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New 360- degree street- scene photos capture delicate moments of passersby

Sun

SAN FRANCISCO — Smile, you’re on Google. Street- scene photographs recently added to Google Maps and Earth capture passersby in delicate situations and have privacy advocates accusing the world’s most popular Internet search firm of breaking its “ Don’t Be Evil” code.

Google’s “ Street View” feature weaves photographs into seamless panoramas of parts of San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and renowned technology Mecca Silicon Valley in northern California.

“ With Street View users can virtually walk the streets of a city, check out a restaurant before arriving, and even zoom in on bus stops and street signs to make travel plans,” Google says on its website.

Privacy advocates counter that it also provides offensively candid glimpses of people unwittingly photographed while going about their daily lives.

Pictures show what appears to be men urinating streetside. Young women are pictured in skimpy swimsuits sunbathing near Stanford University, the California alma mater of Google’s founders.

There is a picture of a man climbing a home’s security gate, hopefully without criminal intent. People are pictured going into a pornography shop.

A couple can be seen embracing on a sidewalk, while another couple gets intimate on a bus stop bench. A homeless man pictured sitting with his dog on a street corner has reportedly died since the photograph was taken.

Technology- centric Wired magazine is asking online readers to vote for “ the best inadvertent urban snapshots … be they citizens flaunting the laws or hot dog vendors rocking a sweet style.”

 

Google’s actions ‘ irresponsible,’
but not illegal in the U. S.

 

It is legal to photograph people in public places in the United States.

“ What Google does is not illegal, but irresponsible,” said Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ( EFF), a U. S. non- profit group dedicated to defending Internet freedom and privacy.

“ Google Street View technology has been an intrusion of privacy to many people captured in their pictures. They could have waited until they developed technology that would allow them to obscure peoples’ faces.”

Miami abortion clinic director Elaine Diamond is troubled by a Google Maps picture showing protesters outside the facility.

“ I wish they would replace it,” Diamond said. “ I couldn’t contact them. I tried quickly. It’s not easy.”

Women visiting abortion clinics are under enough stress without adding fears that Google Maps might feature pictures of them entering or leaving the facilities, Diamond said.

Operators of places such as drug, alcohol or sexual health clinics worry about protecting their clients from the stigma of being pictured in Street View.

Google said it worked with shelters for battered women and children to avoid photographs endangering their visitors.

“ Everyone expects a certain level of anonymity as they move about their daily lives,” EFF attorney Kevin Bankston told AFP.

Google says photographs are taken down or replaced in response to complaints.

“ Street View only features imagery taken on public property,” the Mountain View, Californiabased Internet titan said in its defense.

“ This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street.”

Google’s Street View has fans among those eager to explore places as an adjunct or replacement to travel.

Google used a fleet of vans equipped with special cameras to amass 360- degree imagery of major US cities during the past several months and said it planned to add more urban areas to the Street View menu.

There is no word on when Street View will focus in on Canadian streets. According to Google representative Kate Hurowitz, the company is planning to provide Street View for regions throughout the world, but the feature may vary by country due to “ local laws and norms.”

“ We will be adding Street View imagery for new cities on an ongoing basis,” Hurowitz said in an e- mail.

“ We are not providing additional details about the imagery collection schedule at this time, but we will announce new imagery rollouts on the Google Lat Long blog [ http:// google- latlong. blogspot. com/].”

Google said it intends to update the images regularly.

You can use it to view and edit documents on your smartphone

Jim Jamieson
Province

What is it? Palm Foleo Mobile Companion

Price: $600-$700

Why you need it: You love the idea of a micro-notebook that will bond with your smartphone.

Why you don’t: You already have a laptop and this doesn’t have enough bells and whistles for you.

Our rating: 4 mice

Palm’s new teensy laptop is a great idea, but is it one whose time has come?

Palm founder Jeff Hawkins calls the device “the most exciting product I’ve ever worked on.”

The concept is that smartphones are becoming so prevalent and small that this laptop is really just a viewer — with a full-size keyboard and a 25-centimetre screen — to view and edit e-mail and office documents that reside on your phone. It’s forecast that by the end of 2007, an estimated 24.2 million wireless e-mail accounts will be in use worldwide.

There is a built-in Bluetooth wireless link that automatically updates edits made on Foleo or its paired smartphone. The Linux-based Foleo uses the smartphone or the Foleo’s built-in Wi-Fi for general Internet connectivity, and its applications include e-mail, a full-screen web browser, and editors or viewers for business documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files.

Obviously aimed at mobile business types, this device will also get some traction with those who just want a cool, tiny laptop to take to the coffee shop.

Palm’s challenge is to get some momentum going on this new idea, and the company said it will work with third-party developers to support as many smartphones as possible, including its own Palm Treo, those using operating systems from Research in Motion, Apple and Symbian.

The 1.1-kg Foleo mobile companion turns on and off instantly and features a battery that lasts up to five hours. Available in Canada at retail stores this fall.

Rating 4 out 5

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Misty Harris
Province

Rorschach tests are fine for those who think creepy inkblots are the window to the soul. But for Canadians who prefer a more contemporary shortcut to psychoanalysis, researchers say look no farther than your preferred typeface.

A study out of Wichita State University in Kansas has found the choice of font used in e-mails, web text, digital scrap-booking and other on-screen communication sends a strong message about the person behind the keystrokes.

For example, a mono-spaced typeface such as Courier New, in which every character — from the I to the W — has the same width, implies dullness and lack of imagination; a whimsical script, such as Gigi, points to a person who’s highly creative, feminine and unstable.

But unlike standard personality tests, which reveal who you are, the Wichita typeface analysis only indicates how others perceive you.

“I think it’s important for people to realize that typefaces do have inherent personalities, and those personalities do translate to the perception of the document,” says Dawn Shaikh, co-author of the study and a PhD graduate in human factors psychology. “It helps determine whether people trust you, see you as professional, see you as mature, honest, and all of these other things.”

The study involved 561 students who were asked to describe 20 popular typefaces using 15 adjective pairs.

Monospaced fonts were strongly linked with words like dull, plain, conforming and unimaginative. Modern display typefaces such as Impact and Rockwell Xbold were most associated with the adjectives masculine, assertive, rude, sad and coarse, while serif fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia scored highest on words like stable, practical, mature and formal. Scripts and funny fonts such as Gigi, Comic Sans and Monotype Corsiva were connected to the adjectives youthful, happy, creative, rebellious, feminine, casual and cuddly, but simultaneously drew the highest scores for instability and impracticality.

“I have two daughters and all their letters from the school principal are written in Comic Sans,” says Shaikh, referring to a bubbly, childlike font introduced by Microsoft in 1995. “I know they’re trying to be cute, but it’s so unprofessional.”

© The Vancouver Province 2007

Jefferson Graham
USA Today

If you’ve ever attended a company meeting, whether in a boardroom or a hotel ballroom, you’ve seen the latest tool of 21st-century business: the digital projector.

Like the slide projector of another era, these devices illuminate images and text, and project sound when connected to a speaker.

But unlike the old Kodak Carousels that cost in the low hundreds of dollars, digital projectors have been pricey — typically $1,000 and up. Prices, however, are falling. Many good, entry-level projectors can now be had for as low as $600.

We looked at two entry-level models, Epson’s PowerLite S4 and InFocus’ Work Big IN24+. They retail for $599 (after a $50 rebate) and $649, respectively.

Shopping for a projector can be incredibly confusing, with specs thrown at you that sound like the language of Star Trek’s Klingons. Let us translate

•Lumens. Your most important decision. Like megapixels with digital cameras — the more the merrier for a sharper picture. Lumens measure the brightness of the image.

•XGA or SVGA? More camera-like terminology. These measure pixels shown on the screen. XGA is 1024×768, vs. SVGA’s 800×600. Key point to remember: XGA offers a better picture.

If you are going to project images onto a wall in a dark room, lumens and XGA don’t matter as much. It’s when you’re competing with daylight that the lower-quality images start to pale.

How they stack up

Now, on to the Epson and InFocus projectors, which have 1,800 and 2,200 lumens, respectively. Both are SVGA models.

Dave Dicklich, publisher of the ProjectorCentral.com website, says most business users can get away with 1,500 lumens, “but more is better.”

I ran my first tests on the projectors in a totally dark room. Both looked great, despite the InFocus’s 400-lumen advantage.

The next morning in daylight, both were OK, but considerably weaker. Then I plugged in another Epson model, the PowerLite 1715c, which has 2,700 lumens and XGA resolution. The difference was night and day. It was that much brighter. The unit, around $1,800 online, was also three times the cost.

In comparing the entry-level Epson S4 vs. the InFocus IN24+, I preferred the Epson in pretty much every category. It is compact, comes with a carrying case and plugged effortlessly into both a DVD player and Windows laptop. (Note to Apple users: Most projectors don’t come with the Apple cord you need to plug into Apple laptops.)

Connectivity can be touchy for anyone who likes to show off Web pages or PowerPoint presentations. Many laptops have special buttons that must be pressed to communicate with the projectors. (Like the “Function key plus F7” combination.) At first, when connecting the Epson and InFocus projectors to an IBM laptop, there was nothing there. After a reboot, the images showed right up.

What to buy

Dicklich says that for most business users, a $600 projector with fewer lumens and SVGA image quality is fine as long as ambient light is on your side. Otherwise, look to spend upwards of $1,000. And if you can find a great deal on Epson’s $1,800 PowerLite 1715c — with wireless and USB connectivity and weighing just 3.7 pounds — snap it up, or one like it. It’s a beaut.

Home theater projector use possible

Nearly two-thirds of all projector sales go to businesses and schools. But individual consumers snap up about a third of them to create a cinema-style home theater.

A projector and screen can be yours for under $1,000. A surround-sound receiver and lots of speakers are optional extras that will add to your tab.

Pro: You’ll be able to project the image as large as your wall will allow.

Con: The room has to be very dark, as in a theater, or the image will wash out.

“Instead of paying thousands for a flat-panel TV, you can pick up a projector, get a good screen, and have a really nice home theater setup,” says Dave Dicklich, publisher of ProjectorCentral.com, a website devoted to projectors.

Most folks watch TV in the evening, so odds are the lights can be dimmed. That can make buying a budget projector a sweet deal for consumers.

Expensive projectors have lots of “lumens,” which measure the brightness of the light. But that only matters in rooms with lots of ambient light.

For home use in a dark room, budget projectors with 1,500 to 1,800 lumens look terrific.

Plug the projector into your cable or satellite high-definition box, and you can be beaming hi-definition TV onto your screen or wall, at a fraction of the cost of a big plasma set.

But will it look as good?

“Flat panel is always going to look better,” Dicklich says. “But if you’re not comparing the two side by side, a projected image is going to look damn good.”

Edward C. Baig
USA Today

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once talked about putting a PC on every desk. Now Gates is talking about turning the desk itself — or a tabletop — into a computer. Microsoft is set to announce an ambitious new computing category today called “surface computing” to try to make it happen.

The initiative, several years in the making, transforms an ordinary tabletop into a translucent, interactive façade. The surface can recognize cellphones, digital cameras, special ID-coded digital dominoes and other physical objects.

And it can respond to human touch. Kids can finger-paint digitally. Business travelers can dive into maps and surf the Web without a mouse or keyboard, by using simple touch gestures across the screen. In restaurant settings, you’ll be able to order meals and play digital board games. At home, there may be no more fussing with the half-dozen remote controls sitting on your coffee table. That’s because the table becomes the remote control.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer plans to unveil the first of these interactive tables, branded Microsoft Surface, today at the D: All Things Digital executive conference in Carlsbad, Calif. The initial products, pitched at businesses, consist of a 30-inch acrylic horizontal display that sits on top of a nearly 2-foot-tall table. The public will likely get its first peek in November in restaurants, hotels, casinos and stores. Commercial launch partners include Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, T-Mobile USA and global gaming machine designer International Game Technology (IGT).

Microsoft has longer-term designs on schools and, likely three to five years out, the home. “We’re starting at the high end, sort of like you’d think about big flat-screen displays or even the initial personal computer,” Gates told USA TODAY. “But there are ways that the hardware cost of this will come down very dramatically.” For now, the rough cost of each installation is $5,000 to $10,000.

“We see this as a multibillion-dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and computers to the hallway mirror,” Ballmer says.

Several people at once can interact with the Surface tabletop — to play games, choose music or whatever. Below the tabletop are cameras with infrared filters to sense objects plus custom software built around Windows Vista. Projectors display what you see on the surface.

Surface also piggybacks off common technologies including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless. The tables can “read” optical tags and bar codes embedded, say, in credit cards and room keys. But Surface goes far beyond familiar touch-screens in kiosks, ATMs and elsewhere.

Similar technologies have been shown in public before. Last year at the prestigious TED conference, New York University human-computer interface designer Jeff Han wowed the crowd with a demonstration of a prototype virtual tabletop photo light box in which he could move and manipulate photos with his fingertips. Han founded a company called Perceptive Pixel to try to market advanced multitouch systems. Such a start-up, of course, can’t match the resources of Microsoft to push surface computing as a business.

To be sure, any over-the-top Microsoft product launch invites skepticism. For all its software dominance through the years, not all of Microsoft’s bold initiatives have paid off: Think everything from .Net Web services to Portable Media Center entertainment devices. Those and other efforts have been attempts to reshuffle or extend the Windows flagship or require partners to use more Windows servers.

Even tech analysts impressed with the surface computing concept believe it will take time to catch on. “In terms of short-term practical applications or things like contributions to Microsoft’s bottom line, it’s going to have a negligible effect at first,” says Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions On Microsoft. “It needs the full Microsoft ecosystem of applications developers and hardware developers.”

Microsoft developed the software and is building the hardware in the early going. Gates says the company will license the software to partners interested in producing machines.

There are reasons to believe Surface may have a favorable outcome. The technology is blowing away partners and tech analysts who have been treated to demonstrations. “People have been asking if Microsoft is still an innovator. I think this silences critics,” says JupiterResearch Vice President Michael Gartenberg.

Industry analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates concurs. “This is game-changing and will cause companies like Apple and Google to go back on their heels. I try not to gush too much. I think this is a really big deal.” Apple’s reaction to surface computing may well come up at the D conference this evening, where Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs are scheduled to make a joint public appearance. Apple, of course, uses multitouch screen technology in the upcoming iPhone.

Taking a tour

Microsoft’s technology has to be seen to be best understood. Think of it as a bridge between physical and virtual worlds and something out of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report.

“We all sat around the table and watched the demonstration, and my jaw dropped,” says Hoyt Harper II, Sheraton’s senior vice president for brand management.

In-and-out-of-home scenarios in which the Surface computers will likely be deployed:

•Photos and music. Drop a Wi-Fi-capable digital camera onto the table and watch as pictures spill out onto the surface. You can “grab” the photos with your hands — enlarge and drag them and order prints and postcards without leaving your chair.

Similarly, you can browse through album covers on the table, purchase the songs you want, and drag them into specific playlists on a Microsoft Zune portable music player, or presumably any other Wi-Fi-capable player.

•The restaurant experience. A waiter places a wine glass on the table. Instantly, you’ll get information about the vintage, including pictures of the vineyard and suggested food pairings. You might even be able to book a trip to the region where the wine came from. The table could also be smart enough to know when your glass needs to be refilled.

And forget about fighting over the check. Each person can drag the menu items he or she ordered onto their own personalized bill, using an on-the-surface slider to automatically calculate the tip

•Games. In one of the most compelling product demonstrations, people are given a number of glass tiles to place anywhere on the surface. Upon doing so, each tile shows a piece of video. The challenge is to rearrange all the tiles to complete a video puzzle.

IGT is developing community-type games based on Surface for gamblers in casinos. “This opens the door for the kind of excitement you’d see in a craps pit,” says Ed Rogich, IGT’s marketing vice president. IGT has to submit any new Surface-based games for regulatory approval. “Ours will be one of the more complicated usages of this technology,” Rogich says.

What’s more, while a version of Vista helps make the table interactive, Microsoft has been careful to leave the familiar computer interface out of it. You won’t see a “Start” button or any other icons, objects and folders common to Windows, even when booting up the system.

Surface comes out of the Microsoft division responsible for Xbox and Zune, but “Microsoft has allowed us to be standalone business … without the manacles,” says Pete Thompson, the Microsoft Surface Computing general manager.

A virtual concierge

Microsoft has kept the project quiet even at its Redmond, Wash., campus. Thompson says many Microsoft employees will learn about Surface for the first time with today’s announcement.

The genesis of the surface computing project, until recently code-named Milan, dates to early 2003, when a team of Microsoft researchers showed Gates an early prototype built into an Ikea table. By 2006, the Milan team had grown to more than 100 employees. “Four years ago it was pretty clunky, but even then when I saw the first prototype I saw the potential,” Gates says.

Microsoft’s launch partners agree. “It’s very intriguing and cutting-edge, and it opens your mind up to a lot of possibilities,” says IGT’s Rogich. Adds Harper of Sheraton: “Our biggest concern is that it’s going to create standing-room-only in our lobby, and people are going to be lining up to try it. But that’s a nice problem to have.”

Harrah’s plans to turn the tables into virtual concierges that encourage guests to explore its Las Vegas properties. Guests at Caesars Palace, for example, would be able to tour interactive maps of the hotel. An icon representing Elton John or Celine Dion concerts, for instance, might display video footage from the show and pricing and ticket information.

Move over to the icon for a particular restaurant, and you might see what the current line to get in is like. And if you place your hotel customer rewards card on the table, Surface can store meal and drink preferences. “We think this has a sense of hipness or a cool factor,” says Tim Stanley, Harrah’s chief information officer.

Guests at Caesars may be issued promotional chips at check-in or when visiting other Harrah’s hotels. By placing them on the table they may win prizes or get discounts.

“We do a lot of promotional things today, swipe and win and scratch-off kinds of things. This just gives a whole other different dynamic to it,” Stanley says.

T-Mobile is expected to put tables in retail stores where folks could compare features, prices and phone plans side-by-side. Customers might conceivably drag ringtones to the models they select.

For retailers, “A big challenge will be to create applications that are not only fun but also useful and usable,” says Forrester Research senior retail analyst Tamara Mendelsohn. “A lot of that is out of Microsoft’s control.”

There are other practical concerns. The acrylic tables have to be durable to withstand fingerprints, germs and the drinks that will inevitably be spilled on them. Microsoft insists they are. Stanley says Harrah’s will be testing the tables under different ambient lighting and climate conditions.

Privacy is another concern. Surface systems must be set up so users can easily wipe their sessions clean.

And Gates knows the company could meet competition. “Anybody who takes a long-term time horizon and has incredible research laboratories to do breakthrough software can do it,” he says. “We’ve been working on it for a long time to get it so it responds right away and is very simple.”

 

Sun

SAMSUNG WRITEMASTER SE-T084L, $165

If you’re not ready to trade in your notebook computer just because it’s missing a DVD burner, here’s a cheaper solution. The SE-T084L is a front slot-loading DVD burner that plugs in a USB connection. It’s the only slot-in drive that supports eight-cm discs, making it possible to burn discs from DVD camcorders. The USB power means you don’t have to worry about carrying an AC adaptor. If you’re a road warrior at work or you simply want to copy holiday memories while you’re on the go, this makes a slim solution.

NOKIA 6300 MOBILE PHONE, $100 WITH FIDO THREE-YEAR CONTRACT, $300 WITHOUT CONTRACT

The latest Fido phone offering marks a North American debut for this bar phone from Nokia. It takes no more space in your purse or pocket than a little candy bar. A skinny phone barely topping 13 millimetres, it still wraps all the toys into its flat package: a two-megapixel camera with eight times digital zoom, an MP3 player and FM radio, Bluetooth wireless, on-board memory of 512 MB that can be increased up to two GB with microSD cards, voice dialing, a hands-free speaker and other functions you expect in a phone.

FATMAX MOBILE PROJECT CENTRE, $120

A Father’s Day present for the wannabe home handyman, this two-in-one tool combines a work surface with a hand cart. And for the space-strapped do-it-yourselfer, this folds flat to store. It includes integrated clamps and a three-outlet power strip with cable holder to line up all those power tools. www.stanleytools.com

OLYMPUS STYLUS 770 SW, $450

We know from expensive experience that a life jacket, while useful for keeping you afloat, does little for the digital camera in your pocket. Which is why, of the many features of this rugged camera, we were impressed by the waterproof-to-10 metres claim. Add to that crushproof up to a hefty 99 kilograms and shockproof to withstand a fall of 1.5 metres and this 7.1-megapixel camera can pretty much take anything you can throw at it — or throw it at. And it can do it all at temperatures as low as -10 C. With a three times optical zoom and a five times digital zoom, this is more than ready for summer.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Internet-based calls never reveal a personal listing

Gillian Shaw
Sun

A small California company that makes it possible to place a non-long-distance call to anyone around the world as long as you have their e-mail address is bringing the service to Canada.

Jangl is one of a growing number of companies getting into the “social phone number” business that allows users to give out a phone number that is disposable so that callers never need know that most coveted piece of information — your personal phone number. It essentially lets you use your phone with the same anonymity of a Hotmail account.

On Wednesday, Jangl announced it is expanding its service and making it available throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as 29 other countries.

“What the new service is about is it’s creating another on-ramp for people to engage in Jangl,” said Michael Cerda, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

Jangl’s new service lets users place calls, send text messages and send or receive voice mail by using the Internet rather than traditional phone networks. Callers are given a local number so no matter where the person is that they are calling, they don’t incur long-distance charges: Just enter a person’s e-mail address, leave them a voice mail on a line provided by Jangl, and both parties will be given a local number to call to talk over the company’s lines.

“What Jangl.com service is — say I want to call somebody and I don’t have their number but I have their e-mail, or they live in another part of the world and I want to call them on a number that is local to me.”

Cerda said as well as saving money on long-distance charges, Jangl users can protect their privacy by connecting to callers through a Jangl number that sends an email message alerting them to the incoming call. It also allows calls to go straight through from accepted callers, much like social networking websites allow you to add friends and contacts.

If someone tries to call who you don’t want to talk to, you can simply block the call.

A glitch that didn’t allow verification of Canadian phone numbers resulted in a flurry of emails to the company’s help desk on Wednesday, but Cerda said that problem should be fixed by today.

Cerda said the service is in beta testing now and while some part of it will remain free, he said the company could add extra services at a charge. It may consider making money through linking ads to the emails or other services.

Jangl has 18 employees and its backers include Cardinal Venture Capital, Labrador Ventures and Storm Ventures, which together have invested $9 million.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Jim Jamieson
Province

What is it? Lexmark X4550 All-in-One

Price: $149.99

Why you need it: You have limited space in your work area and are sick and tired of being tied down to cables.

Why you don’t: One printer will do just fine, thanks, and it will fit right next to your computer.

Our rating: 3 mice

For many of us, the final piece to the convenience puzzle when it comes to home computer use is what to do with the printer.

Perhaps the biggest myth about the computer age is that it would do away with paper — when the reality is just the opposite.

And as the computer has migrated from the downstairs office into the living room or the kitchen, an ongoing quandary has

been where to locate the printer.

The wireless option — where you can put your printer downstairs or out of sight in a cupboard — has been around for a while, but Lexmark is pushing hard on price and variety in this area.

The X4550 is a full-function printer with built-in wireless functinality.

Wireless printing can be done up to 100 metres away.

Its production is up to 26 pages per minute in black and white and 18 ppm in colour.

The printer can also do borderless photos with or without a computer from digital memory cards, USB flash drives or PictBridge-compatible digital cameras.

The unit also features a one-touch colour copier that delivers copies at speeds of up to 17 ppm in black and white and 11 ppm in colour.

It also includes a 48-bit flatbed colour scanner.

Lexmark has also launched another, lesser-functioned wireless printer: the Z1420 ($99.99).

The printers will work in mixed PC/Mac environments.

Both the Mac and PC must be on the wireless router and each should have the appropriate driver loaded.

Available at electronics stores.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Instead of sitting at a desk all day, stroll on a treadmill at a ‘vertical work station’

Tom Spears
Sun

Tired of watching obese people sit at computers all day, a Mayo Clinic doctor came up with a radical plan: Stick that office computer on a treadmill.

It works, says James Levine: Obese people can lose up to 30 kilograms a year by replacing their traditional desk with a “vertical work station,” strolling gently on the treadmill as they type, read e-mail or answer the phones.

His small study — based on just 15 obese people with desk jobs and little exercise in their lives — says healthy but obese people can start burning off weight efficiently without doing strenuous exercise.

And none of the volunteers fell off and hurt themselves.

When they sat at a normal desk, the group of 14 women and one man burned about 72 calories an hour. But alternately walking and standing on the treadmill, averaging 1.7 kilometres an hour, they burned off 191 calories an hour. (The volunteers picked their own walking speeds, and no one urged them to hurry. They didn’t have to walk all the time.)

Levine didn’t measure actual weight loss. This is a theoretical study, but he calculates that burning an extra 100 or more calories an hour for two or three hours each working day would cause many obese people to lose between 20 and 30 kilograms a year.

The “walk and work” device is no ordinary treadmill.

It’s built on a steel frame with four wheels, so that workers can steer it around the office.

There’s room for a computer, books, pens, a phone, a flower vase, coffee cup and paper tray. The whole thing slides over a standard treadmill, or slides away when the user wants to stand on a solid floor.

It can also slide over a chair so that the user doesn’t have to stand for the entire day. Levine says it costs about $1,600 US, not including the treadmill — a bargain, he suggests, since obesity costs the U.S. $100 billion to $200 billion a year in health costs and lost productivity.

But really — treadmills at work?

“Great idea!” said Peter Lemon, a kinesiology professor at the University of Western Ontario who specializes in exercise.

“What this is going to do is increase substantially the daily energy expenditure. It’s kind of like going out and taking a couple of hours to walk every day,” he said.

“I’ve kidded in the past that we should attach our computer to a bicycle ergometer (a form of exercise bike) so that if the kids want to play video games, they have to generate the power to run the computer. Our kids would all be fit and lean.”

A treadmill at work won’t boost anyone’s cardiovascular health if they’re just going for a slow stroll, he cautioned.

But it will help them lose weight. “Every time you move, you expend energy.” And even if the exercise has a low intensity, “it’s the total number of calories you expend that’s important. If this can add that much per hour over several hours, that’s important.”

The medical journal reports all 15 volunteers wanted to keep using their “vertical work stations” after the study finished.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007