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Two-factor system uses ambient sounds to verify your login
Two-factor can keep your Gmail, iCloud and other accounts from getting hacked, but it's unfortunately rather tedious to use. That's why a team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland has developed a tool called "Sound-Proof" to make the process less painful. Any app or program with Sound-Proof integrated can authenticate your logins by listening to ambient sounds. That's it -- you don't need to pick up your phone, generate a passcode or wait for a text with one, so long as you've already installed the tool's mobile app.
Caltech researchers devise acoustic diode that sends sound one-way, could harvest energy
Sound has this habit of traveling in more than one direction -- useful in most circumstances, but not so welcome when a person in one room is looking for a little peace and quiet while someone in the next is blasting music. Sound-proofing is one solution to that problem, but some researchers at Caltech say they've now come up with a better one: an acoustic diode that can be tuned to allow sound to pass through in only one direction. As you might expect, however, that's all still very much in the early stages, but the researchers say the technology could eventually allow for "true soundproofing," or even be used for other purposes, like scavenging sound energy from structural vibrations and turning that into electricity. The official announcement with some of the finer details is after the break, and the researchers' full paper is published in the July 24th issue of Nature Materials.
