UK 'li-fi' data speed breakthrough

28 October 2013 Last updated at 09:10 ET

UK researchers say they have achieved data transmission speeds of 10Gbit/s via "li-fi" - wireless internet connectivity using light.

The researchers used a micro-LED light bulb to transmit 3.5Gbit/s via each of the three primary colours - red, green, blue - that make up white light.

This means over 10Gbit/s is possible.

Li-fi is an emerging technology that could see specialised LED lights bulbs providing low-cost wireless internet connectivity almost everywhere.

High speed

The research, known as the ultra-parallel visible light communications project, is a joint venture between the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Strathclyde, Oxford, and Cambridge, and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The tiny micro-LED bulbs, developed by the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, allow streams of light to be beamed in parallel, each multiplying the amount of data that can be transmitted at any one time.

"If you think of a shower head separating water out into parallel streams, that's how we can make light behave," said Prof Harald Haas, an expert in optical wireless communications at the University of Edinburgh and one of the project leaders.

Using a digital modulation technique called Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (OFDM), researchers enabled micro-LED light bulbs to handle millions of changes in light intensity per second, effectively behaving like an extremely fast on/off switch.

This allows large chunks of binary data - a series of ones and zeros - to be transmitted at high speed.

Earlier this year, Germany's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute claimed that data rates of up to 1Gbit/s per LED light frequency were possible in laboratory conditions.

And this month, Chinese scientists reportedly developed a microchipped LED bulb that can produce data speeds of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps), with one bulb providing internet connectivity for four computers.

'Light fidelity'

In 2011, Prof Haas demonstrated how an LED bulb equipped with signal processing technology could stream a high-definition video to a computer.

He coined the term "light fidelity" or li-fi - also known as visual light communications (VLC) - and set up a private company, PureVLC, to exploit the technology.

Li-fi promises to be cheaper and more energy-efficient than existing wireless radio systems given the ubiquity of LED bulbs and the fact that lighting infrastructure is already in place.

Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum and 10,000 times bigger than the radio spectrum, affording potentially unlimited capacity.

Another advantage, Prof Haas argues, is that evenly spaced LED transmitters could provide much more localised and consistent internet connectivity throughout buildings.

The disadvantage of traditional wi-fi routers is that the signal weakens the further you are away from it, leading to inconsistent connectivity within offices and homes.

Prof Haas also believes light's inability to penetrate walls makes VLC technology potentially more secure than traditional wi-fi connectivity.

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Twitter float could raise $1.4bn

25 October 2013 Last updated at 11:54 ET

Twitter has unveiled the price range for its shares when the company lists on the stock exchange.

In a filing on Thursday, Twitter said it planned to sell 70 million shares priced between $17 and $20 (£10 - £12) to raise up to $1.4bn (£865m).

The offering represents 13% of Twitter and values it at as much as $11bn.

Analysts said the valuation, which was less than forecast, indicated the firm wanted to avoid the dip in prices that followed Facebook's listing.

"They're trying to price this for a very strong IPO, ideally creating the conditions for a solid after-market," said Brian Wieser of the Pivotal Research Group.

Facebook's shares were priced initially at $38 per share. The stock soared within hours of its debut to a high of $45 but later slumped.

Some analysts had blamed over pricing of the shares as a reason behind the fall. However, Facebook shares have since recouped most of their losses and are now trading above the listing price.

Continue reading the main story

A price tag of $11 billion might look a bit steep for a company that is still not profitable - but Twitter's valuation looks conservative compared to some of those it is following onto the market.

There had been reports that the company would be seeking a valuation of as much as $16 billion, but at $11 billion that's a multiple of roughly ten times its projected 2014 revenues.

Facebook went public at a value of $100 billion - twenty times its 2012 revenue - while LinkedIn launched at an even higher multiple.

Perhaps Twitter is right to be cautious - after all, its business model is still fairly opaque, even though there are promising signs that it is working out clever ways of serving advertisers.

In any case the founder Ev Williams, who will now be a billionaire, can be pretty satisfied. A new book, Hatching Twitter, reveals that he turned down an offer from Yahoo to buy the company when it was still a fledgling. The price tag back in 2007? Just $12 million.

Earnings worries

Twitter's share sale on the New York Stock Exchange will make it the biggest internet company to go public after Facebook.

The microblogging site has seen steady growth since its launch seven years ago.

According to its IPO documents, it now has 218 million monthly users and 500 million tweets are sent a day.

However, all those users and tweets have not yet resulted in a profit. Twitter made a loss of $69m in the first six months of 2013, on revenues of $254m.

Some analysts said that while the lower-than-expected pricing may help its share prices in the days after the listing, in the long run investors would still need to see the firm make profits.

"The fact that the valuation is lower than expectations, I think was smart by the underwriters. I think it will help the pop," said Michael Yoshikami of Destinational Wealth Management.

"But in the end, even for $11bn, the question is can they come up with earnings to substantiate that number? And it's unclear that they're going to be able to do that."

Continue reading the main story

Twitter happens in real time, 24 hours a day. Expect to miss stuff if it's not sent direct to you"

End Quote

Advertising

Almost 85% of Twitter's revenue currently comes from advertising on its site.

There are three main ways for a company or an individual to advertise on Twitter: by promoting a tweet that will appear in people's timelines, promoting a whole account, or promoting a trend.

Twitter tends to charge its advertisers according to the amount of interaction their content generates.

Some analysts say the company has showing strong signs of growth, with revenue rising from just $28m in 2010 to $317m by the end of 2012.

One research firm, eMarketer, has even estimated that Twitter's revenues from advertising sales will increase by more than 100% by the end of this year.

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MEPs vote to suspend US data sharing

24 October 2013 Last updated at 08:52 ET

The European Parliament has voted to suspend the sharing of financial data with the US, following allegations that citizens' data was spied on.

The allegation forms part of leaked documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The vote is non-binding but illustrates MEPs' growing unease over how much data was shared with the US.

It comes a day after it was alleged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone calls were monitored.

The European Parliament voted to suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US, in response to the alleged tapping of EU citizens' bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT.

The agreement granted the US authorities access to bank data for terror-related investigations but leaked documents made public by whistleblower Edward Snowden allege that the global bank transfer network was the target of wider US surveillance.

MEPs also want to launch a full inquiry into the alleged spying.

Merkel phone

The row over exactly how much snooping was done on European citizens appears to be escalating.

Germany has summoned the US ambassador in Berlin over the claims that the US monitored Mrs Merkel's mobile phone calls.

Other leaders are also likely to want further clarification from Washington over the activities of its National Security Agency (NSA) in Europe.

Meanwhile student group, europe v facebook, is launching a fresh attack on how deeply the social network was involved in the US spying programme.

It has won the right for a review of why the Irish data protection commissioner is not investigating the amount of European data shared with the US.

Commissioner Billy Hawkes has previously claimed that there "is nothing to investigate" over Facebook's role in the PRISM programme.

Max Schrem, who heads the group, remains unconvinced.

"When it comes to the fundamental rights of millions of users and the biggest surveillance scandal in years, he will have to take responsibility and do something about it," he said.

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Wikipedia pilots articles via SMS

25 October 2013 Last updated at 10:51 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Wikipedia has begun piloting a service that sends articles via text message, primarily aimed at users in Africa.

The online encyclopaedia has partnered with mobile operator Airtel to offer the free initiative which is being tested out in Kenya.

It is hoped the service will be used to reach people who do not have internet access.

The trial will be active for three months, said Dan Foy, technical partner manager for the Wikimedia Foundation.

"Throughout most of the developing world, data-enabled smartphones are the exception, not the rule," he wrote.

"That means billions of people currently cannot see Wikipedia on their phones."

To activate the service - called Wikipedia Zero - users need to dial *515#, after which they will receive a text message prompting them to search for articles.

Next five billion

Adoption of cheap mobiles in Africa is widespread, and in many regards the mobile industry across the continent is more advanced than in more developed parts of the world.

For instance, the sending of money via text message is extremely popular - one service, M-Pesa, boasts 17 million users in Kenya alone.

Western technology companies see the region as a major source of future growth. Facebook, for example, is approaching saturation point in its current markets, and so it is looking at methods to adapt its services to suit those with more basic technology.

The social network also launched a drive to get other technology companies looking at ways to make access easier - starting with bringing down costs of accessing mobile data.

Tom Jackson, who edits African technology news website HumanIPO, said Wikipedia's initiative would be warmly welcomed.

"There has been a steady move towards putting educational material online in many African countries, led mainly by the private sector rather than governments, but access to the internet remains a problem given that most Africans surf on their phones rather than browsers.

"This step increases the chances of access, especially as there is functionality to provide Wikipedia via SMS. Feature phones are still dominant in Africa, so this is a helpful addition."

He added: "I just hope it comes with the same warnings that European and American kids are given about taking Wikipedia at face value!"

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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FBI on the hunt for eBay 'fraudster'

25 October 2013 Last updated at 11:58 ET

The FBI has issued wanted posters for a man they say is behind an eBay car scam that has netted $3m (£1.8m).

Authorities in the US also want to track down six other fugitives in relation to the charges.

The gang were described as "masters of illusion" who convinced people to pay for cars that did not exist.

"They thought their distance would insulate them from law enforcement scrutiny. They were wrong," said US attorney Loretta Lynch.

Convincing scheme

The FBI put out a wanted poster for 33-year-old Romanian Nicolae Popescu, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

"They siphoned funds from victims to fuel their greedy desires and created false identities, fake websites and counterfeit certificates of title in order to make the scheme more convincing," said FBI Assistant Director, George Venizelos.

"Popescu and his co-conspirators were masters of illusion, but they can't escape their ultimate reality.

"With the help of our law enforcement partners at home and abroad, we will bring them to justice."

In a statement, eBay said: "We have partnered with law enforcement to alert consumers about the type of scams described in the indictment - which involve exploiting well-known, trusted brand names like eBay to attract consumers and then lure them onto fake websites and into fraudulent transactions.

"Auto shoppers can be confident in their purchase by ensuring they start and complete their transactions on eBay Motors and never use money wire services to send payments."

Romanian notoriety

In a recorded conversation, the FBI said Mr Popescu boasted that he was "beyond the reach" of US authorities.

As well as eBay, the gang is said to have used Cars.com, AutoTrader.com, and CycleTrader.com to sell the non-existent cars, usually priced between $10,000 (£6,150) and $40,000 (£24,700).

"After the 'sellers' reached an agreement with the victim buyers, they would often email them invoices purporting to be from Amazon Payments, PayPal, or other online payment services, with instructions to transfer the money to the US bank accounts used by the defendants," an FBI statement explained.

Romania has gained increasing notoriety as a hub for cybercrime.

A report from technology magazine Wired detailed a town dubbed "Hackerville" by locals - where cybercriminals are said to learn their craft at an early age.

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Grand Theft Auto bags gaming gong

25 October 2013 Last updated at 12:08 ET By Daniel Emery Technology reporter, BBC News

The adult-themed crime game, Grand Theft Auto 5, has won the top prize at the Golden Joystick awards.

Rockstar's controversial game - where players commit crime in the fictional city of Los Santos - was presented with the Game of the Year gong at a ceremony in central London.

Sony's The Last of Us also scooped two awards.

Ken Levine - the man behind Bioshock and System Shock 2 - was honoured with a lifetime achievement award.

The Golden Joysticks are the largest publicly-voted video game awards in the world, with this year more than 10 million people casting a vote.

The Lifetime Achievement is a new addition to the ceremony.

Mr Levine has been a high profile figure in the industry ever since he worked with designer Doug Church, on the first-person shooter, Thief: The Dark Project, credited with being one of the first titles to introduce the concept of stealth into video games.

"The great thing about the still-maturing nature of video games is you get to be inspired by the work of novices and veterans alike," he said.

Continue reading the main story

• Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto V
• Hall of Fame: Activision: Call of Duty
• Lifetime Achievement: Ken Levine
• Best Newcomer: The Last of Us
• Most Wanted: Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Best Indie Game: Mark of the Ninja
• Best Visual Design: BioShock Infinite
• Best Multiplayer: Payday 2
• Best Gaming Moment: Far Cry 3 - The Definition of Insanity
• Studio of the Year: Naughty Dog
• Innovation of the Year: Oculus Rift
• Best Storytelling: The Last of Us
• Best Online Game: World of Tanks
• Best Handheld Game: Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
• YouTube Gamer Award: Yogscast
• Best Gaming Platform: Steam
• Best Mobile/Tablet Game of the Year: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

"We're all figuring out day by day exactly what the medium is capable of."

Gaming diversity

Now in its 31st year, the awards were first given out back in 1983, with the first Game of the Year award going to Jet Pac on the ZX Spectrum.

Andy Robinson, editor of Computer and Videogames, said that three decades on, the awards still "represent the voice of gamers worldwide".

"We've revamped the categories to reflect the diversity of modern gaming and also added the inaugural Lifetime Achievement award, which has made this year's ceremony the most thrilling for us yet," he said.

The Golden Joysticks are not the only big awards for the video games industry.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts hands out its Video Game Baftas in the spring each year, although the majority of their awards are selected by a panel of experts, rather than a public vote.

Grand Theft Auto 5, released last month, quickly became the fastest selling entertainment product ever, taking just three days to generate $1bn (£620m) in revenue.

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Twitter share sale trial 'a success'

27 October 2013 Last updated at 17:49 ET

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) says a test run of Twitter's share sale was 'a success', as it tries to avoid the debacle surrounding Facebook's flotation on the Nasdaq.

Traders simulated buying and selling shares on the exchange on Saturday, to try to clear up any technical hitches that it may face when shares go public.

Twitter will be the biggest tech company to go public since Facebook.

It is thought that trading will begin in early November.

In May, Facebook's first day on a rival exchange, the Nasdaq, was fraught with problems. A glitch in the system meant that traders did not know for hours, and in some cases days, whether or not their trades had successfully gone through.

The Nasdaq was later fined $10m ( £6.18m) by the regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for the problems.

The New York Stock Exchange is keen to avoid a similar fate.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the exchange said: " This morning's systems test was successful, and we're grateful to all the firms that chose to participate.

"We're being very methodical in our planning for Twitter's IPO [initial public offering], and are working together with the industry to ensure a world-class experience for Twitter, retail investors and all market participants."

Last week Twitter said it planned to sell 70 million shares priced between $17 and $20 (£10 - £12) to raise up to $1.4bn (£865m).

According to its IPO documents, Twitter now has 218 million monthly users and 500 million tweets are sent a day.

However, all those users and tweets have not yet resulted in a profit.

Twitter made a loss of $69m in the first six months of 2013, on revenues of $254m.

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Police porn site blocks revealed

28 October 2013 Last updated at 02:06 ET

Devon and Cornwall Police officers and staff were blocked from pornographic and gambling websites more than 2,500 times in three months.

A BBC investigation has found the force's computer systems prevented access to pornography nearly 700 times and gambling sites more than 2,000 times between June and August 2013.

No disciplinary action has been taken against any employee in this period.

The force said pop-up adverts on "legitimate" sites were to blame.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I'm confident I don't have dozens of staff routinely accessing gambling or pornographic websites in work time and on force computers "

End Quote David Zinzan Deputy Chief Constable

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, relate to the number of unique users prevented from accessing a site or section of a site, and relate to staff, police officers and agency staff contracted by the force.

Deputy Chief Constable David Zinzan said: "The software we use to monitor internet usage is a commercial application that uses finely-tuned filters.

"The software blocks and prevents access to websites which are suspected to have inappropriate content, such as gambling or pornography."

The force said the category "pornography" covered "all sites found by the filter to contain adult content" which includes "sites containing profanity or dating websites".

Local newspaper websites

It added: "Any site that the filter identifies as containing information only suitable for adult viewing would be included in this category."

Mr Zinzan said: "We have many recorded blocks from local newspaper websites because they have pop-up adverts that breach our 'gambling' or 'pornography' rule.

"These online news sites allow betting or dating adverts and pop-ups which our software blocks and records as attempts to access gambling or pornography.

"So 500 users who legitimately access these news sites could easily generate 500 reports."

He said the force filters were "very robust and will capture hundreds of these events" which were called "false positives".

"I am advised that the vast majority of those FoI figures relate to such instances," he added.

'Small number disciplined'

A blocked site is one that is not compliant with the force policy on accessing the internet.

Continue reading the main story

Denied access per month

PORNOGRAPHY

• June 2013 - 187
• July 2013 - 214
• August 2013 - 273

GAMBLING

• June 2013 - 643
• July 2013 - 845
• August 2013 - 605

Mr Zinzan said the force had "very strict internet security policies".

"I'm confident I don't have dozens of staff routinely accessing gambling or pornographic websites in work time and on force computers.

"Almost all staff know better than to compromise themselves which could lead to disciplinary action."

He said an "extremely small number of people" have been disciplined in the last few years, and with a workforce of nearly 6,000, he said it was "a tiny percentage".

Mr Zinzan said: "If continuous attempts are made to access blocked websites we have the systems in place to 'dig deeper' if required, though that's rarely necessary and at this moment in time there are no current ongoing investigations around genuine inappropriate internet access."

He added it was important the figures were put in context otherwise people could "reasonably conclude that there is a problem when in fact there isn't".

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Dolphin-inspired bomb radar tested

28 October 2013 Last updated at 08:14 ET

British engineers have taken inspiration from dolphins for a new type of radar that could help detect roadside bombs more easily.

The device sends out two pulses instead of one, mimicking how dolphins pinpoint their prey.

The twin inverted pulse radar (TWIPR) can distinguish between the electronics at the heart of an explosive and other "clutter" such as pipes or nails.

Experts said the system "showed promise".

The radar device has been developed by a team led by Prof Tim Leighton, of the University of Southampton, and scientists from University College, London.

Strong signal

Prof Leighton took his inspiration from the way dolphins are able to process their sonar signals to pinpoint prey in bubbly water.

Some dolphins blow bubble nets around schools of fish to force them to cluster together.

Their sonar would not work if they could not distinguish the fish from the bubbles.

He wanted to see if the same technique would work with radio waves, and so developed a system that also sent out pulses in pairs.

Traditional radar typically sends out just one pulse.

The device his team came up with was just 2cm in size and cost less than £1 to put together.

The second pulse has the reverse polarity of the first.

Continue reading the main story

Any technology that increases the probability of detecting IEDs [improvised explosive device] or buried earthquake victims while reducing false alarms will undoubtedly save lives"

End Quote Gary Kemp Cambridge Consultants

This means that if it hits an electronic device, it turns the pulse into a positive, which in turn gives off a very strong signal.

In tests the team applied the radar pulses to an antenna typical of the circuitry used in explosive devices, which was surrounded by "clutter" metals.

The antenna showed up 100,000 times more powerfully than the other metal "clutter".

Animal super-senses

Such a device could also be extremely helpful in finding surveillance device as well as bombs, the team said.

It could even help locate people buried after an avalanche or earthquake by detecting their mobile phones.

"Such technology could also be extended to other radiations, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and light detection and ranging (Lidar)... offering the possibility of early fire detection systems," said Prof Leighton.

Gary Kemp, programme director at technology consultancy Cambridge Consultants, said that the system "shows promise".

He said: "We continue to take inspiration from the many animal super-senses found in nature, whether from the sophisticated echolocation techniques used by bats and cetaceans or the remarkable chemical detection ability of dogs and bees.

"Any technology that increases the probability of detecting IEDs [improvised explosive device] or buried earthquake victims while reducing false alarms will undoubtedly save lives," he added.

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US firm claims Captcha crack

28 October 2013 Last updated at 11:20 ET

A US-based start-up claims to have broken security tests used to tell humans and computers apart online.

Vicarious said it had developed technology, based on the human brain, which could solve text-based Captcha tests 90% of the time.

A Captcha is a graphic or sound users must type on to a web page to prove they are human.

The company said its artificial intelligence software can also perceive images.

Artificial brains

The company said it had used its Recursive Cortical Network software to solve Captcha tests as a step towards thinking machines, not for nefarious purposes.

Vicarious hopes eventually to use the technology for robotics, medical image analysis, and online searching.

"The Vicarious algorithms achieve a level of effectiveness and efficiency much closer to actual human brains," Vicarious co-founder D Scott Phoenix said in a statement.

The artificial intelligence software can "think and learn like a human" by mimicking processes in the brain.

Facebook co-founder and Vicarious investor Dustin Moskovitz said that Vicarious was "at the forefront of building the first truly intelligent machines".

Security implications

In tests, the Recursive Cortical Network software solved 90% of Captcha tests used by Google, Yahoo, PayPal, and Captcha.com, Vicarious said.

Nevertheless, Captcha as a security mechanism was still valid, according to security experts.

The technology was originally developed as an anti-spam measure by a team at Carnegie Mellon University.

Computer scientist Luis von Ahn, who was part of the team that developed Captcha tests, said that it was difficult to verify Vicarious' results as the algorithm had not been made public.

Mr von Ahn said if necessary the Captcha test could be made stronger by increasing the distortion of Captcha text and images.

Paul Wood, a cyber-intelligence manager at computer security company Symantec, said the Vicarious announcement should be "no cause for concern for organisations developing Captcha technology".

However, Mr Wood added that technical and other weaknesses exist in some implementations of Captcha tests.

Audio and visual Captcha images may be difficult to distort further, as a number of users already find the tests difficult to transcribe, said Mr Wood.

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