Apples Patents For Future Technologies

What Apple patents say about Apple Television

One of the most recent patents that could well relate to Apple's future venture into the living room is a patent that described a "desk-free computer" that uses a super-intelligent projector.

The computer's projector contains an accelerometer, ambient light sensor and depth sensor to ensure the optimum image is projected onto any surface you choose. These qualities combined with the fact that it's wireless make it completely portable.

Speculation suggests that, if paired with a suitable controller, this patent could be used for the rumoured Apple television.

What Apple patents say about Apple accessories

Apple doesn't just patent technology that relate to its main hardware. The company also has several patents covering accessories and other gadgets.

Health-tracking headphones

In February 2014, Apple was granted a patent for health monitoring headphones that can detect body temperature, heart rate and perspiration levels. This "sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets" adds evidence to the theory that Apple has a keen interest in the fitness and health industry.

Siri Smart Dock 

An intriguing patent filed by Apple describes a "smart dock" that would always be listening for spoken commands. Ideal for use with Siri, the "smart dock for activating a voice recognition modes of a portable electronic device" patent covers an accessory that could include a speaker, microphone and built-in screen as well as the ability to integrate Siri into your home.

When an iPad or iPhone is paired with the unit, Siri would constantly listen out for prompts, such as play a song or skip, for example.

iPen smart stylus

Apple actually has a total of 22 'iPen' patents under its belt, according to Patently Apple.

The iPen described in the patents is effectively a smart stylus. It could have sensors that enable the pen to recognise the orientation it's being held in relative to the touchscreen of the device being used. This would improve the accuracy and experience of using a stylus. It could also have a camera, audio recorder, laser pointer and projector built in.

A new patent published in March describes a stylus that comes complete with an extendable nib that may help to replicate multiple tools such as pens, paintbrushes and pencils. In addition to being able to extend the nib, Apple's patent also suggests that the stylus nib could be swapped out for a variety of different nibs for different purposes (above).

Solar charging iPhone, MacBook accessory

Apple's future portable devices could benefit from a portable solar panel accessory that Appleappears to be investigating. A patent published by the US Patent & Trademark Office in October 2013 describes a power management system that would provide energy for an iOS device or MacBook until the battery is fully charged.

Apple is certainly interested in solar power. The majority of power generated at its iCloud datacenter in North Carolina is generated from on-site solar panels that could power 17,600 homes for a year, according to Reuters. Just this week, Apple has announced plans to build a components plant in Arizona that will run entirely on renewable energy, including solar energy.

Self-adjusting earphones

In July 2013, USPTO published an Apple patent application covering earphones that can automatically adjust audio output based on the quality of the seal detected by a built-in microphone or by measuring electrical currents.

The patent describes earbuds that can measure how well they are sealed to user's ears in order to adjust the audio to provide the optimum listening experience. 

Advanced Smart Cover/ Smart Case

Apple has published several patents relating to its Smart Cover and Smart Case designs for the iPad. Each patent adds advanced functionality to the cases.

In June 2014, USPTO published an Apple patent filing for an "Integrated visual notification system in an accessory device," which describes an iPad case or cover that can protect thescreen while also providing illuminated alerts when the iPad gets a notification, for example.

An Apple patent that emerged in March describes an iPad Smart Cover that acts as an inductive charging point to provide wireless power to the iPad and other devices.

When Apple sent out the invitations for its iPad Air launch, it was widely expected that Apple was about to launch such accessory, as the company hinted "We still have a lot to cover."

Another Smart Cover that Apple's been investigating features an integrated multitouch keyboard. The keyboard, while part of the Smart Cover, can be detached for more comfortable use.

What Apple patents say about future tech

While many of Apple's patents can be related to current Apple products, some are extra advanced and seem quite futuristic. Here's a peek of what the future could hold if the technology listed in Apple's patents ever becomes a reality.

Siri-controlled home

Apple has been granted patents for a system of sensors that could allow Siri to take over your house. Together, the network of sensors could be used to detect motion, time, light and more to help Siri provide relevant information and carry out actions.

One example used in the patent filings is that Siri could remind you to take your medicine when it detects that it is 8am and you're in the kitchen (presumably where your pills and water are).

This patent was actually filed back in 2005, before the first iPhone had even launched (the original iPhone came later in 2007). The patent references other patents that date all the way back to the 1970s, so it's clear that voice control has been a keen interest for Apple for years.

Virtual reality head mounted display

Apple has been awarded two patents by USPTO that cover head mounted displays, one that would work in a similar way to the Oculus Rift, allowing users to play immersive games wearing the goggles, and another that takes a more Google Glass approach with a smaller design.

The first of the two head mounted displays described in a patent filed in 2006 is designed to provide optimum image quality using a laser light engine. The second patent, filed in 2008, describes Apple goggles with two adjustable screens that can be aligned with your eyes and adjusted for those who wear glasses.

Further still, the patent suggests that the goggles could identify users by tracking eyeballs, voice and fingerprints.

Do new augmented reality patents hint at Apple's answer to Google Glass?

Virtual keyboard

In February 2013, USPTO published a patent that describes a new depth perception technology that could be used to introduce virtual keyboards.

The application covers a "Depth perception device and system" which can determine the distance to an object or the depth of an object using a combination of image capturing sensors and lasers.

The technology could be used in combination with a projected control panel such as a keyboard to create a virtual keyboard. The technology would be able to determine the selection of a particular button or input of the control panel by determining the depth of a user's finger, a stylus or other input mechanism.

Advanced Sensor UI & the “pull” gesture 

Apple seems keen to replace, or at least augment touch screen technology with advanced hand sensing. This will detect hand movements surrounding the device.

Patent 8,514,221 shows that Apple isn’t just looking to patent the physical system, but gestures as well. One gesture that is looking to join pinch to zoom, swipe and tap, could be the “pull” gesture. This is where you have your fingers on the screen, and then move them up and away, pulling an object from the screen. What feature this gesture could implement is still in the secret lab, but it will enable an interesting new level of interaction with iOS.

Haptic feedback

Apple hasn’t given up on Haptic feedback. No siree! What seemed a bit of a buzz technology for other companies a few years ago is still being developed inside the Apple labs. Haptic feedback systems put a low level voltage through a display to recreate the physical sensation of touching buttons on a flat piece of glass.

Apple's U.S. Patent No. 8,378,797 for a "Method and apparatus for localization of haptic feedback" shows that Apple is looking to develop a more accurate haptic feedback system. It is clear that haptics can move far beyond the ‘buzzy’ screens of older smartphones, and could enable apple to create a virtual home button, and on-screen keys that feel similar to the real thing.

Pressure sensitive display

An additional patent relating to the way we use the iPad describes a pressure sensitive display. USPTO in January published a patent that covers a device such as an iPad with a display that uses built-in pressure sensors to enhance navigation.

The patent, titled "Gesture and touch input detection through force sensing," suggests future iPads could have at least three force sensors beneath the screen.

Vibrate feature

Future iPads could have the vibrate feature built in thanks to an audio codec chip that could allow the iPad to set up vibration alerts for notifications like we can for the iPhone.

What Apple patents say about the future of iOS

iOS 8 was previewed by Apple during WWDC in June, and is set to arrive on our devices in September, but there are some features that Apple has patents for but has not yet implimented. Perhaps these features will come to iOS in a future version of the software.

Clearer contacts in Messages app

Apple hopes to help prevent those embarrassing misdirected text messages with this next patent, which suggests that we could soon see our friends' faces as the background to our conversations in the Messages app.

Apple describes an invention that simply uses the contact's picture as the background image for conversations with that contact. When there's more than one person in a conversation, Apple adds text and multiple images to the conversation.

Driver lock-out

Apple has been granted a patent that relates to the dangerous activity of texting while driving. Apple has invented a lock-out mechanism for drivers, which would prevent drivers from being able to text while behind the wheel.

One embodiment of Apple's invention uses a motion analyser, a scenery analyser and a lock-out mechanism to determine how fast the device is moving (indicating that it's in a car) and where the holder of the device is located (driver's seat or passenger seat). If the device then determines that the holder of the device is also the driver of a vehicle, the lock-out mechanism will disable some functions of the phone, such as the messages app.

Other embodiments involve slight modification of the vehicle itself to send out signals to tell the device to lock-out, which could hint that the technology may come with a future version of CarPlay.

Apple's "Auto-station tuning" patent suggests Apple is looking into the ability to automatically switch between radio stations and TV stations depending on user preferences. This could be used to for iOS devices, but it's possible we could see this technology used in the Apple TV, too.

Transparent text messages

Apple could be planning to introduce transparent text messages with future iPhones or iOS iterations, according to a patent filed in late March 2014.

The system revolves around the background of an application being modified to display a live feed of whatever the rear camera is looking at – creating an effect like the iPhone itself (or at least the portion covered by the screen) is transparent.

The system can be activated via a button inside the app button which then transforms the interface from the regular background to a live video version.

Battery-saving mode

Several of Apple's competitors have already got a battery-saving mode in their devices, butApple has yet to introduce such feature in iOS. However, that could soon change if patents published in March are anything to go by.

Apple appears to be investigating a way to save iPhone battery power by learning the user's behaviour. Its patents describe a system that can learn patterns in behaviour to figure out when the user is less likely to be using their device, during which time it can automatically reduce performance and disable some features, for example.

Age-monitoring

As gadgets age, the performance of those gadgets worsens. Apple has acknowledged this in apatent issued in March that aims to help the aging process of a device happen slower, by monitoring the condition of the device and modifying parameters to maximise its performance, battery efficiency and user experience. The aim is to help the device meet its life expectancy

Apples Patents For Future Technologies

2:53 PM accessories, Apple, Apple Television, Future iPhone, Iphone, iPone future technology, Patent, WWDC

Pregnant women's perchlorate levels And their babies’ brain development

Babies born to mothers with high levels of Perchlorate during their first trimester are more likely to have lower IQs later in life.

The research is the first to link pregnant women's perchlorate levels to their babies’ brain development. It adds to evidence that the drinking water contaminant may disrupt thyroid hormones that are crucial for proper brain development.

Perchlorate, which is both naturally occurring and manmade, is used in rocket fuel, fireworks and fertilizers. It has been found in 4 percent of U.S. public water systems serving an estimated 5 to 17 million people, largely near military bases and defense contractors in the U.S. West, particularly around Las Vegas and in Southern California.

“We would not recommend action on perchlorate levels from this study alone, although our report highlights a pressing need for larger studies of perchlorate levels from the general pregnant population and those with undetected hypothyroidism,” the authors from the United Kingdom, Italy and Boston wrote in the study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The Environmental Protection Agency for decades has debated setting a national drinking water standard for perchlorate. The agency in 2011 announced it would start developing a standard, reversing an earlier decision. In the meantime, two states, California and Massachusetts, have set their own standards.

EPA officials said they expect to unveil their proposed standard in the summer of 2015, missing their deadline by two years. They would not comment on the new findings.

The researchers analyzed perchlorate levels in the first trimester of 487 pregnant women in Cardiff, Wales, and Turin, Italy, who had iodine deficiency and thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy and examined their children’s IQ scores at 3 years old. Children born to mothers’ with perchlorate levels in the highest 10 percent were more than three times as likely to have an IQ score in the lowest 10 percent.

Dr. Craig Steinmaus, an associate adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, said it was a strong, first-of-its-kind study. “It’s not definitive, but it is certainly intriguing,” said Steinmaus, who was not involved in the research.

The study, however, did not factor in information about the home environment and the mothers’ IQs, which can affect children’s IQs.

Thomas Zoeller, a biology professor who specializes in thyroid hormones at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, said it is “very well established” that perchlorate can inhibit transport of iodine to the thyroid. Iodine is an essential component of thyroid hormones, and “severe iodine deficiency is the leading preventable cause of mental deficiency in childhood,” the authors wrote.

“Even mild hypothyroidism and/or hypothyroidism for a short period of time may have adverse neurocognitive effects in later childhood,” said Dr. Angela Leung, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.

Previous studies have linked perchlorate exposure to altered thyroid function in mothers and women. However, Zoeller said what scientists don’t know is how and to what extent perchlorate in a pregnant woman might impair the mental abilities of her children. He said it is “very difficult” to pin chemical exposure during pregnancy to impacts on the fetus or child.

The new results were “somewhat surprising,” said Dr. Elizabeth Pearce, the study’s senior author and associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, because an earlier study of the same women found that perchlorate levels were not associated with the women’s thyroid function. It’s possible, however, that the perchlorate acted directly on fetal hormones since it is transmitted across the placenta.

The study is limited in that perchlorate has a short half-life so a one-time urine test is not a good measure of long-term exposure, Zoeller said. If perchlorate did reduce the babies’ cognitive function, it would be a time-sensitive event, he said.

“We can’t say the fetus in the first trimester is impervious to maternal thyroid disruption from perchlorate exposure. But we don’t have evidence that it is a sensitive time either,” Zoeller said.

The researchers didn’t measure the newborns’ hormone levels, so they couldn’t confirm that perchlorate exposure altered them. Previous research shows it’s possible: A 2010 study of a half million California babies linked estimated perchlorate exposure to an increase in thyroid stimulating hormones, which indicates a drop in thyroid hormones. 

All of the women in the new study had perchlorate in their urine. The median in the highest 10 percent was more than 5 times higher than the median levels of women in apast study of U.S. women and 10 times higher than a study of Thai women. While this study took place in Europe, perchlorate exposure is “pretty much ubiquitous,” Pearce said. “We’re all exposed to low levels.” It isn’t clear how the women in the study were exposed.

Aerospace industry groups and water suppliers have long maintained that the levels of perchlorate found in some food and drinking water do not pose risk to human health and do not warrant federal regulation.

The American Water Works Association, which would not comment on the new study, advocated for more information on iodine intake instead of perchlorate regulation in a2012 letter to the EPA. 

Cleaning up perchlorate in groundwater and water supplies could cost billions of dollars.

In April, the EPA announced a $1.1 billion perchlorate settlement at a former Kerr-McGee Chemical manufacturing site in Henderson, Nev., which has the nation’s largest perchlorate groundwater plume. The plume contaminated Lake Mead, which feeds into the Colorado River. The river provides much of the drinking water in the Southwest.

Also, in 2012, multiple companies and the Department of Defense paid a settlement of almost $50 million to clean up perchlorate-contaminated groundwater in Rialto, Calif. 

“Clearly [perchlorate] is ubiquitous, and various studies keep showing that it could harm health, especially for sensitive populations like pregnant women, fetuses and infants,” said Andria Ventura, a program associate with Clean Water Action based in Oakland, California. “We need to regulate it nationally.”

Pregnant women's perchlorate levels And their babies’ brain development

1:40 PM

New Efficient Easy to make Solar Cell

The New Solar Cell

Now this is about a story stating about the success of a new invention - a cheap energy efficient solar cell. 

Olga Malinkiewicz, a PhD student studying photovoltaics at the University of Valencia in Spain, first heard about perovskites, the latest hope for low-cost solar power, in April last year. Unlike the slabs of purified silicon at the heart of the solar cells that currently dominate the market, perov­skites form thin films that are easily made in the lab by mixing together cheap salts.

Large, commercial silicon modules convert 17–25% of solar radiation into electricity, and much smaller perovskite cells have already reached a widely reproduced rate of 16–18% in the lab occasionally spiking higher. They are expected to top 20% in a few months.The combination of low cost and efficiency means that perovskite cells could, in theory, make solar power  which currently provides less than 1% of the world’s electricity  cheaper to generate than fossil-fuel energy.

The cells, composed of perovskite film sandwiched between conducting layers, are still about the size of postage stamps. To be practical, they must be scaled up, which causes efficiency to drop. It achieved 12% efficiency with 10 small cells wired together.

Doubts remain over whether the materials can survive for years when exposed to conditions outside the lab, such as humidity, temperature fluctuations and ultraviolet light. Researchers have also reported that ions inside some perovskite structures might shift positions in response to cycles of light and dark, potentially degrading performance.

What is perovskite ?

Perovskite is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate, with the chemical formulaCaTiO3. The mineral was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia by Gustav Rose in 1839 and is named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski

New Efficient Easy to make Solar Cell

2:48 PM alternate energy, Perovskites cells, solar cell

Is iPhone 6 Plus Bending ?

The Bending iPhone 6 Plus

Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which boast aluminum shells for lightness, apparently live up to that other characteristic of aluminum: malleability.

Reports of bent iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets are popping up on social media, and one product reviewer posted a video showing how far the larger frame can bend if one really, really tries.

On Twitter, it's being called #BendGate and #Bendghazi.

So far there has been no official response from Apple.

Smartphones bending in their pockets- iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus

Russell Holly, 29, decided to examine his new, silver iPhone 6 after seeing online reports of bent iPhones.

He noticed it wobbled on a flat surface. Then he compared it to the other iPhone 6 he bought. The bend was unmistakable. His confidence in the iPhone shaken, the mobile editor for Geek.com returned the phone.

Experts are divided over whether Apple should respond to claims that its new iPhone 6 handsets are prone to becoming bent when carried in trouser pockets.

Several members of the public have posted photos to the MacRumors site that appear to show the problem. A reporter for the Geek.com news site also reported his phone had warped.

The bigger screens but thinner bodies of Apple’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models have come at the cost of rigidity, according to owners who say they bent while being carried in trouser pockets.

A number of users across various forums, sites and Twitter have reported – and pictured – that their phones have become warped after they sat or bent down with them in front and rear trouser pockets.

The reports come just after an insurance company claimed that the new iPhones are the most robust ever – though its tests didn’t include bending.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus chassis is milled from a solid piece of aluminium alloy whose composition is secret. The weak area of the phone appears to be around the volume buttons, where the frame is at its thinnest and creates a fulcrum point around which the phone bends. Surprisingly, the screen does not break when the phone bends – though it does if the phone is then bent back to a flat profile.

LG G Flex and the Samsung Galaxy Round

Handsets like the LG G Flex and the Samsung Galaxy Round have proved that manufacturers can make curved smartphones if they really want to, but with the iPhone 6 Plus it seems Apple is offering customers a do-it-yourself option.

Is iPhone 6 Plus Bending ?

1:58 PM Apple, Bending, Iphone, iPhone 6 plus

Photography Awards 2014 Win US$ 15,000

Syngenta Photography Awards 2014

Last Date of registration : 29 September 2014

Syngenta Photography Award Home

The Syngenta Photography Award is an invitation to create images that make people stop and think. The Open Competition invites all photographers aged 18 or over – whether 

amateur, professional, or student – to visually explore this year’s theme Scarcity–  Waste through compelling images. 

Celebrating excellence 

All entries will be judged by a distinguished international judging panel chaired by the author and curator William A. Ewing. The jury members award three prizes in the Open Competition:

Open Competition  

• 1st  prize: US$5,000
• 2nd prize: US$3,000
• 3rd prize: US$2,000

How to Enter Open competition

Professional Competition

1st  prize: US$15,000
• 2nd prize: US$10,000
• 3rd prize: US$5,000

How To Enter Professional Competition

The winners will have their work featured in The International New York Times as well as showcased at an exhibition at Somerset House, London, in March 2015.  

The Theme - Scarcity Waste

In the past 50 years, the world’s demand for natural resources has doubled. If we continue to use resources and generate waste at the current rate, by 2030 we will need the equivalent of two planets. But we only have one. Clearly, something needs to change.

The second Syngenta Photography Award explores the theme of scarcity and waste. In a world of limited resources, these have become fundamental social, political and environmental issues of our time.

As population and economic growth drives increases in global consumption, many countries face growing resource shortages. Competition for, and even conflict over, resources such as fresh water, farm land, and forests is an increasing risk.

Resource scarcity is evident everywhere. From over-fished oceans to the rapidly disappearing rainforests, and from dust bowls to shrinking rivers and lakes. In China alone, over 27,000 rivers have disappeared in the last 60 years.

Already, 40% of the world’s farmland is seriously degraded and every second we lose an area of fertile land the size of a football field. This is in a world where nearly one billion people go to bed hungry and one in three people are affected by water scarcity.

Yet, it is a paradox that this scarcity exists side-by-side with enormous waste.

A third of the world’s food production is lost or wasted along the supply chain. In the UK, as much as 30% of vegetable crops are not harvested because they fail to meet the physical appearance standards expected by retailers. In India, around 40% of all fruit and vegetables are lost due to poor storage and transport systems. And across Europe and the US, over half of food purchased is simply thrown away. This isn’t just a waste of food, but of the land, water, inputs and labour that go into their cultivation.

With water use growing at twice the rate of population increases, many cities are struggling with inadequate infrastructure. In Jakarta, for example, 39% of the water is lost through pipe leaks. In Dhaka this rises to 50%, and in London water mains leak at least 25% of the city’s water. And waste as a by-product of an urban lifestyle is growing even faster than the rate of urbanization. In the US alone, over 100 million tons of household waste goes to landfill. Another 100 million tons is burnt or exported to poorer countries, with electronic waste putting up to 200 million people at risk of health and environmental hazards.

In a world that is so desperately short of resources, how can we ensure that there is land, food and water for everyone? How can we protect farmland against soil erosion and urbanization? How can we conserve vital ecosystems and biodiversity?

And what can we learn from the efforts of innovative communities to conserve, re-use and recycle?

The Syngenta Photography Award is a celebration of artistic skill and outstanding photography. It is a call for photographs that tell stories about scarcity, waste and the tensions and relationships between them. Photographers, whatever their approach, are invited to submit images that explore these important issues, and to spark a dialogue about our changing planet

Photography Awards 2014 Win US$ 15,000

10:20 AM Award, Competition, New York times, Photo competition, Photography, Prize, Scarcity Waste, Syngenta

Artificial Biospleen to Filter the Blood

Biospleen to Filter the Blood

The recent issue of Nature reported the development of a high-tech methodology to clean up the body from infection even if the causative pathogen is unknown. This device inspired by the Spleen to clean up the blood quickly and easily. This can be mentioned as an ‘artificial Biospleen’ to clean up the blood.

Knowing about Spleen

The spleen is the organ that is responsible for purifying the blood as well as storing blood cells. It is positioned in the superior abdomen, and is the largest lymphatic organ in the body. The spleen serves a valuable role in immune function because it purifies the blood and helps the immune system with recognize and attack foreign antibodies and disease. The spleen is composed of the red and white pulp. The white pulp produces and grows immune cell as well as blood cells. On the other hand, the red pulp is responsible for purifying the blood and removing dead or old blood cells.

Application of Artificial Biospleen

Infection in blood is difficult to identify and cure. Usually more than 50% of time physicians treat this by antibiotic which attack on broad range of pathogens. This approach is not always effective, and can lead to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

In search of a way to clear any infection, a team led by Donald Ingber, a bioengineer at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Boston, Massachusetts, developed an artificial 'biospleen' to filter blood.

The filtering technology

Scientist used modified version of Mannose binding Lectin (MBL). a protein found in humans that binds to sugar molecules on the surfaces of more than 90 different bacteria, viruses and fungi, as well as to the toxins released by dead bacteria that trigger the immune overreaction in sepsis.

The researchers coated magnetic nanobeads with MBL. As blood enters the Biospleen device, passes by the MBL-equipped nanobeads, which bind to most pathogens. A magnet on the Biospleen device then pulls the beads and their quarry out of the blood, which can then be routed back into the patient.

Testing of the Biospleen in infected rats showed that 90% of pathogens cleaned by the device in 5 hours. The researchers then tested whether the Biospleen could handle the volume of blood in an average adult human — about 5 litres. They ran human blood containing a mixture of bacteria and fungi through the Biospleen at a rate of 1 litre per hour, and found that the device removed most of the pathogens within five hours.

The Biospleen could also help to treat viral diseases such as HIV and Ebola, in which survival depends on lowering the amount of virus in the blood to a negligible level. This may be a future breakthrough device to save human life. 

Artificial Biospleen to Filter the Blood

3:10 PM Artificial spleen, Biospleen, Blood cleaning, Blood filtration, Disease treatment, EBOLA cure, HIV cure, Pathogen, spleen

Turning carbon dioxide emissions into chemicals, fibers and jet fuel

Turning carbon dioxide emissions into chemicals, fibres and jet fuel

A carbon revolution? Scientists are using the principles of photosynthesis to turn CO2 emissions into useful products

Shell is collaborating on a project in Switzerland that will produce jet fuel, using carbon dioxide, water and solar energy. Photograph: Gerolf Kalt/ Gerolf Kalt/Corbis

Bernie Bulkin

Monday 4 August 2014 13.28 BST

When fuels are burned, the products are carbon dioxide, water, and heat. Lots of heat. This heat takes energy out of the chemicals (say petrol, coal or gas) and releases it, leaving behind very low energy molecules, like CO2. A chemist's dream is to find efficient ways of putting this energy back into the carbon dioxide to turn it into something else useful. In other words, to convert a waste product that causes global warming into something useful.

If carbon dioxide is in a product that will keep it locked up for a long period of time, like furniture or building insulation, this is a way of removing it from the air: carbon capture. And CO2 is free or, given policies to make the emission of carbon dioxide a cost to business, it even becomes a starting material for chemistry that has a negative cost.

Luckily, nature already does what chemists aspire to. It efficiently takes carbon dioxide from the air, using energy from sunlight and natural catalysts, and converts it into the carbon building blocks of plants and trees: photosynthesis. Given the intense international focus on greenhouse gases over the past decade, it is unsurprising that many chemists are trying to find routes to useful products. The challenge, as with much of chemistry, is to find synthetic catalysts that speed up reactions in a way that is as good as nature or better.

Liquid Light, a spinout from Princeton University, uses electricity and catalysts (what they are is a secret), to make chemicals from carbon dioxide, and seems to have progressed to having a near-commercial process to make ethylene glycol, a key component of anti-freeze and, more interestingly, a building block of polyester bottles and fibres. Scientists at Liquid Light believe they can tailor their catalysts to make other chemicals, and that the electricity used can come from solar panels. The company takes photosynthesis-level efficiency as the benchmark against which to measure their process, and claims it is now twice as efficient.

A German chemical company, BASF, and a US company, Novomer, are capturing CO2 from power plants or other waste sources, using novel catalysts to make polypropylene carbonate. This plastic can be used for coatings, adhesives, foams and packaging and can replace other plastics in these applications that are currently made from oil. Both companies are moving towards commercial processes. Bayer, another large German chemical company, is also advancing a process to make polyurethane foams using carbon dioxide.

A more brute force approach is that taken by the Solar Jet programme in Switzerland, led by Dr Aldo Steinfeld of ETH-Zurichcollaborating with Shell. They designed a clever reactor that generates very high temperatures from solar energy to break down carbon dioxide and water, converting them to hydrogen and carbon monoxide. From this mixture they can make kerosene for jet fuel using well-known chemical processes. This is still at an early stage – so far they have made one litre of fuel – but sometimes these high temperature processes are more straightforward to scale up than catalyst-based approaches.

Carbon dioxide utilisation is attracting clever chemists and engineers, start-up venture capital and big established players. This is an area to watch for one or more revolutions of the chemical industry in the next five years.

Turning carbon dioxide emissions into chemicals, fibers and jet fuel

6:12 PM alternate energy, co2 conversion, fuel

USB Has a Fundamental Security Flaw That You Can't Detect

Security threats with USB

We all rely on USB to interconnect our digital lives, but new research first reported by Wired reveals that there's a fundamental security flaw in the very way that the humble Universal Serial Bus functions, and it could be exploited to wreak havoc on any computer.

Wired reports that security researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell have reverse engineered the firmware that controls the basic communication functions of USB. Not only that, the've also written a piece of malware, called BadUSB, that can "be installed on a USB device to completely take over a PC, invisibly alter files installed from the memory stick, or even redirect the user's internet traffic."

Embedded within USB devices—from thumb drives thorough keyboards to smartphones—is a controller chip which allows the device and a computer it's connected to send information back and forth. It's this that Nohl and Lell have targeted, which means their malware doesn't sit in flash memory, but rather is hidden away in firmware, undeletable by all but the most technically knowledgable. Lell explained to Wired:

"You can give it to your IT security people, they scan it, delete some files, and give it back to you telling you it's 'clean... [But these] problems can't be patched. We're exploiting the very way that USB is designed."

The kicker is that it's virtually impossible to check whether a device's firmware has been tampered with, and even if it was, there's no single trusted version of it to check against. It's also worth pointing out that it can travel both ways: a USB stick could infect a computer with its malware, say, and the PC could then infect any USB device plugged into it.

So it's fairly worrying that the pair of researchers have demonstrated—and will present at the upcoming Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas—that the flaw can be exploited on thumb drives, mice, keyboards and even an Android smartphone. (It should, in theory, work on any USB device that can have its firmware reprogrammed).Some of Wired's sources even speculate that the hack could already be being used by the NSA.

That's a lot of bad news—so what can you do about it? Technically speaking, very little: there's no patch of code that can be be used to solve the problem. Instead, both the USB Implementers Forum and the researcherspoint out that a change in the way we use USB is the only solution: don't plug a USB device into any computer you don't 100 percent trust, and don't plug untrusted USB device into your computer either. That may prove inconvenient—but it may also save you from a very nasty surprise, too. [Wired

USB Has a Fundamental Security Flaw That You Can't Detect

8:40 AM computer virus, firmware, malware, security threat, usb drive