analysis

Cloud Antivirus 2.0 delivers on security

The bottom line: Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 2.0 gets impressive marks for its detection rates, making it a solid dark-horse candidate even though it could be lighter on system impact. However, it still lacks some of the features in other free security suites.

Review: When it originally debuted, Panda Cloud Antivirus was notable as a free security solution for two reasons: Panda traded on its reputation as a solid security suite vendor making its first foray into the realm of freeware, and the program attained its goal of freeing up system resources by putting much of the program's … Read more

World's fastest camera detects elusive cancer cells

Modifications to the world's fastest camera are enabling the real-time identification of rare breast cancer cells in blood, with a record low false-positive rate of one cell in a million, according to new research out of UCLA.

"This technology can significantly reduce errors and costs in medical diagnosis," lead author Keisuke Goda, a UCLA program manager in electrical engineering and bioengineering, said in a school news release.

The team's approach could not only pave the way for earlier detection of cancer and monitoring of drug and radiation therapy but also prove useful in urine analysis, water … Read more

Put CellworXs to work in Excel

Microsoft Excel is the business world's standard spreadsheet application for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the ability to expand its capabilities through add-ons. CellworXs by Softalis is a free Excel add-on that adds significant data analysis capabilities, including the ability to generate dynamic reports and offline report versions that can be shared with others. CellworXs has the potential to greatly reduce the time and expertise needed to create sophisticated analyses. Instead of requiring lots of "help calculations" and in-depth technical knowledge, CellworXs uses simple formulas to enable users to build database-specific analysis, consolidation, … Read more

QuickField Student is for engineers in training

QuickField Professional is a Finite Element Analysis tool for creating and analyzing electromagnetic, thermal, and stress simulations. It's used in many science, physics, and design classrooms and labs. QuickField Student is a free version with reduced functionality and a limited number of nodes. It can simulate basic problems in engineering and physics as well as display QuickField models. It's a great choice for engineering and physics students who use QuickField at school. QuickField Student helps users familiarize themselves with the full program as well as letting them view materials at home.

QuickField Student opened with a welcome message … Read more

New lab-on-a-chip genetic analysis resembles pinball

Researchers have invented a silicone lab on a chip they say could make genetic analysis far more sensitive--not to mention rapid and cost-effective--by routing fluid through microscopic tubes and valves, and allowing individual cells to fall into place much like balls in a pinball machine.

Standard genetic testing involves vast numbers of cells that, when analyzed, provide a sort of composite picture that cannot reveal the behaviors of individual cells.

"It's like trying to understand what makes a strawberry different from a raspberry by studying a blended-fruit smoothie," said Carl Hansen, an assistant professor who led the … Read more

Saygent: It's not what you say, it's how you say it

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--It looks like sentiment analysis is becoming an interesting business for start-ups. After talking with Jared Goralnick from AwayFind, at the 500 Startups event, I ran into Guy Hirsch, of Saygent, who's also launching a company to help businesses mine sentiments of their customers or potential customers.

The product will be a partly automated voice survey tool. Clients will create survey questions and come up with a list of desired respondents, and then a machine will poll these people (via phone, unfortunately) and collect their voice responses. It will take the answers it gets and farm them out, via Mechanical Turk, to a panel of humans who will determine the sentiment of the respondents, as well as other factors that can't easily be determined by transcripts of responses.

Why not just do surveys the old-fashioned way, and ask people what they think? Hirsch says that getting an excitement (or anger, or frustration, etc) level on responses is both more valuable in marketing surveys and less expensive. All the human listeners have to do for Saygent is determine tone, not spend time transcribing.

Saygent correlates sentiments with the demographics it has from its clients' target lists, to determine, for example, if women or men are more interested in particular products or ideas.

Hirsch says his tool will also be usable for recruiting, especially for hiring phone workers. For example, if you want to hire people with friendly voices, or accents that resonate with particular customer demographics, this tool can help you find them.

I can't see Saygent replacing traditional phone surveys, but it does sound like a good way to get additional data points from a survey process.

Other sentiment-based services: • E-mail anger meter gets sensitivity training • When Exaudios is in use, it pays to get angry… Read more

New blood-analysis chip detects disease in minutes

It's inspiring to visit a university laboratory and see fresh-faced college students working on experiments that may some day have huge impacts on our lives. And on our trip to the University of California at Berkeley this week we found just that. In the campus' Stanley Hall, there's a team of researchers working on a new blood-analysis chip or Self-powered Integrated Microfluidic Blood Analysis System (SIMBAS), that can potentially detect hundreds of diseases at once in a matter of minutes.

During my campus visit with cameraman and editor Jared Kohler, we interviewed bioengineering Professor Luke Lee and post-doctoral … Read more

Ripple effect of Japan disasters on consumer electronics (podcast)

While most Japanese wafer fabrication plants ("fabs") are located in the southern part of the country, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, at least one manufacturer is still shut down after last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami, according to Jim Handy, an analyst with semiconductor market research firm Objective Analysis. Some Japanese technology companies have curtailed operations.

But even plants in other parts of the country can be affected by rattling and, of course power glitches. "These are very sensitive plants because they are using extremely advanced optics to lay down lines as small as 25 … Read more

Expressions are everything in L.A. Noire

Rockstar Games has earned an elite reputation for developing and publishing innovative and iconic video game software, most recently displayed by the success of the in-house developed Red Dead Redemption (which is also our pick for 2010's game of the year).

This spring, Rockstar Games is teaming up with Australian developer Team Bondi to bring us L.A. Noire, a thrilling crime drama that takes place in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Only since this past November has the gaming community been exposed to L.A. Noire's artistic styling, seen through a series of Hollywood-grade cinematic trailers.

Though the acting and performances appear top notch, the real star of the game has to be MotionScan technology. For the first time during in-game action, MotionScan gives characters shockingly realistic facial expressions, which in this case features Aaron Staton ("Mad Men"), John Nobile ("Fringe"), and many more. We spoke with Brendan McNamara, founder of Team Bondi, about how L.A. Noire's critical-thinking gameplay relies on this technology, and how implementing it went far beyond traditional motion capture. Little has been disclosed about how exactly L.A. Noire will play, and McNamara was able to provide some insight as to what gamers can expect.… Read more