What's New @ IEEE in Communications, March 2006

7. REMOTE 'WEAR AND TEAR' SENSORS BEING DEVELOPED
A new type of wireless sensor is being developed to remotely monitor mechanical parts and systems such as gearboxes, engines, and door mechanisms, to predict machinery and transportation breakdowns, according to scientists at the University of Manchester. Developers say the sensors could be in service in the next four years, and would greatly reduce maintenance costs in the manufacturing, automotive and plant machinery industries by predicting when parts require maintenance or need replacing before the machinery fails. Different kinds of sensors would measure a range of selected parameters, such as vibration, temperature, and pressure, or the concentrations of metallic elements in lubricating oil created through machinery wear and tear. Read more: the link

8. RFID TAGS CAN BE HACKED USING CELL PHONES, RESEARCHER SAYS
Passwords for the most popular brand of RFID tags can be obtained using a directional antenna and digital oscilloscope to monitor power used by the tags while they are being read, according to a cryptographer and professor of computer science at the Weizmann Institute. Patterns in power use could be analyzed to determine when the tag received correct and incorrect password bits, according to the researcher, who said the brand of RFID tag he tested was "totally unprotected," and that a cell phone has all the ingredients necessary to compromise all RFID tags in its immediate vicinity. Read more: the link

9. NASA'S NEW SOFTWARE GETS COMPUTERS THINKING TOGETHER
A new NASA computer program that operates as a collective on many computers at once has designed an antenna that will be launched into space to study the Earth's magnetosphere. The revolutionary AI program uses Darwin's theory of evolution to determine what the best outcome will be for a given project. To create the antenna in question, attributes of thousands of antennae were given to the program. Eighty computers then combined their "brains" over a period of ten hours, a significantly smaller amount of time than could have been achieved by humans, to create an optimal design. The resulting antenna looks like a bent paperclip and can receive commands and send data to Earth. The writers of the program say the evolutionary AI software can invent and create new structures, computer chips and various other machines, and it can operate on up to 120 personal computers at once. Read more: the link