Computerized sleuths for the aching back: a new business based on diagnosis and treatment of costly ailments

Article Abstract:

Work-related injuries cost an estimated $50 billion in lost productivity and worker compensation payments in 1990, and several companies are responding to this situation, developing computerized machinery that can help diagnose injuries or help rehabilitate injured workers. One use for such machines, which has become more important consequent to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, is the testing of workers in job-specific ways, which avoids the problem of discrimination against persons who have handicaps that do not relate to jobs for which they are applying. Work Recovery Inc, Tucson, AZ, makes a diagnostic system called Ergos, which measures and evaluates various body movements and functions. Isotechnologies Inc, Hillsborough, NC, makes the B-200, a machine that focuses on lower-back problems. Machines such as these can more than assess legitimate injuries: such machines can also be used to expose malingerers.

Electromedical equipment, Health aspects, Product information, Occupational health and safety, Occupational safety and health, Diagnosis, Human resource management, Employment, Computer-aided medical diagnosis, Computer aided medical diagnosis, Backache, Back pain, Physically disabled persons, Personnel Management, Medical Diagnosis, Physically Handicapped, Work Recovery Inc., Isotechnologies Inc., WORK

---

Special-effects wizards are putting in the overtime

Article Abstract:

Commercial advertising companies that can create computer-generated animations and special effects are doing well. 'Were swamped,' says Carl Rosendahl, president at Pacific Data Images Inc, Sunnyvale, CA. According to Tom Porter, director of effects animation at Pixar, Richmond, CA, computer animation companies face a constant challenging demand for new material and more visual complexity. Audiences are more sophisticated than they were: moving pictures such as 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' have made people more aware of what computers can do. And the technology continues to advance, bringing costs down, so that making a commercial that might have cost $500,000 a few years ago costs less than half that amount now, and the quality of the commercial is better. For some companies, investment in expensive computer equipment that quickly becomes obsolete creates problems that involve cost control.

Advertising, Methods, Television advertising, Technology application, Commercial art, Computer graphics, Computer animation, Animation software, Special effects (Performing arts), column, Simulation, Advertising (Industry)

---

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Lost in space: a mission to Mars turns into a costly fiasco. Brezhnev's buddy visits Vienna
• Abstracts: A new system for storing mountains of data. Doing business screen to screen: video conference calls shorten the distance between two points
• Abstracts: Consortium set up for new TV; 2 rival electronics companies and NBC to join research. U.S. agency accused of favoring I.B.M
• Abstracts: Doing science on the network: a long way from Gutenberg. Proliferation of sophisticated robots opens a new age of ocean exploration
• Abstracts: Diller Acquires QVC Stake: cites likely growth of interactive TV. US West in Budapest phone deal

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.