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Intel is in the supporting cast of Dreamworks' upcoming animated film, Monsters vs. Aliens
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Intel's Health Guide connects patients and doctors anywhere, anytime
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It Came From Intel
By Carolyn Schuk
If you were reading news about Intel last week, you'd just as likely be reading it in the entertainment or medical news as in the technology news.
That's because last week the semiconductor pioneer – which celebrates its 40th birthday this month – got FDA clearance for its new Intel® Health Guide as well as announcing a partnership with DreamWorks Animation to bring movie-goers a whole new 3-D movie experience starting with DreamWorks' upcoming film Monsters vs. Aliens.
Three Times More Thrilling
Some of you might remember donning goofy cardboard "3-D glasses" to watch the 1953 sci-fi classic, It Came From Outer Space. You may want to dig them out of the attic and dust them off, because 3-D is making a comeback.
No longer relegated to the cultural black lagoon, 3-D is better than ever, thanks to a partnership between Intel and DreamWorks Animation. The two companies aim to raise the 3-D movie-making bar to a new level, starting with the animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens, slated to hit the theaters next March.
Intel will provide the movie's animators with leading edge Intel processors – some of them not yet on the market – and assistance converting DreamWorks' computing environment to an Intel-based system. This will let artists use state-of-the-art authoring software to create better images more quickly, and to modify them more easily.
In addition to enhancing in-theater entertainment, Intel also plans to develop and promote next-generation 3-D for home theaters, personal computers, video games, websites and mobile devices.
Beyond WebMD
Designed for patients with chronic medical conditions, the interactive Intel Health Guide lets doctors monitor patients and manage their care, anywhere and anytime.
But it's not just a one-way communication. Patients can use the Health Guide to monitor their own health status, communicate with care teams and learn about their medical conditions. The device brings together vital sign collection, patient reminders and medical information, and opens a direct line of patient-doctor communication via the Internet with video conferencing and e-mail.
To collect vital signs, the Health Guide can connect to specific models of wired and wireless medical devices, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. The Health Guide stores this information, displays it on a touch screen, and sends it securely to medical care professionals for review.
"This is an important product that will improve the state and cost of health care around the world," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Health Group, in a July 10 press release.
"With more people living with chronic diseases, we believe care can be increasingly moved outside of the hospital to the home. Through our research, we've learned that a home-based model of care becomes more than just delivering care to patients at home -- it is about creating connections to family, friends, caregivers, and the and the care team."
Intel expects the guide will be commercially available from health care providers in the US and UK in 2008 or early 2009.
If you're nostalgic for the mid-20
th century "golden age" of 3-D flicks, visit the World 3D Film Expo at
www.3dfilmfest.com/films.html while you're checking your blood pressure.
