Are Wi-Fi signals letting hackers see into your home?

Wi-Fi Signals – Windows to Home

It has been discovered that Wi-Fi signals can be a window to your home. Researchers have observed that cyber thieves could utilise the microwave radiation of the signal in creating three-dimensional image so a location together with the objects as well as the individuals within it.

 It has been suggested by the team that this hack has the potential of generating scans of buildings and also track the individuals indoors, though it could also be utilised in locating people buried by an avalanche or earthquake. The scientist at Technical University of Munich – TUM, had made this discovery, which had developed a holographic imaging process depicting the radiation of a Wi-Fi transmitter to generate three-dimensional images of the surrounding environment.

The system of the team enabled them in creating holograms that tends to develop a three-dimensional image alike to that of peering through a window of a home. According to Dr Friedenmann Reinhard and Philipp Holl ‘s report in the study published in the scientific journal Physical Review letters, though the optical holograms tend to need an elaborate laser technology, generating hologram together with microwave radiation of a Wi-Fi transmitter would need one fixed as well as one movable antenna.

Holographic Processing of Wi-Fi

Friedemann Reinhard, director of the Emmy Noether Research Group for Quantum Sensors at the Walter Schottky Institute of the TU Munich had stated that `utilising this technology we can generate a three-dimensional image of the space around the Wi-Fi transmitter, as if our eyes could see microwave radiation.

The researchers visualized arenas of positioning particularly in the domain of industry 4.0-automated industrial amenities wherein localizing parts and devices tends to be difficult. Earlier work has portrayed that there is a possibility of utilising microwave radiation to view through walls though the team at TUM have developed a new system which enables them in creating an image of the total space through holographic processing of Wi-Fi or cell phone indicators.

Creation of images through microwave radiation tends to require special purpose transmitter having large bandwidths. The very small bandwidths of distinctive household Wi-Fi transmitters operating in the 2.4 as well as 5 gigahertz bands had been adequate for the researchers with the utilisation of holographic data processing.

Bluetooth/Cell Phone Signals 

Besides this Bluetooth as well as cell phone signals can be utilised. It is said that the wavelengths of these devices tend to match to spatial resolution of a little centimetres. Philipp Holl executing the experiment commented that instead of using a movable antenna, that measures the image point by point, one could utilise a larger number of antennas in obtaining a video-like image frequency.

Future Wi-Fi frequencies like the proposed 60 gigahertz IEEE 802.11 standard would enable resolutions down to the millimetre range. The notion of treating microwave hologram such as optical images permits the microwave image to be joined with the camera images.

 The extra information removed from the microwave images could be implanted in the camera image of a smart phone for instance in tracing a radio code which may be attached to a lost item. However the scientists are only at the commencement of the technological improvement

The Invoke Smart Speaker Brings Microsoft’s Cortana AI to Your Living Room

Invoke Smart Speaker 

Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant has already integrated seamlessly in Windows 10 and functions on iOS and Android. It is said that it will soon be showing up in cars too. In spite of it being good at work, good for play as well as has a good name, it tends to be left out of the voice assistant clique due to a smart speaker such as the Google Home or Amazon Echo.

These in-home devices have been the first area where most people tend to be using these assistant and Microsoft have been lagging behind till now. The latest Invoke speaker created by Harman Kardon seems to be similar like the Amazon Echo which is a tall cylindrical speaker having a blue light towards the top which tends to glow when the speaker listens to you.

It has the potential of controlling some of the smart-home devices such as name the members of One Direction – RIP, set reminders besides many other things Echo or Home could do. The Invoke, so far seems to have precisely the distinctive features like it can make as well as receive calls with Skype. Harman has made the Invoke’s sound quality – three tweeters, 360 degree sound with a Dalek-like design since it’s the best way of convincing users to purchase this device instead of an Echo.

Strategy of Microsoft 

For Microsoft, an in-home speaker seems to be particularly important since it had lost the race of smartphone and had not made any progress in the handsets for users other than the Cortana app which some would download and still less would use. However on the desktops, Windows seemed to have huge market share which millions of users by default utilised Cortana.

 In fact as per the latest numbers of Microsoft it had reached around 145 million. To make a lasting impression in the latest market, Microsoft required its virtual assistant to be all over inclusive on the devices which have not just been obtained from their IT department. Microsoft had reportedly intended to open up its Cortana Skills Kit with the Build conference enabling developers to build for its assistant. The entire strategy of Microsoft was to cover the earth with its software and users can look forward for more speakers in the near future.

Smart Speaker Market New

The market of the smart speaker tends to be new and the voice assistant powering them does not seem to be impeccable still. However Microsoft could be a bit late in this game. In a latest study Alexa has been projected as having 70.6% of the market for voice-assistant devices, putting up Microsoft in the small `other’ category.

 It is said that the Invoke would not be coming till this fall which could be some time where the users would have to wait with adequate time for Google, Amazon and others to make tremendous progress in this area. If Microsoft does not make haste and is unable to make Cortana worth the wait, then speakers such as the Invoke would be covering up the coveted area in your living room and filling up the space.

Top 12 Inspiring and Well-Designed Wordpress Blogs

With a vast number of WordPress hosting providers, beginners can get the extra help they need to build their blogs. And these people are discovering that WordPress is capable of so much when it comes to the visual design. There are already tons of free beautiful themes to choose from. What's more, there are many WordPress site builders that either are given out by WordPress hosting providers or can be found on the official WordPress site. Here's a list of 12 inspiring and well-designed WordPress blogs to help you make your design choices.

1. Mashable

At first glance, Mashable looks like a very content heavy blog that's hard to navigate. But when you continue looking at it, it's incredibly well designed. Mashable uses three columns to categorize their content. The newest posts are on the left, rising posts are on the middle and the hottest posts are on the right. The hottest posts are of course the biggest posts in the layout. A good amount of space is used between each post and the navigation is very clean and simple design.

2. Greenwich Live

Public service websites are known for having a reputation for ugly design. But Greenwich Library's site is outstandingly well done. The navigation icons and menu are very modern. The layout is very clean and well organized. The tutorial is taken from the pages of many popular app products. The focus of this site is largely on the user experience. Every part of the site feels intuitive and easy to use.

3. Travel Portland

Travel Portland is a tourism-based site designed to get people to visit the beautiful state. The big theme for this site is fun and interactivity. The site is visually driven and asks the users to click around the various photos to see what's going on in Portland and discover all the activities they can partake in. More importantly, it's fun. You can browse listings of seasonal events, top Instagram pictures and blog posts which are all accompanies by beautiful photos. The site does an amazing job in convincing the user to come visit.

4. Jess Mark's Photography

Jess Mark's Photography site uses a whimsical animated header done in the sketch style. It features a unique fun font, large navigation menus and neutral palettes to put the focus on the content and photos. Users are invited to browse photos on weddings, photo boots and portraits with big bold icons following the introduction. Sometimes a simple and well-executed blog style site is all you need.

5. Yoke

Yoke is a creative studio that runs a fun blog. The site uses a cool sketch animation as their hero image. From there, you are presented with a very minimalist three column post blog with great leading images. What really surprises you is the load out graphics when you go into a post. The blog succeeds with this minimalist approach due to small elements that make it stand out and engage the user.

6. Tinkering Monkey

Tinkering Monkey is a signage company that uses WordPress and a blog style design format to market their products. The first thing that you notice when you land on the site is the animated image that shows how they make the signs. This is followed by big and bold photos of completed projects. This simple layout shows that sometimes the design can be lead by the quality of your images.

7. Fubiz

Fubiz is a site that covers photography, art and design. As a result, their blog is very visually driven. They break down their blog into multiple sections. Each section is designed with a different photo in the background with accompanying posts. What Fubiz does well is using multiple layouts on one page. They arrange their photos and posts in a way that allows you to really appreciate them and makes you want to click on them.

8. Tesco

Tesco is a lifestyle blog that uses a four column card based design as a layout. The blog is very simple and features high-quality photography to drive clicks. The posts are organized by different categories which you can click on the top of the page. This creates a very organized and simple way to browse the blog.

9. Innocent Drinks

The Innocent Drinks blog uses a simple design and layout which makes the site very accessible and easy to use. The design is simple at first glance but then you start to notice all the little things that give this blog a big personality. Everything from the icons, brand images, typography, borders and graphical accents prove that the small things make a big difference in web design.

10. 500 PX Iso

500 PIX Iso is a photography blog that uses a fairly simple layout that anyone can model their site after. It features a hero image for the main post and transitions into a one column, one row blog post format. It then transitions into a four column card based design followed by widgets being placed at the footer. This blog is a great example of how to use multiple layouts on a site successfully.

11. Andy Hau

This beautiful portfolio site combines beautiful images with a simple design to wow the visitors. The images are cut on a fish eye shape (without the distortion) which is a very unique way of presenting the visuals. The graphical cues on mouse over are very user friendly as there is a pointing arrow icon that pops up. The website makes a great use of space and typography. Everything feels comfortable and relaxed to the eyes despite the site being visually driven.

12. Bark Post

Bark Post is a pet friendly blog that makes a great use of visual tags to categorize their content. What really impresses you is their navigation menu. They created a visual based navigation menu which displays a photo of the posts followed by the title on a small horizontal tile set layout. The photos are cute, fun and clickable which only makes the navigation menu more attractive to use.

This is just a small collection of inspiring WordPress blogs. There are many more examples to learn from. Make sure you get out there and see how other blogs are being designed to inspire your own vision. 

Researchers Design Moisture Responsive Workout Suit

How about an athlete's workout suit that breathe? Yes, a team of researchers belong to MIT has fabricated a workout No sweat suit that breathe. Its the great news for athlete's, ain't it?

This remarkable breathable workout bio technology suit having the flaps that ventilate by open and close in effects to the body of the athlete's body temperature and sweat.

If you closely go through this breathable work No sweat suit you may see the flaps that sizes from thumbnail to the finger sized. These precised flaps are lined with microbial cells in No sweat suit that may shrivel and enlarge in response to athlete's body temperature. These tiny microbial cells respond as smaller sensors/ actuators, that forces these flaps to open while a sportsman workouts that increases the body temperature and release of sweat. The flaps found in No sweat suit closes automatically when the body temperature becomes normal.

This team of MIT researchers have also made the athlete's shoes that are having the inner layer of the same microbial cells to ventilate the moisture.

OK! Why they use live microbial cells in inventing their No sweat suit? These scientific researchers says that these sensitive microbial cells need no other components to sense and react to wetness.

These microbial cells found in No sweat suit are also evidenced to be innocuous to touching and even ingest. These new tools of bio technology which are accessible nowadays could be fitted out quickly and also in large quantities, to explicit various utilities and especially to the moisture-sensitive.

The team has conducted a test with the microbial moisture-sensitive cells that responds not only open the flaps in No sweat suit but in addition also responds to wet conditions.

Wen wang, MIT's former research scientist says that they can reap the microbial cells with various genetic tools to produce new functionalities into the living cells. In the near future, they are planning to reap the odor releasing functionalities, thus perhaps going to gym the shirt can release good smell.

The biologists have found that the humidity plays the vital role in altering the structures and volumes of the microbial cells to certain proteins. The most interesting thing to declare here is that the MIT researchers use bacteria, yeast and other microbial cells to build this moisture-sensitive fabrics.

The initial research with the most common strain of E. Coli that was found to be swell and shrink that responds to changing humidity. They print the E.coli strains in a latex fabric begun to shrink while placing in a hot plate. The same was flatten out while exposed to steam. Thus, the researchers made this biofabric into the wearable no sweat suit specially designed for athletes.

After making the trial tests they have found this sweat responsive no sweat workout suit worked very well. This scientific MIT research team has also invented the shoes that breathe. They are also having the future plans to join hands with some sportswear companies to market their No sweat suit. They are also doing a lot of researches to make moisture-responsive bedsheets, curtains and lampshades.

Parasitic Robot Controls Turtle it’s Riding by Giving it Snacks

Developments in the Field of Robotics

Although in recent years,great development has taken place in the field of robotics; the usage of robots still tends to have some limitations. These comprises of their reduced capability of surviving rough routine functions together with the need of providing continuous energy source which does not seem to need recharging.

 Instead nature has shown increased flexibility and progress to the fluctuating situations over millions of years and this has motivated a team of researchers who have now utilised the concept of the flexibility and progress of nature together with robots. Latest experiments carried out by the team of researchers have portrayed that robots could be utilised for controlling turtles through strange parasitic relationship made between the two.

The provision of becoming overlords of the people, robots have now begun controlling turtles. Initially by getting the reptiles to associate a red light with food, the robots with shell-attached tend to dictate where the turtle seems to move in a tank, developing a somewhat strange parasitic relationship.Building their motion adequately strong for surviving the rigours of daily life is aconstantfightas the enigma of providing them with adequate energy to prevent long hours of recharging. This can be done with ease by nature.

Evolution Resulted in Unbelievable Variety of Effective Methods

Millions of years of evolution have resulted in an unbelievable variety of effective methods for animals to move and hence researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology – KAIST, in Daejeon have set about connecting this factor. At first robots had been glued to the backs of five red-eared slider turtles wherein they comprised of a processor, a frame which tends to get stuck out in front of the head of the turtle holding five red LEDs spaced apart together with a food ejecting tube.

Then they had to ride their turtle across five checkpoints in a tank that had been filled with water.The turtles had first been conditioned to associate a lit-up LED with food. The turtles thereafter just guided it utilising the LEDs, feeding it with snacks as a reward for going in the correct direction.

With the use of this procedure, the five robot-turtle pairs had completed the course satisfactorily and each hurried up with training. Dae-Gun Kim at KAIST commented that there were plenty of other animals which could later on also be utilised in giving robots a ride and it would be possible to apply it to several animals like fish and birds as per the purpose of the task.

Harnessing Some of the Motion of Host of Animals

In the near future, Kim along with his colleagues also wanted to be capable of harnessing some of the motion of the host of animal in providing the robot with power. Nathan Lepora at the University of Bristol, UK had informed that these robots could be utilised for surveillance, exploration or any place where there could be a problem for humans or robot to reach on their own.

Earlier insects had been controlled utilising electrodes and radio antennas linked to their nervous systems and this identical approach could present methods for parasitic robots to control their hosts directly. Lepora had commented that there could be definite ethical consideration though if robots and animals were capable of teaming up to explore a disaster are, it could be really useful.