A company in Japan is shipping software for camera-equipped Linux devices that uses face recognition technology to authenticate users. Omron says its Okao Vision Face Recognition Sensor can increase the security of mobile devices such as camera phones and PDAs, and protect the data they contain.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has developed a prototype fuel cell that it hopes to commercialise within three years at a size small enough to fit inside mobile phones and other portable consumer electronics devices.
The prototype works by combining hydrogen with oxygen, generating electricity and water. It is more powerful than the DMFCs (direct methanol fuel cells) currently being developed by many companies, said a spokesperson.
Broad enterprise adoption of RFID is inevitable -- but its potential won't be reached if the industry doesn't handle privacy issues.
In a report released on Thursday, IT research firm Burton Group said that RFID has promise for keyless access to buildings, gates and autos; cashless payments; tracking of high-value goods; highway toll collection; and identifying pets.
A Google Inc. tool bar feature introduced this week is rekindling a debate over who should control what appears on a Web page—the site's creator or the software used to view it.
Google introduced a feature called AutoLink in a beta of its next tool bar version. AutoLink inserts links into Web pages where an address, package tracking number, publication ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or VIN (vehicle identification number) appears in the content.
The U.K. division of global giant Citibank has introduced an on-screen "keyboard" for its online banking customers in an attempt to foil some types identity theft.
Although customers type their account username into a typical form, their password must be entered by clicking on an on-screen keyboard similar to the one within Windows (from the Start menu, select "Run," enter "osk" and press Enter).
According to Citibank, the change is "to reduce the chance of malicious software attempting to record keystrokes and steal your details."
Few new technologies get conspiracy theorists going quite like the VeriChip--an implantable electronic identification device for humans.
A new book about "the disturbing satanic influences in America" dedicates two whole chapters to VeriChip and a related technology known as radio frequency identification, or RFID. The book, titled "The Resistance Manifesto," equates VeriChip with "the mark of the beast," which the Bible's book of Revelations describes as a demonic numbering system for people.
Some CNET News.com readers have made the same connection.
Macrovision is expected to release a new DVD copy-protection technology Tuesday in hopes of substantially broadening its role in Hollywood's antipiracy effort.
The content-protection company is pointing to the failure of the copy-proofing on today's DVDs, which was broken in 1999. Courts have ordered that DVD-copying tools be taken off the market, but variations of the software remain widely available online.
Faster wireless communications and television on mobile phones will be some of the key themes at 3GSM in Cannes, the world's biggest mobile communications trade show which opens next week.
Third generation mobile telephony has arrived at last, and while one part of the wireless industry is busy building multimedia services to make the most of those fast connections, others are working to boost speeds even more.
In 2004 some 45 wireless carriers opened their third generation (3G) UMTS technology standard networks to consumers, with Vodafone alone starting in 13 countries.
IP telephony is nothing short of a revolution. It works in a fundamentally different way to how telephone networks have carried our voice communications over the past 100 years. Traditionally voice is sent as a continuous stream over an open circuit from caller to caller, in what is called 'circuit switching'. The longer the circuit, the higher the tariff. The longer the call, the greater the calling costs. Despite long silences, the call is rated for every second the circuit is open. Even the migration from analogue to digital circuits did little to change this model.
Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday that its researchers have proven that a technology they invented could eventually replace the transistor, a fundamental building block of computers.
In a paper published in Tuesday's Journal of Applied Physics, HP said three members of its Quantum Science Research group propose and demonstrate a "crossbar latch," which provides the signal restoration and inversion required for general computing without the need for transistors.
