Location-based Firms See Mobile Profit, User Worries

The location-based mobile services industry is already lucrative but has to do a better job easing consumers' fears about invasion of privacy, some executives said on Wednesday at the GPS-Wireless conference.

"The technology business [and] the advertising business has done a terrible job ... of saying, 'How do the consumers feel about this?'" said Duncan McCall, co-founder and CEO of PlaceIQ, which converts location information into intelligence about specific areas.

Sharing location information today is viewed with suspicion just as sharing credit-card numbers on the Web was 15 years ago, and it will evolve as well, McCall said.

However, the industry's conduct plays a role too, said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse, which offers a service for sharing your location to specific people for a limited time.

"It's not just about consumer education, it's also about people being responsible on the other end of it," Trussel said. While carriers typically are, some app developers have taken risks with users' data, he said.

Recent scandals have not helped the cause, panelists said, probably referring to disclosures about Carrier IQ's phone software and about mobile apps accessing iPhone address books. Lack of transparency has caused problems, said Joel Grossman, chief operating officer of Location Labs. Such problems have worked against a positive trend, he said. "Users, I think, are starting to trust more and more the carriers to protect their private data," Grossman said.

Location Labs sells a service that notifies parents where their children are. The company has focused on being highly transparent, with regular reminders about what information it uses, and keeps that service limited to the users on a subscriber's own family plan. "Transparency and control are how you get by the creepiness factor," Grossman said.

The conference, which continues through Thursday in Burlingame, California, finds a well established industry playing in a new world of mobile applications.

The LBS (location-based services) industry that grew up around navigation and other applications of GPS (Global Positioning System) is now integral to the mobile revolution and is powering popular services and valuable advertising, representatives of software and services companies said on two panel discussions. Technologies that once were intended primarily for consumers finding out or disclosing where they were have become the foundations of applications built on top of those capabilities, they said.

For example, startup FourSquare built its all-mobile application around consumers' ability to "check in" to their current applications, but found last year that consuming location and other information was becoming the bigger part of its business, according to Holger Luedorf, vice president and head of business development. All the data that the app collects can help consumers follow their friends' recommendations and find out what's popular nearby, and businesses have tapped into Foursquare for locally targeted advertising, Luedorf said.

Likewise, online discount service Groupon is now working with Nokia to layer the locations of businesses with Groupon deals on top of the maps on Nokia's phones. That service is coming later this year, said Andreas Lieber, director of mobile partnerships at Groupon.

Advertising may make up an even bigger part of location-based revenue in the future. Judging from the value that location information adds to advertising, it's not hard to see why. LBS helps advertisers reach nearby consumers and then follow their response to an ad all the way to their front door, some panelists said.

Surveys by Google have found that 95 percent of consumers use their phones to make local decisions such as where to eat, and 90 percent of those users took action within 24 hours on the basis of those searches, said Jay Akkad, product manager for mobile local ads at Google.

LBS advertising platform provider xAd provides an API (application programming interface) to mobile app developers that lets them build geographically targeted advertising into their software, according to Ted Babitz, director of business development at xAd. The closer a consumer gets to a purchase, the more the app developer (and xAd) collect. For example, if a consumer performs a search for hotels on a mobile app, a nearby hotel can place a well-marked sponsored search result at the top of the list. If a user clicks through to that entry and calls the hotel's phone number, and then books a room, the hotel may pay up to $50 for the referral, Babitz said.

Likewise, location services provider Telenav can detect when a mobile user sees an ad and then walks through the doors of the advertiser's business. For the proven effectiveness of that ad, the advertiser will pay three to five times the rate they would pay for a standard mobile banner ad or sponsored listing, said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products.

"That predictability and that transparency all the way through he door is that makes that ad really valuable," Dhanani said.

Telenav, like other LBS companies, also makes money by charging for services, such as an enhanced in-car navigation service for US$4.99 per month and one that lets enterprises track their employees. But Dhanani expects the industry to make even more of its revenue from advertising in the next few years, reaching as much as 70 percent. McCall, of PlaceIQ, disagreed.

"That's still going to be a big market, but the LBS market ... is just going to be so much bigger because it's going to be inherent into so many other things," McCall said.

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

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Car Tech: The Ultimate Backseat Driver

Driving may be the most hazardous thing we do every day. Combine the activity's inherent dangerousness with error-prone human drivers who are increasingly distracted by things like smartphones, and it's no surprise that the crash statistics keep going up.

But automotive safety and convenience technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. The latest crop of smart features can correct veering steering, sense and alert a drowsy driver, and even wrest the driving from human control altogether. In addition, several fantastic apps promise to make our time behind the wheel much easier and safer.

But with all this new tech looking over our shoulder, is driving still fun? Is it the free-wheeling, self-determined, all-American high-speed kick that it used to be?

Between the White Lines

Normally, the person driving the car is responsible for keeping it between the white lines on the roadway. But today's passive and active lane-assist technology can do that job for you.The passive systems feature a camera to monitor the road's lines, a computer to analyze the images, and a combination of audio information, visual data, and steering wheel vibrations to warn the driver when the vehicle starts drifting. Active lane-assist systems take it to the next level, using automatic braking to slow you down or steering torque to point you in the right direction. Some vehicles use just one type of system; high-end models may use both passive and active systems.

Digital Nagging for Drowsy Driving

Though common sense tells you not to drive when you're tired, plenty of groggy drivers venture out onto America's thoroughfares anyway. Mercedes-Benz's Attention Assist system combats drowsiness and distraction by warning the driver when it detects abnormal steering.

Using a steering sensor and special software, Attention Assist measures 70-plus parameters of driving behavior during the first few minutes of operation, from which it establishes a unique driver profile. It then refers to this profile at speeds between 50 and 112 mph to identify a drowsy driver's erratic steering correction. When the driver starts to exhibit certain behaviors associated with drowsiness, an audible warning sounds, and a visual warning illuminates.

Keep Those Thumbs on the Wheel

Driving While Texting (DWT?) has caused thousands of deaths on America's highways. But a wave of new technologies may help us stop the carnage.

The 2010-up Ford Sync's Audible Text Messaging feature offers hands-free text reading and replying. The driver's phone syncs via Bluetooth, and alerts the driver when new texts arrive. Sync will read texts out loud through the vehicle's speakers, and the driver can send preset or customized responses without taking a finger off of the steering wheel. At this writing, however, Audible Text Messaging is compatible with only a handful of phones, so you might be better off downloading a freestanding voice recognition app from the App Store or from Google Play.

Put the Smartphone Down

Whether you're texting, emailing, or surfing the Web behind the wheel, distracted driving increases your chances of having an accident. And if your sexy smartphone is simply too tempting to leave alone, apps such as PhoneGuard will gladly disable it for you.

PhoneGuard uses GPS tracking to monitor your vehicle's speed. Once you reach 10 mph, PhoneGuard locks your phone's keyboard and suspends the phone's text, email, and Web functions. The app responds to incoming texts via Text Block with Auto Reply. The PhoneGuard Premium upgrade, which starts at $20 a year, adds many other features.

The regular PhoneGuard app is free and available through Google Play for Android, through App World for BlackBerry, and through the App Store for iPhone.

Booze Breath in the Car

An ignition interlock device prevents an alcohol-impaired person from adding to the United States' annual toll of 10,000-plus drunk-driving fatalities.

Ignition interlock installations such as Smart Start's SSI-20/20 may be attached to an offender's car following a DWI conviction and subsequent court order. Such systems connect to the on-board computer system via a wire through the car's ignition and require the driver to pass a breath-analysis test before the vehicle will operate.

With the ignition turned on, the unit initializes. The test taker then blows into the mouthpiece. Inside the unit, an alcohol-specific fuel cell sensor and a breath sampling system analyze the alcohol level in the subject's breath. If it falls below a predetermined allowable limit, the display will show 'PASS' and the vehicle can be started. If the person's level is close to the limit, 'WARN' will appear but the vehicle will still start. But if 'FAIL', 'VIOLATION', or 'ABORT' appear, the vehicle will remain disabled until the driver passes a follow-up test.

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Ten Ways Your Smartphone Knows Where You Are

One of the most important capabilities that smartphones now have is knowing where they are. More than desktops, laptops, personal navigation devices or even tablets, which are harder to take with you, a smartphone can combine its location with many other pieces of data to make new services available.

"There's a gamification aspect, there's a social aspect, and there's a utilitarian aspect," said analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. Greengart believes cellphone location is in its second stage, moving beyond basic mapping and directions to social and other applications. The third stage may bring uses we haven't even foreseen.

Like other digital technologies, these new capabilities come with worries as well as benefits. Consumers are particularly concerned about privacy when it comes to location because knowing where you are has implications for physical safety from stalking or arrest, said Seth Schoen, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Yet most people have embraced location-based services without thinking about dangers such as service providers handing over location data in lawsuits or hackers stealing it from app vendors.

"This transition has been so quick that people haven't exactly thought through the implications on a large scale," Schoen said. "Most people aren't even very clear on which location technologies are active and which are passive." Many app-provider practices are buried in long terms of service. Risk increases with the number of apps that you authorize to collect location data, according to Schoen, so consumers have at least one element of control.

There are at least 10 different systems in use or being developed that a phone could use to identify its location. In most cases, several are used in combination, with one stepping in where another becomes less effective.

1. GPS

Global Positioning System was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and was first included in cellphones in the late 1990s. It's still the best-known way to find your location outdoors.

GPS uses a constellation of satellites that send location and timing data from space directly to your phone. If the phone can pick up signals from three satellites, it can show where you are on a flat map, and with four, it can also show your elevation.

Other governments have developed their own systems similar to GPS, but rather than conflicting with it, they can actually make outdoor location easier. Russia's GLONASS is already live and China's Compass is in trials. Europe's Galileo and Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System are also on the way. Phone chip makers are developing processors that can use multiple satellite constellations to get a location fix faster.

2. Assisted GPS

GPS works well once your phone finds three or four satellites, but that may take a long time, or not happen at all if you're indoors or in an "urban canyon" of buildings that reflect satellite signals. Assisted GPS describes a collection of tools that help to solve that problem.

One reason for the wait is that when it first finds the satellites, the phone needs to download information about where they will be for the next four hours. The phone needs that information to keep tracking the satellites. As soon as the information reaches the phone, full GPS service starts.

Carriers can now send that data over a cellular or Wi-Fi network, which is a lot faster than a satellite link. This may cut GPS startup time from 45 seconds to 15 seconds or less, though it's still unpredictable, said Guylain Roy-MacHabee, CEO of location technology company RX Networks.

3. Synthetic GPS

The form of assisted GPS described above still requires an available data network and the time to transmit the satellite information. Synthetic GPS uses computing power to forecast satellites' locations days or weeks in advance. This function began in data centers but increasingly can be carried out on phones themselves, according to Roy-MacHabee of RX, which specializes in this type of technology. With such a cache of satellite data on board, a phone often can identify its location in two seconds or less, he said.

4. Cell ID

However, all the technologies that speed up GPS still require the phone to find three satellites. Carriers already know how to locate phones without GPS, and they knew it before phones got the feature. Carriers figure out which cell a customer is using, and how far they are from the neighboring cells, with a technology called Cell ID. By knowing which sector of which base station a given phone is using, and using a database of base-station identification numbers and locations, the carriers can associate the phone's location with that of the cell tower. This system tends to be more precise in urban areas with many small cells than in rural areas, where cells may cover an area several kilometers in diameter.

5. Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi can do much the same thing as Cell ID, but with greater precision because Wi-Fi access points cover a smaller area.

There are actually two ways Wi-Fi can be used to determine location. The most common, called RSSI (received signal strength indication), takes the signals your phone detects from nearby access points and refers to a database of Wi-Fi networks. The database says where each uniquely identified access point is located. Using signal strength to determine distance, RSSI determines where you are (down to tens of meters) in relation to those known access points.

The other form of Wi-Fi location, wireless fingerprinting, uses profiles of given places that are based on the pattern of Wi-Fi signals found there. This technique is best for places that you or other cellphone users visit frequently. The fingerprint may be created and stored the first time you go there, or a service provider may send someone out to stand in certain spots in a building and record a fingerprint for each one. Fingerprinting can identify your location to within just a few meters, said Charlie Abraham, vice president of engineering at Broadcom's GPS division, which makes chipsets that can use a variety of location mechanisms.

6. Inertial Sensors

If you go into a place where no wireless system works, inertial sensors can keep track of your location based on other inputs. Most smartphones now come with three inertial sensors: a compass (or magnetometer) to determine direction, an accelerometer to report how fast your phone is moving in that direction, and a gyroscope to sense turning motions. Together, these sensors can determine your location with no outside inputs, but only for a limited time. They'll work for minutes, but not tens of minutes, Broadcom's Abraham said.

The classic use case is driving into a tunnel: If the phone knows your location from the usual sources before you enter, it can then determine where you've gone from the speed and direction you're moving. More commonly, these tools are used in conjunction with other location systems, sometimes compensating for them in areas where they are weak, Abraham said.

7. Barometer

Outdoor navigation on a sidewalk or street typically happens on one level, either going straight or making right or left turns. But indoors, it makes a difference what floor of the building you're on. GPS could read this, except that it's usually hard to get good GPS coverage indoors or even in urban areas, where the satellite signals bounce off tall buildings. One way to determine elevation is a barometer, which uses the principle that air gets thinner the farther up you go.

Some smartphones already have chips that can detect barometric pressure, but this technique isn't usually suited for use by itself, RX's Roy-MacHabee said. To use it, the phone needs to pull down local weather data for a baseline figure on barometric pressure, and conditions inside a building such as heating or air-conditioning flows can affect the sensor's accuracy, he said. A barometer works best with mobile devices that have been carefully calibrated for a specific building, so it might work in your own office but not in a public library, Roy-MacHabee said. Barometers are best used in combination with other tools, including GPS, Wi-Fi and short-range systems that register that you've gone past a particular spot.

8. Ultrasonic

Sometimes just detecting whether someone has entered a certain area says something about what they're doing. This can be done with short-range wireless systems, such as RFID (radio-frequency identification) with a badge. NFC (near-field communication) is starting to appear in phones and could be used for checkpoints, but manufacturers' main intention for NFC is payments.

However, shopper loyalty company Shopkick is already using a short-range system to verify that consumers have walked into a store. Instead of using a radio, Shopkick broadcasts ultrasonic tones just inside the doors of a shop. If the customer has the Shopkick app running when they walk through the door, the phone will pick up the tone through its microphone and the app will tell Shopkick that they've entered. The shopper can earn points, redeemable for gift cards and other rewards, just for walking into the store, and those show up immediately. Shopkick developed the ultrasonic system partly because the tones can't penetrate walls or windows, which would let people collect points just for walking by, CTO Aaron Emigh said. They travel about 150 feet (46 meters) inside the store. Every location of every store has a unique set of tones, which are at too high a frequency for humans to hear. Dogs can hear them, but tests showed they don't mind, Emigh said.

9. Bluetooth Beacons

Very precise location can be achieved in a specific area, such as inside a retail store, using beacons that send out signals via Bluetooth. The beacons, smaller than a cellphone, are placed every few meters and can communicate with any mobile device equipped with Bluetooth 4.0, the newest version of the standard.

Using a technique similar to Wi-Fi fingerprinting, the venue owner can use signals from this dense network of transmitters to identify locations within the space, Broadcom's Abraham said. Nokia, which is participating in a live in-store trial of Bluetooth beacons, says the system can determine location to within 10 centimeters. With location sensing that specific, a store could tell when you were close to a specific product on a shelf and offer a promotion, according to Nokia.

10. Terrestrial Transmitters

Australian startup Locata is trying to overcome GPS' limitations by bringing it down to Earth. The company makes location transmitters that use the same principle as GPS but are mounted on buildings and cell towers. Because they are stationary and provide a much stronger signal to receivers than satellites do from space, Locata's radios can pinpoint a user's location almost instantly to as close as 2 inches, according to Locata CEO Nunzio Gambale.

Locata networks are also more reliable than GPS, he said. The company's receivers currently cost about $2500 and are drawing interest from transportation, defense and public safety customers, but within a few years the technology could be an inexpensive add-on to phones, according to Gambale. Then, service providers will be its biggest customers, he said. Another company in this field, NextNav, is building a network using licensed spectrum that it says can cover 93 percent of the U.S. population. NextNav's transmitters will be deployed in a ring around each city and take advantage of the long range of its 900MHz spectrum, said Chris Gates, vice president of strategy and development.

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

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Researchers Develop a Vibrating Steering Wheel to Replace Your GPS

When you’re feel your steering wheel vibrate, It's usually because you are experiencing some frightening wheel-wobble in a real car or you are getting your money’s worth from that force-feedback wheel you bought for Gran Turismo.

Now researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and AT&T labs are looking to bring haptic feedback to steering wheels in real cars as a way to help drivers navigate. Supposedly, the vibrating-wheel system will allow drivers to pay more attention to the road instead of listening for directional cues from a GPS voice or looking at the on-screen map.

MIT’s Technology Review recently highlighted the steering wheel, which uses 20-vibrating actuators that are individually controlled. The prototype wheel can signal a left-turn by creating a counter-clockwise vibration pattern, or a right-turn with a clockwise pattern. The scientists also plan to use the vibrations for other applications, such as notifying drivers of cars in their blind spots.

So far, the driving gadget has proven to be effective in a study with participants using driving simulators. Young drivers with an average age of 25 were 3 percent more likely to keep their eyes on the road while older drivers above the age of 65 were 4 percent more attentive to road conditions. That may not seem like a huge improvement percentage-wise, but every little bit counts when it comes to reducing accidents caused by distracted drivers.

Be sure to check out Technology Review’s article on the vibrating steering wheel and its interview with the researchers.

Would a vibrating steering wheel freak you out? Leave a comment.

[Technology Review, The Verge via Electonista and Engadget / Photo: velkr0 on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)]

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Google Beefs Up Maps as Apple Breakup Nears

Google announced Wednesday that its mobile version of Google Maps is going offline, Street View is going off road with a new backpack-sized camera, and Google Earth will soon be serving up eye-popping new 3D imagery that you'll be able to "fly" above.

News of the Google Earth and Maps upgrades come a week before Apple is expected to dump Google as its default mapping technology on its iOS mobile platform. In a world where location-based services are becoming more popular and lucrative this is bad news for Google. Perhaps Google's intent was to show Apple what it was going to miss. And it did.

Eye Popping 3D Fly Overs

Google’s Google Earth team has been working hard over the past year to add “fly-over” capability to the product. Product manager Peter Birch demonstrated the new functionality by flying over some well known spots in San Francisco and viewing various angles of City Hall, Coit Tower and the Embarcedero.

Google says it has contracted a fleet of small airplanes equipped with the Google Earth cameras. The planes fly around tall buildings and other landmarks, and in strips over the city capturing thousands of 3D images of different angles of every object and every piece of landscape.

Then through an automated process called Stereophotogamitry, a bank of computers uses complicated algorithms to review all the images captured by the planes. The best images for each tiny section of each object are chosen, then fitted together to form a complete 3D image. And there are many such 3D images for each building or landmark, covering all the angles one would see if he flew around it in an airplane.

The new fly-over capability will launch for a small set of cities “in the next few weeks,” Google says.
Image shows Google Guides, a service that allows you to pick a point of interest (left) and then Google will "fly" over that area.

Street View Trekker

PCWorld editor Mark Sullivan with Trekker Street View camera on his back.Google’s Street View is getting some new tricks, too. Luc Vincent, Google’s Street View engineering director was here to a new way Street View cameras will be going off-road to capture images. It unveiled a backpack-sized Street View camera that weighs 40-lbs and that people can wear and capture 360-degree images anyplace they can hike.

The Trekker is meant to compliment existing off road Street View cameras such as its Google trike.

Going Offline with Google Mobile Maps

And finally, after many requests from users, Google is making mobile Google Maps usable even when you have no access to Wi-Fi or cellular signal. You just select a section of a map that he will need offline before they leave home. Then map then downloads, and when you arrive at the place where you know you’ll be offline, the Map will work in a very similar way to how it works when connected.

To make a Google Map available offline select the area you want to save offline, choose "Make Available Offline" from the drop down menu, and download.
The map will work with your GPS signal to locate where you are, but you won’t be able to zoom down to Street View level. This capability will be available in the next few weeks on Android, but not on iOS. The service will become available in the next few weeks, the company says.

As you can see above, downloading a map of London required just under 3MB of free space on a mobile device.

Google says it has now collected more than 20 petabytes of Street View imagery, and that 75 percent of all people in world can now see their house in a high definition graphic on Google Maps.

But Wednesday’s announcements come with some bad news (for Google) from Apple. The Wall Street Journal is reporting it has confirmed reports that it will ditch Google Maps for its own mapping app later this year. Apple will launch its own mapping service as part of it new iOS6 operating system for iPhones and iPads, the Journal reports. Today, Google Maps is the default map service in iPhone and iPad.

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Google Co-founder Spotted Wearing Google Glasses Prototype

Image Credit: Robert Scoble The futuristic augmented reality glasses prototype showcased by Google this week could be closer to launch than previously thought, as the company’s co-founder was spotted wearing a pair of them at a recent social event. Tech pundit Robert Scoble tweeted last night a photo of Sergey Brin sporting a pair in San Francisco, saying “The Google Glasses are real!”

Google revealed its futuristic dream to mass-produce the hybrid glasses in a video showing the metallic glasses frame with a thin device above the right eye that can display information typically handled by smartphones, such as taking pictures, checking the weather, getting directions or scheduling meetings.

The video is titled “One day…” and Google didn’t indicate when Project Glass would be available to the public. Earlier reports scooping this story indicate it could be by the end of the year for $250 to $500, but Google is keeping quiet on such dates.

Image Credit: Robert ScobleWith Sergey Brin wearing a prototype of the glasses in public already, it’s possible they are closer to launch than the video concept let slip. Scoble also noted that Brin “wouldn't let me wear the Google Glasses but I could see they were flashing info to him,” and “they look very light weight. Not much different than a regular set of glasses.”

What’s interesting about the Google Glasses prototype Brin was wearing is that although they looked self-contained, he was wearing a backpack during the charity evening – which some speculate it could have been some sort of battery pack to power the unfinished prototype.

Meanwhile, my PCWorld colleagues Howard Baldwin and Ed Oswald have opposing viewpoints on Google's Project Glass eyewear, including the potential privacy issues.

Follow Daniel Ionescu and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter

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Can Advanced Technologies Really Help Curb Highway Congestion?

Few things can ruin your day like a big traffic jam. The problem is, most experts say such heavy congestion found daily on your favorite highway, is only going to get worse.

According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), congestion costs America an estimated $200 billion a year in lost travel time and fuel, and drivers in metropolitan areas spend more than one-quarter of their total annual travel time in congested conditions.

RELATED: Senate Passes Bill Requiring Black Boxes in All New Cars

In a report out this week by congressional watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office noted that state and local governments have used technologies it calls Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that consist of a range of communications, electronics and computer program to help manage congestion. But, while there's even more technology in the pipeline, state and local governments face many challenges in planning and funding ITS use, ensuring that staff and leaders have adequate knowledge of the technology, and coordinating ITS approaches to make the most effective use of such technologies.

The GAO spotlighted these emerging technologies which include:

1.Traffic management applications: State and local governments within some metropolitan areas, such as Washington, D.C., are employing new traffic management applications that make use of data integrated from various, previously siloed databases. The objective of these approaches is to collect, manage, integrate, and apply real-time transportation data. Agencies integrate a variety of real-time information -- including incident information, travel time, and weather advisories -- obtained from various sources to manage the transportation system and provide relevant information to travelers. The expansion of real-time data collection technologies and coverage in recent years has allowed for greater use of these data in daily traffic operations. As one expert noted, data are the foundation of managing congestion, and the more and better quality the data, the better the tools that can be brought to bear on managing traffic. In addition to supporting a more active role in managing traffic, such data allow management agencies to provide real-time traffic advisories and support performance measurement, the GAO stated.

Collection and integration of data -- such as traffic and emergency services data -- across jurisdictions can enhance incident management by allowing quick detection and response to incidents. For example, the I-95 Corridor Coalition makes vehicle probe data available to 19 agencies, which use the data to monitor traffic patterns across state boundaries and to respond to incidents and congestion. In 2009, the New York State Police used these vehicle probe data along with data from the New York 511 website to assist in managing holiday traffic congestion. This proactive approach to traffic management led to a 50% reduction in traffic queues over previous years.

The Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) program in the Washington, D.C., area is an example of data integration that allows for improved traffic operations, incident management, and traveler information. RITIS is a system that compiles data across modes of transportation from agencies throughout the metropolitan area, including data on incidents, weather, managed lane status, signal status, and data from public safety computer-aided dispatch systems. RITIS then standardizes these data, and makes them available to participating agencies. Previously, many of the area transportation agencies had implemented stand-alone systems and relied on ad hoc communications that were driven by personal relationships between staff for coordination.

2. Active traffic management: The proactive management of roadway capacity and transportation demand is the next step in congestion relief. In Seattle, the Washington State DOT has instituted active traffic management systems. These systems, which are among the few such systems in the country, use overhead signs that display changing speed limits and real-time traffic information for drivers over each lane. These signs automatically reduce speed limits to alert drivers to slow their vehicles when they approach congestion, collisions, or backups at off-ramps. The signs also alert drivers to upcoming lane closures because of traffic incidents or road work and direct them to open lanes. The system also includes message signs that alert drivers of downstream backups and signs that display estimated travel times, the GAO stated.

Although a formal evaluation of the systems in Seattle is forthcoming, the government has reported that similar systems in Europe, depending on the location and the combination of strategies deployed, have resulted in increases in overall capacity ranging from 3 to 22 percent, increases in travel time reliability, and reductions in primary incidents ranging from 3 to 30 percent.

Technical advances now make it possible to move from relatively passive monitoring to proactive control of traffic through mechanisms like variable speed limits, congestion pricing, and ramp metering. Active transportation and demand management is a proactive approach for dynamic management and control of existing transportation infrastructure based on current traffic conditions using real-time data and information. This approach considers the real-time management of both supply and demand to prevent, delay, or minimize facility breakdown when travel demand exceeds system capacity.

Active transportation management can also include managed lanes, in which officials control traffic lane use by granting access to only certain types of vehicles, such as high occupancy vehicles; controlling access, such as designing express lanes where access is restricted to a few points; or congestion pricing, where vehicles pay a toll to use the lane.

3. Road pricing: Some say one strategy to reduce congestion is road pricing or congestion pricing -- assessing tolls that vary with the level of congestion and the time of day. This demand management strategy aims to improve the flow of traffic by motivating drivers to travel by other modes, such as carpools or transit, or by traveling at less congested times. For example, in Los Angeles, the California Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority are converting over 50 miles of freeway from High Occupancy Vehicle, or carpool, lanes, to High Occupancy Toll lanes. This is to allow use of excess capacity in the lanes by single occupancy vehicles for a price. Agencies have used electronic fare collection and traveler information ITS technologies to accomplish this conversion. Officials can also proactively manage traffic conditions through ramp metering, which can maintain smooth freeway flow by regulating vehicle entry at entrance ramps. DOT's 2010 deployment survey found that freeway agencies believe ramp control has high benefit, despite the fact that the technology is lightly deployed.

4. Work zone technology: Work zone management is another emerging use of ITS applications to proactively manage traffic. Transportation agencies can use work zone management to reduce the congestion normally associated with construction activities such as lane closures. Agencies use ITS to mitigate the effects of lane closures, detours, and other factors. Examples of ITS technologies used in work zones include using electronic signs to control merging for lane closures and variable speed limit signs. Agencies also use traveler information ITS technologies to notify the public of road closures and work zone-related delays.

5. Wireless everywhere: Connected vehicle technology, still under development, could significantly change traffic management, both in terms of the amount of traffic data transportation agencies will collect and in how agencies proactively manage traffic. DOT's current ITS research agenda focuses on the department's vision to provide the nation with a national, multimodal transportation system that features wireless communications among vehicles, infrastructure, and portable devices. The importance of data management and integration will continue given that connected vehicle technology has the potential to significantly increase the amount of transportation data available to state and local governments, the GAO stated.

Follow Michael Cooney on Twitter: @nwwlayer8 and on Facebook.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

For more information about enterprise networking, go to NetworkWorld. Story copyright 2011 Network World Inc. All rights reserved.

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How a Cell Phone Busted a Hacker

The recent arrest of Higinio O. Ochoa III, of Galveston, Texas -- allegedly a member of the Anonymous-linked CabinCr3w --generated considerable amusement (and some unbearably bad puns) when it was reported that the FBI tracked him down using photos he had posted of his girlfriend's breasts (covered somewhat by a bikini top).

But the more interesting -- and sobering -- message of the case is that someone known as an elite hacker was busted because he forgot, or didn't know, about the fact that EXIF data (location, camera type, and other image information) is included in every photo taken with a smartphone. He forgot, or didn't know, that others can extract that information.

That the photos were a bit racy is incidental. They could have been artsy shots of a landscape or snapshots of a sporting event. The problem for somebody who is trying to cover his tracks is that the images are embedded with data that will tell an investigator where and when they were taken.

Ochoa, 30, who is charged by the FBI with hacking into U.S. law enforcement agencies and posting online the home addresses for police officers, including those of more than 100 Los Angeles police officers, is a Linux administrator. Why he didn't think about the risks of posting photos embedded with geo-tagging -- common knowledge to most people who organize their photos by date and location on programs like iPhoto -- is a question Ochoa is probably asking himself.

According to the FBI, Ochoa allegedly tweeted in February using the handle @Anonw0rmer, directing followers to a site where he had posted information stolen from various law enforcement agency websites.

At the bottom of the site was an image of a woman, now identified as his girlfriend, with a sign reading in part "PwNd by w0rmer & CabinCr3w"

Investigators took those and other photos off several websites with references to w0rmer and found that they had been taken in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. They found that Ochoa had vacation photos on Facebook showing a recent trip to Australia, with a woman he said was his girlfriend who lives in that same suburb.

They were able to match the times and even some of the bathing suits the woman in the hacker photos was wearing.

And that was enough to lead to Ochoa's arrest March 20.

Gary McGraw, CTO of the software security consulting firm Cigital, says it shouldn't be shocking that a hacker was taken down by such a simple mistake. "Super, uber hackers sometimes act like regular consumers," he says.

Still, writing in GCN (Government Computer News) on April 18, John Breeden II, says the episode should be a cautionary tale for anybody. "Knowing that GPS data is being captured in every photo you take should be in the back of your mind. If it can be used for nefarious purposes, you can bet someone will try," he wrote.

Read more about malware/cybercrime in CSOonline's Malware/Cybercrime section.

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Senate Passes Bill Requiring Black Boxes in All New Cars

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill requiring all new cars manufactured in the United States be fitted with black box data recorders. Senate Bill 1813 [PDF] was passed by the Senate and is just waiting for approval from the U.S. House of Representatives, InfoWars reports.

Section 31406 of the "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act" (MAP-21) bill calls for "Mandatory Event Data Recorders" to be installed in new vehicles, starting in the year 2015.

The bill states that within 180 days of the enactment of the bill, the Secretary must revise part 563 of title 49 (Code of Federal Regulations) "to require, beginning with model year 2015, that new passenger motor vehicles sold in the United States be equipped with an event data recorder that meets the requirements under that part."

The bill then goes on to describe the "limitations" on information retrieval. Basically, while there will be a "Big Brother" style recording device in all new vehicles, the data recorded on the device will be the property of the owner of the vehicle.

"Any data in an event data recorder required under part 563 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, regardless of when the passenger motor vehicle in which it is installed was manufactured, is the property of the owner, or in the case of a leased vehicle, the lessee of the passenger motor vehicle in which the data recorder is installed," the bill states.

According to the text of the bill, the data on the recording device may not be retrieved by anyone other than the owner or the lessee…unless, of course, the government asks for it.

The data may be retrieved by someone other than the owner/lessee if it is requested, and backed, by a court authorization, or if there is a medical emergency. It may also be retrieved if the owner/lessee consents, or if it's relevant in an investigation or inspection conducted by the Secretary of Transportation.

InfoWars criticizes the bill for its privacy implications, and points out that there are "innumerable examples of both government and industry illegally using supposedly privacy-protected information to spy on individuals."

VentureBeat, on the other hand, notes that this privacy concern is largely irrelevant--Event Data Recorders (EDRs) have been voluntarily installed in cars for several years. In fact, VentureBeat reports, at least 64 percent of cars in surveyed in 2005 had an EDR installed, including 100 percent of cars made by General Motors, Ford, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Suzuki.

Still, I understand InfoWars' concerns. After all, there have been instances in which the government has used GPS to illegally track suspect's vehicles, and mandatory EDRs would just make this even easier. Also, what's to stop a court from requiring data from these black boxes be presented to insurance companies?

"The ultimate Big Brother scenario would be a system whereby every driver had to get de facto permission from the state to drive each time they get behind the wheel, once it had been determined from an iris scan that they were good citizens who have paid all their taxes and not misbehaved," InfoWars says, noting that Bill 1813 also contains a controversial clause that would allow the IRS to revoke passports of citizens accused of owing more than $50,000 in back taxes.

This provision is designed to keep tax-owing citizens from leaving the country, but could such logic lead to the government stripping citizens of driving rights as well?

(Images of Auto "black box" courtesy of freedomsphoenix.com and image of car accident courtesy of Funnyphotosto.com)

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As Navigation Looks Indoors, New Uses Appear

The maps on smartphones and tablets soon may extend into buildings, but consumers and service providers won't use indoor maps the same as outdoor, participants in the location-based services business said on Wednesday.

Indoor location was a hot topic at the GPS-Wireless conference in Burlingame, California, where panelists also discussed privacy, advertising and new services that ride on top of navigation. The indoor technology is just beginning to emerge and may be getting a burst of hype, but it has the potential for useful applications, some speakers said.

Most agreed that mapping and navigation won't play out the same way indoors as outdoors. For one thing, people don't usually need indoor maps just to find their way through a building.

"Indoor, generally, the way you navigate isn't by looking at your screen and walking around and hoping you don't bump into people," said Nick Brachet, chief technology officer of Skyhook, a developer of location-based software. Instead, people can often use familiar cues to find their way around a building. As a result, the turn-by-turn navigation that powered the consumer GPS industry in its early stages won't be the first killer app of indoor navigation, he said.

Other objectives

Rather than telling you the one optimum way to get from place to place, indoor navigation might give you a route that best serves your interests, said Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Micello, which generates indoor maps and navigation information and licenses them to developers.

Micello has mapped venues including malls, hospitals and schools, Agarwal said. Some of its ideas for how to use indoor maps came from watching shoppers using static maps at the entrances to malls, he said. They often touch items all over the map, trying to figure out the distances and best route between the different stores they want to visit. An interactive map, on a networked device such as a phone, could capture all those taps and better understand the shopper's intentions, he said. What's at stake for retailers is a purchase decision.

"Ultimately, the map becomes a way to influence that decision, and that's, I think, the ultimate reason why we want to build all the maps and own all the map data," Agarwal said. Indoor location data could help retailers offer shoppers promotions, products and information at the right time and place, he said.

Taken a step further, location data might allow a service to recommend a route around the mall that takes into consideration where the shopper's friends are, he said.

Bluetooth beacons

Nokia has tried to push the technology forward with an implementation that is now in trials in at least one store. Beacons throughout a store that use a new feature in the Bluetooth 4 standard can send signals to mobile devices with Bluetooth 4 and identify a user's location to within 10 centimeters, said Marc Kleinmaier, who handles business development for Nokia in the Western U.S. With that level of precision, a vendor could present the mobile user with a promotion on a specific product when it is right in front of the user, Kleinmaier said.

The offer could be targeted to shoppers based on past purchases or other factors, he said. When the customer reached the checkout stand, the discount could be applied automatically.

Aisle411 already offers an indoor navigation app for iPhone and Android that helps users locate items on the shelves of some stores. The company is in discussions with large and small retailers that want to deploy indoor navigation networks using technologies such as Bluetooth beacons, said George Arabian, vice president of business development.

Indoor location would be most useful as part of a larger search and navigation system, helping users find their way to an address and then through a store to find a product or across a convention center to find someone they want to meet, said Brian Salisbury, director of business development at TeleCommunication Systems, which makes a variety of location and telematics products.

Some speakers at the conference were optimistic about indoor location's potential. One was Bryan Trussel, CEO of Glympse, which lets mobile users share their real-time location with specific people for a defined period of time.

"In 18 months, I think that's going to be pretty commonplace," Trussel said of indoor navigation. "I think it'll be huge." Glympse envisions consumers using indoor location to find each other in malls or convention centers.

Three possibilities

The three main business cases for indoor location will be promotion, recreation or gaming, and emergency response, or a "personal OnStar" system on phones instead of cars, said Kanwar Chadha, chief marketing officer of location silicon vendor CSR.

However, the technology will need to overcome some hurdles before it's widely adopted. For one thing, indoor systems that rely on beacons carry a high cost. "To deploy, operate and manage beacons economically ... will be tough," said David Allen, chief technology officer of Locaid.

Location-based social networking company FourSquare thinks indoor location mechanisms could help it identify a user's position more precisely, leading to better recommendations to other FourSquare users in public buildings such as malls and airports. But like some other mobile app developers, it needs the technology to go mainstream first.

"As long as it's not broadly available on all platforms, it's probably not something that we can use," said Holger Luedorf, vice president and head of business development at FourSquare.

The technology is still too fragmented to be easily used across all venues, though it can be implemented consistently across one company, Micello's Agarwal said. He expects indoor location capabilities eventually to be implemented at the chip level, a process he said CSR has begun with its SiRFusion Location Platform. On Wednesday, Broadcom also announced a location chip designed for both indoor and outdoor operation, with the ability to use inputs from a wide range of sensors including inertial sensors, Bluetooth beacons and near-field communications systems. But Agarwal cautioned that it will take as much as 24 months for new location chips to proliferate through new devices in consumers' hands.

Though the technology isn't quite ready yet, indoor positioning shouldn't be dismissed, Skyhook's Brachet said.

"We forget in this industry that four years ago, LBS was really just turn-by-turn navigation and find-my-kids through cell-tower location," Brachet said. "Since then, there's been an explosion of the market ... and I think we'll see the same thing with indoor positioning."

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

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NASA Google Map Shows Path of Solar Eclipse

Source: NASAInteractive maps and sites are worth checking out with the solar eclipse nearing.

NASA is using an interactive Google Map to let you see the path of Sunday's annular solar eclipse, which will be viewable for millions of people. NASA also offers a projected time lapse of the eclipse. And if you're in the western United States, check out the website Shadow and Substance, which shows how the eclipse will look in each state in which it will be visible.

If you're located in the eastern half of the U.S., you'll miss it because of sunset, but anyone west of Wisconsin down to Texas all the way over to southeast Asia can click on the map from NASA and Google to find out exactly when the moon will pass in front of the sun, covering as much as 94 percent of it.

In the United States, the eclipse begins around 5:30 p.m. PDT and if you're near the center-line of the eclipse, which runs from Northern California through Northern Texas, for about 4.5 minutes you'll be able to see a "ring of fire," which will look as if the sun has a black hole in its middle.

Source: NASA"Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, ambient daylight won't seem much different than usual. Instead, the event will reveal itself in the shadows,” writes Dr. Tony Phillips for NASA's Science News.

While you can use a solar filtered telescope to look at the eclipse, Dr. Phillips points out that a simple and safe way to experience it is to crisscross your fingers waffle-style and view the projected rays of light on a surface below them, or stand under a tree to see ring-shaped sunbeams on the ground.

In a footnote he explains, "It's only when sunlight passes through a small aperture that you the get the 'pinhole effect' necessary for solar imaging. Gaps in the leaves between trees or between interwoven human fingers are perfect for this purpose."

Follow Christina on Twitter and Google+ for even more tech news and commentary and follow Today@PCWorld on Twitter, too.

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This New GPS Does Augmented Reality, Makes You Feel Like You're in a Fighter Jet

[Credit: Pioneer]GPS systems have gotten a lot better over the years, with bigger screens and live traffic updates, but they’re still fundamentally flawed because you need to take your eyes off of the road directly ahead, even if you stick it onto the center of your windshield. Pioneer wants to fix this with its new Cyber Navi GPS system.

This new GPS system comes equipped with an augmented reality heads-up-display (HUD) that attaches directly to your sun visor. This laser-projected GPS micro-display, developed in collaboration with MicroVision, makes it appear that your route directions show directly on top of the road, letting you keep your eyes on the road at the same time.

[Credit: Pioneer]

On top of turns, the 35-by-12-inch (90-by-30-centimeter) HUD can also keep track of any speed-limit warnings, lane rules, your proximity to the vehicle ahead, and any other information relayed from the Bluetooth-equipped camera that clips to your rearview mirror. The camera also streams a live-view picture to a more traditional GPS LCD screen and super-imposes even more map information.

The Cyber Navi system will be released in Japan come July with two models 2 AVIC-ZH99HUD (¥300,000 or $3,755) and the AVIC-VH99HUD (¥320,000 or $4,006), which comes with a fancier screen that rises up to the dashboard. New tech is expensive tech after all. There is no word of a US release as of yet.

[Pioneer (Translated) via Tech-On and Engadget]

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LightSquared Question Is in FCC's Hands Now

With the end of the public comment and response periods on LightSquared's plan to operate a 4G LTE service near GPS frequencies, it's now the FCC's turn to decide how to proceed.

LightSquared wants to offer cellular broadband over spectrum that's next to the band used by GPS (Global Positioning System), but tests have shown that its network would interfere with GPS receivers. On Feb. 15, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposed cancelling a conditional waiver it had given to LightSquared and indefinitely suspending its permission to build a land-based network.

The agency then set aside time for public comments on its plans, followed by responses to those comments. Thousands of comments came in, arguing on both sides of the issue, and the FCC extended the opportunity to comment. The response period finally ended last week.

In its formal response, filed on Friday, LightSquared slammed its opponents' comments as "revisionist history" and said the FCC's proposal was unsupported by law, science or precedent. LightSquared said the agency could either test more possible solutions to the interference, acknowledge LightSquared's spectrum rights and make GPS vendors pay for solving the problem, or give LightSquared a different block of spectrum. The carrier's loudest critic, the industry group Coalition to Save Our GPS, said LightSquared shouldn't get to use the spectrum because it didn't fulfill a requirement to resolve interference issues.

After reviewing the comments and responses, the FCC could go ahead with its plans or take some other course of action. It has no deadline to act. If it decides to kill LightSquared's plan, the carrier will be given time to file a protest.

It appears unlikely the FCC will act soon.

"I don't think the FCC is going to rush to do anything," said Maury Mechanick, an attorney at White & Case and a former executive of satellite provider Comsat. The agency is out of public eye for now on this case, and as soon as it makes a decision, it will be thrust back into the limelight, he said. Mechanick believes it is likely that LightSquared would sue if the agency shot down its network. The carrier's recent hiring of high-profile Washington lawyers suggests he may be right.

The FCC's options are limited, according to Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. The conditional waiver it gave LightSquared, to let it sell LTE apart from satellite service, required the carrier to prove it wouldn't interfere with GPS.

"That condition has not been met, so I don't know that the commission really has a choice here," Pace said. It's also not clear that the FCC could give LightSquared another spectrum block except as part of a larger rulemaking process, he said. Whatever it may do, the timing of the next step is open-ended, he said. "They are an independent regulatory agency, and they will pick and choose their time."

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

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EOS Rebel T4i Black SLR Digital Camera Body Only - Lowest Price: $849.00

Canon EOS Rebel T4i Black SLR Digital Camera Body Only

The Canon EOS Rebel T4i Digital Camera (Body Only) is an ideal camera for any level photographer, combining both high quality imaging power and a wealth of functions that enable you to create beautiful imagery with ease. This 18.0 megapixel DSLR features an APS-C-sized CMOS sensor and a DIGIC 5 image processor for fast operation and tremendous low light performance to an expanded ISO of 25600.

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EOS 7D Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-135mm Lens - Lowest Price: $1479.99

Canon EOS 7D Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-135mm Lens

With a host of features designed to enhance every facet of the photographic process, from still images to video. Made to be the tool of choice for serious photographers and semi-professionals, the EOS 7D features an 18.0 Megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor and Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors, capturing tremendous images at up to ISO 12800 and speeds of up to 8 fps. The EOS 7D has an all cross-type 19-point AF system with improved AI Servo AF subject tracking and user-selectable AF area selection modes for sharp focus no matter the situation.

Canon EOS 7D Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-135mm LensScene Modes: Standard Portrait Landscape Neutral Faithful Monochrome User Defined 1-31 x USB 2.0 USB|1 x HDMI Digital Audio/Video Out|1 x Video Out|1 x DC Power InMaximum Video Capture Resolution

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Samsung N230 Netbook Promises 13.5 Hours of Battery Life

Samsung announced a new netbook model today in the N230. At first blush, it doesn't seem like anything particularly special: a 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 by 600, Intel Atom N450 or N470 CPU, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a weight of around 2.2 pounds. The eye-catching part is the company's claim that this netbook will last for 13.5 hours on a single charge. How is it achieving such astounding battery life from a regular Windows-running netbook? Samsung talks about their efficient LED display and "proprietary Enhanced Battery Life (EBL) solutions" in its press release, but upon closer examination we can see what's really going on...

The N230 netbook has a high, but not especially amazing, battery life of 7 hours with the standard battery. The 13.5 hour claim comes when you use the optional 65 watt-hour long-life battery. Samsung doesn't say exactly what this battery will do to the netbook's bulk or weight. Still, this is an impressive feat, if the real battery life is anywhere close to Samsung's claims. We have tested netbooks with extended batteries before, and none have quite come close to that sort of runtime. Then again, we often find the battery life claims of manufacturers to be a bit...optimistic...compared to our lab tests.

Samsung says the N230 is available now and should cost around $400, but we haven't seen it pop up on our favorite shopping sites just yet.

Check out our Top Netbooks Chart .

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D300S Black SLR Digital Camera - Body Only - Lowest Price: $1599.00

Nikon D300S Black SLR Digital Camera - Body Only

Extraordinary still and HD video imaging performance converge in the fast and agile 12.3-megapixel, DX-format D300S, delivering D-SLR versatility. Capture cinematic 24 fps, 720p HD movie clips, enhanced by NIKKOR interchangeable lens quality.

Nikon D300S Black SLR Digital Camera - Body OnlyCompactFlash (CF) Card|Secure Digital (SD) Card|Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) CardSensitivity: Lowest Standard ISO 200 Highest Standard ISO 3200 Supported Languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) Dutch English Finnish French German Italian Japanese Korean Polish Portuguese Russian Spanish SwedishCompactFlash (CF) Card|Secure Digital (SD) Card|Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card1 x USB|1 x Audio/Video Out|1 x HDMI Digital Audio/Video Out|1 x DC Power InMaximum Video Capture Resolution

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Tech World Preps to Honor 'Father of Computer Science' Alan Turing, as Centenary Nears

Alan TuringListening to the way people in the world of technology talk about Alan Turing, it's difficult to believe that the English computer scientist isn't more of a household name.

MORE: Cerf: Secret wartime projects drove 'incredible' advances

IN PICTURES: Alan Turing in the media

"The man challenged everyone's thinking," says Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, in an interview with Network World. "He was so early in the history of computing, and yet so incredibly visionary about it."

Cerf -- who is president-elect of the Association for Computing Machinery and general chair of that organization's effort to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of Turing's birth on June 23 -- says that it's tough to overstate the importance of Turing's role in shaping the world of modern computing.

"Alan had such a broad impact on so many aspects of computer science," says Cerf. "The deep notion of computability is so fundamental to everything we do in computing."

"People ... have done computing for thousands of years," says Moshe Vardi, a distinguished computer science professor at Rice University who is working closely with Cerf on the upcoming ACM celebrations. "But the theory of computing really started in the 20th century, and Turing is one of the foremost -- if not the foremost -- parents of the theory of computing."

Both Vardi and Cerf -- who are influential figures in computer science in their own rights -- cited the idea of computability, or the ability to solve a problem efficiently, as a foundational concept for the development of modern computers.

"Businesses don't even realize how much they rely on [the idea]," says Vardi. "Today, when you have people doing algorithmic trading on Wall Street, they are following in Turing's footsteps. ... There is a line of development, each one following the other, that led from the question 'what is computable?' to the world you see around us today."

~~

Who was Turing?

Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912, in London. After studying at King's College, Cambridge, and becoming a fellow at the age of 22, he did some of his most important conceptual work in inventing what he called the "a-machine," better known to the world as the Turing machine (pictured below). This hypothetical device -- which reads symbols from a paper strip of theoretically infinite length and interprets them according to an inbuilt table of rules -- is crucially important to the development of computational theory.

The work for which Turing is probably best known to the public, however, is his central role in cracking German military codes during World War II.

Turing's earlier research stood him in good stead at the ultra-secret Government Code and Cipher School, located at Bletchley Park. Along with contributing enormously to the war effort by providing detailed intelligence on German communications, his work at GCCS presaged the development of the rudimentary computers he would design after hostilities ended.

While he had already created a digital multiplier during a spell at Princeton University before the war, the design of the Automated Computing Engine, or ACE (pictured below), was to have far greater effects on the development of the computer -- providing a basis for a whole generation of devices, including the Bendix G-15.

"The very first machine that I ever got to really program was called a Bendix G-15 computer," recalls Cerf.

Turing went on to make many other important advances in several fields. The well-known Turing Test -- which holds, broadly, that a machine which is indistinguishable from a human in normal conversation can be said to have achieved artificial intelligence -- is his work, as is a well-known hypothesis on pattern formation in biology.

His contributions, however, were cut short by his untimely death. Turing had been persecuted for his homosexuality by the British government, and agreed to undergo chemical castration rather than face jail on a charge of indecency in 1952. He was found dead, the victim of apparently self-inflicted cyanide poisoning, on June 8, 1954.

Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently issued an official apology to Turing in 2009.

Celebrations

Nevertheless, Turing's memory is the driving force behind a landmark celebration in the scientific and computing communities. While a Turing Award -- "the Nobel Prize in computing," according to Vardi -- has been handed out every year since 1966 by the ACM, this year's presentation, on June 16, will be different (See "Judea Pearl, a big brain behind AI, wins 2011 Turing Award").

The group, Vardi says, is trying to bring all living Turing Award winners together in celebration of Alan Turing's life and work. The event will be held June 15-16 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

He predicts that the group will have about 32 Turing Award winners on hand, which he described as "an amazing opportunity." In order to ensure that attendees have a chance to hear from all of the award winners, several panel discussions featuring multiple prize winners will be held.

The response has been well beyond what the ACM initially expected. Vardi says that the group estimated they would get roughly 250 or 300 people to attend; there are now more than 1,000 attendees registered.

"We kept going to the hotel, 'We need more room! We need more room!'" he says.

Nor are the ACM's celebrations the only ones of their kind. The University of Manchester is planning its own conference for June 22-25, and a 100th Birthday party will be held in Cambridge on June 16 at Turing's alma mater, King's College, among many more.

Part of the reason for the massive scope of the celebrations, according to Vardi, is the nature of the 100-year anniversary.

"Now, with the perspective of 100 years, we understand how important [Turing's work] was in a way that, even 20 years ago, we couldn't understand," he says.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

For more information about enterprise networking, go to NetworkWorld. Story copyright 2011 Network World Inc. All rights reserved.

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EOS 5D Mark II Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 24-105mm Lens - Lowest Price: $2679.00

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 24-105mm Lens

The EOS 5D Mark II has a stunning 21.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a vast ISO Range of 100-6400, plus EOS technologies like Auto Lighting Optimizer and Peripheral Illumination Correction. It supports Live View shooting, Live View HD videos, and more. It can shoot up to 3.9 fps, has 9 AF points plus 6 AF assist points, a 98% coverage viewfinder, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) and a rugged build. Full-frame shooters rejoice.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 24-105mm LensSensitivity: ISO 100-6400 (in 1/3-stop or 1-stop increments) Languages: English German French Dutch Danish Portuguese Finnish Italian Norwegian Swedish Spanish Greek Russian Polish Czech Hungarian Romanian Ukraine Turkish Arabic Thai Simplified/Traditional Chinese Korean JapaneseShooting Modes: Still photo shooting and video shooting Continuous Shooting: Max. 3.9 shots/sec Picture Style: Standard Portrait Landscape Neutral Faithful Monochrome User Def. 1-3Dust Proof|Water Resistant|Weather ResistantHDMI|USB|Video - Out (Unspecified)Dust Proof|Water Resistant|Weather ResistantMaximum Video Capture ResolutionFocal Length (35mm Equivalent)

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iPhone Whale Emoticon Pillow Is Cuter Than the Fail Whale

[Credit: Infmetry]If there's one thing I love, it's geeking up my house with quirky accessories. If I had infinite time and resources, I'd probably install an Enter key for a doorbell or purchase a table made out of partially melted computer parts. But these whale pillows are not only very cute and cuddly, but are also a little geeky.

The pillow is based on a whale meme, which can be made out on an iPhone by pressing return a few times and using Eastern-style emoticon faces. The 50cm throw pillows encapsulate six of the classic faces these iPhone whales make within people's text messages: happy, angry (or confused?), indifferent, sleepy, loved up, exasperated and irritated.

iPhone whale says 'meh.' [Credit: Infmetry]

The pillows come in green and gray, just like actual iPhone messages, and wil set you back $18 at Infmetry. Maybe for the next collection they could do message whale favorites, like the Harry Potter whale, Free Willy or Nyan Whale.

Perhaps once you've bought one of the whales, you could make it more at home with the original iPhone app and Mac icon cushions, or an iPod duvet set.

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Alpha SLT-A57 Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-55 mm Lens (16.1 MP, SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Slot) - Lowest Price: $648.00

Sony Alpha SLT-A57 Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-55 mm Lens (16.1 MP, SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Slot)

The Sony Alpha SLT-A57 SLR Digital Camera combines the quality and control reminiscent of a professional DSLR and pairs it with the convenience and efficiency of a point and shoot camera. This melding of technologies allows you to make outstanding imagery with a simplistic interface and functionality. Featuring a 16.1MP APS-C Exmor HD CMOS sensor, this camera is able to capture high quality stills and video with excellent low-light sensitivity. It also features Translucent Mirror Technology for continuous AF monitoring, permitting you ensured sharpness when recording full HD 1080p video or photographing at up to 12 fps.

Sony Alpha SLT-A57 Black SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-55 mm Lens (16.1 MP, SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Slot)Memory Stick PRO Duo|Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo|Secure Digital (SD) Card|Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card|Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC)|Eye-Fi CardProgram AE Aperture Priority AE Shutter Priority AE ManualAuto Daylight Shade Cloudy Incandescent Fluorescent Flash CustomScene Modes: Portrait Landscape Macro Sports Action Sunset Night Portrait Night View Hand-held TwilightFocal Length (35mm Equivalent)PlayMemories Home Image Data Converter Ver. 4Memory Stick PRO Duo|Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo|Secure Digital (SD) Card|Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card|Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC)|Eye-Fi CardAuto Flash|Fill Flash|Slow Sync|Red-eye Reduction|Flash Exposure Compensation|Rear Flash Sync|High Speed Sync|Flash OFF|Rear Curtain SyncMaximum Video Capture ResolutionFocal Length (35mm Equivalent)

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Best Windows 8 Tablets, Hybrids at Show

Touch was the hot trend at last week's Computex trade show in Taipei, with computer makers showing off tablets and ultrabook-tablet hybrids with detachable or folding touchscreens. The devices ran either Windows 8 (for Intel processors) or Windows RT (for ARM processors), OSes due for release later this year that are designed for touch interfaces. Prices were not immediately available on most tablet or hybrid models, leaving questions about whether touch devices will be priced at a premium. For example, Dell has already said that it would price touchscreen devices higher compared to the non-touch counterparts.

Asus's Taichi

A week ahead of Computex. Asus teased that it was coming out with something big, and the company didn't disappoint. The Taichi is a thin-and-light, laptop-tablet hybrid highlighted by two high-definition screens on both sides of the display panel. The laptop looks like a thin-and-light laptop, but when it is closed, the second outer screen is activated, giving it the look of a tablet. Both screens can be activated in laptop mode, allowing the same desktop image to be viewed on both screens when users are sitting on opposite sides of a desk. Users don't have to sit next to each other, and it's a good way to share content, said Jonney Shih, Asus' chairman, during a press conference at Computex. Prices were not available, but the Taichi is expected to come later this year with Intel's latest Core processors code-named Ivy Bridge and Windows 8 OS, The laptop will be offered with screen sizes of 13.3 inches and 11.6 inches.

Asus Tablet 600

Asus's second surprise was the Tablet 600, a Windows RT tablet running on an ARM processor. Windows has grown up on x86 processors, and this was among the first tablets announced combining Windows with ARM. Tablet 600 should give Microsoft a foothold in the tablet market and an opportunity to complete with Google's Android and Apple's iOS mobile OSes. The Asus tablet has a 10.1-inch screen and Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor. A keyboard dock can make it a fully functional laptop and provide extended battery life. But questions remain regarding how fast and effective a Windows RT tablet will be, and whether it will appeal to buyers. The Tablet 600 was kept under glass at Asus' booth in the Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei, preventing showgoers from playing with it.

Tablets with Intel's Clover Trail

Intel said that close to 20 Windows 8 tablets are in the works with its upcoming low-power Atom chip code-named Clover Trail, and some were on display at Computex. One of them was Asus' Tablet 810, which has an 11.6-inch screen and weighs 700 grams. In tests, the tablet booted up in about 20 seconds but stuttered when running some programs. The same was the case with the ThinkPad Tablet, which fumbled in executing some touch features during an Intel keynote. Intel's aim with Clover Trail is to provide a legitimate competitor to ARM processors, which are used in most tablets. Clover Trail seems to be a work in progress, and tablets are due to become available with the release of Windows 8 sometime later this year.

Samsung's Series 7 slates

Samsung last year gave out test units of its Series 7 tablets at Microsoft's Build conference as a showcase to highlight the touch features on Windows 8. That laptop was upgraded at Computex to the latest Ivy Bridge microprocessors. At 12.9 millimeters and 860 grams, it isn't the lightest tablet out there, but with powerful Ivy Bridge processors, it can provide serious horsepower to run resource-hungry programs and games. The tablet ran swiftly when tested, and the touch features worked flawlessly. But with the powerful processors also comes heat, an issue that dogged the Series 7 laptops with Sandy Bridge processors. The upcoming laptop will come with 64GB and 128GB solid-state drives. Prices and availability were not immediately available.

MSI's Slider S20

MSI's Slider S20 ultrabook was attracting a lot of attention at Computex for its unique sliding screen design. The ultrabook has a 11.6 inch touchscreen that collapses over the keyboard to turn the laptop into a Windows 8 tablet. The ultrabook is 20 millimeters thick and weighs just 1.3 kilograms, which is comparable to the lightest laptops available. The ultrabook comes with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors, and offers up to eight hours of battery life depending on usage. Laptop features include USB 3.0 and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) ports, and price and availability were not provided.

Acer's Windows 8 tablets, ultrabooks

Acer incorporated touchscreens in new ultrabooks and tablets introduced at Computex, but the designs were more conventional compared to Asus. Acer introduced two Windows 8 tablets -- Iconia W510 and W700 -- which run on Intel processors. The W510 has a 10.1-inch screen and is priced from US$599 to $799, while the high-performance W700 ranges between $799 and $999. Acer's new Aspire S7 touch ultrabooks come in an 11.6-inch model, which offers nine hours of battery, and a 13.3-inch model, which offers up to 12 hours. The ultrabooks are priced between $999 and $1,799. Acer will also introduce new Windows RT devices with ARM processors in the first quarter next year.

(Michael Kan of the IDG News Service contributed to this story.)

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

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EOS Rebel T4i Black Digital Camera w/ 18-135 mm Lens - Lowest Price: $1199.00

Canon EOS Rebel T4i Black Digital Camera w/ 18-135 mm Lens

The Canon EOS Rebel T4i Digital Camera with EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Lens is an ideal camera for any level photographer; combining both high quality imaging power and a wealth of functions that enable you to create beautiful imagery with ease. This 18.0 megapixel DSLR features an APS-C-sized CMOS sensor and a DIGIC 5 image processor for fast operation and tremendous low light performance to an expanded ISO of 25600. A quickened 5.0fps continuous shooting ability and fast 9-point cross-type AF system are also supported by the performance of the DIGIC 5 processor. This combination of technologies also results in tremendous image quality with smooth color gradations and clarity for both images and videos.

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WWDC: Tim Cook Runs Down the Numbers

Apple CEO Tim Cook said more than 30 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store.The app ecosystem surrounding Apple and its products has “become an economy in and of itself,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said Monday in his WWDC keynote speech.

To prove the point, he rattled off a series of stats to show how big that ecosystem has become—particularly as it pertains to iOS products:

• There are now 400 million customer accounts on the iOS App Store.

• More than 650,000 apps are available in the store—and 225,000 of those are made specifically for the iPad. Competing tablets, Cook said, only have a “few hundred” apps available for purchase.

• App Store customers have downloaded 30 billion apps.

• Apple has written checks for over $5 billion to developers—and that's after taking its 30 percent cut of all App Store sales.

• The ecosystem will get larger: The App Store is available in 120 countries, but that number will grow over the next month to 155 countries total.

"Despite these blowaway numbers, what we do together is much more important than any set of numbers could ever reflect,” Cook told the audience. "For Apple, and for, I expect, many of you, our goal has always been to do great work."

WWDC itself is sporting some impressive numbers, Cook said: Attendees came from more than 60 countries to attend the conference’s 112 sessions and 125 labs.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2011 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

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EOS 5D Mark III Black Digital SLR Camera Kit w/ 24-105mm IS Lens - Lowest Price: $3969.00

Canon EOS 5D Mark III Black Digital SLR Camera Kit w/ 24-105mm IS Lens

The Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera Kit with Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens is a full-frame 22.3MP DSLR featuring exceptional still image and move recording capabilities. Integrating Canon's DIGIC 5+ Image Processor and 14-bit A/D conversion, this camera is able to produce superbly detailed imagery with immense low-light sensitivity that is further aided by an extended ISO range up to 102400. Image quality is further enhanced by the 61-point high density reticular autofocus, including up to 41 cross-type AF points and 5 dual diagonal AF points for ensured sharpness. iFCL metering works in conjunction with the AF system and uses color information from scenes to produce accurate exposure readings using a 63 zone dual-layer metering sensor. HDR and Multiple Exposure modes provide greater creative opportunities and help you to reduce the amount of post-production time needed to produce high quality imagery. The 5D Mark III is also capable of recording full HD video with manual exposure control and in multiple frame rates, including 1080/30p and 720/60p. Still images can also be recorded up to 6fps.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III Black Digital SLR Camera Kit w/ 24-105mm IS LensCompactFlash (CF) Card|Secure Digital (SD) Card|Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card|Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC)Program AE Aperture Priority AE Shutter Priority AE ManualAuto (AWB) Daylight Shade Cloudy Tungsten Light White Fluorescent Light Flash Custom (Custom WB) Color TemperatureShooting Modes: Auto Custom (x3)CompactFlash (CF) Card|Secure Digital (SD) Card|Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card|Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC)Auto Flash|X-sync|Rear Curtain Sync|Red-eye Reduction|Flash Exposure CompensationMaximum Video Capture Resolution

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Linaro Offers Up to 100% Speed Boost for Android

Developers at open-source nonprofit organization Linaro have posted a set of code tweaks for Android, enabling up to 100% increases in performance, compared to a vanilla version of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).

A video the group recently posted, from its Q2 event, appears to show the Linaro version of Android dramatically outperforming a stock Android Open Source Project installation on a 3D graphics benchmark, finishing the tests well before the original version.

Engineer Bernhard Rosenkränzer said in the video that much of the improvement is due to the use of a newer compiler version, as well as the aforementioned special tweaks to the OS.

"Another thing is that we're using the Linaro Android system, which has been optimized a lot," he said. "Just this week, we replaced all the string operations in Bionic [a BSD-standard C library used by Android] to make sure that we get a better, faster build."

He also said that, if the graphics drivers in the Texas Instruments Pandaboard test modules were open, they could have been optimized as well.

The community has been quick to embrace Linaro's upgrades, with CyanogenMod -- one of the most popular modified versions of Android, designed for users of rooted devices -- already moving to integrate the Linaro tweaks in to an upcoming iteration of their software.

Savvy Galaxy Nexus users with root access to their devices can give the upgrades a spin right away, thanks to developer Amar Rajvanshi, who posted a modified version of CyanogenMod 9 to Reddit Sunday. There is as yet no word on when support for other devices or official CM9 integration will be added.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

For more information about enterprise networking, go to NetworkWorld. Story copyright 2011 Network World Inc. All rights reserved.

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alpha NEX-3 14.2 Megapixel Mirrorless Camera - Silver - Lowest Price: $489.99

Sony alpha NEX-3 14.2 Megapixel Mirrorless Camera - Silver

Sony has engineered an impressively small camera that takes incredibly good photographs. In fact, the ? NEX-3 camera has all quality of a DSLR in about half the size and weight. Pulling off this minor miracle took some clever innovations in glass, silicon and software code.

Sony alpha NEX-3 14.2 Megapixel Mirrorless Camera - SilverScene Modes: Portrait Landscape Macro Sports Action Sunset Night Portrait Night View Handheld TwilightPMB (Picture Motion Browser) 4.3.01 Image Data Converter SR 3.1 Image Data Lightbox SRMaximum Video Capture Resolution

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Secret Service Laced Honeypot With Seduction to Catch Hackers

The Ultimate Guide to Social Engineering [PDF] states “social engineers offer free gifts of favors” counting on the fact that reciprocation is a human impulse. An example is to give a “plate of cookies,” but what if the bait goodies were more along the lines of a plate of nookie?

We don’t often hear too much about U.S. Secret Service cyber investigations, but since its beginning in 1865 the USSS mission had to evolve from “its original counterfeit currency investigations to also include emerging financial crimes.” The 2011 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report [PDF] included data from 257 Secret Service cybercrime investigations. In fact, the agency is extremely good at getting the job done and frequently investigates electronic crime, data theft and security breaches. But what if hacking the hacker was less high-tech, less about following a cyber-trail, and more about good old-fashion seduction to find a chink in the cybercrook’s armor? USSS social engineering using sex as bait helped lure Romanian hackers to America where two men were immediately arrested upon their entry to the United States.

Last December in a multimillion-dollar scheme, four Romanian hackers were charged with hacking point-of-sale (POS) systems which targeted more than 200 U.S. merchants including 150 Subway restaurants. The indictment said they remotely scanned for vulnerabilities in POS computer systems, guessed or used password-cracking programs, installed keystroke loggers and backdoor Trojans before stealing the credit card data of 80,000 U.S. customers. The Romanian hackers “used public filesharing services to transfer credit card data to fraud-minded customers.” They were charged “with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, wire fraud and access device fraud.” Adrian-Tiberiu Oprea was arrested in and extradited from Romania, but that left the Secret Service with figuring out how to nab Iulian Dolan, Cezar Iulian Butu and Florin Radu.

CTOvision reported the Secret Service successfully lured Dolan and Butu into the United States by using one of the oldest tricks in the book, by “using a female agent as a honeypot. In espionage, a honeypot refers to an agent or plan that uses seduction as bait for entrapment, and is one of the oldest and most successful tricks in tradecraft.”

It took social engineering and a woman’s wiles to bring down the 27 year-old Dolan. A female Secret Service agent pretended to be working at a resort and casino. She and Dolan developed a “rapport” before offering Dolan a free flight and a complimentary weekend of casino “fun.” The USSS and the casino had “set up a dedicated line for the female ‘employee’ and gave her an email with the casino’s domain name,” Krebs on Security reported. When Dolan checked it out, even the airline ticket had been purchased by the casino. It seemed legit and Dolan took the bait, hook, line and sinker.

Brian Krebs spoke with Michael Shklar who is the public defender appointed as Dolan’s attorney. “U.S. Secret Service agents tricked his client into voluntarily visiting the United States by posing as representatives from a local resort and casino that was offering him a complimentary weekend getaway.” Shklar added, Dolan “arrived in the U.S. with some clothes, a cheap necklace, a little bit of money, and three very large boxes of grape-flavored Romanian condoms.” He was arrested upon his arrival to Logan International Airport.

The USSS used a different targeted honeypot to catch the 26 year-old Butu. It started by subpoenaing Yahoo!, GoDaddy and other communications providers to study Butu’s emails. Then USSS investigators posed “as an attractive female tourist” who Butu had previously met in France. Alex Olesker reported, “Despite their in-depth information, the USSS didn’t need to make their story particularly believable for it to work, claiming to be an independently wealthy Hooters waitress working at the restaurant chain for the health insurance and a love of people. That was enough to get him to fly to Boston to meet her, where he was arrested on the spot.” Attorney Shklar told Brian Krebs, Butu “gets off the plane and they nab him and the handcuffs don’t even have fur on them.”

As CTOvision pointed out, a lot can be accomplished using hackers and honeypots. “As the FBI’s veteran cyber cops have noted, that’s how you get things done. Investigating cybercrime is rarely a pure battle of wits between white hat and black hat hackers.” Arresting the Romanian hackers required neither “advanced technical expertise or capable and willing international partners.”

Radu remains at large, but might also fall prey to a social engineer using a sexual undertone. Social engineering is lethal to corporations and individuals as has been proven time and again, such as when security specialist Thomas Ryan created the fictional American cyber threat analyst Robin Sage. By setting up social networking profiles, claiming to be from MIT, and using photos from porn sites, the fake Sage was able to dupe security, military and intelligence people. Ryan compiled his research and then presented “Getting into bed with Robin Sage” [PDF] at BlackHat USA.

Women are thought to be better social engineers than men; it will be put to the test this year with Battle of the SExes. The stakes are different than what the USSS was out to achieve. It’s highly doubtful that either male or female social engineers will dangle nookie as bait at Defcon.

For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright © 2011 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.

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