June 10, 2012
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Students from Arizona State University won top honors this spring at the Imagine Cup finals in the United States. Microsoft Corporation organizes the competition every year. The Imagine Cup asks students to use their imaginations and their love of technology to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. More than one hundred thousand students in the United States alone registered for the event this year. Twenty-two teams were chosen to take part in the finals in Seattle, Washington. Team FlashFood won first place in the Imagine Cup’s Software Design competition.The team developed a computer software application and website to help speed food donations from restaurants, hotels and farmers markets to needy families. Eric Lehnhardt is the leader of Team FlashFood. He says food insecurity affects a lot of people, especially in large population centers. He notes that some people do not know where their next meal is coming from. His team’s winning mobile application and website is designed for operators of restaurants. They can enter information about the food they would like to donate. Then volunteer drivers go to pick up the donations and take them to those in need. Richard Filley is director of the Engineering Projects in Community Service program at Arizona State. Team FlashFood is one of the program’s thirty-seven projects. Richard Filley says winning the Imagine Cup’s Software design …
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August 13, 2011
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Using a computer mouse or trackball can be a little tricky. You choose the object you want and move it to where you want it, only to have it end up in a different position. This happens to all of us sometimes, and we think little of it. But for people who have a difficult time controlling their movements, this little navigational issue can be a really big problem. Now, researchers at the University of Washington have developed new cursors that make activating objects easier for people with motor disabilities. Jacob Wobbrock is an assistant professor at the University of Washington. He leads the AIM Research Group that developed the cursors. Professor Wobbrock says mouse cursor operations are complex processes that assume things about computer users. He says, “For many people who have poor dexterity, the inability to control their fingers well, maybe pain in their wrists or hand, maybe arthritis — those assumptions of the average user, they don’t hold.” The AIM Research Group has developed two cursors. One is called the Pointing Magnifier. Professor Wobbrock says it uses a large circular cursor instead of the traditional arrow pointer. Users can make the circle as big as they like. When the circle is positioned over the target, everything in the circle appears larger, almost filling the whole screen. This makes it easier for the user to click on the object. Inside that magnified view, the …
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