A little over thirty years ago, when he was in his mid-forties, my friend David Howorth lost all hearing in his left ear, a calamity known as single-sided deafness. "It happened literally overnight," he said. "My doctor told me, 'We really don't understand why.' " At the time, he was working as a litigator in the Portland, Oregon, office of a large law firm. His hearing loss had no impact on his job--"In a courtroom, you can get along fine with one ear"--but other parts of his life were upended. The brain pinpoints sound sources in part by analyzing minute differences between left-ear and right-ear arrival times, the same process that helps bats and owls find prey they can't see.

It's easy for a small business to get lost in the center of the universe. In the big apple, small business is big business – but the competition is as fierce as the fashion. According to New York's Small Business Development Center, small businesses make up 99 percent of all New York businesses. Getting neighbors to like you, and come back often, is the lifeblood of small retailers everywhere, but New Yorkers are an especially tough crowd. We found one NYC retailer looking to grow exponentially over the next two years – turning to technology to literally lead the way.