September 2011

When Google revealed some improvements to Android, we were excited about how speech recognition and synthesis seemed to be buried deeply in its code -- full of promise. For various reasons, including fragmentation, it's never quite emerged as a game-changer. So now Apple's taking up the torch, and if rumors prove true it's not just adding speech tech to the iPhone... it's transforming the device into something new again, starting a whole new paradigm.

If it works for Apple, expect others to follow. Get ready to meet your smart personal assistant. We've wondered for a while about how Apple was going to mix Nuance speech recognition tech with its iOS devices, and how the technology it acquired when it bought Siri (the firm behind an artificially intelligent assistant) would emerge. Now we know that Apple's "Assistant" is going to combine all of this tech into one powerful system, that runs throughout the upcoming iOS5--with some capabilities limited to the upcoming iPhone 5. Examples of the system include talking to your phone to set up an alarm or reminder, requesting GPS directions using voice alone, sending text messages -- basic interactivity in other words, but such that it renders the keyboard practically redundant. This is the sort of system that Google promised in Android. And now we're seeing that Assistant has a whole other level: It also interfaces with WolframAlpha -- Stephen Wolfram's "fact computer" that can intelligently understand data-specific questions and return meaningful suggestions.

Contrary to popular belief, a new study has found that older physicians who are clinically busier and see more complex patients are more likely to use new electronic health record functionality than younger clinicians.

The findings were determined by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), who analyzed the intervention arm of a randomized trial of new EHR-based tobacco treatment functionality. The trial included 207 clinicians and the functionality was used by 50 percent, or 103 clinicians. Of the clinicians who had access to the functionality, staff physicians were more likely than trainees to use it, clinicians who graduated more than 10 years previously were more likely to use it compared to those who graduated less than 10 years previously, and clinicians who had higher patient volumes were more likely to use the functionality compared to those with smaller volume.

Amazon's low-priced bestsellers and Kindle e-reader are famous for changing the book industry. What's not so well known is how deeply Amazon's tentacles reach into all parts of the industry, including its growing interest in inking deals with authors to publish some of the hit books Amazon sells. Booksellers and publishers are crying foul, saying they're being cut out of the chain by an aggressive Goliath. But some authors who have recently signed with Amazon Publishing say the company simply offered them a better, fairer deal than traditional publishers. And those Amazon deals are a boon for consumers, the authors say, because they bring earlier book releases and cheaper prices.

Dr Susan Kramer and some of her colleagues at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology have moved their lectures and lab setups online to save class time for hands-on learning and discussion. This “flip model” of instruction has gotten national media attention lately, thanks to its promotion by Khan Academy, the high-profile nonprofit online-tutoring library created by Salman A. Khan, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who was looking for a way to help his young relatives with their homework.

The model -- in which teachers introduce lectures online for students to access at home and then use class time for group practice and projects normally relegated to homework -- is not unique to Khan Academy, however. Advocates of the approach say it allows students to work through meat-and-potatoes background on their own, giving teachers more time to go in depth through discussions, projects and other activities in class. Critics, though, argue the model is too reliant on online materials and will prove difficult to use in schools without major technology infrastructure.