research

Open Prosthetics is a movement and a community that looks to find economically feasible ways of producing medical devices for underserved medical populations and to give patients a way to participate to (even large and sophisticated) projects that develop technologies in their name. By facilitating the exchange of knowledge, Open prosthetics has allowed projects to develop that make prosthesis more available, while others focus more on new possibilities that would never find a market before that (such as specialized, customized, or even fancy replacement limbs), or even new ways of producing high-end research (lego hands for prototyping...).

In this speech, Tobie Kerridge describes the "Material Beliefs" project, a design research project with a focus on a speculative approach to biotechnology as a form of engagement with the public.

The current disruption in healthcare corresponds to the fact that patients can access tools to gather information, aggregate data, act, and see results reflected in real-time. In his speech, Paul Wicks presents the consequences which can be listed as follows:
- Medicine: Patients are more engaged with managing their own illness, receive better outcomes / resistance from medical community in some quarters
- Research: Patients can find out about clinical trials going on anywhere in the world and participate online or even carry out their own research programs - increasingly being viewed as credible in the peer-reviewed world
- Business: Payers want to pay for improved outcomes, not transactions. The pill must be shown to be more effective than existing alternatives in the real world, not just a placebo in a controlled trial.
- Safety: Patients can submit their own safety events in real-time and enter in to a dialogue with manufacturers about how to improve their products.

As a designer I’ve found really interesting the discussion about the role of designers in creating a vision of the future. Yesterday Patrick Gyger affirmed that we don’t have anymore a vision of the future, because we think we are living it. Indeed it is difficult to imagine the future, to predict it.

Matt Webb highlights how designers play an important role in reflecting and experimenting around the evolution of a product, of a service, of a system. But what are the tools in hand of designers to do that? Anab Jain invites us to play with tomorrow creating speculative scenarios of possible near future. The visionary “Metromatics 21th century” scenario of Frank Beau or the “Carnivore domestic entertainment robots” shown by James Auger are examples of this kind of practice.
To imagine the future we also need to know what didn’t work in the past. Nicolas Nova suggests a design strategy based on failure. We need to spot and document failures in order to not repeat them one more time. Some designers look at the prototype as a tool of conception, that leads to a more empirical design method based errors observation and progressive adjustments. Fabio Sergio believes that technology can actually be a material to sketch with. In this context the present becomes a sort of beta-version of the future we want to live in. In the picture above you can see an early prototype of a project where I tried to use a real plant as a computer input device.

So, let’s start to sketch our idea and let it grow. What we need is just a mixture of rationality and passion, of pragmatism and fantasy.

Younghee Jung, Senior Design Manager at Nokia, recently moved to London from Tokyo. Learn more about Younghee's groundbreaking work by viewing her LIFT08 video.

Many will remember her presentation in the User Experience Track where she shared research performed in shanty towns around the world. The purpose was to capture input from users with a view to analyzing trends for future development.

Younghee's well-known colleague and Principal Researcher at Nokia, Jan Chipchase, will be attending LIFT08 in Korea. We'll be back with more about Jan's contribution soon.

Jon Cabiria has been travelling extensively, discussing his recent research on virtual world permeability and transference, which he unveiled and summarized at LIFT08 this past February. After LIFT08, his speaking engagements continued through Europe and the U.S. Later this month, he presents a seminar at the U.S. Department of Defense National Defense University, entitled: Virtual worlds: Immersive learning strategies for overseas engagements, focussing on diplomacy uses, not war. He will also be speaking at the prestigious International Congress on Psychology in Berlin, as well as at the 4th European Conference on Positive Psychology in Rijeka, Croatia, both this coming July.

Jon is currently engaged in research that looks at how we can utilize online social networks, along with positive psychology assessments and appreciative inquiry processes, to aid organisations and individuals in achieving goals, especially those related to social issues. He is also looking at online social networks as a natural extension of human evolution, which he expects to discuss during his 2009 speaking tour.

Using communications technologies and online social networks, Jon continues his consulting and coaching practice from wherever he is in the world, as well as facilitates his popular Human Growth and Development course. Jon continues to receive amazing feedback from his LIFT08 appearance and looks forward to LIFT09.

Remember Scott Smith? Scott is a changeist and a regular at LIFT.

This year Scott spoke at LIFT in the Foresight track, which was all about how organisations identify and attempt to benefit from current and future trends. In his role as a changeist Scott helps organisations to understand and to plan for new consumer behaviours as well as the technologies that are likely to have an impact on their lives.

What's Scott up to these days?

Scott will be speaking next in Toronto at the Interactive Content Exchange Conference (ICE08) which will take place from 26-28 March.

And, we'll be looking forward to his book on emotional connectivity which deals with the next frontier in digital communication. Keep your ears to the ground for this one. It is scheduled to be published in 2009.

Why we invited Francesco to LIFT
Francesco is in charge of the development of design strategy at Nokia. He has a really exciting job. His work combines analysis: of evolutions in the way people communicate, enjoy and work, of innovations in design, technology and business models; and intuition to draw inspiring, new directions for design. This viewpoint is very valuable and relevant to LIFT08.

What will Francesco talk about
Francesco has written about the adoption and use of digital technologies, communication, automation and user-centered design. In this context he will present important future trends to us.

See Francesco's LIFT Profile to learn more about her enlightening work.

Why we invited Henry to LIFT
Henry Markram is Co-Director of the Brain Mind Institute, Director of the Center for Neuroscience & Technology and Director of the "Blue Brain Project". He works at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. A worldwide recognized expert in his field, Henry Markram, is also local. And, at LIFT we like to promote locals! His main project, the Blue Brain Project, is carried out in collaboration with IBM

What will Henry talk about
In the context of our New Frontiers Track, Henry will present the Blue Brain Project to us. The Blue Brain project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction.

Official biography
Henry Markram started his academic career in South Africa at Cape Town University and became particularly interested in the mammalian brain during his stay at the Weizmann institute of Science in Israel. For more information about Henry see his LIFT profile.

Why we invited Marc
Marc is a man of many talents who wears several hats. We are interested in Marc's observations as a Senior Research Associate at Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral Lausanne (EPFL) specialized in Telecommunication in Asia.

What is Marc going to talk about?
Marc will share with us his perspective on the latest Asian trends in Telecommunication. Many of us in Europe are clueless about this.

Official biography
Marc is currently working as a post-doc at the EPFL - Management of Network Industries (MIR). His research focuses on the coherence between institutional and technological governance in infrastructures. Marc obtained his PhD on China's telecommunication reforms from the London School of Economics' Information Systems Department.

Learn more about Marc on his LIFT Profile.