 | Bank card identifies cardholder Mar 6th 2013, 13:39 From the gas station to the department store – paying for something without cash is commonplace. Now such payments become more secure: Scientists have engineered a solution for inspecting the handwritten signatures directly on the bank card. The biometric "on-card comparison" additionally makes payment transactions more convenient, and it works with any ordinary commercial credit card. | | Netradar reveals the quality of mobile Internet connections Mar 4th 2013, 15:50 Netradar is a free service that provides neutral, accurate information about the quality of mobile Internet connections and mobile devices collected by end users themselves throughout the world. Unlike other applications that mostly focus on bandwidth, Netradar anonymously gathers, measures and shares over ten different types of data | | Short algorithm, long-range consequences Mar 2nd 2013, 17:54 A new technique for solving 'graph Laplacians' is drastically simpler than its predecessors, with implications for a huge range of practical problems. | | Big data: Searching large amounts of data quickly and efficiently Mar 1st 2013, 17:25 Not only scientific institutes but also companies harvest an amazing amount of data. Traditional database management systems are often unable to cope with this. Suitable tools are lacking in information retrieval on big data. Computer scientists have now developed an approach which enables searching large amounts of data in a fast and efficient way. | | Pixels guide the way for the visually impaired Mar 1st 2013, 00:46 Images have been transformed into pixels and projected onto a headset to help the visually impaired in everyday tasks such as navigation, route-planning and object finding. Developed using a video camera and mathematical algorithm, the researchers hope the pixels can provide more information and enhance the vision of patients already fitted with retinal implants. | |
