In this episode, we also examine the the biometric data collected in Iraq. Since 2003, the US military has been recording digital fingerprints and iris scans of millions of Iraqis. Some have been inmates and detainees. But ordinary civilians have been scanned as well. For example, any Iraqi working on a US base, or for the US military, had to have their biometric data taken as well. Now that US combat troops are leaving the country, that data will be handed over to Iraqi authorities. Not everyone thinks that’s a great idea. Some Iraqis think the information might be used against them.

We’ve also got two great stories about smartphones that have been modded for medical purposes. First, the iStethoscope app for the iPhone. Yep, it turns your iPhone into a heart-beat checker. Then, The World’s anchor Marco Werman heads down the MIT Media Lab for an eye test. Of course, this eye test is done via, you guessed it, a smart phone. Check out the video:

And we end the podcast with big birthday wishes for video game old-timer Mario, who turned 25 recently. His mustache is still as bushy as ever, no?

Also, we’d love it if you could help us with a survey on our science and technology coverage here on The World.

(Photo: PMDrive1061)

This week’s podcast comes to you not from The World newsroom in Boston, but the one in London. And since I’m here, let’s load up the show with some tech goodies from this side of the Big Pond. We lead with a podcast exclusive: an interview with bioinformatician David Aanensen, who works in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College in London. He and his team have created an app for the Google Android operating system called EpiCollect. The idea is elegantly simple: many scientists are out in the field gathering information on different infectious disease organisms worldwide. Much of that data ends up in databases at Imperial College. Geography is often of significance in comparing disease organisms across the planet. So, why not devise an open source smartphone app that allows the user in the field to enter relevent information directly into the phone, where it is automatically geo-tagged by the phone’s on-board GPS? Then, when there is a strong mobile data signal, the information on phone will synch directly back to the main database back in the lab. Indeed, why not?

We’ve also got an in-depth look at the present and future of the electric car. You can read more about the latest in electric car technology here and here. And here and here.

And we end with an interesting little cross-atlantic look at how politicians are using Twitter. You can check out Jennifer Golbeck’s research here.

We happen to be on Twitter ourselves, along with Facebook and FriendFeed.

This week’s musical guest: The 5th Dimension with “Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon.”

OK, so MIT’s Pranav Mistry doesn’t exactly inspire the same kind of fear that Arnie’s Terminator (or, for that matter, actor Christian Bale on the set of the new Terminator movie) does. Then again, Mistry’s not trying to. Mistry works in something called the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab. The group as a whole is working on a set of amazing projects that are trying to bridge the current gaps that they feel exist between the real and virtual worlds. Now, if you’re one of those people who has watched one too many Terminator films and doesn’t want to see the real and virtual worlds melded any further, then by all means do not go the Fluid Interfaces Group website. If, however, you like the idea of a wearable interface system that allows you to check your email against an airport wall, then Pranav and crew have just the thing. It’s called SixthSense, an “always-on” wearable interface that is designed to determine who and what you’re interacting with, and then proactively go out, scour the web, and find relevant information for you. That information…wait for it…is then displayed on any nearby surface via a tiny projector worn around the neck. I recently had the good fortune to sit down with Pranav and Pattie Maes, head of the Fluid Interfaces Group, and talk about SixthSense. The result was a BBC Online feature article. But, as always, there’s lots of good tape (digital files really…) left over, and that’s the highlight of Technology Podcast 243.

A few more points of interest: first, the hardware used for the current SixthSense prototype is all off-the-shelf stuff. Cost? About $350. Of course, all the hard work goes into creating the applications for it. The software has to figure out who or what you’re looking at, how you’re interacting with that who or what, and then find what it thinks will be truly useful and relevant information on-line. Ah, and about being “online.” The SixthSense software runs a smartphone you carry in your pocket. That smartphone also provides the Internet connection, either via 3G or wi-fi.

Over time, the SixthSense creators hope that there can be something like an Apple iPhone “app” store, that their device will be a platform upon which others can build useful applications. That might be a few years away, but Pranav Mistry does think there are some immediate uses for SixthSense. He told me that the device might, for example, be able to translate the gestures of sign language, and “speak it” so that people who can and can’t sign might communicate.

And this will not come a shock: Mistry also sees potential gaming applications…kind of like a Wii on steroids, I reckon. While you chew on all that, check out the video demo:

Also in this week’s ‘cast, we talk EU and Intel, and hear about how Persian bloggers view the release of Roxana Saberi.

Oh, and Google Oceans. Cool…