As Published In September/October 2005

Laser Beams, MRAM, and VR

Bluetooth laser measurement, instant memory, and combating phobias with virtual reality

Bluetooth Powers Laser Measurement Device

No doubt you've seen television ads for laser levels and measuring devices, which help weekend handymen build their dream patios. The same technology is now used by professional contractors—but with a Bluetooth advantage. Leica DISTO plus Bluetooth-enabled laser distance meter feeds measurement data directly into a handheld device or a laptop. With the right software (such as CAD) accepting the measurements, a builder can quickly measure any space and figure out distance (up to 650 feet away), square footage, and volume within 1/16th of an inch accuracy. This tool is a dream come true for heating and ventilation systems installers and CAT5 cable installers, who no longer have to squeeze into tight, dusty places to measure and map out their projects. This device is also used by cave explorers to quickly map caves and filmmakers to determine the distance from a camera lens to an object being filmed.

Web Locator Leica DISTO plus Magnetoresistive RAM Georgia State University virtual reality study

No More Waiting to Boot Up

In the world of "instant everything," users are still forced to wait for computers to boot up and for digital cameras to save images. Within the next few years, new types of solid-state computer memory, such as magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), may change that. In MRAM, data is written by a small electrical current that creates a magnetic field, which flips electron spins in a spin-dependent tunnel junction. Data is read as the resistance of the junction. MRAM is "nonvolatile," meaning that it retains its content even when the power is off. And unlike SRAM and DRAM memory technologies, MRAM enables "instant-on."

Conquer Your Fears with Virtual Reality

If speaking in front of an audience makes your heart race, voice tremble, and palms sweat, you might have a public-speaking phobia. Page Anderson, a psychology professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, is studying the effects of virtual reality (VR) headgear and custom software to help people overcome their fears. VR offers a controlled environment and a replacement for traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, or "exposure therapy," where a person is exposed in small, short doses to the actual fear, she says. For such therapy to work, the degree of exposure needs to be controlled and prolonged to give anxiety time to subside, and then be repeated. "All of that's difficult to do," she says. "So I'm examining whether facing one's fears in the virtual world allows one to conquer them in the real world."