WORLD TECH UPDATE #23
July 25, 2008
Cold Open
Make your own Xbox games, a robot helps paralyzed people walk again, and hackers descend on New York City. All that news and more on this week's World Tech Update.
Intro
Thanks for joining us on World Tech Update. I'm Nick Barber and fresh back from a trip to New York City for the Last HOPE hackers convention. That's where we'll start with our news this week.
About two thousand hackers from around the world flocked to midtown Manhattan for the Last Hackers on Planet Earth Conference. There was technology, art, gadget soldering and lock picking, but we'll get to that in just a bit. Probably the biggest draw at the show was renown cyber criminal Kevin Mitnick who spent 5 years in federal prison for computer hacking. At the show he spoke about his early days as a prankster.
SOT - Kevin Mitnick
Have any of you played with McDonalds with radio? Then you know what fun you can have. So when a customer drives up to the drive through window and places and order, I with my friends parked across the street could take over the system. So now the customer is not speaking to the guy inside with the headset, he's speaking to me. Customer drives up, yes can I take your order please. Congratulations, you're our 50th customer today, drive up your order is free!
And there was an eye opening session on RFID technology, which can now be found in everything from credit cards to passports and pose a significant security threat.
RenderMan
The encryption on these things is not very strong. They're also very easily read. The tin foil hat that they came up with, because when they put these out for a request for comments there was like 2,000 comments against and like 2 for it. So what their compromise was was that we'll still have the RFID, but we'll put a metal foil layer in the front and back cover. Now this seems like a good idea, except that it's self defeating. I don't if you can see, but the passport with the metal foil in it naturally wants to pop open about an inch which is enough to read the data from it. So their tin foil hat is actually self defeating because it increases the stiffness in the cover and it naturally wants to pop open. You can see he pushes it down, the data stream stops. Now it's reading. Stops. Then it starts reading, pushes it down again and it stops. So if you've got this thing in a purse or a loose pocket or something like that the whole point of the tin foil hat to not be able to be read until its actually presented at the border is negated.
Aside from the talks, there were a lot of homegrown projects on display. One of the most interesting investigated the intersection between technology and biology. A PhD student came up with a shirt that visually displays a users heartbeat. He also showed off another project.
I've also been working on this truth wristband I call it. And I call it the truth because it measures my galvanic skin response, one of the components of a lie detector test, but it's actually really sensitive to your emotions.
When slapped, the wristband meter will spike.
Here's some news you can use. There's a new service available that allows you to leave a message directly into someone's voicemail without making their phone ring. Let's face it, we've all been there. It's called Sly Dial and is a service offered by Boston based Mobile Sphere. Just call 2-6-7-S-L-Y-D-I-A-L, listen to a short advertisement put in the number you want to call and you're automatically dumped into the voicemail box. It works on any mobile phone in the US.
Microsoft is left doing a little shuffling after the departure of the head of the company's online services. Just a week after releasing financial earnings, dragged down by its online services group, the head of is operations Kevin Johnson plans to leave the company. Microsoft's online services business reported nearly a half a billion dollar loss in operating income for its fourth quarter, more than double the loss the division saw last year. Johnson was also part of the driving force behind Microsoft's unsuccessful attempt to acquire Yahoo.
NTT DoCoMo demonstrated its Super 3G research at Wireless Japan in Tokyo this week. The carrier brought its Super 3G test truck to the event and is showing the system sending data at 25 megabits per second and receiving data at 100 megabits per second. Over the link several live video channels in both standard and high-def can be sent. DoCoMo started working on Super 3G 2 years ago as a stepping stone to bridge the gap between today's HSDPA systems and future 4G cellular. In outdoor tests near its R&D center, DoCoMo has managed to get Super 3G up to 250 megabits per second downstream. The carrier hopes Super 3G will be completed by the end of 2009 with a commercial rollout as early as 2010.
It's called augmented reality and it's where computer images and the real world mix. This system is on display at Wirless Japan this week and is from Geisha Tokyo Entertainment. It involves a Web cam recognizing a 2D bar code on a small cube. When it sees the cube a computer generated character appears on screen. Leave her alone and she'll get bored, sit around and even clean your desktop if you're lucky. You can interact with her using another coded cube. And a barcode box represents a present, which she'll be excited to receive. She's called Alice and should be arriving in October in Japan. The company also has plans to put the software on-sale in the US and China.
At the 2008 Game Developers Conference, Microsoft announced plans that will allow users to develop downloadable Xbox 360 games and get paid to create them. After they pass a review on the company's peer review website and make it to the new Community Game storefront, creators can get up to 70% of revenues from the sales. The Community Game storefront goes live with the Xbox 360 Experience dashboard update in late 2008.
The broadband wireless access technology called WiMAX is expected to catch on and gain momentum in the Asia Pacific region. According to Springboard Research, WiMAX services revenues are estimated to grow from 58 million US dollars in 2007 to nearly 5 and a half billion dollars in 2012. In that same period subscribers are expected to increase by more than a hundred fold to nearly 40 million users. India and Japan are predicted to be the largest markets for the service.
In our robotics round up this week, an Israeli company has created a device that gives those with lower limb disabilities the chance to walk again. It's flagship product is called the ReWalk and is an alternative to wheelchairs, allowing paralyzed people to stand, walk, and even climb stairs. The device is a wearable robotic suit that uses motion sensors, robotic control algorithms, on board computers and other features to help a user walk. In order for ReWalk to benefit users, they must have healthy cardiovascular systems and be able to use their hands and shoulders to use the crutches with the device.
That's our show for this week, thanks for joining us here on World Tech Update. Be sure to join us next time for your weekly dose of tech news. As we head out this week, we'll leave you with shots from the Last HOPE hackers conference in New York City. I'm Nick Barber and for all of us here at the IDG News Service, thanks for watching and we hope to see you next week.
Produced by
IDG News Service
Nick Barber
Martyn Williams
Reporting
IDG News Service
Nick Barber
Martyn Williams
Chiara Castanedea
Robert McMillan
Nancy Gohring
Len Rust, Computerworld Australia
Paul Venezia, Infoworld
GamePro
Video
IDG News Service
Microsoft
Argo Medical Technologies
Lower thirds
Nick Barber
IDG News Service, Boston
Last HOPE hackers conference
Kevin Mitnick
Last HOPE, New York
RenderMan
Hacker
RFID tech at HOPE
Homemade projects at HOPE
Sean Montgomery
Neuroscience researcher
HOPE's Truth Meter
New service, straight to vmail
267-SLY-DIAL
Microsoft shuffle
Online service head leaves
Wireless Japan: Super 3G
Wireless Japan: Augmented reality
San Francisco WiFi back
Make your own Xbox games
WiMAX catching on
WTU Robotics Round Up
Email us at WTU@idg.com
People
Kevin Mitnick
RenderMan
Sean Montgomery
Kevin Johnson
Company
Mobile Spehere
Microsoft
NTT DoCoMo
Geisha Tokyo Entertainment
Product
Last HOPE
Super 3G
Xbox 360
WiMAX
ReWalk
