The Rochester Cloak

Great headway has been done at the University of Rochester in New York by scientist who have created a cheap` invisibility cloak’, in an attempt to hide objects from view. Researchers at the University of Rochester probably were inspired by the invisibility cloak making several attempts with some simple as well as some involving new technologies and with the combination of optical lenses, any object which passes behind a particular line of sight would seem to disappear from view.

This latest creation which has been developed at the University of Rochester has not only overcome the limitations of earlier devices but has also used inexpensive and readily available products in a novel configuration.

This creation which has been dubbed `The Rochester Cloak’, has utilized simplified four lens system which bends light around an object that may be placed in the centre of the chain and one is able to view the normal area in the background, though not the item in the foreground. It can be scaled up with the use of any size lens according to its inventors and the team who have been responsible for the setup have utilised standard off the shelf hardware.

First Device – 3 Dimensional 

According to John Howell, professor of physics at the University of Rochester, several approaches to clocking have been made while the basic idea behind it all was to take light and pass it around something with the idea of it not being there, which is often done with the use of high tech or exotic material.

Howell together with Joseph Choi, a graduate student,by forgoing specialized components, created a combination of four standard lenses which tends to keep the object hidden while the viewer moves up to some degrees away from optimal position of the view.

Choi states that this has been the first device with a three dimensional continuously multi directional cloaking that works in transmitting rays in visible spectrum.Howell states that several designs on cloaking tend to work well when viewed straight on though, if the viewpoint is moved a little, it tends to become visible.

Choi adds further that the previous cloaking devices could also cause the background to shift greatly making the presence of the cloaking device obvious.

Mathematical Formalism for Cloaking

The researches in order to cloak the object as well as leave the background undisturbed tend to determine the type of lens together with the essential power and the precise distance to separate the four lenses.

In order to test their devices, the cloaked object is placed in front of a grid background and as they look through the lenses changing their viewing angle, done by moving from side to side, the grid shifts accordingly as though the cloaking device is not present.

There is no discontinuity in the grid lines behind the cloaked object when compared to the background and the matched grid sizes. Howell and Choi have provided a mathematical formalism for cloaking in a newspaper which was submitted to the journal Optics Express as well as available on arXiv.org, which can work for angles to 15 degrees and above.

A technique known as ABCD matrices is used to explain how light bends when passed through lenses, mirror or any other optical element. For More technology news visit Mono-live often.

Google's 'Ingress' Offers New Creative Outlets for the Players

The new mission feature which is now available to Android users and expected to be available on iOS soon, is a feature announced by Google's Niantic Labs. Through this feature the users will be able to feed user-generated content in the Ingress augmented reality game. The new mission will challenge the players to visit different locations and complete a whole range of tasks like capturing or hacking or even use clues for solving puzzles to move ahead in the game.

In the latest feature of Ingress, the Niantic's Field Trip app data has been included which will enable the user to incorporate location pertaining to art, history, dining, shopping and many more, which has been given by more than 200 publishing partners. Niantic has not only been able to create new missions, but also allows the user to create new missions and also share it with other players of Ingress. Currently Niantic is working on increasing the reach of this feature to the level 5 of the game. However, at the moment this capability has been limited to only experiences agents.

Millions of Players: 

Although the game was made available to public in 2012, this complex science fiction back-story has a continuous narrative and with the vast online multiplayer, the game still relies on the GPS. In the game the players have the option to choose between resistances or enlightened. Ultimately they fight is about the controlling the exotic matter. The matter which is placed in a variety of portal all around the world are a source of energy and score for the players and their teams. According to reports more than 7 million people have actually installed Ingress on their Android operating systems and iOS.

New level of Player Involvement:

The new missions and features will raise the level of excitement in the players. Players will show increased loyalty part of the usage. They will be more invested in the outcomes of these missions. With a game like Ingress which basically mixed reality with fantasy, the players have their own ideas to how they would like to see the outcome. Gamers will be able to test their creativity in creating new missions for other players. Loyal players will enjoy this new opportunity. Keeping gamers involved is the key for keeping long existence in mobile market.

Possibilities of Growth in Market: 

Ingress will be able to offer users the opportunity to show their creativity, which is one the same line as that of Minecraft which also allows the users to customize and create their virtual world. Google has always been about empowering people and they are able to express the same through this game. Players will be able to share as well as communicate through Ingress.

According to Lewis Ward, research director for gaming with IDC, this new feature will mean lot of business in the market. One should be ready for visiting some of known locations due to the fact that there will be various companies interested to invest in the game to get their location added to the list.

Moto X Voice Commands

Once your Moto X is trained to recognize your voice, you can use several different voice commands and it does not need you to touch your phone. Simply say the command together in one phrase and Touchless Control will process the command and does the relevant thing.

To enable Touchless control, open the notification panel by swiping down from the top of your Moto X screen, and select the option Touchless Control. You will then enter the Touchless Control setup and then train the Touchless control with your voice. First and the most important command you got to keep in mind is “ok google, help me” - say this to open a set of commands you can say to the phone.

First, you need to train your phone in a quiet place and then the phone will recognize you when you speak either in a quiet place or in a noisy place. This is achieved through a software called crystal talk. Some of the commands are

• Call “contact” - to make a phone call to a person, replace the contact in the command with the name of the person.
• Navigate to “location” - to get directions to the location name given in the command.
• Text “contact” - to send a message to a person, replace the contact in the command with the name of the person.
• Remember “meeting tomorrow at 2″ - to set reminders
• Schedule “an appointment on the 21st of this month at 3 p.m.” - Schedule appointments
• Play “song” - Play music & movies
• Set “alarm for 6 in the morning” - Set alarms
• Open “calendar app” - Opens google calendars application
• Post to Google + “blah blah…” - Post Google+ update
• Goodnight - Turns on the Sleeping do-not-disturb mode in Moto Assist
• Take a selfie - This will turn on the front-facing camera and count down from three.
• Talk to me - Will read incoming calls and texts for half an hour.
• Take a photo - Starts the rear camera.

You can ask questions like “what is the temperature today?”, “where is googleplex?”. This machine has the answer to most of your questions.

The “What’s up?” command reads out aloud the notifications from the notification bar. After reading the items are marked read. If the “what’s up?” command did not work as expected, try saying “Read Notifications” command.

If you are worried that your notifications are being read aloud when you are out hanging with others, you can reduce the detail of reading the notification by activating the Notification details and turning off the setting. The Moto X’s Touchless Control can be useful when your hands are busy or when you want to remember something important and you are in a situation of need of information.

Many examples are there when the Touchless control will be useful. Some of them are while driving a car, when you want to find your phone, to set reminders when your hands are busy with some other work or when you are in a position to not to be able to use your hands to touch the phone and mostly will be useful for blind people.

iOS Trojan –Malicious Software, Chinese Creation

The Lacoon Mobile security researchers’ team have identified one of its first Apple iOS Trojan attacks to oppose communication of pro-democracy Hong Kong activists. Initial investigation indicates that the Trojan has an impressive number of surveillance capabilities.

The malicious software discovered has been dubbed Xsser mRat which uses social engineering to rob valuable data from jail broken devices while the users unknowingly tap on an install link in phishing messages from unknown users.

The malicious software has been created by Chinese hackers wherein it can obtain various range of personal information which could include the iOS address book, call logs, GSM identities, SMS messages, as well as the approximate geographical location which could be determined by the cell tower ID, pictures on devices together with passwords and other authentication data available in the iOS keychains that are used by Apple ID mail accounts and the other services.

The spyware has the capabilities of obtaining additional data in the cloud like the iOS version, MAC address, device version and phone number, IMSI and IMEI. When it is installed on any device, the Trojan automatically runs on rebooting, updating itself dynamically.

Xsser mRat Targets iOS Devices 

According to Lacoon Mobile Security, the so called virus, Xsser mRat, targets the iOS devices related to Android spyware which have been distributed widely in Hong Kong. In a blog post, it is also mention by Lacoon that Xsser mRat is connected with Android spyware infecting mobile users in Hong Kong which seems to be designed in helping to coordinate Occupy Central Hong Kong protesters and then prepare an attack.

Lacoon has also stressed on the importance of a cross platform mobile attack.It is very rare where cross platform attack could target iOS as well as Android devices, which shows that it could be conducted by some large organization or a big state. Considering that the attack has been used against protesters and executed by Chinese speaking attackers indicates its first iOS Trojan which has been linked to Chinese government cyber function.

The Xsser code has been written in Chinese which has led Lacoon to believe that the attack could be from sophisticated Chinese attackers. There is one hitch wherein the iOS user should have a jail broken device and Android should have a third party app download enabled

First Fully Advanced Operational Chinese iOS Trojan

The Xsser mRat is important since it is the first and most fully advanced operational Chinese iOS Trojan which is presently found. It can cross border with ease and is probably operated by a Chinese entity to spy on foreign companies, individuals or an entire government.

It infects the users’ devices through WhatsApp depending on their geographical proximity to the site of protests and as per Lacoon, Xsser had send out it first message to the user which states `Check out this Android app designed by Code4HK, group of activist coders, for the coordination of Occupy Central’.

When the download link is clicked by the user, they download an apk file unknowingly which presents them with a list of permission that needs to be approved and finally the user is lead to agree to application updates which on doing so, the application gets updated and activates the hidden features of the mRat

Sony's Google Glass Rival Expected To Be Available For Purchase by the End of March 2015

Although there has been an increase in the market space of the smart watches and as its still continuing to grow, at present none of the companies apart from Google and Oculus have taken the risk of entering the head-worn technology market. At last, now we have Apple, who is venturing into this space of wearable game. With the new approach from one of the market giants in smartphones and tablets, we can expect many other companies entering this technology category in the near future.

As Apple has already invested in the smart watches, so Sony is now looking forward to invest in the wearable technology to gain competitive advantage. The company in the process of releasing the initial software development kit for the wearable technology, and hoping to get the hardware kit available for the developers. This kit will be available for purchase by the end of March 2015. This new device is a pair of glass with an included 8-bit monochrome screen which provides the information pertaining to lenses, notification options, directions and other additional Glass-like information’s to the wearer. The company had proudly flaunted the device at the CES 2014.

New device expected to be a head turner:

Sony has developed the device considering in the mind that it should be compatible with mobile phones running on Android 4.1 or higher. The new device which has been named as SmartEyeglass, is completely packed with gyroscope, includes sensors, an accelerometer, a 3MP camera and ambient light sensor.

But in order to use the camera on the device they will need Android 4.3. Whether for better or worse, this new device might be enough or not enough to get Sony out of their financial difficulty. A handheld packet comes along with the Smart EyeGlass which includes battery, microphone for voice recognition and buttons that will be used for navigation purpose.

In comparison to Google’s device, Sony’d device uses a special overlay around the lenses, which delivers the whole thing from directions to smartphone notifications. However, there is one major problem. One will need to carry an additional battery which needs to wired to the wearable glasses. Although this is a double surprise in terms of touch sensor and microphone, but at the end Sony's SmartEyeglass can become one awkward kit to carry around. The software development kit of this device contains emulator, sample codes, tutorials for the developers to start with, in detail guide, design guidelines, API references, publishing guidelines and testing instructions.

Officially called SmartEyeglass, the new device from Sony might not make any fashion statement, but will surely win all the points in terms of the ‘holographic’ display technology. According to Sony this new technology will not cause any distraction to the users from various texts and images as it will be easy viewable irrespective of the environment.

Even though there is no information available regarding the price of the Sony's SmartEyeglass but when the Google glass has been priced around £1,000, one should be expected to pay a fortune for the Sony device as well.