Living, breathing running shoes

If everything goes according to Shamees Aden's plan, you may one day never need to buy another pair of running shoes. The designer and biotech researcher unveiled her product concept, a 

collaboration with a University of Southern Denmark professor, at London's Wearable Futures conference. The shoes are 3D-printed using protocells -- molecules that are not alive but can be combined to create living organisms -- and conform to the wearer's foot like a second skin. After a run, they'd need basic care,like a houseplant, and they could also respond to pressure exerted by the wearer, inflating or deflating as needed to better cushion the foot. The technology needed to create a fully functioning prototype, however, is still about 20 years away.

The phone you can take apart like Legos.

Like playing with LEGOs, a modular smartphone is a make-it-yourself device consisting of an endoskeleton base and modules that attach to create a custom phone. Don't care about having a camera? Swap it out for a larger battery. Want to update your display without getting an entirely new phone? You could do that, too.

Motorola has been collaborating on a mission to make these devices a reality with Dave Hakkens, creator of a similar initiative called Phoneblocks, since this past fall. Project Ara would result in less electronic waste with devices that last a lot longer. Leading 3D printer manufacturer 3D Systems also recently got involved in an effort to improve the phones' blocky aesthetics.

Freshly printed pizza

Giving us even more reason to send funds its way, NASA awarded Systems & Materials Research Corporation a grant this year to develop a 3D food printer. And boy, did they deliver. 

The device combines powdered ingredients with water and oil on a heated surface to make dough, sauce and a protein-based topping. Astronauts on a mission to Mars -- where a food supply would need to last at least 15 years, according to Systems & Materials -- would be able to print their own meals. But the designers behind the printer envision something more -- a future where dishes are custom-printed to fulfill individual nutritional needs. (But we just want a slice of that pizza. Do they come in slices?)

Perpetual Printing

Printing has come a long way since the computer landed on the desktop. First, there were daisy-wheel printers, then dot-matrix printers, then inkjet and laser printers. The problem with all of these output devices, of course, is that they require paper -- lots of it -- and expensive consumables, like toner. Why can't someone invent an inkless, tonerless printer that allows the operator to reuse paper?

As it turns out, this isn't a new idea. Xerox has been working with so-called electronic paper since the 1970s. Its most promising solution is a type of paper called "Gyricon." A Gyricon sheet is a thin layer of transparent plastic containing millions of small oil-filled cavities. A two-colored bead is free to rotate inside each cavity. When a printer applies a voltage to the surface of the sheet, the beads rotate to present one colored side to the viewer, offering the ability to create text or pictures. The images will remain on the paper until it's fed through the printer once again.

A Japanese company, Sanwa Newtec, is offering its version of inkless, tonerless and rewritable printing technology. Its product is called the PrePeat rewritable printer, which, like the Xerox solution, requires plastic paper. But PrePeat uses a different technique to produce an image. Each sheet of paper comes embedded with leuco dyes, which change color with temperature -- colored when cool and clear when hot. The PrePeat printer, then, heats and cools the paper to first erase an image and then create a new image in its place. According to the company, a single sheet of paper can be reused 1,000 times before it needs to be replaced.

What's the catch? A single PrePeat printer costs almost $6,000, while a pack of 1,000 sheets of paper costs more than $3,300. If you're running a printing-intensive business, you might be able to recoup your investment over time. But the average PC user likely won't be willing to shell out that kind of money to replace a standard printer

Bat Suit

Have you ever wanted to leave the ground and soar like a bird -- or perhaps a bat? In January 2012, a Connecticut-based inventor was granted a patent for what the application describes as "a completely dynamic human powered flying suit" that is modeled after the bat's style of aviation. The inventor explains in the patent application that bats are fellow mammals and the flying creatures "most closely related to human beings."

The device consists of a pair of strap-on batlike wings with rigid and non-rigid portions that can be manipulated by the wearer once aloft. Initially getting off the ground is a bit trickier: Unlike bats, who simply do what comes naturally, the wearer of the flying suit would have to be towed, or ride on a bicycle, skis or rollerblades down an incline and then assume a leaning-forward flying posture and leap into the air at the appropriate moment

Military Mind Control

The helmet used by the U.S. military has changed dramatically over the years. In World War I, the M1917/M1917A1 helmets, also known as "Doughboy" or "dishpan" helmets, protected the heads of American infantrymen. They were replaced in 1941 by the M-1 "steelpot," the standard-issue helmet in World War II, the Korean conflict and throughout the Vietnam War. By the 1980s, U.S. military helmets had evolved into a one-piece structure composed of multiple layers of Kevlar 29 ballistic fiber.

The helmet of the near future, however, may contain something more than extra protection from flying shrapnel. An Arizona State University researcher, working under a grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is trying to develop a military helmet equipped with technology to regulate soldiers' brains. The technology is transcranial pulsed ultrasound, which delivers high-frequency sound waves to specific regions of the brain. Under the influence of these sound waves, neurons send impulses to their targets, exerting control over them. On the battlefield, this has enormous implications. Using a controller, a soldier could release ultrasound pulses to stimulate different areas of the brain. For example, he or she might want to be more alert after being awake for many hours or relax when it's time to catch some shuteye. The soldier might even be able to relieve stress or become oblivious to pain, eliminating the need for morphine and other narcotics.

Of course, some people think this type of neurotechnology is pure science fiction. Others worry that Uncle Sam is trying to take over the minds of its soldiers. After all, it's one thing to have a drill sergeant yelling in your ear. It's another thing completely to have one inside your head

Pencil Pusher

U.S. businesses use about 21 million tons (19 million metric tons) of paper every year -- 175 pounds of paper for each American, according to the Clean Air Council. This has led to office recycling programs, "please think before you print" e-mail signatures and printers that offer double-sided printing. Now a trio of Chinese inventors hopes to add another device to the cubicle environment: the P&P Office Waste Paper Processor, which turns paper destined for recycling into pencils. The machine, looking a bit like a three-hole punch crossed with an electric pencil sharpener, was a finalist in the 2010 Lite-On Awards, an international competition that seeks to stimulate and nurture innovation.

Here's how the pencil-making gadget works: You insert wastepaper into a feed slot. The machine draws the paper in, rolls and compresses it, and then inserts a piece of lead from a storage chamber located in the top of the device. A small amount of glue is added before -- voilà -- a pencil slides out from a hole on the side. It's not clear how many pieces of paper form a single pencil, but you figure the average office worker could generate a decent supply of pencils in a month.

And that seems to be the biggest drawback to the pencil-producing gadget. How many No. 2 pencils can an office really use, given that most workers take notes on their tablet PCs or laptops? And how much glue and lead core do you need to buy to keep up with the overflowing paper recycle bin? Too much, we would suspect, which is why you may never see this gadget in your office supplies catalog

6 Ways to Get a Stronger Wi-Fi Signal at Home

One or two bars on your laptop's Wi-Fi signal strength indicator is just one of the signs that you've got a weak signal. Movies take forever to load. Webpage loading stalls. Or maybe you've seen the dreaded message: You are no longer connected to the Internet.

You may be able to improve your Wi-Fi signal at home by making a few simple changes.

Reposition the router

Is your wireless router in the basement or tucked unobtrusively into a corner? You may be losing as much as half the signal. Most routers are omnidirectional, sending signals is a circular pattern like the ripples from a rock dropped in the center of a pond.

For best performance, position your wireless router in a central location away from exterior walls and off the floor. If you live in a multistory house, place the router on the main or middle floor.

Metal objects and water also will block the signal. Position routers at least two feet from things like metal filing cabinets, appliances and fish tanks.

Change the channel

Interference from other household electronics and your neighbor's Wi-Fi network can reduce your router's signal. Wi-Fi routers transmit signals on one of three channels: 1, 6 and 11 in the U.S. The default for most routers is set to 6 by the factory, but you can change it to a less-trafficked channel.

Find your router's configuration page address on the manufacturer's website. Open settings and choose a new channel. Wait a few minutes to determine if your signal has improved.

Trial and error is the only way to find out which channel is least congested.  The best channel will vary from house to house, depending on which channels other wireless devices in your area are using.

Moving the router to a central position may not be feasible because the router must be connected to your cable box or other Internet modem.

Replace the antenna

If this is the case, you may be able to upgrade the router's antenna to a so-called high gain antenna, which could double your router's signal.

Check to see if your router's antenna is removable. Alternately, your router may have a jack available for an additional antenna. Verify that the new antenna will fit your router.

Replacement antennas begin at around $20.

DIY 25¢ option

With a 12-inch square of aluminum foil, some glue and a piece of cardboard, you can make your own device to rival a new high gain antenna. The flexible parabolic shape can be adjusted to direct most of the router's signal out into the room rather than losing it to the outside.

The Ez-12 Parabollic Reflector template is available as a free download from freeantennas.com. Watch the video first. The project can be done in under 30 minutes and has been shown to more than double signal strength.

Upgrade your computer's network adapter

If you're using an older computer that does not have built-in wireless capability and you are using a card-style network adapter, it may be time for an upgrade. Your router may be sending a strong signal, but if your computer's adapter is weak, you'll have a weak signal.

Older adapters send and receive signals based on older Wi-Fi standards denoted as 802.11 a/b/g. Today's faster standard is called "n" and offers data signal speeds up to 600 megabits per second compared with 54 Mbps for 802.11a/b and 11 Mbps for 802.11b.

Look for an 802.11n USB network adapter with an external antenna. It will be backwards compatible with computers built on earlier standards.  Expect to pay between $10 and $20. It may be wise to buy an adapter made by the manufacturer of your router to eliminate possible compatibility problems.

Add a wireless repeater

Signals weaken the farther they travel from the router. If your house is large, a wireless repeater or booster can be used at the halfway point between the router and the points where family members are using their devices.

A Wi-Fi repeater can double the coverage area of your existing Wifi network. It is a stand-alone unit that is not physically connected to the network.

Once again, it's probably best to buy a repeater made by the same manufacturer as your .

Researchers See Through Walls With 'Wi-Vi'

Want X­ray vision like the man of steel? A technology that lets you see behind walls could soon be built in to your cell phone.

MIT professor Dina Katabi and graduate student Fadel Adib have announced Wi­Vi, a demonstration of a technology that uses Wi­Fi to allow a viewer to "see" a person moving behind a wall. (Wi­Vi stands for "Wi­Fi" and "vision.")

Previous work demonstrated that the subtle reflections of wireless inter signals bouncing off a human could be used to track that person's movements, but those previous experiments either required that awireless router was already in the room of the person being tracked, or "a whole truck just to carry the radio," said Katabi.

The new device uses the same wireless antenna as is found in a cell phone or laptop and could in theory one day be embedded in a phone. [See also "WiSee Detects Your Gestures Using WiFi."]

The trick is canceling out all interfering signals – Wi-Fi doesn't just bounce off humans, but also walls, floors, and furniture. And those signals are 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than the reflections off a human body.

Katabi's wi­vi sends out two wireless signals, one of which is the inverse of the other. In what Katabi calls "interference nulling," the two signals cancel each other out unless they hit a moving target – such as a human.

"To silence the noise, we change the structure of the Wi-Fi signal so all the undesired 

reflections cancel," she said.

The device is meant to be portable so, for example, a person worried that someone was hiding in the bushes could do a quick scan for her personal safety.

Wi­Vi could also serve as a high tech baby monitor or help Superman – or just cops – catch baddies.

Smart bulb helps you sleep and wake on schedule

Waking up is hard to do. But a new kind of LED light bulb could help to ease those pesky transitions between night and day by coaxing cooperation out of your melatonin levels.

Melatonin is the hormone in charge of making you feel sleepy, and your levels go up and down on a 24-hour cycle each day. When you wake up bright-eyed and bushy tailed, your melatonin levels tend to be low. But as the day gets longer and the sun starts to go down, the hormone production will ramp up again.

LED to the Rescue

The problem is, if you’re a grad student, or you work the night shift, or your bed happens to be on the International Space Station (where the sun rises every 90 minutes), you don’t have the luxury of going to bed when the sun goes down. Luckily, a company called Lighting Science has an app for that.

Lighting Solutions’ good night bulb is shaped like a regular incandescent bulb, but is much smarter.Image: Lighting Solutions. 

Their smart bulb, called Rhythm Downlight, works like this, according to Popular Science: You program your desired sleep schedule in the app, which syncs up with the specially designed digital LED light bulb. When it’s time to ramp up for your next shift, the bulb will emit more light in the blue spectrum, which shuts down melatonin production, helping you to feel awake. But when it’s time to crash, the blue light is no more, allowing melatonin levels to switch on and you to drift off.

At this point the company produces a pro-wake bulb and a pro-sleep version. The Rhythm Downlight version, which aims to alternate between the two, is due for release this summer.

Space Tech at Home

The technology is similar to lighting planned for the ISS, where sleeping problems are rampant. Most astronauts take sleeping pills but still can’t sleep through the night. Lighting Solutions’ research director used to work at NASA, according to Mashable, where he helped develop prototype LED lightstested on the ISS back in 2008.

The new LEDs could be installed on the ISS by 2015—meaning that this summer could be your rare opportunity to get the space-age technology before even the astronauts do.

5 facts for data security and cybercrime

1. Fragmentation of the internet: 2014 is likely to become the year when colors of the internet will become fully bloomed. The governments will be running new networks to protect their communications and national infrastructure from any sort of foreign attack. This will increase the security and reliability of cyber-infrastructure and global internet projects and businesses.

2. Smarter and more evolved malware: As the technology will be more portable and powerful and also growth in mobile malware. As the cybercrime market continues to polarize, the ransomware will also constantly gain growth.

3. The impact of the internet of things: The ongoing developments in the "internet of things" will continue to impact cyber security in 2014. As the attackers now have more possible entry routes to the sensitive governmental, corporate and personal data than ever before.

4. Major organizational changes: IT security breaches will continue to increase and the organizations will consistently face growing rates of sophisticated, persistent threats to their corporate data.

5. Trust: Trust will be increasingly essential if the businesses are to take advantage of new opportunities to collect and make use of data to create more targets. The dual-screening, wearable technologies and smart devices are likely to give rise to new privacy challenges for consumers, businesses and regulators.

Top 10 threats to data security and privacy for business

1. Data Breach Resulting From Poor Networking Choices- These are enterprise-level networking choices that are usually found in IT department. Some may skip the use of routers at all, plugging straight to the Internet.

2. Data Breach Resulting From Improper Shredding Practices- Dumpster diving identifies thieves aim at businesses that throw out paperwork without destroying it. A commercial shredder is a sensible investment if private information is printed and shredded daily.

3. Identity Theft Resulting From Public Databases- Business owners, often publish lots of personal details in public databases. Businesses are registered with the county clerk, telephone numbers are registered in the phone book, many provide Facebook profiles with their address and date of birth. Any thief can use information searchable publicly to raise a complete identity.

4. Identity Theft Resulting from Using a Personal Name Instead of Filing a DBA- Sole-proprietors that do not take the time to file a Doing Business. Such applications are at a far higher risk of identity theft due to their personal name, rather than their business names, being published publicly.

5. Tax Records Theft Around Tax Time- Businesses must make sure that the tax returns are dropped off at the post office and refunds are collected from the mailbox. Thieves often steal tax returns from an outbox or mailbox.

6. Bank Fraud Due To Gap in Protection or Monitoring- Business owners know that it is very important to balance their accounts every month to ensure that checks are not being written out of business funds. Monitoring services can alert business owners when any false credit accounts are opened.

7. Poor E-mailing Standards- Many businesses treat e-mails as confidential communications, but these e-mails are received by number receivers apart from the recipients. It is more appropriate to treat e-mails as postcards.

8. Failing to Choose a Secure Password- Security experts are recommending the use of a pass-phrase, rather than a password. Pass phrases is a sentence containing about three words which is more secure than passwords. A pass phrase like "Friday blue moon" can be typed far quicker than a difficult password.

9. Not Securing New Computers or Hard Drives- Businesses that had their IT system professionally installed may opt to upgrade a computer by themselves. Computers must be efficiently secured or else they pose a serious threat and an entry point for cybercriminals.

10. Social Engineering- If someone you do not know calls on the phone, be sure that it is the person you think it is before enlightening passwords or confidential information.