Maimpok

A team of UC San Diego security researchers presented a paper on how your Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) pin code can be stolen using the heat that our fingers leave behind. With the help of a digital infrared camera, the person immediately following you can know the keys you pushed, with 80% accuracy.

Frightened? Don’t worry! There are some drawbacks to this method of stealing ATM pins.

Even if the criminal can determine the digits pressed, it is very difficult for him to know the order in which they were pressed. That means he will have to use different combinations of the 4 digits. The second drawback to this ATM pin theft using the heat left behind is that it works only on plastic keypads. This is because if the keypad is made of metal, it gives off too much heat noise that the IR camera cannot distinguish accurately which keys are pressed.

And most of all, a good IR camera that fits this purpose will cost something around $18,000. If one has so much money to get hold of such a costly camera, then I seriously doubt that he will go for stealing ATM pins!

But this does not change the simple truth that our ATM pins are vulnerable to this ‘Heat Hacking’. This type of hacking is not limited to ATM machines, but can be done on keypad safes, security doors, keypad activated garage doors or car doors.

But we can always eliminate the little chance of pin theft by just placing our hand over the entire keypad after entering the ATM pin so that heat is equally given to all the keys in the ATM keypad. This simple step can ruin all the hacking plan of the suspected ‘criminal’ just behind you at the ATM. Do it just as a precaution!

Do let me know your views through your comments.

Remember the James Bond flick “Die Another Day” where Pierce Brosnan camouflages his Aston Martin to escape from the villain, and also move undetected?

Yes, the very same mechanism has now been developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas. They were able to detect a unique characteristic in carbon nano-tubes with a kind of mirage effect which helps to switch on and turn off invisibility on demand.

Though the innovation is at its initial stage, the camouflage effect can be soon brought on to cars and other devices with further development. The camouflage effect is brought with the help of the mirage effect, through which the invisibility is brought due to extremely varying temperatures at a very short distance. When the temperature changes rapidly, the light rays that are supposed to bounce away from the object, tend to bend towards the viewer’s eyes.

The very same effect can be seen when you are driving along a straight road on a very hot day. If you look at the end of the road, you will able to see a water pool or something like a metal sheet. The same concept can be seen in deserts as well. Due to the high temperature, the light that is reflected from the sky changes its angle as soon as it reaches the hot ground. This reflected light hits on the viewers’ eyes, and appears like a sheen of blue coming from the ground. The brain interprets the image in the form of water rather than the sky.

From the video below, you can see that carbon nano-tubes that are highly conductive in nature are pushed inside a transparent sheet. These carbon sheets are wrapped into cylinders and are made into one atom thick layer. The device is able to rapidly rise the temperature of water that is filled around it. This causes the mirage effect to conceal the object on the other side, and that too at a very fast rate.

As the device performs best when it is surrounded with water, more tests have o be conducted to find a better solution for innovating it in cars. Furthermore, there are still questions regarding the angle at which the light reflects from the object towards the viewer. If it works only at one angle, the camouflage effect will also depend on the distance between the viewer and the object, and also on the rate of change of temperature. The device will need an auto-tracking system to calculate the actual distance and change the rate of change of temperature or nano-tube position accordingly.

Do let me know your views through your comments.

People who go on adventure trips or hiking carry gadgets that send signals back to another station, who can easily track them if they go missing. Most gadgets available today are bulky and have to be kept safely inside the pocket. But they are prone to fall out and you may not even know it. Researchers at the European Space Agency developed a new type of tracking antenna along with the help of a Finnish company. The device can easily be sewn to your pant or back pack. The device will not be damaged even if it is stretched, and can also be worn inside water and is tear resistant. Click here to see how well the device holds up to scrunching.

The device was mainly designed for people who travel in water. The device sends signals that are received by the Corpas-Sarsat distress signal network. Just like a radio beacon on ships, the signals from the antenna are transmitted on to a satellite. But, like a radio beacon, the antenna will also have to be activated, unless and until it is a distress call. The satellite detects the low frequency signal, calculates the location, and passes it on to the rescuers near the search area.

Even if a person is held captive by terrorists, they will not be able to find any tracking device and will easily mistake the antenna for a piece of cloth. If the captive is able to send the signal, the rescuers can easily track him down and save him.

An outdoor equipment company called Viking started integrating this device on to their life vests and is ready to be sold in the market.

Do let me know your views through your comments.

Piezoelectric devices are getting more and more popular due to their self-generating mechanism. As,  a simple quartz crystal is able to produce an output voltage that is proportional to the stress applied to it, a lot of research is undergone in this field by instrumentation companies and also American defence agencies like DARPA. Recently, a company in Japan called Murata Manufacturing claim that they have developed a remote control that works with the help of a piezoelectric transducer.

They have named the device as the “Leaf Grip Remote Controller”. A typical remote control works by pressing keys for getting different stations and also for the ON/OFF button. In this device, there are no keys. For the signals to reach the television, a voltage has to be developed in the remote. This voltage is obtained by bending and twisting the device.

The remote consists of two handles and a thin film in between. This thin film is transparent in nature and has two layers of piezoelectric transducers. One transducer is used to detect an output voltage corresponding to the amount of binding the device has to take. The other one produces an output voltage depending on the twists. The transparent film does not even look like it has a piezoelectric quartz crystal installed inside. All the other electronic circuits will be connected inside the two handles.

As shown in the figure below, when the plate is twisted, you can change the channels. If you twist the plates rapidly, you can switch the input. When you bend the film, you can increase and decrease the volume. You can ON/OFF the television by holding one end of the plate and lightly shaking it.

As told before, the main advantage is the device will not have need of batteries (self-generating device).

Though the device seems quite cool, one major drawback is that the piezoelectric device can be easily affected by temperature. The output voltage produced may change due to this reason. More studies are being done on how to keep the voltage steady. Furthermore, the device will be seen only as a fancy gadget, as a conventional remote control is far easier and user friendly than this one. The device was probably intended to be a commercial prototype or maybe the first step to produce a better one using piezoelectrics. Besides, their main aim was to produce powerless remote controls.

Would you guys be interested in using such a remote control for your TV? Do let me know through your comments.