universityofmichigan
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Audi commissions four US universities to research urban mobility issues
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!
iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video)
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.
DC election website hacked, John Philip Sousa pleased
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.
U of M laser mimics helicopter heat signatures to thwart missiles
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?
Memory Shocker: keeping busy makes you too busy to remember things
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?
Nanotechnology enables ultra high-def LCDs, cheaper stacked-electrode OLED screens
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.
Sequoia e-voting machine hacked to play Pac-Man (video)
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.
University of Michigan's MABEL robot hits a stride, breaks a leg (video)
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.
Ford, U-M students send socially-connected Fiestas on cross-country roadtrip, aim to become Mayor of the USA
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.
Tiny, energy-scavenging generators could have big impact
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.
1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity
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.
Energy-recycling foot makes it easier for amputees to walk
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-86121%
UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness)
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?
iPhone orchestra at the vanguard of smartphone music-making push
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]
An iPhone orchestra -- something you don't hear every day
The department of Computing and Engineering and the School of Music at the University of Michigan have teamed up to offer an interesting course as part of their music program. Students are learning to make music using an iPhone or iPod touch. The generated tones can be altered by moving the phone using the built in motion sensor or the compass feature of the iPhone 3GS. By combining different instruments, an entire orchestra can be created. I doubt people are leaving the auditorium humming the tunes, but it's yet another example of the extensibility that the App Store provides, and how it seems to give birth to all sorts of creative endeavors. Here's a link to a video about the use of the iPhone in music, and another to a concert featuring the iPhone orchestra. The University of Michigan class is doing another concert on December 9th, so there is still time for you to get tickets if you're in the area. The iPhone has had a rather large impact in music. For example, many professional piano tuners are using an iPhone app [iTunes link] that competes very well against dedicated hardware, while others have found ways to remotely play their piano using their iPhone or iPod touch. Also, many hobbyists and musicians alike who wish to synthesize music while on the go have a wide assortment of apps to choose from. [Via Wired Online]
Hang your head, Sequoia e-voting machine; you've been hacked again
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]
Glass leaves sweat to generate electricity, get nervous in public situations
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.
VIVACE generates big power from small currents
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]
Vehicle-to-grid will turn suburbs into power plants, won't help undertones of repression
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?
Researchers boast of progress towards more efficient OLED lighting
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.
