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Hacked hearing aids produce stellar ambient tunes from WiFi signals

What if we could hear the numerous invisible data frequencies that swirl around us every day? That’s exactly what a project from hearing-impaired writer Frank Swain and artist Daniel Jones aims to do. Phantom Terrains is the proper name of the effort, and by hacking Swain’s Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids , the duo has transformed WiFi signals into ambient sounds . So instead of seeing the device as a prosthetic, it’s used as a sort of super power. The modification allows him to stroll around and listen to the range of tones electromagnetic signals provide — like the pattern of a network’s security parameters. And of course, no one else nearby can pick them up. “The project challenges the notion of assistive hearing technology as a prosthetic, re-imagining it as an enhancement that can surpass the ability of normal human hearing, ” the pair’s website explains. “By using an audio interface to communicate data feeds rather than a visual one, Phantom Terrains explores hearing as a platform for augmented reality that can immerse us in continuous, dynamic streams of data.” With plenty of invisible signals floating around, there’s no end to the amount of data that’s ripe for this sort of transformation. And thanks to designer Stefanie Posavec, detailed maps of signal data along the way make for quite the interesting visual compliment. Filed under: Misc , Alt Comments Via: Wired Source: Phantom Terrains

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Hacked hearing aids produce stellar ambient tunes from WiFi signals

How High-Tech Temporary Tattoos Will Hack Your Skin

Molly McHugh writes with this story about sensors that can be attached to temporary tattoos to monitor various medical information. “The Center for Wearable Sensors at the University of California San Diego has been experimenting with attaching sensors to temporary tattoos in order to extract data from the body. The tattoos are worn exactly as a regular temporary tattoo would be worn. The sensors simply sit atop the skin without penetrating it and interact with Bluetooth or other wireless devices with a signal in order to send the data….A biofuel battery applied as a temporary tattoo converts sweat into energy, and a startup within the center has developed a strip that extracts data from sweat to explain how your body is reacting to certain types of exercise. Amay Bandodkar, a fourth year PhD student at UCSD, explains that the sensors are programmed to react to the amount of lactate the body produces.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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How High-Tech Temporary Tattoos Will Hack Your Skin

New tech uses ultrasound to create haptics you can ‘see’ and touch

We’ve seen haptic feedback in mid-air before , but not quite like this. The folks from Bristol University are using focused ultrasound in a way that creates a 3D shape out of air that you can see and feel. We know what you’re probably thinking: How do you see something made of air? By directing the apparatus generating it at oil. As you do. According to the school, the tech could see use in letting surgeons feel a tumor while exploring a CT scan. Or, on the consumer side of things, to create virtual knobs you could turn to adjust your car’s infotainment system without taking your eyes off the road. The tech can also apparently be added to 3D displays to make something that’s both visible and touchable. If you’re curious about what it looks like in action, we’ve embedded a video just below. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Source: University of Bristol

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New tech uses ultrasound to create haptics you can ‘see’ and touch

Windows 10 Adds Battery Saver Feature

jones_supa writes In past builds of Windows 10 Technical Preview there has been an interesting feature called Battery Saver, but for the time being it has been just a mockup. In a leaked build 9888, the code is now in place. Battery Saver, as the name implies, will help your mobile device make the most out of your battery. This feature works by limiting the background activity on your device when the mode is activated. You can turn the feature on any time but there is also a setting to have it automatically turn on when the battery capacity goes below a user-defined percentage. Considering that this build was not supposed to make its way out of Redmond and that the company is not releasing any new builds this year, this may be the best look we get until the Consumer Preview arrives. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Windows 10 Adds Battery Saver Feature

Sony Kept Thousands of Passwords in a Folder Named "Password"

It’s been a rough week for Sony execs ( million-dollar salaries notwithstanding ). And things are only going to get worse . Which would almost be enough to make you feel bad for the poor schmucks in IT—that is, until you realize that they hid their most sensitive password data under the label “Passwords.” Go ahead and slam your head against something hard. We’ll wait. Read more…

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Sony Kept Thousands of Passwords in a Folder Named "Password"

AT&T still throttles “unlimited data”—even when network not congested

A while back, we reported that AT&T had stopped throttling unlimited data users except in cases when the network is congested. We were wrong. AT&T did change its policy to stop the automatic throttling of many unlimited data plans, but the company’s older, more draconian throttling policy still applies to customers with unlimited LTE data. AT&T told Ars the policy will be changed for all customers sometime in 2015, but it did not say whether that will happen closer to the beginning of the year or the end of the year. Here’s how it works: Customers who have 3G or non-LTE 4G phones and “ legacy unlimited data plans ” are throttled for the remainder of the billing period after they exceed 3GB of data in a month, but only “at times and in areas that are experiencing network congestion.” 4G and LTE are practically synonymous these days, but AT&T also applies the 4G label to its HSPA network technology. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AT&T still throttles “unlimited data”—even when network not congested

Consumer-Grade SSDs Survive Two Petabytes of Writes

crookedvulture writes The SSD Endurance Experiment previously covered on Slashdot has reached another big milestone: two freaking petabytes of writes. That’s an astounding total for consumer-grade drives rated to survive no more than a few hundred terabytes. Only two of the initial six subjects made it to 2PB. The Kingston HyperX 3K, Intel 335 Series, and Samsung 840 Series expired on the road to 1PB, while the Corsair Neutron GTX faltered at 1.2PB. The Samsung 840 Pro continues despite logging thousands of reallocated sectors. It has remained completely error-free throughout the experiment, unlike a second HyperX, which has suffered a couple of uncorrectable errors. The second HyperX is mostly intact otherwise, though its built-in compression tech has reduced the 2PB of host writes to just 1.4PB of flash writes. Even accounting for compression, the flash in the second HyperX has proven to be far more robust than in the first. That difference highlights the impact normal manufacturing variances can have on flash wear. It also illustrates why the experiment’s sample size is too small to draw definitive conclusions about the durability of specific models. However, the fact that all the drives far exceeded their endurance specifications bodes well for the endurance of consumer-grade SSDs in general. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Consumer-Grade SSDs Survive Two Petabytes of Writes

Play ‘Breakout’ on your Nintendo 3DS by drumming the Mario theme

Ready to use the browser in your new Nintendo 3DS more than you likely ever have so far? As spotted by the Verge , Japanese user Guiro@Sumaburu found an Easter egg that lets you play a gloriously silly version of Breakout . All you need to do is open the browser, tap on it to the rhythm of the Mario theme song (yep), and then click on your favorite site of choice. That’ll let you smash its link into smithereens in a way that Breakout inventor Steve Wozniak likely never imagined back in 1975 . Filed under: Gaming Comments Via: The Verge Source: Guiro@Sumaburu (Vine)

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Play ‘Breakout’ on your Nintendo 3DS by drumming the Mario theme

IoT Is the Third Big Technology ‘Wave’ In the Last 50 Years, Says Harvard

dcblogs writes: The Internet of Things (IoT) may be more significant in reshaping the competitive landscape than the arrival of the Internet. Its productivity potential is so powerful it will deliver a new era of prosperity. That’s the argument put forth by Michael Porter, an economist at the Harvard Business School and James Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC, in a recent Harvard Business Review essay. PTC is a product design software firm that recently acquired machine-to-machine firm Axeda Corp. In the past 50 years, IT has delivered two major transformations or “waves, ” as the authors describe it. The first came in the 1960s and 1970s, with IT-enabled process automation, computer-aided design and manufacturing resource planning. The second was the Internet and everything it delivered. The third is IoT. That’s a strikingly sweeping claim and there will no doubt be contrarians to Porter and Heppelmann’s view. But what analysts are clear about is that IoT development today is at an early stage, perhaps at a point similar to 1995, the same year Amazon and eBay went online, followed by Netflix in 1997 and Google in 1998. People understood the trend at the time, but the big picture was still out of focus. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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IoT Is the Third Big Technology ‘Wave’ In the Last 50 Years, Says Harvard