAs as the batteries no longer keep a charge. They have all their contact data and text files on the Palm Desktop software, but need a new handheld to re-sync.

Steve Gibson has one solution (search the keyword "refrigerator" in this text passage). He was doing his Security Now Webcast with Leo Laporte and mentioned that he has six TX's stashed in a refrigerator.

Other MDs have offered to give away their PDAs to those in need, but it's probably time to evaluate all the options now and in the near future. The Palm PDA and the associated Garnet OS has had a wide acceptance in the medical community, so I would think that this is going to be a big issue for many.

Of course, the Palm Pre and the new WebOS are about to be released, and I'm watching the Palm blog to get the latest news. I'm switching. I'll lose the third party apps that I've enjoyed using on my Treo 700p like Agendus, but I'm willing to move on. I'm hoping that porting the old data to the new OS won't be much of a problem, which is something I'll start researching.

You can export your contact infomation via a csv (comma separated values) text file. As an experiment, this morning I export some of my contacts, then imported them into Excel. I'm pretty sure the other devices such as the Blackberry would accept this format. At least this gives you a generic format to backup to in case you lose the old Palm programs.

Some thoughts on iPhone OS 3.0

I followed the live coverage of the iPhone OS 3.0 event earlier today by both GDGT and Gizmodo. Both sites did a great job, and it was only once that was there a glitch in reloading their Web sites. It happened to both simultaneously, so it might have been something on my end or my ISP. Otherwise, their coverage was about equal, except for some minor points I'll make.

The Gizmodo photographer did a great job photographing the slideshow. Usually, the screen of the smartphone on the slide is overexposed and burned out because the camera is trying to compensate for the overall dark background. The Giz photog was able to adapt to each slide which makes me think that he or she was using a spot meter--that's the way to go. Set your camera to EV +1.0, and place the spot meter on the phone screen, and you'll get legible text everytime.

GDGT did a better job of relating the content during the Q&A session at the end. While Giz stated that the answer to question about Flash support was that there were no Flash announcement. The GDGT guy, I assume it was Ryan Block, added that the speaker said that there was already suport for HTML5 with video tags, and h.264 encoding.

On the medical side, today's event was noteworthy for a 3.0 app produced by Johnson & Johnson for blood glucose monitoring that would allow the user to do a reading with their OneTouch monitor and then transfer this reading to the iPhone via Bluetooth, or the 30-pin dock connector. The user can then message a physician, or anyone else with this reading and/or their symptoms at the moment, as well as graph the trend of the readings. It's very interesting to note that during the Q&A, the Apple person said that Bluetooth can be unlocked on the iPod Touch but you'll have to spend $9.95 to buy the OS 3.0 upgrade.

Also, many new APIs are going to be unveiled that will allow developers to write apps for iPhone or iPod Touch accessories. One idea presented was the use of the sync cord to attach directly to a sphygmomanometer.

To me, this presentation was less about a phone and more about expanding a new platform for mobile computing via the iPhone, the iPod Touch or the speculated Apple Netbook with large touchscreen. I'm willing to wait for the latter. There was more announced today than what was expected, even if not everyone cares about stereo Bluetooth or voice memos that are editable and shareable. The cut, copy and paste function nows seems to be well worth the wait.Landscape mode is now available for all key apps, but I don't think that makes up for not having a hard keyboard. This is a major selling point for the Palm Pre. Someone asked about possible support for a Bluetooth HID (human input device) in the form of a separate keyboard. This is what I want, but they gave the generic "no announcement" response.

The presentation opened with which I thought has the least importance, but certainly has the most buzz these days: the App Store. They now will have an "in-app purchase" option which is where the developer can continually upgrade or add new levels to a game, and they ask for more money each time. This subscription-like service could also be used for magazines (which are rapidly disappearing in the tree-destroying format), or for ebooks (which are catching fire due to the Kindle 2). Rojas and Block have a nice discussion on their last Podcast about the App Store. I think it's Ryan who says that there are 25,000 apps available but only 6 good ones. The App Store hype needs a little deflation despite the fact that every other handheld manufacturer is coming up with their own. Blackberry app store? Is there a need?

Even the suits were represented today by the Oracle speaker who spoke about an enterprise database app to manage CRM. Let's see, business, gaming (P2P mulitiplay), e-mail, photography (no video, though), medical apps, location positioning (turn-by-turn GPS), you would think that is only platform that can do it all. We know what's coming from Palm which has many loyal followers, and Google's Android is in it's infancy.

Among them all I think the common thread and trend to watch is the handheld that stands alone, and is not expected to be sync'ed with a PC. Right now Apple is stuck with having to support iTunes which I'm falling out of love with with every prompt to upgrade it and the other craplets such as MobileMe.

The Kindle is the first device that exists untethered, although I like one based solely on Wi-Fi is workable, should be $100 less expensive, and is need for most other countries outside of the US who use GSM (unless they can put a sim card slot in it).

More change is coming. This thought might help soothe the owners of the first iPhone who won't be able to benefit from the hardware improvements in the new OS, such as A2DP and MMS. Consumers still have a chance in voicing their preferences for what they want in a handheld device. I don't think we've seen the end in convergence or divergence and specialization in the handheld market.

High-tech goals for Africa include wireless communication

Rwanda aims to become Africa's high-tech hub - Yahoo! News

This is one of many stories reporting the ambitious plans of several African nations, in this case Rwanda, that include wireless communications to an extent that could surpass developed nations.

The use of smartphones for clinical support in Africa is mentioned in this article in Biotech 360 in their article Dialing for Health in Africa.

Roughly nine million people live in Rwanda, and nearly 200,000 of them are infected with HIV. Healthcare facilities often lack the appropriate supplies, reliable Internet connections, and have a limited ability to track patients or the spread of HIV across the country. With Phones-for-Health, though, cell phones could soon make it possible to track epidemics in this and other developing countries.

Quick take on the expected Google phone

What Will Google Mean to Phones? - WSJ.com

Some salient speculation about how the Google phone will change smartphones:

1. By enticing developers for this new platform, chances are users in the US will begin to see services that have already taken hold in the rest of the world, such as multi-player games and streaming video.

I might add that the smartphone might even cut into the PC space. This story PCs Being Push Aside in Japan by Hiroko Tabuchi cites the stats to support this trend.

"The household PC market is losing momentum to other electronics like flat-panel TVs and mobile phones," said Masahiro Katayama, research group head at market survey firm IDC.

Overall PC shipments in Japan have fallen for five consecutive quarters, the first ever drawn-out decline in PC sales in a key market, according to IDC. The trend shows no signs of letting up: In the second quarter of 2007, desktops fell 4.8 percent and laptops 3.1 percent.

2. Google being as big as it is, and given the phenomenal success of the iPhone, carriers could be more willingly to reliquish control in order to be part of this potentially major device.

3. Internet start-ups might want to jump into the mobile development space which they have avoided up to this point. Think of the Facebook application boom.

4. Mobile content providers would also feel the impetus to step up their efforts to support this new platform. Again, this would begin to make laptops seem burdensome when you can enjoy YouTube or the other video sharing services on your smartphone.

5. Vertical markets begin to open up. Certainly, the clinical use of smartphones would be promoted by this super-converged handheld (convergence promotes ubiquity).

Economist: the world of wireless connections

With this post I'll begin to summarize and discuss some of the salient points from the special report on wireless tech entitled "When everything connects" in the April 28 issue of The Economist (online subscription required).

I'll start off with the podcast featuring their technology correspondent, Ken Cukier.

Even though the interviewer begins by talking about the "almost unlimited developed of wireless technology," Ken correctly points out that the wireless tech is not really new, it's just that barriers to implementation and integration such as cost, lack of business processes or services tailored to support all the possible applications are all part of an immature technology ecosystem that I'll discuss below.

However, with the wide acceptance of the mobile phone--"today, almost 3 billion people use a phone...the industry is adding 1.6 million new subscribers each day"--other areas of wireless tech have benefited mostly due to the economies of scale. Now that 1 billion phones are being shipped per year, many resources can now be applied to other areas of wireless tech.

Such applications as machine-to-machine communication, sensor networking, medical wireless monitoring are "absolutely taking off."

The key trend is that as the microprocessor is paired with the wireless radio, the same cost reduction, size reduction and innovation is seen in wireless tech as that seen in the computing industry.

What are the barriers to development at the present?

First, there is no industry to supply these various applications such as using a wireless connection to adjust the lighting in a building. The major business maintenance companies such as GE, Honeywell, Philips are in the process of instituing these services, but are not there yet.

Second, the cost is still prohibitive. A wireless module might cost $4 at scale, but once it's down to 10 cents "it's gonna happen everywhere." The time scale for this is about 5 to 10 years, since these ideas are just entering the planning cycles of these companies.

The benefits not only include saving energy, but there will be new uses that are not even imagined yet. For the general consumer, these new services will required special marketing and demonstrations just to explain them. Consider the difficulty that the cellular carriers and other companies have faced trying to get the message across about all the advanced features available on smart phones such as GPS, mobile search, and even SMS for some.

Consumers are already familiar with wireless communication services for cars such as the OnStar service, but there are plans that go further than this. Wireless monitors can be used to provide predictive maintenance, or preventive medicine when talking about health care, or in the case of the automobile example, even act as black boxes similar to those used on aircraft, to provide information about who is at fault in the case of an accident. This brings up the very important issue of privacy. And this certainly has implications for the healthcare field.

Again, it will take some explaining to the consumer to ask them to pay for map services or some other benefit they've never realized before. It might be offset by advertising, for instance, in providing coupons as you drive through a certain commercial district, but this could be seen as yet another unwanted distraction in a already infomation-glutted world.

What does the future hold?

The thing about the The Next Great Thing is that no one can predict it. Ken uses the analogy of the electric power grid which was originally developed to power light bulbs in everyone's homes. But, it was the availability of the electric socket that was the killer app in providing development of various appliances which are now considered necessities. Another analogy drawn from the past is made about the electric motor, which due to miniaturization and decreasing cost has found its way into many varied and unimagined applications such as the toothbrush.

This ubiquity could be the fate of wireless tech, where you have "the fridge talking to the kettle," but it also will find its way into transformative uses, especially in medicine and health care which I'll explore in future posts. But, it's important first examine the development of wireless tech in the broad context, which is what I wanted to do with this post. Wireless handheld converged devices, some in the form of a phone or a Web tablet, or in some form not even dreamed of yet, while allowing you to monitor your blood glucose, might also be expected to download and view video, provide speech recognition, etc. I guess some time soon, I'll also have to survey battery technology.

Technorati Tags: Economist, medical wireless, cell phones, wireless monitoring, radio technology, sensor networking

Mobile diabetes management via a handheld device

This is a story from Health Data Management (Mobile Tech):

London-based Think Positive Diabetes Wireless has developed a diabetes management system that can be used on smart phones.

The device includes a blood glucose monitor, and the device can store and transmit the data to the company's secure Web site.

Technorati Tags: diabetes, smart phones, wireless monitoring

Corporate Podcasting Summit: June 20-21, San Fran; Mobile Imaging Summit: Oct. 25, Monterey

Alan Reiter (Wireless Podcast Report, Camera Phone Report, and Wireless Muse blogs) will be speaking about wireless podcasting at his session.

He's also scheduled for a Mobile Imaging Summit in Monterey, October 25th.

I'm trying to clue him in about the possibilities for clinical use of the camera phone such as this example provided by Partners Telemedicine. There are medical podcasts being produced. I regularly listen to the Johns Hopkins Podcast.

UPDATE: Alan e-mails that he has been following this topic:

http://www.wirelessmoment.com/2005/03/german_medical_.html

http://www.wirelessmoment.com/2005/02/swiss_researche.html

http://www.wirelessmoment.com/2004/02/uk_research_gro.html

Technorati: podcasting; camera phone; medical cell phone Wikipedia: podcasting ; camera phone; medical cell phone