Invest in a scanner-printer combo to convert paper documents into electronic data.

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The whole process, including the time to convert the original medical images to printable 3-D data, usually takes a few days.

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But the application of small data in big ways also holds the ability to convert numbers into real profits.

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With the fervor of a convert, he's urging utilities across the country to build data-delivery systems on their power grids.

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Those two controlled spectrum for satellite data that Ergen subsequently convinced the FCC to allow him to convert for terrestrial use.

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As most doctors don't know how to use those printers, hospitals need engineers to operate the printers and help convert images from computed tomography and other medical equipment to 3-D data that can be printed out.

WSJ: Next to Use 3-D Printing: Your Surgeon

Some of the data it gathered about the abundance of phytoplankton - plant-like organisms that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and provide food for other sea life - could already be monitored by satellite.

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Amin Karami, an aerospace engineering research fellow, presented data at the American Heart Association annual conference in November showing an experimental energy harvester can convert the energy from the beating of a heart into enough usable electrical energy to, in theory, operate a pacemaker.

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