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NIST Advanced Technology Program Awards
An anonymous submitter writes "Look, some research money awarded to all the recent slashdot topics! Printable LCD displays and circuits, high accuracy biometric algorithms, holographic data storage, an overclockers dream, and the DMCA fights back. See all the projects listed for NIST's FY2002 funding."
atleast something good is coming out of all these websites getting slashdotted ;)
Does anyone have links to the specific articles here on /.?
(Posting Anonymously purely incase someone thinks this is a troll post, it honestly isn't)
The revenue from replacing slagged hard drives pays for advances in technology so that we can all buy bigger hard drives.
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Another great use of money provided by the taxpayers....
Slashdot is widly seen around the web as a realable source for information. The fact that several stories on this site have been picked up by other news media outlets and have qualified for grants isnt amazing, its pretty obvious when you concider the amount of people that read this sites stories. Just some thoughts. -Geek
Content Specific Camcorder Jamming for Digital Projectors
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Cinea plans a two-year project to develop and test prototype technology for distorting unauthorized recordings of digital movies without affecting human visual perception of the original version. Based on a previous feasibility study, the company will modify the timing and modulation of the light used to create the displayed image such that frame-based capture by recording devices is distorted.
Next year they will probably give a grant to the camera manufacturers to develop technology that will defeat this. Really... where does the NIST get off on taking sides in a political issue like this. Let the movie companies worry about copy protection, and don't spend my tax money on it.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Some of these might have actually got a pull from /. in getting the award. How about pulling one of these open source challenges as well? There seems to be a lot of interest for a Linux API for the Synaptic cPad for example - still it missing.
People trying to start companies, get promotions, or earn PhD's have to get inovative ideas somewhere .... and since they all read /., you figure that a couple good ideas might come from here ....
/. !!!!!
Lets face it, some people might be very mechanically inclided, but many of those people lack imagination.
Way to contribute to the advancement of man kind
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Why would somebody need almost half a million dollars to develop a set of specifications and a system for encrypting individual database records? Can somebody clarify this? This makes no sense whatsoever to me. Sounds very simple.
It sounds like a good idea to fund technology that will improve our lives, but when the government uses public money to fund research that will eventually lead to large private profits by paying for the financial risk of researching the technology, it is corporate welfare.
You may like the technology, but corporate welfare is a huge drain on the treasury that only makes the rich richer, borders on socialism, and forces the taxpayer to take the fall for technology that won't work for private businesses.
More information on corporate welfare can be found here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-9.html
http://www.citizen.org/congress/welfare/index.cfm
we have all the duplicate posts. Better marketing. I get it now.
/. editors
Something like...
1. Duplicate postings by
2. Get awards
3. ???
4. Profit!
If a and b in c, and a can create b, and a can create a, and b can create b, and b cannot create a, then a created c.
This proposal simply intends to introduce novel new methods by which content providers can their copyrights. They plan to "modify the timing and modulation of the light used to create the displayed image such that frame-based capture by recording devices is distorted," and that certainly doesn't entail the enactment of Draconian legislation like the DMCA.
Therefore, what in the blue hell does this have to do with the DMCA (at least at this point)? If anything, this will give scientists the opportunity to attempt to overcome a new set of technologies. This is the type of thing they should be doing. It's better than having them take the litigious route, trying to force the government to protect their business model, and as this merely deals with video recording of projected films, it's hardly objectionable.
From the NIST website: The ATP views R&D projects from a broader perspective - its bottom line is how the project can benefit the nation. In sharing the relatively high development risks of technologies that potentially make feasible a broad range of new commercial opportunities, the ATP fosters projects with a high payoff for the nation as a whole - in addition to a direct return to the innovators.
So how exactly does this use of our tax dollars have a "high payoff for the nation as a whole? "
You are 100% Right, They should not have taken a Side in this little Battle btw MPAA and the World. And if they did have to take a side I say it appears they have taken the wrong side. On top of that, this is some wasted money here, The people that do this priacy are always adjusting to the MPAA's lame attemps to stop them. So i gues that brings me back to the point that the origional Poster on this thread is right. Rock on dude. -Geek
With placement of articles on the homepage of Slashdot resulting in investment in projects, its no small wonder that companies want to buy a "story" for the homepage.
I say that Slashdot should let them, as long as the product is good. I mean we get Slashdot without paying, they get product exposure, and a reader or a hundred might find a product that is useful to them.
However like many forms of advertising, some companies may pay to put crap on Slashdot, and others might abuse the exposure and make false claims to gain a quick profit. Despite this, if the admin of Slashdot is careful everything should work out great.
Medevo
When the news breaks that they have sucessfully done this everyone should start claiming Throbing migranes induced by the Movie. If enough people did this and could convince enough people it happens then the whole technology would be labled as a bust. Who would have the last laugh then? -Geek
Looking for something to do? The DoD and the NSF have their SBIR topics out; you can get more information here. There's always some interesting software development (and not just a few LAN/WAN) topics to check out.
The easiest way to stop someone taping a movie with their camcorder is to use an infra-red lightsource. Camcorders pick up IR - just try pointing your TV zapper at the lens and recording it!
Perhaps you could place LEDs in the projection screen in the pattern - "Don't Copy Movies" or some other message....
-- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
of the company that's getting money from the government to protect movies...
"Cinea, Inc. is the premier provider of security services for the Digital Cinema industry and other high-value entertainment content.
Founded by the same world class engineering team behind the highly regarded Divx(TM) encrypted DVD system, the Cinea security services are the only digital cinema security solutions developed from the ground up to meet the needs of studios and exhibitors."
Also, from the project website:
For project information:
Laurence Roth, (571) 323-0070, x1
lroth@cinea.com
ATP Project Manager
Victoria Franques, (301) 975-8630
victoria.franques@nist.gov
Perhaps these people deserve a call and some email?
Most of this tech helps out the end user. Holo Storage would be nice, eh?
Hmm. But then they're giving handouts to hurt the customer and help the RIAA/MPAA. I'm so glad. I was so hoping my tax dollars would go to researching a way to make my life more difficult.
Welcome to Corporate America. Gub'ment pwn3d since 1998.
(Note the difference between 'owned' and 'pwn3d'.)
Divx.
(Nelson) Ha ha!
Highly regarded. Paul H. Muad'dib. Next thing you know, Gator will be a highly regarded password management system. *snort*
I'm shaking because of my air conditioner, not in fear for my rights.
" an overclockers dream"
...nooo... nooo... too hot ...
--mumble--
--toss--
--turn--
--snore--
Best Windows Freeware
Firstus postus, beeotchii!
Bow down and worship my polychromatic resplendence!!!
pleeeease?!!!!
I guess they couldn't get any private investment after they blew $200 million on DIVX...
Who needs mod points?
I've been hearing about this every 3 to 5 years since 1985 when they were considering using it as storage modules for visual recogonition. I imagine it will be another 20 years before a marketable product will be released, if ever.
On the lighter side of things: If you break an optical storage cell in half, and stick it back in your computer, you will have all of your data, but it will be fuzzy.
While I am normally strongly opposed to the various forms of corporate welfare, e.g., subsidies, protectionist policies, etc., the ATP is one government program that I strongly support.
Firstly, unlike those other programs, aka government welfare, these funds are used to pay for the basic research that will lead to economic production, rather than inefficiency.
Secondly, this program is primarily about defraying RISK, not the COST per se (as would be the case if they were subsidizing production or what have you). What you fail to realize is that many projects are not viable for but a handful of the largest corporations because the level of risk is so high that they cannot afford to even do the research. Who wants to invest in a company, where before they can do anything or make any money, they need to invest 5m (purely for research) for, say, 5 years, with only a 10% probability of success? Would you? Very few investors are willing to incur this kind of risk, even when the potential payout is multiplies higher whatever the initial investment is. Btw, the venture capital community is generally NOT willign to for a number of reasons. There is a reason why the only successful drug producers are
Thirdly, the NIST prevents companies from engaging in total crapshots on the governmentsdollar by requiring the company to pay for 50% (and in the case of larger companies 60%) of the research.
Fourthly, there are many additional costs that the companies must pay for to commercialize the technology.
Fifthly, working for a company that received a grant from the NIST last year, I can tell you that most of awards are NOT to large companies, so the rich getting richer complaint does not hold water.
Sixthly, the successful investments will yield additional tax receipts that far exceed the grant amounts, especially when secondary beneficiaries are taken into consideration.
Seventhly, this is a meritocracy. Although it's not perfect, they select the best of the best, at least in theory. The researchers that hope to essentially live off of perpetual research do not get funded. You really have to convince them that it can and will be commercialized.
Eightly, the companies sole opportunity to really benefit comes from making it into a commercial success, i.e., they're not allowed to pocket the money.
Anyways-I support it and that's enough for now, I'm going home.
NIST does the research, and most of the time ends up selling the technology to corporations. This money they're awarding is mostly to start the research, with the idea that the money will be made back once the research can be put into a product. That way the country benefits by having better tech, and NIST doesn't completely drain taxpayer's wallets.
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
Someone at nist may want to check up on giving money to making flexible organic display devices. The people who are supposed to develop the materials at Lucent were recently highlighted in another story... for falsifying and fabricating results (About the worst thing a scientist can do professionally). Yes, that's Hendrick Schon and Zenan Bao we are talking about. I'm not saying I don't want this stuff to work, but so far you can't make an organic LED that isn't subject to change in its electronic properties from ambient gases or vapors. (H20 for instance). So watch those screen colors change with humidity... or bad breath. Or passing gas (ew!) Not good.
...just flood the theatres with high intensity infra-red lights. They're invisible to the eye, but camcorders pick them up like daylight. All the camcorders will record is a big white mess. And the soundtrack. Why do they need to throw gobs of money at this problem? fpp
Why does everything seem to loop back to the DMCA now?
What's this Submit thingy do?
I'd rather not have my money spent on this, thank you. It's not that it's wasted pork - it's development that actively reduces my civil liberties.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Already been done
60 hz 70 hz 85 hz - oh, lets use 67.4 hz.
Sync stabilizers will have to be removed...and the blanking pulses
Even macrovision purple splot colorburst corruption is older than 17 years. What if you OR 3 projectors at the same screen, or video captue card? As BS says - opps done it again.
I would rather spend 10 hours reading someone else's source code than
10 minutes listening to Musak waiting for technical support which isn't.
-- Dr. Greg Wettstein, Roger Maris Cancer Center
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