Developed by Jan-Michael Frahm and Fabian Monrose of the UNC-Chapel Hill, iSpy a new piece of software that could make it dramatically easier to steal personal data which can remotely identify and read text typed on touchscreen displays. Frahm and Fabian Monrose, also of UNC-Chapel Hill, have built a program, dubbed iSpy, that can identify text typed on a touchscreen from video footage of the screen or even its reflection in windows or sunglasses. This program, like those before it, takes advantage of the magnified keys found on most touchscreens. Letters on a virtual Android or iPhone keyboard pop up in
Read MoreAt the end of October 2011, Thomas Senkel of e-volo made the first manned flight with an e-powered multicopter at an airstrip in the southwest of Germany. The flight lasted one minute and 30 seconds, after which the constructor and test pilot stated: "The flight characteristics are good natured. Without any steering input it would just hover there on the spot". This could be the future of flight, piloting a device as simple as a car.
Do you have lots of physical books that you wish you could carry around in your eBook reader? The physical to digital conversion of books just got a lot cheaper with the launch of 1DollarScan.com, based in San Jose, California. 1DollarScan exactly what its name implies ship your documents and books to 1DollarScan and they will scan them, OCR and convert them into searchable PDF format, and then send you either a download link or the PDF on a DVD. Charges for the service is one dollar only. 100 pages of a book, 10 pages of a business document, 10
Read MoreWatch how future technology will help people make better use of their time, focus their attention, and strengthen relationships while getting things done at work, home, and on the go. In 5-10 years, how will people get things done at work, at home, and on the go? Watch the concept video to get a glimpse of the future of productivity, then explore the stories and technology in more detail. Microsoft Vision
A team at the Media Computing Group at Aachen University figured out how to put a series of electromagnets underneath a display to provide haptic feedback for touchscreens. They showed off their tech at the 2011 UIST conference and made their paper available. FingerFlux, a bed of tiny electromagnets is placed underneath a panel display. The user wears a ‘thimble’ with an attached permanent magnet. Driving the bed of electromagnets slightly moves the magnet and provides a little bit of sensation to the user. FingerFlux is a haptic output technique that provides near-surface haptic feedback on interactive tabletops. It combines an
Read MorePhD student Chris Harrison et al at Microsoft Research have created a new system that allows touchscreen interaction on hairy and uneven surfaces. It uses a short-range depth camera instead of the infrared sensor we've seen on similar devices, which allows it to gauge the viewing angle and other characteristics of surfaces being used and it can even handle pinch-to-zoom. OmniTouch is a wearable depth-sensing and projection system that enables interactive multitouch applications on everyday surfaces. Beyond the shoulder-worn system, there is no instrumentation of the user or environment. Foremost, the system allows the wearer to use their hands, arms and
Read MoreCaptchas are an easy way to prevent automated bots from diminishing the quality of a website, which is why you’ve probably spent a good amount of time squinting at their bent, fuzzy text. Current computer programs have a hard time reading them, and it turns out that so do humans. On average it takes us about 12 seconds to solve one. They’re one of the only online spaces where consumers involuntarily apply any focus. Solve Media's proprietary TYPE-IN™ is branded CAPTCHA (human authentication), which places relevant brand messages where users are already engaged. TYPE-IN™ ads provide value for Advertisers, Publishers and
Read MoreCarbyn has built an entire HTML5-based OS. Carbyn is an online app operating system, bringing the same type of full App experience we all love on iOS but doing it in the browser meaning accessible by everyone on all devices; phones, tablets, and desktops new and old. Since it’s HTML5 there’s nothing to install and it works in the browser. You simply open a browser and log-in to Carbyn and you’re ready to go. They demoed it to be running on both an iPad and a BlackBerry PlayBook. Soon it will work on smartphones as well. Once you load up the
Read MoreResearchers at the University of Michigan have figured out a way to drastically increase your cellphone's battery life, at least while using WiFi. By using what they're calling E-MiLi, or Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening, professor Kang Shin (right) and student Xinyu Zhang have developed a proof of concept that could extend battery life up to 54-percent with the WiFi radio on. Even when idle, a wireless radio is actively checking for incoming traffic. E-MiLi scales back the wireless card's clock to just 1/16th of its normal operating speed, and only kicks back into full gear when it senses incoming data. Even
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