Another interesting article on the move towards wireless power, or what some are calling "WiTricity." I’ve written about this previously. The team at MIT is making some good headway. Check out the article for a diagram of how their wireless power beaming system works.… Read More “WiTricity Coming Soon”
If you or your children use cell phones frequently, consider getting earphones…
… Read More “Frequent Mobile Phone Use Linked to Tumor”Long-term users of mobile phones are significantly
more likely to develop a certain type of brain tumour on the side of
the head where they hold their handsets, according to new research.
A group of physicists at MIT have come up with a new model for beaming wireless power to mobile devices, such as computers or cell phones. It promises to do for power, what wireless ethernet hubs do for network connectivity.… Read More “New Wireless Power Technology — No More Wires!”
A major, virtually unfixable, security flaw in the design of nearly all cell phones and other mobile devices will be announced this week by researchers at the Foundation for Microwave Safety (FMS). According to sources, it turns out that due to a coincidence in engineering, ordinary household microwave ovens can actually be used to receive and eavesdrop on all cell phone calls made or received within a 1 mile radius.… Read More “All Cell Phone Calls Easily Eavesdropped … With Common Household Appliance”
Japanese cell phone company KDDI is offering a new GPS-enabled 3D navigational tool to their 17 million subscribers (see article and picture). Their system helps consumers navigate city streets and even within buildings, using an innovative 3D map and audio directions.… Read More “Location Awareness — The Next Big Thing”
This article just came in (via Kurzweil)
… Read More “New Low Power Broadband Wireless Networking Technology May Spark Revolutionary Advance”A little-known start-up has demonstrated wireless broadband 1000
times more efficient than WiMax – and claims the technique could also
make wireless LANs that will run for years on watch batteries.xG
Technology, based in Sarasota, Florida, used a transmitter not unlike a
cordless phone base station, operating in the unlicensed – and crowded
– 900MHz band, to send a 3.7Mbit/s data signal to a radius of 18 miles
across the suburbs of Miami, using 50mW and an omnidirectional antenna.
A system for wireless quantum cryptography has been announced by BBN. This is curious: I wonder how they manage the key exchange? They could be using a laser, I suppose, but that would only be line of sight, or would require airborne reflectors.… Read More “Wireless Quantum Crypto Announced”
Here is an interesting article about an analysis of SMS messaging versus e-mail messaging on mobile networks. The conclusion is that e-mail messaging is more efficient for mobile consumers because email networks are scale-free networks. The article predicts that services based on scale-free topologies will ultimately win out over less optimal alternatives.… Read More “Scale-Free Networks and Mobile Services”
HP researchers have devised a new way to save power on mobile devices by only activating the part of a device’s display that the user is actually looking at.
It’s finally happening in the USA — your cell phone is about to morph into a credit card, and soon will evolve into your digital wallet. Read more.
NFC. An interesting way for devices to share data, if they are within a few centimeters of one another. Sounds kind of like Bluetooth — which I have still not needed for anything. But I like the vision anyway — if all devices did this it could be very useful — I’ve always wanted to be able to “grab” data by swiping my phone near something I am interested in (without needing a bar code scanner).… Read More “Near Field Communication”
Following up on my earlier post about storing messages in DNA it might be interesting to explore ways to encode large volumes of data directly into parts of the human body. Messing with DNA is risky — it may be safer to store data in other parts of the human body (with the one potential disadvantage that such data would not be passed down via heredity).… Read More “Storing Data In the Human Body”
I was having lunch with my aunt today and she complained that her earrings were always getting in the way of her cell phone. I suddenly said, “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if your earrings were your cellphone!” The basic idea would be to make earrings that had bluetooth, a speaker and a mic in them.… Read More “Bluetooth Earrings”
The title of this post says it all. I want a single device that has:
– Cell phone
– Email (Blackberry pager style) & PIM (Palm Desktop)
– iPod MP3 player
– Digital camera (stills or short videos)
– e-Wallet (all my credit/debit cards on a chip, securely protected)
– GPS
– LCD for video/still images and text
– Broadband wireless Internet
– Bluetooth, and Bluetooth earbud/mic
– Java OS so I can download and run stuff
– Laser gun (OK, OK, had to throw that in)
– AM/FM radio receiver
– Retinal or fingerprint scanner or some other built-in biometric security so only I can use it
– Bar code reader (would be useful to have — would enable me to scan items that I want to price compare or remember for later)
A recent study indicates that radiation from cell phones harms sperm cells, and further that males who carry cellphones near their groin region may have up to a 30% reduction in fertility. I have long suspected that there are dangers from carrying cell phones in pockets or on belt clips — after all these things are microwave transmitters — it’s insane to put them right next to the family jewels!… Read More “Mobile Phones Shown to Impact Male Fertility”
Check out Microsoft’s new patent for transmitting power and data through the human body. Good idea.
New software can figure out where you are positioned based on analyzing a photo in near real time. Simply send it a photo from your camera-phone and the software will match the image to a database of locations — such as buildings in a city — and give you back your coordinates.… Read More “Photo Recognition an Alternative to GPS?”
The canal bridge authorities in Amsterdam have enabled SMS, cellular,
and Internet-based scheduling for boats wishing to use the locks. It
sounds like a rather effective way to route traffic; too bad we can’t
do the same for mass transit (bus, train, plane).… Read More “Wireless Scheduling of Boat Traffic in Amsterdam”
A Japanese telecom has introduced a cell-phone that does bone-conduction to transmit audio through your skull. You are supposed to hold it up to your head so you can hear the phone vibrating through the bones of your skull. Gee, just what I always wanted!… Read More “And Now… The Award for Stupidest Cell Phone Technology, Ever!!!!!!!!!”
Well I finally made the leap and got a 40 Gb iPod recently. Thanks to RipDigital the process of digitizing my nearly 1000 CDs took only 1 day and I got it all back on a nice new 250 Gb Maxtor external drive (as well as a stack of DVDs containing a backup of all the new MP3s).… Read More “How to Make the iPod Better”
CNN posted an article today about the potential risk of nanotechnology on the human brain. Basically some research shows that nano-scale particles such as industrial waste, or even components of nanotechnologies, can migrate through the human circulatory system and eventually lodge in the brain.… Read More “Using Nanoparticles to Augment Human Brains…?”
According to a new study, the radio signals from new 3G cellphones may cause headaches and nausea in users. This comes on top of last month’s news that cellphone microwaves cause brain cells to fail to regenerate in old-age and may cause early-senility.… Read More “3G Cellphone Signals May Cause Headaches, Nausea: Study”