Ultrasound makes for palm-based computer displays you can feel
From buzzing phones to quivering console controllers, haptic feedback has become indispensable in modern computing, and developers are already wondering how it will be felt in systems of the future. Sending ultrasound waves through the back of the hand to deliver tactile sensations to the front might sound a little far-fetched, but by achieving just that UK scientists claim to have cleared the way for computers that use our palms as advanced interactive displays.For years now scientists have been chipping away at the idea of using human skin as a computer display. It sounds unlikely, but with technology becoming more miniaturized, the uptake in wearable devices and more time spent gazing into computer screens, in some ways it seems natural that we use our most readily available surfaces as gateways to the digital realm.....So they are looking to sneak in the back door. Their SkinHaptics system relies on an array of ultrasound transmitters that when applied to the back of the hand, send sensations to the palm, which can therefore be left exposed to display the screen.The team says it was able to achieve this through something it calls time-reversal processing. As the ultrasound waves enter through the back of the hand they begin as broad pulses that actually become more targeted as they move through to the other side, landing at a specific point on the palm. The researchers liken it to water ripples working in reverse."Wearables are already big business and will only get bigger," says Professor Sriram Subramanian, who led the research. "But as we wear technology more, it gets smaller and we look at it less, and therefore multisensory capabilities become much more important. If you imagine you are on your bike and want to change the volume control on your smartwatch, the interaction space on the watch is very small. So companies are looking at how to extend this space to the hand of the user. What we offer people is the ability to feel their actions when they are interacting with the hand."You can see a prototype of the SkinHaptics system demonstrated in the video below.Source: University of Sussex...--------------------Graphene Filter Could Make Wireless Data Transmission 10 Times Fasterhttp://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/materials/graphene-filter-could-enable-ten-time-faster-wireless-data-transmissionResearchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Geneva in Switzerland havedeveloped a graphene filter for microchips that could potentially lead to wireless transmission rates 10 times as fast what chips deliver today.In research described in the journal Nature Communications, the Swiss researchers actually fabricated what is known asa non-reciprocal isolator. The isolator filters backward radiation, preventing waves from being reflected back towards their source.In normal materials, if waves can propagate in one direction they’re free to come back. Keeping that from happening requires special “non-reciprocal” materials that break symmetry and force light to propagate in a unidirectional way.At the moment, there are materials such as ferrite that can keep terahertz waves from making a return trip. But the signals lose a great deal of strength even in the direction in which they are supposed to propagate well.“Graphene, to the best of our knowledge, outperforms any other candidate in the terahertz range,” said Michele Tamagnone, a Ph.D. student at EPFL and one of the authors of the paper, in an e-mail interview with IEEE Spectrum.That’s important because terahertz frequencies are the name of the game in next-generation mobile devices. Currently, mobile devices transmit data in the gigahertz range or at optical frequencies. But terahertz frequencies are like suped-up engines on open highways, giving mobile devices the ability to transmit data at blazing speeds.While research in terahertz technology is accumulating fast, there still remains a lack of technological solutions. Many of the building blocks in wireless devices that transmit signals using microwaves or visible light do not yet have analogs that manipulate terahertz waves.“Our chip partially solves this problem. It’s the first building block of this kind (an isolator in the range 1 THz to 10 THz), which solves an important open challenge,” says Tamagnone.Tamagnone envisions the chip being used for protecting terahertz sources by preventing reflected waves from returning to their points of origin. And with the cost of graphene decreasing, Tamagnone believes that it can be a very competitive choice for terahertz devices.While Tamagnone and his colleagues were clearly looking at graphene for future mobile devices using terahertz communication, he believes graphene could even be used for isolators in the microwave range (and hence in today’s wireless communication devices). That could happen if a way to produce large-area, high-quality graphene is developed.The next step for the Swiss scientists: trying to develop another non-reciprocal device, called a circulator, which Tamagnone says may be even more useful than the isolator. Circulators are used in microwave communication. When connected to an antenna, they use the antenna to transmit and receive information at the same time. “Graphene has the potential to [allow implementation of] this device at terahertz frequencies,” says Tamagnone.He added: “We are currently exploring the possibility of using graphene to create tunable antennas—especially antennas that can send a terahertz beam in a precise direction that can be controlled electronically.”--------------------Secrecy NewsDNI Clapper Embraces Review of Secrecy SystemPosted on Apr.06, 2016 in classification, Intelligence by Steven AftergoodDirector of National Intelligence James R. Clapper threw his weight behind the upcoming Fundamental Classification Guidance Review (FCGR), which requires executive branch agencies to review all of their classification guidance and to eliminate obsolete secrecy requirements every five years. (On the FCGR, see “Secrecy System to Undergo ‘Thoughtful Scrutiny’,” Secrecy News, March 28).In an extraordinary memorandum sent to directors of five other intelligence agencies (CIA, DIA, NGA, NSA, and NRO),Director Clapper told them to seize the opportunity to overhaul current classification policy.“This periodic review provides an ideal platform for the Intelligence Community (IC), as stewards of the nation’s most sensitive information, to take a leading role in reducing targeted classification activities that could extend to the larger Federal government,” Clapper wrote in his March 23 memo.Ordinarily, the nuts and bolts of the classification system would be beneath the concern of senior agency officials. But DNI Clapper’s intervention changes that presumption. In effect, the Clapper memo focuses attention on what would otherwise be a routine mid-level bureaucratic function and elevates it to a senior-level imperative.“I am requesting your personal involvement,” he wrote, instructing the intelligence agency directors to perform several additional steps above and beyond what the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review already requires.Clapper asked for feasibility studies on reducing the number of IC Original Classification Authorities, on the utility of an IC-wide classification guide, on the elimination of the Confidential classification in the IC, and on a new initiative to promote discretionary declassification actions.“Please comment on what would be required to implement a proactive discretionary declassification program distinct from the systematic, automatic, and mandatory declassification review programs” that already exist, the DNI wrote.The history of secrecy reform in the U.S. government demonstrates that it is most effective — or that it is only effective — when it is driven by senior agency leadership. Not since Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary’s “openness initiative” in the 1990s has an agency head endorsed secrecy reform with the specificity and authority expressed by DNI Clapper.“I believe your efforts will serve as a significant step forward in furthering our shared goals for greater openness and reduced classification activity while protecting legitimate national security interests,” he wrote to the intelligence agency directors.
