Street View-style imagery of interior spaces lets mobile devices locate themselves more accurately than is possible with GPS.

By Tom Simonite on December 10, 2013

Smartphones locate themselves outdoors using a GPS sensor, but those signals are blocked indoors. A new technique uses a device’s camera to get an indoor location fix to an accuracy of within a meter. The technique could enable new kinds of apps, and may be particularly valuable for wearable computers such as Google Glass.

The new location-fixing method is being developed at the University California, Berkeley. It uses a photo from a device’s camera to work out the location and orientation of the device. It does this by matching the photo against a database of panoramic imagery of a building’s interior, similar to the outside views offered by Google’s Street View. The system can deduce the device’s location because it knows the position of every image in that database.

The researchers used a special backpack that captures Street View-style imagery indoors as the wearer carries it around. It has two fisheye cameras, laser scanners, and other sensors. Software uses the data collected to generate a map of the building’s interior, a stitched-together set of panoramas, and a database of individual images that can be used for location lookups.

“You can provide that blue dot you see on a mobile map when out-of-doors for interiors,” says Avideh Zakhor, who leads the Berkeley group developing the system. Zakhor previously sold a 3-D city mapping company to Google that became a major part of the company’s Google Earth 3-D virtual globe.

Zakhor and colleagues have tested their system in buildings on the Berkeley campus and in a mall in Fremont, California. In tests at the mall, they successfully matched more than 96 percent of images taken by a smartphone’s camera against the database of images. When the matches were turned into location fixes, most came out with an error of less than a meter from the device’s true location.

Zakhor says her approach compares favorably with competing methods of determining location indoors in terms of accuracy and the cost of deployment. Alternative methods include using Bluetooth “beacons” or fingerprinting the pattern of Wi-Fi signals inside a building.

Jonathan Ventura, senior researcher at Graz University of Technology, Austria, agrees. “The major advantage of image-based localization is that it works almost everywhere and doesn’t require changing the environment in any way,” he says.

Zakhor’s group isn’t the only one capturing such data: Google has begun taking its Street View product inside and announced last month that it had documented the interiors of 16 airports and over 50 train stations.

Ventura’s own research focuses on augmented reality. He says that if devices can be located very accurately it will allow for virtual and real worlds to be closely aligned. “If we want to render a rich and complex virtual world into a high-resolution image,” he says, “we need to have much more accurate positioning than a consumer GPS receiver can deliver.”

Zakhor is planning tests of her method on computerized glasses, with the intention of having the devices use snapshots to track their location, making it possible to provide a map of an interior space in a person’s field of vision. The Berkeley research group is also working on using data from Wi-Fi signals collected by their backpack to provide a secondary method of deducing a device’s indoor location.

An industry hopes to make Web-connected gadgets from different makers work well together.

Before you know it, you may be able to connect your “smart” coffeemaker to your “smart” toaster to ensure a properly timed java and bagel.

A group of over 20 tech companies including LG, Panasonic, Qualcomm, HTC, and Sharp has joined forces with the Linux Foundation in hopes of spurring the development of Internet-connected devices that work together regardless of their manufacturer. The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the spread of the open-source Linux operating system, announced the creation of the nonprofit AllSeen Alliance on Tuesday.

Over the last several years, interest in connecting normally offline devices like toasters, door locks, and cars to the Internet in order to augment their functionality—a trend known as the Internet of Things—has grown sharply. Data from ABI Research estimates that there are already more than 10 billion wirelessly connected devices in use, and by 2020 there will be more than 30 billion.

Yet this ever-growing field of devices operates on many different protocols, or rules used for transmitting data. It is difficult for, say, a connected light switch made by one manufacturer to interact with a connected door lock made by another unless they’re using the same protocol. Microsoft’s Lab of Thingsconnected-device controller software (see “Microsoft Has an Operating System for Your House”) and OpenRemote’s open-source Internet of Things platform (see “Free Software Ties the Internet of Things Together”) are among several attempts to fix this. But none of these efforts has yet gained significant ground.

The AllSeen Alliance hopes to change that by working with well-known names in the consumer electronics industry. The Linux Foundation said these members will contribute software and engineering resources that will go toward building open-source software that lets gadget makers, service providers, and software developers build Internet of Things products and services that can easily work together.

“The challenge and the opportunities presented by the Internet of ‘Everything’ by definition requires collaboration and open-source software among everyone,” said Mike Woster, chief operating officer of the Linux Foundation.

The industry group is basing its software on AllJoyn, the open-source Internet of Things software created by smartphone chip maker Qualcomm. AllJoyn runs on top of numerous computing platforms, including Linux, Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, and Microsoft’s Windows.

At least one member already has big plans for the software. In a statement, Guodong Xue, the director of the standard and patent department for appliance maker Haier, said his company plans to use software based on AllJoyn across its appliance line. This follows an announcement last week by LG that it intends to add AllJoyn to smart TVs it releases next year.

New catalysts turn carbon dioxide into fuels faster and more efficiently.

By Kevin Bullis on December 4, 2013

Making carbon dioxide by burning hydrocarbons is easy. A pair of novel catalysts recently made by researchers at the University of Illinois could make it far more practical to do the reverse, converting carbon dioxide and water into fuel.

Because running this reaction normally requires large amounts of energy, it has been economical only in rare cases (see “Company Makes CO2 into Liquid Fuel, with Help from a Volcano”). But if the process could be done commercially, liquid fuels could be made from the exhaust gases of fossil-fuel power plants.

The new work, described this week in the journalNature Communications, improves on a pair of catalysts discovered last year that more efficiently turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, which can then be made into gasoline and other products. Those catalysts produce carbon monoxide slowly, however, and one is made of silver, so it’s expensive. But the Illinois researchers have demonstrated that it’s possible to replace the silver with relatively inexpensive carbon fibers while maintaining about the same efficiency. And the technique produces carbon monoxide about 10 times faster.

The work is still in early stages, says Amin Salehi-Khojin, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the work. Salehi-Khojin says it will be necessary to produce larger amounts of the catalysts and find a way to incorporate them into a membrane that helps keep them stable over long periods of time—development work that will require industrial partners.

Salehi-Khojin says it may be possible to incorporate the catalysts into an “artificial leaf.” Right now, if the process were to run on sunlight, it would require at least two pieces of equipment: a solar panel to generate electricity, and then a reactor to form the carbon monoxide. A leaf-inspired system would absorb energy from the sun and use it to drive the chemical reactions directly, rather than making electricity first (see “A Greener ‘Artificial Leaf,’” “Sun Catalytix Seeks Second Act with Flow Battery,” and “Artificial Photosynthesis Effort Takes Root”). This approach would make the process more economical.

Forget robotic product delivery. As usual for Google, I suspect it’s all about the data.

Google has quietly bought seven robotics companies, and has given Andy Rubin, the man who originally led the Android project, the job of developing Google’s first robot army. And so, theNew York Times suggests it might only be a few years before a Google robot driving in a Google car is delivering products to your door.

I somehow doubt Google has anything quite so futuristic in mind. I think the effort is quite similar to both Google’s self-driving car endeavor and its Android project. In other words, it’s all about gaining a dominant position in markets where data is about to explode.

Take Google’s self-driving cars. Contrary to common perception, the company didn’t “invent” this technology; most carmakers were already working on autonomous system when Google got involved, and academic researchers had made dramatic recent progress—propelled in large part by several DARPA challenges (see “Driverless Cars are Further Away than You Think”). Google just saw that this was where the automotive industry was headed, and realized that the advent of automation, telematics, and communication would mean a tsunami of data that it could both supply and profit from. Given that many of us spend several hours a day in automobiles, this data could help Google learn more about users and tailor its products accordingly.

Similarly, I suspect Google has recognized that a new generation of smarter, safer, industrial robots is rapidly emerging (see “This Robot Could Transform Manufacturing” and “Why This Might be the Model-T of Workplace Robots”), and it’s realized that these bots could have a huge impact both at work and at home. Whoever provides the software that controls and manages these robots not only stands to make a fortune by selling that software; they will have access to a vast new repository of data about how we live and work.

In this sense, I think Google is being true to its stated mission: “to organize the world’s information”—although it’s worth noting that in an increasingly connected and data-rich world that could mean seeking to organize just about every aspect of our lives. Luckily for Google, it may soon have a robot army to help it keep everything in order.

Using plastic to absorb light could lower the cost of solar power.

By Kevin Bullis

A thin sheet of dyed plastic could cut the cost of solar power, particularly for applications that require solar cells to be highly efficient and flexible.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are using the plastic to gather sunlight and concentrate it onto a solar cell made of gallium arsenide in an experimental setup. Doing so doubled the power output of the cells.

So far, the researchers have shown that the approach works with a single solar cell, but they plan to make larger sheets of plastic dotted with arrays of many tiny solar cells. The approach could either let a smaller solar panel produce more electricity, or make a panel cheaper by reducing the amount of photovoltaic material needed.

“It’s lower cost compared to what you would have to do to get the same efficiency by completely coating the surface with active solar material,” saysJohn Rogers, professor of materials science and engineering and chemistry at the University of Illinois. The work was presented at the Materials Research Society conference in Boston this week.

As light hits the plastic sheet, a specially selected dye absorbs it. The dye is luminescent—meaning that after it absorbs light, it reëmits it. But the light it emits is largely confined inside the plastic sheet. So it bounces along inside the plastic until it reaches a solar cell, much in the same way light is guided along inside a fiber optic cable. The dye absorbs only part of the solar spectrum. So to further boost power output, the researchers added a reflective material that directs some of the light that the dye doesn’t absorb to the solar cell.

The approach could be compatible with another innovation from the same group of researchers—a technique for making flexible and stretchable solar cells that can conform to irregular surfaces (see “Making Stretchable Electronics”).

Flexible solar panels could find new uses. The military, for example, is interested in laminating solar cells to soldiers’ helmets to power their electronic gear. Bendable cells could also conform to the wings and fuselage of small drones to charge on-board batteries and extend their flight times. And the technology might even be used for cases that recharge tablets and other portable electronics.

There are other ways to concentrate sunlight and direct and reduce the amount of solar cell material needed. Rogers’s group has founded a company, Semprius, that can concentrate sunlight 1,600 times, compared to just 10 times for the dyed plastic sheet (see “Ultra-Efficient Solar”). But the concentrators used to do this are bulky and require a tracking system to keep them pointed at the sun as it moves through the sky. Such systems might lead to low-cost solar power for the grid, but they’re impractical for solar helmets or tablets. In contrast, the dye-coated plastic is thin and lightweight and can absorb light coming from different angles, making tracking unnecessary.

Published December 04, 2013

FoxNews.com

USB users unite: If you can’t tell which way is up, you’re not alone.

While the USB port has taken over technology, connecting everything from printers and keyboards to smartphones and tablets, it’s not perfect. The ubiquitous cables come in a variety of shapes and sizes that don’t always work with each other, and too often users find themselves struggling to plug in in an upside-down cable.

That could all be addressed by the Type-C connector, announced Tuesday by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, a trade association that controls the USB specification. The new spec will feature an entirely new design, a smaller size, and most important, users will no longer need to be concerned with plug orientation — no more fumbling behind that PC, in other words.

The new cables are due out some time after the spec is finalized in the middle of 2014, but what they will look like still remains to be determined.

“Unfortunately, we are not yet ready to share illustrations of the proposed new connector,” Saunders told CNET.

To be clear, the next-generation cables won’t mate with any existing USB plugs. But in theory, they’ll all work with each other: Buy a new tablet and the cable it comes with will work just as well with your smartphone as it does with your printer.

The new USB Type-C connector, built initially on existing USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 technologies, is being developed to help enable thinner and sleeker product designs, enhance usability and provide a growth path for performance enhancements for future versions of USB, the group said.

“This new industry standards-based thin connector, delivering data, power and video, is the only connector one will need across all devices,” Alex Peleg, vice president of Intel’s Platform Engineering Group, said.

FRANKFURT Wed Dec 4, 2013 6:01am EST

(Reuters) – Deutsche Bank has prohibited its foreign exchange and fixed income staff from using online chatrooms, joining a growing band of lenders who have halted the use of such forums over concerns of mounting scrutiny from regulators.

Chat rooms have been a focus for regulators investigating manipulation of benchmark interest rates and possible rigging in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

“We have banned the use of multi-party chatrooms in FX (foreign exchange) trading already in the first quarter, and we have extended this ban to other parts of our fixed income business”, a Deutsche Bank spokesman said on Wednesday.

Last week, UBS issued a memo to staff banning the use of multibank and social chat rooms at its investment banking division.

Citigroup and Barclays have also clamped down on chatroom use, according to people familiar with the matter.

Citigroup and Barclays declined to comment.

Chat communications featured prominently in a five-year probe into manipulation of a key interest rate known as the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which has so far seen five financial firms pay more than $3.5 billion in penalties.

In a global probe into possible currency manipulation, regulators are scrutinizing messages between traders for alleged evidence that they worked together improperly to influence currency “fixes” – the daily snapshots of trading used by companies and portfolio managers for valuing their assets.

BRUSSELS Wed Dec 4, 2013 11:42am EST

(Reuters) – European Union antitrust regulators have approved Microsoft’s $7.3 billion acquisition of Nokia’s mobile device business without conditions, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

“The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise any competition concerns,” the European Commission said in a statement, adding that it was unlikely “to lead to competitors being shut out from the market”.

SAN FRANCISCO Wed Dec 4, 2013 4:59pm EST

(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on Wednesday that he has filed a shareholder proposal with Apple for a much smaller stock buyback plan than he has advocated previously, as he continued to pressure Apple to share more of its cash pile.

“Gave $AAPL notice we’ll be making a precatory proposal to call for vote to increase buyback program, although not at $150 billion level,” Icahn said in a tweet.

CNBC said Icahn’s plan calls for a $50 billion buyback program.

Icahn had been urging Apple to buy back $150 billion worth of shares. Icahn owns approximately 0.5 percent of Apple’s outstanding shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Icahn on Tuesday told Time magazine that he filed a shareholder proposal with Apple on November 26, three days before the deadline for measures to be voted on at the company’s next annual shareholders meeting.

Known for decades of strong-arm tactics, including proxy fights, Icahn has repeatedly made it clear that his proposal is not a sign that he is against Apple’s management.

Icahn, who has already met Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer to discuss the issue in the past months, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

“As part of our regular review process, we are once again actively seeking our shareholders’ input on our program, and as we said in October, the management team and our board are engaged in an ongoing discussion about it which is thoughtful and deliberate,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. “We will announce any changes to our current program in the first part of calendar 2014.”

Pushing for an additional $50 billion buyback is a major step back from his earlier demand that Apple return an additional $150 billion to shareholders. Apple is currently in the midst of returning $100 billion to shareholders, including a share repurchase program of $60 billion.

Icahn told Time magazine that Cook is willing to consider his views and the last conversation he had with the Apple CEO was a 20-minute phone call on November 21.

Icahn said Cook found the “conversation sort of interesting.”

“He said, ‘Look, you’ve accomplished a lot, and we want to listen to you.'”

By Matthew Rocco Published November 25, 2013

Microsoft’s (MSFT) new Xbox One video game console sold out within 24 hours of hitting store shelves, selling more than one million units to match rival Sony (SNE).

The Redmond, Wash.-based company said it’s working to replenish stock as fast as possible. The Xbox One launched on Friday to long lines outside retailers, most of which quickly ran out of the product.

Microsoft had previously disclosed that preorders of the $499 console, which launched in 13 markets worldwide, sold out.

The launch followed a successful debut a week earlier for Sony’s PlayStation 4, which also sold out and topped one million in sales.

Sony began selling the PlayStation 4 in just the U.S. and Canada. The device will be rolled out in Europe and Latin America on Nov. 29, and then in Japan on Feb. 22, 2014.

The PlayStation 4 was priced below the Xbox One at $399, although Microsoft’s console includes the company’s Kinect motion-sensing device. Using Kinect, users can control the Xbox One using voice commands and gestures.

Microsoft has also touted its console’s additional entertainment uses, such as controlling a television or streaming video programming.

Shares of Microsoft edged 24 cents higher to $37.82 early Monday morning.