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Domain: unr.edu
Stories and comments across the archive that link to unr.edu.
Stories · 6
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App Can Prevent Users From Texting While Driving
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Scientific American reports that while laws prohibit texting while driving in many states, many people still find it impossible to resist. Now researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are studying how software on a cell phone could analyze keystrokes to determine when that phone's user is distracted while composing and sending text messages and combined with GPS and other data, determine when a texter is behind the wheel and shut off texting functions automatically. Such a feature could take the form of a mobile app for any phone—independent of the manufacturer, operating system and wireless service provider. The researchers programmed a cell phone to log keystroke dynamics using a common operating system as a means of determining if an individual was texting while driving, in particular, 'keystroke entropy.' (PDF) when keys are struck at irregular intervals, as an indicator that the test subjects' attention is divided between texting and driving. 'The things that we are measuring, the data never needs to leave the person's phone,' says Mike Watkins, developer of the algorithm. 'But as a parent, you could require your child to have something like this on their cellphone as a way to protect them. Employers could use it as a way to mitigate their liability for accidents on work time. Even insurance companies could use it.'" -
Hacks Allowing Disabled Gamers To Play Guitar Hero
angrymilkman writes "Here are two interesting new approaches where researchers modified the popular Guitar Hero game so it can be played by gamers with disabilities. Air Guitar Hero modifies the Guitar Hero controller so someone without limbs can play it by using electrodes attached to the user's residual arm. Blind Hero is a mod for Frets on Fire that uses a haptic glove that can turn visual feedback into haptic feedback, allowing blind gamers to play Guitar Hero songs." There have been a variety of Guitar Hero hacks in the past, including a custom drum pad for playing the guitar part, using the plastic guitar as a real instrument, and rocking out with your bike, but it's nice to see some more serious modifications showing up. -
Internet Chess Club Security Defeated
Scott_F writes "Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have been able to defeat the security mechanisms of the Internet Chess Club and can effectively play a zero-time match, as well as have complete control over the game. The paper is titled How to Cheat at Chess: A Security Analysis of the Internet Chess Club. If you're not familiar with the ICC, it is where many Grandmasters play regularly, with rumors of Bobby Fischer making an occasional appearance. It appears that the ICC has relied on security through obscurity, but we all know how poorly that works. Chess, anyone?" Update: 09/08 21:08 GMT by J : In totally unrelated chess news, I found today's commentary on Zermelo's Theorem interesting, both for the math of the game and the look at a mistaken echo chamber. -
The Return Of The Live Human Being
Metism writes: "The voice on the other end of the phone does not tell you to 'please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed'. E-mail inquiries do not pretend as though they were never sent. More and more companies are finding out that people actually want to interact with other real people, not pseudo-intelligent machines that can't respond to simple things like 'Hi, how are you?' Did pseudo-intelligent humans forget something so obvious? Companies like LivePerson help clients from large ISPs to small libraries communicate one-on-one with people via the web. Softroad takes the concept of live help one step further by allowing anyone, anywhere access to their live Internet surfers via SMS, 2-way pager, or other mobile device. There's nothing like human ingenuity when it comes to questions more complex than 'what's my balance?' or 'what's the weather in Miami?'. But are more companies going to listen?" -
Logitech QuickCam USB Support For Linux?
LapTop006 asks:"I am creating a Webcam that can be remotely panned and tilted. The camera is a Logitech Quick Cam USB and I want to be able to run the system on Linux as it would be easiest to control the camera using CGI through Apache. If I am unable to get working USB drivers for the camera, then I will have to run the system on PWS for Win 98. So I need to know whether drivers are available for the camera, or else whether I have to go crawling back to Microsoft." You might want to check out gPhoto, which has support for over 100 digital cameras (although the Logitech hasn't made it into the list yet). Does anyone have anymore information on the Quickcam? -
Public-key Based Streamed Encryption?
Scott_F asks this thought provoking question: "Doing research on my thesis, I have come across many different encryption algorithms. The one thing I have not found is a public-key based stream encryption algorithm. Does one exist? If so, is it publicly available? If one does not exist, without going too far into the theory for the general readers' sake, is it viable? It should be from what I've found, but there may be circumstances that I've overlooked. Since it is stream encryption, there is no "look-ahead" so encryption can only be done a bit at a time. The algorithm could depend on the values of previous bits, but that would possibly leave those previous values with a weaker encryption. What would be desired would be a consistent security throughout the entire bit string. "