SRI Proposes Top Ten Tech Trends at Churchill Club Event

On May 25, at one of the Churchill Club's most popular annual events, SRI CEO Curt Carlson presented SRI's view of the top 10 technology trends we see emerging within the next three years. SRI's bets were debated by a lively panel that included Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer for the United States, technology forecaster Paul Saffo, and venture capitalists Steve Jurvetson and Ajay Royan. An audience of more than 400 Silicon Valley investors, entrepreneurs, and others also voted for or against each trend.

The trends, in the order presented:

• Age Before Beauty: The trend is for Baby Boomers to dictate the technology products of the future.
• The Doctor Is In: The trend is toward complete automation: a combination of artificial intelligence, the Internet, and very low-cost medical instrumentation to provide high-quality diagnostics and advice—including answering patient questions—online to a worldwide audience.
• Made for Me: The trend is toward practical, one-off production of physical goods in widely distributed micro-factories: the ultimate customization of products.
• Pay Me Now: The trend is technology and business models based on attracting consumers to share large amounts of information exclusively with service providers.
• Rosie, At Last: The trend is robots becoming embedded in our environments, and taking advantage of the cloud, to understand and fulfill our needs.
• Social, Really: The trend is the rise of true social networks, designed to maintain real, respectful relationships online.
• In-Your-Face Augmented Reality: The trend is hyper-resolution augmented reality and hyper-accurate artificial people and objects that fundamentally enhance people's experience of the world.
• Engineering by Biologists: The trend is practical, engineered artifacts, devices, and computers based on biology rather than just on silicon.
• 'Tis a Gift to Be Simple: The trend is cyber defense through widespread adoption of simple, low-feature software for consumers and businesses.
• Reverse Innovation: The trend is for developing countries to turn around the flow of innovation: Silicon Valley will begin to learn more from them about innovative applications than they need to learn from us about the underlying technology.

Read a reporter's take on the evening ››

New Low-Cost Diagnostic for Hard-to-Diagnose Chikungunya Virus

Chikungunya virus is a severe mosquito-borne infection found in parts of the world where Dengue fever is also widespread. The two diseases manifest similar symptoms but require different treatments. A serious obstacle to containing and treating Chikungunya is its frequent misdiagnosis. SRI and CTK Biotech are developing a test for early detection of Chikungunya that will yield results in less than 20 minutes and provide an affordable "point-of-care" diagnostic.More info ››

What Does the Future of Computing Hold?

SRI recently hosted Xconomy's Beyond Mobile: Computing in 2021 forum, an engaging discussion about where computing will be 10 years. Visionaries from SRI, Microsoft, and the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology projected the audience into the future of computing. Among the predictions: machines will operate at entirely new orders of magnitude (think 10,000 Mbps versus today's 10 Mbps), with new form factors and from within smart spaces. Novel sensor capabilities and the intersection of computing and biology will help democratize critical services such as access to healthcare. Welcome surprises might be in store with more natural and meaningful human-machine interaction.

Twins Needed for Zoster Vaccine Studies

Identical twin pairs are needed for two studies on the varicella zoster virus—the virus responsible for chicken pox and shingles. Zoster, also known as shingles, is very painful. It usually affects adults over 60 who have had chicken pox.
More info ››

Threat Detection System Named Best in Video Surveillance Advanced Imaging

A new solution for physical security, SRI Sarnoff's VerifIR™ threat detection system, was named Best in Video Surveillance Advanced Imaging Technologies at ISC West. VerifIR detects hidden threats with its IR capabilities, while also showing fine details at distances of up to 40 meters.
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New Drug Candidate Shows Promise against Prostate Cancer

SRI researchers have identified a drug candidate that promises to halt both prostate cancer growth and invasion of other tissues. Additional preclinical testing by SRI will advance the drug toward clinical trials in patients.
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John Rushby

Program Director, Formal Methods and Dependable Systems, in SRI's Computer Science Laboratory Wins IEEE Computer Society Mills Award

Gary Swan

Director of SRI's Center for Health Sciences, Elected President of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco