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Issue no. 27, 2003 Published: Jul 11, 2003
Wi-Fi group approves new standard
Microsoft investigated over Linux-bashing
Euro scheme makes money talk
IT firms shut out spying camera phones
Motorola puts nanotubes in screens
Microbe fuel cell packs more power
Experience handed across the net
Jet-laser tandem prints gold
Satellites could spot ancient remains
Artificial hip that 'thinks' on its own
Hi-tech babble baffles many
Giant printer goes on show
New software allows you to log on by laughing
Mobiles ring with sounds of the wild

Wi-Fi group approves new standard
Products that use the 802.11g standard received a clean bill of health from influential industry group the Wi-Fi Alliance, on Tuesday, further ensuring the popularity of the wireless networking technology. The announcement means that those products have passed tests that prove they are compatible with one another. Someone using an approved PC Card should be able, for instance, to walk into any cafe with an approved access point and seamlessly connect to the network. An access point is essentially a radio transmitter linked to a wireless network. The 802.11g standard allows wireless networks to transmit data at 54 megabits per second, uses the 2.4GHz radio band and is meant to be compatible with Wi-Fi equipment based on the earlier, slower 802.11b standard. Wi-Fi lets people access and share resources on a wireless network.
ZDNet Jul 08, 2003	back to top

Microsoft investigated over Linux-bashing
The US state of Massachusetts is investigating whether Microsoft tried to bash Linux in violation of the consent decree settling the company's landmark antitrust case. Massachusetts, the only state still pursuing antitrust charges against Microsoft, said in a court filing that it is looking at several issues related to potential enforcement of the decree. These include whether Microsoft has retaliated against an unspecified computer manufacturer for promoting Linux and has signed unlawfully restrictive agreements with internet service providers. The software giant has targeted Linux, an open-source operating system, as a significant challenger to the status of its own proprietary software. A Microsoft representative denied the allegations.
Silicon.com / CNET News Jul 08, 2003	back to top

Euro scheme makes money talk
Euro cash could be embedded with radio frequency identification tags if a reported deal between the European Central Bank and Hitachi becomes reality. The bank is working on a hush-hush project to embed RFIDs, wireless transponders the size of a grain of sand, into the fibres of euro bank notes to foil would-be counterfeiters. If the deal goes through, it will be a boon to the nascent RFID industry, which has long been in search of a market. However, consumer privacy advocates have questions about other possible uses of the tags. If embedded in the euro, the chips could make it possible to track information such as when and where transactions take place. The technology involves a minuscule chip and antenna, which would be implanted in the bank notes, and a reader similar to those used with bar codes, only much smaller. Though it might be used simply to identify the note's serial number, it would also be possible to add more data.
Wired News Jul 09, 2003	back to top

IT firms shut out spying camera phones
Samsung and LG Electronics have both barred employees from using camera phones on their research and manufacturing facilities in Korea to protect against industrial espionage and intellectual property theft, For Samsung, the ban applies to a host of businesses including semiconductor plants, as well as its digital media and telecommunications equipment production lines. Under the sanction, workers as well as visitors have to register their camera handsets and cover the lenses of their mobile phones during office hours. Similar measures have been adopted by LG Electronic across 10 of its research institutes in Korea. The growing popularity of camera phones has also sparked concerns over individual privacy. Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication is considering similar rules to govern the use of camera phones in the country. In addition, authorities are reportedly mulling a separate law which makes it mandatory for phone makers to install a 'noise emitter' in their camera phones, which emits a loud noise when pictures are taken.
Silicon.com / Chosun Ilbo Jul 08, 2003	back to top

Motorola puts nanotubes in screens
Motorola is researching a new type of large flat-panel display that the company says has the potential to be cheaper than plasma or LCD screens. The new screen technology uses carbon nanotubes. The screen, dubbed a 'nano emissive display' or NED, is being developed by Motorola Labs. The technology enables the design of large flat-panel displays that exceed the image quality characteristics of plasma and LCD screens at a lower cost, according to Motorola. A low-cost, flat-panel wall-mounted television is among the devices that could incorporate the technology. Motorola found a way to grow the nanotubes at low temperatures - a key breakthrough, because the substrate with which they must bond, such as glass or transistors, are heat-sensitive. The lab also created a method to precisely place the nanotubes individually on a surface material. The technology provides a high-quality image with optimised electron emissions, brightness, colour purity and resolution for flat-panel displays, the lab said.
ZDNet / CNET Asia Jul 07, 2003	back to top

Microbe fuel cell packs more power
Researchers at Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany, are generating ten times more electricity than before from bacteria. They have created a prototype microbial fuel cell that captures the energy produced by Escherichia coli as it feeds on sugar. Making up to 150 milliamps, the battery can drive a medical ventilator, for example. Many micro organisms convert carbohydrates to alcohols, acids and carbon dioxide. When no air is present, this fermentation process can also produce hydrogen - the fuel in most fuel cells. The energy released by the reaction of the gas with oxygen generates electricity. The design of the anode is central to new generator's success. Previous microbial fuel cells were feeble because fermentation products stick to their metal electrodes, making them inefficient. The German group coats a platinum anode with a conducting polymer, polyaniline, which slows down its contamination. Voltage pulses every 20 minutes or so clean this sheath, meaning that a cell can keep running for hours. And the coating may help the bacteria to donate electrons directly to the anode.
Nature Jul 04, 2003	back to top

Experience handed across the net
Researchers from the University of Buffalo have developed a method that enables one person to go through the exact movements of another, including feeling the same forces, over the internet. The method could eventually be used to capture the touch of a musician, golfer or surgeon and pass it on to someone trying to match that touch, according to the researchers. The system involves a glove that captures force and transmits it through the internet to the receiver, who uses a combination of a sensing tool to feel the forces, and the act of following a point on a computer screen to recreate the movement of the other person's hand. The method differs from haptic techniques that allow users to feel the movement of another person's hand from the outside, or allow one user's hand to be pulled in the same direction as the other user's.
Technology Review / TRN Jul 09, 2003	back to top

Jet-laser tandem prints gold
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) have found a way to print gold structures. The researchers suspended gold nanoparticles, which have a lower melting point then bulk gold, in a solution and used a modified ink-jet printer to print patterns of the solution onto a surface. At the same time, they melted the gold and evaporated the solvent with a laser whose wavelength matched the absorption properties of gold and was precisely focused on the metal. The researchers' prototype produced gold lines that measured 10 to several hundred microns across and 20 to 200 microns thick. The method could also be used with other materials to print microelectronics devices like resistors, capacitors and interconnections using relatively low temperatures, according to the researchers.
Technology Review / TRN Jul 07, 2003	back to top

Satellites could spot ancient remains
Satellites really could be used to spot ancient archaeological treasures buried underground, researchers of Ben Gurion University in Israel have shown. The researchers were able to detect flat squares of aluminium which they had buried at different depths in the sand of the Negev desert with radar sensors on board an aircraft. Images from US space shuttle missions in the 1980s appeared to show ancient river drainage patterns beneath the Sahara desert. Subsequent imaging turned up ring structures beneath the ice of Antarctica. But until now no-one has been entirely sure that these images definitely showed real objects. The researchers used P-band microwave sensors, which penetrate farther underground that other microwave sensors offering better resolution. The imaging technique might be used to find fossils, geographic structures, underground buildings and pipes and perhaps even mass graves. Working systems might be able to penetrate up to nine metres into the Earth.
BBC News Jul 09, 2003	back to top

Artificial hip that 'thinks' on its own
An 'intelligent' artificial hip that recognises when it becomes infected and treats itself, could become a reality. A group of clinicians, microbiologists and electrical engineers in the US have teamed up to undertake the project. the researchers have already started work on a new generation of 'smart' joint replacements using the latest advances in nanotechnology. The aim is to produce a hip or knee implant that not only detects infection, but treats itself with antibacterial drugs and informs the patient's doctor. The implant would be covered in tiny sensors called micro-electronic mechanical systems, or MEMS, which can detect infections and identify the bacteria responsible. A therapeutic drug would then automatically be dispensed from an internal reservoir. The implant would be able to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment and transmit a report to the doctor via a wireless link.
Ananova Jul 09, 2003	back to top

Hi-tech babble baffles many
Most people are confused and flummoxed by the jargon used to describe new technology. Terms such as MP3 and Bluetooth are only understood by a small number of people, a report by a consumer research group found. The findings are bad news for the industry, as it suggests that the baffling terms are putting people off buying the latest gadget. More than 1,500 people in the US, UK, China and Japan took part in the survey, which looked at how far consumers understood jargon used to described new gadgets. The results showed that people were perplexed by many of the terms routinely bandied around by technology firms. Just 3 per cent of those surveyed got a perfect score on a quiz. The study did offer are some signs of hope for the technology industry. It suggested that people who already have home computers were likely to buy most gadgets such as DVD players. The survey was commissioned by a research group set by chip maker AMD.
BBC News Jul 08, 2003	back to top

Giant printer goes on show
Two Swiss students have created what could be the largest portable ink jet printer in the world. Called Hektor, the printer converts small computer created images into huge facsimiles that it recreates with cans of spray paint. Hektor can be mounted on any wall and the spray can at its heart is moved with two independently controllable pulleys. The machine suspends a spray paint can using two toothed belts that feed through a pair of motors. Working together the two motors allow the paint can to be positioned anywhere inside the box they define. The spray can is held in a custom-made harness that controls when and how long it sprays paint on the wall it faces. All the parts for Hektor fit in one suitcase making the whole device portable and adaptable to almost any surface that the motors can be attached to. The machine was nominated for an award at the 2003 Machinista media art festival.
BBC News Jul 07, 2003	back to top

New software allows you to log on by laughing
Computer scientists at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, wanted to make it easier for staff to log onto networked computers. So they came up with SoundHunters, a program that recognises someone's voice or laughter and works out which computer is nearest to them. It could then be used to automatically log them on to the computer. Microphones on each computer pick up a person's voice. The software recognises them and calculates where they are, using flocks of intelligent agents - pieces of discrete computer code that are programmed to move around a network from computer to computer. The agents close in on those computers where the person's voice is loudest, until they pinpoint the nearest one. If the person is moving around the office, the agents can keep track of them by listening to their footsteps. The system could be used to follow an executive as they walked through an office, ensuring that their email was always available on the nearest computer, for example.
New Scientist Jul 09, 2003	back to top

Mobiles ring with sounds of the wild
Soon your phone could be roaring like a lion or screaming like a barn owl. Wildlife recordings from the British Library's sound archive have been turned into mobile phone ringtones. Ringtone specialists iTouch and Mobiletones have bought 40 of the 100,000 sounds in the library's archives, including the noises made by bellowing hippos and cobras attacking. Most of the animal calls on offer are of birdsong and include the dawn chorus, Mallards, Chiffchaffs, Cuckoos, Amazonian parrots, Garden Warblers and Blackbirds. Also on offer are lowing cattle, chattering Colobus monkeys, bellowing hippos, grunting pigs, penguins and gorillas beating their chests. The British Library is hoping to generate some cash from the sound file sale as ringtones are hugely popular and generate more than E3.5bn per year worldwide.
BBC News Jul 09, 2003	back to top