Google and Twitter Help Track Influenza Outbreaks

This flu season could be the longest and worst in years. So far 18 children have died from flu-related symptoms, and 2,257 people have been hospitalized.

Yesterday Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a citywide public health emergency, with roughly 700 confirmed flu cases—ten times the number the city saw last year.

"It arrived five weeks early, and it's shaping up to be a pretty bad flu season," said Lyn Finelli, who heads the Influenza Outbreak Response Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Boston isn't alone. According to the CDC, 41 states have reported widespread influenza activity, and in the last week of 2012, 5.6 percent of doctor's office visits across the country were for influenza-like illnesses. The severity likely stems from this year's predominant virus: H3N2, a strain known to severely affect children and the elderly. Finelli notes that the 2003-2004 flu season, also dominated by H3N2, produced similar numbers. (See "Are You Prepped? The Influenza Roundup.")

In tracking the flu, physicians and public health officials have a host of new surveillance tools at their disposal thanks to crowdsourcing and social media. Such tools let them get a sense of the flu's reach in real time rather than wait weeks for doctor's offices and state health departments to report in.

Pulling data from online sources "is no different than getting information on over-the-counter medication or thermometer purchases [to track against an outbreak]," said Philip Polgreen, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa.

The most successful of these endeavors, Google Flu Trends, analyzes flu-related Internet search terms like "flu symptoms" or "flu medication" to estimate flu activity in different areas. It tracks flu outbreaks globally.

Another tool, HealthMap, which is sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital, mines online news reports to track outbreaks in real time. Sickweather draws from posts on Twitter and Facebook that mention the flu for its data.

People can be flu-hunters themselves with Flu Near You, a project that asks people to report their symptoms once a week. So far more than 38,000 people have signed up for this crowdsourced virus tracker. And of course, there's an app for that.

Both Finelli, a Flu Near You user, and Polgreen find the new tools exciting but agree that they have limits. "It's not as if we can replace traditional surveillance. It's really just a supplement, but it's timely," said Polgreen.

When people have timely warning that there's flu in the community, they can get vaccinated, and hospitals can plan ahead. According to a 2012 study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Google Flu Trends has shown promise predicting emergency room flu traffic. Some researchers are even using a combination of the web database and weather data to predict when outbreaks will peak.

As for the current flu season, it's still impossible to predict week-to-week peaks and troughs. "We expect that it will last a few more weeks, but we can never tell how bad it's going to get," said Finelli.

Hospitals are already taking precautionary measures. One Pennsylvania hospital erected a separate emergency room tent for additional flu patients. This week, several Illinois hospitals went on "bypass," alerting local first responders that they're at capacity—due to an uptick in both flu and non-flu cases—so that patients will be taken to alternative facilities, if possible.

In the meantime, the CDC advises vaccination, first and foremost. On the bright side, the flu vaccine being used this year is a good match for the H3N2 strain. Though Finelli cautions, "Sometimes drifted strains pop up toward the end of the season."

It looks like there won't be shortages of seasonal flu vaccine like there have been in past years. HealthMap sports a Flu Vaccine Finder to make it a snap to find a dose nearby. And if the flu-shot line at the neighborhood pharmacy seems overwhelming, more health departments and clinics are offering drive-through options.

Read More..

Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.

Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School.

"I don't want to shoot you," the teen gunman told Heber, who convinced the teen gunman to drop his weapon, a high power shotgun.

Responding to calls of shots fired, campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields arrived at the classroom and helped Heber talk the boy into giving up the weapon.

"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."

One student, who police say the shooter had targeted, was shot. He was airlifted to a hospital and remains in critical, but stable condition, Youngblood said. He is expected to undergo surgery today.

Two other students received minor injuries. One suffered hearing loss and another fell over a table while evacuating. Heber received a wound to his head from a stray pellet, police said.

Taft Midway Driller/Doug Keeler/AP Photo

Tennessee Teen Arrested Over School Shooting Threat Watch Video

Tragedy at Sandy Hook: The Search for Solutions Watch Video

Police said the teen, whose name has not been made public because he is a minor, began plotting on Wednesday night to kill two students he felt had bullied him.

Authorities believe the suspect found his older brother's gun and brought it into the just before 9 a.m. on Thursday and went to Heber's second-floor classroom where a first period science class with 20 students was taking place.

"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet."

The gunman entered the classroom and shot one of his classmates. Heber immediately began trying to talk him into handing over the gun, and evacuating the other students through the classroom's backdoor.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

The gunman was found with several rounds of additional ammunition in his pockets.

Within one minute of the shooting, a 911 call was placed and police arrived on the scene. An announcement was made placing the school on lockdown and warning teachers and students that the precautions were "not a drill."

The school had recently announced new safety procedures following last month's deadly shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in which 20 young children were killed. Six school staffers, including the principal, were killed as they tried to protect the children from gunman Adam Lanza.

The school employs an armed security guard, but he was not on campus Thursday morning.

Youngblood said the student would be charged with attempted murder, but the district attorney would decide if he was to be tried as an adult.

Some 900 students attend Taft Union High School, located in Taft, Calif., a rural community in southern California.

Read More..

Unborn sharks freeze to avoid predators

Michael Marshall, environment reporter

(Image: Ryan Kempster/PLoS One)

Faced with a dangerous predator, baby sharks hold their breath and stay still - even before they've been born.

Bamboo sharks (Chiloscyllium punctatum) lay eggs, unlike many sharks that give birth to live young. As a result, the developing sharklings are more vulnerable to being eaten.

New research shows that the shark embryos can detect the bio-electric fields of approaching predators. When they do, they freeze by stopping their gill movements, as shown in the video below. This suggests that even at these early stages, embryonic sharks can recognise dangers and instinctively try to avoid them, say the researchers.

Staying still can be a good way of escaping the attention of hungry predators, as anyone who's seen the T. rex attack in Jurassic Park will know. But these sharks are positively precocious about it.

Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052551

Read More..

Football: Adebayor included as Africa Cup squads named

JOHANNESBURG: Emmanuel Adebayor will play at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations after he was included in Togo's squad as the 16 sides finalised their 23-man squads.

Mahamadou Diarra will meanwhile miss the tournament, and a late-minute change left Brown Ideye thrilled and Nigeria team-mate Raheem Lawal devastated.

It was all part of the drama ahead of the January 19-February 10 tournament that will be played in five South African cities.

Tottenham striker and Togo captain Adebayor said last year he would shun the competition, citing security concerns after being part of the squad attacked in Angola ahead of the 2010 finals.

A player and an official were killed by separatists seeking independence for the oil-rich Cabinda enclave and Adebayor escaped injury by cowering under a bus seat.

As Tottenham, the Togo president and national football officials became involved in the saga, Adebayor refused to reveal his plans, and his inclusion became official only when the 23-man squad was named by coach Didier Six.

Perennial underachievers Togo are in the Rustenburg-based 'group of death' with title favourites Ivory Coast and other former champions Algeria and Tunisia and are given little hope of survival.

Mali, third last year and considered likely quarter-finalists after being drawn with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Niger, suffered a late setback when Fulham midfielder Diarra pulled out injured.

A recurring knee injury failed to heal, meaning the veteran will miss a second consecutive Cup of Nations, although the blow was cushioned by the return of another experienced midfielder, Mohamed Lamine Sissoko.

Turkey-based midfielder Lawal was included in a Nigerian squad leaked to the media a day before the final-squad deadline, only to be replaced by striker Ideye when it was officially announced.

Home-based players have traditionally been ignored by Super Eagles coaches, but Stephen Keshi has chosen six, including goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim and strikers Sunday Mba and Ejike Uzoenyi from Enugu Rangers.

Shock absentees from the 2012 tournament, Nigeria face defending champions Zambia and outsiders Burkina Faso and Ethiopia in Group C and are expected to make the knock-out phase at least.

Debutants Cape Verde made a couple of last-minute changes with injured midfielder Odair Fortes and unavailable striker Ze Luis replaced by Portugal-based pair Platini and Rambe.

Cape Verde face hosts South Africa in the January 19 opening fixture at the 90,000-seat Soccer City stadium in Soweto and also confront former champions Morocco and Angola in the first round.

- AFP/de

Read More..

Microsoft: Yep, we bought R2 Studios

It's official. Microsoft has purchased ID8 Group R2 Studios, the home automation startup, for an undisclosed amount.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Microsoft had beat Google and Apple to the punch in the quest to buy R2 Studios. But it wasn't until Microsoft issued the confirmation today that the 'Softies confirmed the deal was done.

R2 Studios founder Blake Krikorian will be corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB), which is the home of the
Xbox. Krikorian will report to Marc Whitten, chief product officer for IEB, Microsoft said. Krikorian was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sling Media, inventor of the Slingbox.

Microsoft's press release didn't detail how or when R2 Studios' technologies and patents will fit into Microsoft's product lineup. But Microsoft, like R2 Studios, has been active in the home-automation technology space.

GeekWire unearthed late last week some interesting patent information about R2 Studios. GeekWire noted:

Krikorian's company acquired more than two dozen patents and patent applications last year covering a wide range of automation technologies in the home. One of them is a broad patent for using a central server in conjunction with a portable remote as a master control for everything in the home -- including televisions, computers, stereos, lights, ovens, alarm clocks and more.

Microsoft is in the process of evolving the Xbox from a gaming console to a home entertainment hub. Adding home automation technologies to the platform would seem to fit right in with this effort.

This story originally appeared at ZDNet under the headline "Microsoft buys home-automation startup R2 Studios.

Read More..

Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee

Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.

Read More..

Whales Trapped Under Sea Ice Free Themselves

The killer whales trapped under ice in a remote Quebec village reached safety after the floes shifted on Hudson Bay, according to the mayor's office in Inukjuak.

Water opened up around the area where the orcas had been coming up for air and the winds seemed to have shifted overnight, creating a passageway to the open water six miles away.

"This is great news," Johnny Williams, a resident who works for the mayor's office, told ABC News.

Williams said he was unsure how far the whales have moved, but that they were definitely not under the ice hole.

Residents in the remote village of Inukjuak had been watching helplessly as at least 12 whales struggled to breathe out of a hole slightly bigger than a pickup truck in a desperate bid to survive.

50-Foot Finback Whale Found Dead in Boston Harbor Watch Video

Killer Whale at San Diego SeaWorld Has Mysterious Wound Watch Video

The community had asked the Canadian government for help in freeing the killer whales, believed to be an entire family. The government denied a request to bring icebreakers Wednesday, saying they were too far away to help. Inukjuak, about 900 miles north of Montreal, was ill-equipped to jump into action.

Joe Gaydos, director and chief scientist at the SeaDoc Society in Eastsound, Wash., said that although the whales can go a long time without food, the length of time they can hold their breath, which they must do underwater, was the question.

"The challenge [was] to figure out where the next hole is," he told ABCNews.com before the whales found freedom. "If that lake freezes over, it's an unfortunate situation. It's a very limited chance. It's a matter of luck."

Inukjuak residents posted a video online to show the whales' struggles. In the clip, the whales are seen taking turns breathing. They can't bend their necks so they do a "spy-hopping" maneuver, Gaydos said, in order to look for another hole in the ice.

A hunter first spotted the pod of trapped whales Tuesday. It is believed that the whales swam into the waters north of Quebec during recent warm weather.

ABC News' Bethany Owings contributed to this report

Read More..

Ghostly galaxies burned off mysterious cosmic fog

Ghostly galaxies in the distant universe are almost certainly the culprits behind a mysterious change in intergalactic gas that allows us to see across the cosmos. Although these galaxies are too faint to be spotted by current telescopes, future instruments could soon reveal their presence.

About 300,000 years after the big bang, the hydrogen that filled the universe cooled and became neutral and opaque, plunging everything into the so-called cosmic dark ages. Any visible wavelengths from early stars were quickly absorbed by the gas, which formed a cosmic fog that persisted for almost a billion years.

Some type of radiation must have broken up the neutral hydrogen atoms into electrons and protons in a process called reionisation, which ultimately made the universe transparent. But whether galaxies would have been numerous and bright enough back then to produce this radiation was uncertain.

Now the latest observations from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 survey (UDF12), presented this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California, have suggested that galaxies could, indeed, have turned the universe clear.

"This is the last uncharted piece of cosmic history," said UDF12 team member Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Staring intently

Ellis and colleagues used the Hubble Space Telescope to stare at one spot in the sky for 100 hours – twice as long as in previous surveys – and used a filter that made the telescope more sensitive to faint, distant objects. "For the first time with Hubble, we can do this in a systematic way," Ellis says.

In December the team reported that they had spotted seven new galaxies hailing from when the universe was between 380 million and 600 million years old, right in the middle of the period when reionisation was under way. Since then, the team has analysed the radiation from these galaxies.

Using spectral colour as a yardstick of stellar age, James Dunlop and Alexander Rogers of the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh, UK, found that the UDF12 galaxies contain surprisingly old stars. "What we're seeing are the second generation of stars," Rogers said at the meeting. "They're already mature – and must have been around for 100 million years."

Older stars do not pump out as much ionising radiation as young ones, so these galaxies, at the limit of Hubble's vision, could not have done the job by themselves.

The team then needed to figure out how many faint galaxies from this era may have gone undetected. Caltech's Matthew Schenker and colleagues used statistical modelling, based on known galactic populations, to show that there must be exponentially more faint galaxies in the early universe than bright ones – enough to supply the radiation needed.

"We can say confidently that galaxies can do the job, but the faintest galaxies that do most of the work are just below the limits of the UDF12 project," said team member Brant Robertson of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Happy ending

"We're pretty certain it's galaxies now," agrees Steven Finkelstein of the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the new work. Other possible candidates for reionisation, such as colliding dark matter particles, had been all but ruled out by earlier observations.

"I think it's a happy ending," Ellis says. "Reionisation is a normal process produced by things we can see, and not yet another dark something that we don't understand."

The ghost galaxies will probably be detected by Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to launch later this decade. If James Webb does not manage to see them, that would present a puzzle, says Ellis. "We'd need an additional source of radiation, whether annihilating particles or whatever else." But he said he would be very surprised if the faint galaxies did not turn up.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Read More..

Hong Kong leader survives impeachment bid

HONG KONG: Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers failed in an unprecedented bid on Wednesday to impeach the city's embattled Beijing-backed leader, after they accused him of breaking housing laws and urged him to quit.

The city's first impeachment motion, which accused Leung Chun-ying of lying, dereliction of duty and serious breaches of the law in a row stemming from illegal structures at his luxury home, was denied after eight hours of debate.

The 27 pro-democracy lawmakers who signed the joint motion -- which they said was a symbolic move -- voted in favour, while 37 voted against in the 70-seat legislature which is dominated by pro-Beijing members.

Wednesday's vote followed a protest on New Year's Day in which tens of thousands took to the streets to urge Leung to quit and to press for greater democracy, 15 years after the city returned to Chinese rule.

The former British colony maintains a semi-autonomous status, with its own legal and judicial system, but cannot choose its leader through the popular vote.

Leung took office in July after he was picked by a 1,200-strong election committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites, amid rising anger over what many perceive to be China's meddling in local affairs.

China has said the chief executive could be directly elected in 2017 at the earliest, with the legislature following by 2020.

Unauthorised structures are a politically sensitive issue in the space-starved city of seven million and demonstrators have used the scandal to press for universal suffrage in choosing Hong Kong's leader.

Leung secured the chief executive role after criticising his rival Henry Tang over illegal structures at Tang's home.

But he has since acknowledged and apologised for structures at his own home which were built without planning permission.

Maverick lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, wearing a T-shirt reading "We topple a tyrant", accused the new leader of lying about his own structures during campaigning when he presented the impeachment motion earlier on Wednesday.

"He has used dishonest ways to win the election," he said.

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, second in command in Leung's administration, said the motion was unnecessary and urged lawmakers to work together on policy and livelihood issues.

But Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau said the motion was a symbolic gesture to show the deepening public mistrust toward Leung, claiming the leader had "cheated his way to power".

"This is the first time we have a motion in the legislature to impeach a cheating chief executive," she said.

If the motion had been passed, the city's highest court would have had to initiate an investigation. At least two-thirds of the legislature would need to endorse a guilty finding before Leung could be removed from office.

Earlier, rival protesters traded barbs outside the legislature and security personnel had to step in at one point when an angry pro-government supporter charged towards the rival group, TV footage showed.

Leung's popularity ratings have fallen since the controversy, with discontent over issues including sky-high property prices and anti-Beijing sentiment remaining high.

- AFP/xq

Read More..

Off-the-beaten-track at CES 2013

Samsung. Panasonic. Sony. Intel. Qualcomm. All have big booths pitching smartphones, smart TVs, smart
tablets, smart cameras -- you name it.

But my first day at CES 2013 was spent wandering around exploring things from companies you've likely never heard of. And there's some interesting stuff out there!

Most of my time on Tuesday at CES was spent wandering the South Hall. What I'll cover below are things that caught my eye. Not all of these are necessarily new products, and this will be far from a comprehensive round-up within product categories. But I hope you'll find it interesting.

Take your phone underwater
One of my favorite finds was an inexpensive pouch from DiCAPac that lets you use your smartphone even if you're in water.

Sure, you've got waterproof cases out there like the Armor series from OtterBox. But at around $100, it's overkill for what I need: something light to protect my phone when I go paddleboarding, on the off-chance I might fall off.

Similarly, the Griffin Survivor is expensive at $80. The LifeProof, now down to around $45, is less expensive. But at $20 to $25, the DiCAPac cases beat them all.

DiCAPac waterproof case

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Do they really work? Well, my phone is working fine, after I dropped it into that fishtank above, while in one of the pouches. With luck, I'll never put it to a torture test, however. I'm not planning to use my phone in the water. I just want protection if I accidentally drop it. That's also another plus about the DiCAPac pouches. They float.

Hopefully I'll avoid dropping my phone at all, given that the pouches come with a long neck strap. As for why I'd even want a phone while paddleboarding, that's mainly for pictures. It's nice to get a shot of a great sunset or sea lions or other things I might spot. And again, this is where the pouch so far works well. You can tap the pouch down to your phone's touchscreen, and all the controls really work.

Will the pictures be blurry, shooting through the plastic? DiCAPac says it should be fine. We'll see.

There are similar products out there. A short walk away, the SEaLABox was being offered. And after returning from the show floor, some searching came up with AquaPac, which has similar looking pouches. A Wired review of waterproof case also led me to Ecases from Cascade Designs. I especially like the iSeries with a waterproof headphone jack. That might let me hook a cheap pair of headphones up to my iPhone or
iPod, so I can listen to tunes while paddling away.

Mind over matter
Of course, I might never drop my phone at all if I could develop telekinetic powers. That's not so science fiction, any longer. There are a number of devices out there where using your mind, you can move matter -- or at least transmit signals to electronics that will then move themselves.

NeuroSky, which provides EEG sensor technology to enable mind-over-matter devices, had a booth with products from a variety of partners, including The Force Trainer, to help young Jedis (and hopefully not young Siths) develop their powers.

But it was the Puzzlebox Brain Controlled Helicopter that was the star attraction. First there was a remote control helicopter craze. Then there was the Parrot smartphone controlled helicopter. This is 2013. If you're going to fly, you fly with your mind!

Steve Castellotti, flying the Puzzlebox helicopter with his mind

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Steve Castellotti, CTO of Puzzlebox, let me have a go. You have to concentrate on something, anything, and the more you stay focused on that task, the more the helicopter will stay airborne. It automatically tries to hover in the same place, so you're not trying to fly it around the room. You're just trying to keep it aloft.

For the record, singing the lyrics to Katy Perry's California Gurls in my head worked pretty well, but repeating the spelling of antidisestablishmentarianism over and over worked the best. I'm glad memorizing the spelling of that word back in fifth grade finally paid off.

I've Fallen & I Can't Get Up 2.0
Many people have seen the classic "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials, where an elderly woman summons help through a pendant that lets her call a monitoring and assistance service.

Well, the next generation of assistance services are here, where technology will know if you've fallen and get help without you even asking.

GoSafe by Philips Lifeline

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

That, at least, is what Philips Lifeline says it offers in its pendant. It can detect if you've fallen. It knows your location. And it'll make that call for you, when you can't, apparently.

Perhaps somewhat related, having trouble hearing on the phone as you're getting older? Hard to hit those little keys? Would pictures help you dial the right number? Well, just across from Philips, the Sonic Alert booth had those needs covered:

Sonic Alert phones

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Everybody wants to track your fitness
Speaking of health, how about staying healthy by monitoring your activity. Yeah, yeah. Fitbit. I still don't have one. Since I inline skate for exercise rather than run, I've never felt it's going to track my activity well.

But if you're like me and have avoided the Fitbit craze, look out. Booth after booth at CES seemed to be offering some type of activity tracker.

One that stood out was from Withings, the company that makes the wireless scale that I keep thinking is overkill. It will be releasing its Smart Activity Tracker. And you know that scale, sending data to my smartphone? Suddenly, that's looking pretty cool. Fitbit itself has a new band-based tracker called the Fitbit Flex that's coming.

What really caught my eye were the ibitz "family fitness keys" from GeoPalz. How could they not. Look at those colors!

ibitz family fitness keys

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

The versions for kids link to a game on their smartphone. They need to stay fit to keep their virtual characters fit. Kind of smart. For adults, there's more traditional tracking, plus options for monitoring your kids.

Ready to buy? Well, you can't. You can pre-order, and if enough people do, then the device will actually ship. So far, practically no one has ordered. Well, it was just announced. The product looks pretty cool; I hope it makes it.

Sports cameras everywhere!

Years ago, I got a Contour video camera that attached to my goggles, letting me film while I'm snowboarding. It drew looks, because there were so few people who had ruggedized cameras like that.

These days, we're well into the GoPro generation, it seems. With an array of devices to attach GoPro cameras to virtually any type of sporting equipment, GoPro seems to have become the standard in the space. Or at least my kids sure feel that way. For them and their friends, GoPro is cool. And I certainly do see GoPros far more than any other camera on the slopes.

If GoPro is king, perhaps this is the year where the rabble has turned out to try and unseat it. This year at CES, it seemed as if I was running into a GoPro competitor around every aisle.

And 170 degrees field of vision is so 2012. For 2013, it's all about the 360, or so the people at Geonaute would hope you believe. They've got a Geonaute 360 sports camera that shoots from all directions, so if you ever wanted to pretend you were a Google StreetView
car, check it out:

Geonaute 360

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Price? Release date? Sadly, the Geonaute site is lacking this. But maybe after CES, they'll provide some updates.

But who wants yet another camera sticking up off their helmet? The folks at Liquid Image have cameras built right into goggles:

Liquid Image camera googles

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Mmm. But then again, the folks at iON have a barrel-like format that reminds me of my old Contour, which I loved in how it could tuck it away against my googles, rather than stick off my helmet:

iON sports cameras

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

I actually didn't see these on the CES show floor but rather at the Pepcon Digital Experience event on Monday. Alas, there's no yet a way to attach them to your goggles, but I'm told that's coming.

Of course, maybe you'd prefer a Vivitar action camera:

Vivitar action camera

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Or a Polaroid one:

Polaroid action camera

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Or this GoPro clone:

Iron X Action Cam

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Well, if you really want that one, sorry -- I didn't stop long enough to catch the maker's name, and I can't find anything about it on the web. I mainly took it as yet another example of how action cameras were everywhere. I half-expected to find a "My Little Pony" action cam. Actually, it's probably out there, if I look hard enough.

Seeing all of these, I kept wondering if they'd eventually go the way of the dodo, when someone comes up with a way to make our smartphones do the same job. Turns out, Hitcase has a product at CES aiming to do that. I didn't see it, but CNET writer Amanda Kooser did and has a review.

And yes, GoPro was at the show with a big booth and cameras looking as compelling as ever. It even survived the CNET torture test of dunking it in liquid nitrogen.

3D Printing, movie posters as the new QR codes and more
But wait, there's more! Like the MakerBot booth being overrun by those curious to see some of its 3D printing creations:

MakerBot creations

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

MakerBot makes the Las Vegas sign

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Can't afford the MakerBot Replicator 2X that was unveiled at CES this week? Well, $2,800 is pretty pricey. How about effectively renting? The Sculpteo booth was touting how you can submit your own 3D models through the cloud for printing with its facilities. There's even a Made In 3D contest happening now to get you motivated.

Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures is super-excited about an app it has for the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness movie. Developed by Qualcomm Labs and aided by buzzwords that range from "context awareness technologies" to "geo-location recognition" to, oh, just go read the press release.

Cynicism aside, the app was pretty amazing in that when you pointed the phone with the app open at the Star Trek movie poster, it registered the poster within seconds of pushing the scan button, adding points to your app. It was like scanning a QR code, only the entire poster was the QR code -- and a pretty one:

Star Trek Into Darkness app

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Maybe this app will turn out to be fun. You can sign up here to be notified when it's available. Of course, app or not, I'm going to the next Star Trek movie. Who wouldn't?

Meanwhile, candy anyone?

Anything can be made to look like candy

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Candy-themed headphones aren't new -- CNET had a review of them back in 2009. But still, candy! The display above is just one of the many examples of odd, strange or wondrous things you find off the beaten track at CES.

Blade Runnerize your home

One of my very favorite finds were the "LED balls" that Samsung LED Signs sells:

LED Balls

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

Logos spin around and around inside the balls. Presumably, you could have the LEDs make all types of pictures. For some reason, it reminded me of something out of the movie, Blade Runner.

For those with $1,000 to $1,600 to toss around, these might be the ideal conversation piece for the living room. But it's more likely that business trying to attract customers may want them. They sure pulled me in.

And no, despite the Samsung name, Samsung LED Signs apparently isn't connected with the big Samsung electronics group.

I'll leave off with this last bit of high tech from the wilds of CES that I guarantee won't make it into any other press write-up from the show:

Antennas

(Credit:
Danny Sullivan)

That's right. Antennas. They're making a comeback. You read it here first.

Read More..