Motorola Working On Digital Tattoos and Pills

 

Heard of Our Man Flint? Well Read This

Motorola is working on  wearable, tattoo-embedded, and even swallowable gadgets in the pipeline. Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan – former DARPA chief showed up at D11 sporting an electronic tattoo that could be worn on the skin for a week at a time, and used to cut through the numerous authentication processes we go through every day. The company is looking at improving on the password by using electronic tattoos, swallowable pills and other forms of authentication. 

The digital pill contains a “switch” and an “inside-out potato battery”which creates electricity from the chemical processes in the body when swallowed. The result is the switch toggling on and off, and creating an 18-bit ECG-like signal.

The entire body becomes an authentication token

Cambridge, MA, based mc10 calls the tattoo “epidermal electronics” Instead of  relying on the user carrying a device, or remembering to strap one on each morning, the technology is temporarily bonded to their skin.

That bond has another advantage, since the responses of the wearer’s skin can also be used to collect health data. The tattoo is made up of various sensors and gages, such as for tracking strain in multiple directions (how the user is flexing), EEG and EMG (electrical impulses in the skeletal structure or nerves), ECG (heart activity), and temperature, as well as light and other factors. In total, it’s a mini-lab for your arm, the side of your head, or anywhere else on the body.

 

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Honda’s New Walking Device/Japan

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The Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has begun leasing up to a total of 100 units* of the Walking Assist Device to hospitals in Japan  providing rehabilitation training / physical therapy in the area of walking, to monitor its use and verify the practicality of the device. The Walking Assist Device adopts cooperative control technology that was developed based on Honda’s cumulative study of human walking. The control computer activates motors based on information obtained from hip angle sensors while walking to improve the symmetry of the timing of each leg lifting from the ground and extending forward, and to promote a longer stride for an easier walk.

Department of Transportation and Self Driving Vehicles

Automakers from Silicon Valley, to Detroit to Germany are designing driverless cars.  On Thursday, the Department of Transportation made its first formal policy statement on autonomous vehicles.  It said that driverless cars should not yet be allowed, except for testing. It said, however, that semiautonomous features, such as cars that keep themselves centered in lanes and adjust their speed based on the location of the car ahead, could save lives.

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was issuing recommendations for driverless cars as a result of  companies like Google are developing automated technologies for vehicles and several states are beginning to approve their use. NHTSA stated in its policy that it does not believe driverless cars are ready for widespread use, but  “encourage” further testing of the newest technologies by providing guidance to states.

“While the agency does not believe that self-driving vehicles are currently ready to be driven on public roads for purposes other than testing, the agency would like to emphasize that it is encouraged by innovations in automated driving and their potential to transform our roadways.” NHTSA’s policy divides vehicle technologies into four categories: Function-specific Automation (Level 1), Combined Function Automation (Level 2), Limited Self-Driving Automation (Level 3); Full Self-Driving Automation (Level 4).

NHTSA said driverless cars would fall into levels three and four. Google’s prototype, which was featured in a popular YouTube video, would be a level three automated vehicle.

Students To Fight Bullying With Technology

A leading education technology company  announced on Wednesday, it would give schools a free and confidential way for students to tell school officials via text that they are being bullied or are witnessing bullying. Blackboard’s TipTxt program could change the school climate — or reveal just how pervasive student-on-student harassment has become.

Blackboard, will offer the service for free starting immediately. Texts sent through the confidential program will be routed to school officials, who then will determine how to investigate. The company has tested the system in a several schools. Official declined to predict how many schools would embrace the system or how much it would cost the company. But given the company’s reach — 31,000 school districts already use Blackboard products to allow administrators to keep track of student records — it could be an easy sell.

The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics reported 29 percent of students ages 12 to 18 reported being bullied at school or online. The department’s statistical arm included in its definition of bullying name calling, rumors, physical harm or exclusion from activities.

Blackboard says students will be able to text a number posted in school hallways or in handbooks with details of an incident. Example- a student could text that he is seeing someone knock books from another student’s hands in the hallway or that someone is walking down the hall crying.

The system would send an automated reply to the student texter that someone is looking into it and then alert a designated school official who monitors the text feeds.If the school official needs more information, he or she can text back to the student.

Potential For Abuse-School and company officials alike said they would have to weigh what is credible and what is bogus on a case-by-case basis. They do not want bully-reporting systems to become a tool to bully students.

 

 

Facebook’s Verified Pages

Facebook will assist people finding the authentic accounts of celebrities and other high-profile people and businesses. Verified accounts will have a blue checkmark next to their names on the Timeline, in search results, and across Facebook.

Facebook will extend verified accounts to prominent public figures  including celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands, and businesses that have large audiences.

Like Twitter, Facebook will proactively verify authentic Pages and profiles, and users cannot request to be verified. Users can report fake accounts, however.

Twitter rolled out verified accounts in June 2012.

Waterhole Attacks- The hacker’s Latest Stealth Weapon

 

In waterhole attacks,  a website is poisoned  that is frequented by you and/or your company with the express goal of compromising your environment. Either the hacker maliciously modifies the website code itself so that malware is sprung on the user or some desired object on the website is poisoned. For example, hackers may maliciously modify a trusted applet, and when downloaded by visitors, it opens a backdoor or installs other malware. Waterholes have already compromised high-profile companies, including Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple. These sorts of attacks are a tailored to the victim, down to the computer platform. Assuming you’re safe because your computer platform isn’t attacked as commonly as others will just get you into a false sense of security.

Waterhole exploits can crop up on popular websites or even on poisoned Wi-Fi hotspots located near your company. What ca you do?

Begin by making your users — especially those with access to critical infrastructure and data — aware of waterhole attacks. They are the prime targets. Just as we had to make people aware that their favorite website might serve up fake antivirus software, so too must we now warn them about waterhole attacks.

Scientist Say Theres A Decline In Biodiversity

Scientists repeatedly warned about the rapid extinction of the world’s species; however, the head of a new global organisation says even domesticated plants and animals were facing a decline in biodiversity –

Zakri Abdul Hamid chair of the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services says preserving the neglected animal breeds and plants was necessary as they could have genes resistant to future diseases or to shifts in the climate to warmer temperatures, more droughts or downpours.

Zakri told a conference of 450 experts in Trondheim, central Norway, that the loss of biodiversity was happening so fast and everywhere, even among farm animals. Many traditional breeds of cows, sheep or goats have become unpopular, due to their lower yields of meat or milk. He added, globalisation also meant that people’s food preferences narrowed down to fewer plants.

There were 30,000 edible plants but just 30 crops accounted for 95 per cent of the energy in human food that was dominated by rice, wheat, maize, millet and sorghum. Zakri says  a large genetic pool will enable organisms to withstand and adapt to new conditions”, adding, it would help to ensure food for a global population set to reach 9 billion by 2050 from 7 billion now.

3D printed Fashions

Smart Fashions/Wearable Technology

 

A device called the Kickbee that notifies father when his unborn baby kicks inside the womb. The Kickbee is a stretchable band with attached sensors, and is worn by a pregnant mother over her stomach

A textile based technology platform that monitors vital health signs such as ECG, heart rate, EMG, respiration, tidal flow and skin temperature. When worn, this technology continuously monitors a person’s vital signs throughout their daily lives on a 24/7 basis.

 

Apple Computer Sell For Over Half A Million

History of Baths

 

 

Roman Public Bath/Thermae

 

Twelve facts about the Bath House:-

There were hot, warm and cold baths

Water was heated by a boiler over a fire

The hot room was called the caldarium

The cold room was called the frigidarium

Men and women used separate bath houses

The floor might be covered with a mosaic

You had to pay to use the baths

You could buy refreshments at the baths

People did weight lifting at the baths

Public slaves could give you a massage

There was no soap so people used oil instead

Sticks called strigils were used to scrape dirt off the body

 

Ancient Greek Bath tub

 

Cyberwear and Privacy

It seems that  almost everything will be recorded in public in the near future with wearable tech, whether you like it or not. Coming soon – wearable computers (with cameras) that could be as common as Facebook accounts.  Devices like Glass could well change society immensely over the next next few years.  The wearable camera is set  to launch in the next few weeks, it will snap a photograph every thirty seconds throughout the day. 

Movie Black Mirror imagines a future in which everything everyone sees and hears is recorded via a body implant. Individuals can watch replays of any point in their lives, and even share those videos with others. It causes problems for the couple followed in the episode when there’s evidence of infidelity.

Worry Over Killer Robots

 

Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on executions, says that unmanned robotic weapons systems with varying degrees of autonomy and deadliness were being tested or used by the United States, Britain and Israel without debate on moraI and legal issues.  Heyns presented a 22-page report on “lethal autonomous robotics”, due to be discussed at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on May 29. He warned that adding robots to arsenals would bring a new dimension as they would take targeting decisions themselves, which could “open an even larger Pandora’s box. He also questioned whether robots would be capable of complying with its requirements, including the need to distinguish between civilians and combatant

 

 

The Wearable Camera

The Internet If Things

 

Big Data and The Home

Ford Engineers are experimenting with data to help improve security in cars and prevent car theft. One of the products developed is pressure seating, where 360 degree sensors are placed in car seats to learn how drivers sit. The seat uses a system of 360 pressure sensors attached under the driver’s seat.Through their combined efforts they remember and create a “pressure map” that is then stored and can later be used for identification purposes.

2.IBM has been granted a U.S. patent for a multi-touch smart floor that can detect home intruders or call “911” when you’ve fallen down.

The multi-touch floor will be all-knowing thanks to a database of objects and blanket of sensors. The sensors will track the number, weight, shape and location of objects in a room.

3 The Never Hungry Caterpillar is an extension lead that connects to your TV and measures your energy consumption. If you’re watching TV normally, the caterpillar will breathe along peacefully. –

Data Centers and Robotics

 

 

Data centers like Google and Amazon have integrated robotics in their data environment. Amazon are using robotics to automate and control their warehouses.  Tape archives seen at Google  use robotic arms to locate and retrieve backup storage tapes. Will this technology replace data center administrators? No. However, it may force a gradual evolution within the data center world and a new learning pattern for the future engineer. A human will still need to enter in commands and provide some basic maintenance. Data center administrators will need to consider how to stay current and integrate their systems with incoming robotics platform.

1st Apple Goes For Auction

Apple’s pioneering Apple-1 computer, is up for auction in Cologne Germany.  Starting bid is $116,000 and it is  estimated that it can go from $260,000 to $400,000 or even higher. The same German auctioneer sold one of the other six working Apple 1’s for  $640,000 last November. Sotheby’s in New York sold one for $374,500 

Apple I at the Smithsonian Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Apple I On display at the Smithsonian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Federal Government and Digital Strategy

 

 The Federal Government has significantly changed its thinking about digital information – treating data as a valuable national asset that should be open and available to the public, to entrepreneurs, and others, instead of keeping it trapped in government systems. 

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mHealth Trends

 

 

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Google Chrome Voice Search Up and Running

 

You can ask Google questions with your voice and you’ll hear the answers. First must update or download version 27 of the Chrome browser for this feature to work.  Go to Settings, then  click Help to let Chrome figure out  if it needs updating. You will also need a microphone in your laptop or desktop so that Google can “hear” your searches. (You can make sure the browser sees your mic by checking under Settings, “Show Advance Settings”, click on the “Content Settings” under Privacy, and giving Chrome permission to access your microphone and camera under “Media”.)

 

Twitter Is Rolling Out A Two-Factor Authentication Security System

 

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Haute Couture /GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

 

Big Data: What Can It Do

Data being generated around the globe is growing at a phenomenal rate. So too is the number of companies attempting to make that data useful. New algorithms can predict everything from purchasing patterns to what medical treatment is most likely to succeed for a given patient. Here, a Google data center just outside Atlanta in the US.

Big Data,  can even be used to help police with a  system called predictive policing, developed in Santa Cruz, California.

A retailer using big data could increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent. Using big data in the public sector has enormous potential, too. If US healthcare were to use big data creatively and effectively to drive efficiency and quality, the sector could create more than $300 billion in value every year. big data can unlock significant value by making information transparent and usable at much higher frequency.  As organizations create and store more transactional data in digital form, they can collect more accurate and detailed performance information on everything from product inventories to sick days, and therefore expose variability and boost performance.

Congress Wants Some Answers About Google Glass

Imagine being at a crowded function , and someone approached you wearing pair of funny looking  glasses, one side of which had a thick aluminum frame. Not knowing that someone  is wearing Google glasses. This person approaching you would be able to identify you by facial recognition, and by the time he or she has walked up to you, they just done peeped your hole card, your name, your job, where you lived and how much you make? And guess what? your conversation was being recorded and that your photo, or whatever the wearer was looking at, could be posted online? What would you do? Unless you know the full capabilities of Google’s Glass project. How would you know to ask the person wearing the Google Glass headset not to record you? Chances are you wouldn’t. Worse scenario, The Google glass wearer shows up at your residence. Well some members of Congress is finding google glass kind of creepy and want some answers.  The  Bi-partisan Congressional Privacy Caucus sent a letter to Google CEO Larry Page asking questions about how Google planned to ensure that the privacy of users, and more important, non-users, was being protected. In other words the congressmen want to know what safeguards Google was putting into place to guard against the violation of privacy laws. Google has until June 14 to respond to the inquiries by the caucus. Unless they can ease the fears we can expect some regulations concerning Google Glass.

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New 100 Dollar Bill Coming Soon

Coming this fall the United States will be rolling a new $100 note that, while visually similar to the current offering, utilizes new technology (and a slight splash of color) to make it difficult for counterfeiters to replicate the bills. Among the changes are such things as a duplicating Benjamin Franklin, who has been enlarged and filled out, microprinting, and more. The 100 dollar bill will go into circulation on October 8. Benjamin Franklin is now larger and slightly raised, with more detailed eyes and with a microprinted “United States of America” in the collar. Changes has also been made to the slightly darker watermark so that it duplicates slightly when held up to the light. The gold inkwell visible in the image above has a slightly darker image of the Liberty Bell inside of it, which turns green when the bill is shifted.

Theodolites and Tauranga Police

 

 Tauranga Police are using robots called theodolites to fight crime. The Theodolites can record the location of evident and quickly generate scale plans using the computer aided design (CAD) software.

Blood Pressure Readings Compatible With iPhone

 

Mobile BP monitor  pictured  requires three AAA batteries and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Haute Couture 2014

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Children Reading More On Screen Than Print

 

Today children are reading more on computers and electronic devices than in print. However,studies reveal  those who read daily on screen are less likely to be strong readers than those who read regularly in print.

According to research from the National Literacy Trust, sponsored by Slaughter & May, 39% of children and young people read on electronic devices daily, whereas only 28% read printed materials on a daily basis. The number of children reading e-books has doubled in the last two years from 6% to 12%.

Children surveyed also showed a preference to reading on a screen: 52% said they would rather read on electronic devices; just under a third of respondents (32%), said they preferred to read in print. Of the two sexes, girls are much more likely than boys to read in print, with 68% of girls reading in print compared to 54% of boys. Tablets proved to be the device most commonly used for reading fiction; 36% of respondents who have a tablet read fiction on it, with 30% reading fiction on their computer, and 23% reading fiction on their smartphones.

 

 

Kevin Smith has a fully finished screenplay Clerks 3

 

Smith has been playing with ideas for a third and final Clerks story for over a year. Last April (2012), he announced plans to make Clerks 3 as a Broadway musical, before revealing in December that he had changed his mind and decided to make another movie. This February (2013), he said he wanted to release Clerks 3as a book before it becomes a feature film.

Released in 1994, Clerks was a  comedy about a pair of slacker shop assistants played by Jeff Anderson and Brian O’Halloran. Smith’s film is now considered a cult classic and he also wrote and directed the popular sequel, Clerks II, which came out in 2004

The Bloomberg Project

 

Bloomberg L.P. is planning to build a $710 million data center in Orangetown, N.Y., a northern suburb of New York City. The Bloomberg project is at a location owned by Russo Development Corp., a New Jersey developer that has built large data centers for the financial industry.

Japanese Perfume Co Working On Smell Phone

 

Japanese company Chaku Perfume Co. Ltd.  smell-o-vision has failed to take off on the big or small screens. Japanese Ltd. is hoping to have better luck on the even smaller screen with its Chat Perfume attachment for iPhone that allows messages or email notifications to be accompanied by a signature smell.

The device connects to an iPhone and packs an atomizer to disperse scents from the swappable scent tanks contained within. As such, the recipient will need the appropriate scent tank installed to receive the desired whiff.

As well as sending a scent along with a text message or emitting a particular smell when an email lands in your inbox, the makers tell DigInfo the Chat Perf attachment could also be used with games – releasing the smell on gunpowder when firing a weapon, for example. The company has an SDK available to developers so they can create apps that make use of the device.

Atari Breakout

 

 

Atari’s classic brick-breaker Breakout, which turned 37 in April 2013. Type the phrase “Atari Breakout” into a Google image search  or simply follow this link if you’d rather avoid the extra keystrokes. Then sit back as your screen transforms into a playable browser version of the game, with image search results representing each colored block. 

Esports Season In Shanghai

 

Eight teams from North America qualifying for the Season 3 League of Legends Championship Series more here

 

They Say These Top Games Should be Movies

Dead Space 3

Far Cry – Duncan Jones

Spec Ops: The Line – Kathryn Bigelow

Dishonored – Nicholas Winding Refn

Tomb Raider – Danny Boyle

Uncharted – Shane Black

Mass Effect – Christopher Nolan

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Mississippi Officers Receives Tech for Patrol Cars Expecting iPads

MOSS POINT -Mississippi City patrol cars are now equipped with new technology to help police officers record events as they happen and track criminal activity, thanks to $132,000 Juvenile Accountability block grant through the Department of Public Safety.It has covered the costs of equipping all of Moss Point’s police cars with dashboard cameras

The money will also buy iPads for each of the patrol cars so officers in the field can file their reports on crimes, accidents and other incidents in a timely manner before going to their next call. This Police Department is among the first in the state to put iPad technology in patrol cars. The new technology also allows officers to take and quickly send pictures of crime scenes to a central database. Police will use a new program in their iPads to share information with other law enforcement agencies.

Davis

Video Link For Police In Essex UK

 

Police officers will not always have to attend court to give evidence because of Live Link, a live video link from police stations to magistrates’ courts, allows officers to give evidence from the station rather than have to go to court and wait to be called to the witness stand.

A court clerk can dial in and connect the officer live into court when the magistrate is ready for them to give evidence, allowing officers to carry on with their work in the event of a delay.
Live Link forms part of the Criminal Justice Efficiency Programm, a national initiative aimed at modernizing and reforming the Criminal Justice System by providing a swifter and more transparent system to meet the needs of victims and witnesses.

Christchurch Police /New Zealand Receives iPhones and iPads for Duty

 

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IPhones will be issued to 700 officers and 400 iPads will be issued to frontline staff over the next two weeks as part of a national Mobility Project aimed at getting more police back on the street.

Instead of frontline officers waiting in a queue and clogging up the police radio, they will be able to check offenders’ details, including photographs and bail conditions, driver’s licences, outstanding arrest warrants, fines  allowing officers to complete and assign themselves to jobs.

Sergeant Kelvin Giddens  said by using this technology it’s expected that each police officer will save 30 minutes each shift they work which will be reinvested into preventative policing activities.

“More time will be spent in the field rather than sitting behind a desk doing paperwork.”

 

Google’s Vision

 

 

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Soon you will be able to search with just voice, on all desktops and laptops running the Chrome browser, without  the microphone button that already exists. Just utter “OK Google” and ask your question. ”

Soon, you’ll be able to just say, hands-free, “OK Google, will it be sunny in Santa Cruz this weekend?” and get a spoken answer. Then, you’ll be able to continue the conversation and just follow up with “how far is it from here?”

Fashion and Technology

Wearable Charging StationCredit: Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory/Cornell UniversityAbbey Liebman, a design student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., created a dress made with conductive cotton that can charge an iPhone via solar panel

Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory/Cornell UniversityA wearable anti-malaria mosquito net capable of storing and releasing insecticides. The prototype was created at the Textile Nanotechnology Laboratory at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory/Cornell UniversityThese two dresses, designed by Olivia Ong, were colored with nanoparticles and are capable of killing 99.9999% of bacteria. The dresses were created at the Textile Nanotechnology Lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Haute Couture 2014

 

Apple Has Waiting List For Law Officials To Unlock Phones

 

 

Apple complies with law enforcement requests, like most big tech companies, to unlock devices or supply data. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was told it would have to be placed on a waiting list along with all the other requests Apple receives. Law enforcement are performing forensic analysis on mobile devices  but iPhones and androids are hard to crack. As CNET reports.

 

 

 

 

 

Healthcare and Technology

Government incentives are the reason so many healthcare organizations and hospitals are embracing EMR technology to obtain the goals needed for meaningful use objectives. Hospitals are now installing systems capable of  of data comparison and forecasting. Clinical intelligence is not just producing a result it can interpret these results, trend them, and then provide predictions for the likelihood of the patients continued improvement or decline. This information can give an immediate feel for the patients well-being and can alert to potential critical situations before  they occur.  Other industries already rely on data mining to forecast consumer behavior for their target populations. Their technology tools are no longer incomplete, inaccurate systems of tape drives and archived data relating only to customers’ names and telephone numbers. Instead, they are large data repositories containing information relating to every facet of what a known customer does in relation to the product offered. Hospitals are now installing systems capable of this level of data comparison and forecasting.

What does this mean?

 Healthcare is gearing up to begin leveraging this same pool of information that traditional businesses use for actionable insights and decision making. The trend is nurse informaticists and  higher education offering medical informatics programs. The production of  leaner markets and tougher competition among healthcare providers and the race for better information will increase. Clinical data and business intelligence will coincide with healthcare and the business of healthcare. Prevention and intervention with immediate bedside reporting on multiple pieces of data will empower nursing with information to improve the patients’ health or prevent onset of a critical decline. This information will ultimately be the difference between who will and who will not have the ability to provide better nursing and hospital care and therefore continue to stay in the healthcare business.

 

Trends In Wearable Technology

U.S. Orders 3D Guns Removed Online

The order to remove the blueprints for 3D guns comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times.

The US State Department wrote to the gun’s designer, Defense Distributed, suggesting publishing them online may breach arms-control regulations.

Although the files have been removed from the company’s Defcad site,  wil lthis  prevent people from accessing the blueprints? They were being hosted by the Mega online service and may still reside on its servers.  Links to copies of the blueprints have been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, making them widely available. The Pirate Bay has also publicised its links to the files via social news site Reddit suggesting many more people will get hold of the blueprints