Surround vision
MIT researchers have a found way to use augmented reality to bring TVs and cellphones together so viewers can watch more than just what?s playing right in front of them. The technology, called ?Surround Vision?, uses footage taken from different angles so when someone points their phone beyond the edge of the TV screen, they can see the additional content on their mobile device. For instance, Surround Vision could allow a guest at a Super Bowl party to check out different camera angles of a play, without affecting what other guests see on the screen, says MIT. Or viewers could use it to see alternate takes of a scene while watching a movie.
Augmented reality tries to enhance the physical world by overlaying virtual computer generated elements on it. Over the last one year, a number of apps designed especially for phones have emerged where all users have to do is point their phones at a physical object to get more information on their phones.
MIT?s breakthrough extends that idea. The Surround Vision prototype, built by MIT, added a magnetometer (compass) to an existing phone, since the accelerometer included in many phones is not sensitive enough to detect the subtle motion that comes from pointing a phone to the left or right of a TV screen. The software incorporates the data gathered from the compass and integrates it with the phone?s other sensors. Over the next few months, MIT Media Lab will test the system using sports broadcasts and children?s shows.
Scrubbing IDs
A new technique allows medical records to be used for research on the genetics of disease while still protecting patients from prying eyes. Databases that link thousands of people?s DNA profiles to their medical histories are a powerful tool for researchers who want to use genetics to individualise the diagnosis and treatment of disease. But this promise of personalised medicine comes with concerns about patient privacy. Now scientists have come up with a way to alter personal medical information so it?s still meaningful for research, but meaningless to someone trying to ID an individual in a database.
?We?re hoping that it?s a game-changer,? says Bradley Malin, a biomedical informatics specialist from Vanderbilt University in Nashville who helped develop the method. The new method simply disguises parts of the medical history data that are not relevant to a geneticist?s particular research question using an algorithm that combs through health records and makes some aspects of them more general.
The researchers tested their algorithm against potential hackers using information from more than 2,600 patients. The team assumed a hacker might know a patient?s identity, some of their medical history and maybe some of the medical codes associated with that history.
Genome-wide association studies, which comb through these giant databases looking for links between genetic and physical traits, have the potential to generate clinically valuable information.
Sniffing bio-agents
If you?re in the United States, your cellphone can already tell you where to find the nearest Starbucks or the most convenient subway station. But it might soon be smart enough to alert you to a toxic threat during your morning commute or coffee break, thanks to a new plan from the US department of homeland security.
Their new program, called Cell-All, would embed inexpensive, chemical-sniffing microchips into cellular telephones. If a dangerous level of air-based toxin is detected, the phone would issue a warning ring (or vibration) to alert the owner and send a message to a centralised military monitoring station. And, since the vast majority of Americans carry cellphones wherever they go, the program would use aggregated reports of toxin detection within a small area. If hundreds of cellphones in one location start flooding the alert system, the military knows they?ve got a serious threat to contend with. Detection, transmission and analysis would take around 60 seconds. Given that terrorist attacks are usually launched in highly populated areas?subways, malls, office buildings?the idea of crowdsourcing the detection of toxic terror threats makes a lot of sense, and using a built-in cellphone app would give the military the ability to detect threats in every corner of the country. The directorate is already in research and development talks with Apple, IG, Qualcomm and Samsung, and plans to have 40 different cellphone prototypes within a year.
Source: Wired