Court row over US pupil tracker

23 November 2012 Last updated at 06:59 ET

A court challenge has delayed plans to expel a Texan student for refusing to wear a radio tag that tracked her movements.

Religious reasons led Andrea Hernandez to stop wearing the tag that revealed where she was on her school campus.

The tags were introduced to track students and help tighten control of school funding.

A Texan court has granted a restraining order filed by a civil rights group pending a hearing on use of the tags.

ID badges containing radio tags started to be introduced at the start of the 2012 school year to schools run by San Antonio's Northside Independent School District (NISD). The tracking tags gave NISD a better idea of the numbers of students attending classes each day - the daily average of which dictates how much cash it gets from state coffers.

'Mark of the beast'

Introducing the tags led to protests by some school students at John Jay High School - one of two schools out of 112 in the NISD catchment area piloting the tags.

Ms Hernandez refused to wear the tag because it conflicted with her religious beliefs, according to court papers. Wearing such a barcoded tag can be seen as a mark of the beast as described in Revelation 13 in the Bible, Ms Hernandez's father told Wired magazine in an interview.

NISD suspended Ms Hernandez and said she would no longer be able to attend the John Jay High School unless she wore the ID badge bearing the radio tag. Alternatively it said Ms Hernandez could attend other schools in the district that had not yet joined the radio tagging project.

The Rutherford Institute, a liberties campaign group, joined the protests and went to court to get a restraining order to stop NISD suspending Ms Hernandez.

A district court judge has granted the restraining order so Ms Hernandez can go back to school and ordered a hearing next week on the NISD radio tag project.

The Rutherford Institute said the NISD's suspension violated Texan laws on religious freedom as well as free speech amendments to the US constitution.

"The court's willingness to grant a temporary restraining order is a good first step, but there is still a long way to go - not just in this case, but dealing with the mindset, in general, that everyone needs to be monitored and controlled," said John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute in a statement.

Mr Whitehead said student tagging and locating projects were the first step in producing a "compliant citizenry".

"These 'student locator' programmes are ultimately aimed at getting students used to living in a total surveillance state where there will be no privacy, and wherever you go and whatever you text or email will be watched by the government," he said.

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Time-lapse code wins Pi contest

23 November 2012 Last updated at 07:42 ET

Software that turns a Raspberry Pi computer into a time-lapse camera has won a contest for teenage programmers.

PySnap was written by 12-year-old Aaron Hill and took first prize in the 13 and under category of the Raspberry Pi summer coding contest.

The software allows Pi owners to connect a USB camera to the device and fine-tune the interval at which it takes pictures.

For his coding prowess Aaron wins a cash prize of $1,000 (£627).

The Raspberry Pi is about the size of a credit card but is a fully working computer created to help young people get started with programming.

The two-month long competition was run by the foundation behind the Raspberry Pi and intended to find the best young programmers working with the bare-bones computer. Entries were sought in two categories: 13 and under and 14-18.

Writing about the competition entries on the Raspberry Pi blog, community manager Liz Upton said PySnap was "well thought out and designed". Runners up prizes of $200 (£125) went to two other programs; SerPint, by Louis Goessling, aged 11, made it easier to control more devices via the Pi and The Matrix by Conner Foxley, also 12, was a text-based world simulator.

Ashley Newson, 17, took the top prize in the 14-18 category for SmartSim which is a digital circuit and simulation package for the Pi. The four runners up in this category included a game called Neutron Craft by Bradley Pollard, aged 18,, a web server called Pancake by Yussuf Khalil (15), a file synchroniser built by Hannes Westermann, also 17, called BerryBox and a music player called RasPod from 17-year-old Aneesh Dogra.

"We had entries from all over the world which really delighted us," Ms Upton told the BBC.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans to run regular competitions to recognise and reward young programmers.

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Microsoft looks at smart glasses

23 November 2012 Last updated at 07:57 ET

Work on digital glasses that overlay information on top of the user's view of the world has been carried out by Microsoft.

A patent applied for by the US tech firm describes how the eyewear could be used to bring up statistics over a wearer's view of a baseball game or details of characters in a play.

The newly-released document was filed in May 2011 and is highly detailed.

If a product comes to market it could challenge Google's Project Glass.

Google is planning to deliver its augmented reality glasses to developers early next year and then follow with a release to consumers in 2014.

Smaller firms - such as Vuzix, TTP and Explore Engage - are also working on rival systems.

Although some have questioned how many people would want to wear such devices, a recent report by Juniper Research indicated that the market for smart glasses and other next-generation wearable tech could be worth $1.5bn (£940m) by 2014 and would multiply over following years.

No missed moments

Microsoft's patent was filed by Kathryn Stone Perez, executive producer of the Xbox Incubation unit which earlier developed the Kinect sensor; and John Tardiff, an audio-video engineer who previously worked at Apple.

It notes that entertainment organisers often provide screens showing information to enhance audience's enjoyment of their events. But looking at these displays forces the user to turn their head away from the action - for example looking at the scoreboard at a baseball game, or translated lyrics at the side of the stage at an opera.

Microsoft suggests augmented reality headwear would avoid the risk of missing a key moment and also make it possible to see effects otherwise reserved for people watching on TV - for example a computer-drawn line superimposed over an American Football pitch showing the minimum 10-yard distance a team needs to advance the ball.

The patent suggests the key to making this work would be to vary the transparency of the glasses lens.

"[It would be] capable of generating display elements on various portions of a user's display while remaining portions of the head mounted display are transparent to allow the user to continue to view events or occurrences within the live event," it says.

"Other alternatives allow the display to become completely opaque, in order for the display to provide, for example, a display of a video such as an instant replay of the live event."

Anticipated events

Microsoft suggests a wrist-worn computer could be used to operate the device, or alternatively the user might control it through voice-commands and flicking their eyes to a certain spot.

It indicates that most of the processing work - identifying people and other objects in view, and deciding what information to show about them - would likely be carried out by remote computer servers in order to keep the equipment slimline.

The firm adds that many entertainment events follow a set course - such as a character always appearing at the same point in a play - and this could be used to ready information in advance to ensure it is brought up quickly.

Microsoft suggests a wide range of sensors would need to be built into the eyewear - including a microphone, video camera, gyroscope, eye gaze-trackers, infra-red detector and magnetometer as well as wi-fi and/or bluetooth connectivity - to provide the functionality it describes.

The document also describes some of the technologies it could license that have been developed by other firms, suggesting Microsoft has explored the possibility of putting its ideas into practice.

Nitin Bhas, senior analyst at Juniper research said he would not be surprised to see the the Windows-maker release a device over the coming years.

"We think smart glasses and other head-worn displays will be the next major form-factor for computing with adoption by consumers beginning around late-2014 to 2017," he told the BBC.

"The devices will help integrate technology into human life, making things like augmented reality more seamless than it is on smartphones at present.

"Compared to other devices we think the adoption rate will be low and price points high in the medium-term, but they will catch on eventually."

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Bug inspires self-filling bottle

23 November 2012 Last updated at 10:46 ET

A US start-up has turned to nature to help bring water to arid areas by drawing moisture from the air.

NBD Nano aims to mimic the way a beetle survives in an African desert to create a self-filling water bottle capable of storing up to three litres every hour.

The insect harvests moisture from the air by first getting it to condense on its back and then storing the water.

Using nature as an inspiration for technology, known as biomimicry, is increasingly widespread.

NBD Nano, which consists of four recent university graduates and was formed in May, looked at the Namib Desert beetle that lives in a region that gets about half an inch of rainfall per year.

Using a similar approach, the firm wants to cover the surface of a bottle with hydrophilic (water-attracting) and hydrophobic (water-repellent) materials.

The work is still in its early stages, but it is the latest example of researchers looking at nature to find inspiration for sustainable technology.

"It was important to apply [biomimicry] to our design and we have developed a proof of concept and [are] currently creating our first fully-functional prototype," Miguel Galvez, a co-founder, told the BBC.

"We think our initial prototype will collect anywhere from half a litre of water to three litres per hour, depending on local environments."

Continue reading the main story

The founders want to use a fan to get the surrounding air to pass over the surface of the bottle. The air would then condense and get stored inside the device.

"Dry places like the Atacama Desert or Gobi Desert don't have access to a lot of sources of water," said Mr Galvez.

"So if we're creating [several] litres per day in a cost-effective manner, you can get this to a community of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and other dry regions of the world. And if you can do it cheaply enough, then you can really create an impact on the local environment."

About three billion people on Earth - almost one in two - live in water-scarce conditions, with demand growing drastically, while supply remains constant, according to the World Health Organization.

Energy efficiency

In some countries, condensation devices on rooftops already harvest water from the air - but these technologies consume large amounts of energy to produce small amounts of water.

NBD Nano's prototype seems to be more energy-efficient, but it still would not be able to satisfy the needs of an entire community, Erik Harvey from WaterAid charity told the BBC.

"Even in water-scarce areas, communities need more water than what they would consume for themselves - livestock and agriculture in arid environments are very important," he said.

But it does not mean the start-up is wasting time developing a water bottle, he said.

"There is a range of viable markets for them, like the military or the outdoors market, people going camping, and the advantage that they may have is a much lower energy input device," said Mr Harvey.

Nature copycats

A number of companies have recently been researching nature-inspired solutions to real-life problems.

Electronics firm Qualcomm studied light reflection on butterfly wings to design its Mirasol e-reader display.

And Canadian company Whalepower mimics humpback whale flippers in its wind turbines and fans to reduce drag.

San Diego Zoo in California recently opened a Centre for Bioinspiration.

And there is a Biomimicry Institute in Montana, US, where consultants work with companies, helping them to apply nature-inspired solutions to particular problems.

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Games firm cuts workforce by 75%

24 November 2012 Last updated at 06:09 ET

A Derbyshire computer games company is shedding 150 jobs from its 200-strong workforce after a steep decline in sales.

Eurocom, in Mackworth, has designed a series of games including ones featuring James Bond, Harry Potter and the Olympic Games.

A spokesman said a number of projects had fallen through forcing it to make the redundancies.

The firm said it hoped to retain 50 employees and restructure the business.

A statement from the firm said it regretted having to lay off "very experienced, talented and highly skilled employees".

Founded in 1988, the company has developed dozens of computer and video games for most major platforms, including games based on Pirates of the Caribbean and Batman Begins.

The firm said it would now concentrate on developing games for mobile phones.

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Gangnam Style 'most viewed video'

24 November 2012 Last updated at 20:35 ET

Gangnam Style, the dance track by South Korean pop phenomenon Psy, has become YouTube's most-watched video of all time.

It has notched up more than 808m views since it was posted in July.

The video pokes fun at the consumerism of Gangnam, an affluent suburb of the South Korean capital Seoul.

In it, the portly Psy dances as though he is trotting on a horse, holding the reins and spinning a lasso in a manner that has sparked a global dance craze.

The video also features the 34-year-old singer reclining on a sun lounger in tight pink shorts, gazing longingly at a girl dancing on an underground train in tight shorts and gesticulating at a woman working out on a beach - in tight shorts.

The dance has sparked numerous copycat versions, being performed by a diverse fan-base including Filipino prison inmates, prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a Chinese robot.

Popular parodies include one performed by Eton College schoolboys and another in the Star Trek language Klingon.

Gangnam Style, which won best video at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards, has also been number one in 28 countries.

It holds the Guinness World Record for the most "liked" song ever - currently with a little under 5.4m likes on YouTube.

Previously, Justin Bieber's 2010 teenybopper hit Baby held the record for the most YouTube views.

Bieber's manager Scooter Braun was the first person in the US to tweet a link to the Gangnam Style video.

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Samsung audit finds China issues

26 November 2012 Last updated at 05:29 ET

Samsung says an audit of 105 of its suppliers in China has identified "several instances of inadequate practices at the facilities".

These included overtime in excess of local laws as well as fines for being late or absent from work.

However, it found no evidence of under-age workers at any of the suppliers.

The audit followed a report by China Labor Watch which alleged that it had evidence of long working hours and under-age workers.

"Samsung did not identify any instance of child labour during the audits after reviewing HR records of all workers aged below 18 and conducting face-to-face ID checks," the company said in statement.

The South Korean manufacturer said that it had asked all its suppliers to adopt a new hiring process immediately to address the problems identified.

It said that among other things, it had asked the suppliers to develop a longer term plan to resolve working hour practices by the end of this year and also to correct irregularities in labour contracts.

Samsung said it was reviewing practices at another 144 of its suppliers in China.

Corrective measures

China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based campaign group, has published two reports about alleged breach of labour laws at factories of Samsung and its suppliers in China.

Continue reading the main story

Except the overtime issue, violations covered in the report are not in line with our knowledge"

End Quote Samsung Electronics

The first, published in August, alleged that it had found seven children - all of them are under the age of 16 - working at a factory of Samsung's supplier HEG Electronics.

Samsung had carried out an audit of that factory and said it did not find any evidence of child labour.

It was after that report Samsung announced that it would conduct an audit of 249 suppliers in China.

But just as Samsung promised to carry out the checks at its suppliers, CLW published another report alleging "illegal and inhumane violations" at eight Samsung factories in China.

CLW said it had found evidence of "forced and excessive overtime", "extensive labour contract violations", "abuse of underage workers", "lack of worker safety" and "severe discrimination based on age, gender, and individual characteristics unrelated to the job" among other breaches.

Samsung said that it had conducted regular checks as well as unannounced inspections of all its factories in China in October.

"Except the overtime issue, violations covered in the report are not in line with our knowledge," Samsung said.

It added that it would correct its working hours practices and meet the local guidelines by the end of 2014.

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Minecraft aids UN rebuild plans

26 November 2012 Last updated at 06:28 ET

Development plans for 300 places around the world are being modelled in Minecraft so residents can help decide how the locations will change.

Called Block by Block, the programme is part of a collaboration between Minecraft-maker Mojang and UN Habitat.

Urban locations will be recreated on computer using Minecraft allowing residents to take a virtual tour.

They will also be able to change the model and help decide how regeneration cash should be spent.

One of the first places modelled in Minecraft as part of a pilot for Block by Block is the Undugu playground - part of the Kibera slum region on the outskirts of Nairobi.

"We'll be putting it into the game so people can walk around and feel like it's as real life as possible," Lydia Winters, community liaison manager at Mojang told the BBC.

Undugu has been recreated on computer by Minecraft modelling firm Fyre UK. Soon those who live around the playground will be able visit it to see the UN's plans to regenerate it.

Virtual visits

Minecraft is set in a world built of cubes, each one of which is made of a different virtual material - dirt, stone, iron ore, diamond and so on. Playing the game involves stacking the cubes to build structures or breaking them down into their raw materials to create objects and artefacts.

The ease with which the real world can be modelled in Minecraft led UN Habitat to approach Mojang to help with its urban regeneration plans, said Ms Winters.

By 2016, 300 of the areas UN Habitat plans to remodel will be recreated in Minecraft allowing the people who live in those places to be involved in how their locale will change.

"It's bringing decision makers together with the youth to all decide on this common ground for public spaces around the world," said Ms Winters.

Details about the project were revealed at the Minecon conference held in Paris from 24-25 November,

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Major sites in high-profile hack

26 November 2012 Last updated at 07:50 ET

Google, Apple, eBay and Yahoo were among almost 300 sites affected by a hack attack in Pakistan.

The hack targeted sites that had Pakistani domain names, such as .com.pk, .pk and org.pk.

Hackers exploited an apparent vulnerability in domain name systems, redirecting visitors of popular sites to a different site.

The page featured a picture of two penguins walking across a bridge with the slogan "Pakistan Downed".

The companies themselves were not breached, but it meant key services, such as Google's Gmail, were temporarily down.

Hacker email

The motive for the attack is not known, with many suggesting the hack was carried out to simply highlight weaknesses in systems maintained by PKNIC, the organisation which administers .pk web domains.

PKNIC told the BBC it would be releasing a statement about the attack "soon".

Technology blog ProPakistani said it had received an email from the hackers explaining how they carried out their attack. The perpetrators appear to be of both Pakistani and Turkish origin.

ProPakistani said it would share the information with PKNIC "if they want to resolve the flaws".

It is believed that all of the domains were registered by MarkMonitor, a firm that offers brand protection for companies online by buying up related domains in countries around the world.

When contacted by the BBC, a Markmonitor spokesman said he "unfortunately cannot comment on specific security incidents".

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YouView sued over name dispute

26 November 2012 Last updated at 09:41 ET

UK internet TV provider YouView has been sued for trademark infringement in a dispute over the product's name.

Gloucestershire-based telecoms company Total had registered the name YourView for one of its products in June 2009.

Earlier this month the High Court upheld a ruling that the name was "confusingly similar" to YouView, prompting the action.

YouView, a joint venture involving BBC, ITV, BT and others, said it had "no intention of changing its name".

The spokeswoman added: "This matter is complex and subject to a number of ongoing legal actions and will be settled in the courts."

'Without regard'

The YouView name was registered with the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) nine months after Total registered YourView, a name it had given to an online portal for its customers.

Total's managing director Stuart Baikie said: "Despite the recent vindication of our position in the appeal proceedings we believe that YouView has continued to act without regard to our registered mark and business interests.

"We have had no choice but to issue infringement proceedings and we are confident of success."

As well as seeking a financial settlement, Total wants an injunction which would prevent YouView from using its name.

The company would not speculate on the level of damages it expected to receive.

Catch-up

Launched in July this year, YouView is a joint venture involving the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk and media services firm Arqiva.

It offers viewers access to 70 live Freeview channels and a seven-day catch-up service.

The project had originally been set to launch in 2010 - but the project was hit by numerous delays.

YouView, which has been supported by a large national advertising campaign, has been criticised by analysts who said the technology came too late, and was too expensive.

Since launch, the price of the service's set-top box has dropped from £299 to £248.

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