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Apple to search iCloud uploads for child sexual abuse content with ‘NeuralHash’

Among the tools is a new technology that will allow Apple to detect known child sex abuse images stored in users’ iCloud Photo accounts and report them to law enforcement. The detection process will not involve indiscriminate manual inspection of users’ iCloud content. Instead, it will use a new tool called “NeuralHash” which is based on a database of hashes – a digital fingerprint which allows a unique piece of content to be identified but not reconstructed – which represent known images from a database provided by child safety organisations; the hashes will be stored locally. Other major tech companies - including Facebook, Microsoft and Google - already use the same database to detect child sex abuse content on their own platforms. The tool allows edited images similar to the originals…

IET EngX in Cybersecurity
Universities urged to be vigilant against cyber-security threats from essay mills

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) said essay-writing services could “dupe students” and cash in by hacking into university websites and placing content that appears legitimate. Essay-mill attackers typically write on student-facing pages with hyperlinks to their own websites or hijack links to legitimate services with redirects to contract cheating sites. US and Australian universities have already picked up on such activity and UK authorities could employ similar tactics, the watchdog warned. The sector has seen a spike in ransomware attacks. The QAA and education technology not-for-profit organisation Jisc have recently collaborated to raise awareness of the emerging threat and issue advice directly to higher education institutions. Essay mills, which are illegal…

IET EngX in Cybersecurity
‘Carbon debt system’ proposed for polluting companies to encourage eco commitment

In the research article, published in July in the journal Nature, the authors detailed a mechanism for controlling greenhouse gas emissions, inspired by the financial market. By treating greenhouse gas generation as a financial debt, any company that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would incur a carbon debt and must commit to removing its emissions. This commitment is called a ‘Carbon Removal Obligation (CRO)’ and carbon debtors would have to pay interest until their debts were cleared. The money raised in this way could be used to cover the default risks of the CROs and the potential environmental damage caused by such ‘borrowing’. This reflects the fact that carbon borrowing can lead to short-term increases in the carbon budget target temperatures of 1.5°C to 2°C targets considered…

IET EngX in Climate Change
Career-changing decisions empowered by AI tool

The tool, created by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and UNSW Sydney, uses machine learning to identify and recommend jobs with similar underlying skill sets to a person’s current occupation. The system can also respond in real-time to changes in job demand and provide recommendations for the precise skills needed to transition to a new occupation. According to Dr Nikolas Dawson from the UTS Data Science Institute, while workplace change is inevitable, if experts can make the job transition process easier and more efficient there are significant productivity and equity benefits not only for individuals but also for businesses and government. “It can be a daunting proposition to switch to a new career, particularly for those who have been in the same job for a…

IET EngX in Computing
Summer STEM Challenge: Vacuum Pile-Driver

STEM Challenge #51: The pile-driver run Pile-driving is like hammering nails into wood. Except the nails are 30cm or even metres in diameter and 10 or 50m long, and the wood is the Earth! Once in the ground, piles are joined together and form the foundations of buildings from skyscrapers to wind turbines. There are other ways, but a lot of piles are put in the ground by a falling weight. The weight – the hammer – is simply hauled up and then let drop. Here is how to make a pile-driver run off a vacuum cleaner that can hammer garden stakes and posts into the ground. A mains vacuum cleaner can put out about 200mbar pressure – 20 per cent of atmospheric pressure – and a flow rate of tens of litres/second. With this kind of power, up to ~10kg force on an 8cm pipe, a wooden hammer-piston of a…

IET EngX
How can we stay secure in an extended-reality world?

A recent report from the Future of Privacy Forum [PDF] sets out recommendations to tackle the privacy risks associated with immersive augmented (AR) and virtual-reality (VR) technologies that are increasingly being implemented in education and training, gaming, multimedia, navigation and communication. As AR and VR applications that let users explore a shared digital overlay of the physical world in real-time become more widely adopted and improved, they will likely converge into one ‘extended reality’, or XR. These technologies accumulate and process vast amounts of sensitive personal information including biometric data, unique device identifiers, location and information about homes and businesses. Like other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G communications…

IET EngX in Vision and Imaging
Climate injustice: how a biocarbon fund failed Uganda's tree planters

The area around Rwoho forest in the south of Uganda is a lush reserve spanning more than 9,000 ha, an area equivalent to around 12,600 soccer pitches (see map). In 2006 a programme was launched to pay locals to farm and reforest some of it, mainly with new timber plantations of pine and mixed native trees, after years of deforestation and soil erosion. The plan was simple. Locals would look after trees for 22 years or until they reached a certain diameter. They would get paid for it in small increments. But what initially appeared to be a boon to the local rural economy and climate change turned out to be a complicated relationship between funders and farmers – one that ultimately failed. What sounded so simple stopped abruptly last year. The carbon credit project was meant to be an environmental…

IET EngX in Vision and Imaging
Rocky planet discovered half the size of Venus, with potential for life

The VLT, which was updated in 2017 to better detect potentially habitable planets, is comprised of four telescopes that operate at visible and infrared wavelengths. It has shed new light on planets around a nearby star, L 98-59, that resemble those in the inner Solar System, including this new ocean-based exoplanet. “The planet in the habitable zone may have an atmosphere that could protect and support life,” said María Rosa Zapatero Osorio, an astronomer at the Centre for Astrobiology in Madrid, Spain. The results are deemed to be an important step in the quest to find life on Earth-sized planets outside the Solar System. The detection of biosignatures on an exoplanet depends on the ability to study its atmosphere, but current telescopes are not large enough to achieve the resolution…

IET EngX in Space
Plastics, proteins and plants key to reaching net-zero emissions

Electricity, transport, and heating together account for 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and are the priority for governments and businesses working to cut carbon emissions in line with their Paris Agreement obligations. However, reaching net-zero emissions also requires efforts directed at the remaining emissions. The 'Final 25 per cent' of emissions refers to the remaining 20 per cent of emissions contributed by sectors such as agriculture, cement, waste, and plastics, in addition to the extraction of at least 5 per cent equivalent from the atmosphere to account for unavoidable emissions. These emitters come from a wide range of greenhouse gas emitters, making them trickier targets than, for instance, large centralised power stations. Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the…

IET EngX in Renewable Energy
More than 75,000 green jobs lost in past five years, Labour says

The Labour leader called for “rapid green investment” during his two-day tour of Scotland. “Tackling the climate crisis must be at the heart of everything we do. We are at a critical moment. In less than 100 days, COP26 will be over and our chance to keep the planet’s warming below 1.5°C will have either been grasped or abandoned,” said Starmer. “The UK must rise to this moment and lead by example. That means rapid action to create good, green jobs across the country. And it means a proper strategy to buy, make, and sell more in Britain, to create good, unionised jobs in clean energy and through supply chains. “Nobody here in the UK can afford for this issue to be yet another example of Boris Johnson bluster. We need real action, now. It is time for a Green New Deal.” Figures from the…

IET EngX in Renewable Energy
Rolls-Royce confirms return to profit as aviation sector faces long Covid recovery

Alongside much of its sector, Rolls-Royce fell into the red last year as the number of passengers willing to take flights fell dramatically due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport, said its passenger numbers were down 72.2 per cent in 2020 compared to the year before. However, the firm's bottom-line profits picked up to £393m for the first six months of 2021, a significant improvement over the £5.4bn losses of one year ago. Part of the recovery relied on stringent cost-cutting measures, including shedding over 9,000 jobs, two-thirds of which will affect the UK. It confirmed that around 8,000 jobs have already been scrapped under the proposals. The firm also plans to raise at least £2bn from selling off some parts of the business. This came just days after it announced…

IET EngX in Business Planning
Book review: ‘World Brain’ by HG Wells

The surest sign of a writer’s fame is when they themselves become a literary hero. This is certainly the case with HG Wells - polymath, prophet, legendary fantasist and one of the 20th century’s most prolific authors - who features as a character and/or a protagonist in a number of works of contemporary fiction. Ronald Wright’s ‘A Scientific Romance’ and Robert Masello’s ‘The Haunting of HG Wells’ are just two. Wells’ widely known literary and technological predictions range from the time machine, which has not (yet) come true, to the atomic bomb, which regrettably has. His less well-known techno prophecy is that of the 'World Brain'; a pre-digital, freely available ‘World Encyclopaedia’ accumulating the bulk of all human knowledge. This, he believed, would lead to an ideal, perennially peaceful…

IET EngX
UK automotive sector faced weakest July sales in decades

A combination of supply chain shortages and the ‘pingdemic’ have frustrated attempts to boost sales with industry estimates for the year being revised down to 1.82 million units. A total of 123,296 new cars were registered in the UK last month, representing a 29.5 per cent decline from July 2020. But purchases of plug-in vehicle have bucked the trend, accelerating to 17.1 per cent of market with 21,039 units registered in July. Electric vehicles are now expected to account for more than one in six new cars acquired in 2021, a necessary uptick ahead of the ban on sales of new petrol cars from 2030 . The SMMT said that Britain’s most popular types of cars remained superminis (32.9 per cent of registrations), lower medium (28.0 per cent) and dual purpose (27.3 per cent). While the UK’s…

IET EngX in Automotive Engineering
‘Cough-In-A-Box’ smartphone test for Covid-19 undergoing trials

A partnership between Fujitsu, Formwize, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Cloudsoft, a Scottish software and service provider, the ‘Cough-In-A-Box’ diagnostic test - based on research released in October 2020 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - has been shown to correctly identify 98.5 per cent of positive cases, including 100 per cent of asymptomatic cases. The application uses artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose Covid-19 through audio recordings of a user coughing directly into their smartphone’s microphone. Analysing more than 70,000 recordings submitted by volunteers, which included around 2,500 from people confirmed to have Covid-19, the researchers from MIT were able to train the AI model to correctly identify positive cases. Since December 2020…

IET EngX in Computing
Hands-on review: JLab Talk Pro USB microphone

In 2002, a London-based duo released an album under the eponymous title '1 Giant Leap'. Issued as a DVD documenting its creation, most of the musical and vocal performances included in the final release were recorded during a six-month globetrotting journey, taking in such far-flung places as Senegal, Ghana, India, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand and the US. Featured musicians included Neneh Cherry, Robbie Williams, Michael Stipe, Baaba Maal and Maxi Priest, with spoken word contributions from Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. All these performances were captured in the moment, on the hoof and often in remote locations, frequently without a recording studio – sometimes without a building of any kind – in sight. No audio interface. No mixing desk. Not even a microphone in some cases – just…

IET EngX in Signal Processing
View from Brussels: Keeping the lights on at the neighbours

Ukraine is the largest country that is wholly in Europe. An aspiring member of the EU and Nato, it is still largely reliant on fossil fuels but can also boast a relatively high level of energy self-sufficiency. Despite sharing borders with four EU member countries – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania – Ukraine’s power grid is not integrated with those networks, meaning that electricity cannot be traded or exchanged. Ukraine has to rely on Russia to balance its grid as it lacks the proper infrastructure to achieve the feat itself. This creates a dependency on Moscow that Kyiv is understandably uncomfortable with, given the frosty ties that exist between the two neighbours. By 2023, Ukraine intends to decouple its grid from Russia’s and link it to the EU’s, which should in theory unlock…

IET EngX in Renewable Energy
World’s densest air quality sensor network to be rolled out in Camden

With installations taking place this summer by project leaders AirLabs, Camden Council hopes it will provide at least 100 times more data points and refresh 60 times more regularly than existing air quality reference stations. The network of AirNode sensors will be able to show a street by street picture of air quality in the area in real time. The data will contribute to local decision making in trying to improve air quality in the borough, particularly around schools, offices, hospitals, retail and hospitality businesses. In May, it emerged that some Camden residents were being exposed to illegal concentrations of toxic pollution. Council data revealed four places in the borough where concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were above the legal limit in 2020 despite the sizeable…

IET EngX in Electromagnetic Devices
Hands-on review: Trust Taxon webcam

This affordable 2K webcam upgrade promises to improve the quality of your video calls and also offers you the option of a two-camera set-up. I opened the small box and did what everyone does: I plugged it into my computer’s USB port and disregarded the instructions. Would my Windows 10 PC automatically see it and set it up? That’s the smooth tech experience we all seek… and we all know that it doesn’t always work out. The Taxon is small and lightweight, with a 1.8m cable that’s far too long for most users. The majority of people will want to perch the cam on top of their laptop screen, so 60cm would be plenty. You’re left with a zigzag of excess cable. But set-up worked. I plugged it in and, before I had time to faff around with the camera positioning, ‘Setting up a device’ popped up…

IET EngX in Consumer Technology
Beyond Asimov’s three laws: the case for an International AI Agency

Earlier this year, the European Union proposed a draft regulation to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens from certain applications of artificial intelligence. In the USA last month, the Biden administration launched a taskforce seeking to spur AI innovation. On the same day, China adopted its new Data Security Law, asserting a stronger role for the state in controlling the data that fuels AI. These three approaches - rights, markets, sovereignty - highlight the competing priorities as governments grapple with how to reap the benefits of AI while minimising harm. A cornucopia of proposals offers to fill the policy void. For the most part, however, the underlying problem is misconceived as being either too hard or too easy. Too hard, in that great effort has gone into generating…

IET EngX in Nuclear Power
Computational models challenge assumption about limits of carbon capture

The researchers, who are based at Imperial College’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Centre for Environmental Policy, used computational models to demonstrate that post-combustion carbon capture using amine absorption could capture up to 99 per cent of carbon at the source while remaining cost effective. There has been a long-held assumption that 90 per cent carbon capture is the upper limit for carbon capture technologies, becoming ubiquitous across literature and leading to doubts around the feasibility of capturing more. “In recent years, this 90 per cent assumption is being challenged as we begin or transition towards net-zero emissions,” the researchers explained. “Our findings show that there are no technical or economic barriers in capturing 99 per cent of CO2 from both power…

IET EngX in Renewable Energy
Proper reuse and recycling of electronics could create half a million UK jobs

Green Alliance urged the government to drive economic growth by expanding the circular economy which sees products and resources kept in use for as long as possible through reuse, recovery, remanufacturing and recycling. The UK’s current approach is unsustainable, the report found, with too many products and materials cast aside without a structure in place to reclaim them or prolong their use. Indeed, a study from last year found that Britons produce the second largest amount of e-waste per person in Europe, producing around 55kg of e-waste each. The report claims that a reused iPhone retains around 48 per cent of its original value compared to just 0.24 per cent when recycled. “Just a few new policies focused on improving the use of valuable resources, led by the Treasury, would help…

IET EngX in Waste Management
Stinkweed could make for greener renewable jet fuel

Pennycress, often referred to as stinkweed, is a common weed throughout Eurasia and North America. In the past 20 years, there has been some interest in harnessing it as a potential renewable fuel crop rather than just treating it as a weed, as the high erucic acid content of its seeds could make it suitable as a jet fuel. “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from air travel will mean not just incremental changes, but a fundamental change in how we have been producing fuel and where that fuel comes from,” said Professor Ajay Shah, senior author of the Ohio State University study. “And what we found is that pennycress might make a very good alternative fuel, especially when you consider the environmental costs of producing it.” Growing pennycress as a crop requires less fertiliser and fewer…

IET EngX in Renewable Energy
Starliner’s launch to the ISS called off due to last-minute glitch

Mission teams are now examining the cause of indications on Starliner’s propulsion system of an “unexpected valve position”. The reusable crew capsule, in development for over a decade, has been designed to transport crew to the ISS and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Alongside Nasa teams, Boeing worked through several steps to try and troubleshoot the problem, but was ultimately forced to call off the launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Engineering teams have already ruled out a number of potential causes, including software, but additional time is needed to complete the assessment, Nasa said. The teams plan to take whatever time is necessary to ensure Starliner is ready for its uncrewed flight test to the space station and will look for the next available…

IET EngX in Space
Book review: ‘Ten Days in Physics That Shook the World’ by Brian Clegg

To begin with, I’d like to take issue with the title of this book, nicely written and highly illuminating as it is. Brian Clegg’s pun on John Reed’s iconic chronicle of the 1917 Russian revolution, ‘Ten Days That Shook the World’, is misleading in that the title of Reed’s courageous and eye-opening reportage was tongue-in-cheek. His diary-style account of the revolution, with all its chaos, poverty, violence and corruption has a negative connotation. In Reed’s view, those ten days changed the world not for the better, but for the worse. If they shook the world, it was to a point at which it nearly collapsed – the direct opposite of what Clegg ascribes to what he considers the ten most important discoveries in the world of physics, all of which have contributed hugely to improving our lives…

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