'Flying Humvee' robot ships supplies to military troops

It seems the military agenda is moving further and further towards the driverless vehicle future. Here's some latest news:

Frontline Aerospace has built a prototype of a driverless aircraft designed to shuttle hundreds of pounds of supplies to soldiers in war zones. The robotic "flying Humvee" vehicle can fly 600 to 1,000 miles, carrying a full cargo of 400 pounds...

...The flying robot is quieter than a helicopter because its fans, or propellers, are enclosed. Wood also noted that its cruising height is 15,000 feet. Dual Rolls-Royce Model 250 gas turbines propel the aircraft at a cruise speed of 288 knots, which is two to three times faster than a helicopter.

"It's like a flying truck!"

Read more - ''Flying Humvee' robot ships supplies to military troops'
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'Shake up' for internet proposed

BBCNews reports on how the Internet could undergo its biggest transformation in decades if plans to open up the address system are cleared:

The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed. If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.

The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.

Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org.

Read article - ''Shake up' for internet proposed'
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Space Station Could Beam Secret Quantum Codes by 2014

Now here's an up-to-the-minute latest from Scientific American on the future transmission/flow of information - as quantum entanglement from space....

FINAL FRONTIER? The International Space Station may carry the next generation of experiments to transmit secret quantum codes across larger distances than ever before—potentially between continents.
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA)

Researchers hope to send an experiment to the International Space Station (ISS) by the middle of the next decade that would pave the way for transcontinental transmission of secret messages encoded using the mysterious quantum property of entanglement. When two particles such as photons are born from the same event, they emerge entangled, meaning they can communicate instantaneously no matter how far apart they are. Transmitting entangled pairs of photons reliably is the backbone of so-called quantum key distribution—procedures for converting those pairs into potentially unbreakable codes. Quantum cryptography, as it is known, could appeal to banks, covert government agencies and the military, and was tested in a 2007 Swiss election.

Read post at - 'Space Station Could Beam Secret Quantum Codes by 2014'
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Mobiles, Tech & Hyper Island

Doc Rogers over at the Knitware blog has managed to get himself an interview with David Erixon, Director of Brand Strategy & Manifestation, Vodafone Global Marketing, and co founder of Hyper Island. Erixon discusses mobile phone users, the i-phone, and user's perceptions:

There is also a second video where Erixson talks about Hyper Island - for this you need to go to the original post - 'Mobiles, tech & Hyper Island. (interview)'

Thanks Doc for the link!

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Study Secretly Tracks Cell Phone Users Outside US

Here we go again - the tracking of mobile phone use!

Researchers tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home. The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States. It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year. The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only saying it was an industrialized nation. Almost certainly it was a nation where most people averaged short commutes to work!

Read original post - 'Study Secretly Tracks Cell Phone Users Outside US'
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India's Future Rides on 76-Year-Old `Metro Man'

What's this? One of the biggest heroes in India's nation of young people -- "the person who is doing more than most to put taxpayers' money to work for the benefit of citizens" -- is a railway engineer who turns 76 next week and who manages a successful subway system:

Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, popularly known as India's ``Metro Man,'' is the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corp., which operates the newly built world-class subway that's transforming the economy of India's capital, New Delhi. It's also improving the city's air quality, altering its social life and even influencing norms of individual behavior. Funded by government equity and debt and a soft loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, a $2.3 billion, 40-mile section of the project was completed in 2005, three years ahead of schedule.

Read more at - 'India's Future Rides on 76-Year-Old `Metro Man''
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China’s Cyber-Militia

A new post in the National Journal is positing that 'Chinese hackers pose a clear and present danger to U.S. government and private-sector computer networks and may be responsible for two major U.S. power blackouts':

Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts. One prominent expert believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said that U.S. intelligence officials have told him that the PLA in 2003 gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern United States.

Read more at - 'China’s Cyber-Militia'
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Bristol named UK's first 'cycling city'

It's now been confirmed - and announced - that twelve English towns and cities will receive £100m under a government scheme intended to increase the number of people cycling. The Guardian reports that:

The transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, said she hoped the initiative would "pioneer new ways of encouraging people to get on their bikes". Bristol has been named as the UK's first "cycling city" after pledging to double the number of people biking on its streets over three years.

The city will receive £11.4m, rising to £23m after three years, to create the UK's first on-street bike rental network, modelled on the successful Paris scheme.

Officials will encourage the provision of showers and lockers for people cycling to work, and also aim to double the number of children receiving cycling training.

Eleven other English towns and cities - York, Stoke, Blackpool, Cambridge, Chester, Colchester, Leighton Buzzard, Southend, Shrewsbury, Southport and Woking – have been named as demonstration areas for the scheme.

They will be added to the current six demonstration areas - Aylesbury, Brighton, Darlington, Derby, Exeter and Lancaster.

Read article here - 'Bristol named UK's first 'cycling city''
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Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees

Here's a another innovative vision for dealing with a future of possible climate refugees:

According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC (Intergovernmental Group on the Evolution of the Climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm . As a solution to this problem, architect Vincent Callebaut has come up with an ecotectural marvel that could serve as a future retreat for 50,000 inhabitants seeking refuge from rising waters due to global warming. The auto-sufficient, floating city/structure is covered in green walls and roofs, the top portion covered in grasses with the inner portion featuring a palm oasis, and the under portion serving as a bed for natural sea planktons and oceanic plants.

Vincent Callebaut called this project “Lilypad“



Read in full - 'Future Architecture: Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees'
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Final Skynet satellite launched

BBCNews reports on the Skynet military (and later civil?) communications satellite:

An advanced satellite that will improve greatly the ability of UK military forces to communicate around the globe has been launched into space.

The Skynet 5C platform rode into orbit atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.

It joins the 5A and 5B satellites lofted successfully last year and which are already handling secure traffic for UK forces in Iraq and Afghanistan...

1. Skynet 5 overhauls satellite communications for UK forces

2. The largely autonomous satellites talk to two UK ground stations

3. Skynet 5 supports high-bandwidth applications, such as UAV video

4. Antennas and terminals are upgraded to make best use of Skynet

5. New battlefield networks, such as Cormorant, feed into the system

6. System gives commanders access to more information, faster

1. Improved technologies, including a solar 'sail', lengthen the platforms' operational lives to at least 15 years

2. The satellites are 'hardened' against interference. A special receive antenna can resist attempts at jamming

3. Each spacecraft has four steerable antennas that can concentrate bandwidth onto particular regions

4. The system gives near-global coverage, providing 2.5 times the capacity afforded by the previous system

5. Each spacecraft is a 3x4x4.5m box and weighs just under 5 tonnes; the solar wings once unfurled measure 34m tip to tip

Read more at - 'Final Skynet satellite launched'
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Sensoring the environment

Here are some latest developments in using wireless sensor networks to monitor the environment:

University of Alberta researchers are building a wireless sensor network that allows for clandestine data collection of environmental data in remote locations, with monitoring from anywhere in the world. The sensors can continuously monitor data like temperature and luminosity...

...Having the data continuously monitored by researchers substantially increases the chances of uncovering anomalies early enough to investigate them promptly and thoroughly.

The overall framework of WSN can also be extended for use in other closely related scenarios such as monitoring potentially dangerous situations like hazardous waste disposal, or hard-to-witness phenomena such as ice cap movements in the Arctic. The opportunities these sensors will provide to scientists are paramount in a global environment that is changing at an ever-increasing pace.Once the display-house prototype is tested and customized, at least two sites are to be fully deployed in the fall, one likely in the Brazilian rainforest, and the other in a forest in Panama.

Read more - 'Wireless sensor network keeps tabs on the environment'
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Inflatable electric car can drive off cliffs

Now this is intriguing, and could be a solution to floods! XP Vehicles is a car-design company that hopes to have a prototype of the inflatable electric car by the end of the year, with production in 2010 at the earliest:

Or maybe it's the fact that you buy the car online, it gets shipped to you in two cardboard boxes, and the estimated assembly time is less than two hours. Perhaps it's that the car is made out of "airbags" - the same polymer materials used to cushion NASA's rovers when they landed on Mars. Then again, it could be the company's claim that you can drive the car off a cliff without serious injury, and that it will float in a flood or tsunami.

Together, these features characterize the Whisper, XP Vehicles' solution to the oil crisis. The company doesn't expect the car to be in production until 2010 at the earliest, but when it is, it will hopefully be an extremely affordable $10,000 or less. XP Vehicles envisions four body styles, along with a special low-priced model for the Southeast Asian market.

Read original article - 'Inflatable electric car can drive off cliffs'
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'Skin-tenna' wireless signals creep over human skin

NewScientistTech has a post on a wireless antenna that channels signals along human skin and could broadcast signals over your body to connect up medical implants or portable gadgets:

The new power-efficient approach could make more of established medical devices like pacemakers or help future implants distributed around the body work together.



(QUB/W Scanlon)

Developed at Queen's University in Belfast, the new design's ability to produce signals that travel along the skin makes it more efficient than existing battery-hungry technologies such as Bluetooth.

Read more at - ''Skin-tenna' wireless signals creep over human skin'
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Wirelessly networking cows

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends has a quirky post onU.S. researchers who have developed a Walkman-like headset for cows:

This device enables them to 'whisper wireless commands to cows to control their movements across a landscape -- and even remotely gather them into a corral.' In fact, it could help farmers to maintain cows behind virtual fences. According to the researchers, 'the circuit board contains a processor, data storage, WiFi for remote communication, audio and electrical stimulation electronics, a GPS receiver, and sensors such as magnetometers and accelerometers that record the body orientation and configuration of the animal.' While the first virtual fencing system was patented in 1973 (for domestic dogs!), commercial virtual livestock control systems still do not exist today:

Read more from original post
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Driving on Compressed Air

Interesting post here on how India’s largest automaker, Tata, has begun producing the world’s first commercial, air-powered car:

Compressed air powers the Air Car, which will produce no emissions, reach speeds over 65 miles per hour, and have a range of 125 miles. Drivers will be able to fill up their air tanks in a few minutes at a gas station or plug the car into their home electrical system for a 4-hour recharge. Popular Mechanics reports that it will cost about $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of pressurized air.

Read more at - 'Driving on Compressed Air'

More innovative car news on a blog about new design electric vehicles:

The No more Gas (NmG) personal electric vehicle from Myers Motors can reach up to 75mph, goes 1000 miles on $20 of electrical fuel and is available in 14 different colors.

The vehicle plugs into any 110 volt, 20 amp outlet and takes up to eight hours to fully charge. Currently, the NmG can go 30 miles on one charge and is geared towards urban commuters, many of whom commute less than 12 miles each day. Often with an eight-hour workday in between drives.

Read more on this post here

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The Power of Play on the Internet

BBCNews has a recent post on how game design and social networks are merging into one of the most persuasive forces on the net:

Perhaps the greatest effect of that interplay can be seen in the rise and rise of the social gamer. Recent figures by research firm Park Associates estimates that 34% of US adult internet users play online games weekly. For example, check out start up called Mytopia, a social gaming community where everyone can play together. It offers everything from chess to Sudoku and hearts to poker which you can play directly from their site or via Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 and Bebo...

..."Social networks offer a revolutionary way for people to play with friends and communities that have meaningful value to them in their real life," said Guy Ben-Artzi, who confesses he used to be a gamer who would do anything to win.

"The moment you make the gaming more personal and meaningful, the better the experience for the user," he added

Read original post - 'The Power of Play on the Internet'
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Two Paths to the Singularity

Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, sees a future in which physical reality in infused with embedded, distributed, self-organizing computation everywhere, while Ray Kurzweil sees a future with increasingly realistic, full-immersion virtual-reality computers. But Gersenfeld and Kurzweil agree that these worlds will converge in the future:

Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, studies the boundary between computer science and physical science, looking toward a future in which they merge, computers essentially disappear into the physical world, and everything becomes programmable. Kurzweil has been fascinated with modeling the physical world in computers—simulation, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality—and believes if he takes good care of his health, he may just survive long enough to see computers that are far smarter than people.

For years, Dalrymple has been trying to reconcile these two visions of the future: Gershenfeld's future in which computers collapse and simply become part of reality, and Kurzweil's future in which reality as we know it collapses and simply becomes part of computers. In an e-mail exchange prompted by a lunchtime discussion in Gershenfeld's laboratory during which another student referred to Kurzweil's work, Dalrymple asked his mentors, “Is it possible for both to happen at the same time?”

Read post - 'Two Paths to the Singularity'
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Buses as mobile sensing platforms?

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends reports on how - according to European researchers, - modern buses could be used as mobile sensing platforms, sending out live information to be used to control traffic and detect road hazards:

The 3.83 million euro EU-funded MORYNE project was completed in March 2008 with a test in Berlin, Germany. During this test, the researchers 'equipped city buses with environmental sensors and cameras, allowing the vehicles to become transmitters of measurements, warnings and live or recorded videos to anyone allowed to access the data.'

You can see above the MORYNE architecture. (Credit: MORYNE Project) By the way, the acronym was picked from the official name of the project, "EnhanceMent of public transpORt efficiencY through the use of mobile seNsor nEtworks." I wonder how many people were necessary to settle on this acronym.

Here is a link to the MORYNE Project website and here were its objectives.

• The development of an approach for new safety- and efficiency-oriented transport management and traffic management
• The development and validation of technologies for appropriate sensing, information processing, communication, interfaces
• The development of an in-laboratory demonstrator
• The validation of the proposed concepts through field testing
• The analysis of potential impacts (social, economic, environmental)

• 
  

Read original post - 'Buses as mobile sensing platforms?'
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Big Brother Is Watching Your Travel Habits

Wired's Autopis blog has a post on how travel habits are increasingly tracked and under surveillance and the implications for civil liberty:

In London, using a registered Oyster Card will allow Transport for London to know your exact route patterns (as long as you actually tag your card). Counter-terrorism programs in the capital city want access to the millions of Oyster touch-in/touch-out records, seeking patterns of behavior that match terrorist suspects. Currently, security programs can only ask for the records of specific individuals. The introduction of a Parisian transport smartcard (known as the Navigo), which requires personal information of the user and a passport size photo, has also posed concerns for civil liberty groups.

All metros have some sort of transit ticket that does not require giving personal information. But are they really anonymous? Chicago Transit Authority had tracked down the attempted kidnapping suspect through his 7-day pass (and security cameras), which does not require any sort of rider registration what-so-ever.

Debate still continues on whether one should be concerned about the police's access to transit card information.

Read post at 'Big Brother Is Watching Your Travel Habits'
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'Bluetooth' to track travel time for vehicles & pedestrians

Here's an interesting post on how engineers have created a method that uses pervasive Bluetooth signals from mobile phones and other wireless devices to constantly update how long it takes vehicles and pedestrians to travel from one point to another:

The method envisioned by engineers at the Indiana Department of Transportation represents a potentially low-cost leap in technology to provide information for everything from the speed of the morning commute to the sluggishness of airport security lines.

"This is incredibly valuable information that could be used for many purposes, including better traffic signal timing and management of construction work zones to reduce congestion, as well as real-time traffic information for motorists," said Darcy Bullock, a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University. "Now we have a way to measure how slow traffic is on a given stretch of road or how long it's taking people to get through airport security at a given concourse and time of day."

Read post - ''Bluetooth' to track travel time for vehicles & pedestrians'
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Google's plan for smart phones

What motivates the search giant Google was given at Google IO, its developers conference being held in San Francisco recently:

High on the agenda at IO was Android, Google's open source software platform being designed for smart phones.

A demo at the conference revealed some new applications for its Android mobile operating system.

These include a way to unlock phones by drawing a specific shape on the touch screen, a compass tool that automatically orientates maps when a user looks at photographic images of a city, a magnifying tool to zoom in on web content and a mobile version of the video game Pac Man.

The Android touchscreen is reminiscent of the iPhone

The phone being used at the conference relied on fingertip touch but Andy Rubin, who is overseeing the project, said Android could also be tailored to work with a tracking ball.

The first phones powered by Android are due out in the second half of this year.

With about three billion mobile phones already on the market, some analysts believe Google could make about $5 billion annually within five years.

Read original post - 'Google reaches out to developers'
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The Future of Mobile Social Networking

TechReview has an interesting post on the latest in mobile software for social networking:

One rising company that's hoping for a mention during the Steve Jobs Show is Pelago, a startup that recently garnered $15 million from funders, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Pelago will soon offer a version of its software, called Whrrl, for the iPhone. The software enables something Pelago's chief technology officer, Darren Erik Vengroff, calls social discovery: using the iPhone's map and self-location features, as well as information about the prior activities of the user's friends, Whrrl proposes new places to explore or activities to try...

...The idea of community-generated reviews is, of course, not new. The popular recommendation service Yelp, for example, is already integrated into Google Maps. And the concept of locating friends using a mobile phone has also been around for years; Loopt, a service that runs on Sprint and Boost Mobile phones, is one of the most common examples. Whrrl, which can also be downloaded onto BlackBerry Pearl, Curve, and Nokia N95 smart phones, is commonly compared to both types of service.

Read original post - 'The Future of Mobile Social Networking'
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Mobile phone users top 3.3 billion

According to recent figures in a International Telecommunications Union report the number of mobile phone users worldwide soared to over 3.3 billion by the end of 2007, equivalent to a penetration rate of 49 per cent:

Africa showed the strongest gains over the past two years and more than two thirds of all mobile subscribers were from developing countries by the end of 2007, the ITU said.

This is "a positive trend that suggests that developing countries are catching up," the report said.

Read original post - 'Mobile phone users top 3.3 billion'
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How Second Life Affects Real Life

Jeremy Bailenson, an assistant professor of communication at Stanford, studies the way self-perception affects behavior. Bailenson's research suggests that the qualities you acquire online — whether it's confidence or insecurity — can spill over and change your conduct in the real world, often without your awareness. Bailenson has found that even 90 seconds spent chatting it up with avatars is enough to elicit behavioral changes offline — at least in the short term:

About a year ago in my first visit to Second Life, the popular online virtual world, I spent half an hour trying to make my avatar, or online character, look like a hotter version of myself — which isn't easy when you don't know how to use the tools. When I finally made it onto Money Island to mingle, a stranger approached me and said, "Hello there, Devon." I froze. Then I tried to run. I was desperately searching for the teleport tool when my sister walked into the room, peered over my shoulder at the computer screen and said, "Why'd you make your avatar ugly?" I logged off

Read more - 'How Second Life Affects Real Life'
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Update on the mobile market

Smartmobs has a recent post discussing how a post by Russell Buckley at MobHappy has a link to a free report from Portio Research plus Russell’s analysis:

Portio Reseach have just published a free downloadable PDF, which contains tons of market data on the state of mobile. It’s a taster for the whole report that they want you to buy (fair enough), but there’s loads of facts to get your mind around in the free version.

Earlier this week, I wrote about one of the Churchill Club predictions that suggested that 80% of people would carry a connected mobile device with 5 - 10 years. Their projections suggest that 2012 will see 4.9 Billion mobile subscribers, at a time when the world population is expected to be about 7 billion.

Read more at - Update on the mobile market
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Reality Mining

TechReview has this post on how data gathered by mobile phones can be used to learn about human behavior:

Every time you use your mobile phone, you leave behind a few bits of information. Some people are nervous about trailing digital bread crumbs behind them. However, MIT professor of media arts and sciences Sandy ­Pentland, would like to see phones collect even more information about their users, recording everything from their physical activity to their conversational cadences. Pentland, who has been sifting data gleaned from mobile devices for a decade, calls the practice "reality mining." ­Pentland and his group showed that mobile-phone data enabled them to accurately model the social networks of about 100 MIT students and professors.

Read more - 'Reality Mining'
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Criticism for UK Database Plan

BBCNews reports how plans for a super-database containing the details of all phone calls and e-mails sent in the UK have been heavily criticised by experts:

The government is considering the changes as part of its ongoing fight against serious crime and terrorism. Assistant Information Commissioner Jonathan Bamford has warned that the UK could be "sleepwalking into a surveillance society". Others have questioned how such a database could be made secure...

..."While the public is "sleepwalking" into a surveillance society, the government seems to have its eyes wide open although, unfortunately, to everything except security," said Jamie Cowper, data protection expert at data protection firm PGP Corporation.

"The bottom line is - information of this nature should only be held if - and only if - it can be demonstrated that an appropriate system of checks and balances is in place and the security of the information being stored is of paramount concern," he added.

Read more - 'Criticism for UK Database Plan'
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"Mobsters without Borders" are Global Threat

Reuters has this post on how crime groups operating as "mobsters without borders" have gained significant footholds in global markets and as such provide logistic support to terrorists. Now that's a new 'without borders' branding.....

Attorney General Michael Mukasey cited recent cases, many with links to the former Soviet bloc. The groups launder billions of dollars through U.S. financial institutions, and invest profits in publicly traded companies. They also "exploit the Internet," by running scams on eBay, flooding in-boxes with e-mail spam and laundering money through "virtual worlds" such as Second Life, Mukasey said...

..."These international criminals pose real national security threats to this country," Mukasey said in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. He cited recent cases, many with links to the former Soviet bloc.

"They touch all sectors of our economy, dealing in everything from cigarettes to oil; clothing to pharmaceuticals," Mukasey said.

Read the post - '"Mobsters without Borders" are Global Threat'
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Like Your Car...But Faster

SkyTran might be L.A.’s answer to gridlock. As envisioned, the transportation system could provide high speed point-to-point, non-stop, on-demand transit service. All you do is climb in, enter your destination, and then enjoy full web access, entertainment and climate controls.

See Youtube video on this:

Japanese children warned off mobiles

Here is an interesting development on the 'mobile phones - health' issue, coming out from Japan. This time it's more about mental health in terms of attraction to 'inappropriate material'. The Register reports that:

Japanese children should be prevented from using their mobile phones for anything other than talking to protect them from harmful influences, according to an advisory panel to the government.

The panel is already calling on schools and parents to take a much greater role in controlling the services children can access, reports the AFP, but ultimately sees no reason why children need to use a phone for more than speaking into...

...It's hard to imagine Japan really banning children from using mobile data services, though the panel has reported to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda who told reporters: "It is true that the use of mobile phones causes various problems... First of all, I wonder if there is any need for children to possess mobile phones."

Read in full - 'Japanese children warned off mobiles'
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