What did you say?

Applied Minds just invented Babble™ for Sonare Technologies™, a new company of Herman Miller. It makes a conversation in open space -- say, your office cubicle or in a hospital area -- virtually incomprehensible to those in hearing distance and perfectly private.

Applied Sciences even maps the chemical signature of blood proteins -- to identify candidates for certain cancer treatments -- since most treatments only work for 5% of the population -- matching candidate to treatment.

What do I want for Christmas (ok, so I'm a heathen, but still...)? Applied Minds is also behind the Touch Table, a map that uses your handsignals for movements. To zoom out, place both hands (or just two fingers) on the table and spread them apart (If I saw this demo'd, I'd've cried.). Zoom in? Yeah, push your hands together. You touch points -- grab the earth, turn it on the screen, navigate, zoom into the location you want, get a historical view of the same location... in real time. You can even take a pen and draw on the map when you're pointing out information for those around the table. You can imagine my pool of glee regarding this fascinating invention. I happen to read maps for fun and even the new Google Maps Satellite pictures have given me plenty of entertainment. If this wasn't enough, they've now built a 3D version where the screen actually deforms so you can feel the hills and valleys. Watch the video (41MB) on NorthropGrumman. Cry all you want.

[just edited the links; NG originally posted information in 2004; sometime between the original posting her and April 2009, they updated their site and moved the links. The zooming thing is now in the hands of the masses by way of the iphone...)