Thermal Touch is a vision of the near future for wearable computing user interfaces. By fusing information from an infrared and standard camera, nearly any surface can be transformed into a touch screen.

"Everyone is talking about wearable computing eyewear like Google Glass," said Metaio CTO Peter Meier, "but no one is talking about the best way to actually use those devices. We need natural, convenient interface to navigate the technology of tomorrow, and that's why we developed 'Thermal Touch'."

A new model of the Accelerator – to meet the needs of particular sectors of science and technology For Start-ups BioCity has developed a new model of the Accelerator, which is designed to focus on big issues, is of longer duration, more flexible and more systematic, though less communal, and one that does not make use of mentors.

Crowdfunding is a popular method used by startups to acquire financial backing for a company or even specific product, but it is not often thought of as a tool for established businesses.

Experts Daryl Hatton, CEO of social crowdfunding platform FundRazr.com, and Craig Asano, executive director of the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada, argue that larger corporations have barely begun to explore the benefits of crowdfunding.

Image: http://www.theglobeandmail.com 

Here's a whale of a tale.

Two kayakers in Argentina came in extremely close contact with a few southern right whales before their boat was lifted up by one of the mammals.

Those of us who need glasses to see a TV or laptop screen clearly could ditch the eyewear thanks to a display technology that corrects vision problems.

The technology uses algorithms to alter an image based on a person’s glasses prescription together with a light filter set in front of the display. The algorithm alters the light from each individual pixel so that, when fed through a tiny hole in the plastic filter, rays of light reach the retina in a way that re-creates a sharp image. Researchers say the idea is to anticipate how your eyes will naturally distort whatever’s onscreen—something glasses or contacts typically correct—and adjust it beforehand so that what you see appears clear.

Image: Picture this: Researchers use a camera and lenses to simulate an eye with nearsightedness looking at an “E” shown on a modified iPod Touch display.  - http://www.technologyreview.com

A novel type of computer memory could, in theory, let you store tens or even hundreds of times as much data on your smartphone. Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated a more practical way to manufacture it.

The type of memory in question, resistive random access memory (RRAM), is being developed by several companies, but fabrication usually requires high-temperatures or voltages, making production difficult and expensive. The Rice researchers have shown a way to make RRAM at room temperature and with far lower voltages.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Many successful businesses started with just one person who had a vision and the technical skills to deliver it to the world. Popular new sites like Techmeme, Newsblur, Instapaper and Duckduckgo started out this way which makes the costs of operating much more bearable in the beginning.

Image: http://smallbiztrends.com 

Hiring a virtual worker isn’t exactly the same as hiring someone who will show up in your office everyday. Top notch virtual employees will need different personality attributes and skill sets in order to thrive and grow within your company. The virtual workforce is expanding thanks to advances in new technology from cloud computing to video interviewing. Currently, 34-million American employees telecommute at least part time, and this number is expected to grow to encompass 63 million workers by 2016.

Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/77045352@N05/7065337713 

Sofinnova Ventures has raised $500 million for its latest biotechnology pool amid a resurgence in venture capital fundraising. Sofinnova surpassed its $425 million goal to reach the fund’s hard cap after seeing several companies go public or be acquired recently. They include ZS Pharma Inc.ZSPH -1.28%, which went public in June, and Labrys Biologics Inc., which has just been acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Image: http://blogs.wsj.com 

The UK's tech sector is significantly more reliant than the US on the beneficence of "angel investors" – the private individuals who invest in very early stage startups. Almost two-thirds of executives who work in the technology sector reported angel investors as a source of funding in 2013, compared to just 41% of American execs, according to the annual innovation economy report from commercial lender Silicon Valley Bank.

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Local, state, and national economies are facing unprecedented levels of international competition. The current fiscal crisis has hampered the ability of many governments in the developed world to directly facilitate economic growth. At the same time, many governments in the developing world are investing significant new resources into local infrastructure and industry development initiatives. At the heart of the current economic transformation lie our colleges and universities. Through their roles in education, innovation, knowledge transfer, and community engagement, these institutions are working toward spurring economic growth and prosperity.

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As Apple prepared to open its first retail store, Ron Johnson — the project’s chief architect — realized that the company was making a big mistake. The design was wrong, he told Steve Jobs, as they drove to the pre-launch meeting. The company was moving away from its focus on individual products toward becoming a holistic lifestyle spanning movies, music, and more — but the store didn’t reflect that shift. They needed to start over.

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Bill Gates, the world’s richest technologist has published a recommended summer reading list on his blog; it’s a mix of policy, business, and fiction for the ambitious intellectual who wants to ponder world domination while sipping Mai Tai’s in the shade.

Image: http://venturebeat.com 

Experts are heralding the Internet of Things (IoT) computing phase as the next industrial revolution, estimating 50 billion connected devices and IoT solutions reaching $7.1 trillion by 2020.

While we won’t refute these arguments, a focus on shareholder positioning will help us better understand where we are in the IoT cycle and how positioning IoT into a company’s story just became that much more pressing.

Image: The Nest Protect smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Image Credit: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat 

After two jam-packed days of panel sessions at the recent MobileBeat conference, featuring brand executives in the retail, CPG and travel sectors, my head (and my notebook) are flowing with mobile marketing insights and lessons.

Here are five of the most compelling insights that resonated from the event, especially because these are the exact types of problems we’re tasked with solving for our clients every day.

Image: MobileBeat 2014 Image Credit: Michael O'Donnell/VentureBeat 

The headline from our Q1 2014 LinkedIn Economic Confidence Outlook was “scattered optimism” about the global economy among business leaders. The latest results from Q2 show a decrease in the already moderate optimistic outlook among the majority of the 15 countries we surveyed, with one notable exception: India.

Image: http://blog.linkedin.com 

There’s a ton of advice aiming to answer whether or not couples working together is a good idea, as more and more couples are choosing to open joint firms. It’s been estimated that 3 million of the 22 million U.S. small businesses in 2000 were couple-owned, and that number has likely gone up.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When a group of real estate site selectors toured Cleveland last year, one of them didn't realize the city edged up to a lake. Another asked where all the pollution was, recalled Tracey Nichols, the city's economic-development director.

Those responses reinforced the idea that what's happening on the ground - in business, workforce training and development - isn't necessarily visible beyond Cleveland's borders.

If you’re still perplexed by what, exactly, quantum computing is, you’re not alone. Something about computers without transistors that can deal with not just zeros and ones but something in between, or both. The basic gist is that today’s computers store all information stored as either a one or a zero. In quantum computing,  there is the notion of a qubit which can be a one or a zero or both at once. Somehow that means that the computer can use and manipulate all combinations of those bits simultaneously.

Image: Microsoft 

RALEIGH, N.C. - University commercialization. One of the most complicated, yet promising, functions of entrepreneurial communities.

It's been around since 1980, when the federal government passed the Bayh-Dole Act and made it possible for universities (and nonprofits and private corporations) to own intellectual property rights to federally-funded research. What universities do with those rights is what is continually up for discussion. And that's mostly because universities are best at education, not launching businesses.

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