In The News

Heartbeats are the new fingerprints

International Business Times Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A new app developed by Toronto company Bionym puts heartbeats at the centre of identification. In response to increased security protection concerns, tech security experts are looking to new and advanced ways of using biometric features in identification recognition technologies. With technology usually reserved for military and government buildings, these companies hope biometric features will eventually be infiltrated into online security measures such as account passwords.

Bionym's new product HeartID contains a security feature that is almost impossible to replicate, writes the International Business Times, and "definitely could not be hacked…unlike traditional passwords and pins."

The article explains: "The app analyses the pattern of a person's heartbeat, picks out the variation in the waves that create a biometric template distinct to that individual. The template remains distinct even if a person exercises or is stressed which causes the wave to compress but the shape remains the same."

"That means the system could recognize a person regardless of his heart rate, said Karl Martin, the president and chief executive officer of Bionym. He said the company is licensing the software to other companies and working to have the app placed directly in smartcards, tablets and smartphones."

These apps work by holding the devices near your heart where an embedded sensor then reads your heartbeat.

Read the full article here.
?Original Source: International Business Times

Myo turns your body into a remote control

New Scientist Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Ontario is quickly becoming leaders in transforming our bodies into remote controls. On Monday, Kitchener-based startup Thalmic Labs announced its gesture-controlled armband Myo (yes that is a Star Wars reference) is available for pre-order. The armband is the company's experiment in seeing how it can "integrate technology into our daily lives and give people superpowers," Thalmic Labs co-founder Stephen Lake says in an interview with New Scientist.

The armband works by reading "electrical activity in a user's muscles as they contract or relax to make gestures with their hand and arm," an article in New Scientist writes. Signals are submitted wirelessly to software that "interprets the movements into commands."

"we really have this belief that technology can be used to enhance our abilities," Lake says. "This is a way of using natural actions that we've evolved to intuitively control the digital world."

A video demoing Myo's capabilities shows gamers using their bodies as first-person devices, corporate types and professors shifting through slides with the wave of an arm, and chefs scrolling through cooking instructions on their iPads, their chicken fingers far away from the screen. The armband will ship later this year and is expected to cost $149. The software is compatible with Apple and Windows platforms.

The software builds on pre-existing technology, the most common example being Kinect. However, Myo does not use camera sensor technology. Thalmic Labs also announced a developer's API, allowing use of the hardware to build additional applications. New Scientist writes the team is already imaging ways to integrate its technology with Google's Project Glass, something computer scientist Shahzad Malik, co-founder of Toronto's CognoVision, said would be huge.

"Something like Thalmic's technology is super useful since you can do interactions in a subtle way, which is important in a public venue," he says.

Read the full story here.
Original Source: New Scientist

Do women make prettier cities?

The Telegraph Wednesday, February 20, 2013

An article appearing in the Telegraph cites that if more women were to partake in architecture and city infrastructure, cities would become safer and better designed. Featuring an interview with Christine Murray, Toronto expat and editor of Architects' Journal, the article says "more women architects could lead to better designed cities that were more 'humane,' 'safer' and 'livable.'"

"Women have a unique perspective on the world, and it is not to say that men cannot design excellent cities, or a good nursery or workplace, but everybody would benefit from designs by both halves of the gene pool," Murray told the Telegraph.

The article explains women face many challenges in the industry such as high female drop out rates, pay discrepancies, lengthy education periods, bullying, and cites having children as a disadvantage. Only 20 per cent of the country's registered architects are women, a trend common across the board.

Read the full story here.

Original source: The Telegraph

Shop.ca fastest growing ecommerce site in Canada

IT Business Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Last week, Yonge Street was invited to attend an information session by IBM outlining the company's various ecommerce and mobile platforms available to small and large businesses. It featured a panel discussion that included Trevor Newell, president of Shop.ca, the fastest growing ecommerce site in Canada. The company is Canada's largest online shopping destination, currently selling more than 15 million products and is set to sell more SKUs than Walmart, a staggering feat considering Shop.ca is less than a year old.

The story was featured briefly at IBM Connect down in Orlando, prompting IT Business to interview the Toronto-based entrepreneur about Shop.ca's early success. Newell credits IBM's WebSphere Commerce platform as part of it. The Toronto-built platform is the most "used ecommerce platform of the top 100 retailers," the article says, citing Sears, Nokia, Ikea, Sony, Staples, Canon and more among its customers.

"With a team of less than 10 we deployed Web Sphere platform in less than nine months," Newell told IT Business. "That was unheard of in IBM, they didn't think we could do it."

Shop.ca also credits the site's cache capabilities, increasing inventory, loyalty programs, and social media integration as key elements. The article writes, "Shop.ca used its IT team to build out a loyalty rewards bank. It includes a currency system with credits and debits guided by a rule set. It rewards users when a friend buys something they recommended with a 1 per cent commission. So far, the program has awarded more than $3 million to member's accounts."

Read the full story here.

Original Source: IT Business

2015 Parapan American Games has major role to play in Paralympic Movement

Inside the Games Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games will play a major role in propelling the Paralympic Movement, "not just here in the Americas, but the whole world," said the President of the Americas Paralympic Committee (APC) Octavio Londoño on a visit to Toronto.

"As a country Canada has a major role to play hosting a number of major Parasport events starting with August's IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal. As a city Toronto has the biggest role to play between now and Rio 2016," Londoño is quoted as saying in an article written by Emily Goddard reporting on his presentation in Toronto.

He continues, "If together we can deliver the biggest and best Parapan American Games in terms of sport, participation, accessibility, inclusion, crowds and media coverage, then we can head into Rio 2016 with significant momentum."

Goddard writes that Londoño expressed delight over Toronto's enthusiasm to "deliver the best Games ever," saying the city has a real opportunity to build on the success of London 2012 "when it welcomes some 1,500 athletes from 28 National Paralympic Committees to compete in the 15 sports of the Parapan Games." The games act as qualifiers for the Olympics in Rio in 2016, featuring South America's first Paralympic Games. Toronto will play a vital role in building momentum for Paralympic games in the years and months leading up to Rio.

The 2015 games are set to get underway in Toronto on August 7, 2015.

Read the full report here.

Original source: Inside the Games

Canadians raise money for Ice Hockey in Harlem

Bloomberg Businessweek Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Canadian Association of New York has raised $30,000 for Ice Hockey in Harlem, a non-profit group that provides disadvantages kids in Harlem with access to equipment, ice time and travel opportunities, as well as a greater chance to be part of the hockey community.

The outdoor hockey tournament took place over two days in New York last weekend at the Lasker Rink in Central Park. It featured 16 teams competing to raise money for the charity. Teams came down from Canada annually. Many are sponsored by law firms that use the opportunity to participate in the sport and the charity, as well as take advantage of the city's nightlife. A few teams such as the one for sponsored by Canadian law firm Norton Rose are notorious for not making it to the final round because they're too banged up, says Dean Keyworth, the CANY president and tournament participant.

Since the tournament's inception seven years ago, CANY has raised $100,000 for Ice Hockey in Harlem. John Sanful, the charity’s executive director, said the charity's participants "learn to skate and play at Lasker Rink and have classroom time, studying topics such as geometry and geography as they relate to the sport."

The article in Bloomberg Businessweek writes "CANY, whose mission is to foster goodwill between Canadians and Americans, began the tournament with a bunch of guys who simply wanted to play hockey."

“I feel like I could fill this thing three or four times over, but there’s only so much ice time I can get,” Keyworth said. “The pond hockey concept has got a lot of traction.”

The UCC Blues from Toronto’s Upper Canada College won this year's tournament with a 4-2 win in the final against the Nyack/Tappan Zee Ice Hawks.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Bloomberg Businessweek

The key to success: Well planned strategy

Live Mint Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, was in Mumbai last week promoting his new book Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works. Written with A.G. Lafley, the former CEO of Procter and Gamble, the book explores how to design and implement a strategy for success, a key but often misguided step in business development.

He sat down for a Q&A with Live Mint, a division of the Wall Street Journal, to discuss the book and its themes in more detail. Martin is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School and worked Procter and Gamble before becoming Dean at Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He will be ending his term there later this year.

"Most companies don’t have a conscious strategy," he told Live Mint. "They are just doing a bunch of stuff that doesn’t add up--they don’t have any useful strategy. They might say 'we are going to be the best in the industry; and they think being the best in their industry is a strategy--it’s not. It’s a slogan."

So what is strategy? It requires CEOs to have a clear vision and an understanding of the company's customers.

Martin says, "Strategy is an integrated set of choices that produces an outcome. It defines where we are going to play--if a CEO can’t define that, he or she probably does not have a strategy worth having. Saying we want to have the good customers is a non-choice; instead, if you say, for instance, we want customers who value variety over low price, that’s coherent. That way you can organize yourself to have high variety--to have a value proposition to that customer base that is distinctive."

Read the full story here.

Original Source: Live Mint

New U of T Muslim prayer room receives international attention

On Islam Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A $25,000 Muslin prayer room recently opened at the University of Toronto's theological campus Emmanuel College has garnered international attention from Muslim media.

An article featured in On Islam writes, "University officials opine that the move to open a prayer room for Muslim students helps promote inter-faith relations." It goes on to describe how the prayer room is part of a larger focus on Islam and "new spaces for Muslim students" to expand efforts to "enrich multi-faith dialogue both on and off campus."

?Emmanuel College is the theological college of Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

"There’s a history of Emmanuel College and the Muslim community that has been standing for about four years now," Mark Toulouse, principal and professor of the History of Christianity, told On Islam.

"In February 2010, we started the Muslim studies program, as well as the Canadian Muslim continuing education certificate program. We also have a master’s program--the Muslim Studies track--for students interested in becoming Muslim chaplains."

The article writes that the Canadian Jaffari Muslin Foundation, the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, the Islamic Institute of Toronto, the Muslim Chaplaincy, and the Muslim Students Association at University of Toronto funded the prayer space.

It is part of the University of Toronto's plan to develop a "more inclusive multi-faith prayer space to welcome all religions."

Read the full story here.

Original source: On Islam

Late Glenn Gould receives Lifetime Achievement Grammy

Times Colonist Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The late Toronto pianist Glenn Gould was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the 55th annual Grammy Awards this week. He is one of only a few Canadians to receive the esteemed award, including Montreal jazz legend Oscar Peterson and the Saskatchewan-raised folk poet Joni Mitchell.

An article in the Times Colonist writes that Gould was "often acknowledged for his dazzling talent at the piano and daring interpretations of classic material, his innovative recording techniques have also left a considerable legacy."

"He taught ... the recording industry how to make perfect recordings by the use of edits," Stephen Posen, Gould's former lawyer and the sole executor of his estate, told the Times Colonist.

The award comes as the Glenn Gould Foundation prepares to announce the winner of its tenth Glenn Gould Prize, celebrating a man or woman whose "unique lifetime contribution has enriched the human condition through the arts." The winner of the 2013 prize will be announced next week on February 21.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Times Colonist

Canada's top business schools team up to promote MBA programs

Bloomberg BusinessWeek Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Last week, Canada's top business schools announced the Canadian MBA Alliance, a partnership between McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, York University’s Schulich School of Business, and Queen’s School of Business designed to market Canada as the place to pursue an MBA.

Now, business critics are beginning to weigh in on Canada's stake in the international business academia, wondering if Canada's new alliance will threaten MBA programs in the States and the UK. An article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek suggests the UK may want to follow Canada's lead should they wish to keep up, as this model combined with Canada's advanced visa programs gives the country serious legs.

"What makes the Canadian move interesting is the fact that the country is already very successful at attracting foreign students, thanks in no small degree to its liberal immigration policy and enlightened attitudes toward racial and cultural diversity. Canadian visa rules allow international students enrolled in a master’s or MBA degree program to stay and work in Canada under the Post-Graduate Work Permit Program for the length of the study program, up to a maximum of three years. Building on this through a concerted marketing campaign could make it a very serious competitor in the lucrative international market," writes Matt Symonds.

Read the full article here.

Original source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Canadians release first song ever written and recorded from space

Daily Mail Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson have released the video for the first song to ever be written and recorded in space.

The historical moment was a collaboration made possible via satellite and with support from CBC music. With Hadfield singing and strumming guitar aboard the International Space Station some 250 miles above planet Earth, and Robertson at a studio here in Toronto, the pair recorded the space love song "I.S.S (Is Somebody Singing?)."

"We’ve been pals for a long time and it just seemed like a fun thing to do," Robertson told CBC Music, as reported by the Daily Mail.

The song features backing vocals from the Wexford Gleeks Choir form Wexford School for the Arts, who sang alongside Robertson in Toronto.

Commander Hadfield is an avid songwriter and plans to record an entire album from space.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: Daily Mail

Toronto start-ups reach new heights, literally

IT Business Wednesday, February 06, 2013

It's a neat concept that is literally bringing the elevator pitch to a new level. Last Thursday, 100 start-ups gave their best pitch to a panel of judges while taking the 58-second elevator ride to the top of the CN Tower.

The event is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to practice and perfect their elevator pitches, and is the first in a series of pitch events taking place in the world's most famous and tallest skyscrapers. The Elevator World Tour will commence in New York's Empire State Building, Chicago's Sears Tower, the Seattle Space Needle, Taipeo 101 in Taiwan, Paris's Eiffel Tower, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, and the Hammetschwand Life in Switzerland.

"The main goal of the event wasn’t to have a start-up do a million-dollar deal based solely on their trip up the tower, but to give entrepreneurs a chance to polish their pitches and make key connections, said Mark Relph, an executive with event sponsor Microsoft Corp."

Toronto's Mejuri, a platform that allows jewelry designers to upload original designs that are then manufactured, marketed and sold by Mejuri based on crowdsourced votes, won the contest. They took home free passes and paid travel to the International Startup Festival in Montreal in July where they'll compete against the winners from the other participating elevator cities. The Startup Festival are the organizers of the Elevator World Tour.

The entire experience is being filmed as part of a documentary called A Total Disruption by award-winning American filmmaker Ondi Timoner.

Read the full story here.

Original source: IT Business

Spank! The 50 Shades parody musical opens in LA

LA Weekly Wednesday, February 06, 2013

A slew of Second City actors are taking their spoof on E. L. James's 50 Shades of Grey to Los Angeles just in time for Valentine's Day. Spank! The 50 Shades Parody is a touring musical created by Toronto's Jim Millan, whose credits include directing the stage version of The Kids in the Hall.

"Our show takes place in a parallel world," he tells LA Weekly. "It's not a recreation of the book. It's a parody and things similar to the book. It allows us to open up the show in a fun way. Our characters have different themes and different plot points, but there are a lot of similarities that anyone would recognize."

Based on the popular British series about a young college graduate who falls for strapping wealthy man who introduces her to the world of BDSM, Millan says the material is ripe for parody.

"It's certainly easy to parody. But I don't think the author herself takes the book that seriously. She wrote it as fan fiction. What I do like about the popularity of the book is that it says that people should be brave and explore their fantasies and have fun."

The article reports that the touring show has traveled as far as Australia and has plans for a Vegas residency in the works.

Read the full story here.
?Original source: LA Weekly

"Feminist tsunami" to hit 190 countries next week

TNT Magazine Wednesday, February 06, 2013

It was two years ago when a Toronto policeman's comments about how women should stop dressing like "sluts" to avoid being raped prompted an international feminist moment spearheaded by the Toronto-founded SlutWalk. On February 14, a global campaign called One Billion Rising will further the message by simultaneously engaging 190 countries around the world in a series of loud, energetic events that encourage women to "rise and dance."

More than 13,000 organizations will be taking part in the movement that demands the end of violence against women by participating in organized and spontaneous events such as a series of flash mobs, including right here in Toronto.

The article writes, "Campaigners in Mogadishu, Somalia, are planning its first ever flash mob, New Zealanders will be doing the conga in Wanganui, while Aboriginal women in Australia will be taking over a stadium in Queensland."

Vagina Monologues writer Eve Ensler founded the movement last year following in the heels of the SlutWalk movement. The date coincides with the 15th anniversary of V-Day, a global movement for women’s rights also started by Ensler to raise awareness about the impact of violence against women.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime,” Ensler is quoted as telling the Guardian in the article. “It is something that has gone across class, social group and religion. It’s like a huge feminist tsunami.”

The event will be documented globally under the Twitter hashtag #1billionrising.

?Read the full story here.

Original source: TNT Magazine

Distillery District Segway Spins get some East Coast love

Cape Breton Post Wednesday, February 06, 2013

The Distillery District and its famous Segway tours and spins received the East Coast spotlight earlier this week when the Cape Breton Post ran a piece about the neighbourhood's unique tourist attraction.

"It's a great chance for people to come down, learn about the history of the area as well as learn what's here today," Jason Rizzuti, guide and manager of Segway Ontario, operates of the Segway and operating tours in the Distillery District, says in the article.

"The actual riding of the Segway is a great experience for a lot of the people who may have not tried it before or who want to explore the Distillery in a different way."

The article talks about the Distillery's heritage, exploring the rich tapestry of the landscape.

"As the Segways rove the narrow lanes, the relationship between old and new is constantly highlighted in subtle ways. Modern art sculptures compete for attention alongside relics preserved from the site's days as a distiller. New merchandise is framed in old store-front windows and smartly attired office employees emerge from weather-beaten doorways where you'd half expect to see the faces of 19th-century factory workers instead."

The Segway tours are currently on hold due to construction, but 30-minute guided Segway spins continue to operate throughout the winter except for on Mondays.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Cape Breton Post