Top TechTop Tech #58: Muscle Detection, Hidden Communications
Promising products and interesting innovations
By Paul Worthington
Today’s Top Tech:
• Samsung aims new chips at the “Internet of Things”
• No mouse required, just muscles
• Hidden screen-camera communication
Samsung aims new chips at the “Internet of Things”
While most of us have little idea what the Internet of Things is exactly — or at least, why we’d want it — Samsung is offering a new development platform and chipsets specifically for it.
As the IoT could potentially connect all your belongings to the hackable ’Net, the company is noting “Security is also a key element of the advanced software integrated into the module along with the ability to connect to the Internet for cloud-based data analytics and enhanced services… At the hardware level, ARTIK contains am embedded secure element that goes beyond software-based encryption solutions alone. At the application level, ARTIK is equipped with a machine learning based anomaly detection system. This allows the user to identify abnormalities and unusual behavior in order to address possible hacking or intrusion activity.”
Is that enough to make you feel safe at home with IoT?
CNet reports that “analyst firm Gartner predicts the number of networked devices will surge to 26 billion units by 2020 from about 900 million in 2009, turning formerly “dumb” objects into smart ones that can communicate with each other.”
There’s more information here.
No mouse required, just muscles
The Myo armband control your gadgets with gestures.
While other devices use cameras or other sensors to determine your movements, Thalmic Labs uses electromyography to read electrical signals from the muscles in your forearm — and that direct connection with medical-grade EMG sensors can be more accurate under any condition.
Hidden screen-camera communication
Your gadget’s screens and other device’s cameras can soon talk to each other without you knowing it.
Thanks a bunch, Dartmouth.
Researchers at the college created “the first form of real-time communication,” HiLight, to enable new context-aware applications such as smart glasses communicating with screens to realize augmented reality, “or acquire personalized information without affecting the content that users are currently viewing. The system also provides far-reaching implications for new security and graphics applications….”
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