Immersion related patents

cellodude is posting a couple of interesting patent applications on the IV MB:

>>Strong likelihood Williams Gaming to use IMMR! Proof inside.

How about a WMS patent app., mentioning Immersion by name, for a handheld gambling device? Unexpected! This is the first time we've seen IMMR mentioned specifically by a gaming manufacturer in one of their patents.

Jackpot Party, a popular casino slot, is pictured in the handheld configuration. In the bonus round you touch packages to reveal prizes underneath. Now with IMMR vibration!

[Jan. 1, 2009

Handheld Device for Wagering Games

[0030]The primary display and/or secondary display of the handheld gaming machine may, in some aspects, comprise a haptic display, such as those haptic displays (e.g., Touchsense.RTM.) manufactured by Immersion Corporation of San Jose, Calif. When the user of the handheld gaming machine touches a touch screen key of a haptic touch screen display (e.g., primary display), the touch screen key will convey the sense of being depressed and released through the use of vibrations transmitted through the screen to the user's finger. The use of a haptic display advantageously provides sensory feedback to the user of the handheld gaming machine as confirmation of a user's action or selection.]


>>IMMR's most significant patent app. for 2009 is out - multi-touch, Jan.1 2009

A revolutionary patent app. from IMMR is published, and it's a mouthful: "Method and apparatus for multi-touch tactile touch panel actuator mechanisms."

Apple uses multi-touch input in the iPhone, and so will MSFT Windows 7, so many touchscreen devices will incorporate multi-touch. It's doubtful that older haptic technologies will work.

What haptic solutions would IMMR engineers invent for multi-touch? I was worried that they would be lousy, or someone would beat them to it.

Am I worried now? Nope, the cutting edge creatives at IMMR have done it again.

IMMR's new multi-touch haptic technology is a layered array, or grid, of small haptic cells which operate independently from one another. Two simultaneous touches, two independent vibrations.

1 Overall structure:

The tactile portion is made of two layers, electrical and haptic. The electrical interprets the input, the haptic kicks the output. These two invisible layers fit over the display, so you have a three layer sandwich:

Top: Electric
Middle: Haptic
Bottom: Visual display (LCD)

2 New layer technology:

[Each haptic cell is configured to provide a haptic effect independent of other haptic cells in the tactile layer.]

Haptic cell can be:
piezoelectric material (grid can be printed as a film)
thermal fluid pocket
variable porosity membrane
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems ("MEMS") element, which can further be:
MEMS pump for laminar flow modulation
shape memory alloy
linear resonant device

What does all that gobbledygook mean? Who knows! What I do know is that if you desire haptics with your multi-touch you will have to knock on IMMR's door.

United States Patent Application	20090002328
Kind Code	A1
Ullrich; Christopher J. ; et al.	January 1, 2009

---

Method and apparatus for multi-touch tactile touch panel actuator mechanisms

Abstract

A method and apparatus of actuator mechanisms for a multi-touch tactile touch panel are disclosed. The tactile touch panel includes an electrical insulated layer and a tactile layer. The top surface of the electrical insulated layer is capable of receiving an input from a user. The tactile layer includes a grid or an array of haptic cells. The top surface of the haptic layer is situated adjacent to the bottom surface of the electrical insulated layer, while the bottom surface of the haptic layer is situated adjacent to a display. Each haptic cell further includes at least one piezoelectric material, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems ("MEMS") element, thermal fluid pocket, MEMS pump, resonant device, variable porosity membrane, laminar flow modulation, or the like. Each haptic cell is configured to provide a haptic effect independent of other haptic cells in the tactile layer.

---

Inventors:	Ullrich; Christopher J.; (Santa Cruz, CA) ; Steger; Ryan; (Sunnyvale, CA) ; Gomez; Daniel H.; (Newton, MA)
Correspondence Name and Address:	James M. Wu;JW Law Group 84 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 820 San Jose CA 95113 US
Assignee Name and Adress:	IMMERSION Corporation, a Delaware Corporation San Jose CA
Serial No.:	823192
Series Code:	11
Filed:	June 26, 2007

We are buying a new cyber knife program for the cancer center

from The Colorado Springs Business Journal:

>>“We want to be a role model for the community,” she said. “We want to be a credible source of health care needs.”

While she admits that times are tough — and Penrose is no exception, Sabin said the system has a healthy bottom line. But in the future, it will be carefully choosing how to spend its money.

“We are buying a new cyber knife program for the cancer center,” she said. “We decided that that program directly benefited patients — it is state of the art technology. But to do it, we had to put off some building renovations. We decided to focus on health care and patient needs — the rest we’ll make do without.”

2008 performance of data center stocks

Data Center Knowledge is putting together data for the 4Q and full year 2008. Worth a read, if you can stand the pain...

>>Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the 2008 performance of data center stocks is that it can no longer get any worse. All 13 stocks we track at the Data Center Investor showed losses for the year, with only Digital Realty Trust (DLR) outperforming the Dow (-33.8%) and S&P 500 (-38.5%). The performance list shows a clear bias toward the industry’s most established players, reflecting a “flight to quality” on the part of investors in the sector. The top five performers are all known quantities with track records that predate the dot-com boom and bust.

2009 – Looking Forward to Small Businesses and Their Dedicated Hosting Buying Trends

from the Navisite blog:

>>Small Businesses will find that the traditional Web Hosting industry will transform significantly in 2009, primarily due to the economic conditions that will continue to be a growing factor in 2009.

....

With the capital crunch, and the need to replace this aging equipment, small businesses and their IT service providers will move to hosted infrastructure. In 2009, the monthly hardware lease and license rental model is far more appropriate than the massive capital outlays and consulting services required for onsite upgrades and new deployments.

The year 2009 also marks the first full year when the majority of Small Business technology providers (MSPs VARs etc.) are comfortable with recurring business models and the concept of recurring billing with their small business customers. Hosted infrastructure like dedicated servers and VMware based Virtual Dedicated servers enable providers to expand their relationships with their customers with more affordable, lower upfront cost solutions. Applications, databases, storage, collaboration and backend server needs will be deployed on dedicated hosting solutions in numbers never seen before.

Gas leak causes 3-building evacuation in Secaucus

from: The Jersey Journal

>>The Secaucus Fire Department and PSE&G received a report of a gas odor at 275 Hartz Way today at 11:35 a.m. After evacuating the buildings, the fire department found a two and a half inch ruptured gas main in the At Last Sportswear building said Mike Gonnelli, the deputy chief of the Secaucus Fire Department.

Gonnelli, who was on the scene, said that more than 100 people were evacuated from three connected buildings that are occupied by At Last Sportswear, Burlington Coat Factory and Equinix. The fire department shut down the gas mains, located the leak and ventilated the buildings. Gonnelli said there were no injuries.

At Last Sportswear employees were sent home for the day and Burlington Coat Factory and Equinix were back to work in an hour and a half, said Gonnelli.

Dupont Fabros Technology Inc. Santa Clara data center

A few more info about the data center whose construction was stopped recently. From Business Journal:

>>One of the largest data centers ever proposed for Silicon Valley is breaking
ground in Santa Clara.
Washington, D.C., real estate development company Dupont Fabros
Technology Inc., a newcomer to the region, has begun construction on the
first phase of a proposed 600,000 square-foot complex at 555 Reed St.
The project, with an estimated $1 billion building value at completion, is a
striking example of the global construction boom in data centers.



Construction has begun on a huge new data center in Santa Clara being built by
Dupont Fabros Technology Inc. of Washington, D.C.

---

Digital (Realty) is among those participating in the Silicon Valley data-center building boom. The company
has partnered with local data-center development guru Les Pelio of Pelio & Associates at 1500 Space
Park Drive in Santa Clara. Together they plan to start construction on 300,000 square feet of data
center space “any day now,” said Sutton Roley, a senior vice president and principal with the valley’s
CPS Corfac International and a leasing broker for the site. Another 74,000 square feet in the project
already has been leased.
Fifteen percent of Digital Realty’s annual revenue comes from Silicon Valley facilities, according to
public record.
A third Santa Clara data center complex with 350,000 square feet, including some offices, is also
being planned by CRG West, a division of The Carlyle Group. The first phase of its Santa Clara
complex begins construction this month.
The list of new Bay Area projects goes on. San Francisco-based 365 Main Inc., which owns five data
centers in Northern California, Arizona and Virginia, plans to start a 136,000-square-foot data
center in Newark “imminently,” said Miles Kelly, vice president of marketing and strategy. The
project has been “designed and permitted,” he said, but he declined to say how much it would cost
or whether it is purely speculative or partially leased.

Equinix expansion chart

click on the pictures for a larger view.
Files available here.

NTELOS

Company Information
Company Name	NTELOS
Also Known As
Company Website	http://www.ntelos.com
Primary ASN	7795
IRR Record	MNT-NTELO
Network Type	Cable/DSL/ISP
Approx Prefixes	90
Traffic Levels	1-5Gbps
Traffic Ratios	Mostly Inbound
Geographic Scope	Regional
Looking Glass URL
Route Server URL
Notes	We have just turned up public peering in Equinix Chicago and are seeking public peers there and in Equinix Ashburn.

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name	ASN	IP Address	Mbit/sec
Equinix Ashburn	7795	206.223.115.156	1000
Equinix Chicago	7795	206.223.119.118	1000

Private Peering Facilities
Facility Name	ASN	City	Country	SONET	Ethr	ATM
Equinix Ashburn (DC1-DC4)	7795	Ashburn	US
Equinix Chicago (CH1/CH2)	7795	Chicago	US

Cyberknife boost to cancer care

from BBC News:

Cyberknife boost to cancer care

By Fergus Walsh BBC News medical correspondent

Dr Nick Plowman says the cyberknife can target cancer cells with 'high exactitude'

A robot radiotherapy machine to treat cancer is to be available in the UK for the first time from February.

Called the Cyberknife, it moves with a patient's breathing so tumours can be targeted with greater accuracy, and damage to healthy tissue is reduced.

The machine will be at the private Harley Street Clinic in London.

More than a dozen countries worldwide already use the machine, including France, which has three under clinical trial.

...

The cyberknife minimises damage to healthy tissue

Good results

The French National Cancer Institute has paid for three Cyberknife machines to be trialled at hospitals in Nice, Nancy and Lille.

Professor Eric Lartigau from the Centre Oscar Lambret in Lille said he was very impressed.

He said: "We have been treated just over 200 patients in 18 months and all couldn't have been treated with conventional radiotherapy so its a big plus for our patients."

...

Professor Eric Lartigau is impressed by the technology

Clinical director Dr Nick Plowman, who is also a consultant oncologist at Barts Hospital, does not believe that Britain is lagging behind.

He said: "It is only in the past couple of years that the software has got to the stage where we believe it is right for introduction to our clinical service.

"So we don't believe we have been tardy; we have been waiting for the improvements to come and now they're here we are happy to introduce the machine."

...

In early February, the first Cyberknife in the UK will begin treating patients at the private Harley Street Clinic in London.

AARNet

10 Gig port in Sydney:

Company Information
Company Name	AARNet
Also Known As	APL
Company Website	http://www.aarnet.edu.au
Primary ASN	7575
IRR Record	AS7575:AS-CUSTOMER
Network Type	Educational/Research
Approx Prefixes	300
Traffic Levels	1-5Gbps
Traffic Ratios	Mostly Inbound
Geographic Scope	Asia Pacific

Public Peering Exchange Points
Equinix Sydney	7575	202.167.228.46	10000

NaviSite's dedicated hosting business will benefit significantly from several trends in 2009

an interview from The Hosting News:

>>William Toll works within the marketing and product management functions for managed dedicated hosting company, NaviSite.

...

NaviSite's dedicated hosting business will benefit significantly from several trends in 2009. First, we expect an increased interest from small businesses looking for a quality full service managed hosting provider to move to deploy their services and applications with. Small, financially questionable providers are now seen as a risk – while companies with significant experience with the enterprise that provide an affordable and accessible service for the small business will win new business.

The interest in hosted applications such as SaaS, has not only crossed over to the mainstream, but is now a preferable model for 'utility' needs like email, office collaboration and information sharing and CRM. The increasing popularity of hosted Exchange is the best example. With hosted Exchange businesses of all sizes can stop worrying about SPAM, increasing needs for storage and archiving and muitiple mobile platforms for BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and more.''

Equinix - some more metrics

you may click on the image for a larger view.

The original file is available here.

Equinix: some metrics

you may click on the images for a larger view.

The original file is available here.

Providing Content Delivery Services for TOYOTA Motor Corporation

from Limelight Network blog:

>>We’re pleased today to announce that Toyota Motor Corporation has selected us to provide content delivery services for www.toyota.com. Another great win for our Japan team! Since the press release was only distributed in Japanese, we’re providing a summary for our English-speaking readers:

Toyota will use the LimelightDELIVER and LimelightSTREAM services to accelerate the delivery of the rich media content of their website, in both Windows Media and Adobe Flash formats, as well as dynamic content of the toyota.com homepage. Toyota uses rich media extensively, especially in conjunction with the launch of new cars.

As the announcement says, “Since Limelight Networks content delivery infrastructure is directly connected to over 900 last-mile access networks worldwide, TOYOTA will be able to ensure the rapid delivery of interactive contents to a global audience of auto enthusiasts.”