The Menlo Briefs from Menlo Innovations. Visit us online at MenloInnovations.com.

Hand Jive - What's the most annoying thing about all your high-tech, itsy bitsy gizmos? I don't know about the rest of you, but for me it's the tiny buttons. Now researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have a new idea for how to solve that little problem: hand gestures instead of buttons. The Gesture Watch has five infrared sensors, four of which sense any hand motion that occurs above the watch. For example, if the user is wearing the watch on his left hand, he can move his right hand over the watch in an up or down, left or right, or circular motion. Different combinations of these movements communicate an action to the watch, such as turning the power on for a device. The watch is a prototype and still in the "bulky enough to be worn by Professor Frink of 'The Simpsons'" category, but the research team is working on making it smaller.

And What Do You Do on Your Daily Commute? - Whatever you did, I bet it's not as ambitious as what this commuter did. Robert Bernocco, an IT professional took advantage of his travel time by writing a 384-page science fiction novel on his cell phone. He used the phones T9 typing system and typed long-hand rather than using common text-messaging abbreviations.

Flying Green - Air New Zealand, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation and Boeing are working together to develop and test a bio-fuel derived from algae. Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation began operating in May last year after it met a request from the local council to deal with excess algae on sewage ponds. Boeing's Dave Daggett was reported this year as saying algae ponds totaling 34,000 square kilometers could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero.

Life in the Funny Papers - A friend of mine has a quote in the signature of her e-mails that always strikes a bittersweet chord with me: Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.' Charles Schulz wasn't talking about the IT Industry when he wrote it, but he might as well have been. Nearly all companies have failed investments in software initiatives--many in the six and seven figure range! The good news is that the leading causes of these failures can be avoided by applying Menlo's High-Tech Anthropology^® practice. Join us for the next FREE 90-minute presentation on September 20th to learn how our approach creates the right software for the right application.

Does this Text Message Make me Look Fat? - Most women have had the experience of shopping for clothes and wishing their best friend was there to help them choose. Now it might be possible without them even being in the same room. New dressing room technology from IconNicholson features a three-way mirror that sends live images and text messages via video feeds to friends and family.

Sun, Sand, and RFID? - Sunscreen, swimsuit, blanket, towel...RFID chip bracelet? It may sound a little out of the ordinary for your average beach comber, but for it's all part of the Ocean City, New Jersey public services on tap featuring Internet access and radio-frequency identification chips (RFID) and Wi-Fi wireless technology. The bracelets will be used to replace the current "beach tag" that indicates you paid to be at the beach for the day. The new high-tech beach will also feature solar-powered trash cans that will e-mail the public works department when they get 3/4 full.

Your Spider Plant is on Line Five - These days it seems everyone has a phone -- even your plants! Botanicalls enables plants to call when they need water. It plays recorded voices that are assigned to each plant to match its biological characteristics and to help increase the charm of the phone message and give plants their own personality. "We wanted to make sure that you weren't just getting phone calls that were really needy," said Rebecca Bray, who developed the concept with three colleagues, "So we have them calling you back when you've watered them to say thank you for watering me."

Keep Those Cell Phones Charged! - Hearing that a cellphone saved someone's life isn't exactly surprising these days, but here's something new. Leonardo Molina was on the operating table when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province. When the backup generators didn't work, a family member gathered cell phones from people in the hallway to provide light for the surgeons to continue their work.

Color Me Impressed, I Can Only Play Chopsticks! - By tapping directly into the brain's electrical signals, scientists at John's Hopkins University, in Baltimore, are on their way to developing a prosthetic hand more dexterous than ever before. They have demonstrated for the first time that neural activity recorded from a monkey's brain can control fingers on a robotic hand, making it play several notes on a piano.