• Judge rules NSA data collection is likely unlawful

    The judgement on the so-called metadata counter terrorism programme was made yesterday by District Judge Richard Leon, appointed by Republican President George W Bush in 2002, raising "serious doubts" about the value of the scheme. "I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen," he wrote in a 68-page ruling. The Department of Justice said it was reviewing the ruling in a case brought by Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, described in court documents as the father of a cryptologist technician for the NSA who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011. The judge ordered the government to stop collecting data about the two plaintiffs, who were Verizon…

  • Network operators must adapt for M2M market

    Well-publicised predictions of 50 billion plus connected devices by 2020 are wide of the mark, according to Tom Rebbeck, research director at consultancy Analysys Mason, and if anything have harmed the sector by raising and then dashing investors’ hopes. But with Analysys Mason’s latest forecast showing that the number of M2M connections worldwide will grow by 29 per cent a year through to 2023, there are plenty of opportunities for cellular network operators to cash in on the rise of Internet of Things if they are prepared to diversify. “Connectivity is only a small part of the M2M market,” said Rebbeck, speaking at an even organised by Cambridge Wireless in London yesterday. “If operators are only going to get into connectivity they are only going to get a tiny sliver of the market.” Low…

  • Stories of Red Kites told by computers

    Data from the tagged birds is allowing sophisticated computer language programmes to write the story of their lives through daily and weekly blogs of how and why they explore the landscape around them. The Blogging Birds project , launched today, is part of a collaboration between computer and environmental scientists at the University of Aberdeen and conservationists at the RSPB. Several kites have been fitted with satellite tags that relay the kites’ position up to six times a day and this information is then enriched with information on weather, habitat and landscape to build a picture of the birds’ movements and home ranges. Pioneering programming called “Natural Language Generation” then allows computers to generate written language from this information, in the form of a blog post about…

  • Battery-free wireless brings Internet-of-things closer

    The new communication technique, which the researchers call “ambient backscatter,” takes advantage of the background TV and cellular transmissions that surrounding us everyday. University of Washington (UW) engineers built small, battery-free devices with antennas that can detect and harness a signal, as both a power source and a communication medium, before reflecting it to be picked up by other similar devices to exchange information. The technology could enable a network of devices and sensors to communicate with no power source or human attention needed. “We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium,” said lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. “It’s hopefully going…

  • 'Shirt-button' devices track migrating house martins

    Birds that nest in the UK in the summer will be tracked to discover where they migrate to in the winter months, which is currently a mystery. The project follows a successful programme monitoring cuckoos fitted with the miniature geolocation tracking devices, manufactured by Biotrack, which has already established that cuckoos from the UK tend to migrate to Congo – and for longer periods than originally thought. In the past year, there have been several reports of long-established house martin colonies being abandoned, possibly due to the cool wet 2012 summer, so the Trust also wants to know where house martins are building their nests this year. “There are huge gaps in our knowledge of this wonderful little bird,” explained BTO spokesman Paul Stancliffe. “Do they abandon colonies one year…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • eLoran stations to be rolled out across UK

    Following approval by the Department for Transport, seven differential eLoran stations will be installed to provide alternative position, navigation and timing (PNT) information to ensure that ships equipped with eLoran receivers can navigate safely in the event of GPS failure in one of the busiest shipping regions in the world. The GPS signals most ships rely on are vulnerable to both deliberate and accidental jamming, which is causing increasing concern because of the wide availability of GPS jammers online for as little as £30 that are capable of causing complete outages across all receivers currently on the market. The rollout, led by the General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) of the UK and Ireland, is the first in the world to deploy this technology for shipping companies operating both…

  • Space telescope to unravel mysteries of solar wind

    The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft was launched into orbit early this morning on a mission to determine how the sun heats its atmosphere to millions of degrees, sending off rivers of particles that define the boundaries of the solar system. The study is far from academic. Solar activity directly impacts Earth's climate and the space environment beyond the planet's atmosphere and solar storms can knock out power grids, disrupt radio signals and interfere with communications , navigation and other satellites in orbit. "We live in a very complex society and the sun has a role to play in it," said physicist Alan Title, with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, which designed and built the telescope. The mission is designed to…

  • Wi-Fi based gesture recognition technology invented

    University of Washington (UW) computer scientists have shown it is possible to leverage the Wi-Fi signals around us to detect specific movements without needing sensors on the human body or cameras. By using an adapted Wi-Fi router and a few wireless devices in the living room users could turn off lights with a simple finger-swipe or change the song playing on their music system in the next room by moving their hand to the right. “This is repurposing wireless signals that already exist in new ways,” said lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. “You can actually use wireless for gesture recognition without needing to deploy more sensors.” The UW research team, which includes Shwetak Patel, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering…

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