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Issue no. 26, 2005 Published: Sep 16, 2005
European cars to have 'ECall' system
Nanotech breakthrough to revolutionise chips
European tech giants form software consortium
Dutch treat: personal database
Ant logic makes sense in space
Toshiba unveils networked DVD recorder
Camera phone as high-precision scanner
Phone neutraliser wipes sensitive data
Power walking - back-pack generates electricity
Researchers turn keyboard clicks into text
Inflatable antenna
Will web users 'Flock' to social surfing?
Computer programmer uses Google to reveal Roman ruins

European cars to have 'ECall' system
European car makers will soon make cars equipped with an automated emergency call system, but EU governments are lagging far behind in embracing the technology, the European Commission said Wednesday. By 2009, all new cars in the EU will come off the conveyer belt with an 'eCall' system, which in case of an accident will automatically dial 112 the EU-wide emergency number. 'I am generally pleased with the progress of eCall, in particular on the industry side,' EU Technology Commissioner Viviane Reding said. 'However, if EU Member States don't react, and fail to invest in the necessary emergency service infrastructure, we shall face a delay in the introduction of eCall technology,' she added. An eCall may be triggered automatically, or manually, after a car crash giving emergency services accurate location information, reducing their response time and saving lives.
ABC News / AP Sep 14, 2005	back to top

Nanotech breakthrough to revolutionise chips
Researchers at Imperial College London, Durham University and the University of Sheffield have announced a breakthrough in computer chip design that could revolutionise the industry. The new design has computing nodes linked by nano-wires in a structure similar to neurons and axons in the human brain. The researchers say that the chip will combine the storage capability of a hard drive with the low cost of memory cards, potentially increasing memory capacity by 200 times from an average of 500MB to around 100GB. The breakthrough came when the team found they could reproduce the key functions of conventional microchips using only the 'spin' of electrons, which is responsible for magnetism, rather than the 'charge' across a transistor that traditional microchips use. This allowed the team to build 3D 'stacked' processors. This approach can be compared to using cupboards instead of table tops for storing goods, according to one of the researchers.
VNUnet UK / Science Sep 09, 2005	back to top

European tech giants form software consortium
British Telecom, Nokia, SAP and Siemens are among a dozen or so high-tech companies lining up to support efforts to strengthen Europe's position in the global software and information technology industries. To that end, the companies launched a consortium last week called the Networked European Software and Services Initiative, or NESSI. The group's wide-ranging plans include supporting and coordinating research into next-generation business systems, promoting open-source software initiatives, developing applications that enhance citizens' well-being, and creating high-skill jobs in Europe, 'hence transforming the European economy into a knowledge based economy and enabling the European software and IT services industry to attain a stronger global position,' according to the NESSI website. Other members of the consortium include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Telecom Italia and Telefonica.
ZDNet / CNET News Sep 08, 2005	back to top

Dutch treat: personal database
The Dutch government will begin tracking every citizen from cradle to grave in a single database, opening a personal electronic dossier for every child at birth with health and family data, and eventually adding school and police records. The new database will begin January 1, 2007. As a privacy safeguard, no single person will be able to access someone's entire file. And each agency that contributes to the records will maintain its own files as well. But organisations can raise 'red flags' in the dossier to caution other agencies of potential problems with children, according to the Health Ministry. Until now, schools and police have been unable to communicate with each other about truancy records and criminality, which are often linked. Currently, all Dutch births are registered with local authorities, and children receive tax ID numbers in the mail within several weeks of birth. But their health and other records are not available in a single file. Now each child will get a Citizens Service Number, making it easier to keep track of children with problems even when their families move.
Wired News / AP Sep 15, 2005	back to top

Ant logic makes sense in space
A spacecraft skin is being developed that assesses the severity of any damage it suffers from space debris and other impacts. The project, which is inspired by the behaviour of ants, is seen as the first step towards a self-repairing craft. The team at CSIRO, Australia's national research organisation, is working with NASA on the project and has so far created a model skin made up of 192 separate cells. Behind each cell is an impact sensor and a processor equipped with algorithms that allow it to communicate only with its immediate neighbours. Just as ants secrete pheromones to help guide other ants to food, the CSIRO algorithms leave digital messages in cells around the system, indicating for instance the position of the boundary around a damaged region. The cell's processor can use this information to route data around the affected area. The team hopes to refine the system so it can distinguish between different types of damage. NASA's ultimate aim is to create an 'Ageless Aerospace Vehicles', which can detect, diagnose and fix damage.
New Scientist / Robotics and Autonomous Systems Sep 12, 2005	back to top

Toshiba unveils networked DVD recorder
The bad news for people who have only just learnt how to programme their existing video recorders is that Toshiba has developed a networked DVD recorder boasting advanced features such as the ability to set up and record TV programmes via email. Toshiba's newly developed RD-XS54 Multi-Drive recorder, which ships with a 250GB hard disc drive, can be connected to other devices over a home network. The recorder can be connected to a PC, allowing users to stream recorded content or even live programming to the computer. Users can also add and edit title information to personal home videos from a PC, and upload custom menu backgrounds for creating DVD-R/RW discs. Additional features include High-Definition Multimedia Interface with up-conversion capability to 720p or 1080i. In addition, the DV input allows the transfer of camcorder recordings directly onto DVD media.
VNUnet UK Sep 12, 2005	back to top

Camera phone as high-precision scanner
New software, developed by NEC and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) in Japan, allows entire documents to be scanned simply by sweeping the phone across the page. Commuters in Japan already anger bookstore owners and newsagents by using existing cellphone software to try to take snapshots of newspaper and magazine articles, which is possible because some phones now offer very rudimentary optical character recognition (OCR) software. But with the new software entire documents can be captured. As a page is being scanned the software takes dozens of still images of the page and effectively merges them together. Using the new software with a 1-megapixel camera held at least 20 centimetres away, an A4 sized page takes about 3 to 5 seconds to scan. This produces between 21 and 35 images which the software merges together to extract the text and record any images.
New Scientist Sep 14, 2005	back to top

Phone neutraliser wipes sensitive data
Today's cellphones carry a wealth of personal data and can even act as mobile credit cards. But they are all too easily lost or stolen. Now a US inventor has come up with a way to prevent valuable information kept on a phone from falling into the wrong hands. If a handset disappears for any reason, the owner simply calls it up and enters a secret code. This triggers the phone to wipe its internal memory, along with the contents of its SIM card. In order to prevent a needless loss of data, the phone's charging cradle maintains a full record of all personal data kept on the device while charging the battery overnight. That way, the next time the phone, or its replacement, is charged up it will automatically be loaded with all the deleted data.
New Scientist Sep 06, 2005	back to top

Power walking - back-pack generates electricity
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusettsin, US have invented a back-pack that converts the up and down motion of walking into electricity. The device can generate 7.4 watts and could be used by field scientists, aid workers and soldiers to power mobile phones, GPS instruments and other devices without having to carry heavy replacement batteries. The new back-pack is based on a rigid-frame pack similar to those used by hikers. However, the compartment carrying the load is suspended from the frame by vertical springs. As the hips drive the frame of back-pack upwards, the load lags behind it, which causes a differential movement between the two. The electricity obtained by this movement can be used immediately or stored in a lightweight rechargeable battery. Tests performed on volunteers showed that they used less energy to generate electricity than expected. Moreover, the volunteers could generate more electricity by simply walking faster or carrying a heavier load.
PhysicsWeb / Science Sep 08, 2005	back to top

Researchers turn keyboard clicks into text
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to turn the clicks and clacks of typing on a computer keyboard into a startlingly accurate transcript of what exactly is being typed. In a paper released last week, the researchers explained how they developed software that could analyse the sound of someone typing on a keyboard for just 10 minutes and then piece together as much as 96 per cent of what had been typed. The technique works because of the simple fact that the sound of someone striking an 'a' key is different from the sound of striking the 't'. Once the different tones had been identified, the team mapped them into similar categories and arrive at some early guesses at what the text might be. They then applied a number of spelling and grammar correction tools to this text to refine those guesses.
Infoworld / IDG Sep 14, 2005	back to top

Inflatable antenna
Airborne radar could be an indispensable tool for the military, although conventional dishes are usually far too heavy to be lifted by blimp or balloon. Soon, however, an entirely inflatable antenna could be carried on the breeze. Toyon Research Corporation in California, US, is developing the unusual radar for the US Army Missile Command in Alabama. The antenna is made by inflating a sphere up to 20 metres in diameter. Half of the sphere is transparent and the other half coated internally with a reflective metallic film. Once inflated, the metallic inside of the sphere takes the shape of a perfectly smooth reflector dish. A microwave radiator mounted inside the sphere on a powered turntable then scans a beam over the dish. The beam bounces off the metal film and out through the clear part of the ball to sweep far and wide. And, because most of the antenna is made of gas, it weighs very little and can be affixed to a lighter-than-air craft.
New scientist Sep 06, 2005	back to top

Will web users 'Flock' to social surfing?
A 'social' web browser has been created to meet the needs of a new generation of web users who want to edit, comment on and share web content, rather than just peruse it. With the underlying capabilities of a basic web browser the new browser, called Flock adds features specifically designed to make writing, editing, sharing and displaying web content faster and easier. 'The problem is that the web browser has remained fairly stable over the last 10 years, but the web has changed quite a bit,' says its creator, Bart Decrem, who left the Mozilla Foundation to build Flock. 'It has gone from a collection of static documents into something that has a largely social dimension to it.' By seamlessly integrating tools for blogging, photo blogging and shared bookmarks into the browser, he hopes Flock will be the first browser to meet the needs of the next generation of collaborative, social web users, which currently number over 10 million and call themselves 'Web 2.0'.
New Scientist Sep 15, 2005	back to top

Computer programmer uses Google to reveal Roman ruins
Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of an ancient river, visible because former watercourses absorb different amounts of moisture from the air than their surroundings do. His eye was caught by unusual 'rectangular shadows' nearby and concluded that the lines must represent a buried structure of human origin. Eventually, he traced out what looked like the inner courtyards of a villa. Archaeologists have confirmed the find. At first it was thought to be a Bronze Age village, but an inspection of the site turned up ceramic pieces that indicated it was a Roman villa.
Nature Sep 12, 2005	back to top