Slashdot is running a story today sourced from Live Science on the patent application of an Iris Scanning technology that could see large scale deployment in the future for advertising and tracking purposes. For anyone who has seen The Minority Report, this will be a familiar scenario.

From the patent application:

“…a system for obtaining iris biometric information includes an array of cameras defining an image capture volume for capturing an image of an iris; and an image processor, coupled to the array of cameras, for determining at least one suitable iris image for processing from the images generated for the image capture volume … A subject within the capture volume is repeatedly imaged to produce a plurality of images of the subject. The plurality of images are processed to extract at least one clear image of the subject’s iris.”

The usual, and agreeable, Slashdot sceptism can be found on the articles comments page

Robbed from slashdot, philba writes informing us that home theaters may become the new jurisdiction of our MPAA overlords. The MPAA is lobbying to make sure that home users authorize their entertainment systems before any in-home viewings.

From the article: “The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29″ with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.”

Original Post : Slashdot - MPAA Goes After Home Entertainment Systems

T-Mobile is to bring the Sidekick 3 consumer-oriented mobile email gadget to the UK next month, the carrier confirmed today. The device will ship here just over a year after T-Mobile UK released the Sidekick II and six months after the third-generation Sidekick’s US debut.

The Sidekick 3 sports the same spin-open screen as its predecessor. The spring-loaded 240 x 160 65,536-colour display opens up to reveal an email, texting and IM friendly QWERTY keyboard. Navigation is enhanced with the inclusion of a new trackball control in place of the previous model’s dial. It’s a a tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device, and it’s got Bluetooth 1.2 on board too.

The new model incorporates 64MB of Flash ROM and 64MB of RAM, and T-Mobile’s bundling the handset with a 64MB MiniSD card for extra storage - handy for the Sidekick 3’s 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, and its new MP3 player app.

The device is backed by a web-based service that not only provides access to your email and other data but also ensures the hardware is fully backed up in case its gets damaged, lost or the battery simply runs dry.

T-Mobile will offer the Sidekick 3 with a range of its Web’n'Walk mobile data tariffs. Pricing will depend on the airtime package selected.

More Information : www.sidekick.com

Original Post : The Register - T-Mobile UK to ship Sidekick 3 in December

Police patrolmen in the Haringey area of London have recently been issued with a new camera system that will enable them to record their surroundings at a full 360 degrees simultaneously.

The new device comprises of 8 small cameras, each about the size of a single AA battery, and can be activated at the flick of a switch.

Detective superintendent Richard Wood said: “Should anyone commit any offences the officers will instantly have the evidence to hand to help them apply for an ASBO or pursue criminal charges. If the cameras prove successful they will be deployed to other units within Haringey and could be used to assist police raids and officers working at football matches.”

Needless to say, at £1,800 a pop, the new units will be an expensive addition to Big Brothers arsenal, and no doubt subjected to the odd misplaced pint glass or two.

At age 17, most of us are out binge drinking and having copious amounts of sex, whilst the rest of us are earning our ASBO’s. So it might come as a shock to you to discover that a teenager from Michigan, USA, has spent his procreation time forming a fusion reactor in his parents cellar.

Thiago Olson, of Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, MI, managed to create his nuclear fusion reactor by pumping 40,000 volts of electricity into a vacuum that had been filled with deuterium gas. The effect, he describes, is “a small intense ball of energy”.

www.fusor.net rates Thiago as the 18th top amateur in the world to create nuclear fusion.

Back in September, we reported on the news that Intel had created an 80 Core processor. Something that they took great pleasure in showing off at this years IDF Conference. Well now the Japanese have gone one better with the all new Grape DR chip, running with no less than 512 Cores - providing 512billion floating point calculations per second.

The Grape DR is actually a co-processor, designed to run on a PCI Extended (PCI-X) board, and provides additional processing for the main systems processor. Each Core engineered to handle a single mathematical instruction.

The chip measures a substantial 17×17mm, holding 300m transistors and is said to consume up to 60watts of power.

Designers of the Grape DR, the University of Tokyo, have been working on the 512 core processor for the last 2 years. By 2008 they aim to have a chip capable of two(2) quadrillion floating-point operations per second. (2Pflops).

More information: The University of Tokyo - The Grape DR Project [en]

Now, this isnt exactly “news” on the basis that its not “new” information, however I have been reading about an Airborne Holographic Projector. The holographic projector displays a three-dimensional visual image in a desired location, removed from the display
generator. The projector can be used for psychological operations and strategic perception management. It is also useful for optical deception and cloaking, providing a momentary distraction when engaging an unsophisticated adversary.

There is a pretty good video of the Total Immersion - D’Fusion (DEMO 2004), something thats not a million miles away from the above.

The reason why i am woffling on about this is that i read an “imaginative scenario” that was proposed by the US Air Force (USAF) in 1991 during the Gulf War wherby a huge shimmering face materialises in the sky causing soldiers and citizens to prostrate themselves as each hears the voice of Allah, commanding them to overthrow the evil and treacherous Saddam Hussein.

Cutting to the chase, if you see a face in the sky telling you to do something, think before you do

The Irish government has begun issuing RFID passports with biometric data that can be read at a distance to comply with US regulations for its visa waiver programme.

But unlike the RFID passports the USA is now issuing, the Irish ones lack a security feature preventing them from being skimmed, or read surreptitiously.

The US government has gone to the trouble of fitting its passports with a layer of foil that interferes with skimming attempts when the document is closed. The Irish government has not. A local lobbying outfit called Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) has complained that the new passports are ripe for remote privacy invasion. As of course they are.

Unfortunately, DRI has taken that a step further, fretting in a recent interview with the Sunday Times that the unprotected passports could leave Irish travelers “open to targeting by terrorists”.

Read More : The Register - Irish passports go RFID, and naked

At the beginning of the second half of 2006, British Telecom began the migration of approximately 350,000 customers in the Cardiff, Bridgend and Pontypridd areas (UK) to an extraordinary new telecommunications network, a network that will radically transform the way in which we communicate. But what exactly is 21CN?

The initial release of our 21CN article series is now available at the following location.

http://www.2600uk.com/21st-century-network/

Be sure to check back as more articles and announcements are released and additional information becomes available.

The following text is taken from Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com

Each time a new flash application requests permission to run on newer computers, you will notice that a privacy setting box pops up asking if the particular website you are surfing can access your microphone and webcam. Though the webcam is external, the microphone is internal and is a standard feature of all new models.

Now Google have announced that they will use in-built microphones to listen in on user’s background noise, be it television, music or radio - and then direct advertising at them based on their preferences.

“The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that’s adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject,” reports the Register.

Google’s ceaseless drive to dominate Microsoft and reap untold profits has come at the expense of privacy as the company jettison’s its “don’t be evil” mandate and merges itself into a proxy NSA outfit, creating all the tools necessary for the state to suffocate its subjects under an inescapable high-tech panopticon control grid.