The International Workshop on Wearable & Implantable Body Sensor Networks is about to begin.. Achieved Wi-Fi access in one click and 10 keystrokes. Gotta love Wi-Fi coverage in a lecture theatre.

Not sure if I'll have the time/inclination and typing skills to blog in real-time but will write up the sessions later if need be.

The Program, Speakers, and Papers has all the details of the presentations. I'm scheduled to speak at 12:00 today.

The keynote is being given by Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub.

09:45 - 10:50

Session 1: Biosensors Technology and Designs

Bioelectrical, mechanical, biochemical, biophysical sensors

Novel Sensing and Monitoring Devices

Prof Jim Rusling, University of Connecticut "Designing Electrochemical Sensors based on Ultrathin Biomolecular Films and Nano-materials" Most of this talk went well over my head. Very interesting nevertheless.

Prof Tony Cass, Imperial College: "Protein Design for Biosensors". This was an extremely well presented talk. Very exciting technology. I can see major opportunities in the integration of these type of sensors with microelectronics and comms.

Session 2: Environment and Context Sensors - position papers.

Kristof van Laerhoven, Lancaster University: "Multi Sensor Context Awareness"

Benny Lo & Surapa Thiemjarus, Imperial College: "Feature Selection for Wireless Sensor Networks"

Duncan Smeed, University of Strathclyde: "MiPOS - the Mote Indoor Positioning System": The handout slides from my talk are http://duncan.smeed.org/4307/enclosure/bsn_handouts_3up.pdf Typical! Just after I started my talk the fire alarm went off. 15 minute unintentional break but managed to finish the talk only 10 miinutes behind schedule. There were no questions! I'll take that as a good sign ;-)

Petar Goulev, Imperial College: "Utilizing real time AffectiveSensors to incorporate emotions into human computer interactions"

Session 3: Low Power Sensors and Communications

Low power RF transceiver

Energy scavenging, battery technology

System integration, and manufacturing issues

Standards

Communication protocols

Dr Eric Yeatman, Imperial College: "Advances in power sources for wireless sensor nodes"

Prof Chris McLeod, Oxford Brookes University: "Applications for implantable SAW pressure sensors"

Dr Vincent Larik, Medtronic

Session 4: Biosensors Technology and Designs

Bioelectrical, mechanical, biochemical, biophysical sensors

Novel Sensing and Monitoring Devices

Prof Pankaj Vadgama, Queen Mary University of London: "Implantable Sensors: Materials and the Tissue-Sensor Interface"

Dr Danny O'Hare, Imperial College: "Electrochemical Methods in Physiology: From Mass Transport to Signalling"

Dr Christopher Harland, University of Sussex: "Non-Invasive Human Body Electrophysiological Measurements using Displacement Current Sensors"

The Register | Why Sun threw in the towel in Mankind vs. Microsoft the lead paragraph of which is:

"Principles are fine things to have, but only if you can afford them. With its stock declared a 'junk bond' and finishing a terrible quarter, Silicon Valley's leading Microsoft antagonist Sun Microsystems has now decided it can't."...

Looks like my citing of that famous Groucho Marx quote on Thursday was prophetic.

Groucho Marx Quotes and Quotations - BrainyQuote

"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."

I guess some people may be taken in by The Register | Intel's Itanium rockets to 64-bit shipment lead article. Before heading over there my linkees might want to ponder the date of posting ;-)

Behind the iTunes Music Store: A Technical Description of iTMS and FairPlay by Aaron Swartz:

"This document explains how the iTunes Music Store works. This information is useful to computer science researchers, cryptographers, and politicians, who may be curious to understand the largest deployed DRM system to date."

Actually, this grand-sounding document is only a couple of pages in length but contains some interesting information nevertheless.

via HtP - POWER to the people | A history of chipmaking at IBM with an emphasis on the POWER and PowerPC processors. A great resource. I must tell my students about it.

Note to my CADets: check out the Wired News | IBM Bets Chips on Open Source article:

"Big Blue now wants companies and developers to actively participate in the design of IBM's Power microchips, and is encouraging researchers, chip fabricators and electrical engineers to customize Power chips for use in specialized systems or devices."...

Reuters.com | Bill Gates: Hardware to Be Nearly Free in 10 Years

"Hardware costs will fall sharply within a decade to the point where widespread computing with speech and handwriting won't be limited by expensive technology, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said on Monday.

"Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can almost think of hardware as being free -- I'm not saying it will be absolutely free -- but in terms of the power of the servers, the power of the network will not be a limiting factor," Gates said, referring to networked computers and advances in the speed of the Internet.'

Perhaps Microsoft doesn't see the writing on the wall. (Almost) free hardware will drive the demand for (almostst) free OS and applications. But I guess Microsoft's $6.8 R&D annual budget needs to be borne in mind when dissing thier ability to buy^h^h^invent new marketshare.