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Exploit uses firewalls to hijack smartphones, turns friends into foes

Jon Fingas — Tue, 22 May 2012 03:18:00 EST

Normally, firewalls at cellular carriers are your best friends, screening out malware before it ever touches your phone. University of Michigan computer science researchers have found that those first lines of defense could be your enemy through a new exploit. As long as a small piece of malware sits on a device, that handset can infer TCP data packet sequence numbers coming from the firewall and hijack a phone's internet traffic with phishing sites, fake messages or other rogue code. The trick works on at least 48 carriers that use firewalls from Check Point, Cisco, Juniper and other networking heavy hitters -- AT&T being one of those providers. Carriers can turn the sequences off, although there are consequences to that as well. The only surefire solution is to either run antivirus apps if you're on a mobile OS like Android or else to run a platform that doesn't allow running unsigned apps at all, like iOS or Windows Phone. Whether or not the exploit is a serious threat is still far from certain, but we'll get a better sense of the risk on May 22nd, when Z. Morley Mao and Zhiyun Qian step up to the podium at an IEEE security symposium and deliver their findings.

Exploit uses firewalls to hijack smartphones, turns friends into foes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 May 2012 03:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Texting: the truth serum of the 21st century

Daniel Cooper — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:47:00 EST

The University of Michigan and The New School for Social Research has found that if you want someone to tell you the truth, you should text them. Dispensing with the lie detector for job interviewees, academics found that people gave more honest and detailed answers via SMS than over the phone. The team believes it's due to the lack of time pressure and not having to produce a pleasing answer for your interrogator. If the findings continue to provide similar results, it looks like Steve Wilkos could be replaced with a smartphone.

Texting: the truth serum of the 21st century originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Caltech sets 186Gbps Internet speed record, makes our 5Mbps look even more inadequate (video)

Daniel Cooper — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:11:00 EST

Did you know that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has already produced 100 petabytes of data that needed to be sent out to labs across the world for analysis? Pushing that amount of information across the Internet is a gargantuan task, which is why Caltech teamed up with the Universities of Victoria, Michigan and Florida (International) amongst others to try and break the internet speed record. Using commercially available gear (including Dell servers with SSDs), it was able to push 98Gbps and pull 88Gbps down a single 100Gbps fibre-optic connection between the Washington State convention center in Seattle and the University of Victoria computing center in British Columbia. Head on past the break for a video that shows you how it was done and why it probably won't be commercially available in time to super-size your Netflix queue.

Continue reading Caltech sets 186Gbps Internet speed record, makes our 5Mbps look even more inadequate (video)

Caltech sets 186Gbps Internet speed record, makes our 5Mbps look even more inadequate (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New 'subconscious mode' could improve smartphone battery life, supress your WiFi id

Terrence O'Brien — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:46:00 EST

Researchers at the University of Michigan have figured out a way to drastically increase your cellphone's battery life, at least while using WiFi. By using what they're calling E-MiLi, or Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening, professor Kang Shin (right) and student Xinyu Zhang have developed a proof of concept that could extend battery life up to 54-percent with the WiFi radio on. Even when idle, a wireless radio is actively checking for incoming traffic. E-MiLi scales back the wireless card's clock to just 1/16th of its normal operating speed, and only kicks back into full gear when it senses incoming data. To be really useful though, we'd love to see the same trick employed on cellular data networks -- that LTE sure is fast, but it's not exactly battery-friendly. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading New 'subconscious mode' could improve smartphone battery life, supress your WiFi id

New 'subconscious mode' could improve smartphone battery life, supress your WiFi id originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DARPA harvests energy from cyborg beetles to keep them brainwashed

Daniel Cooper — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:43:00 EST

Beetles packing cybernetic implants that control their brains make a cheaper and more useful micro-air-vehicle than a fully robotic one -- but due to the weight of the battery packs required, development has been slow. Now a DARPA-funded team at the University of Michigan thinks it's eliminated that problem. By attaching piezoelectric generators to each wing, the researchers can harvest the energy generated in flight and use it to juice the mind-control circuits. At present, the system generates about half the energy the team thinks it can produce, as innovations in ceramic production of the miniature devices should solve that. An experimental robotics project in competition with a cyborg one? This all feels a bit too RoboCop for us.

DARPA harvests energy from cyborg beetles to keep them brainwashed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MABEL running robot snags bipedal speed title, cue 'Rocky' theme (video)

Lydia Leavitt — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:06:00 EST

MABEL the running robot has been training hard, grabbing the title of "fastest bipedal robot with knees." Like any great sports star, it's been plagued by many dream-crushing obstacles and injuries, but this time it's done it: running at a speed of 6.8 miles per hour on a track. Jessy Grizzle, professor at the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, attributes this bot's success to its human-like weight distribution -- a heavier torso and flexible legs with springs similar to tendons for movement "like a real runner." This bipedal technology, which can mimic a human's ability to run and climb over obstacles, may be used to help the disabled walk again, in rescue situations or as the basis of future vehicles that don't require roads or wheels to drive. If MABEL doesn't make the SWAT team this year, it can most certainly snag a spot as an extra in the next Transformers movie. Check out the PR and video of this modern day robo-Flo-Jo after the break.

Continue reading MABEL running robot snags bipedal speed title, cue 'Rocky' theme (video)

MABEL running robot snags bipedal speed title, cue 'Rocky' theme (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Telex anti-censorship system promises to leap over firewalls without getting burned

Amar Toor — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:56:00 EST

Human rights activists and free speech advocates have every reason to worry about the future of an open and uncensored internet, but researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Waterloo have come up with a new tool that may help put their fears to rest. Their system, called Telex, proposes to circumvent government censors by using some clever cryptographic techniques. Unlike similar schemes, which typically require users to deploy secret IP addresses and encryption keys, Telex would only ask that they download a piece of software. With the program onboard, users in firewalled countries would then be able to visit blacklisted sites by establishing a decoy connection to any unblocked address. The software would automatically recognize this connection as a Telex request and tag it with a secret code visible only to participating ISPs, which could then divert these requests to banned sites. By essentially creating a proxy server without an IP address, the concept could make verboten connections more difficult to trace, but it would still rely upon the cooperation of many ISPs stationed outside the country in question -- which could pose a significant obstacle to its realization. At this point, Telex is still in a proof-of-concept phase, but you can find out more in the full press release, after the break.

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Telex anti-censorship system promises to leap over firewalls without getting burned originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioBolt brain implant could help the paralyzed walk again

Terrence O'Brien — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:55:00 EST

Controlling a cursor with your brain? Yawn. Restoring movement to paralyzed mice? Color us unimpressed. Help a wheelchair-bound man walk again using only his thoughts? Now we're talking. That's the goal of researchers at the University of Michigan who have developed BioBolt, a (comparatively) noninvasive implant that rests on top of the cortex rather than penetrate it. The device is inserted through an easily-covered, dime-sized hole in the skull and feeds patterns from firing neurons to a computer using your epidermis (which is showing, by the way) as a conductor. The ultimate goal of helping the paralyzed walk again is still years away but, in the meantime, it could be used to suppress seizures or diagnose diseases like Parkinson's. Everyday this mind over matter thing sounds a little less like a load of bullpuckey.

BioBolt brain implant could help the paralyzed walk again originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Newly discovered properties of light promise better solar batteries, really great tans

Jesse Hicks — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:11:00 EST

Are you tired of waking up to the same old semiconductor-based solar array? Do you yearn for a change? We know you do and, thanks again to the wonder and mystery of magnetic fields (they're not just for stopping speech anymore), there's a new day dawning. University of Michigan scientists were shooting lasers at glass, as they do, and made a remarkable discovery: light passing through a non-conductive surface like glass generates impressive magnetic effects - up to 100 million times greater than expected. The resulting magnetic force could replace the electric effect exploited by current technology, paving the way for "optical batteries." Though different from the Wysips transparent photovoltaic cell, the technology could have similar applications and may render obsolete those massive solar farms. No need to worry, though -- your stylish solar backpack is as fly as it ever was.

Newly discovered properties of light promise better solar batteries, really great tans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light

Sam Sheffer — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:08:00 EST

Although this is not the first time we've seen an efficiency increase in blue OLEDs, it's worth noting that their proposed cap of productivity up to this point was a lowly five percent. It's exciting to learn, therefore, about a breakthrough by professor John Kieffer and graduate student Changgua Zhen from the University of Michigan, which has resulted in them successfully increasing azure diode power efficiency by 100 percent. The duo, accompanied by some bright minds in Singapore, manipulated performance controllers by rearranging OLED molecules in a computer model, improving material characteristics. In simple terms though, we're still looking at a measly ten percent efficiency, so we'll see where they take it from here.

Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers debut one-cubic-millimeter computer, want to stick it in your eye

Christopher Trout — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:43:00 EST

This as-of-yet-unnamed mini computer was fashioned as an implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients, but its creators envision a future where we're all crawling with the little buggers. Taking up just over one cubic millimeter of space, the thing stuffs a pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell, wireless radio, and low-power microprocessor all into one very small translucent container. The processor behind this little guy uses an "extreme" sleep mode to keep it napping at 15-minute intervals and sucking up 5.3 nanowatts while awake, and its battery runs off 10 hours of indoor light or one and a half hours of sun beams. Using the sensor to measure eye pressure and the radio to communicate with an external reader, the system will continuously track the progress of glaucoma, without those pesky contacts. Of course, the mad scientists behind it look forward to a day when the tiny device will do much more, with each of us toting hundreds of the computer implants all over our bodies -- looks like a bright future for cyborgdom.

Researchers debut one-cubic-millimeter computer, want to stick it in your eye originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UM students make cheap and portable solar charger / light source for developing nations

Michael Gorman — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:35:00 EST

Solar power is the most egalitarian of all energy sources, yet residents in many parts of the world still lack access to electricity. Three University of Michigan engineering students have created an affordable solution to this problem -- to the delight of camping geeks everywhere -- with the Emerald, a portable solar panel that does double duty as both a cellphone charger and personal light source. We've seen the personal solar panel idea before, but the price of entry made it an untenable solution for developing nations. Solar-powered light bulbs have been around for a while too, but the Emerald's light lasts for eight hours on a charge (as opposed to the bulbs' two to six hours), and it's able to fully charge a phone in the same time it takes an outlet to do the job. They aim to sell the device for the low, low, price of under twenty bucks for customers in the developing world, which is 90 percent cheaper than other solutions and 100 percent more awesome.

Continue reading UM students make cheap and portable solar charger / light source for developing nations

UM students make cheap and portable solar charger / light source for developing nations originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi commissions four US universities to research urban mobility issues

Michael Gorman — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:24:00 EST

We've seen what other companies have in store for our automotive future, and now Audi's given us a glimpse of what we can expect from its car of tomorrow. The company's Silicon Valley research lab has teamed up with four universities here in the US to develop technologies that will give city drivers the full KITT treatment -- vehicles that recognize the driver (and his or her preferences) and can detect and avoid dangers and traffic delays. Called the Audi Urban Intelligence Assist initiative, each participating university has a specific area of urban mobility research ranging from urban crash analysis to aggregating historical and real-time traffic, parking, and pedestrian data in cities. The schools will also study how best to deliver relevant information to drivers and get them from point A to point B as easily and efficiently as possible. Looks like the groundwork is being laid for a German counterpart to GM's EN-V we test drove in Vegas, and we look forward to the fruits of their labor. Ich bin ein Ingolstädter!

Audi commissions four US universities to research urban mobility issues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video)

Sean Hollister — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:56:00 EST

Apple's proprietary dock connector may keep would-be peripheral manufacturers at bay, but if you want to build your own iOS companion devices, there's another way. You might have noticed that the Square credit card reader uses Apple's 3.5mm headset jack to transmit power and data at once, and gadgeteers at the University of Michigan are busy open-sourcing the same technique for all the DIY contraptions you can dream of. Project HiJack has already figured out how to pull 7.4 milliwatts out of a 22kHz audio tone, and built a series of prototype boards (including working EKG, temperature, humidity and motion sensors) that transmit data to and from an iOS app at up to 8.82 kbaud -- using just $2.34 worth of electronic components. See the basic principles at work in the video above, and -- as soon as the team updates Google Code -- find out how to build your own at the links below.

iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DC election website hacked, John Philip Sousa pleased

Joseph L. Flatley — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:39:00 EST

Unlike the secrecy that usually surrounds e-voting efforts, the folks at the Washington D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics had a novel approach: Why not invite hacksters of all stripes and temperaments to bust into the new online system being tested for overseas and military voters? Of course, it was only a matter of time before a security hole was discovered -- and now we know that the University of Michigan fight song is called The Victors. It seems that a certain college professor unleashed his students on the site, at which point they quickly sniffed a way in and left an MP3 of the tune ("the greatest college fight song ever written," according to John Philip Sousa) as their calling card. The board has made the source code and server info available (the better to test its mettle) and we must say, it's certainly good to see public officials paying more than lip service to security -- especially where electronic voting is concerned. The site was down over the weekend, and is back up now, but with one crucial difference: ballots will have to be mailed, faxed, or e-mailed in.

DC election website hacked, John Philip Sousa pleased originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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U of M laser mimics helicopter heat signatures to thwart missiles

Joseph L. Flatley — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:08:00 EST

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new laser-based countermeasure for aircraft, and unlike others we've seen (and we've seen a few) this technology aims to "blind" missiles rather than knock 'em out of the sky. The system uses a mid-infrared supercontinuum laser to mimic the heat signature of a helicopter, and it has no moving parts -- making it rugged enough to last a long time on rotor-based aircraft. The school has even spun off a company, Omni Sciences, to develop the thing, and has received some $1 million in grants from the Army and DARPA to build a second-generation prototype. Of course, questions remain: is it really a wargadget if you can't blow something up with it? And even if it is, where's the fun in that?

U of M laser mimics helicopter heat signatures to thwart missiles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Memory Shocker: keeping busy makes you too busy to remember things

Vlad Savov — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:27:00 EST

The New York Times has picked up the scare-story baton again, this time citing two pieces of research that supposedly indicate we're spending too much time jacked into our electronic devices. The University of California, San Francisco, has come out with some data showing that the brain needs "downtime" to properly digest, learn, and memorize events. This is supported by the University of Michigan, which confirms that people remember much better after a walk through nature than after a walk through dense urban environments. Basically, crunching new data is preventing us from assimilating older, potentially more important, information. That's neatly (though somewhat dubiously) tied into electronics by reference to their ubiquitous presence and use in daily life. If you're constantly listening, watching, or checking something, you can't very well be packaging those precious memories of grandma's 85th birthday at the same time. Of course, the same could be said of a really good book you can't put down, but that doesn't make for a sexy headline, now does it?

Memory Shocker: keeping busy makes you too busy to remember things originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nanotechnology enables ultra high-def LCDs, cheaper stacked-electrode OLED screens

Sean Hollister — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:29:00 EST

Pixel density enthusiasts, pay close attention, because science is ready to blow your minds -- the University of Michigan has developed an LCD technology that can display their logo in a space just nine microns high. By creating a filter made of microscopic metal gratings with differently sized holes just a few hundred nanometers wide, researchers discovered they could precisely capture wavelengths associated to red, green and blue light, producing pixels roughly eight times smaller than those in the iPhone 4's famous screen, and entire images that could practically fit inside a single dot of Kopin's microdisplay.

Meanwhile, OLEDs (which don't require filters to produce their color) saw a nanotech breakthrough of their own last week, as a group at the University of Florida have discovered that carbon nanotubes can revitalize a once-inefficient but promising vertical stacking technique. Layering thin sheets of aluminum, carbon nanotubes, organic material and finally gold on top of a glass substrate, scientists have created OLEDs that promise to be cheaper, faster and require one-tenth of the power of those using polycrystalline silicon, and could theoretically be printed as a flexible display as well. Here's hoping we'll see the fruits of these fellows' labors soon -- we can't wait to pen a follow-up to this epic fight.

Nanotechnology enables ultra high-def LCDs, cheaper stacked-electrode OLED screens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sequoia e-voting machine hacked to play Pac-Man (video)

Vlad Savov — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:41:00 EST

Oh Sequoia, why are you so changeable? The thoroughly hacked electronic voting machine is back with another ignoble showing, courtesy of researchers from the universities of Michigan and, of course, Princeton. Picking up an AVC-Edge box that had seen live duty in collecting votes for the 2008 Virginia primaries, they quickly and all too easily managed to supplant the embedded psOS+ software with DOS, which was promptly followed by the installation of Pac-Man. Given that the underlying circuit boards were populated with such luminaries as a 486 processor and 32 megabytes of RAM, we find this a most appropriate match of hardware and software. As to that whole voting security thing, maybe next time we should let people do it with their BlackBerrys, eh? See the Pac do his thing on video after the break.

Continue reading Sequoia e-voting machine hacked to play Pac-Man (video)

Sequoia e-voting machine hacked to play Pac-Man (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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University of Michigan's MABEL robot hits a stride, breaks a leg (video)

Donald Melanson — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:18:00 EST

We're going to warn you up front. This isn't easy to watch, but robotics research can sometimes be a nasty business, and some things just can't be left unseen. At the center of the disaster waiting to happen pictured above is MABEL, a bipedal robot that researchers at the University of Michigan have been working on for the past few years, and which, on an otherwise ordinary May 18th, made its first attempt at walking over rough ground. Things got off to a well enough start, with MABEL able to walk with a reasonably natural gait, and even recover after a small slip after a few boards where placed in her path. As the university itself points out, however, the whole point of the experiment was to "push her til she cracked" -- and crack she did, with a shin eventually giving way after one too many boards were added, resulting in one of the sadder sights we've seen in our years of robot watching. Head on past the break for the complete video, if you can handle it.

Continue reading University of Michigan's MABEL robot hits a stride, breaks a leg (video)

University of Michigan's MABEL robot hits a stride, breaks a leg (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 21:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford, U-M students send socially-connected Fiestas on cross-country roadtrip, aim to become Mayor of the USA

Donald Melanson — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:36:00 EST

Ford is certainly no stranger to internet-connected cars, but it looks like it's now truly stepped up its game with a little help from some University of Michigan students, who have teamed up to send two Fiestas on a socially-networked, cross-country road trip. The two cars (part of the American Journey 2.0 project) apparently each pack a similar trunk-full of gear -- including both WiMAX and EV-DO modems, and a 2.6 GHz PC with an 80GB SSD hard drive -- and they'll each be testing out a number of different applications developed by Ford and the students. Those include the UMich-developed Caravan app, which allows the two cars to communicate with each other during the trip, and three different Ford-developed social networking apps, which will let the cars blog and tweet their progress and, yes, even check in on Foursquare each time they make a stop. Head on past the break for the complete press release, and be sure to hit up the Autoblog link below for a closer look at the cars themselves.

Continue reading Ford, U-M students send socially-connected Fiestas on cross-country roadtrip, aim to become Mayor of the USA

Ford, U-M students send socially-connected Fiestas on cross-country roadtrip, aim to become Mayor of the USA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 May 2010 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tiny, energy-scavenging generators could have big impact

Donald Melanson — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:25:00 EST

They're far from the only ones working on tiny, energy-harvesting generators, but a group of researchers from the University of Michigan may well be farther along than most. Unlike some similar devices, their generator is able to scavenge even the slightest bits of energy from arbitrary, non-periodic vibrations in everything from bridges to the human body. That may not add up to a huge amount of energy, but the researchers say the generators are able to scrape together enough to keep a wrist watch or a wireless sensor running, or potentially power even a pacemaker by the person's own body movements. Of course, the device likely won't be powering anything beyond the lab anytime soon -- the researchers are still going through various prototypes using different types of energy conversion, and are naturally working to patent it as well.

Tiny, energy-scavenging generators could have big impact originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity

Sean Hollister — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:47:00 EST

Since 1977, RSA public-key encryption has protected privacy and verified authenticity when using computers, gadgets and web browsers around the globe, with only the most brutish of brute force efforts (and 1,500 years of processing time) felling its 768-bit variety earlier this year. Now, three eggheads (or Wolverines, as it were) at the University of Michigan claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device's power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password. With a small cluster of 81 Pentium 4 chips and 104 hours of processing time, they were able to successfully hack 1024-bit encryption in OpenSSL on a SPARC-based system, without damaging the computer, leaving a single trace or ending human life as we know it. That's why they're presenting a paper at the Design, Automation and Test conference this week in Europe, and that's why -- until RSA hopefully fixes the flaw -- you should keep a close eye on your server room's power supply.

1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk

Darren Murph — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:21:00 EST

What's better than an artificial nose? Why, an artificial foot, of course! University of Michigan researchers have developed a new prosthetic foot that could one day make it much easier for amputees to walk. Put simply, this new prototype drastically cuts the energy spent per step, as it harnesses the energy exerted when taking a step and enhances the power of ankle push-off. The device is able to capture dissipated energy, and an inbuilt microcontroller tells the foot to return the energy to the system at precisely the right time. Tests have shown that those using this here foot spent just 14 percent more energy to walk than one would spend when walking naturally, which is a rather significant decrease from the 23 percent uptick experienced with conventional prostheses. If you're still baffled, there's a pretty wicked video demonstration waiting for you after the break.

Gallery: Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk

Continue reading Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk

Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness)

Darren Murph — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:33:00 EST

Mama always told us that there'd be trade-offs in life, but we aren't so sure we're kosher with this one. As the story goes, a team of Wolverines from the University of Michigan figured out a solution to an age-old problem: effectively lowering power consumption by a significant amount in electronic devices. Anyone with a smartphone yearns for better battery life, and while Stevie J may argue that no one reads for ten hours straight, we'd still rather have the option than not. The development revolves around "near-threshold computing" (NTC), which allows electronic wares to operate at lower voltages than normal, in turn lowering energy consumption. Researchers estimate that power energy requirements could be lowered by "10 to 100 times or more," but unfortunately, that low-voltage operation would lead to "performance loss, performance variation, and memory and logic failures." We appreciate the hard work, folks, but could you hit us back when the side effects are somewhat less daunting?

Filed under: Science

UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone orchestra at the vanguard of smartphone music-making push

Vlad Savov — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:49:00 EST

The relationship between cellphones and music has almost always been a quirky one, producing bouts of the surreal punctuated by an occasional flourish of the sublime. Latest to join the melodic fray are Georg Essl from the University of Michigan and his "mobile phone ensemble." Each of the participating students has designed a noise-making app for his or her iPhone, which is used in conjunction with the built-in accelerometer and touchscreen to make (hopefully beautiful) music. Though we may consider this a gimmick for now, Professor Essl is most enthusiastic about the future prospects of utilizing smartphones to make music with legitimate aspirations. The debut performance of this newfangled orchestra is on December 9, or you can check out a preview in the video after the break.

[Thanks, Ry]

Continue reading iPhone orchestra at the vanguard of smartphone music-making push

iPhone orchestra at the vanguard of smartphone music-making push originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hang your head, Sequoia e-voting machine; you've been hacked again

Tim Stevens — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:19:00 EST

Oh, Princeton University, won't you leave the poor electronic voting machines alone? Haven't they suffered enough without you forming teams with researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Michigan to spread their private moments even further asunder? That group of brainiacs came together to devise a new, even easier hack that allows someone with no special access to take complete control of a Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machine -- an example of which the team purchased legally at a government auction. The machine does not allow modifications to its ROM (because it has an O in the middle), but the team was able to use a technique called return-oriented programming to modify how the machine executes existing code, taking the bits they want and, ultimately, devising a way to re-program its behavior by simply inserting a cartridge into a slot -- presumably after blowing on it for good luck. The hack only works until the machine is powered off, but the attack even foils that, intercepting the switch signal and making the system only appear to power down. Today's top tip for electronic voting polling stations: unplug your boxes overnight.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Hang your head, Sequoia e-voting machine; you've been hacked again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Glass leaves sweat to generate electricity, get nervous in public situations

Laura June — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:13:00 EST

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan and MIT have created glass "leaves" with networks of veiny channels filled with water. The smallest channels extend all the way to the edges of the leaf, where open ends allow water to evaporate, which draws water along the central stem of the leaf -- at a rate of about 1.5 centimeters per second. The glass leaves have been wired for electricity by adding metal plates to the walls of the central stems and connecting them to a circuit. Researchers then charge the plates and the water inside the stems creates two conducting layers separated by an insulating layer, which acts as a capacitor. The waterflow is then periodically interrupted with air bubbles, and every time a bubble passes through the plates a small electrical current is generated -- about 2 - 5 microvolts per bubble. The team thinks that on a large scale, artificial trees could be use to generate large amounts of energy entirely through evaporation.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Glass leaves sweat to generate electricity, get nervous in public situations originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VIVACE generates big power from small currents

Tim Stevens — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:39:00 EST

These days people are looking everywhere to find new, cheap, and plentiful sources of electricity, and while you wouldn't call it new, the ocean is certainly cheap and plentiful. Plentiful too are the people attempting to convert its motion into power by tapping its waves or extracting its heat. But what about lesser waters moving at a leisurely 3 knots? Those lazy flows make up the majority of all currents and are exactly the target of VIVACE, a series of tubes (seriously) that relies on vortex induced vibrations (the VIV) to create clean aquatic energy (the, uh, ACE). The idea is that the cylindrical shapes create turbulence in slow-moving water, oscillating up and down in electricity-generating ways. It's all the brainchild of Michael Bernitsas, a professor at the University of Michigan, and is partly funded by the US Department of Energy -- your tax dollars at work, you eco-pioneer you.

[Via inhabitat]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

VIVACE generates big power from small currents originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vehicle-to-grid will turn suburbs into power plants, won't help undertones of repression

Joseph L. Flatley — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:58:00 EST

We've been hearing about vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for quite a while, and now a team at the University of Michigan is conducting an extensive study on the technology as part of a national sustainable energy solution. While current electric plants are good at generating power, they often fall short when it comes to storage -- which can be a problem when there's a power surge or when demand increases. V2G will let hybrid-electric owners sell the power their car generates to the electrical power grid whenever the car is not in use. The research team envisions a time when millions of hybrid vehicle owners will come together to create one large battery, allowing us all to play a small part in building our nation's energy independence. And sure, this all sounds good in theory. But wouldn't that mean relying on the neighbors to provide a key piece of the nation's infrastructure? Have you met the neighbors? Doesn't that seem a little... iffy?

Filed under: Transportation

Vehicle-to-grid will turn suburbs into power plants, won't help undertones of repression originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers boast of progress towards more efficient OLED lighting

Donald Melanson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:58:00 EST

We haven't seen all that many OLED lighting options, but a group of researchers from the University of Michigan and Princeton University say they could be on the verge of changing that situation, with them now boasting of a new breakthrough that could greatly increase the efficiency of OLEDs. The key to that, it seems, is a combination of an organic grid and some tiny dome-shaped micro lenses that guide the trapped light out of the devices. As the researchers point out, with current OLEDs, only 20% of the light generated is actually released, but they say this new method could boost the efficiency by a full 60%, or about 70 lumens per watt of power. Of course, they're also quick to point out that all of this is still quite a ways away from becoming practical for commercial purposes, although they seem to be optimistic that the eventual production cost for these new and improved OLEDs will be competitive with existing ones.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Researchers boast of progress towards more efficient OLED lighting originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Soft pneumatic exoskeleton trades sci-fi for wearability

Paul Miller — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:10:00 EST

We love a good anime-inspired mechanical exoskeleton just as much as the next person, but most social contexts don't exactly smile upon lazy nerds doing their best impression of an AT-ST walker. That's why we're rather intrigued by this pneumatic and highly wearable soft exoskeleton put together by some folks at the University of Michigan. The suit is a hybrid system with electronics responsible for pumping the leg around, and a roboticist from the Science University of Tokyo is working on a version for the upper extremities.

[Via MAKE]

Filed under: Wearables

Soft pneumatic exoskeleton trades sci-fi for wearability originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers tout super-strong transparent plastic

Donald Melanson — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:13:00 EST

Researchers at the University of Michigan look to have made a fairly significant advance in the oft-explored field of plastics, with them now showing off a sheet of plastic that's not only transparent, but as "strong as steel." That impressive feat was apparently made possible by "mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells" or, more specifically, by mixing layers of clay nanosheets with a water-soluble polymer solution. That combination also apparently gave rise to what the researchers call the "velcro effect," which allows any bonds that are broken to be reformed quickly, further adding to the materials strength. What's more, to handle the tedious task of actually building the material, the researchers employed their very own robotic arm, which meticulously pieced together each layer of polymer and clay nanosheets, with 300 of each required to make a sheet the thickness of regular plastic wrap.

[Via Digg, photo courtesy of Cosmos/University of Michigan]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Researchers tout super-strong transparent plastic originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers using pulses of light to quickly decipher codes

Darren Murph — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:11:00 EST

While we imagine most Wolverines are focusing their efforts on gathering up the requisite tailgating gear for the onset of fall, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan are busy finding ways to decipher encryption codes "within seconds." The crew has apparently discovered that by "using pulses of light to dramatically accelerate quantum computers," these systems could not only crack "highly encrypted codes" in moments versus years, but it could also "lead to tougher protection of [sensitive] information." Additionally, the findings rely on "quantum dots and readily available, relatively inexpensive optical telecommunications technology to drive quantum computers," which could lead to quicker implementation of quantum level applications. Hackers, meet your dream machine.

[Via TGDaily, image courtesy of Technovelgy]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Researchers using pulses of light to quickly decipher codes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Robotic exoskeleton takes over for your lazy muscles

Paul Miller — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:30:00 EST

Finally all this research into artificial limbs and human strength augmentation -- as if we'd want to lift stuff -- has resulted in a robotic exoskeleton that doesn't help your muscles do more, but instead allows them to do less. It was designed by researchers at University of Michigan, and is currently being tested on healthy subjects. The ankle exoskeleton is fitted with electrodes which are attached to the wearer's leg muscles and allow the robotics to anticipate muscle movement and perform the action itself. At first a healthy user's gait is disrupted by this extra boost, but after about 30 minutes the person learns to use their own muscles less and have the exoskeleton do most of the walking. We figure similar tests done on a blogger would result in total adaptation in about 7 seconds. Of course, the plan down the road is to use these pneumatic artificial muscles to sense the weaker electrical signals being sent by certain people with spinal injuries or neurological disorders to allow them to move with full strength or to rehabilitate old muscle movements, but that testing has yet to begin, and for now the achievements of this project are purely for the lazy at heart.

Filed under: Robots

Robotic exoskeleton takes over for your lazy muscles originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Self-healing chips could function forever

Darren Murph — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:22:00 EST

Although you may have never given a thought to what transistors do to repair themselves when certain sectors fail, there are a few organizations who make it their life's work. Researchers from the National Science Foundation, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and the University of Michigan have a mission to complete before their grant money runs dry: to create semiconductors that can heal themselves without the burdensome redundancy currently used. The goal here, which could seem a tad superfluous until you consider these chips operate in things like airplanes and medical devices -- you know, fairly critical applications -- is to design a semiconductor that runs more efficiently and can be counted on to function no matter how crucial the situation. By designing a chip that can auto-detect a problem, then shift the resources to a functioning area while the chip diagnoses and repairs the issue with help from "online collaboration software," you'll get a slimmer semiconductor that suffers no noticeable loss in performance while self-repairing. If this circuitry talk has your wires all crossed up, here's the skinny: more dependable chips will make everyone's life a bit easier, and if the team's plan is free of defects, we can expect to see prototypes within the next three years.

[Via Mobilemag]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Self-healing chips could function forever originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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