Saturday, June 19, 2010

CAE Healthcare sells its innovative echocardiography simulator to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

>>Montreal, May 6, 2010 –

CAE Healthcare has sold its first transthoracic echocardiography simulator, CAE VIMEDIX™ to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The simulator is designed to train healthcare professionals to perform anatomical and physiological assessments of the heart using ultrasound. The simulator is a major breakthrough for medical training as it helps make echocardiography more accessible to healthcare practitioners who are not medical imaging specialists.

CAE Healthcare also acquired VIMEDIX™:


>>The simulator was developed by VIMEDIX, one of the two companies CAE acquired earlier this year in order to expand its growing portfolio in ultrasound imaging education and training.

VIDIMEX seems to incorporate some sort of force-feedback:

>>Vimedix out of Montreal, Canada has released a new echocardiography simulator that features, among other things, force-feedback technology that allows the trainee to feel what working with a real patient is like.

Touch is not enough, say display experts

from EETimes.com:

>>Touch screen shipments have reached over 600 million units in 2009 (from 468 million in 2008), a 29 percent growth year-to-year. Touch screen module revenue was about $3.6 billion in 2008, and this increased to $4.3 billion in 2009. DisplaySearch forecasts that touch screen module revenue will reach $13 billion by 2016.

In mobile phones, DisplaySearch reported touch penetration was 15.8 percent in 2008, rose to 25.7 percent in 2009, and is predicted to increase to 57 percent in 2016.

Christophe Ramstein, chief technology officer of Immersion Corp., likes to quote novelist and poet Margaret Atwood to make his point about the need for haptic touch (touch feedback) as a key element for guaranteeing a pleasant user experience: "Touch comes before sight, and before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth."

Immersion develops systems and technology for integrating touch feedback into their licensees' products. The company this week announced that a leading Italian manufacturer of medical devices for minimally invasive surgery has obtained a license to Immersion's TouchSense haptics technology for use in its ALF-X (advanced laparoscopy through force reflection) telesurgical robot system.

Appliance Assembly: Engineers Get Touchy-Feely

from assemblymag.com (emphasis added):

>>“Touch screens are becoming widespread due to the ease of use and intuitive interfaces they enable, which can save time and increase productivity,” says Jennifer Colegrove, Ph.D., director of display technologies at DisplaySearch, a market research firm. “Falling prices have also spurred adoption. Finally, touch screen devices are now perceived as cool and fun.

“Touch screen penetration has been rapidly increasing in mobile phones, portable navigation devices, gaming and other applications,” adds Colegrove. She says the touch screen module market is growing 14 percent annually and will be a $9 billion industry by 2015, more than twice the size of today.

“In the future, people will think of refrigerators and other household appliances more as an electronic device rather than a mechanical device,” predicts Mike Deneen, appliance industry analyst at the Freedonia Group Inc. “During the next decade, we’ll see more consumer electronics manufacturers, such as LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp, become more active in the appliance market, especially in the United States.”

“Capacitive interfaces allow for a seamless interface, are easy to clean, and feature less quality variation than is found in the conventional ‘dome switch under a laminate cover’ that is used in most microwaves,” claims Victor Viegas, CEO of Immersion Corp., which has developed a line of tactile feedback systems called TouchSense. “Capacitive interfaces also allow for the flexibility of having dynamic graphics, such as a screen behind capacitive glass, or fixed images, such as printed labels.

“Since the capacitive sensing is on the rear of the surface, the labels and sensors never wear out, unlike many systems today,” adds Viegas. “Capacitive sensing input has a lifetime operation that is literally infinite.”

Touchy feely future for tech users

from BBC.com:

>>Touchy feely future for tech users

Technology that interacts with the user through the sense of touch has been evolving over the past decade.

Tailored vibrations on a touchscreen handset, for instance, could help to make them more accessible for visually-impaired people.

Now haptic technology is also allowing medical students to practise hospital procedures on devices with a realistic human "feel".


Christophe Ramstein - CTO of Immersion speaks with bnetTV.com at Display Week SID 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

One patient's advice for those seeking CyberKnife treatments?

One patient's advice for those seeking CyberKnife treatments? "They should be thankful there is a procedure like this around."
Click to read more about his story, as well as a doctor's persepective on the benefits and usage of CyberKnife radiosurgery.

http://www.webink.org/live-webcast-of-cyberknife-segment-6-smdc-health-system

Reliance Globalcom to Expand Global Network Connectivity Infrastructure at Equinix Tokyo

Reliance Globalcom to Expand Global Network Connectivity Infrastructure at Equinix Tokyo

Global network options seamlessly extended for global Enterprise

Tokyo, Japan – June 17, 2010 – Reliance Globalcom, the leading global provider of managed network and communication services for multinational enterprises, and carriers, and Equinix Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, today announced that Reliance Globalcom will extend its existing points-of-presence in Japan to include Equinix’s Toyko-2 (TY2) International Business Exchange™ (IBX®)data center. The expansion will enable Reliance Globalcom to improve the cost efficiency and capacity of IPv6-enabled global connectivity services to the 230 countries covered by its network footprint. It will also enable all of Equinix’s Tokyo customers to directly access Reliance Globalcom’s advanced VPLS network.

Reliance Globalcom currently leverages Equinix IBX data centers in Singapore, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, London, Ashburn and Silicon Valley to achieve optimized performance for its connectivity services throughout the globe. The globally recognized reliability and availability of the Equinix IBX data centers will supplement the reach of Reliance Globalcom’s global infrastructure. Equinix customers out of Japan can now connect directly to Reliance Globalcom’s network with no requirement for third party connections – enabling more secure and efficient global connectivity.

“We recognize that Equinix already hosts a community of financial participants in the world, as well as an increasing number of enterprise and cloud service providers in their data centers, and close synergies exist with these sectors and our global business,” added Owen Best, President Reliance Globalcom Asia. “In addition, by extending the diversity of connectivity access to our global network we provide our customers with the security of service and expanded geographic reach that those businesses increasingly demand.” “Our relationship with Reliance Globalcom, a globally recognized provider in the managed service provision arena, further demonstrates our leadership role in operating state-of-the-art data center infrastructure with operational excellence,” said Kei Furuta, managing director of Equinix in Japan. “Our existing community of international and local networks and carriers can also benefit from more efficient connectivity to Reliance Globalcom’s next generation global network at both of our TY1 and TY2 IBX centers.”

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

NASDAQ OMX 24th Investor Program in London

Equinix announced that Eric Schwartz, president of Equinix in Europe, will present at the NASDAQ OMX 24th Investor Program in London on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 12:30 p.m. GMT (7:30 a.m. ET). A live audio webcast of the presentation will be made available on the Investor Relations section of the Equinix website.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Equinix selected by Transaction Network Services.

from Data Center Knowledge:

>>“The presence of a robust electronic trading ecosystem within Equinix will allow us to increase our connectivity and build on our growing client base,” said Alan Schwartz, President for TNS’ Financial Services Division. “We believe our joint clients will greatly benefit from this new low latency network connectivity, enabling them to capitalize on the improved speed and reliability that is key to today’s electronic trading.”

Direct Edge to Conduct Third Test of New System

from securityindustries.com:

>>Direct Edge will launch its new exchanges in a state-of-the-art data center located at the Equinix NY4 facility in Secaucus, New Jersey.

This Saturday's test, like all six user acceptance tests, will allow customers to run through various trading and technical cases, in advance.

Election of eight directors to the Equinix Board of Directors

Item 5.07. Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders.

The Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting") of Equinix, Inc. ("Equinix") was held on June 10, 2010 for the purpose of considering and voting on:

� Election of eight directors to the Board of Directors to serve until the next Annual Meeting or until their successors have been duly elected and qualified; and

� Ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Equinix's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2010.

At the close of business on April 20, 2010, the record date for the determination of stockholders entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting, there were 39,805,802 shares of Equinix's Common Stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. The holders of 33,470,332 shares of Equinix's Common Stock were represented in person or by proxy at the Annual Meeting, constituting a quorum.

At the Annual Meeting, all of the directors were reelected and all other proposals submitted to the Equinix stockholders were approved.

The vote with respect to the election of the directors was as follows:

                                                                Broker
For Withheld Non-Votes
Steven T. Clontz 31,050,655 774,661 1,645,016
Gary F. Hromadko 31,557,965 267,351 1,645,016
Scott G. Kriens 31,551,268 274,048 1,645,016
William K. Luby 31,559,926 265,390 1,645,016
Irving F. Lyons, III 31,553,090 272,226 1,645,016
Christopher B. Paisley 31,203,009 622,307 1,645,016
Stephen M. Smith 31,559,991 265,325 1,645,016
Peter F. Van Camp 29,109,054 2,716,262 1,645,016

With respect to the proposal to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Equinix's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2010, there were 33,308,782 votes "For", 155,543 votes "Against" and 6,007 abstentions.

SIX Swiss Exchange to open new access node at Equinix ZH4 International Business Exchange Data Center in Zurich.

The strategic city center location of Equinix’s ZH4 IBX data center will support proximity colocation to the SIX Swiss Exchange AG, and will enable Equinix to offer financial market participants low latency solutions to this key trading platform.

Monday, June 14, 2010

More Capacity And Lower Latency For Traders On SIX Swiss Exchange

from Mondovisione.com:

>>More Capacity And Lower Latency For Traders On SIX Swiss Exchange

14/06/10

In order to enhance trading in equities listed on SIX Swiss Exchange,transaction capacity is substantially extended as of Monday, 14 June 2010. Moreover, SIX Swiss Exchange supports remote market participants to reduce latency by extending the choice of proximity service providers, thereby enabling remote participants to benefit from sub-millisecond latency.

SIX Swiss Exchange as from Monday, 14 June 2010 significantly increases capacity for high-volume market participants. The capacity increase is predominantly targeted at the equities market and marks an important step in the exchange’s continuous roadmap to satisfy an ever-growing need for higher turnover and lower latency.

Further measures will include improvements to the trading interfaces to even better support automated trading and direct market access and will be made available in the second half of 2010.

Extended service offerings for proximity hosting

A further significant innovation introduced by SIX Swiss Exchange is the extension of Proximity Services for remote market participants.

Proximity Services allow participants of SIX Swiss Exchange to overcome the disadvantage of geographical distance and to enjoy the same low latency as any participant located in the Zurich area.

SIX Swiss Exchange welcomes Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) and Interxion as new and further business partners in the field of proximity hosting. Together with Colt (LSE: COLT.L) who have pioneered this service for SIX Swiss Exchange this provides remote participants with a wider choice of locations and services to suit their particular needs.

Proximity hosting clients will enjoy the same sub-millisecond latency as any Zurich based market participants. The services by Equinix and Interxion are targeted to be available as from mid-July 2010.

For detailed information on SIX Swiss Exchange’s capacity and latency roadmap: http://www.six-swissexchange. com/swx_messages/online/swx_message_201005311719_en.pdf

Colt: http://www.colt.net

Equinix: http://financial.equinix.com/

Interxion: http://www.interxion.com