Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) scientists will demonstrate several research projects at the upcoming CeBIT conference. In KIT’s language-to-language translation device, automatic language recognition is combined with automatic translation and language synthesis technologies. The system serves as an automatic interpreter of lectures and parliamentary debates. It recognizes and translates language in real time and can be read as a continuously output text or heard over loudspeakers or smartphones. KIT researchers also have developed a system, based on the principle of electromyography, which enables people to speak soundlessly and still to be understood by a conversational partner. Meanwhile, the KIT Institute for Cryptography and Security developed a system that enables mobile users to generate a joint secret that can be used for encoding communications. The system creates a “joint key” for communication partners from the interferences of the radio transmission channel. KIT researchers also have developed Semantic Media Wiki, an extension of the Media Wiki software that enables users to typify cross references within a Wiki.
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Information technology (IT) needs to be taught a different way in schools if the industry is to deepen its talent pool, experts in the United Kingdom said during a recent e-Skills event. British Computer Society CEO David Clarke says that although young people are more connected than anyone else in society, they view IT as boring in school because it is taught in a secretarial manner. Students are trained to copy the teachers’ instructions, but they prefer to learn in groups and work on practical tasks, Clarke says. The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI’s) Lizzie Holman says the same problem exists at the degree level. CBI statistics show that 64 percent of science, high technology, and IT employers believe students do not receive relevant content for the workforce. Europe faces a potential shortage of 384,000 information and communication technology practitioners by 2015, according to the European Commission.
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The Obama administration has declassified part of its plan to improve the security of cyberspace in an attempt to cultivate greater collaboration between government and civilian groups. More cooperation between the private sector and the U.S. National Security Agency is the centerpiece of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). The declassified abstract of the plan reveals that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will operate a new security system, called Einstein 3, that analyzes email and other data traffic into and out of federal networks. CNCI also urges merged oversight of federal spending on research and development in cybersecurity, with a particular focus on “leap-ahead” technology. Although the initiative acknowledges that traditional security approaches “have not achieved the level of security needed,” it says the federal government is now outlining “grand challenges” for the research community to help solve the most difficult problems.
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Florida State University (FSU) researchers have discovered four crystals that possess properties which could lead to the development of a new generation of computer chips and other information storage devices. “We identified these four crystals as ‘multiferroic,’ meaning that they are simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric in nature when cooled to a specific temperature,” says FSU professor Naresh Dalal. Multiferroic crystals could be used to create high-powered computer memories that could hold far more information than is currently possible, says FSU professor Sir Harold Kroto. “Theoretically, it might be possible to design devices that are much smaller and faster than the ones we use today to store and transmit data,” Kroto says. The researchers say that electronic devices using multiferroic crystals would have far less environmental impact than devices used today. “The four new multiferroic crystals that we have identified all substitute other, less toxic metals for lead, which is a potent neurotoxin,” Dalal says.
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Purdue University researchers have developed a device that uses microring resonators to convert laser pulses into bursts of pulsating radio-frequency signals that avoid interference. The researchers say the technology could eliminate the need for wires when transferring data in homes, offices, and cars. The technology could enable all communications to be transmitted from a single base station, says Purdue professor Minghao Qi. Similar technology could eventually be developed to both transmit and receive signals. The key factor in making the breakthrough practical is that the pulses transmit radio frequencies of up to 60 gigahertz, which does not require a license in the United States. The unlicensed band also is permitted globally, which would allow the system to be implemented worldwide. The system’s tiny silicon microring resonators filter out certain frequencies and allow others to pass. The microring filter can be tuned by heating the rings, which causes them to change and filter out different frequencies.
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Oxford University researchers have developed the Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM) program, a camera-tracking system for fusing real and three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated visuals. PTAM enables users to project virtual objects or characters into a video stream that appears on real world surfaces. “The blending of real and virtual worlds is common enough in films and television, but is usually achieved by extensive processing of the recorded images or by filming in studios with known objects at fixed locations,” says Oxford professor David Murray. “The PTAM software allows developers to augment a camera’s video stream in real time and in everyday locations.” PTAM builds a map of thousands of features from objects and scenes, tracks accurately and at a standard frame rate, and calculates the camera viewpoint and angle. The technology also could improve global positioning systems and digital compasses, and provide support for satellite, 3G, and Wi-Fi signals.
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Xerox PARC scientist Markus Jakobsson has developed a way to detect malware on mobile devices that can catch unknown viruses and protect a device without draining its battery or straining its processor. The approach relies on having a central server monitor a device’s memory for signs that it has been infected. The system checks a device by shutting down nonvital applications to make sure nothing is running except the detection software and the operating system. If malware is present and active, it will need to use some random access memory (RAM) to execute instructions on the device. The central server contacts the detection software to see if malware is using RAM by measuring how much memory is available. Once a device passes this check, the system can be certain that no malware programs are actively running, at which point it can scan secondary storage for dormant malware. Jakobsson notes the system is designed to find existing malware, and is not a prevention program.
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Aberystwyth University researcher Stephen Pugh has developed a picture-taking robot designed to look for signs of life on Mars. Pugh is fine-tuning the robot’s onboard panoramic cameras and teaching it to point and shoot at features on the planet’s surface. “I have been looking in particular at how the robotic rover can point its camera at specific targets, such as rocks, without human intervention,” he says. The research’s long-term goal is to increase scientific data for all future planetary missions. “NASA has already found evidence of ice on Mars, but I don’t think rover will find evidence of anything more than water because if it was there I think we would have found it by now,” Pugh says. The researcher is developing software that will enable the robot to discover locations of interest more quickly and to choose targets for pictures by itself, without communicating with scientists on Earth.
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Scientists at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence are working on Nepomuk, a project to give computers a human-like capacity to remember. Nepomuk has developed a process that uses semantic technology to support personal information management. Data contained in the traditional computer folder structure are automatically transferred to a personal information model. For example, emails are linked with contact data and images on the hard disk. The resulting connections created between information and concepts are used for storage and search features. For storage, content analysis algorithms create proposals on how new documents should be added to the existing system. The system is similar to a human’s ability to remember the subject of a speech, as well as the face of the person who gave the speech, but not necessarily the person’s name. The brain connects individual elements that it perceives at the same time, and makes associations, such as between conference proceedings and speakers or dates, for example. The new system could help a user find documents related to a subject if they only have a picture of a contact person related to that subject. The semantic network could find the correct documents using the connections from the picture.
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European researchers working on the HEALTH OPTIMUM project are using telemedicine technology to enhance healthcare across Europe while lowering its cost. “We set out to prove the sustainability of telemedical services from an organizational and economic point of view,” says HEALTH OPTIMUM project coordinator Claudio Dario. “In our two years of market validation, we found that telemedicine not only gave advantages from an economic point of view, but was very useful for the needs of patients.” For example, Dario says that before the project most head-trauma patients and possible brain-injury patients were transported by ambulance or helicopter to a neurosurgical center, but once diagnosed many patients did not need the center’s specialized care. The HEALTH OPTIMUM project restructured the entire process. An IT infrastructure was established to support remote, full-service neurosurgical consultation using a hub-and-spoke model. Medical recordkeeping practices also were reorganized to enable computed axial tomography images and lab results to move smoothly and securely between specialized centers and peripheral clinics. The new infrastructure means patients no longer need to be transported from an accident site or emergency call location to a specialized center, but instead can be brought to a regular emergency room, where the patient can be stabilized and tests and other medical data can be digitally sent to the specialists, who can decide if the patient needs specialized care. “Our analysis showed that up to 80 percent of transportations have been avoided by this system, achieving a high level of savings,” Dario says. “In addition, by speeding up expert assessment, telemedicine saves lives.”
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