PARC Innovations Update (2008 #4)

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

• Spotlight: Enhancing biotech system performance
• In the Marketplace: Microsoft to acquire PARC licensee Powerset
• Case Study: Creating a new business opportunity and technology platform
• On the Road: Ubiquitous Computing
• PARC In the News: future of mobile social networking; dressing rooms of the future; more

Links are not provided for older items in the archive.

Spotlight: Enhancing biotech system performance

To develop bioinformatics algorithms and software for proteomics, PARC is being funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The project will improve the sensitivity and reliability of protein identification by mass spectrometry. PARC’s work in bioinformatics, and other biotech systems, is described here…

In the Marketplace: Microsoft to acquire PARC licensee Powerset

Consumer search engine startup Powerset – which licensed IP from PARC and worked closely with us to develop its consumer search platform – recently announced its upcoming acquisition by Microsoft. According to Microsoft, Powerset offers “a set of talented engineers and computational linguists…with a wide range of experience from other search engines and research organizations like PARC.” PARC continues to develop highly scalable natural language processes that may be applied to enterprise search and other applications. To learn more about the technology and how entrepreneurs can work with PARC…

Case Study: Creating a new business opportunity and technology platform

Global publishing company Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has a long history of delivering information on paper and other materials, yet wants to capitalize on the emerging trend of delivering information in digital formats. In a recently completed engagement, PARC ethnographers and technologists worked closely with DNP R&D groups to brainstorm, filter, develop, field-test, and prototype the most promising business concept for DNP. PARC and DNP created a context-aware mobile platform (“Magitti”) that recommends information and content about local leisure activities, matched to the user’s location, time of day, and personal tastes – while attracting local and demographically targeted advertisers. This consumer-friendly technology concept suits young people in Japan who increasingly turn to mobile devices for gathering information, browsing the web, and downloading content. DNP plans to commercialize the services in 2009…

On the Road: Ubiquitous Computing

PARC won 2nd-best paper and was acknowledged as a thought leader in ubiquitous computing by attendees of the IEEE Workshop on Adaptive and Dependable Mobile Ubiquitous Systems (part of the Nokia-sponsored international symposium on Wireless, Mobile, and Multimedia Networks). PARC presented the aforementioned “Magitti” project in the paper, “Scalable Architecture for Context-Aware Activity-Detecting Mobile Recommendation Systems.” Read the paper…

PARC Principal Scientist and manager of PARC’s ubiquitous computing area, Bo Begole, spoke at the 2008 NEC Technology Forum in Tokyo, which focused on the theme “Technology Paradigm Shift in Computing & Communication.” The overarching goal of PARC’s work in ubiquitous computing today is to achieve an environment of seamless interaction – in which people control information as a unified whole, rather than being forced to manage collections of networked components. PARC’s ubiquitous computing strategy unites Ubiquity, Natural Interaction, and Proactivity (where systems help filter, sort, present information, and even act appropriately to the situation). Read a similar paper that discusses historic perspectives and current trends toward the ubiquitous computing vision…

PARC In the News

The Future of Mobile Social Networking – Technology Review
…’information overload’ – abc7news
Invention from Palo Alto scientists helps efficient water recycling – abc7news
Dressing Rooms of the Future – Forbes
…big opportunities in desalination – VentureBeat
Brain Blasts Mapped with Stick-On Sensors – Wired Blog Network
ContentGuard Licenses DRM Patents to Nokia – BusinessWire
Countermeasures against targeted attacks in the enterprise – SearchSecurity [article by PARC scientist]
Powerset joins Live Search – MSDN Blogs