Innovation Watch - Signals of Change

The Beginning of the End of Cash (IEEE Spectrum)

iw — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:57:46 +0000

The basic paradigm has been in effect for years. You toil, scheme, cajole, and cogitate, and in exchange you get paid—but probably not in cash. Some bits get altered periodically in a database somewhere, as infinitesimal patches of ferromagnetism on disks or electromagnetic pulses flitting from here to there. Your earnings, your savings, your spending: Virtually all of it is virtual.  Money is the most important abstraction human beings have ever devised. And yet that abstraction has not been fully embraced. Decades after money began going electronic, we all continue to cling to cash, a quaint vestige from earlier eras when money meant cowrie shells, giant stone disks, and shiny  gold pieces. Of the many things we could do now with technology, getting rid of cash would be one of the more sublime.  … Read more

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Privacy Group Wants Google’s Driverless Cars Kept off the Road (PC World)

iw — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:51:31 +0000

A privacy group is calling on the California Assembly to keep Google’s self-driving cars off the road. Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit privacy group, sent an open letter to the Assembly today urging members to defeat a bill, SB 1289, that would allow Google’s self-driving cars on California’s roads unless the bill is amended to provide “adequate” privacy protection for the cars’ users. The letter asks legislators to ban all data collection from Google’s autonomous cars. Google has been pushing ahead with its research into developing autonomous automobiles that can be sold commercially. Earlier this month, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles gave Google the state’s first license for driverless cars. It was also the first autonomous vehicle license ever issued in the United States, according to the Nevada DMV website. … Read more

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Greenhouse Gas Levels Hit ‘Troubling Milestone’ (PhysOrg)

iw — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:49:18 +0000

The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395. So far, only the Arctic has reached that 400 level, but the rest of the world will follow soon. … Read more

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New Eyeglasses Allow You to Adjust Prescription Yourself (PhysOrg)

iw — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:47:22 +0000

A new kind of eyeglasses is now available from a British company that allows the wearer to adjust the prescription anytime, anywhere, via small thumb-dials on the sides. Called, Eyejusters, the glasses make use of a technology called a Slidelens, which very aptly describes how these glasses do their magic. Each lens is actually two lenses that have slightly different shapes; turning the thumb-dial causes one lens to move slightly left or right and that changes the focal point for the wearer. The lenses are moved until the person doing the focusing finds the sweet spot; which is exactly how users focus a pair of binoculars. … Read more

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Internet Traffic to Grow Fourfold by 2016 (PhysOrg)

iw — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:45:56 +0000

The boom in the number of mobile Internet devices and tablet computers in use will help quadruple Web traffic in the coming years, a study said. The Cisco Visual Networking Index said global Internet traffic by 2016 will be 1.3 zettabytes. A zettabyte is one trillion gigabytes, or one sextillion bytes. That will be four times the level of traffic generated in 2011, according to Cisco, and comes from a proliferation of tablets, smartphones and other devices that use the Internet. By 2016, the forecast projects there will be nearly 18.9 billion network connections, or nearly 2.5 connections for each person on earth, compared with 10.3 billion in 2011. … Read more

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Cambridge Researchers Uncover Backdoor in Military Chip (Tech World)

iw — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:40:22 +0000

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found evidence that Chinese manufacturers are putting backdoors in FPGA (field-programmable gate array) chips used by the US military. The research was conducted in response to claims by intelligence agencies around the world that the silicon chips that run their defence systems are vulnerable to Trojans. Considerable investment has been made in software computer networks and system defences to detect and eradicate such threats, but similar technology for hardware is not currently available. … Read more

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Japanese Smartphone Manufacturer Builds Phone With Radiation Detector Following Last Year’s Fukushima Plant Meltdown (Daily Mail)

iw — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:33:38 +0000

A mobile phone company is planning to sell smartphones with radiation detectors. Softbank, tapping into concerns that hotspots still remain along Japan’s eastern coast a year after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, said today it will soon begin selling smartphones with radiation detectors. Parts of northeastern Japan are still off-limits due to high radiation levels after the Fukushima nuclear plant was devastated by a huge earthquuake and tsunami, triggering meltdowns and sending radiation out into the area. Anti-nuclear sentiment is high, with advocacy groups in Tokyo and other cities calling for radiation monitoring at schools and other public facilities. … Read more

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Volvo’s Self-Drive ‘Convoy’ Hits the Spanish Motorway (BBC)

iw — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:46:48 +0000

A convoy of self-driven cars has completed a 200km (125-mile) journey on a Spanish motorway, in the first public test of such vehicles. The cars were wirelessly linked to each other and “mimicked” a lead vehicle, driven by a professional driver. The so-called road train has been developed by Volvo. The firm is confident that they will be widely available in future. The project aims to herald a new age of relaxed driving. According to Volvo, drivers “can now work on their laptops, read a book or sit back and enjoy a relaxed lunch” while driving. The road train test was carried out as part of a European Commission research project known as Sartre – Safe Road Trains for the Environment. … Read more

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The Surprising Global Shortage of Skilled Workers (Businessweek)

iw — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:34:13 +0000

Want to find a job? That’s not a problem if you are trained as a technician and looking for work in China or Brazil. Ditto for sales representative, who are in hot demand in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Japan, engineers won’t sit idle. Meanwhile, in Ireland, IT workers are needed. In the Netherlands, it’s laborers. Even with unemployment running at an historic high of 8.1 percent in the U.S, don’t worry if you are a plumber, welder, or electrician. There’s plenty of demand for your skills. Even as economists and politicians fret about the problem of global unemployment, those with the right résumés are in hot demand. That’s leading to talent shortages around the world, according to a survey released on May 29 by Milwaukee-based Manpower Group (MAN), one of the world’s largest temporary workers agencies. … Read more

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Greece Euro Exit Would Prompt Greeks To More Than Half Their Income: Report (Huffington Post)

iw — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:31:17 +0000

An exit from the euro would see Greeks lose more than half their annual income and prompt a dramatic rise in unemployment and inflation, a report from the country’s largest bank has warned. The National Bank of Greece study was published Tuesday as Greece heads to new general elections on June 17, amid Europe-wide concern of broader financial turmoil if Greece’s place in the single currency is threatened by a victory for an anti-austerity party. “An exit from the euro would cause a significant drop in the living standards of Greek citizens – with a reduction of at least 55 percent in per capita income,” the authors of the 17-page report wrote. … Read more

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Moving Toward a Smarter World (Globalist)

iw — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:28:10 +0000

As emerging economies exhaust the low-hanging fruit of growth opportunities and advanced economies struggle to emerge from the financial crisis, it is reasonable to wonder where future economic growth will come from. Fortunately, writes IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano, we have at our disposal powerful resources to create a world of vibrant, innovation-based economies. As has often been noted, the world’s economy has been shaped since the early 1980s by three major shifts: an embrace of open trade, the digital network revolution, and a striking increase in political stability. Together, these forces leveled the playing field for markets, industries and nations, opening up a door through which vast swaths of the planet have entered the global economy. … Read more

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When Modern Cities Become Ghost Towns (Spiegel)

iw — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:00:14 +0000

The Japanese island of Hashima was once among the most densely populated areas in the world. But with the decline of the coal industry, the island was deserted in the 1970s. Now history enthusiasts like to explore it in hopes of discovering remnants of the mining town it once was. The desolate ruins of the settlement also inspire filmmakers to replicate the haunting setting in their movies. Hashima is just one example of a number of modern “ghost towns” around the world that has drawn the attention of urban researchers, who opened an exhibition on the topic in the German capital of Berlin. … Read more

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