All Future tech Feeds

The GigaPan produces ultra hi-res imagery

Marc Chacksfield — 1210950780

It sounds too good to be true but a new device has been created that allows photographers to take images of up to 1,000 megapixels, creating the ultimate in clear, precise and interactive photography.

The idea behind it actually quite simple. Using your normal run-of-the-mill digicam, you connect it up to a robot mounted on to a tripod which takes hundreds of zoomed-in photos, all at a slightly different angle. These images are then stitched together using a software program.

Zoom with a view

Once stitched together the photograph can be explored much like a 3D environment, where the user can zoom in and out and pick out precise details.

The Timesonline was given a demonstration of the device and its findings can be found here. Nevertheless, it all sounds very impressive.

At the moment, the camera device is still in trials, but when it is released, it will likely cost “several hundred dollars”. Find out more here.

Mastercard aiming at Japanese e-credit market

J Mark Lytle — 1210919532

We've been hearing so much about the success of RFID-based e-cash and credit in the Far East recently, it makes a pleasant change to hear of one moderately popular Western service making the trip to Japan instead.

Toshiba Japan and Mastercard have announced that they have created a new RFID chip that will enable the card company to roll out its PayPass contactless credit payment system in Japan.

Used in UK

PayPass transactions are already available in over 100,000 outlets worldwide, mostly in the US and UK, but the technology used there is incompatible with the technology in Japan, the undisputed home of contactless payments.

Kazuhiro Kubota of Toshiba explains: "Although contactless payment applications are common in Japan, they are specific to each vendor and therefore inconvenient for consumers since they are not compatible with systems used overseas."

Tough competition

The two firms will make the new chip available to card-issuing companies from the end of this year, with a clear view to joining the slew of electronic payment options already available in Japan.

Getting the 'wave and go' technology into Japanese credit cards will be one thing, but competing with the incumbents offering the same services and with mobile phone carriers that give customers that technology plus myriad other gadgets in a single handset will be a tall order.

Japan report: previewing the phones of the future

J Mark Lytle — 1210865338

NTT DoCoMo is Japan’s market-leading mobile phone provider. And where DoCoMo excels is in its uncanny ability to stay ahead of the technology curve.

Just look at the mess China has itself in as it struggles to introduce a 3G mobile network in time for this summer’s Olympics.

While Beijing struggles to set up even a trial 3G network using its own TD-SCDMA standard, DoCoMo has had a commercial service called FOMA (using W-CDMA) in place since 2001.

Not only that, but it has concrete plans for the next step on the road already – Super 3G wireless networking with download speeds of up to 300Mbit/s.

Doing mobile communications

First, a quick backgrounder – DoCoMo, whose name comes from the slightly daft phrase ‘Do Communications Over the Mobile Network,’ was founded in 1991 and reported revenues of ¥4.7 trillion, or £23 billion last year.

That 53 million-strong cadre of customers represents 52 per cent of Japan’s entire mobile phone market – next best is KDDI with 29 per cent, followed by Softbank Mobile on 18 per cent.

DoCoMo’s success story began in earnest when it launched the i-mode-branded mobile internet service in 1999. Since then, not only have customer numbers been growing almost constantly, but so – significantly - has the company’s reliance on income from data traffic.

More recently, the introduction of the RFID-based Osaifu Keitai (Wallet Mobile) technology in 2004 has increased the importance of data fees to the company.

Want to know more? We've already covered Osaifu Keitai in our article: The next big thing for your mobile phone.

It’s about the data

Moving forward to 2008, DoCoMo and its competitors are currently engaged in a fierce and costly battle to offer new handsets packed with everything from TV tuners to news tickers, barcode readers and plenty more just to appeal to a wavering, near-saturated market.

Consequently, customers like me have frequently been disappointed with phones that are plain unwieldy because of the amount of electronics they contain simply to keep up with the Joneses.

This is because leading wireless carriers like DoCoMo need to find ways to get customers using their phones for more than just talking and for longer periods. But the problem is, not every new bell and whistle generates profits, or even any income at all.

Which is precisely what the company explained to us when we visited for a briefing earlier this week. PR manager Shuichiro Ichikoshi told us, “Adding such extra services, like 1-seg [the digital TV service tailored for mobile phones], is quite controversial, as it just costs us money.

“Also, it has a tendency to make phones bulkier, especially some of the big ones, such as Panasonic’s recent Viera phone. But is possible to find a balance if makers build them with lower-resolution screens. Still, we’re always looking for a way to monetise these ‘lifestyle’ services.”

And there, from the horse’s mouth, is the core of the problem facing all modern carriers struggling to maintain the bottom line – so-called lifestyle services. But what are they going to be, if TV and the like aren’t bringing home the bacon?

The Japanese future imperfect

To answer that question, DoCoMo’s crack squad of powder-blue-suited spokesmodels ushered us off to see the company's vision of the future in a specially constructed facility on the 29th floor of a Tokyo skyscraper.

First stop was a mini cinema showing two of those ‘vision of the future’ corporate films that tend to have precisely the wrong effect. These didn’t disappoint. You can watch them yourself.

DoCoMo’s vision of the year 201X centres on an unnaturally cheery boy with a broken foot who appears to interact with his parents mostly by remote video-conferencing. He talks to his doctor via a rehab robot that checks on his ailing leg and beams data back to a hospital, somewhere unknown.

Once better, young Hiroki Tanigawa, gets to travel to the airport for a solo flight, accompanied only by an intelligent wireless device strung round his neck. The ‘Kids’ Concierge’ keeps him on the straight and narrow and even reminds him to do a little airport shopping.

Nightmare Orwellian vision?

Maybe we’re being cynical, but it all sounds Orwellian, rather than Utopian. Nevertheless, NTT DoCoMo's videos do outline a clear vision.

The message revolves around networking – that beaming large amounts of data around some kind of personal or family network, instead of relying on simple voice calls, is where things are headed.

That’s one possible vision of the future – what about the technology companies like DoCoMo will almost certainly bring to the West more imminently?

To demonstrate, next stop was a dummy McDonald’s counter – we got to order a Big Mac and pay for it not using boring old e-cash, but with DoCoMo’s phone-bound credit card called DCMX.

Using the same RFID chip as Osaifu Keitai, DCMX purchases end up on next month’s phone bill, so there’s no need to charge the chip up with cash. Should you prefer to pay now, there’s always the option to do, such as we did at the real Coca Cola vending machine in the same showroom.

As we recently reported, FeliCa, the base technology behind RFID phones and the like is already spreading to the US, so it’s nailed on that similar phone-based payment options will go global.

But it’s DoCoMo’s next project that really intrigues...

Feeding the dog of the future

The final stop on the tour was a mock-up of a living room of the future. Naturally, you enter using a wrist-mounted wireless terminal (what else?) that doubles as an identity checker.

Once inside, everything from feeding the dog to setting the floor-cleaning robot in motion happens through instructions barked at the wrist device. Then things get decidedly Minority Report.

Again an example of the value of finding more ways to use wireless data, the most impressive demo of the day saw us don 3D glasses and step into an immersive representation of ancient Tokyo.

Virtual Edo, as it’s called, allows visitors to walk around and explore the old city, which is painted on the walls and floor by a high-definition projector. Although slightly hard on the eyes, we were clearly able to find our way to an art shop.

Inside, a selection of scrolls on the wall can be examined using a gesture interface that draws them forward in 3D or moves on to the next set of artworks.

As you might have guessed, all this data arrives courtesy of DoCoMo’s theoretical high-speed network, with commands and transaction information flowing back the other way. Yes – we were even able to buy the scrolls and have them downloaded to that wrist dongle. (It has a projector for beaming your art onto a wall or table, by the way.)

E-commerce is (or will be) everything

The point of all this talk of data traffic and e-commerce should illuminate the reason why phone companies are continually planning to build faster and faster networks. After all, it might not seem particularly useful to have high-speed downloads on current phones with their relatively limiting screens.

Back to DoCoMo’s Shuichiro Ichikoshi: “When we were building FOMA, we were like a construction company – installing masts everywhere. Now, however, we can add a software upgrade to it and use that network for the next stage, Super 3G. In fact, we’ll have it ready by 2009 or 2010.”

In other words, the mobile bandwidth to facilitate the scenarios we described above should be here (in Japan, anyway) within a couple of years.

And DoCoMo’s talk of Super 3G is not the measly 7.2Mbit/s of current HSPA connections. Instead, the company is ready to roll out wireless downloads at up to 300Mbit/s, with uploads at 80Mbit/s. Even fibre-optic connections can’t compete with that.

Better still – if you’re hesitating over that ticket to Japan – a 4G network running in Gigabit territory won't be more than a year or two behind it. Just remember to pack your credit card and prepare for some serious retail therapy.

We’ve seen the future.

Estonia sets up NATO cyber-defence hub

Patrick Goss — 1210859640

Estonia have responded to cyber-attacks attacks last year by building a NATO sanctioned cyber-defence hub.

Seven NATO nations – Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Spain will staff and fund the hub in Tallin, following an attack on the country’s hit-tech infrastructure that Estonia’s government attributed to Russia.

Hit hard

The country has fully embraced the internet age, and was hit hard by the attacks – which affected government offices and banks, amongst other major businesses.

“We have seen in Estonia that a cyber-attack can swiftly become an issue of national security,” said Nato spokesman James Appathurai.

“Cyber attacks can cripple societies.”

30 staff will man the hub, with a US observer also keeping an eye on the project, which is expected to act as a pilot scheme for the co-operating governments.

RFID smartcards mail home to keep track of kids

J Mark Lytle — 1210832460

It’s no secret that here at TechRadar we’re big fans of anything with a GPS chip in it, but privacy concerns are clearly just around the corner should Big Brother decide to use the technology to keep tabs on us.

That’s yet to happen – as far as we know – on any large scale, but in Japan, there are several models of mobile phone aimed at allowing parents to keep a constant eye on their kids through GPS and email alerts.

Oversight too far

Such phones might seem useful in theory but the reality is that few people old enough to carry a mobile phone are going to be overjoyed about being tracked at all times.

Now, however, into that potential breach steps another one of our favourite technologies – RFID. The Pasmo transportation card that we’ve mentioned before now has an added trick that performs much the same function, only far less intrusively.

The company behind the card is offering a service that links the ubiquitous card readers in train stations and buses to extra terminals at school entrances and domestic residences [Japanese link].

When Pasmo-bearing children arrive at where they’re supposed to be, the system emails parents to tell them so. Otherwise, it makes like pink Floyd and leaves those kids alone. We like its style.

Spreadable OLED TVs to power themselves

J Mark Lytle — 1210825920

Not satisfied with a future vision that already includes flexible screens and wafer-thin phones, a pair of Japanese companies has pushed the envelope to come up with far-fetched gadgets that do all of the above without ever going near a power socket.

The key to the work by Mitsubishi Chemical and Sumitomo Chemical lies in so-called spreadable electronics – liquids containing molecules of the type used in OLED screens.

Two in one

Engineers like Tokitaro Hoshijima at Mitsubishi Chemical see the possibility of using spreadable electronics to create both ultra-thin displays and solar panels at the same time [subscription link].

Because solar cells and OLEDs work on similar, but opposite, principles, it is possible to make materials that both take light and turn it into electricity and also do the opposite to provide a controllable display.

Hoshijima and many others are working on a molecular soup that can be spread anywhere and then dried to leave a residue layer that is only 100nm thick. This currently forms the basis for their proposed solar cell.

World without plugs

He explains: "What I want to create is a world that does not need power sockets." He goes on to describe how his paste applied to the back of a phone could be enough to charge the device when exposed to light.

By the same token, researchers at Sumitomo Chemical have created a similar organic solution that can be sprayed onto a surface to create an OLED screen.

Such a display could be on a rollable piece of plastic or even applied directly to a wall. The solar-charging properties described above mean it would never need to be plugged in.

Blue-sky projects like these typically take years to bear fruit, but both companies are looking at getting usable prototype devices ready within the next two years.

Lie detectors to tell the sick from the lazy

Marc Chacksfield — 1210689120

Up until now a cough-spluttered phone call would have been enough to convince your boss that you were ill; that the reason you were not in work was because you had been struck down with something so contagious that even thinking about the office would put all your workmates at risk of your infectious ailment.

This could all be about to change, however, if a new government scheme is to be put into place. After a recent, successful trial that involved councils up and down the country using lie detectors to catch out benefit fraudsters, similar technology could be set to enter the workplace.

Voice Risk Analysis

The tech used in the benefit fraud scheme was Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) software, which is able to identify the slightest change in a person’s voice and help in figuring out whether they are telling the truth or not.

The system went on trial last May, beginning in the London borough of Harrow, and was deemed a success. So much so that anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt announced last week that the scheme would be extended.

Speaking recently about using VRA in the workplace, Susan Anderson, director of human resources policy at CBI, believed that fake sick days cost businesses £1.6 billion a year and that technology could be used as part of a range of incentives and penalties.

There’s no announcement as of yet when a workplace-based trial is likely to take place.

Are you wrinkly enough to buy cigarettes?

J Mark Lytle — 1210656049

Everyone knows that smoking causes the skin to age unnaturally and lines to appear around the eyes prematurely, but who could have guessed that smokers would one day be thankful for their tobacco-induced wrinkles?

The bizarre state of affairs comes from a new Japanese cigarette-vending machine that uses face recognition to determine if a customer is over the legal age for buying tobacco, which is 20 in Japan.

If the face fits

Fujitaka's 'Child Check System' [Japanese link] will start appearing in some of Japan's half million or so machines from this July - that's around the same time as the taspo RFID age-verification system we've seen previously.

Eschewing pre-registered RFID cards, the Fujitaka system works by analysing a digital photograph taken by a camera embedded in each machine. A database of 100,000 faces allows it to look for the lack of lines and skin tone that suggest a minor is trying to buy cigarettes.

Baby faces considered

There are, of course, plenty of people who look young well into their 20s and beyond. These folk can either insert a driving licence for age verification or register their mugs with the vending machine owner.

Regardless of the smart technology behind the Child Check System, its chances of success look slim.

One young-looking smoker buying a pack of Seven Star cigarettes from a machine in Tokyo told us, "What's the point? I'll just go into a shop anyway. The staff there are far too busy to even care what they are selling."

Who needs it?

As if to underline the problem, even though it hasn't begun yet the alternative taspo system has had a miserable pre-registration rate and suffered criticism from privacy advocates.

Moreover, previous attempts at 'face recognition' using video cameras embedded in cigarette machines and linked to someone sitting in a room nearby (really) have been predictable flops.

Any still to be found on the streets of Japan tend to have their cameras obscured by dark burn marks - made by cigarettes, of course.

Microsoft's PC crime cracker not yet available

Patrick Goss — 1210603440

Microsoft has told TechRadar that the COFEE tool it has built to help the Police look into PCs believed to have been used for criminal activity is still in Beta and has not yet been made available to forces in the UK.

Microsoft had announced that its suite of programs – named the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor or COFEE or short – was already being circulated, but there remains widespread confusion as to whether this is the case.

Beta

Microsoft’s security advisor in the UK, Ed Gibson, speaking to TechRadar, insists that the software – which could be used on a thumb USB drive to quickly take an image of a suspects computer – is not readily available, yet.

“The latest information is that COFEE is still in beta and that it is not yet available through the law enforcement portal,” said Gibson – who has also worked for the FBI in the fight against cybercrime.

“The law enforcement portal is a password protected site that is only be available to police forces, and COFEE will be available through that.”

There remains some fairly obvious doubts over whether the process would remain private to police forces should it be used to push for criminal convictions – with the likelihood that any defence would require access to the way in which the program takes the information.

Myvu tries to give video glasses style

Marc Chacksfield — 1210601640

The idea of wearing video glasses is definitely an intriguing one. In theory, they’re great: don them and you turn wherever you are into a cinema. In practice, though, while you wonder at your new portable cinema, everyone is staring at you, wondering who the berk is with the space-age face furniture.

Enter a new piece of video eyewear, the Myvu Crystal. According to the bods who created the glasses, you can “Watch what you love, when you want and look great doing it.” And while we’re not that convinced that you will look great, the glasses do boast some nifty features that may well keep the hecklers at bay.

Points of view

The Myvu Crystal is the lightest and thinnest videowear available, and boasts 33 per cent wider field of view than the company’s Shades 301 range.

Video output is Full VGA quality (640 x 480) and is designed to be worn with the latest iPods. You also get four hours’ battery life, connected earbuds and a remote control unit.

The glasses are available in two colours, amber or black, and are out in the US now for $299 (around £150).

If you check out the website, there’s a 30-day trial, which you may want to use. If after 30 days, the sartorial bullies haven’t mocked you for wearing them, then the Myvu Crytal glasses may be well worth a purchase.