Tim Hornyak

Author Archives: Tim Hornyak

Zensors app lets you crowdsource live camera monitoring

If you feel like you need eyes in the back of your head, there’s a crowdsourcing app for that.Zensors is a smartphone application that can monitor an area of interest by using a camera, crowdsourced workers and artificial intelligence.Developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and University of Rochester, the idea behind Zensors is to use any camera in a fixed location to detect changes in what’s being monitored—for instance whether a pet’s food bowl is empty—and automatically notify users.The developers say it’s a cheap, accessible way to add sensors to the environment, part of the move toward building smart homes and smart cities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo explores ears, knuckles to unlock smartphones

If you’re tired of using your fingertip or a PIN to unlock your smartphone, Yahoo suggests using your ear instead.In a project presented at the 2015 Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in Seoul this week, Yahoo showed that other body parts can unlock phones in a fast, secure manner.This approach to biometric authentication makes use of capacitive touchscreens in phones. Compared to relatively expensive fingerprint sensors, which have been deployed in higher-end phones, Yahoo’s technology can be used on any phone with a touchscreen, even cheap handsets.While not as simple as PINs, the system would be quicker and more convenient than inputting four digits.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

MtGox creditors can finally file claims for lost bitcoins

Former customers of MtGox, once the world’s largest trading place for bitcoin, can finally file claims for lost assets.The filings are starting over a year after the exchange collapsed with bitcoin worth hundreds of millions of dollars missing. Claims will be accepted until May 29, bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi announced Wednesday at a MtGox creditors’ meeting.The claims will be submitted online at claims.mtgox.com and users have the option of sending them via Kraken, the bitcoin exchange operated by Payward, which has been helping Kobayashi in investigating the lost coins and setting up the claims system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

App opens up smartphone use for people with arm paralysis

South Korean researchers have developed an app that helps people with arm paralysis use smartphones.Dubbed Dowell, the app is designed to assist people who can’t use their hands well, and is targeted at users with muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), stroke and other ailments that restrict movement.The app has a user interface that works with a variety of input methods for disabled people, which are known as computer assistive devices. It can receive information from a trackball mouse, head-tracking camera and mouth stick, which is a tool for manipulating a cursor with the mouth.The project is being presented at the 2015 Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in Seoul this week as part of an industry-university collaboration involving Samsung Electronics.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

To control your phone, just keep tapping it

If you’re tired of touching that touchscreen, try hitting your phone and making some noise.Researchers in South Korea have developed a sound-based method of controlling smartphones, and connected appliances, by tapping them.Graduate students from Seoul National University of Science and Technology are demonstrating an Android app called Sound Tap at the 2015 Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in Seoul this week.Sound Tap can be used to control a smartphone by tapping its rear surface with a finger once or twice, or by lightly striking the phone itself against various surfaces in the environment. Since the taps create unique frequencies, they can be used to trigger different functions on the phone, such as calling up browsers, photo galleries or music players.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Deterrence will keep a lid on cyberwar, former spy chief says

Major sponsors of cyberwarfare forces are reaching a state of deterrence resembling the mutually assured destruction in nuclear weapons standoffs, former U.S. national intelligence director Dennis Blair said Tuesday.All nation states would suffer if countries engaged in cyberattacks against civilians, and world leaders including those in China and Russia are reluctant to unleash such forces, Blair, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who oversaw U.S. intelligence from 2009 to 2010, told a news conference in Tokyo.Military and civilian systems are often intertwined, Blair said, pointing to GPS as an example of a military technology that is now used in widespread civilian applications from navigation to financial transactions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sharp develops 4K smartphone display, undecided on manufacturing plan

Sharp has developed a 5.5-inch display with 3860 x 2160 pixel resolution, which is equivalent to “ultra high definition,” also known as 4K.The prototype LCD display, which could be used in smartphones in the future, has a pixel density of 806 pixels per inch (ppi) and was shown off last week at the China Information Technology Expo in Shenzhen, China. It was part of a larger, 12.5-inch IGZO panel.Sharp hasn’t decided on a schedule for mass production yet. “Currently there are no driver ICs for small 4K panels, so the panel is not ready for mass production at this point,” Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said via email.The company wants to develop and mass-produce 4K screens for clients’ phones but it’s too early to say whether they will be used in Sharp’s own Aquos line of smartphones, she added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Transforming robot probes Fukushima reactor vessel

Tokyo Electric Power on Friday sent a robot where no machine has gone before—inside the highly radioactive heart of a reactor at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.The robot, developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID), was inserted into the primary containment vessel (PCV) of reactor No. 1 at the plant, which was heavily damaged by the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated northern Japan.Tokyo Electric is taking the unprecedented step to better determine the state of melted-down fuel in the reactor as part of plans to dismantle the plant, a spokesman said. The No. 2 and No. 3 reactors also suffered meltdowns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Camera chip could turn phones into 3D scanners

U.S. researchers have developed a camera chip that could give smartphones the ability to take 3D scans of everyday objects, a sought-after feature in the 3D-printing world.Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said their device is based on a cheap silicon chip less than 1 millimeter square and it can produce 3D scans with extremely fine resolution.The chips could be incorporated into phones and the data could be sent to 3D printers to duplicate scanned objects, eliminating the need to use large desktop devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sharp mulls overhaul of LCD business amid fierce competition

Struggling electronics maker Sharp said Monday it is grappling with how to reform its LCD panel business, but has yet to make any decisions.Kyodo News and other media reported that Sharp plans to spin off its business for small and mid-size LCD panels, used in smartphones and other mobile devices, by getting the state-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) to invest ¥100 billion (US$840 million) in a new subsidiary.INCJ would control a roughly 40 percent stake in the LCD subsidiary, according to the reports. Sharp, however, denied that any plans have been made regarding its own business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LinkedIn buys social knowledge startup Refresh

In a move that could yield even more automated suggestions and tips for LinkedIn users, the professional network has acquired California startup Refresh, the maker of an app that gathers news and insights about participants in meetings.Launched three years ago, Refresh is designed to be a “digital briefing book” that can call up online information related to people that users are scheduled to meet. The information can be anything from blog posts, news articles or Facebook posts to personal notes or favorite sports teams.The Refresh mobile and desktop app is aimed at helping people relate to one another more quickly, but it can also be used to refresh one’s memory when running into acquaintances unexpectedly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fujitsu’s thin heat pipe could let smartphone chips run cooler

If parts of your phone are sometimes too hot to handle, Fujitsu may have the answer: a thin heat pipe that can spread heat around mobile devices, reducing extremes of temperature.Fujitsu Laboratories created a heat pipe in the form of a loop that’s less than 1mm thick. The device can transfer about 20W, about five times more heat than current thin heat pipes or thermal materials, the company said.The technology could improve smartphones’ performance by helping cool their CPUs and other heat-producing components, spreading that heat more evenly across other parts of the phone.Overheating has been an issue with some Samsung Galaxy smartphones, and the Korean manufacturer apparently dropped Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor from the Galaxy S6 due to excessive heat concerns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sony pulls the plug on PlayStation Mobile platform

PlayStation Mobile, Sony’s attempt to recreate PlayStation experiences on Android smartphones, tablets and the PS Vita, will close in July.The platform will stop distributing content on July 15 and in-app purchases and downloads of previously purchased software will stop on Sept. 10, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) said Wednesday. An associated application, PlayStation Mobile for Android, will be unavailable after Sept. 10.The development is another blow to Sony’s struggling mobile business, which hasn’t been able to outperform like the company’s hit PlayStation 4 gaming console. The PS4 had sold over 20.2 million units worldwide through the end of February and is slated to begin sales in China on March 20, following a delay of more than two months.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fujitsu tech can track heavily blurred people in security videos

Fujitsu has developed image-processing technology that can be used to track people in security camera footage, even when the images are heavily blurred to protect their privacy.Fujitsu Laboratories said its technology is the first of its kind that can detect people from low-resolution imagery in which faces are indistinguishable.Detecting the movements of people could be useful for retail design, reducing pedestrian congestion in crowded urban areas or improving evacuation routes for emergencies, it said.Fujitsu used computer-vision algorithms to analyze the imagery and identify the rough shapes, such as heads and torsos, that remain even if the image is heavily pixelated. The system can pick out multiple people in a frame, even if they overlap.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DoCoMo app shares SIM credentials with offline devices

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo has developed an app that can wirelessly send authentication credentials to devices that are not connected to the Internet, allowing more hardware to get online or query the cloud.Potential applications of the technology include the ability to share mobile SIM user credentials such as phone numbers among multiple devices without the need to physically transfer a SIM card. It could also be used for giving online access to IoT (Internet of Things) hardware.Based on prototype hardware announced last year, the Portable SIM App for Android can transfer data with a wave of a hand. The carrier is exhibiting the app at Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DoCoMo app shares SIM credentials with offline devices

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo has developed an app that can wirelessly send authentication credentials to devices that are not connected to the Internet, allowing more hardware to get online or query the cloud. Potential applications of the technology include the ability to share mobile SIM user credentials such as phone numbers among multiple devices without the need to physically transfer a SIM card. It could also be used for giving online access to IoT (Internet of Things) hardware. Based on prototype hardware announced last year, the Portable SIM App for Android can transfer data with a wave of a hand. The carrier is exhibiting the app at Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DoCoMo app shares SIM credentials with offline devices

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo has developed an app that can wirelessly send authentication credentials to devices that are not connected to the Internet, allowing more hardware to get online or query the cloud. Potential applications of the technology include the ability to share mobile SIM user credentials such as phone numbers among multiple devices without the need to physically transfer a SIM card. It could also be used for giving online access to IoT (Internet of Things) hardware. Based on prototype hardware announced last year, the Portable SIM App for Android can transfer data with a wave of a hand. The carrier is exhibiting the app at Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple, Japan Display said to discuss new iPhone screen plant

Apple is in talks with iPhone screen maker Japan Display that could result in the construction of a new screen factory in Japan, Japanese media reported Friday.Apple would take on most of the ¥200 billion (US$1.6 billion) investment for the factory in Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan, according to reports in Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun and Jiji Press, which did not name any sources.The plant in Hakusan City could begin operations in 2016, producing LCD panels for Apple and other manufacturers. But Apple is also in talks with other suppliers including Foxconn, and the situation is fluid, the reports said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NTT to roll out indoor navigation using smartphone sensors

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo wants to go beyond GPS with a more granular smartphone navigation system for complex indoor spaces.DoCoMo has partnered with mapping company Zenrin DataCom to develop the navigation system that makes use of sensors in smartphones. It’s designed to help users find their way through Japan’s dense indoor spaces such as subway complexes or underground malls where GPS signals may not reach.Japan has some of the busiest and largest rail hubs in the world, with multiple floors, overlapping rail lines and subterranean shopping arcades. The new platform uses smartphone motion sensors to track direction when a user walks around. The data is plotted against preloaded maps from Zenrin, which supplies mapping apps for all DoCoMo mobile phones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Japan’s curious love for old-school flip-phones continues

Outmoded technology dies hard in futuristic Japan.Telegrams remain popular, the fax machine industry is alive and well and now shipments of feature phones are on the rise.For the first time in seven years, shipments of old-school flip phones increased in 2014 while those of smartphones fell. While it may be a statistical anomaly, Japan’s flip phones are highly evolved devices with unique features that keep them popular.Feature phones notched a 5.7 percent gain last year to 10.5 million units, compared to a 5.3 percent drop in smartphone shipments to 27.7 million, according to MM Research Institute (MMRI), which noted that Apple retains a dominant smartphone share of about 60 percent. The MMRI study followed feature phones, which in Japan consist mainly of flip phones,To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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