I guess we were inspired by Dr. Frankenstein?
e-Pathologist is the latest NEC product that makes you say “I didn’t know you guys did that?” This system, which is being tested at Massachusetts General Hospital, can examine and determine if a tissue sample is cancerous. This will reduce the workload of pathology departments and in return increase the response time for a diagnosis.
If you want all the fact and figures check out the Press Release.
…they’re coming back.
Remember the good old days of working with green text that connected back to the “mainframe”? No hard drives, no internet, no Twiiter. Then Bill Gates created an OS that would change computing for the next couple of decades with the adoption of the desktop. Now we’ve gone 360 back to the thin client days. Although not near the adoption rate of desktops, thin clients are not only growing in popularity (due to their TCO and “green” benefits) but growing in capability.
Quick 101 on thin clients:
That old “mainframe” was what was doing your primary processing for whatever program you were working with. It was centralized and easy to get to. The “dumb terminal” was simply an interface from your screen to the mainframe. More than likely it had no fan, hard drive, little memory and certainly no Blu-ray DVD player. The downside was you always had to be on the network for it to work. Remember, it had to have a constant connection to the mainframe.
One of the big reasons for the desktop’s success was it could be ran locally. No need for a network connection if I want to run a program. This theory still holds true today.
Thin clients started to make a comeback 8 or so years ago with Microsoft Terminal Services and Citrix. These setups still had the green and TCO benefits, but the user experience was not that of the desktop experience. End-users were frustrated that the programs they could run on their desktop wouldn’t work on a thin client. Microsoft Office would work great, as long as you stayed away from graphics, movies and sounds. The experience was not a substitute for the desktop hence the lack of tremendous adoption………..until now!
Today’s thin clients are getting closer and closer to being comparable to the desktop experience. You can watch movies locally or on YouTube. You can stream audio from Slacker radio. You can use USB drives. And you can use VoIP via a softphone application. Today’s thin client is becoming a more attractive option to IT departments looking to provide basic IT services with little management costs. You still need that constant connection to the server farm, but your connection options are greater. For example, LAN, WAN, WiFi or even 3G.
Check out the latest press release on NEC’s thin client product. And make sure to check out the product itself. We have a couple of demo units here in the EBC and we have been doing some amazing this with it.
Michael Ballard is the Director of Strategic Marketing for NEC Corporation of America. You can follow him on Twitter @mballard5574 and @NECEBC.
There is a major technology gap between my parents and me. I’m the type who can pick up most gadgets or software and “figure it out” within a short period of time. However, my parents are a little different. Before they even hit the ON button they feel it necessary to read the manual front to back. That just doesn’t fly with the ADHD side of me.
Hopefully companies like NEC will change that gap by researching and developing Human Interfaces that are easy to use with even the most complex technologies…and the most complex people.
NEC recently announced it is strengthening this research and development by adding and maintaining relationships and joint research with big names such as Carnegie Mellon University and Palo Alto Research Center.
The goal? Reduce the number of “helpdesk” calls I get from my parents.
For many years NEC has been a leader in RFID technologies. They have assisted companies and organizations with improving processes through the use of RFID. From country border crossing to getting ahead of the line at amusement parks, NEC has had some interesting installations.
I personally am not a seafood lover. I’ve tried many times but just can’t grow to like it. Even still I know that fresh seafood is a critical factor for a successful meal.
This recent article in NEC’s CSR report caught my eye. One of Japan’s largest seafood wholesalers uses NEC’s RFID systems to ensure the freshness of their product. They are using RFID tags with cell phones as the transmitter.
Check out this article.
NEC announced it will be upgrading the underwater cable running from the west coast of South America through Panama to the Caribbean, a distance in excess of 2000 miles. Eleven telecom companies are involved in a consortium that is buying the PanAmerican cable. This new cable upgrades the original cable which was installed 10 years ago in 1999. Due to rising bandwidth requirements, the upgrade will bring modern 10 Gbps wavelengths to the new cable. Its current capacity is 2.5 Gbps.
Press Release
Technical Info on the Underwater Cable Project
