Showing posts with label could. Show all posts
Showing posts with label could. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
This Device Could Provide a Third of Americas Power BW
This Device Could Provide a Third of Americas Power BW
The Triton is designed to harvest wave energy without using moving parts that can break down in the brutal ocean.
Tapping into the Oceans Energy
There are 332,519,000 cubic miles of water on the planet. Thats 352,670,000,000,000,000,000 gallons just sloshing around out there.
Anyone whos ridden or been tossed by a wave has a sense of the kinetic energy contained in our perpetually moving oceans. If we could harness it, it could provide a clean, renewable source of energy. But efforts to turn our oceans into power generators?often in the form of "aqua-mills," windmill technology adapted to water?have foundered on the complexity of their many moving parts in the corrosive and remote environs of the sea.
A new approach, developed by a company called Oscilla Power, applies all that kinetic energy to a solid piece of metal instead of using it to turn the blades of an impeller. That creates an alternating magnetic polarity in the metal that can be converted into electrical current.
Oscillas technology, which is nearly solid-state, may prove far more durable than any other ocean-power project, increasing the chance to draw power from our oceans cleanly, meaningfully, and endlessly.
Available link for download
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Who Needs Apple When the FBI Could Hack Terrorist iPhone Itself BusinessWeek
Who Needs Apple When the FBI Could Hack Terrorist iPhone Itself BusinessWeek
- Experts say Feds could access data without going to court
- A kiosk in a Chinese mall holds a potential solution
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has put the onus on Apple Inc. to break into the iPhone 5c carried by San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. In fact, the feds almost certainly could do it themselves.
Security experts say there are many ways the FBI could hack the iPhone now at the center of a standoff between Apple and the U.S. government. They argue that doing so would be faster than waiting for the courts to decide whether Apple should be forced to create software that would let investigators try multiple passcodes without erasing the device. No one is saying a government hack would be easy, but the experts interviewed for this story have concluded the Feds aren?t even trying because they?d rather win a legal precedent that gives agents the power to access phone data with a warrant.
Jonathan Zdziarski, a cybersecurity researcher who consults with law enforcement, says the FBI could learn something from back-alley techies in China who break into iPhones all the time. He describes a kiosk in a Shenzhen mall that charges $60 to upgrade a 16-gigabyte phone to 128 gigabytes. Using a PC, tweezers and screwdrivers, he says, the kiosk operator copies the contents of the iPhone onto a chip with more capacity then swaps it in.
Zdziarski says the FBI could use a similar workaround: copy the phone?s contents onto a chip so there?s a backup file when password attempts erase the device. The trick is figuring out a way of doing this hundreds of times without destroying the chip. He says the problem could be solved with research and that typically investigators can crack a passcode with fewer that 200 attempts because people usually choose easy ones.
That?s just one of multiple ways the FBI could extract data by messing with iPhone hardware, Zdziarski says. Other potential solutions include finding and exploiting cracks in the software. All systems contain flaws and they continue to be found every month in Apple?s software, according to Jason Syversen, a former manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and now chief executive officer of cyber security firm Siege Technologies. In fact, Apple publicly lists the security vulnerabilities that researchers have found. There?s no shortage of cyber experts within the FBI, contractors that work on-site, or third parties and academic organizations that law enforcement could enlist to try and use those cracks to extract the data, Syversen says.
Some experts have argued that the FBI should ask the National Security Agency for help. They note that the NSA is the best-funded spy agency on Earth, employs legions of hackers and almost certainly can break into secure computer systems. But in testimony before Congress on Tuesday, Worcester Polytechnic Institute cybersecurity professor Susan Landau said the NSA may be reluctant to help the FBI, since the secretive agency?s hacking abilities could become public should it be hauled into court.
In written testimony for the congressional hearing, Landau said the FBI needs to build its own investigative center employing agents with deep technical understanding so surveillance can keep up with advances at Apple and other tech companies. The cost to maintain this would be in the hundreds of millions, but a worthy investment and probably the only long-term solution, she wrote.
?The FBI must learn to investigate smarter; you, Congress, can provide it with the resources and guidance to help it do so,? Landau wrote in her testimony. ?Bring FBI investigative capabilities into the twenty-first century.?
In the meantime, the FBI will continue to use the courts to force Apple to build back doors into its devices -- which Apple says would risk exposing customers? private information to hackers and authoritarian regimes. FBI Director James Comey said at the congressional hearing that ?we have engaged all parts of the U.S. government to see, does anybody have a way, short of asking Apple, to do it, with a 5C running iOS9, and we do not.?
Jay Edelson, a class-action lawyer at Edelson PC that specializes in suing technology companies (going after tech giants including Apple and Google), is on Silicon Valley?s side this time. He says the FBI chose this case to score political points -- not because hacking iPhones is too hard.
?The government?s take is even if we have experts in the government, we don?t have an obligation to enlist their help,? Edelson says. ?They?re just trying to establish precedent.
They think they have a decent argument where they can force companies to change their business systems to help them.?
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Friday, January 6, 2017
WiFi distance detector could shut out router invaders
WiFi distance detector could shut out router invaders
Researchers from MIT have figured out how to detect the distance between WiFi users and a single router, a feat that could make drones safer and public internet more secure. They did it by measuring the "time of flight" of WiFi signals between the transmitter and receiver, and multiplying by the speed of light to calculate distance. That concept isnt new, but MITs CSAIL team, which has already looked through walls using WiFi, managed to build a working prototype.
During tests, the device calculated time-of-flight down to 0.5 nanoseconds, making it 20 times more accurate than other systems. In a four-room apartment, researchers picked out a users correct room location 94 percent of the time, and figured out if someone was using WiFi inside a cafe with 97 percent accuracy. They also tested it on a drone, keeping it a set distance away from the operator with a 2-inch margin of error.
Previous attempts at WiFi user calculation required multiple routers for triangulation, but MITs system works with a single access point. Theres no word on plans to commercialize the product, but the fact that the CSAIL team made a working prototype is always a promising sign. If the tech was incorporated into a router, it could shut out snoopers or internet thieves in many circumstances, making public and private WiFi much less of asecurity crapshoot.
Available link for download
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Tech Giants Say Verizonƒ??s New Cellular Tech Could Wreck Wi Fi BusinessWeek
Tech Giants Say Verizonƒ??s New Cellular Tech Could Wreck Wi Fi BusinessWeek
Google, Microsoft, and Comcast are fighting a Verizon-led push into unlicensed spectrum.
U.S. wireless carriers send your e-mails and Instagram likes across specific slices of the electromagnetic spectrum: the ones they?re licensing from the government for billions of dollars. But there?s an unlicensed range, and Verizon is leading carriers in a push to equip phones with chips that will let them make use of these free airwaves. The company says doing so will help clear cellular congestion and keep the Internet working at top speed as data use climbs ever higher. ?Unlicensed spectrum is going to be an important part of providing a better mobile broadband experience for our customers,? says David Young, Verizon?s vice president for public policy.
That sounds great, say Google, Microsoft, Comcast, and others, except for one thing. The proposed system, called LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum or LTE-U, which relies on a combination of new, small cell towers and home wireless routers, risks disrupting the existing Wi-Fi access most people enjoy. For several months, the three companies have been among a group lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to delay LTE-U?s adoption pending further tests. All three declined to comment for this story, referring instead to an Oct. 23 FCC filing they joined that claims LTE-U ?has avoided the long-proven standards-setting process and would substantially degrade consumer Wi-Fi service across the country.?
Both sides say they have research backing their assertions about LTE-U; it?s either effective and foolproof or an impending disaster, depending. Both camps are also criticizing the other?s methodology and assumptions, and it?s tough to find an expert who doesn?t have a stake in this argument. So far, the FCC says it intends to let the companies work things out among themselves, though agency spokesman Neil Grace says his bosses are ?closely monitoring? the debate.
In decades past, unlicensed airwaves were mostly known for their use by garage door openers, cordless phones, and the occasional baby monitor. Now they?re full of traffic?Wi-Fi networks that connect smartphones, laptops, set-top boxes, game consoles, and a whole host of smart devices to the Internet. Those gadgets and the traffic they carry, an essential part of how Google, Microsoft, and Comcast make money, pump about $222 billion into the U.S. economy every year, estimates industry lobbyist WiFiForward.
?Folks, you?ve got to come together and resolve this in a broad-based standard.? ?FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
Verizon and other wireless carriers run central scheduling software that tells each phone when to transmit on a particular bandwidth, like air traffic control for phone signals. Wi-Fi networks typically rely more on a kind of listen-before-talking system, with each device checking a desired slice of spectrum to make sure it?s available.
?Wi-Fi has this inherent politeness,? says Rob Alderfer, vice president for technology policy at researcher CableLabs, which is funded by cable companies. LTE-U ?can essentially take over,? he says, crowding out Wi-Fi signals. Cable industry lobbyist Wi-Fi Alliance says LTE-U should undergo a lengthy approval process to make sure it won?t disturb existing networks.
Verizon and other carriers say delay is pointless?as does Qualcomm, which makes the chips that enable LTE-U. ?We have a capability that we?ve proven can coexist, and we?re ready to go with it,? says Matt Grob, Qualcomm?s chief technology officer. ?We don?t want to wait. Our partners, they don?t want to wait.?
Paul Nikolich, who heads the Wi-Fi committee for the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, a standards-setting body, says Qualcomm and the carriers should submit their evidence to his committee for review. That?s the usual process for mass adoption of new Wi-Fi technologies, which often takes a year or longer. ?The people who have looked at it very carefully are very concerned they will gobble up more than their fair share of spectrum,? says Nikolich, a consultant and investor in Essex Fells, N.J.
LTE-U may also act as a disincentive for companies experimenting with Wi-Fi phone calls, including Comcast, and those dabbling in fiber networks, like Google. Cisco Systems is arguing both sides, writing in a June filing to the FCC that regulator interference can lead to unnecessary delays but that companies developing technologies rarely prioritize peaceful coexistence with rival systems.
?Wi-Fi is acting as a counter to the consolidation we see in mobile networks,? says Dean Bubley, founder and head of consulting firm Disruptive Analysis. Regulators should make sure to keep that counterweight in place, he says, especially since carriers haven?t demonstrated serious trouble with cell capacity. ?There is a distinct risk of tragedy of the commons here,? he says.
At the end of October, a group of chief technology officers and executives from companies including Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, as well as Google, Microsoft, and Comcast, met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to show him reports they say prove LTE-U would harm Wi-Fi networks. The agency ultimately may have to make the call, says Paul Gallant, an analyst for investment bank Guggenheim Securities. Google and Comcast are planning to offer data-hungry services that rely on Wi-Fi, and they want the FCC to make sure they?re protected from interference, he says.
?Folks, you?ve got to come together and resolve this in a broad-based standard,? FCC Chairman Wheeler said at a news conference on Nov. 19 in Washington. Says Grace, the agency spokesman: ?If necessary, we will step in.?
Available link for download
Thursday, October 13, 2016
This Handheld Laser Could Replace the Vegetable Squeeze Test BW
This Handheld Laser Could Replace the Vegetable Squeeze Test BW
Hello World visits Israel to try out SCiO, a pocket molecular sensor that can reveal the calorie count of a steak?or spot counterfeit drugs.
We?ve all squeezed a fruit to see if it?s ripe. What if you could gauge its exact calorie count and sugar and fat content while you were at it?
A startup in Israel called Consumer Physics has developed a keychain-size device called the SCiO that can shoot a beam of light at, say, an avocado and instantly tell you just that.
Above, Hello World host Ashlee Vance takes the SCiO for a spin in a Tel Aviv market, joined by Consumer Physics?s chief executive officer, Dror Sharon. They zap cheese, meat, and even a dog to figure out what makes them tick. Beyond analyzing food, the SCiO can spot watered-down fuel at the pump and even tell counterfeit drugs from real ones.
The device plays to Israel?s strength in computer chips. Consumer Physics has taken a big, boxy piece of scientific equipment known as a spectrometer and shrunk it down to a chip the size of a coin. By coupling the chip with a near-infrared light, the SCiO can stir up the molecules in an object and tell a story about its makeup. It has already caught the public?s attention through one of the biggest Kickstarter campaigns in Israel?s history, and Sharon hopes the technology will soon be small enough to fit in everyone?s cell phone.
Available link for download
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