• Robots closing in on humans

    Last week’s Robo Business 2009 conference in Boston showed what we sensed already: robots are narrowing the gap between themselves and humans

  • No dog left behind: DARPA seeks dog-training machines

    Impatient with old-fashioned dog trainers and their archaic techniques of squeaky toys and personal affection, DARPA solicits ideas for machines which would “automates the training of complex behaviors in animals without human intervention”; the training machines should also be able to collect performance metrics that will “indicate” a dog’s “intelligence, capability, and progress”

  • NIST offers five encryption tips

    There are many encryption algorithms, techniques, and products — and many user devices and threats against them; NIST offers five encryption tips

  • DARPA seeks deep-learning AI to cope with flood of information

    The growing use of UAVs to loiter over enemy territory and send images and streaming videos back to HQ has created a glut of information; DARPA seeks a better, deeper, and more layered artificial intelligence to help the intelligence community cope with the avalanche of information coming in

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  • Watching the watchers: new solution monitors CCTV operators

    People watching CCTV images back in the control rooms often have too many screens to monitor at once, and as a result may miss the criminal or antisocial activities they are there to spot; a new solution monitor the monitors

  • Germany is target of sustained cyberattacks from China

    The German government is constantly the target of hackers seeking to insert spy programs into its computer systems; the attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated

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  • Cisco acquires Tidal Software for $105 million

    Cisco buys Palo Alto-based Tidal Software to enhance the next-generation data centers it is building; Cisco is also planning on challenging IBM and Hewlett-Packard by building servers

  • Canada focused on new cybersecurity strategy

    Ottawa is developing a new cybersecurity strategy in light of repeated incursions into the country’s key computer networks

  • Texas electrical grid's operator says he is on watch for hackers

    Bob Kahn, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas: “We are constantly modifying and upgrading our protections as technology advances, business requirements change and new threats emerge”

  • Manipulating Google searches as counter-terrorism tool

    The U.K. government will train pro-West Islamic groups to game Google searches in order to fight the influence of radicals; search engine optimization techniques will make moderate Islamic groups come up first in Google searches

  • CSIRO to lead effort to standardize sensor network information sharing

    Sensors, and sensor networks, are the wave of the future (the wave is already here, in fact) in allowing remote monitoring of everything from machinery to buildings’ temperature to perimeter fences to water quality to patients’ health and much, much more; Aussie research organization now leads the effort to develop standards for sharing information collected by sensors and sensor networks over the Internet

  • Mathematician foresees tight races in MLB's Eastern divisions

    The baseball season is about the begin, and a professor of mathematics has developed an intricate model to predict the winners of the American and National leagues; his model computes the probability of a team winning a game against another team with given hitters, bench, starting pitcher, relievers, and home field advantage

  • Mathematicians provide new insight into tsunamis

    The number and height of the tsunami waves hitting the shoreline depends critically on the shape of the initial surface wave in deep water; from this it is possible to work out whether a “trough” or a “peak” is the leading wave

  • Robot controlled by human thoughts

    Japanese researchers develop a robot that can be given commands by human thoughts; a helmet equipped with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors which measure the changes in cerebral blood flow associated with specific thoughts — and transmits the information to the robot

  • Political denial-of-service attacks on the rise

    The cases of Estonia in 2007 and Georgia in 2008 illustrate how dedicated denial-of-service attacks can nearly paralyze a country; trouble is, now attackers can purchase tools such as Black Energy or NetBot Attacker, made by Russian and Chinese hackers, respectively, for less than $100 a piece