Maude: no place like home…
No Place Like Home Maude ran a finger along the shelf ‘Nurse Simmons!’ she called out. ‘More attention to the dust and less to the new registrar if you don’t mind!’ continued Continue reading Maude: no place like home…
Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill
Electro-wetting: no, not an embarrassing disorder!
Most of us have heard of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, Sony’s alternative product, and the various other challengers for the electronic library market. If you set aside the disadvantages of being largely monochromatic, generally wedded to particular publishing outlets, and not much cop in the bath, this tech seems to be on the verge of mass indispensability. BBC ‘Click’ highlighted Dutch firm, Liquavista, which is bringing that position closer to reality by not only developing colour and video capability, but also working on incorporating the oil-based system into flexible plastic sheets. Imagine, your whole library+ mag and newspaper subscriptions rolled up … Continue reading Electro-wetting: no, not an embarrassing disorder!
You Tube for Grownups
YouTubeEDU. Why didn’t I know about this before? It’s what I’ve been looking for – a legitimate video upload site that caters for professional communities and allows dissemination of graphically driven visual information. Many of us struggle with organisations whose IT systems block what they see as primarily social sites but, increasingly, relevant information is being put out in video format. For some, this is absolutely the best medium – think of the psychological phenomena of visual illusion and confidence trickery, for instance (see Richard Wiseman’s site for much more on this) – and for others, it provides compelling support … Continue reading You Tube for Grownups
Havok7 in Second Life
IndigoMertal, a builder in Second Life, sent me this link to a wonderful video of what seems to be the next generation of Second Life viewers. In this iteration, the underlying physics engine allows for tumbling, bumping, and colliding in ways not possible at the moment. Take a look here, magic! Of course, that isn’t where it stops, this isn’t just a pretty face. The kind of reality introduced by this capability seems likely to increase the sense of presence people experience in the virtual environment and that has huge implications for the kinds of social, psychological, and medical research … Continue reading Havok7 in Second Life
Space Destiny in Second Life
It’s not often you get a personal tour around a space science research centre, especially one that has a dance floor, free drinks, and a sofa on the ceiling! Yesterday, at Space Destiny SylvianaJ took three of us in a big blue bus to see what’s being developed there. Space Destiny is a research facility used by scientists from many different disciplines – environment design, sustainable agriculture (hydroponics), physics, biology, amongst others. The venue is open to the public – just so long as you are a Second Life resident – and there are open days during which you can … Continue reading Space Destiny in Second Life
Research presentation
Spent today working on a presentation for the Trust’s R&D conference in June. Professor Louis Appleby is our keynote speaker and there will be a range of research heavy weights delivering quality material. I’m there to talk about my emergence from almost nowhere (one of those 25 year overnight successes!) as an NIHR fund-holder and may quite possibly be the cabaret. Not that presenting to large audiences is that new. I’ve delivered twice to the impressively titled World Conference in Innovations in Psychiatry and was once part of the youthful ‘I’m Nearly Famous’ group of clinicians that seemed to be … Continue reading Research presentation
Apologies – links messed up!
Confused? You should be! I’ve corrected the links now to Mark’s blog so you won’t end up in a daft loop back to where you started! I blame the imminent onset of British Summer Time, all too exciting..! Continue reading Apologies – links messed up!
Disability commentary
By Mark E. Smith “Isn’t it peculiar how people – including those of us with disabilities, ourselves – take specific character traits and somehow universally attribute them to those with disabilities?” For the full article, go to Mark’s blog and read his extremley erudite discussion of the problems associated with disablity and social judgments. Continue reading Disability commentary
Updated professional home page
Not by much – it’s catching up with the blog! New photo though, and not of a blue Na’vi! Take a look if you feel so moved – here I am. Continue reading Updated professional home page
Virtual Revolution
Excellent article by Milton Broome (aka Simon Bignall of Derby University) about the BBC series Virtual Revolution. Take a look here Continue reading Virtual Revolution
Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill 