An important New York Times investigation from today reporting that the NSA "is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans’ e-mail and text communications into and out of the country," coupled with leaked documents published by the Guardian, seriously calls into question the accuracy of crucial statements made by government officials about NSA surveillance.
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Today, we take for granted the ability to send photos halfway around the world in an instant. (Which is probably why that popular smartphone photograph service is called Instant-Gram™.) But a century ago, getting a photograph across an ocean was a much more involved process than simply snapping a mirror selfie and publishing it to 3,000 of your closest friends.
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Creating a mobile ad hoc network is tricky when rounding people up for a game or two, let alone when linking thousands of soldiers whose lives are at stake. DARPA has had enough trouble getting such large-scale networks off the ground that it just put out an official request for solutions. The agency wants ad hoc technology that grows both elegantly and automatically, and it’s prepared to ditch legacies like internet-based networking to get there — in fact, it would rather not rely on IP technology when 20 years of research in that area hasn’t panned out. Anyone sitting on a brilliant solution has until May 24th to submit an abstract for consideration ahead of an August 7th symposium. We hope at least a few people answer the call, if just for the possibilities that breakthroughs spill over to civilian life — DARPA helped build the networking we’re using right now, after all.
Filed under: Networking, Alt
Via: DARPA
Source: Federal Business Opportunities
Next time you see animals sniffing in each other’s presence, there might be more happening than you expect. New research suggests that a humble intake of breath actually allows rats to communicate with each other. More »
Telepathy isn’t real. You can’t read minds with nothing but the tools you were born with. But add a little bit of wiring and that starts to change. Scientists have now managed to get two lab rats to think in-sync with just a little augmentation. More »
Militaries want soldiers to carry an increasing amount of tech on to the battlefield, but that isn’t necessarily convenient — or comfortable. MIT and the US Army have started early work on uniforms with fiberoptic sensors that would alleviate much of that burden. By weaving in microfibers cut from a mix of specialized, fluidized materials, the partnership can build data links that cover the entire body without breaking or adding significant bulk. They could serve as basic elements of a communication system, but MIT has broader ambitions: the sensors could track wounds through heat signatures, and just might prevent friendly fire incidents by sending a don’t-shoot signal when targeted with a laser sight. The fibers still have to get much thinner before the Army can offer smart uniforms as standard issue, but the wearable tech may keep soldiers nimble and, just possibly, save a few lives.
Filed under: Wearables
Via: Wired
Source: MIT
There are already a couple of ways by which mobile devices can communicate with computers without using wires, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the newer Near Field Communication technology or NFC. But Fujitsu Laboratories has come up with a way for a mobile device to interact with a computer, using its camera to “look” at the computer’s display.
To pull off the trick, Fujitsu Labs’ technology superimposes communications data on a computer screen in the form of microscopic blobs of light. The data can include IP addresses, SSID and anything else that can be used to identify the computer within the network. Complementary software on a mobile device will then enable it to read those microscopic blobs of light using its camera.
Once the two devices are connected, the same technology can also be used to monitor what file is being displayed on the computer screen at the moment and – should the mobile device user request it – automatically send it to the mobile device. As you’ll see on Fujitsu’s demo video, the technology can also be used to easily transfer files the other way, from a mobile device to a PC.
It sounds like a very useful technology, but I can’t help but imagine just how silly future classes and business meetings will look like if they use this tech.
[Fujitsu Labs via Engadget]
Kaspersky Labs’ namesake Eugene Kaspersky is worried that widely distributed and potentially state-sponsored malware like Flame and Stuxnet pose dire threats to often lightly protected infrastructure like communication and power plants — whatever your nationality, it’s clearly bad for the civilian population of a given country to suffer even collateral damage from cyberattacks. To minimize future chaos and literally keep the trains running, Kaspersky and his company are expanding their ambitions beyond mere antivirus software to build their own, extra-secure operating system just for large-scale industry. The platform depends on a custom, minimalist core that refuses to run any software that isn’t baked in and has no code outside of its main purposes: there’ll be no water supply shutdowns after the night watch plays Solitaire from an infected drive. Any information shared from one of these systems should be completely trustworthy, Kaspersky says. He doesn’t have details as to when the OS will reach behind-the-scenes hardware, but he stresses that this is definitely not an open-source project: some parts of the OS will always remain confidential to keep ne’er-do-well terrorists (and governments) from undermining the technology we often take for granted.
Filed under: Software
Kaspersky Labs preps its own OS to guard vital industry against cyberwarfare originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Eugene Kaspersky, Securelist | Email this | Comments
Toyota has developed the Partner Robot, to provide everyday assistance for people with disabilities. This robot has a compact, cylindrical body, so it can turn round in small spaces, as well as folding arms, which can do tasks such as fetching objects and opening curtains.
The robot is controlled easily, by using the touch interface on a smartphone or speech recognition. It can also be controlled remotely by a caregiver, while communicating with the user.
“For robots to operate in …
Masers, or microwave lasers, have rarely been as viable as their regular counterparts; they need temperatures near absolute zero, exotic vacuum chambers or strong magnets just to run at all, which safely rules out carrying a maser as a pocket pointer. The National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London might put that gap in practicality to bed after developing a maser that can run at room temperatures. Instead of using ruby to boost the microwave strength, the scientists rely on a less pronounceable p-terphenyl crystal treated with pentacene that can handle ordinary amounts of heat. There’s still much work left in refining the technology: it has yet to stay active for sustained periods, only works in a narrow bandwidth and chews through an ample amount of power. Once it’s given the appropriate polish, however, the extra sensitivity of the improved maser could be a boon for medical scanning, bomb disposal or even future space communication that could punch through the atmosphere.
Filed under: Science
NPL, Imperial College create room-temperature maser, promise more sensitive beams originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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