Government Technology - June 2008 - (Page 50)

pectrum reports from the IT horizon — AARP spectrum ideas to managing editor Karen Stewartson kstewartson@ govtech.com JUNE_08 Send j 50 Building Trust Market research ﬁrm TNS Sofres’ Digital Trust Barometer, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults, revealed that users are wary of ecommerce because of digital security threats. When asked whom they trust as a source of reliable information on digital security, 42 percent of respondents believed friends and family are the most reliable source for security advice. After relatives, 27 percent of Americans considered companies specializing in digital security an accurate and reliable source of information. Banks, at 7.6 percent, were a distant third as a trusted information source. Touch Sense of Online Health Care Three-quarters of U.S. consumers ages 65 and over are comfortable with telemedicine, “telepharmacies” and other online tools that extend doctors’ reach. But more than 80 percent of caregivers still think they will struggle to get seniors to use the technology. Awareness and Potential Use of Computers and the Internet for Select Activities according to U.S. Seniors, December 2007 (% of respondents) Search for health information on the Internet 88% 84% Play games with people living in different places 68% 64% See and hear people living in different places 52% 56% Aware that you can Would use computer to Anything for Chocolate? Women are more likely than men to give away their passwords to total strangers, according to a survey by Infosecurity Europe. Forty-ﬁve percent of women versus 10 percent of men were prepared to give their passwords to market research impostors with the lure of a chocolate bar as an incentive for completing the survey. The survey was conducted in London as a social engineering exercise to raise awareness about information security. In 2007, 64 percent of people were prepared to give away their passwords for a chocolate bar, this year it dropped to just 21 percent. Computers may soon let people sense the texture of objects or feel how they fit together thanks to a haptic, or touch-based interface, developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The device uses magnetic levitation and a single moving part called a flotor, much like a joystick, to let users perceive textures, feel hard contacts and notice even slight changes in position. Electric current flowing through embedded wires in the flotor interact with powerful permanent magnets underneath, making the flotor levitate. A control handle attached to the flotor lets users move the handle like a computer mouse, but in three dimensions, with six degrees of freedom — up/ down, side to side, back/forth, yaw, pitch and roll. Optical sensors measure the flotor’s position and orientation, and this information controls a virtual object’s position and orientation on the computer display. As this virtual object encounters other virtual surfaces and objects, corresponding signals transmit to the flotor’s electrical coils, resulting in touch-based feedback to users. — Carnegie Mellon University

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - June 2008

Government Technology - June 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions For... 3 Technologies That May Change Your Job ...And Your Life Loosening Medicaid's Grip Better Living Through Technology Immersive Itineraries Help Yourself Taking the Bait Shared Connection Up Close Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Digital Tactics for a U.S. Recession E-Dilemma Stifling Community Innovation Leadership Interview Estonia Becomes E-Stonia If It Were Up to Me …

Government Technology - June 2008

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