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In this issue:

  * The Credit Crunch and Consumer Anxiety
  * "Sensitive-Listener" Interface
  * Americans' Eating Habits
  * Membranes As Battery Separators
  * Signals of Change
  * Virtual-Worlds Platforms
  * Ocean-Energy Technology
  * Financial Services and Boomers' Retirement
  * Second Life behind the Firewall
  * SRIC-BI News

	
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(Full text of SRIC-BI publications is available to
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 New Publications
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The Credit Crunch and Consumer Anxiety

The upheaval in financial markets, triggered by the
subprime-mortgage crisis, continues to roil various
sectors of the economy. The latest issue of MacroMonitor
Market Trends highlights three areas of potential consumer
anxiety in the resulting credit crunch. As many financial
providers cease investing in the student-loan business,
many parents could find that higher education is out of
reach for their children. In the realm of vehicle loans,
delinquency rates are increasing, and new, lower car-loan
rates with B-tier credit could lure people into deals that
they cannot afford. And as declining stock values and
lower interest on conservative investments contract
retirement savings, older women who are single, divorced,
or widowed are likely to be among the hardest hit in
retirement.
(May 2008 MacroMonitor Market Trends)
http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD/newsletter/2008/2008-05.shtml

(MacroMonitor is part of SRIC-BI's Consumer Financial
Decisions [CFD] group. To learn more about CFD and the
MacroMonitor, see http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD .)

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"Sensitive-Listener" User Interface

Researchers have been working on user interfaces that can
detect emotion and provide "affective computing" for a
number of years, but success has been elusive. A promising
European Commission- (EC-) funded project, SEMAINE, aims
to build a system in which intelligent software drives a
user interface that can respond appropriately to users'
nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, gaze, and
voice patterns. The key challenge, as with all EC-funded
projects, will be to transfer the resulting technology to
market.
(May 2008 Knowledge-Based Systems Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/KBS.shtml

(This publication is part of our Explorer service. To
learn more about Explorer, see
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer .)

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Americans' Eating Habits

Most Americans eat large quantities of industrialized
foods full of empty calories: Only 8% of U.S. adults
regularly buy food with labels "natural" or "organic." The
price of eating processed foods is a rise in medical
conditions such as obesity and a corresponding rise in the
costs of health care and health insurance. In light of
these concerns, a new VALS[TM] report explores the VALS
groups' attitudes toward food and health as well as their
grocery-buying behaviors.
(We Are What We Eat)
http://www.sric-bi.com/VALS/summaries/2008-06whatweeat.shtml

(This publication is part of our VALS[TM] service. To
learn more about VALS, see http://www.sric-bi.com/VALS .)

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Membranes As Battery Separators

As battery-powered devices invade more everyday
activities, the need to have longer-lasting, high-power-
density batteries intensifies. Membranes that function as
separators, dividing the battery's cathode and anode
compartments, are critical in the design of lithium-ion
batteries both for safety and for operating performance.
Moreover, because of great interest in lithium-ion
batteries, especially for use in vehicles, the market for
separators should grow substantially in the next decade.
(May 2008 Membrane Separation Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/MS.shtml

(This publication is part of our Explorer service. To
learn more about Explorer, see
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer .)

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Signals of Change

The cell phone is making successful incursions into almost
every aspect of our lives, including some interesting uses
in the domains of health and wellness. The latest issue of
Scan[TM] Monthly explores this and other signals of
change, including the increasing number of business models
that infringe on people's privacy, the potential shift
from conspicuous consumption to conspicuous conservation,
virtual-world diversity and connectivity, experiments with
mechanisms for "turning on" the mind's cognitive
capabilities, and growth in regional centers of
innovation.
(Scan[TM] Monthly, May 2008)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM063.shtml

(This publication is part of our Scan[TM] service. To
learn more about Scan, see http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan .)

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Virtual-Worlds Platforms

For companies considering virtual-worlds deployments,
choosing a platform is complex. Some platforms are
collections of code that offer great flexibility but
require a reasonable level of effort by skilled
developers. Others are packaged tools that allow skilled
end users to create new worlds quickly and easily but
offer limited flexibility. In turn, some platforms are
more suitable for consumer worlds than for enterprise
worlds and vice versa. A recent Viewpoints by the Virtual-
Worlds Consortium describes some of today's software
platforms-including Croquet, Multiverse, and the Second
Life Grid-and provides a matrix for classifying them.
(May 2008 Virtual-Worlds Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/VWW/VWviewpoints.shtml

(This publication is part of our Virtual Worlds @ Work
consortium.)

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Ocean-Energy Technology

Ocean-wave and -tidal energy is a huge but untapped
renewable resource. Interest in this energy source is
increasing, with a number of companies in Europe, the
United States, and other locations pursuing in-water
demonstration of various system designs. Several companies
have also signed power-purchase agreements with local
utilities. The greatest challenges are to improve the
robustness and reliability of equipment to withstand real-
sea conditions and to lower costs to ensure economic
viability.
(May 2008 Renewable Energy Technologies Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/RET.shtml

(This publication is part of our Explorer service. To
learn more about Explorer, see
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer .)

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Financial Services and Boomers' Retirement

As Boomers retire and seek to simplify their lives, they
will look to a few good institutions to meet their
financial needs. In doing so, they will likely prompt a
shakeup in the financial-services industry, now awash in
too many institutions, and spur industry-wide
consolidation. A recent report by the Consumer Financial
Decisions group, part of a series for the Retirement
Income Industry Association, lays out the new rules of the
marketplace that financial institutions and advisers will
need to follow if they are to be on the short list of
firms that retirees choose to meet their emerging needs.
(The Coming Consolidation: Making the Short List)
http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD/RIIA/public

(To learn more about the Consumer Financial Decisions
group, see http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD .)

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Second Life behind the Firewall

Second Life is proving to be a useful sandbox in which
enterprises can try out ideas and foster collaborative
work or learning using virtual worlds for internal
applications. However, some organizations are concerned
about the use of Second Life for internal applications,
citing poor usability, poor performance, inappropriate
content, and security issues. IBM and Linden Labs recently
improved Second Life's prospects for enterprise use when
they announced software to enable companies to host
private regions of the Second Life Grid behind their
firewalls. Though the solution makes Second Life a
somewhat more serious contender for the enterprise, a
number of problems remain.
(April 2008 Virtual Worlds Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/VWC/VWviewpoints.shtml

(This publication is part of our Virtual Worlds @ Work
consortium.)




--------------
 SRIC-BI News
--------------

30 Years for the MacroMonitor

Thirty years ago, most financial research had a narrow
focus, studying only one industry, product, segment, or
channel. However, some visionaries at SRI, anticipating
the convergence of the financial-services industry, saw a
need to measure all types of financial products, services,
and channels and to collect a complete set of demographics
and accurate financial measures. What set this project
apart was its inclusion of a broad range of consumer
financial attitudes, including financial preferences,
motivations, and goals. In 2008, the MacroMonitor
continues its groundbreaking work, now with a longer, more
sophisticated questionnaire, a sample of more than 4000
households, expanded coverage of products and services,
and a deeper understanding of consumers' financial
decisions.
http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD/30years.shtml

(MacroMonitor is part of SRIC-BI's Consumer Financial
Decisions [CFD] group. To learn more about CFD and the
MacroMonitor, see http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD .)

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A New Identity for the Virtual-Worlds Consortium

When SRIC-BI established the Virtual-Worlds Consortium for
Innovation and Learning, it sought to recognize the
importance of enterprise applications. Now the time is
right to reinforce the program's focus on new ways of
working and the impact of virtual worlds on many aspects
of work. As a result, the program has a new name, Virtual
Worlds @ Work (VWW), to emphasize the increasing
importance of workplace applications for virtual worlds to
adopting organizations, virtual-worlds developers, and
service firms.


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