+ Philips Research Password Issue 36

Issue 36 – November 2009 Philips Research technology magazine
Password
A new light brightens up the night
for children in Africa
Light in the dark
New techniques may give heart failure
patients advanced warning
Early
warning
Better nights
ahead
The search is on for ways
to help us sleep better

Early warning
For heart failure patients, even daily life
can be a challenge. But new techniques
may help detect the severe bouts of
edema that take a toll on patients –
before they reach a critical level.
Page 8
Password is a technology magazine
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Brandy Vaughan
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Philips Research
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All rights reserved
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Contents
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14
20
Light in the dark
Nearly 500 million Africans live
without power. After dark, life changes
drastically and many children don’t have
the chance to finish their schoolwork
due to the lack of light. A new solarpowered
education light may help.
Better nights ahead
Our busy lives leave us little time
for sleep. However, 'sleep' research
is thriving and there may soon be
better ways to improve the quality
of our sleep, even if we can’t increase
the quantity.
Feel the thrill
Instinctively, we know that touch
can affect our emotions. Scientifically,
however, this link is largely unexplored.
That’s now beginning to change, with
exciting new possibilities on the horizon.
12 Did you know...
Interesting facts and figures
at your fingertips.
18 A cinematic experience
With the release of the world’s
first cinema-proportioned LCD
TV, we can now have a true
cinematic experience in the
comfort of our own home.
26 Did you know...
Interesting facts and figures
at your fingertips.
28 A new direction
It’s clear that modern life is taking
a toll on the world around us.
Maybe technology can help
us move in a more sustainable
direction. Two experts weigh in
on technology and sustainability.
23
Smart skins
A new ‘electronic skin' technology,
called e-skin, will soon bring new
options for enhancing personal
electronics and more.
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y Brandy Vaughan
Light in the dark
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Just 10 years old, Josephine Kwazo already knows hardship.
An orphan raised by her grandmother in a rural African
village, she desperately wants to succeed in school. But
every day after school, Josephine runs home to her chores:
carrying water and firewood, tending to the family's goats
and cleaning their tiny hut. By 6pm, she hasn't found even
a minute to study. With darkness falling and no electricity in
the village, the family's kerosene lamp is in popular demand
and her schoolwork goes unfinished for another day.
Josephine’s story is hardly unique. A shocking 92% of people
in sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity, according
to UNESCO. In fact, Africa has been dubbed the ‘Dark
Continent’ for its lack of light when seen from space. And
when the sun goes down, productivity and day-to-day life
come to a near halt – and this includes children’s schoolwork.
To salvage a few more hours of light, most rural families turn
to kerosene lamps. But these lamps are rife with safety hazards
as they often produce more smoke than light, and there are
frequent stories of huts – even entire villages – destroyed by
fire when the lamps are knocked over. The low-light output,
which makes reading difficult, is barely justifiable considering
the high cost of the fuel needed to light them: the World
Bank estimates that an average of 10-15% of a family’s
income is spent on kerosene fuel alone.
Those who can’t afford kerosene try to manage in almost total
darkness, significantly decreasing the hours of productivity
for families already struggling to survive. This can have such
a crippling effect that the World Bank recently launched the
Lighting Africa initiative, which aims to bring clean-energy,
low-cost lighting to 250 million Africans by 2030.
The lack of electricity in rural Africa is such a huge challenge to
productivity that many NGOs believe it's one of the reasons
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why Africa has such a hard time escaping poverty
and moving forward. And most would agree, to move
forward, younger generations need the best education they
can get, which means finding a way for them to complete
their schoolwork after dark.
LEDing the way
Many experts consider LED lighting to be the best way to
light up the region. Extending the electricity grid would be
too costly for most cash-strapped African countries and would
take many decades, if not generations, to complete. "There is
not enough time in the day to extend the electricity grid,"
says Russell Sturm, head of the Lighting Africa initiative for
the International Finance Corporation, a branch of the
World Bank. "We need a more immediate solution."
LEDs may be the answer. They’re efficient, in that they use a small
amount of power yet produce enough light to read and write
by. They can also be recharged using natural resources, like solar
or manual power. To help achieve the Lighting Africa goal, the
World Bank reached out to companies to provide the expertise
and technology needed to develop innovative ways of bringing
non-fossil fuel lighting sources to Africa. As a leader in LED
technology, Philips quickly became involved, with a focus on giving
children a better way to continue their studies during the evening.
Education after dark
After school finishes, most African children spend the remaining
daylight hours doing household chores. Then, without electricity,
they have trouble finishing their schoolwork after night falls –
often around 6pm. After-dark lighting could greatly extend their
study hours.
“Lots of African children have the drive to succeed at school
but not the resources,” explains Frank Atta-Owusu, project
manager at KITE, a Ghana-based NGO that has partnered
with Philips to get solar-powered lighting to children in rural
communities. “Kerosene is not only expensive and dangerous,
but usually families can only afford one lamp, and children have
the lowest priority. Usually they don’t have the chance to use it
for their studies. Besides, the light output is so low, it’s difficult
to read or write.”
Facing such challenges, it’s easy to see why so many African
schoolchildren fall behind in their schoolwork and, often,
leave school altogether. UNICEF estimates that while nearly
60% of children in sub-Saharan Africa attend primary school,
the number drops to just 21% for secondary school. NGOs on
the ground believe that the lack of light at night is part of the
reason. Luckily, it’s also an area where simple solutions could
have a significant impact.
Made for kids
Philips Research began developing a new solar-powered
LED light strictly to address the education-after-dark issue.
Although there are a number of LED lighting options already
on the African market, none are tailored to children and their
education. “It’s designed for kids so the light is quite safe,”
explains Roger Ren, the project leader at Philips Research.
“Solar powered with just one rechargeable AAA battery, it
doesn’t run hot or burn their hands. It’s also small and sturdy
yet simple to use. The light distribution is even and safe for
children’s sensitive eyes. And because summer storms are
common in Africa, the light is waterproof so if left outside,
there’s no need to worry.”
And, of course, the light had to be extremely affordable
yet high quality and long lasting. To make the light more
environmentally friendly, Philips also worked hard to ensure
that almost all the light’s parts were recyclable and sustainable.
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“What better way to light Africa than with ‘clean’ renewable
energy – using an abundant and natural resource like the sun?"
questions Ren. "Solar energy could be the key to bringing
light to Africa without serious environmental or health
consequences.”
A step in the light direction
The hope is that with light, better education will follow.
“Since the light is specifically made for educational purposes,
we hope that children will be able to use it for studying
whenever they want,” says Atta-Owusu. “And if they can
study more at night and improve their grades, it could help
raise educational standards in rural areas.”
One case from Senegal proved just how important light
after dark can be. In the town of Thiancone Boguel, a school
provided free kerosene fuel to local students so they could
study after their chores. The effort paid off. In 2005,
100% of the students graduated and nearly all went on to
college. But as oil prices rose, the school was forced to stop
the program. The following year, just 60% of students
graduated, with only 10% going on to college.
Although the education light will initially be available only in
Africa, it could someday help other rural communities where
low-cost, solar-powered lighting could make a difference in
people’s lives. And with micro-credit and government-backed
lending programs already in the works, families like Josephine’s
may soon be able to afford a safer, cheaper and more
permanent lighting option. And maybe one day her schoolwork
will be completed on time – even after dark.
More
Power for the people
The solar-powered education light is part of a larger
partnership between Philips and the Dutch Ministry for
Overseas Development on a project called Sustainable
Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA). Established in mid-2008,
SESA's goal is to provide ten million people in ten sub-Saharan
countries in Africa with affordable and sustainable energy
services for lighting, cooking and water purification by 2015.
While Philips works on the innovative technology, the
Dutch ministry is focused on market development, including
entrepreneurial training as well as the support and development
of micro-lending schemes for the rural communities so that
villagers can afford better lighting solutions. "Giving things away
for free often proves unsustainable," says Dutch Minister for
Overseas Development Bert Koenders. "People in rural Africa
currently use kerosene and batteries. They will soon be able
to buy solar lamps, paying for them in installments with the
help of micro-credit."
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y Brandy Vaughan
Early warning
It’s 3am and the emergency room is full of patients.
A few are so short of breath, they can barely move.
Their bodies and lungs are filled with excess fluid –
a common complication of heart failure. It’s a terrifying
scenario, even for patients who have been through it
before. But new research may help find a way to predict
these episodes before they reach a critical level.
While it may not make the headline news very often, heart
failure is a chronic disease that affects more than 22 million
people worldwide – with approximately two million new
patients diagnosed each year. In Europe alone, more than
10 million people live with heart failure on a daily basis.
And as healthcare advances mean an ever-increasing elderly
population, the number of heart failure patients is expected
to nearly double in the next 30 years.
the hospital – a place nobody wants to go regularly.
Home telemonitoring encourages patients to take more
responsibility for their own health by monitoring their vital
signs and other important elements independently at home.
All the measurement data is then transmitted to their healthcare
providers for review so treatment adjustments can be made
if necessary. Most systems also have an alert feature that can
help care providers detect inconsistencies that need follow-up.
Most often caused by coronary artery disease, heart failure
is a chronic and progressive disease that stems from the heart’s
inability to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.
Currently, it’s the most common cause for hospitalization for
people 65 and older. And patients with heart failure often
have trouble leading normal lives due to the debilitating effects
of the disease – such as shortness of breath, exhaustion
and edema. But healthcare treatments are improving and
combined with lifestyle changes like a healthy diet and exercise,
some heart failure patients can still live relatively normal lives.
Home health
Home telemonitoring is one healthcare trend that seems to help
heart failure patients live more normally by keeping them out of
Importantly, patients become more involved in their own
treatment. “With home telemonitoring, patients seem to
feel more responsible for their own health and become more
actively involved. It helps patients be more optimistic about
their prognosis while, at the same time, being more compliant
with medication and treatment,” says Patrick Schauerte,
head of the cardiology department at the University Clinic
of Aachen in Germany.
In fact, a recent meta-analysis of 14 heart-failure related
medical trials found that telemonitoring reduced all-cause
mortality by 20% compared with conventional care. There was
also an average 21% reduction in hospital admissions rates for
heart failure patients using telemonitoring systems.
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A heart failure patient takes his daily blood pressure measurement with a home
telemonitoring system.
Heart rate is measured using ECG textile sensors in the pillow case and bed
sheet while the patient is asleep.
Deadly deterioration
But one thing the current home telemonitoring systems
cannot yet do is successfully predict decompensation –
one of the most serious complications of heart failure.
Decompensation is when the progressive deterioration of
a patient’s heart leads to potentially life-threatening conditions,
such as extensive fluid accumulation in the body and lungs.
This fluid, primarily salt and water, builds up in various
locations and results in weight gain, peripheral swelling and
edema. When the fluid infiltrates air spaces within the lungs
and reduces the amount of oxygen that can enter the blood,
it can be very difficult for patients to breathe – particularly
at night when the body is horizontal.
Decompensation can be a terrifying experience for patients
both physically and emotionally. In fact, these decompensation
events help contribute to the high mortality rate of patients:
nearly half of all heart failure patients die within four years of
diagnosis, a life expectancy lower than most cancer patients.
Not to mention the huge costs involved with hospital care,
especially in the United States,” explains Schauerte.
“Often, after a decompensation, patients are in the hospital
for 5-10 days. It really takes a toll on them in many ways.”
But if decompensation is caught early enough – before it hits
the critical stage in which the lungs fill with fluid – doctors
can usually treat patients with medication without the need
for hospitalization. This saves the patient from the severe
psychological and physical trauma of not being able to breathe
or move about, as well as the stress and anxiety involved with
hospital stays.
Reducing the rate
As the high rate of hospitalizations for heart failure patients
shows, decompensation isn’t always easy to catch early on.
And although home telemonitoring can warn doctors of many
different issues that heart failure patients may be dealing with,
current systems cannot yet detect potential decompensation.
Not only does decompensation cause permanent damage
to an already-fragile heart, but symptoms usually go
unnoticed until the process is well advanced. At that point,
hospitalization is often required to stabilize the patient’s
health. “For heart failure patients, hospitalization is a very
stressful experience – physically, mentally and emotionally.
“Heart failure patients often experience a gradual
deterioration in health status over weeks before ultimately
requiring hospitalization,” notes Sarwat Chaudhry, assistant
professor of medicine at Yale University in the US. “A system
of frequent monitoring may help clinicians to intervene early
and thereby avoid the need for hospitalization.”
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Philips Research is developing advanced heart failure
management techniques intended to do just that: warn
of a possible life-threatening decompensation several days
in advance. Using highly sensitive textile sensors, these
techniques allow heart failure patients to take even more
advanced measurements such as breathing patterns, body
movement and even electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG)
readings at home with the results sent directly to their
healthcare providers.
Measurements made easy
One technique is based on an upper-body vest that patients
wear for just five minutes a day. Integrated textile electrodes
within the vest can take ECG readings during rest as well as
during gentle movement – important for getting a complete
picture of the patient’s health. Normally, patients would need
to visit the hospital or a specialist for such measurements
but with the vest it can be done quickly by the patient in
the comfort of their own home.
The bed-monitoring technique consists of unobtrusive sensors
weaved into the pillowcase and at the foot of the bed sheet
in such a way that the two electrodes can pick up the subtle
electrical impulses of the heart. Another integrated sensor,
made from pressure-sensitive material, is located in the middle
Heart healthy
The research into new techniques for detecting
decompensation grew out of an initiative called
MyHeart, one of the largest European research
projects completed in the field of personal
healthcare. Partially funded by the European Union,
the project brought together more than 30 partners
from different areas of expertise including industry,
academia, research and medical organizations.
Partners came from ten European countries all with
the same goal of earlier diagnosis and prevention
of cardiovascular disease.
of the bed beneath the mattress cover to detect the patient’s
movement during sleep. This sensor is also sensitive enough
to assess the chest movements associated with breathing and
can even detect the ballistic recoil generated by heart-muscle
contractions. And while it may sound uncomfortable, the bed
sheets are 98% cotton so patients rarely, if ever, notice
a difference between these bed sheets and normal ones.
These sensors communicate measurement data wirelessly
to a PDA that houses the heart failure management software.
After guiding patients through the daily process of taking their
weight, blood pressure and ECG measurements, the program
then combines this data with information from the bed sensors
to assess changes in overall heart function. Measurement
data could then be automatically delivered to healthcare
providers either through the phone line, as with Philips’ current
telemonitoring system, or through a broadband connection
similar to Philips’ Motiva interactive healthcare platform.
If the results indicate any potential problems, the doctor may
have time to adjust the treatment, hopefully avoiding patient
hospitalization.
Worth the wait
One of the key technologies developed by Philips Research
relates to the signal-processing algorithms needed to extract
ECG data from the electrodes built into the vest and bed
sensors. Because the sensors need to be unobtrusive, it’s
taken years to develop and refine them to be highly sensitive.
But also interesting is the highly specific alert system that
comes with the new features, which have been designed
to give better warnings regarding potential patient issues.
“Sometimes it’s hard for care providers to tell when a patient
really has a problem and needs quick follow-up or if it’s just
a low-risk alert,” explains Richard Willmann, from the heart
failure project team at Philips Research. “With the new
techniques, the warning system relies on multiple parameters
that are easier to adjust and can be tailored to specific patients,
hopefully making it easier for doctors and nurses to identify
serious patient issues more quickly.”
Currently, the new techniques are being tested and refined
in an observational telemonitoring study conducted with
six European university clinics, with results expected in
mid-2010. So while it may be a few years before most heart
failure patients have the chance to use the new technology,
the possibility of an earlier warning system when
decompensation strikes may well be worth the wait.
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Did you know...
Separate beds
A recent study from the UK found that couples who
slept in the same bed reported nearly 50% more
episodes of disturbed sleep than couples who slept
separately.
A good investment
"The most important
investment you can
make is in yourself."
Warren Buffett, American businessman and philanthropist
Deep
sleep
Humans sleep in a repeating 90-110 minute cycles
of non-REM sleep followed by REM sleep.
Non-REM accounts for more than three quarters
of all sleep and REM the remaining 20-25%.
a year
Heart failure is the primary or
contributory cause of 300,000
deaths each year in the US alone.
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7
56 3
1 24
Seven hours
A recent study of more than one million adults
found that people who live the longest claimed to
sleep an average of six to seven hours each night.
Double the Double risk
Researchers in the UK have found that lack of sleep
can more than double a person’s risk of death from
cardiovascular disease.
Bad bed habits
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
One in four people have sleeping problems
due to the sleeping habits of their partner.
The top four problems are snoring (34%),
turnabout (15%), sleeplessness (14%) and blanket
stealing (14%). This costs people, on average,
three hours of sleep per week. And in 25%
of the cases, it's more than six hours a week.
NO
lights
The International Energy
Agency estimates that
almost 550 million people
live without electricity in
sub-Saharan Africa –
almost twice the population
of the United States.
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y Brandy Vaughan
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Better nights ahead
Ironic that something we spend nearly 30% of our lives
doing is also one thing we never seem to get enough of: sleep.
Modern life has made us busier than ever – our days
longer and our nights shorter. Sleep is often one of the
first things to go. But with 'sleep' research growing, maybe
one day there will be better ways to improve the quality
of our sleep, even if we can’t increase the quantity.
Not long ago we awoke with the sun and went to sleep when
it set – a rhythm that’s still a part of our biology. But modern life
doesn’t make this easy. It puts more and more demands on our
time and we’re now sleeping less, and sometimes worse, than
ever before.
“Sleep is essential for people’s health,” says Jim Horne,
Director of the Sleep Research Centre at UK-based
Loughborough University and author of Sleepfaring: a journey
through the science of sleep. “The consequences of sleeping too
little or not getting quality sleep are well documented.”
Taking a toll
Even though it’s been proven that sleep is vital to our health
and well-being, it still seems to be one of our lowest priorities.
This can take quite a toll on our bodies in a number of
different ways. Lack of sleep – especially on a regular basis –
is associated with long-term health issues, including chronic
conditions like heart disease.
Several studies have linked insufficient sleep and weight gain.
Studies show that people who habitually sleep less than six
hours per night are much more likely to have a higher than
average body mass index (BMI). During sleep, our bodies
secrete hormones that help to regulate appetite, energy
metabolism and glucose processing. Lack of sleep or poor
quality sleep can upset the balance of these hormones.
Recently, researchers from the University of Warwick and
University College London, both in the UK, found that the
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lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from
cardiovascular disease. Study author Francesco Cappuccio,
from the University of Warwick Medical School, notes,
“Fewer hours of sleep and greater levels of sleep disturbance
have become widespread in industrialized societies. Sleep
represents the daily process of physiological restitution and
recovery, and lack of sleep has far-reaching effects. Short sleep
has been shown to be a risk factor for weight gain, hypertension
and Type-2 diabetes, sometimes even leading to mortality.”
Shorter night, shorter life
Another study at the US-based University of Chicago Medical
Center showed that 27% of people who slept less than five
hours a night had calcified arteries compared to just 6% for
people who slept more than seven hours. Eve Van Cauter,
professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, notes,
“Metabolic and endocrine changes resulting from a significant
sleep debt mimic the hallmarks of aging. We suspect that
chronic sleep loss may not only hasten the onset but could also
increase the severity of age-related ailments such as diabetes,
hypertension, obesity and memory loss.”
Considering the many potential adverse health effects
of insufficient sleep, it’s not surprising that poor sleep is
associated with lower life expectancy. Data from three large
epidemiological studies reveal that sleeping five hours or less
per night increased mortality risk from all causes by around 15%.
Sleep on it
Lack of good quality sleep can affect us mentally as well as
physically. A study from the US-based University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine demonstrated that cognitive performance
shows a definite decline with six or less hours of sleep. And
nearly everyone has experienced the fatigue, increased stress,
anxiety and lack of focus that can follow a night of bad sleep.
More
Good night, good temperature
Ever wonder why it can be so hard to sleep well when it’s
either very hot or very cold in the room? Well, there’s a good
reason, explains Roy Raymann, Philips Research. In daily life, the
temperature distribution in your body varies over the day. A body’s
core temperature has a range of about 2˚C, while skin temperature
can vary by 15˚C, due to weather conditions. In the evening, core
temperature drops while skin temperature is relatively high.
For many years, researchers assumed that the drop in core
temperature in the evening was the most important signal to the
body to begin the process of sleeping. However, recent research
has shown that skin temperature may play an even more important
role. “To be able to sleep well and sleep through the night, warm
skin is important,” explains Raymann. “The optimal combination for
sleep is a higher skin temperature and a lower core temperature.”
One way the human body promotes this delicate balance is by
producing melatonin when it gets dark. This hormone helps enlarge
the blood vessels in the skin, allowing more warm blood to flow
through, causing a rise in skin temperature. Through heat exchange
with the environment, body core temperature drops. At dawn,
melatonin production stops, so core temperature rises again.
This is the natural process for the sleep and wake cycles. But
if there’s a heat wave, core temperature can’t drop enough for
a good night of sleep. In turn, when it’s too cold in a room, skin
temperature is not high enough. “The best solution is to heat up
your skin without increasing your core temperature, possibly with
mild warming,” notes Raymann. “But this should be done gradually
because any kind of rapid change will wake you up anyway, whether
these changes are related to light, sound level or temperature.”
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Just as research shows the lack of sleep to be detrimental to
our health and well being, studies also point to a number of
benefits of sleep including a better memory and more positive
mood, a healthier immune system and even a slowing of the
aging process. A study at the University of California San Diego
in the US even showed that the volunteers who entered the
REM phase during sleep improved their creative problem-solving
ability by almost 40%.
A good night’s sleep
So with all the information about the importance of a good
night’s sleep, why aren’t we sleeping better? Since it may not
be easy to lighten our daily load to increase our hours in bed,
one solution may be to improve the quality of the sleep that we
do get. Philips Research is now focusing on this area with a new
‘sleep enhancement’ project, which includes a dedicated Sleep
Experience Lab. The goal is to understand sleep patterns and
then use the knowledge to create medication-free, innovative
approaches that help enhance the quality of sleep and the
sleeping experience as a whole.
”I’ve seen first-hand the impact of systematic sleep loss
on health, well-being, quality of life, mood and performance,”
explains Roy Raymann, Senior Scientist and sleep expert at
Philips Research. “We have to realize that sleep is needed
for restoration. Along with healthy eating and regular exercise,
sleep is part of a complete lifestyle that helps us maintain
good health and well-being.”
Sleep science is relatively new and the project is exploring
different avenues for enhancing sleep. One initiative involves
developing advanced sensors to pinpoint sleep issues and
find ways to address these through biofeedback and audio and
video interpretation. Other ideas include smart lighting solutions
that could help reduce jet-lag, sound-masking technologies to
help people sleep better and new ways to tackle insomnia,
like relaxation aids and do-it-yourself cognitive behavioral
techniques. Philips is also investigating lifestyle techniques like
monitoring and coaching to improve sleep as well as ways to
help people recover more quickly from short, disrupted nights.
The Wake-Up Light
A brighter day
For years, Philips has been researching the link between
light and sleep, especially the affect of light on the circadian
rhythm – our internal ‘body clock’ that regulates our awake/
sleep cycles. Since we no longer awake and sleep with the
sun, our circadian rhythm can be thrown off, decreasing
the quality of sleep. It turns out that one of the most
effective ways to reset the body clock is with light. To help
address these body-clock issues, Philips has two products:
The Wake-Up Light
The Wake-Up Light (above) is a more natural alternative to
an alarm clock that uses gradually increasing light to simulate
dawn. Waking up to light helps stimulate biological processes
that awaken the body, like shutting down melatonin
production. This way our bodies wake up gradually versus
suddenly when the buzzer goes off.
goLITEBLU
Over the years, dozens of studies have shown the effects
and potential benefits of light therapy for those with mood,
sleep and energy problems during darker periods. The
Philips goLITEBLU (below) emits a blue light that research
shows can activate the chemicals that help our bodies
become active and energetic. It may even help us sleep
better in the evening.
As Raymann points out, “The study of sleep is still a young
science and there is a lot to discover.” But maybe one day there
will be better solutions to help us sleep soundly through the
night – and wake up more refreshed.
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A cinematic
experience
18
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Ever wonder why watching a film at the cinema theater is
so much more entertaining than on your home TV? It feels
like you’re really part of the action, part of the experience.
The main reason for the difference is that the 21:9 size and
ratio of the movie screen mimics that of our own peripheral
vision, providing a more immersive viewing experience.
to the very limits of the screen – and to the limits of our
peripheral vision. The images surround us in such a way
that we actively ‘feel’ along with the characters in front of us.
This cannot be achieved even on a conventional 16:9
widescreen TV at home without moving to a ‘letterbox’
view or losing the full scope of the original shot.
This ‘cinematic viewing’ experience is difficult to replicate
at home. Even the largest conventional TV screen cannot
provide the total immersion that we enjoy at a cinema
because when it comes to watching a movie, the viewing
experience isn’t determined by screen size. Movies at the
theater fill the entire screen. The images reach right out
That is until now. Philips has just released the world’s
first cinema-proportioned LCD TV – the Cinema 21:9.
In combination with Philips’ Ambilight technology, accurately
matching on-screen content to extend the picture beyond
the confines of the TV screen, Cinema 21:9 delivers the
most immersive home viewing experience possible.
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y Susan Wild
Feel
the thrill
When someone you love
is sad or in distress, it’s only
natural to reach out and touch
them, even embrace them.
Instinctively, we sense that touch
can affect a person’s emotions.
Scientifically, however, the link
between touch and emotions is
largely unexplored. That’s now
beginning to change, with exciting
possibilities for enhanced well-being
and a world of richer, more
fulfilling sensory experiences.
Consider touch for a moment. This sense that we often
take for granted is essential to our emotional and physical
well-being. It’s the earliest sense to emerge as babies develop
in the womb, therefore the first bond we create with our
mothers. Without it, even basic functions like walking and
eating would be almost impossible. And we experience this
remarkable sense primarily through the skin, the largest,
heaviest organ of all – with up to 50 touch receptors for
every square centimeter.
Once the exclusive preserve of living organisms, in recent
decades the science of ‘haptics’ has brought touch to
technology – in virtual environments, in robotics and even
systems that enable people to handle objects or tasks remotely.
This means anything from flight simulators to robotic hands
that can tackle heavy, dangerous industrial tasks. Or systems
that can guide military pilots in disorienting situations to those
that help surgeons perform delicate procedures.
20 Password November 2009

Getting physical
Within these, specialists distinguish between haptic/force
feedback (interfaces that apply forces or vibrations to the
user on a large scale) and tactile feedback, which is based on
much smaller movements of the skin. If you’re a gamer or
home cinema fan, you may have a haptic feedback system at
home. The steering wheels that let you experience the force
and resistance similar to that of actually driving a racing car or
a device that lets you feel the rumble and crack of explosions
and gunfire in a virtual video game. These simulators use
haptics to enrich your experience.
But what of touch and emotions? Earlier this year, a group led
by Matthew Hertenstein of US-based DePauw University
published a study into the communication of emotion through
touch. In the study, people who were touched consistently
distinguished correctly the emotion that the ‘touching’
person was trying to convey for emotions such as anger, fear,
happiness and sadness as well as love, gratitude and sympathy.
Quoted in the New York Times, Hertenstein said: “Most
touches were only about five seconds, but in these fleeting
moments, we’re capable of communicating distinct emotions,
just as we are with the face. This is a sophisticated differential
signaling system that we haven’t previously known about.”
A richer experience
Jan van Erp, a chief scientist in Human Factors at TNO, the Dutch
institution for applied scientific research, has worked on tactile
systems for training helicopter pilots and for improving sports
performance. He believes the link between touch and emotion
has wide-ranging potential.
“We know the sense of touch plays an important role in social
interactions and emotional relationships, for instance in greetings,
with family communication and, of course, in intimate
relationships,” explains van Erp. “If we find ways to use these
powerful communication tools, for example, in the interactions
between users and technology or in entertainment, we will be
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able to make experiences much more exciting and enriching –
far beyond what is possible with just sound and vision.”
Part of the action
Some researchers are already developing wearable haptics
such as scarves and shirts that simulate hugs and emotionally
comforting touch. Meanwhile, at Philips, sensory experience
experts have developed an ’emotions jacket’ as a platform for
studying the link between physical sensations and emotions.
One of the initial areas for exploration involves creating a
richer, more immersive cinematic experience. Imagine watching
a Kung Fu movie when, suddenly, Bruce Lee is surrounded
by dozens of evil henchmen led by their power-mad master.
An ‘emotions simulator’ could really make you feel a part
of the action by immersing you in the physicality of the fight.
And with something like the emotions jacket, you feel the
tension too. It touches your skin enough to get your heart
racing, so like the movie hero, you experience a moment
of fear before boldly plunging into the fight anyway.
Creating the mood
“Although on a small-scale, our work shows we can induce
emotions while people watch movie clips. The experience
is more intense and involving,” says Paul Lemmens of
Philips Research.
More
The thrill for real
The ‘emotions jacket’ technology combines know-how in
human perceptions and behavior, with expertise in touch
sensors and actuator technologies. The tight-fitting garment
incorporates a series of 64 evenly-spaced actuators – based
on the vibrating motors used in mobile phones – sewn into
the arms and torso.
Using just eight actuators along the length of the sleeve,
the jacket can create the sensation that the arm is being
tapped or touched in several spots. These actuators
vibrate in response to what is happening on screen,
so the jacket induces emotions in viewers that are
similar to ones experienced by the characters in a film.
“But our interest goes much wider. We want to distinguish
exactly which stimuli produce a specific emotional effect,
so we can unobtrusively help people achieve a desired mood,”
he explains. “It could be the thrills of an adventure movie,
but also better sleep, greater productivity at work or deeply
calming meditation at home.”
Think of a baby crib that soothes a restless baby so that
both child and parents get a peaceful night of sleep. If the cot
detects that the baby is fidgety or slightly stressed, it produces
sensations that reassure the child so it returns to sleep.
Or when you are in the dentist’s waiting room, a gentle,
reassuring touch helps you relax.
So, just as technology and products focus on sound and vision
today, in the future, the use of touch could enhance our lives as
well, bringing experiences that are even more intense or simply
more relaxing.
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y Stuart Cherry
Smart skins
What if you could change the color of your phone to
match your outfit, mood or environment? Not just the
display alone, but the entire surface. That’s the beauty
of electronic skin: a chameleon-like, color-changing
technology that could one day give us more control
over our personal devices.
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Philips Research has created an ultra low-power, lightweight,
full-color technology that could potentially open up new worlds
for personalizing electronic devices, for information delivery or
even ambience creation. ‘Electronic skin’ technology (or ’e-skin’)
is one of the first applications of this new concept. Ideal for
displaying colors, patterns and simple graphics, these thin plastic
‘wrappings’ can change the color of your cell or mobile phone,
for example, when a call is coming in. You could also personalize
your phone with the touch of a button, changing its color to
match your outfit, mood or environment – even using different
colors to tell you who’s calling.
Instead of emitting light, e-skins reflect it. Existing e-skin
concepts for phones are typically based on LCDs. But the
new Philips technology is very different. It uses electronically
controlled ’ink’ sandwiched between two plastic membranes.
This allowed Philips to solve one of the big challenges
of making e-skins: adding bright colors with a paint-like
appearance and a very low power consumption while
keeping the skin light and thin.
Any color, anywhere
Uniquely, Philips’ technology allows different colors of ink to
be built into one layer with each color controlled separately.
This means the layer can be transparent, the color of any
one of the inks or even a mixture of multiple colors.
Moreover, the saturation of each color can be separately
and accurately controlled – so any shade can be produced.
“We call it information decoration: using responsive materials
to provide information via changing colors and patterns,”
explains Elise van den Hoven, professor of industrial design at
the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.
“What really excites me about the Philips e-skin technology
is that you could add it anywhere. It doesn’t need a lot of
power or batteries, and it really is a thin skin that doesn’t
add weight to an object,” she adds. “When it’s not ‘on’, it
can be completely camouflaged or even transparent so you
can still have your own pattern underneath. There aren’t
many technologies that can do all that.”
The first applications using the technology could be skins for
small devices such as MP3 players or cell phones. However,
the technology is easily scalable, and Kars-Michiel Lenssen,
e-skin project leader at Philips Research, predicts that e-skins
may be bringing color and atmosphere to much larger
equipment sometime in the near future. “Just as Philips’
Ambient Experience uses light and color to make hospital
exam rooms much less intimidating, a large e-skin could extend
the concept to the MRI or CT scanner itself, potentially making
patients more at ease,” he notes.
More
Getting under the e-skin
Philips’ e-skin technology is based on its previous work with
electronic paper (or e-paper). In, fact, you can think of the e-skin
as a simplified yet advanced version of e-paper. In e-paper, each
pixel is controlled individually to display a page of text. Yet in e-skin
technology, groups of pixels are controlled en masse – ideal for
displaying block colors, patterns and simple graphics, or messages –
which is less complicated and less expensive to realize.
Since the particles in suspension carry a surface charge, their motion
can be controlled using an electric field – a phenomenon known as
electrophoresis. If you create a pixel with colored particles in a clear
suspension, applying an electric field perpendicular to the surface
makes the particles migrate to the top of the pixel, turning it dark.
This is the basis of monochrome e-paper used in e-book readers
like the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle.
To go from monochrome to polychrome, Philips turned the
electrophoresis idea on its head – or rather on its side. Instead
of applying the field perpendicular to the surface, they apply it
parallel to the surface. This causes the colored particles to spread
across the pixel, again turning it dark. When the pixel is reset,
the colored particles ‘hide’ behind a mask, so the pixel is
24 Password November 2009

Wrapping the room
But why stop at equipment? Why not just ’wrap’ a whole room?
The technology is light enough and consumes so little power
it could easily be integrated into wallpaper. In fact, you could
even redecorate an entire room with just a flick of the switch
for a special occasion or to match your mood. You could even
combine e-skin wallpaper with advanced sensor technology to
create lighting and environmental controls that ‘magically’ appear
when you want them, and then fade back into the wall.
In the retail sector, these atmosphere-creation applications
could be adopted by using color-changing e-skin wallpaper to
freshen up with each new season, to guide shoppers through
the store or to create one-off displays to draw in customers.
In that sense, reflective e-skins are the perfect complement to
the emissive atmosphere-creation technologies that use LEDs
and OLEDs to create colorful light. “You could use LEDs or
OLEDs when you want a theatrical look and e-skins when you
want something subtler and more natural-looking that uses
less energy,” Lenssen proposes.
heat of the day, while in cold countries they tend to be dark
to absorb as much heat as possible? Imagine building e-skins
into the roofs of buildings in countries with variable climates
and adapting the e-skin color to the season – soaking up
sunlight in the winter while reflecting it during the summer.
And because e-skin and OLEDs can be transparent when
desired, you could integrate both technologies into windows.
During the day it’s an ordinary window. But if the sun’s too
bright, you can turn the e-skin on as a blind, fine-tuning
the saturation so you get just the right amount of light in
but without additional heat – lessening the need for air
conditioning. Then at night, the OLED could turn the
window into an atmospheric lamp, with the e-skin on the
outside blocking stray light to prevent light pollution.
Of course, these applications are all highly speculative but
e-skin’s potential for attractive, unobtrusive information
delivery and personalized atmosphere creation is intriguing
in its own right. Electronic skins could someday do much
more than turn your phone blue.
A future of colors
Let your imagination wander a little and the future possibilities
for e-skin get really exciting. Ever noticed that buildings in hot
countries tend to be white to reflect sunlight away during the
completely transparent. Furthermore, Philips has built a
‘gate’ electrode into each pixel, which gives control over how
many colored particles spread across the pixel and hence the
saturation or shade of each color.
Using this in-plane electrophoresis, different types of particles
can be included in the same suspension. And because they
are engineered to have different surface charges, they can be
controlled independently. So you could have cyan, magenta,
yellow and black particles – the ingredients to make any color
of the rainbow – all within just one or two suspension layers.
A full-color e-skin could be created from two layers, each with two colors of ink.
Here, only the yellow and magenta inks are showing making the pixel appear red.
Password November 2009
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Did you know...
A connected world
Today, 24.7% of the world’s population
has an internet connection.
Hospital highs
Mainly due to the high costs of hospitalization,
healthcare expenditures associated with heart failure
have been estimated to total 2% of the total National
Health Service budget in the United Kingdom and
more than $35 billion in the US.
Algiers
Marrakesh
Cairo
Bring your
own bag
Dakar
Accra
Lagos
Addis Ababa
North America and
Western Europe account
for nearly 80% of plastic bag
use. Plastic bags can take up
to 1000 years to degrade.
City life
Africa, currently only 38% urban,
already has nearly 350 million
city dwellers – more than the
populations of Canada and the
United States combined.
Kinshasa
Johannesburg
Nairobi
26 Password November 2009

Faster internet
The internet is the fastest-growing tool of communication ever.
It took radio broadcasters 38 years to reach an audience of
50 million, television took 13 years and the internet just four years.
38
13
Radio
TV
4
Internet
Energy Imbalance
Life in the dark
Less than 25% of Africans have access
to electricity. In Uganda, only 5% of
the population has access to electricity
while 15% of Kenyans are connected
to the grid.
16% of the world’s population lives
in Africa, yet it produces only 4% of
the world’s electricity.
Touchy
feely
Humans have around
2,500 tactile receptors
per cm 2 in our fingertips.
Password November 2009
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y Brandy Vaughan
A new direction
28
Password November 2009

It’s hard to ignore the fact that
our modern lifestyle takes a toll
on the world around us. But as
we are now accustomed to this
way of life, going back to
pre-industrial times doesn’t
seem realistic. Imagine life
without a refrigerator, central
heating, the internet or even
running water. So if there’s no
way back, where do we go from
here? Two experts weigh in on
technology and sustainability.
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Professor Calestous Juma, Director of the Science, Technology
and Globalization Project at Harvard University:
need for action. Now we need to focus on identifying technical
solutions and implementing them.
What is the future of sustainability?
The future of sustainability is both bright and grim. Bright
because there is broad agreement on the need to act.
Grim because there are more people who want to debate
the issue than those focused on finding practical solutions.
There are more negotiations and conferences on climate
change than there are technology exhibitions. Many solutions
to the sustainability challenge are technological and require
more involvement from the scientific community.
What role does technology play?
There is no conflict between technology and sustainability.
We live in a world of technological abundance, the task is
to use this to make greener choices. For example, 20%
of the world’s electricity is used to run electric motors.
New technologies exist that can help reduce their use, such
as using flash memory in computers instead of disk drives.
More efficient electric motors have also been invented but
they’re still awaiting wide distribution. We need to find ways
to use the technology we have more efficiently as well as
develop new technologies to address issues.
To do this we need to set sustainability standards and
provide incentives that enable society to switch to cleaner
technologies. Building codes, for example, could require the
use of more efficient lighting sources such as LEDs. The use
of water absorbent polymers in agriculture could reduce
water runoff and evaporation, thereby reducing water use
in food production.
We’ve had four decades of scientific and diplomatic work on
sustainability that highlights the challenges and emphasizes the
What inspires you in terms of sustainable solutions?
I am inspired by the capacity of young people to come up with
solutions to existing challenges. But they are relying on older
generations that are too comfortable with the status quo to
help them realize their dreams. I'm also inspired by the vast
array of technologies at our disposal. For example, droughttolerant
plants can now help us restore degraded ecosystems
in Africa's drylands.
How can we use technology to move us forward?
We solve problems by sharpening our creativity, not by killing
it. We worked our way out of the Dark Ages by embracing
enlightenment. The challenge with sustainability is too little
innovation, not too much. Those who argue for slowing down
technological advancement often assume risks arise from doing
things. But greater risks are associated with doing nothing. In
the case of climate change, for example, doing nothing is not an
option. We will not reduce carbon emissions by not improving
electric vehicles or making better solar cells.
Technology can give us options for changing direction or
pursuing alternative pathways. We need to do things differently
– using creativity and innovation – but the challenge is to
expand technological choices, not to limit them.
How do you envision a more sustainable world?
A sustainable world is one in which we can deploy our creative
capabilities to meet current needs while safeguarding resources
for future generations. Enterprises can do more by integrating
sustainable principles into all their practices. This is already
happening but could benefit from more public recognition
as well as sustainability incentives at a governmental level.
Calestous Juma is a professor of International Development and the Director
of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University.
He holds a Ph.D. in science and technology policy studies and has written
widely on science, technology and the environment.
30 Password November 2009

Sally Jeanrenaud, Director of the Green Economy Coalition and former project
coordinator at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature:
What is the future of sustainability?
Sustainability is notoriously difficult to define. For me, it’s
a world where people lead happy and healthy lives using just
their fair share of the earth’s resources so future generations
will still have something left, while also leaving space for
wildlife. Organizations like WWF talk about the need for
‘One Planet Living’, while some traditional cultures, like
the Iroquois of North America, have ‘seventh generation
sustainability’, meaning that decisions are made based on
their potential impact on the future seventh generation.
But it’s clear that our generation must lead the transition to
a more sustainable way of life because the way we live now
is simply not sustainable long term. Burning fossil fuels is
causing climate change, while 60% of the world’s ecosystem
resources are being irreversibly degraded.
What role does technology play?
Technological advance may be the only way to really address
some of the world’s biggest challenges – like air and water
pollution, climate change and rapidly depleting resources.
For example, technology is critical for the transition from
the old industrial ‘fossil fuel, throw-away economy’ to a new
‘sustainable economy’ – one that uses renewable energies
and values our ecosystem’s resources.
What inspires you in terms of sustainable solutions?
Nature is one of the most valuable sources of inspiration.
Unlike the ‘take, make and waste’ model of most current industrial
systems, nature manufactures biodegradable products onsite in
an energy-efficient way. Imitating these processes – a concept
called biomimicry – is leading to many new innovations.
Take the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ concept, which is based on the
premise that waste equals food. Unlike the current ‘cradle
to grave’ way of making things, systems could be designed in
such a way that waste products become resources for future
products. The industrial eco-park in Kalundborg, Denmark
is a good example of this. There, a symbiotic network was
created to recycle and reuse waste products between a power
plant, a local fish farm, a pharmaceutical company, a wallboard
manufacturer and a cement producer. It evolved gradually as
environmental regulations became stricter giving incentives for
companies to turn their by-products into economic products.
How do you envision a more sustainable world?
Technologies already exist that can help us move in a more
sustainable direction. Right now, there’s a lot of investment going
into renewable energy technologies to help countries meet new
CO 2 targets. But such schemes need to consider all aspects.
For instance, the climate change challenge also involves land use,
water resource, biodiversity and human well-being issues. While
some solar-energy projects consume vast quantities of water –
creating resource conflicts with local farmers.
Individually, we can limit our consumption and recycle, but
to solve the bigger issues, we need to develop innovative
technology to make things cleaner, greener and more efficient.
To do this right, we need to embrace a new kind of ecological
consciousness – one that seeks to create synergies between
people and nature because, ultimately, all things are connected.
It’s important to find win-win technological solutions that are
achievable on a large scale. We should stop thinking about issues
in isolation and deal with challenges in a more integrated way.
I like that some companies are moving beyond simply increasing
profits to actually developing solutions to the world’s problems
– creating positive benefits for both people and the planet.
Sally Jeanrenaud is the Director at the Green Economy Coalition. The project
aims to accelerate the transition to a new sustainable economy by building a
consortium of international organizations. From 2006-2008, she coordinated
the IUCN ‘Future of Sustainability Initiative’, which focused on advancing
sustainability in the 21st century.
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