Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Microsoft Surface

  • Best of the web, well for today anyway

    Just some items of interest that various folks on Twitter forced me to read.
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  • D&D on Microsoft Surface table

    Surface blog: “I don’t want to put any pressure on Michael and the team over at Carnegie Mellon University, but you guys should be getting an A for your class project this semester. Their Dungeons & Dragons experience called “Surfacescapes” on Microsoft Surface is amazing. This is the future of how computers will aid in board games. Remember, D&D playing aids like this are for serious role playing gamers who might normally use balsa cutouts and not just wimpy printed maps. The computer is has a technical role in the gameplay but the DM and the players are the storytellers. That’s why it doesn’t look exactly like a video game. Not that it isn’t seven shades of wonderful.” – This has nothing to do with pharmacy, but it’s wicked cool stuff. I spent many hours playing D&D with paper, pencil and physical dice. I remember when I thought hi-tech was writing a small app that would randomly generate characters on my then new Commodore 64. That was before I realized programming was hard and chose an easier career; pharmacy.

  • Looking forward to clinical advancement with Windows 7

    HealthBlog: ““For example, as the use of tablet PCs within healthcare continues to grow, many of us will welcome the improved hand-writing recognition facility in Windows 7. It also learns, so the recognition gets better the more I use it.” He says the same is true for voice recognition: “I just talk to my PC and it does what I want, from opening programs to dictating letters.” The true party piece of Windows 7, though, is its support for touch – not just touchscreens but what has come to be called ‘gesturing’; support for a sophisticated but more naturalistic way of interacting with technology. “Clinicians are able to zoom in on an image by moving two fingers closer together, like they’re pinching something, or zoom out by moving two fingers apart,” says Dr Crounse. “They’ll even be able to move an image on the screen by rotating one finger around another, and right-click by holding one finger on their target while tapping the screen with another.” This sort of natural manipulation of text, images and multimedia will make computer equipment less obtrusive in the clinician-patient relationship; and should make technology accessible to many communities which use healthcare extensively, yet were previously somewhat overlooked by IT: for example the elderly.” – I’ve been a proponent of touch technology for quite a while and firmly believe that it will have a positive impact on healthcare professionals. We’ve already seen an explosion in the number of devices developed to take advantage of Windows 7 and multi-touch technology. I, for one, can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of Windows 7 to install on my tablet.

  • How to perform an autopsy without getting dirty.

    Norrköping Visualization Centre and the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization in Sweden have developed a Virtual Autopsy Table. The table makes use of high resolution MRIs to create incredible 3D images that can be manipulated on the table via multi-touch technology.
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  • What tablet PC information did I miss? [Week of October 4th]

    I’m constantly trolling the internet for information on tablet PCs. What can I say, I’m addicted. And believe me, there’s was no shortage of stuff to read this week. Reports of the death of the tablet PC have been greatly exaggerated. I was going to add these thoughts to the “What’d I miss” post from yesterday, but it was just too much information. Anyway, here’s some tablet PC stuff I found interesting this week.
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  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of August 30th

    As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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  • What do you think of touchscreen technology for healthcare?

    Xavier Lanier over at GottaBeMobile.com asks the question “would [users] pay extra to have touch capabilities on their notebooks? Keep in mind, we’re not talking slates, convertibles, UMPC, netbook or MID form factors here- just plain old 12″ to 17″ clamshell notebooks.” It’s no secret that I am a big fan of touchscreen technology, but I don’t think I would be willing to pay extra for a touchscreen on a notebook. Tapping the screen on a notebook seems like it would be a little awkward. However, a touchscreen on a convertible notebook would be a completely different story. I would be willing to shell out a little extra cash for that combination.
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