BBC News – Researchers develop new system to ‘eliminate’ batteries

Researchers at the University of Bedfordshire have developed a new technique for powering electronic devices.

The system, developed by Prof Ben Allen at the Centre for Wireless Research, uses radio waves as power.

Believed to be a world first, the team claims it could eventually eliminate the need for conventional batteries.

The university has now filed a patent application to secure exclusive rights to the technique.

‘Spare time’

Prof Allen and his team, including David Jazani and Tahima Ajmal, have created a system to use medium wave frequencies to replace batteries in small everyday gadgets like clocks or remote controls.

The new technique uses the “waste” energy of radio waves and has been developed as part of the university’s research into “power harvesting”.

Prof Allen said that as radio waves have energy – like light waves, sound waves or wind waves – then in theory these waves could be used to create power.

“The emerging area of power harvesting technology promises to reduce our reliance on conventional batteries,” he said.

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The emerging area of power harvesting technology promises to reduce our reliance on conventional batteries”

Prof Ben Allen University of Bedfordshire

“It’s a really exciting way of taking power from other sources than what we would normally think of.”

via BBC News – Researchers develop new system to ‘eliminate’ batteries.

So, every now and again we see information about this kind of thing. I still can’t help getting excited about it, and hopefully this FINALLY will be something we’ll be seeing within a year or two. This would be fantastic (and not more than a little awesome for homeless people who have to constantly seek a place to plug their devices in to recharge (if it’s news to you that many homeless people have devices, you clearly don’t realize how cheap devices have gotten…my phone was $10, no contract), or somehow find a way to go buy batteries).

Battery Desalinates Seawater | Chemical & Engineering News

For the first time, researchers have designed an electrochemical cell that can desalinate seawater Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl203889e. They think that its cost and efficiency eventually could improve on standard techniques of purifying seawater.

Worldwide demand for freshwater is skyrocketing as the population increases. Many of today’s desalination plants use reverse osmosis or evaporation, both of which require enormous amounts of energy to supply heaters or high-pressure pumps. To find cheaper, room-temperature, energy-efficient solutions, many researchers are looking to nanomaterials and electrochemistry.

The new system uses both. It first draws ions from seawater into a pair of electrodes. As the researchers pass current through the electrodes, electrochemical reactions drive chloride ions into a silver electrode and sodium ions to an electrode made from manganese oxide nanorods. Next, the researchers remove the desalinated water and release the trapped ions into a separate stream of waste seawater by reversing the direction of the electrical current. Although the pilot experiments were not automated, the researchers say that a pump could automate the process.

via Battery Desalinates Seawater | Chemical & Engineering News.

This is pretty awesome. Throw one of these on every boat ever, and you suddenly get rid of the whole “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink” syndrome that has killed more than a few people over the years. And of course, being able to provide drinking water to less developed areas, or just areas with less potable fresh water, is also a major plus. THAT’s the power of German engineering.

‘Robo-camera’ threatens residents with prosecution | UK news | The Guardian

A council has apologised for installing a “robo-camera” in a housing estate garden which indiscriminately takes pictures of anyone entering, residents included, before warning them they are in a restricted area and face prosecution.

London’s Camden council said it recently installed the flash-equipped cameras in the borough to tackle antisocial behaviour but mistakenly activated the robotic voice message for one in the communal gardens of the Walker House estate, near Euston station.

In darkness the camera automatically takes a photo when triggered by a motion sensor. A voice then warns: “Stop! This is a restricted area and your photograph was just taken. We will use it to prosecute you. Leave the area now.”

In a statement the council said the Walker House camera was installed in September last year in response to an increasing number of complaints of antisocial behaviour. All of its similar cameras, manufactured by Q Star Technologies, can issue the verbal message but this was normally deactivated, it added.

“All flash cameras have the capacity to deliver voice messages when activated but in this instance it appears that voice messages were inadvertently activated when the camera batteries were replaced four to five weeks ago,” the statement said.

Camden said the cameras themselves were installed as “a temporary measure”, and added: “We do not want to stop residents from enjoying their open spaces and communal areas and under no circumstances would we want voice messages to be used in areas where they may be disturbed. The voice messages will be deactivated as soon as possible.”

via ‘Robo-camera’ threatens residents with prosecution | UK news | The Guardian.

Nice try to cover up this self-aware robot camera hell bent on prosecuting all humans :-P. We seem to have blown right through 1984 into its logical future…

Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds | Science | The Guardian

Soldiers could have their minds plugged directly into weapons systems, undergo brain scans during recruitment and take courses of neural stimulation to boost their learning, if the armed forces embrace the latest developments in neuroscience to hone the performance of their troops.

These scenarios are described in a report into the military and law enforcement uses of neuroscience, published on Tuesday, which also highlights a raft of legal and ethical concerns that innovations in the field may bring.

The report by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, says that while the rapid advance of neuroscience is expected to benefit society and improve treatments for brain disease and mental illness, it also has substantial security applications that should be carefully analysed.

The report’s authors also anticipate new designer drugs that boost performance, make captives more talkative and make enemy troops fall asleep.

“Neuroscience will have more of an impact in the future,” said Rod Flower, chair of the report’s working group.

“People can see a lot of possibilities, but so far very few have made their way through to actual use.

“All leaps forward start out this way. You have a groundswell of ideas and suddenly you get a step change.”

via Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds | Science | The Guardian.

Something about the potential for this technology following a horrible path kind of irks me, but then, considering that we’ve deployed killer drones across the planet, destroyed a nuclear power plant with a computer virus, and pump our poorest citizens full of drugs and then hand them automatic weapons (and then some…), hey, may as well get interested in the science itself. I really am quite curious though as to whether this kind of thing may be getting interfered with through, say, emotional instability, or mental problems, that may even go undetected, or arise through war experiences. I could see a gun being directly controlled by, say, a PTSD flashback as being a very dangerous tool.

Oh, and my bad for totally spacing on this blog lately…I’ve still been posting this kind of thing to Diaspora, but I really should keep myself in the habit of using this, as it’s a bit more capable of doing various things.

One Per Cent: Electronic contact lens displays pixels on the eyes

The future of augmented-reality technology is here – as long as you’re a rabbit. Bioengineers have placed the first contact lenses containing electronic displays into the eyes of rabbits as a first step on the way to proving they are safe for humans. The bunnies suffered no ill effects, the researchers say.

The first version may only have one pixel, but higher resolution lens displays – like those seen in Terminator – could one day be used as satnav enhancers showing you directional arrows for example, or flash up texts and emails – perhaps even video. In the shorter term, the breakthrough also means people suffering from conditions like diabetes and glaucoma may find they have a novel way to monitor their conditions.

In February, New Scientist revealed the litany of research projects underway in the field of contact lens enhancement. While one company has fielded a contact lens technology using a surface-mounted strain gauge to assess glaucoma risk, none have built in a display, or the lenses needed for focused projection onto the retina – and then tested it in vivo. They have now.

“We have demonstrated the operation of a contact lens display powered by a remote radiofrequency transmitter in free space and on a live rabbit,” says a US and Finnish team led by Babak Praviz of the University of Washington in Seattle.

“This verifies that antennas, radio chips, control circuitry, and micrometre-scale light sources can be integrated into a contact lens and operated on live eyes.”

via One Per Cent: Electronic contact lens displays pixels on the eyes.

Now, to just make these things work with the Raspberry Pi, and get a nice easy to use portable input device for it, and we’re most of the way there to wearable computers. I have to say, I’m a little worried about playing high-res first person shooters on my retina…

How The CIA Uses Social Media to Track How People Feel – Jared Keller – Technology – The Atlantic

The Associated Press reports that the CIA maintains a social-media tracking center operated out of an nondescript building in a Virginia industrial park. The intelligence analysts at the agency’s Open Source Center, who other agents refer to as “vengeful librarians,” are tasked with sifting through millions of tweets, Facebook messages, online chat logs, and other public data on the World Wide Web to glean insights into the collective moods of regions or groups abroad. According to the Associated Press, these librarians are tracking up to five million tweets a day from places like China, Pakistan and Egypt.

via How The CIA Uses Social Media to Track How People Feel – Jared Keller – Technology – The Atlantic.

Just a confirmation that the more paranoid ideas we were already harboring are quite true. Smile for the birdie!

Verizon Wireless Changes Privacy Policy – Slashdot

“Recently Verizon changed its home internet TOS to by default share your location with advertisers. Now Verizon Wireless has also changed its privacy policy to by default share your web browsing history, cell phone location and app usage as well. Whilst there have been a few stories on these changes, internet forums have largely been quiet. Where is the outrage? Or have we just come to accept that ISPs are going to sell our personal information and web browsing habits?”

via Verizon Wireless Changes Privacy Policy – Slashdot.

So. Anyone who remotely gives a damn about privacy should be taking this as their cue to ditch Verizon (though honestly, what you’re doing still with Verizon baffles me given their history). For those of you with no other worthwhile options (say, those of you with a choice between nothing but Comcast and Verizon for home Internet, or no choice other than Verizon and AT&T for cell phone use), you should take this as your cue to start using anonymization tools, because you ARE being monitored…no speculation about it.

Cloaking magnetic fields: The first ‘antimagnet’ device developed

 

 

Spanish researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside, making the cloak undetectable.

The development of such a device, described as an ‘antimagnet’, could offer many beneficial applications, such as protecting a ship’s hull from mines designed to detonate when a magnetic field is detected, or allowing patients with pacemakers or cochlear implants to use medical equipment.

In their study, published today, Friday 23 September, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society’s New Journal of Physics, researchers have proved that such a cloak could be built using practical and available materials and technologies, and used to develop an array of applications.

Take, for example, a patient with a pacemaker undergoing an MRI scan. If an MRI’s large magnetic field interacts with the pacemaker, it can cause serious damage to both the device and the patient. The metal in the pacemaker could also interact with and distort the MRI’s large magnetic field, affecting the machine’s detection capabilities.

The researchers, from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, are aware that the technology could also be used by criminals to dodge security systems, for example in airports and shops, but they are confident that the new research could benefit society in a positive way, while the risks could be minimized by informing security officials about potential devices, enabling them to anticipate and neutralize problems.

via Cloaking magnetic fields: The first ‘antimagnet’ device developed.

So…does this mean we can have EMP resistant electronics now?

Senator Introduces Online Security Bill – NYTimes.com

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, introduced a new bill Thursday that aims to protect citizens’ personal information from online data breaches. The bill would also punish companies that are careless with customers’ information.

“The goal of the proposed law is essentially to hold accountable the companies and entities that store personal information and personal data and to deter data breaches,” Senator Blumenthal said in a phone interview. ”While looking at past data breaches, I’ve been struck with how many are preventable.”

The new bill, called the Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011, comes at a time when online privacy and security are hot topics in Congress. The White House has also been involved in discussions around new online privacy rules and legislation.

The bill presented by Senator Blumenthal would introduce regulations for companies that store online data for more than 10,000 people. These rules would require companies to follow specific storage guidelines and ensure that personal information is stored and protected correctly. Companies that do not adhere to these security guidelines could be subject to stiff fines.

Senator Blumenthal was a vociferous critic of Sony’s handling of an attack on its servers earlier this year, which put data from 77 million customers at risk. At the time, the senator pressed Sony to disclose the extent of the damage and to notify customers who had been affected.

If the new bill passes, Senator Blumenthal said, customers would be able to sue companies, like Sony, that do not take adequate precautions.

“The Sony data breach has became a poster child of why we need this law,” he said. “We were working on this legislation well before that data breach occurred, but Sony is a good example of why this law should exist.”

via Senator Introduces Online Security Bill – NYTimes.com.

As much as I applaud the effort, what would be better is if our system realized that despite the damage caused by these break-ins being accidental, OUR SYSTEM STILL HOLDS PEOPLE LIABLE FOR ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE. Get in a car accident? Try saying it wasn’t your intention to hit the pedestrian, and see how far that gets you. Made a product that through an unforeseen flaw killed people? See how far your “it wasn’t on purpose” argument goes to keep you from paying out damages. New laws are not what we need; what we need is a justice system that enforces the ones we have.

However, in lieu of that, I’ll welcome at least the token effort to do something about the egregious mishandling of data that happens all over the place (I might go into more detail, but some of it is frankly too sensitive and still unpatched for me to feel comfortable doing so). The media and the populace loves to blame Anonymous and Lulzsec for putting out personal information, but the fact of the matter is that these kids are not doing anything that anyone with the desire to do so couldn’t do, and that they’re just publishing it rather than selling it for covert use is if anything a tough-love favor to our society as a wake-up call. Sony, Nintendo, and the other affected companies are those to whom anger should be directed at, for being so cavalier in their handling of private data. That they’ve only suffered losses of less than 50% value suggests that people haven’t quite gotten the message yet.

Anyway, I’m glad to see that perhaps some positive legislation may be resulting out of the Anon/LulzSec activity, after all of the naysayers pointing to it as a possible false-flag attack to bring about a locked down Internet. If all justified attacks are to be viewed as false-flags, then the would-be oppressors will not even need to resort to false flags to lock us down, as we will have willingly entered their bonds.

NASA goes back to the future: airships

NASA may no longer be flying space shuttles, but it is set to put another craft into the skies … airships.

The US agency is building airships it believes will revolutionise the transport of cargo around the world, with its first prototype set to take off next year, London’s Daily Telegraph reported.

“One of NASA’s jobs is to solve the nation’s air transportation challenges with research, and airships haven’t seen much research in the past few decades,” said Dr Pete Worden, the director of NASA research arm Ames at an airship conference in Alaska last month.

NASA hopes airships become the new freight transporters of the 21st century.

Cargo by air … a model of Hybrid Air Vehicles’ airships. NASA hopes airships will become the new freight transporters of the 21st century.

NASA hopes airships will become the new freight transporters of the 21st century, replacing trucks and trains and allowing heavy cargo to be flown into areas where rough terrain or poor infrastructure rules out ground travel.

“Initially we are expecting to be able to lift tens of tonnes and we are building a demonstrator that we hope to fly at the end of next year,” he told the Telegraph.”In the long run, I think it could be used for many forms of cargo transport. One of the ideas that people have looked at is that these things can go up to hundreds of tonnes. We will have those by the end of the decade.”

via NASA goes back to the future: airships.

So these things are kind of exciting, in that they should hopefully bring down international shipping costs significantly. But more importantly, they LOOK FUCKING COOL!