Mystery missile launch reported off California coast – Experts claim that may be was an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.
10 November 2010
Pentagon officials say they cannot explain reports of a missile launch off the coast of California on Monday.
A CBS News helicopter captured what looked like the vapour trail of a missile rising from the water about 35 miles (56 km) offshore.
Some physicists said the trail was left by an aeroplane, and that on a clear day the vapour created an illusion making it appear to rise vertically.
The Pentagon does not consider the incident a threat.
“Right now all indications are that it was not [defence department] involvement in this launch” Pentagon spokesman Col David Lapan said.
“So far we’ve come up empty with any explanation. We’re doing everything we can to try to figure out if anybody has any knowledge of what this event may have been.”
Under normal circumstances, the launch of a US missile would require several different authorisations and notifications, but none are evident.
It is unclear if the suspected missile was launched from land or sea.
Physicist Michio Kaku of the City University of New York said a frame-by-frame analysis of the video revealed the trail was created by an aeroplane.
He told CNN on Wednesday the object leaving the trail was travelling at a constant velocity and deviating in its direction, while rockets accelerate as they leave the ground and move in a straight line.
Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11721981
The video was shown to Robert Ellsworth, a former U.S. Ambassador to NATO , and a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Ellsworth, says that may be was an intercontinental ballistic missile, it could have been a show of our military muscle, with President Obama in Asia. So far, the military is keeping mum about the missile launch.
Google’s Chrome logo similar to 666.
Chrome (6 letters) is a free web browser. Also it is a new Operating System (OS).
Google (6 Letters) is the biggest web search engine on earth. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products.
Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey (6 letters) Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University Stanford University in California.
It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998 (1998 = 3 χ 666 ).
Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine “BackRub”. Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word “Googol” (6 letters). The term was coined in 1938 by 9-year-old Milton (6 letters) Sirotta. Googol is the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was meant to signify the amount of information the search engine was to handle. Originally, Google ran under the Stanford University website, with the domain google.stanford.edu.
Market researches showed that in April 2007, Google Inc. undertook the primacy as the most famous company worldwide, displacing thus Microsoft.
Source : Wikipedia
The Body Electric – Personal Area Network (PAN).
By Bruce Schechter
Personal Area Network Technology Permits Individuals to Pass Identifying Information to Other People and to Machines Simply by Touching Them
A gentle touch. A firm handshake. A pat on the back. A lingering caress. All can communicate an enormous amount of emotion, understanding and compassion from one person to another. Now, Thomas G. Zimmerman, a scientist at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, has demonstrated how a touch can also be used to communicate unemotional digital information.
When businessmen equipped with Zimmerman’s technology shake hands, tiny computers in their pockets automatically exchange business cards across a fleshy personal area network, or PAN. As part of a PAN, a person would be instantly known to properly equipped cars or telephones, eliminating the need for keys or coins. Merely touching the telephone receiver or the car’s door handle would establish a data link across which identifying information could flow.
“Imagine a world,” Zimmerman says, “where everything is open to you and available to you.” PANs make this a possibility by allowing the human body to be a network across which electronic devices can freely communicate.
Wacky world of electronic invention
Zimmerman has been musing about the interaction of humans and computers since 1982 when, as he puts it, he “first surfaced in the wacky world of electronic invention.” His debut invention was spectacular: the data glove, the staple of virtual reality that first allowed humans to reach into cyberspace. He worked for Atari for a while before going off to found several companies, including the virtual reality pioneer VPL Research, which he started up with Jaron Lanier. Eventually, he was drawn to MIT’s Media Lab, where “all these cool things were happening under one roof.” There, he would be serendipitously led to the invention of the personal area network.
Some of the coolest things, Zimmerman soon discovered, were taking place in Neil Gershenfeld’s Physics and Media Group. Gershenfeld had been working with the renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma on ways in which technology could expand the expressive capabilities of his instrument. Gershenfeld was searching for a way to measure the details of Ma’s bowing and fingering without interfering with his instrument.
Gershenfeld hit on a method known as near-field coupling. In essence he placed electrical antennas on Ma’s cello and bow. Pairs of these antennas formed capacitors. As Ma moved his bow across his instrument, he changed the capacitance of the circuit. By measuring the capacitance it was possible to determine the position of Ma’s bow accurately.
In effect, Gershenfeld converted Ma’s bow into a computer mouse. The only problem was that a hand placed between the antennas also affected the capacitance, interfering with the position measurement. The interference problem had Gershenfeld baffled. At this point Zimmerman joined the group and discovered the source of the interference. With the help of a rubber glove stuffed with hamburger meat, he demonstrated that some of the signal was passing through the human body.
This human interference proved advantageous when the magicians Penn and Teller came to the Media Lab looking for some high-tech tricks. Penn wanted to baffle his audiences by playing a set of “air drums.” Zimmerman and Gershenfeld decided to use Penn’s body as one of the antennas in the system by having him sit on a chair with an electrode built into its seat. Four antennas suspended in front of the chair allowed Penn to play 128 different, invisible drums. The audience was amazed.
Making devices communicate
The final inspiration came when another group at the Media Lab asked Zimmerman and Gershenfeld to help develop a network that could connect all the devices a gadget-hungry person might carry. As electronic devices have become steadily smaller and cheaper, many people now walk around adorned with a half dozen or more information and communication devices – pagers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wristwatches and electronic games.
“None of these devices can talk to any of the others, which is both inconvenient and inefficient. A page comes in and the silicon-laden recipient has to reach into a pocket, read the number, perhaps punch it into a PDA to find out who is calling and then punch it into a cellular phone. In effect, he or she is devoting considerable mental capabilities to emulating an extremely low-bandwidth communication network.”
Zimmerman and Gershenfeld saw that modulating the electrical signal flowing through Penn’s body in the air drum trick – for example, turning it on to represent a 1 and off to represent a 0 – could enable the body to carry digital information. Using low frequency and low power would ensure that the signal would not propagate very far beyond the body; thus, only devices worn by the user, or by people or devices in direct contact with the user, could detect it. The current involved is extremely tiny and totally unnoticed by the user, whose body has been transformed into a meaty version of a copper cable: a personal area network.
“The near-field effect used to make PAN possible has many advantages over other methods of short-range wireless communication. Even low-powered radio waves travel far enough to make eavesdropping and interference a real problem. Since the human body acts like a bag of salt water and shadows radio waves, a device on your lapel might not be able to communicate with one in your back pocket. In addition, the radio spectrum is already crowded, and the licensing requirements for radio communications are complex and vary from country to country. Infrared communication is limited by line of sight.”
Zimmerman understood that security is a serious problem for PANs. Touching a person equipped with a PAN is like tapping a phone line. This is an advantage when an exchange of information is desired, but a problem when privacy is important. Since coming to IBM in 1995, Zimmerman has collaborated with Almaden’s Prabhakar Raghavan and Don Coppersmith of the Thomas J. Watson Research Center to develop a security method using encryption that makes the PAN data look like a stream of random bits to would-be eavesdroppers.
CEOs holding hands
The version of the PAN that Zimmerman has been showing off is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. On the back of the PAN devices are metal plates, one of which must face the body while the other faces outward to establish a ground connection with the earth. The bandwidth of the PAN is relatively small, about that of a low-speed modem. That’s not sufficient to transmit video but more than enough to carry identification, financial or medical information.
At a recent show, Zimmerman enlisted several CEOs from some of the world’s largest corporations to hold hands, forming one of the highest-priced data networks in history. Information on the card of the CEO on one end of the network flowed through the intervening bodies and was detected by the card at the far end.
High-tech business cards are unlikely to be the first applications of PANs. For that to catch on, it will be necessary for almost everyone to be equipped with the cards. Instead, Zimmerman believes that PANs will be used to identify people to devices. “Imagine a thing like this,” he says, fishing a credit-card-sized device from his pocket. “It just sits in my wallet and I never take it out. I pick up a pay phone and it autodials my calling card number. So I dial the phone just as if it were my home phone. An ATM machine is just my top drawer at home with the cash in it. You just grab your car door and open it. It’s really locked; but as soon as you grab it, the PAN uploads your ID, the car acknowledges that it’s you and it unlocks.”
Information, in Zimmerman’s vision, will become contagious, flowing freely from person to person and computer to computer. By doing so, it will give a new twist on what it means to keep in touch.
Bruce Schechter is a science writer based in Los Angeles. He is currently writing a book on the life and times of Paul Erdös.
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/wwwr_thinkresearch.nsf/pages/pan197.html
Check also this article
http://dspace.wul.waseda.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2065/10729/1/P4-05-025.pdf
Human body as a communication medium : DigInfo
µ-Chip. The World’s smallest RFID IC – Radio Frequency Identification Intergated Circuit
Electronic Numbering of Products and Documents using the “µ-Chip” (or mu-chip) supported by a Networked Database unleashes new Business and Life Style Applications that facilitate innovative Manufacturing, Distribution, Consumption, Tracking and Recycling operations.
*Size compared to a human fingertip
The RFID, wireless semiconductor integrated circuit that stores an ID number in its memory, was proposed about a decade ago as an alternative to the barcode. Its use, however, has so far been limited to a few applications where its advantages offset its relatively high cost.
The µ-Chip is Hitachi’s response to resolving some of the issues associated with conventional RFID technology. The µ-Chip uses the frequency of 2.45GHz. It has a 128-bit ROM for storing the ID with no write-read and no anti-collision capabilities. Its unique ID numbers can be used to individually identify trillions of trillions of objects with no duplication. Moreover with a size of 0.4mm square, the µ-Chip is small enough to be attached to a variety of minute objects including embedding in paper.
Manufacturing, distribution and tracking systems can be built or enhanced using the µ-Chip with an event-driven accumulation of, and on-demand access to, information stored in a database through the network. By coupling this database with the versatility of the µ-Chip new business and life styles applications can now be brought to reality. These new applications allow manufacturing, commerce and recycling processes to be operated in a way that has not been possible before.
September 2, 2003
| Hitachi Develops a New RFID with Embedded Antenna µ-Chip |
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–Makes Possible Wireless Links that Work Using Nothing More Than a 0.4mm X 0.4mm Chip, One of the World’s Smallest ICs– |
Tokyo, September 2, 2003-Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced that it has developed a new version of its RFID µ-Chip embedding an antenna. When using Hitachi’s original µ-Chip, one of the world’s smallest RFID ICs measuring only 0.4mm X 0.4mm, an external antenna must be attached to the chip to allow external devices to read the 128-bit ID number stored in its ROM (Read-Only-Memory). This newly developed version, however, features an internal antenna, enabling chips to employ the energy of incoming electrical waves to wirelessly transmit its ID number to a reader. The 0.4mm X 0.4mm chip can thus operate entirely on its own, making it possible to use µ-Chip as RFID IC tags without the need to attach external devices. This breakthrough opens the door to using µ-Chips as RFID IC tags in extremely minute and precise applications that had been impractical until now. For example, the new µ-Chip can be easily embedded in bank notes, gift certificates, documents and whole paper media etc.
The µ-Chip, announced by Hitachi in July 2001, is one of the world’s smallest IC chips at 0.4mm X 0.4mm. The chip data is recorded in read-only memory during the semiconductor production process, and therefore cannot be rewritten, thus guaranteeing its authenticity. Applications of the µ-Chip include a system for managing the SCM materials on sites, and entrance tickets for Expo 2005 Aichi Japan which opens on March 25, 2005.
The primary features of this revolutionary µ-Chip are as follows.
| (1) A RFID IC chip measuring only 0.4mm X 0.4mm with built-in antenna |
Despite its extremely small size, this µ-Chip has a built-in antenna to permit contactless communications (at very close proximity) with other devices without using an external antenna.
| (2) No need for special manufacturing equipment |
The antenna is formed using bump-metalization technology (used to create the electrical contacts of an IC), a process already widely used by semiconductor manufacturers, thus eliminating any need for specialized equipment.
| (3) Complete compatibility with conventional µ-Chip |
With ID numbers and support systems that are fully compatible with those of existing µ-Chip, the new chip is fully compatible with all systems that use current µ-Chip technology.
Hitachi plans to develop numerous markets for this chip that take full advantage of its outstanding features. Embedding the chip in securities, identification and other valuable documents such as vouchers offers a highly sophisticated means of preventing counterfeiting. Another high-potential application is agricultural products, where the chips can help ensure the safety of food by providing traceability of ingredients. Additionally, the chips can be embedded in business forms to automate logistics systems and many other business processes.
| About Hitachi, Ltd. |
Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended March 31, 2003) consolidated sales totaled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s Web site at http://www.hitachi.com.
Specifications of µ-Chip
- Simple Mechanism :
128-bit read only memory, no anti-collision control
Super-micro Chip: 0.4 mm x 0.4mm
- Battery Less:
The µ-Chip a passive IC, that receives the microwave from the reader, generates electric power from the microwave, decodes its µ-Chip ID and transmits it back to the reader.
- Unique ID (µ-Chip ID):
Each µ-Chip stores unique 128-bit data in its ROM as its ID, to distinguish it from the others.
- Radio Frequency:
2.45 GHz
- Maxmum Communication Length:
about 25 cm (with an external antenna) (Reader: 300mW, 4 Pach Antenna, Circular Polarization)
- Response Time:
20msec
Operations
- Interrogation:
- When the reader is activated by a terminal device (PC), it radiates microwave on to the µ-Chip attached to a carrying article and the µ-Chip returns its µ-Chip ID to the reader. The carrying article may be a tag, a label or a customers products.
- Database Query:
- The terminal device authenticates the µ-Chip ID and uses it to retrieve information from the database about the article carrying the µ-Chip. The result of the query can be displayed on the terminal device or used by a software application.
- Database Construction:
- The database may be located at the site server or at the central server and stores attributes of the µ-Chip carrying article. Information associated with the event of readout may be used to update the database.
- Linking:
- Linking each µ-Chip ID to the carrying article is performed upon application of the µ-Chip to it.
The attributes of the article at this point comprise the basic entry to the database. For efficient, automated linking process, consultation and engineering services are available.
http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/mu-chip/
Mexican Attorney General Gets Security Microchip Implant in Arm – ABC News, Introduction of the microchip (15.07.2004)
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Mexican Attorney General Gets Security Microchip Implant in Arm
July 12 (Bloomberg) — Mexico’s Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said he had a non-removable microchip implanted in his arm as a security measure to track him throughout Mexico and to give him access to a crime data bank.
Other high-ranking law enforcement officials who have access to the databank will also receive the chip implants, Macedo said in a transcript of an informal interview he gave to journalists in Mexico City provided by the attorney general’s office.
“The system is already in place and I already have it,” he said. “It’s only for access, for security and so that I can also be located at any moment anywhere I am.”
The $26 million data bank was created to link information on criminals and records of outstanding arrest warrants among the attorney generals branch offices in all 31 states and the federal district.
The chip can’t be removed, but will be deactivated after Macedo’s term as attorney general expires, he said.
About 160 Mexican officials will carry the microchip, according to the Mexico City daily El Universal.
When asked if the implant hurt, Macedo replied, “a little.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYyZfaVRFtWQ&refer=latin_america
UNBELIEVABLE – Scientists Implant Bar code tags, inside one day embryos !!!! Soon and inside humans
cell subpopulations mixed in the same culture, to track a minority group of cells representing the whole population or to follow a subpopulation of cells in vivo.
A biocompatible and non-cytotoxic encoded microparticle has been developed to track isolated cells or embryos. It is an useful tool in research to follow the behavior of individual cells exposed to different conditions or different therapeutic drugs and in clinical settings to track individual oocytes and embryo as well. We are seeking a company partner to further develop the technology through a co-development and license agreement.
Contrary to previous labeling and tracking devices, the code of the microparticle is comprised in its external shape. The code of the particle may thus be considered a spatial code. There is no need for fluorochromes to be able to identify the code.
- Encoded microparticules for tracking human embryo in IVF treatment.
- Biocompatible and no cytotoxicity.
- Adherence to zona pellucida or plasma membrane .
- Optical microscopy code identification.
- Low-cost manufacture and high versatility.
- Studies of Biocompatibility and cytotoxity have been carried out in macrophages and mouse embryos (during the pre-implantation development, from zygote to hatching stage).
- Barcodes are made using silicon microtechnologies (MEMs and NEMs fabrication) which allow the production of the devices with dimensions in the micron range.
- In vivo studies in mouse. Results are expected within the last quarter of the year.
Download it here
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Oxford Journals - Human Reproduction
Critics of the selection that’s often involved in assisted reproductive technology – picking a 5’10”, blond-haired, Ivy League grad egg donor, for example – say it turns conceiving a baby into a shopping exercise. It’s probably safe to venture, however, that none of the critics envisioned a day when we’d be bar-coding embryos.
That is precisely what researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona have done, reports New Scientist. Using cells from mouse embryos and eggs, the scientists developed a procedure that involves inserting microscopic silicon bar codes into a gap between the cell membrane and an outer membrane called the zona pellucida.
The next step is to try the technique on human embryos and eggs. That will happen soon; the Government of Catalonia health department has already approved the method for use on genetic material provided by Spanish fertility clinics.
The technique could help fertility doctors avoid mix-ups during in-vitro fertilization – such as a 2002 case in which a white couple gave birth to black twins.
Researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona have come up with an ingenious solution for keeping track of embryos and egg cells during in vitro fertilisation procedures: microscopic bar codes.
These mouse eggs were tagged by injecting microscopic silicon bar codes into their perivitelline space, the gap between the cell membrane and an outer membrane called the zona pellucida, which binds sperm cells during fertilisation.
The bar codes, which carry unique binary identification numbers, are biologically inert: they do not affect the rate of embryo development and are shed before the embryos implant into the wall of the uterus. The technique aims to simplify individual embryo identification, streamlining in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer procedures.
The Government of Catalonia’s Department of Health has granted permission for the technique to be developed using human eggs and embryos from fertility clinics in Spain.
The research, published in the journal Human Reproduction, may go some way to avoiding mix ups at fertility clinics.
the UAB lab studies, labeled embryos were shown to develop normally up until the blastocyst stage, which precedes implantation. The researchers also studied how well the labels stayed on throughout the development cycle, how easily they could be read with a standard microscope, how they could be eliminated after the shedding of the zona pellucida, and how well they could stand up to the freezing and thawing of their host embryo.
There were some problems with embryos being able to free themselves from the labels when they shed the zona pellucida. The scientists are therefore now looking at modifying the surface of the labels, so they could be mounted on the outside of the covering, instead of being injected into the perivitelline space. They are also working on an automated bar code reading system.
Permission has been given by the Government of Catalonia’s Department of Health for UAB to begin testing its system with human oocytes and embryos from several fertility clinics in Spain.
The research was recently published in the journal Human Reproduction.
