Impulse Man

Pentagon: Cyber Attacks Can Qualify as Acts of War

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The Pentagon has finished drafting its first official “computer sabotage strategy,” determining that online cyber attacks from another country can constitute an act of war, enabling the U.S. to retaliate with military force.

“If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” a military official told The Wall Street Journal by way of example.

The formal strategy underlines a rising need to systematically respond to attacks on the computer systems of the U.S. and other countries. In 2009, a strain of the Microsoft Windows computer virus Stuxnex, which some believe originated from Israel with U.S. help, damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities. More recently, Google was the victim of cyber attacks that allegedly originated in China, an affair the the White House became involved in.

The 30-page document, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, is also likely to spark debates about a number of unaddressed issues, including whether the U.S. can truly determine the origin of an attack and when a cyber attack is serious enough to constitute an act of war, the WSJ notes.

Image courtesy of Flickr, le tier

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

Indy 500 Warmup: World Record-Setting 332-foot Truck Jump [VIDEO]

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It’s Indy 500 day, and our thoughts turn to fast cars, the latest automotive tech, the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, and … world-record truck jumping?

That’s what happened today at turn 4 of the Indianapolis 500 race track, when stunt driver and Top Gear star Tanner Faust warmed up the crowd by setting a new jumping distance world record for a 4-wheeled vehicle.

Driving down a huge ramp designed look like a Hot Wheels “V-Drop” track as part of a “Fearless at the 500″ promotion, Faust picked up enough speed to launch his specially modified “Pro 2″ truck a world-record 332 feet. That was more than enough to beat the previous record of 301 feet.

Until the jump took place, Faust’s identity was kept secret. He’d been practicing for months — he tells his story in this video, revealed for the first time earlier today:

And the video teaser that led up to the jump:

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

Will Nike’s SportWatch GPS Keep You Running?

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The Gadget of the Day Series is supported by the Energizer® Inductive Charger, which brings you the next generation of charging with Qi technology. Qi is the new universal standard for wireless charging … now that’s positivenergy™.


Product: Nike+ SportWatch GPS

Price: $ 199.99

What It’s Good For: It promises to track your run via GPS without you needing to carry your phone, as it has a push-button satellite connection.

Who It’s Good For: Runners of all levels who want an accurate assessment of their runs, accounting for corners and hills.

Limitations: There’s an awful lot you have to plug this watch into your computer for, such as adjusting the clock and syncing your location. Plus you have to take a few steps to get to the website that shows your running history.

Bottom Line: The Nike+ Sportwatch GPS is very accurate, and with a little software-side tweaking, it could be the perfect scoring system for your runs.

I love running — so long as I’m getting some kind of credit for it. Some people track calories, others track kilometers. The latter is your score in a real-world video game that can make you healthier faster than just about any other activity. Without a good scoring system, it’s simply too easy to stay in bed instead of hitting the road.

That’s why, ever since the iPhone app Couch to 5K transformed me from a run-o-phobe to a halfway-decent middle-distance runner, I’ve been looking for tech that can inspire me in a similar manner and log my runs precisely. And that’s what I hoped I’d found in the Nike+ Sportwatch GPS.

Prior to reviewing the SportWatch, which came to market last month, I’d been using the Runkeeper app to track my outings. But that can be a somewhat irritating process. Not only does it mean you have to run with your phone strapped to your arm (or bouncing around distractingly in your pocket), but you have to fire up the app, tell it you’re running rather than walking or biking, and wait for it to connect to GPS satellites. And if, like me, you tend to run up, down and around city streets rather than in a straight line, you have to log on to Runkeeper afterwards and painstakingly adjust the map of your run. Because its connection to GPS is not constant, Runkeeper has a frustrating habit of assuming that I ran through buildings rather than around a corner. Unadjusted, this has too often made it look like I ran 9K, say, rather than 10K. The more you run, the greater the lost distance. No fair!

These, then, were my main questions about the Nike+ Sportwatch GPS: Would it have a push-button satellite connection, allowing me to run without the extra bulk of a phone? And would it log my runs more precisely than a phone app? Certainly, the branding would suggest so — the watch was made in conjunction with GPS stalwarts TomTom. Like other Nike products and apps, the watch also connects to the company’s patented shoe pod, which sits in your left sneaker and estimates your distance via your footfalls. But it’s GPS accuracy that you’re paying the big bucks for.

So is it push-button? Literally, yes. Press one button on the side of the watch’s massive face, and the attractive number display is replaced with a “linking” screen. I found that the amount of time it stays on that screen can vary wildly. After I took a trip to Florida, ran there, and came back to San Francisco, it refused to connect to GPS at all. A Nike rep told me that was likely because it was looking for satellites as if it were in its last known location; it would be fixed by simply plugging it in to my laptop’s USB port (there’s a nifty little USB connector built into the strap) and connecting to the Nike+ app. And indeed it was.

There’s the rub, though. There’s an awful lot you have to plug this watch into your computer for, including adjusting the clock itself. Taking a trip outside your time zone without your laptop? Then you’re going to have a hard time — or at least an out-of-sync time. We’re a long way from the convenience of mobile apps here.

The SportWatch GPS does beat Runkeeper on accuracy, overall. The runs shown on the map at Nikeplus.com look more like the route I ran; evidently the TomTom technology is more precise on roads than the iPhone’s GPS chip, so Nike’s software usually understands the concept of street corners without needing adjustment — which is a good thing, because you can’t actually do any adjustment on the Nike map as you can with Runkeeper. The few times my watch was inaccurate, there was no hope of appeal.

Overall, the SportWatch is a pretty cool piece of technology, if a little pricey. I like that Nike has kept it simple and friendly, offering congratulations on a run that beats your previous best time or distance, and personal trainer-like encouragement (“good job!”). It would be nice to have a little more functionality on the watch itself, such as changing the time without an assist from your PC. Where Nike falls down is on the software, which sometimes didn’t load automatically, and takes too many steps to get to the webpage that displays your most recent run.

For that reason alone, Runkeeper will remain my favored system for the moment. With a little software-side tweaking, however, the Nike+ Sportwatch GPS could be the perfect scoring system for real-world video game runs.

Series Supported by Energizer®

The Gadget of the Day Series is supported by the Energizer® Inductive Charger, which brings you the next generation of charging with Qi technology. Qi is the new universal standard for wireless charging. Energizer® has always been designed with performance and responsibility in mind … now that’s positivenergy™.

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Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

Lady Gaga & Polaroid’s First Product Hits Shelves

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Remember that deal between Polaroid and Lady Gaga back in January at CES? The first actual product to come out of that arrangement is finally hitting retail shelves.

The Polaroid Grey Label GL10, a 15 oz. wireless printer, is now available on Polaroid’s website and at Bloomingdale’s flagship store on 59th Street in New York City at a suggested retail price of $ 169.99. The product is the first from Polaroid and Lady Gaga’s Polaroid Grey Label line.

The line features Polaroid’s Zink (for “zero ink”) printing technology. Unfortunately, the most attention-getting item in the line — a pair of picture-taking sunglasses — has yet to be released.

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

A Remote Control for Your Shower [VIDEO]

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Kohler‘s been busy gadgetizing the bathroom for a few years with its DTV system. Now it’s added the DTV Prompt, a digital showering controller that mounts on the wall and lets users precisely select water temperature with its touch controls.

In essence, it’s a wall-mounted electronic shower remote with a one-button pause control. DTV Prompt works with up to two shower heads or faucets, letting users toggle between one or the other with a button push.

Before getting into the shower, the system’s “warm-up and pause” feature lets a user select the desired temperature. As soon as the water heats up to that level, it pauses the flow, awaiting a touch to begin showering, saving water in the meantime.

Further water and energy savings are possible with a countdown timer that can be set from four to 12 minutes, warning the user with a beep when there are two minutes and one minute left.

The controller, available in four different finishes, can be installed up to 20 feet away from the valves that control the water flow and temperature.

The DTV Prompt, priced at $ 187 for the controller and $ 455 for the thermostatic valve (plus installation), is a lower-cost addition to the Kohler DTV (Digital Thermostatic Valve) system. It was first introduced in 2006 with a $ 2,000 touchscreen shower controller that seemed modern at the time.

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

How Bin Laden Sent Emails While in Hiding

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Osama bin Laden was able to send emails and circumvent intelligence agencies’ surveillance for years without ever going online himself, the Associated Press reports, quoting sources from the U.S. intelligence community.

Bin Laden wrote the text of emails on his computer at his home in northern Pakistan, then had a courier copy it to a thumb drive and send the message from a remote Internet cafe. For incoming emails, the process was reversed. Using this method, bin Laden was able to write a very large number of emails without being electronically tracked.

Although this meticulous way of communicating helped bin Laden stay in hiding for so long, it also helped U.S. intelligence operatives retrieve a huge amount of data. After killing bin Laden, Navy SEALs recovered about 100 flash drives that contained much of his email communication.

The U.S. government has enlisted Arabic speakers from the intelligence community to help examine the contents of the drives. So far, they’ve discovered a number of email addresses and phone numbers, and the information will likely lead to subpoenas of Internet service providers and additional investigations around the globe.

[via AP]

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars

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Google’s self-driving cars might soon become more than a pet project. The company is quietly lobbying legislators to make Nevada the first state to allow autonomous vehicles on public roads.

Google has created a line of self-driving hybrids, including six Toyota Priuses and an Audi TT. The vehicles have been tested on more than 140,000 miles of California roads, at least 1,000 of which were driven fully autonomously.

The company has hired Las Vegas-based lobbyist David Goldwater to promote the two bills, which should come to a vote before the state legislature’s session ends in June. One bill is an amendment to an existing electric vehicle law; the amendment would permit for the licensing and testing of self-driving cars; the second is an exemption that would allow for texting while driving.

Goldwater said in an address to the Nevada State Assembly on April 7 that self-driving vehicles are safer, more fuel-efficient and aid economic development.

To see one of Google’s autonomous cars in action, check out the above video taken at a TED conference in Long Beach, California, earlier this year.

Thumbnail courtesy of Jennifer Lee

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

Electric Jaguar Hits the Road in 2013 [PICS & VIDEO]

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It wasn’t long ago when Jaguar presented its C-X75 electric supercar as a concept at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. Now the company says the car’s going into production, hitting the streets in 2013.

If you missed its rollout as a concept car, here’s a quick review: This thing is a monster. It’s a plug-in hybrid electric car that works like the Chevy Volt, running on electric power that’s replenished by a gasoline engine. But that’s where the similarity ends.

This road rocket has a 145kW electric motor on each wheel, powering it from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds with a top speed of at least 200 mph. According to Top Gear, those motors are expected to generate roughly 800 horsepower.

When it runs out of battery power (after traveling about 30 miles), the car’s batteries are recharged by a turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine. Unfortunately, the twin micro-jet engines that recharged the concept car didn’t quite make it into the production model, but Top Gear says, “the fiery cannons of goodness might make it into a later section of the production run.” See what the twin microturbines look like through the rear window in the gallery below.

Want one? The lowest estimated price we’ve seen for the Jaguar C-X75 is in the neighborhood of $ 1.1 million. Snap one up quick when 2013 rolls around, because Jaguar is only making 250 of them.

And here’s what Jay Leno thought of the Electro-Jag:

Graphics courtesy Jaguar

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets

Can a Robot Ever Be Man’s Best Friend?

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The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.

robot dog imageRobots can attend work for us, fight in our wars, teach our children and beat us at Jeopardy!, but can they learn to love us? Even as robot tech gets more advanced, we see those advancements in terms of processing power and speed. Programming a robot to feel or, more appropriately, to emulate life, presents a whole new set of challenges.

In a recent New Yorker article, Adam Gopnik wrote about the “minds” of robots and their fundamental limits. Robots routinely beat humans in computational challenges, but they still have trouble beating humans at poker, where winning is as much about playing the mind of your opponent as it is about calculating card probabilities.

Getting a robot to “feel” is still a long way off, however, there are some robots that can already approximate emotions like fear, happiness and excitement based on stimuli. In fact, these robots are some of the cutest, cuddliest ones you can find.

There is a whole market of “pet substitutes” that have developed as the underlying technology becomes both more stable and available. Pet robots are, for the most part, unconcerned with beating us at Jeopardy! However, they are tackling the most difficult challenge: human interaction and affection. When is a robot a pet? And are they the future of service animals like seeing-eye dogs? Read on for our take.

Digital Kennel

It’s tough to nail down what is actually available on the market, and we tried to dig up some options that you could purchase without taking out a loan. There are all kinds of pet robots of varying complexity, from the toy-like ZhuZhu Puppies to the decidedly un-cuddly, multi-million dollar “BigDog,” picked up by the U.S. Military.

The problem is packing a robo-pet with enough hardware that it can navigate its surroundings and interact with its owner while also being adorable. Sony’s Aibo was a step in the right direction, but production was discontinued in 2006.

Right now, there are two notable pets designed to act like, well, “pets” — so far as their ability to react and respond to their owners is concerned. PARO is a pet seal billed as a “therapeutic robot.” Designed by Japanese company AIST, PARO was meant to help patients in recovery and comes with enough sensors to recognize and react to cues. All of those mechanics are buried deep under a soft, furry skin that makes PARO comfortable to hold. Basing the robot on a seal was a smart choice. Their large eyes make them instantly adorable, but more importantly, it’s easier to program and register facial expressions. As well, their lack of legs means AIST didn’t have to bother with locomotion, freeing engineers to work on the robot’s other features.

PLEO, designed by Innvo Labs, is a more recreational robot intended for home use. The dinosaur behaves much like a real pet would, programmed to be curious, investigate objects, make noise and respond to touch and sight. When you touch it, it will lean into your hand and coo. Much like a real pet, each PLEO goes through phases of growth: Hatchling, Infant and Juvenile. Each corresponds to a set of behaviors that mimic a real animal’s natural development. A hatchling has difficulty walking and requires constant care. After about a day, PLEO becomes an infant, actively scouting its surroundings, and so on.

Like its seal counterpart, PLEO features an oversized head compared to the rest of its body. This was both to accommodate its sensors but also to give it a cuter appearance and larger, expressive eyes. Individual PLEOs can be taught unique voice commands for a set of actions and develop relatively unique character traits. Still, despite their features, these robots are still responding to a fixed set of programs and inputs. Neither are wholly autonomous nor profess to be.

Why a Robot?

The real question then becomes: If you want a pet so badly, why buy a robot? Robot pets, especially ones that seem to spontaneously interact with their owner, offer niche advantages. This is especially the case with special needs owners that might not be able to own a real pet.

These robots are good alternatives, for example, for older people who may not have the wherewithal to walk, feed, and play with, and care for a dog. Robotic pets also don’t defecate or leave other bodily messes the way that biological pets do. It’s also a substitute for people who are allergic to animals but wish to have a pet.

Therapy

Perhaps the most exciting growth area for these pets is in therapy and rehab. Service animals have a variety of uses. Seeing-eye dogs guide the visually impaired, and companion dogs assist people with neural disorders like autism. Animals can also be used with patients recovering from physical or emotional trauma. “People stop looking at it as a robot or a toy or whatever,” said Derek Dotson, COO of Innvo Labs, makers of PLEO. “As human beings, it’s terrifying how quick we do that, but humans do that all the time. We name our cars, not because they get us from point to point, but because they have meaning in our lives.”

It’s that emotional connection that makes these robots important as service animal alternatives. It will also cut down on the tremendous costs associated with training, breeding, and keeping biological animals. Furthermore, they are safer than real animals which can misbehave or even turn violent. “[A robot] is something they touch, it responds to them, and it’s completely safe for [special needs children],” Dotson said. “If you pull a dog’s tail, it can snap at you, but you can swing PLEO around by its neck and be fine.” PLEOs are designed to take punishment, and are made out of the same base-rubber as are used for pacifiers. It’s clean, cute, completely harmless, and will never stop acting like it likes you. Those are pretty good qualities for a service animal.

The problem is that the robots just aren’t quite there yet. Dotson admitted that part of the reason PLEO is a dinosaur is because we just can’t build something as good as a real animal. “We can never do it as good as nature, but you can’t have a dinosaur,” Dotson explained. Even in its current state, PLEO has been a challenge. “At this point in time, PLEO is basically an impossible product: It costs too much to develop, it costs too much to sell, and we’re selling it too cheap.” The robot currently sells for $ 469 — an expensive toy.

Still, Dotson takes the long-view. He believes in 10 years the there will be demand for more intelligent, feature-heavy toys. “The niche will be for more interactive, sophisticated things,” he said.

Service Animals

service dog image

Service animals have played a huge role in Adrienne Levesque’s life. Levesque, a board member of the National Autism Association, has a 13-year-old son who struggled with autism until they got a black lab called Woody. “We got our service dog for our son when he was 6 years old,” Levesque said. “At the time he had, as many kids with autism do, a lot of issues with communication; a lot of sensory processing problems; a lot of difficulties going into places that we wouldn’t think twice about — grocery stories, Target. Normal, every-day activities.”

Getting the dog allowed her son to feel more confident and start to open up emotionally to people. His dog gave him comfort as well as gave him something he was comfortable talking about. Levesque said her son is making great progress, and owes much of it to their pet. “We’ve done a lot of different treatments with [my son]. I don’t know if we’d be close to where we are without Woody. He was the thing that enabled [my son] to not only be in a new place but to handle it, and handle it well.”

The unfortunate truth is that humans outlive animals, and Levesque has tried to prepare her son and herself for when Woody eventually dies. It’s a reality that could be avoided if robotic pets continue to improve. Robots don’t die. Both PARO and PLEO can be perpetually recharged. Robots will undoubtedly be better at mechanical tasks like fetching, opening doors, or guiding their owners. The real unknown is whether people can truly bond with a robot the way they can with a biological animal.

What do you think? Will robots ever get to the point where they could substitute for real pets? What do you make of using robots as service “animals?” Let us know in the comments below.

Series Supported by BMW i

The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles; it delivers smart mobility services within and beyond the car. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.

Are you an innovative entrepreneur? Submit your pitch to BMW i Ventures, a mobility and tech venture capital company.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Jarod Carruthers, pmarkham

Source: Mashable | The Social Media GuideTech & Gadgets