PARC Innovations Update (2008 #2)

This is the archive entry for our e-mail newsletter, PARC Innovations Update. [subscribe]

• Spotlight: PARC to develop sensor tape technology that helps prevent traumatic brain injury
• Engage with us: A hands-on workshop for applying ethnography in your organization
• Resources: A Ripe Time for Open Innovation; Crimeware
• On the Road: phishing; CHI2008
• PARC In the News: cleantech hotbed; elusive green laser; first commercial deployment

Links are not provided for older items in the archive.

Spotlight: PARC to develop sensor tape technology that helps prevent traumatic brain injury

Building upon PARC’s foundation in printing large-area, flexible electronics, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded PARC a contract to develop and prototype all-printed, disposable, blast dosimeters. This technology is a flexible, wearable, electronic “tape” that contains sensors to record data associated with exposure to explosive blasts in the battlefield. The program will take advantage of PARC’s jet-printing expertise to develop low-cost technologies and processes for fabricating the flexible, wearable sensor tape.

Engage with us: A hands-on workshop for applying ethnography in your organization

Through PARC’s customized, structured, introductory workshops, teams of co-workers can experiment with ethnographical techniques and practices, and gain tangible knowledge about how ethnography works – immediately gleaning insights that are relevant to their group’s or company’s objectives.

Resources: A Ripe Time for Open Innovation; Crimeware

A Ripe Time for Open Innovation — “One of the best options for recessionary times, and, some would argue, even in expansive times, is to join forces with another entity with complementary innovation goals. Open innovation is about connecting with others to find new ideas and, often, to co-develop and co-market them.” (Business Week)

Understanding and preventing specific security threats to the Internet — “Crimeware” combines the technical corruption of traditional malware and the deceit of phishing, therefore posing an urgent threat to the Internet, e-commerce, and various computing devices and infrastructures. In Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses (Addison-Wesley, 2008), PARC Principal Scientist Markus Jakobsson and co-editor Zulfikar Ramzan share insights about current and future security trends and threats, describe how to identify crimeware, and explore ways to prevent attacks.

On the Road: phishing; CHI2008

FTC roundtable discussion on phishing education –In April, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission discusses phishing, the online identity theft technique that uses deceptive spam to trick consumers into divulging sensitive information. The FTC’s goal is to identify ways to raise public awareness of phishing to help consumers protect themselves, giving them a “playbook” for recognizing and reacting to this malicious practice. PARC Principal Scientist Markus Jakobsson has been invited to share his insights with the Washington, D.C. audience at this invitation-only working meeting.

PARC at the 26th Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2008); topics include —
“Lifting the Veil: Improving accountability and social transparency in Wikipedia with WikiDashboard”
“Augmented Information Assimilation: Social and algorithmic web aids for the information long tail”
“Keyholes: Selective sharing in close collaboration”
“Escape: A target selection technique using visually-cued gestures”
“Crowdsourcing user studies with Mechanical Turk”
“Activity-based serendipitous recommendations with the Magitti mobile leisure guide”
“Responsive Mirror: Fitting information for fitting rooms”

PARC In the News

“PARC is now a cleantech hotbed. Silicon Valley-based PARC is leveraging its almost 40-year history in IT, mass production, microfluidics, and other scientific expertise for a variety of mostly corporate clients…” — Cleantech.com’s tour of PARC cleantech projects

How PARC sees printers boosting cleantech — CNET News.com
Sustainable Tech interview with PARC — BusinessWeek Special Report [podcast]
Elusive Green Laser is Missing Ingredient for Amazing Displays — Wall Street Journal
SolFocus installs first solar array…first commercial deployment — Semiconductor Today
‘Smart’ Fitting Rooms Suggests What to Wear — Discovery Channel/ Discovery News
The Wisdom of the Chaperones…myth of Web 2.0 democracy — Slate.com
Xerox and PARC on Comeback Trail with Cleantech and Other Technologies — SiliconValleyWatcher
A Virtual Laboratory: Second Life… — Scientific American
World-wise web…computers that can reason — Financial Times