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NIST Advanced Technology Program Awards

Posted by michael on from the buck-stops-here dept.

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."

8 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Doesnt Suprise me by L33t-Geek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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

  2. That's a lot of nuts! by GigsVT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:That's a lot of nuts! by Cervantes · · Score: 5, Insightful
      They spend your tax money on putting 80-year old medical marijuana growers in jail, forcing everyone to digital tv and cable whether they like it or not, and flying the president and his 80-person entourage all around the country so he can attent fundraisers for his party... why should this be any different?

      Oh, and lets not forget using your tax dollars to build a fake company to entrap two russian hackers ... add on administrative costs, the plane tickets to fly them over here, cost of the trial, cost of keeping them in jail...

      Don't like it? Write your congressman, write your senator, heck, even write your president (or, if Gore isn't available, settle for Bush ((OH, the karma's gonna pay for that one!)) ). Remember, if you have enough time to post on slashdot, then you have enough time to email your government. There is a page somewhere that gives easy access to email links for everyone, but being at work, I don't have it handy. I'm sure it'll pop up shortly.

      --
      If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
    2. Re:That's a lot of nuts! by Cervantes · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I appreciate your viewpoint, and you are correct in that complaining about this particular issue would likely net "0" response. I was, however, referring more to the origional posters comment about "My tax dollars shouldn't go to support this". When it comes to a more basic point like that, then I would fully encourage people to email their congressperson... it may not be quite as effective as a snail-mail or a phone call, but it's a start.

      And I, for one, don't buy the "writing wouldn't do any good" argument, either. I forget how the saying goes in it's entirety, but it starts with something like "With a single step, a journey is forged". Your letter may be ignored... but if 50 people from your area also send a letter about this, maybe that won't. It takes less than you'd think to get noticed.

      Of course, my view on government is skewed, given that I'm Canadian, and as everyone knows, we're ruled over by omnipotent polar-bears and their inuit headhunting henchmen, who will lock us into our igloos with no supper if we ever reveal their presence....

      Awww, CRAP!

      --
      If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
  3. DMCA Fights Back? by Osiris+Ani · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Hardly.

    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.

  4. the benefits of retarding camcorders? by Lurking+Grue · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If the motion picture industry estimates that they "lose" $3 billion each year to "piracy" why don't they cough up the $2 million investment into this technology? It could pay for itself very quickly. (If their numbers are anywhere near accurate, that is.)

    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? "

  5. Re:This is corporate welfare by aero6dof · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It really depends on how you look at it. I'm sure you can find abuses, but there are also major benefits to this type of funding.

    For many projects, the technology developed is at a risk-level that most private companies wouldn't touch otherwise. In many cases, because of the funding source, the gov't also retains a right to use it for themselves. This is arguably the best way for the government to spin off discoveries from basic research in public labs to private companies. The discoveries pay off for the government. Society receives the benefits of the discoveries, and in the long term the IP becomes public. It's not perfect, but I don't think the practice should be abolished.

    Another side benefit is that the technology funding results in a product or range of products needed by the government becoming available at a cheaper cost. The commercial companies produce the project more efficiently than the goverment could produce a good for itself (or hire a company to produce it for gov't use).

  6. Don't they ever learn? by JohnA · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The team that is using $2,000,000 of your taxpayer dollars to "further digital rights management infastructure" has a deep rooted history in another lovely product... Circuit City's DIVX (not to be confused with the MPEG-4 codec). Take a look at their homepage or their executive bios page for more details.

    I guess they couldn't get any private investment after they blew $200 million on DIVX...