The life and times of the Technology Editor of Dental Products Report magazine and dentistry's "Technology Evangelist". Follow my thoughts and travels as I practice, write, lecture, tinker, and experiment with technology and technology in dentistry.
Rumors are starting to sprout up about Facebook working on their own smartphone. The murmuring is that the company has hired several talented smartphone experts and designers that have worked or designed for other companies that have created similar devices.
The idea is that if Facebook doesn't' come up with their own hardware, they may be relegated to just being another app type service which is *not* what the company wants.
Supposedly this is the third time they have attempted this and that this time they are committed to make it work.
No post today as it's Memorial Day here in the States.
This gives me a chance to thank those who serve and to honor those who have served to keep the rest of us free. I'm grateful to those of you who put their lives on the line so that the rest of us can enjoy the blessings that you all help guarantee.
Freedom truly isn't free and many pay the ultimate price so that the rest of us can continue to live with the freedom that comes from living in the greatest county in the world.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who serve or have served our great nation. Thank you for all you have done. Your dedication and sacrifice is appreciated and not taken for granted!!!
On Friday, I spent the day lecturing to the Greater St. Louis Dental Society about the latest and greatest advancements in technology.
I had a truly great time! It was a great group and one of the best things about being close to home is that there were so many people there that I knew. It was great spending the day with friends! Thanks to everyone who came out, especially on a Memorial Day Weekend and took time out of their Friday to hang out with me.
After the lecture I got a chance to head downtown to the Cathedral Basilica and spent an hour in awe of the amazing artwork & the beauty of the building.
Of course, getting home without getting on a plane was just an added bonus! The drive home took only about 3.5 hours.
Ever want to learn to play the guitar but just never got around to it? That pretty much sums up my existence. I really wanted to learn, but never had the time.
Take a look at the video and then tell me if this isn't one of the coolest ideas you've ever seen...
Here is more info from the Kickstarter page:
There's nothing like the thrill of playing a real musical instrument. Unfortunately for most, learning can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. That's why we built the gTar.
The gTar is a fully digital guitar that makes it easy for anybody to play music, regardless of experience. All you have to do is dock your iPhone in the body, load up the gTar app, and an array of interactive LEDs along the fretboard will show you how to play.
You may be asking yourself what it means for a guitar to be "digital." While most guitars have pickups to amplify the sound of vibrating strings, the gTar has none - instead, we've designed the gTar with sensors that detect exactly what you're playing in real-time and relay each note to your iPhone, which then produces the actual sound. This makes it possible for us to do all kinds of exciting things, so let's get into it!
Start With Songs You Already Love
The free gTar app comes bundled with a library of songs that you can start playing right away. We're adding more every week and we'd love to hear your suggestions. Also, if you've been itching to play a specific song check out the Song Selection reward tier where we will work with you to get a song of your choosing on to the platform. One of the things that's so exciting about the gTar is the ability to incorporate different sounds outside of the guitar. So if you want to play a song with a big, warm synth or a booming grand piano, it's all possible with the gTar.
Stop Learning, Just Play
We think that everybody should be able to have fun playing music, regardless of how long they've been playing or how much time they have to practice. That's why we built an intuitive feature called SmartPlay, which mutes out incorrect notes as you play and nudges you along as you play through difficult songs.
Most Guitars Only Have One Level of Difficulty. We Have Three.
If you've never played the guitar before, start with Easy, where you only need to play the open strings. This gives you the chance to start playing your favorite songs right away while getting a hands on feel for the strings. SmartPlay is in effect here, so if you accidentally hit the wrong string, you won't hear anything.
When you've graduated from Easy, you can move up to Medium and start playing the frets and strings at the same time. Don't worry though, Smart Play is still in effect, so you can continue to play without the fear of messing up.
When you've mastered a song and want to take it to the next level, try playing in Hard. Here, the gTar will continue to display the correct notes, but allows you to play whatever you want. SmartPlay stops working here, so every note you play will ring out.
Go Further
Since the gTar is powered by the iPhone, it can sound however you want. Try playing around in Free Play, where you can choose from a variety of guitar models, keyboards, synths, or even drums. Free Play also provides an expression pad for tweaking sound effects (chorus, echo, reverb, and distortion) and a panel that gives you full control of the LEDs.
Where Does the Money Go?
Over the last year, we've taken our completed hardware design to China where we've been working with an amazing manufacturing team in Shenzhen that have helped us take the gTar from a schematic to a finished product. The gTars in the photos/video you see are all working, fully functional prototypes.
We've already invested in the tooling and have lined up our supply chain. We now need your help to fund the initial batch of production units. After the campaign ends, we expect it to take 2-3 months to produce, assemble, and ship your finished gTars.
More specifically your contribution will help us fund the following:
- Custom Guitar Body Manufacturing - Volume Component Ordering (sensors, processors) - Production Assembly - Production Quality Assurance and Testing
Here's our team assembling the first pilot units. Due to the complexity of the gTar's assembly, we've had to iterate through more than 10 prototypes - these pilot units were built to ensure that our manufacturing processes would work at scale.
If you've seen The Avengers or either of the Iron Man movies, you've seen how Tony Stark brings up images on his computer and controls everything by just waving and moving his hands. It looks incredibly cool on the big screen and many of us are wondering how long it will be before we can get our hands on that type of technology.
The answer is… not that long actually. As in next year not that long. A company called Leap Motion is bringing a USB device to the market that will let you control your computer like the CEO of Stark Enterprises for… are you ready for this?… $70. I know, the price completely blew me away too.
I could sit here and rattle on describing the whole thing, but really the video can do everything I can do with words and do it a lot more effectively. So take 1 minute and 12 seconds to watch the video. I think you'll be as amazed by this as I am.
Oh, and they are taking pre-orders right now. Grab that credit card!!!
For several years, those of us in dentistry have been taking in interest in sleep apnea. It's a disease where an individual doesn't get enough oxygen when they sleep and it results in many health problems. Now comes news that the disease may also be linked to cancer.
Two new studies indicate that people who suffer sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing cancer.
Due to be presented in San Francisco this week at an American Thoracic Society conference, the findings have been touted as "striking" by researchers, the New York Times reported.
Scientists say sleep apnea -- a widespread disorder suffered by 28 million Americans, which disrupts breathing and causes snoring -- is linked to low blood oxygen levels. That lack of oxygen can trigger the development of tumors.
One study, conducted at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health over 22 years, found that severe breathing problems at night increase the likelihood of dying from cancer by 4.8 times, compared to people who had no such breathing issues. People with moderate apnea were found to have double the risk of dying.
A second set of findings, from the Spanish Sleep Network, assessed the incidence of cancer, rather than the mortality rate.
Following 5,200 people over seven years, the study tracked oxygen depletion and found, for example, that people whose oxygen levels dipped below 90 percent, for up to 12 percent of the total time asleep, had a 68 percent greater likelihood of developing cancer, than people who did not have breathing difficulties at night.
Sleep apnea is widely understood to be related to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes -- conditions that are also linked to cancer.
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Practicing General Dentistry, Technology Editor Dental Products Report, author, lecturer, consultant to high tech and clinical manufacturers, Past President Greater Kansas City Dental Society, Peer Review Chairman - State of Missouri, I love getting my hands on and trying to break the latest gear!
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