• New radar technology to free-up radio spectrum

    The government has tasked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) with investigating options that would allow it to release bandwidth in the current air traffic radar spectrum allocation – in the ‘S Band’ between 2.7 and 2.9 GHz – to help meet its aspiration to free up 500 MHz of public spectrum by 2020. In response, Cambridge technology firm Aveillant has been awarded a contract by the CAA to demonstrate the ability of its Holographic Radar technology to provide a spectrum-efficient alternative to S-band radar. At present each radar typically has its own frequency assignment, but Aveillant hopes to demonstrate a surveillance system that can enable all air traffic control radars in the UK to operate through a single frequency assignment, separate from the ‘S Band’. The firm’s radars use the L band…

  • New jamming devices block both GPS and Galileo

    Professor Brad Parkinson, the chief architect of GPS, will today tell a conference at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory in Teddington that the satellite based navigation now ubiquitous in industries as varied as aviation and maritime navigation, banking, and mobile phone operations needs to be made more resilient. His call follows news from the SENTINEL project, funded by The Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, of the first recorded seizures of second generation signal jammers from crime scenes in the UK that are considerably more powerful than any previously recorded, with ranges extending several miles. The devices are capable of disrupting not only the GPS service, but also various other positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signal…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • Tiny wireless heart monitor implanted in Briton

    David Baldock, 68, had the injectable Medtronic Reveal LINQ device inserted into his chest at the Eastbourne District General Hospital. It is injected close to the heart in a procedure lasting between two and five minutes using local anaesthetic, meaning the patient does not have to undergo a full operation. The device is primarily used to help pinpoint why a patient was suffering blackouts or an irregular heartbeat. Using WiFi technology, the mini-monitor tells cardiologists what their patient's heart is doing, leading to faster and more accurate diagnoses, experts said. Retired locksmith Baldock, from Uckfield, said: "All I felt was quite a bit of pressure as they inserted the device in my chest, and that was it. It was very straightforward. "It's a heart monitor so it just records the heartbeat…

  • Fund for broadband delivery pilots in remote areas

    The money will help pay for a range of pilot projects to be tested across the country, with potential technologies including using 4G mobile signal to deliver 'fixed wireless superfast broadband', using fibre direct to premises, and satellite technology. A government programme is under way to bring superfast speeds to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017, and is now focused on reaching the final 5 per cent of the most isolated communities. Culture secretary Maria Miller said: "Our nationwide roll-out of superfast broadband will benefit everyone from school children to business owners, parents to patients. An estimated 10,000 homes and businesses are gaining access to superfast speeds every week but now we need to focus on the hardest to reach communities. "If we want to ensure that all communities…

  • Twitter creator unveils people-based search service

    The Jelly smartphone app, backed by Biz Stone who was part of the team that created Twitter in 2006, lets users submit questions to the network of friends that they have on social services such as Twitter or Facebook. Users can send a text query or circle something in a photo they've taken to ask for help identifying the object or for more information about it. "Everyone is mobile, everyone is connected. So if you have a question, there's somebody out there that knows the answer," said Stone, CEO and co-founder of Jelly in a video on the company's website. Stone left Twitter in June 2011. Among the backers of the new company are Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, venture capital investor Reid Hoffman, as well as U2 frontman Bono and former Vice President of the United States…

  • 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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