New Media Awards 2005 Weblog

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is considering labelling all sperm, eggs and embryos with either electronic ID tags or barcodes. In 2002, the IVF clinic at Leeds General Infirmary used the wrong sperm during a treatment, which lead to a white couple having twins of mixed race. New labelling procedures now being discussed would prevent this type of incident occuring.

Labelling for IVF procedures are already being developed at the IMT International in Chester, where barcodes on the bottom of dishes are read by built-in digital cameras, so if a dish used does not match the patient, an alarm will sound. A barcoding system is already used by the National Blood Service and has resulted in a major drop in errors.

An alternative to barcodes is labelling with electronic RFID tags. A system has been developed by Research Instruments in Falmouth where a tag placed on the bottom of each dish will transmit a unique ID using radio waves, again resulting in an alarm sounding if the incorrect dish is used. Testing has been carried out on mouse embryos that would suggest that there is no expected risk from this procedure.

The UK government intends to bring relevant public services together to introduce a ‘one stop shop’ for people dealing with the death of a relative. Relatives of the deceased currently have to cope with several government departments to carry out necessary administrative procedures. The government hopes that the new action plan will overcome this kind of inefficiency.

In a Cabinet Office report, issued on 24 March plans are set out regarding the use of technology to link together the relevant services and enable them to share information across departments. The most important introduction would be that of a ‘Bereavement Portal’, which would be accessed by the main citizen portal, Directgov at the end of this year. Directgov already offers some information for grieving relatives but if the proposed developments take place it would enable people to register deaths, cancel benefits and tenancies, inform relevant agencies and sort out probate with a single ’sign-on’. Other developments anticipated include a web-based system allowing the electronic sharing of information about deaths by registrars; improved IT facilities installed into registries, connected to the Court Service’s central IT system; and the possibility of pre-populating Department for Work and Pensions forms with information already held.

All these plans raise issues of data protection and the security required to control the safe sharing of information. Hence the is a need for significant legislative changes and as a result the plans are termed ‘aspirational’, with the aim to be completed by 2015.

Are you a Liberal Democrat or Labour supporter living in a constituency expected to go Conservative? Are you questioning the value of your vote? If so, you can now sign up on the website tacticalvoter.net and pledge to “swap” your vote with a Labour or Liberal Democrat supporter in a constituency where a seat is up for grabs.

Organisers hope to wipe-out the Conservatives and see the Liberal Democrats become Britain’s second party. Michael Howard and six shadow cabinet colleagues are at the top of a list of high-profile candidates who are seen as vulnerable at the general election.

The campaign is run by a not-for-profit firm called Howard’s End. It was set up by a group of Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters. Its spokesman, Jason Buckley, a teacher from Essex, said: “For Labour voters, there are seats where voting Lib Dem is a no-brainer. The chance to oust senior Tories like Howard, Letwin, Davis and May is irresistible. The only people voting Labour in these seats should be the candidates and their agents.”

Advocates of vote swapping claim it helped the Liberal Democrat gain in Cheadle in 2001, and Dorset South, where the Labour MP Jim Knight won with a majority of 153.

Clearly, all pledges to swap a vote are based on the honour system. There is the chance the Liberal Democrat voter you have pledged to swap your vote with is actually a Tory in disguise.

The Work Foundation, sponsored by Adobe, has released a report examining the role of ICT in public services this week. Written in the light of both the Gershon and Lyon reviews, it acknowledges the transformational potential of ICT and aims to show why ICT needs to be part of a wider strategy to improve the quality of public services. The report examines three areas: customer focus, value for money and effective management of staff.

On reading the Executive Summary some may find the conclusions of the research self-evident. However, stating the obvious, particularly in the case of public service development, is often deserately needed and necessary - it is well worth reading beyond the first pages.

The conservative right in the UK is taking a page from America’s political playbook. Conservativehome.com, a website that aims to serve as a forum for the revival of Conservative thinking and policies in the UK, started today.

The creators of conservativehome.com hope to use the internet to influence political events, as bloggers in the US have. The American website Drudge Report has been given credit for ousting Dan Rather from CBS news programmes after exposing documents he presented on President Bush’s military service to be false.

Although conservativehome.com will initially be used as a promotion tool for the Conservative party’s election bid, the group behind the site wants it to eventually become a real alternative to broadcast media.

The website, which is independent of the Tory party, was started by Tim Montgomerie, the political secretary to Iain Duncan Smith when he was Tory leader and head of the Conservative Renewing One Nation unit under William Hague.

The site hopes to persuade “social conservatives” to back the Tories at the election. It will favour tax relief, oppose British membership of the euro, support the strengthening of marriage and back pre-emptive action in the “war on terror".

Digital television will permanently replace analogue in parts of Wales tonight, reports the Guardian. The government’s quest to install digital TV in every British home by 2012 begins in the villages of Ferryside and Llansteffan in Carmarthenshire.

After the analogue signal is switched off tonight, the two Welsh villages will join Berlin, in Germany, as the only areas in Europe with digital-only TV signals.

West Sussex County Council are set to launch an online catalogue of over 1,000 e-products as part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s roll out programme for the National Projects.

According to Kablenet, products so far available to local authorities include a digital TV starter kit, a mobile street management system and a document for help in implementing e-payments technology. Roland Mezulis, chief e-government strategist at West Sussex commented that: “The new Product Catalogue brings a wide range of products together in a way that is accessible to the average local authority user or IT supplier.”

The system is currently in the pilot stages of development and will be officially launched on 31st March. Watch this space.

In an attempt to try and reduce the number of people calling local police forces with non-urgent inquiries, the Home Office has launched a website providing the answers to over 500 common queries. The Police FAQs database, launched yesterday by Hazel Blears MP, includes information about missing persons, court appearances, speeding tickets, lost property and anti-social behaviour.

Speaking at the launch Blears explained how the service would save the police time and money by answering online the public’s most common qusetions about UK criminal law and policing. In addition to the FAQ, the website also contains links to the 43 police forces in England and Wales, and tools are in place on the site to allow each police force the opportunity to add specific local information to its regional profile.

As reported on kablenet, the site is part of the existing Police National Legal Database (PNLD) and there are already plans to expand the contents over the coming months, perhaps also making it available via internet kiosks for those without home internet access.

The government has singled out the need to improve employees’ ICT capabilities in a new report on workplace skills. The white paper, Skills: Getting on in Business, Getting on at Work, released this week by the Department for Education and Skills singles out skills in information and communications technology, stating: “The pervasiveness of ICT, both at work and for leisure purposes, means that functional competence in using ICT needs to be counted as an essential skill for the modern world.”

As reported by Silicon, the paper also calls for the improvement of ICT education in schools, particularly for 14-to-19 year olds, and highlights how adults can receive ICT training though venues such as government-backed learndirect facilities. The report also underlines the importance of providing internet and computer access for people who do not have these facilities at home.

In response to the white paper, Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK said: “The future of business in the UK depends upon its ability to exploit IT effectively for competitive advantage - and this requires skills at a much higher level. ” As part of its effort to improve workplace skills, the governement’s new National Employer Training Programme (NETP) will provide public funds for workplace training.

The New Statesman’s Skills For Business Supplement is available here.

The all-party European Information Society Group (Eurim) has issued a seven-point IT manifesto that aims to influence UK party policies before the upcoming election, reports vnunet.

Eurim’s list, which is based on discussions with industry and government, calls for better IT opportunities for students and charities, more unified policing, and a commitment for all UK citizens to have broadband access by 2010.

Only those issues which respondents agreed upon were taken into consideration in drafting the manifesto. This excluded topics such as the adoption of open source or commercial software.

Richard Allen, Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam, said: “There are significant policy differences between the parties on specific applications of technology, like identity cards, to which the Lib Dems are strongly opposed.

“But what is common to all parties is that any future government will be increasingly dependent on IT to deliver its services and for the overall success of the British economy.”

Phillip Virgo, secretary general of Eurim, sees it important to raise these issues, even if candidates disagree over them.

“The problem with the manifesto is that we are in the business of promoting joint working between parties. As such there is no clear blue water or red blood between the parties,” he said.

Eurim brought these proposals before MPs twice before, first launching them a year ago, and having renewed them at the start of the party conference season.

The manifesto can be downloaded here.

A recently published survey shows that 71% of local councils cite engaging with young people as their main priority when establishing e-democracy initiatives. New technologies are changing the way local authorities engage with citizens and many believe young people could benefit most from such projects.

The poll sampled 178 English local authorities and found that e-democracy is still a relatively new undertaking for many councils. Only one in five so far have any kind of e-democracy strategy in place and the level of investment in these initiatives varies widely between local authorities. A further 30% of local authorities have plans to introduce such schemes but have yet to implement their proposals. The most common use of e-democracy are online comments, compliments and complaint systems. Online residents’ surveys are also popular. But, according to the survey, many councils are not doing all that they could, there is often a clear disparity between services offered off-line and those made available online.

The results of the survey, undertaken by the MORI Social Research Institute on behalf of the Local e-democracy National Project, show that these schemes do work and local councils succeed in increasing public involvement in the areas where they have piloted e-democracy tools.

A report released by the London School of Economics (LSE) has found the UK government’s plans to introduce a national biometric ID card deeply flawed, reports Silicon.

Although the LSE is not against the idea of national ID cards, it believes the current proposals are too complex, technically unsafe, overly prescriptive and lacking a foundation of public trust and confidence. The report also raised concerns of the feasibility of the scheme from the IT suppliers who are likely to work on it.

“The proposed system unnecessarily introduces, at a national level, a new tier of technological and organisational infrastructure that will carry associated risks of failure. A fully integrated national system of this complexity and importance will be technologically precarious and could itself become a target for attacks by terrorists or others,” said the LSE

Despite opposition from the Liberal Democrats, the ID card bill was approved by MPs last month, and it is due for its second reading in the House of Lords this week. The government hopes to get it passed into law before the likely May election, but some MPs think it will have to be dropped.

Liberal Democrat MP Richard Allan thinks the government should wait until after the election to re-think its “half-baked” ID card proposal.

“Thankfully it looks like the government will run out of time. If the bill can’t be properly scrutinised then it is entirely wrong to put it on the statute book. It will be best if they quietly let it die and then think again about the whole notion of a national identity register and ID cards,” he said.

The most troubling part of the report was the IT community’s reluctance to endorse the plan, especially since they stand to gain huge profits from government contracts.

Professor Patrick Dunleavy, from the LSE’s government department, told Silicon: “It is troubling contractors and suppliers. There is a chorus of dissent and disquiet about the scheme. We have received input from suppliers that the cost would be considerable and if the process produces a very costly and ultimately failed or only partially successful project this is highly damaging for the firms involved.”

Online fraud experts have reported that internet phone services in the US are more susceptible to caller ID spoofing than landline alternatives. A series of scams over the last few months has highlighted the lower level of security protecting Voice Over Internet Protocol. Some internet phone services allow scam artists to make it appear that they are calling from another phone number, making it possible for them to obtain private financial information and to drain credit accounts.

According to CNN.com VOIP, which has become increasingly popular in the US because of its comparative affordability, remains vulnerable to the same security problems as email. The telecommunication company AT&T also voiced fears that VOIP calls may be more easily monitored or altered. Another potential problem highlighted by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras was that unscrupulous telemarketers will soon be using VOIP to blast consumers with a massive number of voice messages, a technique known as SPIT ("spam over internet telephony.")

While this has yet to become a major issue, caller ID fraud is a growing problem. Caller ID spoofing is not prohibited by US law, but a spokesperson for the US Federal Communications Commission said that telemarketers are required to identify themselves accurately. Currently with some VOIP services, it requires relatively little technical expertise to alter caller ID information.

Wire-transfer services in the US often require users to call from their home phone line as a means of verifying ID, a system open to fraud via VOIP; it is also possible to use this technique to fraudulently access voicemail accounts. Research is underway to devise ways of preventing such fraud but currently these vulnerabilities are still open to exploitation.

A senator from North Carolina is trying to get Solitaire and Minesweeper banned from state workers’ computers, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Republican Senator Austin Allran has sponsored the piece of legislation, saying that taxpayers would be outraged to find out how much time state employees waste at work playing these games.

Allran’s bill is seen as a very specific response to the rising concern of the productivity of America’s newest worker class, the information-technology (IT) professional. Research done by the IRS shows that half the time an IRS employee goes on a computer is spent shopping, gambling, or playing games online.

“We can’t expect people to be saints in the office, but once the fingers have been pointed and the accusations made, there does have to be a standard established for how people use software games and when they use them,” says Peter Sepp, a vice president at the National Taxpayers Union in Alexandria, Va.

Some argue, however, that allowing workers to spend time playing games on the company dime improves productivity. For workers who spend their day staring at a computer screen, pursuing leisure activities on the job could be seen as an expression of individuality that improves morale.

“If you go back to the middle of the 19th century and the writings of Karl Marx, workers under the factory system would lose a considerable amount of their identity and a sense of ownership with what they were doing,” says Bill Snizek, a work sociologist at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. “What employers today have to decide is whether permitting employees at certain prescribed times to gain some amount of psychic enjoyment by playing games will make up for some of the lost identity and pride in work.”

IT workers in North Carolina say that Allran’s bill belittles what they do.

“A popular view of government is that you sit around and take a day to sharpen a pencil, but it’s not like that,” says one woman in North Carolina’s Department of Cultural Resources public-affairs office. “When I was not in state government, sure I’d see [some people playing games], but it’s quite the opposite here. People are just scrambling to get their work done within a normal business day.”

A police station in the Mumbles has unveiled its new interactive kiosk, the first of several South Wales Police intend to introduce across the region later on in the year. The kiosks have been developed in partnership with BT and include a videophone on which people can speak directly to a control room officer at any time.

The kiosks, which will also provide internet access, aim to give the public 24 hour access to the police in areas where that may not have been previously available.

The scheme is being piloted in the Swansea Police Station but South Wales Police plans to install similar units in other police station foyers, as well as in supermarkets and hospital accident and emergency departments. Kiosks will also replace selected BT phone boxes. Paul Hendron, Director of BT Payphones commented: “Although the concept of Police Forces using Multimedia Kiosks is not new, developing video telephony as part of the offering is.”

A number of security features have been included in Mumbles ‘virtual’ police station; if an individual feels threatened they can use the kiosk to seal off the foyer and be monitored by CCTV until a response vehicle arrives.

A spokesperson for South Wales Police insisted that the installations are not being made alongside any closure programme for police stations, but will instead provide an alternative method of contacting the police. While the scheme should make communication with the police easier for those in more remote areas of the region, is it really a satisfactory alternative to a physical police presence?

On Tuesday the New Media Awards Weblog published a story (“Mobile to Ride”) about mobile phones being used as bus or train tickets in Tyne and Wear. Since then, Andy Bairstow, the Commercial Director of Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, has been in touch with a more thorough explanation of this new system.

According to Bairstow, there are over 200 ticket machines in Tyne and Wear that only take coins. For every £1 earned, 10p are needed to manage, maintain, and empty the coinage. Two-thirds of ticket revenue come from coins, which is not a cost-effective way of issuing tickets.

The machines currently being used are too old to be updated so that they can accept credit cards and notes. If customers do not have the right value of coins they can not purchase a ticket. This often forces commuters to buy cheap items, such as newspapers, to get change. Bairstow sees this system as being unfriendly to users.

Mobile phone ticketing is a solution to this problem.

“The mobile phone ticketing trial is an attempt to reduce costs and improve accessibility,” said Bairstow.

Under the new system, customers set up an account with a credit or debit card and text Nexus to purchase a ticket. The value of this is then debited from their account.

An SMS text message is then sent to customers containing a unique code that ticket inspectors can identify. The text includes all the information found on a normal ticket, such as the type of ticket purchased and the time it was bought.

Safeguards have been built in to the system to prevent fare dodging. Customers are unable to forward the message to another phone, and the SMS takes approximately five minutes to reply, preventing tickets from being quickly purchased when an inspector is seen.

“This is very much a trial but is going well,” said Bairstow. “The technology works, and we are currently assessing the market response to it. It has obvious advantages. Customers do not need change, they are not forced to queue for ticket machines, and the tickets can be bought in advance.”

There’s been a lot of talk about the newly developed Red Tacton system of data transfer in this week’s technology press. Developed by Japanese communication company NTT (the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), the technology makes use of weak electric fields on the surface of the body to transfer information.

Red Tacton works by means of transceivers equipped with optical sensors capable of detecting fluctuations in these electric fields. In this way data can be transferred simply by touching your finger to a screen or even by one person touching another. While Blue Tooth and Wi-fi have made ‘personal area networks’ a reality, Red Tacton promises the ability to transfer data at speeds up to 10 Mbps across the surface of the skin.

Data transfer would not just be confined to the surface of the body, it will also be able to travel through clothing. According to Guardian Online a Red Tacton-enabled device would, for example, enable music from an MP3 player in your pocket to pass through your clothing and over your body to the headphones in your ears. Unlike other wireless transmission methods, the transmission speed in these human area networks shoudn’t fade in congested environments, instead an increase in the number of connected users would directly increase the available number of individual communication channels.

Research is underway to enable data carried on your person, in a phone say, or a memory stick, to be transmitted to all nearby computers. While fascinating this is still very much at the laboratory stage of development; whether NTT will deliver on its claims remains to be seen.

Animal rights activists may soon have a new cause to rally against – leather computers. Inclosia Solutions has developed a process called Exo Overmolding that can be used to add leather, fabrics, or metal to PC enclosures, reports CNET News.com.

Before the Exo process was developed, leather would have to be glued to a PC. The Exo process attaches the natural exteriors of leather to the plastic during an injection molding process, which prevents peeling and allows leather to be wrapped around curves and angles without leaving wrinkles. A leather-bound Hewlett-Packard handheld created by Inclosia is already on the market.

“It is permanently fused on,” said Tom Tarnowski, global marketing manager at Inclosia.

Tulip Computers has created six prototypes for leather-bound E-Go notebooks that are expected to be brought to the European market in October 2005.

Tulip was a succesful brand decades ago, selling Commodore PCs in the United States and a variety of PCs in Europe. In the late 1990s, sales began to decline. Tulip hopes that, like Apple Computer did with the original iMac in 1998, it will be able to resurrect its brand by turning the PC into a fashion statement.

Casing a notebook in leather “typically adds a couple of dollars to the cost of a housing,” said Tarnowski. This can translate to better profits. Microsoft currently offers a leather IntelliMouse that costs 20 percent more then the plastic model, although the two are electronically identical.

Parents will soon be able to use the internet to check up on their children’s progress at school under plans unveiled yesterday by Schools’ Minister Derek Twigg. The strategy will utilise new technology across the education system, granting schools, universities and other associated organisations greater capabilities to meet the particular needs of their learners.

In Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children’s Services, Twigg sets out plans to have all schools equipped with broadband by 2006, to improve online services for special needs learners and to use online resources to grant parents greater access to their children’s progress reports.

Under the DfES proposals parents will be able to become more connected with their child’s education. Twigg hopes that these measures will help parents, particularly of secondary school pupils, get around the well-known reluctance of children to discuss their school day, by making the information directly available to them online. A pilot of the scheme is already in operation at Millfields Community School in Hackney where parents are encouraged to contact the school by e-mail.

“Imaginative use of ICT will open up a new world of possibilities in education,” Derek Twigg commented. “As far as I can see, there’s no reason why most information shouldn’t be made available. We’re already talking about giving more information to parents, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be accessed online.”

Many of Twigg’s proposals are still in the planning stages and no date has been set for the scheme to be fully implemented; it doesn’t yet address the needs of parents without home internet access. While some aspects of the scheme will certainly be beneficial to learners, there is the worry that giving parents such access will only increase the existing pressure on many pupils, and anyway what was so wrong with the default answer of “fine” when asked how things went at school?

Residents of Tyne and Wear may soon be able to use their mobile phones as bus or train tickets, reports BBC Online.

Metro operator Nexus is setting up a trial in which tickets will be issued via text messages and fares will be deducted from mobile phone bills.

A similar system is already in place in the Finnish capital Helsinki. Nexus is optimistic that the idea will catch on with the UK’s young, who have the highest rate of mobile use.

The Tyne and Wear trial is being funded by the EU, which is also implementing similar schemes in Bucharest and Bologna.

Nexus hopes the new system will help cut fare dodging, reduce traffic congestion and speed up travel with fewer queues for tickets at machines.

“This system is already 100% operational, with a real live trial of 100 customers underway,” said Nexus Commercial Director Andy Bairstow.

“A lot of time and effort has gone into an idea which makes ticket-buying easier than ever - and this could prove to be a major breakthrough for public transport in the UK.”

The technical specifics of this project are vague, and it is unclear how drivers will identify whether travellers have purchased a ticket on their mobile phone.

The European Commission has launched a new programme to make scientific information more readily available to EU policy makers. The Scientific Information for Policy Support in Europe (SINAPSE) system aims to provide an “interactive library” of opinions and advice from scientists. Launched on 9 March 2005, the system will play a fundamental role in the EU’s Science and Society Action Plan; it already features a ‘yellow pages’ of more than 150 academic organisations and will be used as a means of warning policy makers of potential crises.

Since the mid-1990s, steps have been taken to improve the quality of science used in decision-making by way of independent scientific committees and independent risk assessment agencies. This new scheme hopes to simplify the process considerly by connecting scientists with policy makers directly. EU Science and Research Commissioner, Janez Potocnik commented on the scheme: “I believe we can bring science and society a bit closer together.”

Internet Protocol TV is once again the subject of debate as Microsoft reveals intentions to start expanding their service globally in 2006, joining the list of companies who currently operate or have attempted to launch similar systems.

There have been a number of previous attempts at online television services but they were usually thwarted by lack of bandwidth. Now broadband networks are more established telecommunications companies are keen to take advantage of the situation and start transmitting video.

Ed Graczyk, director of marketing for Microsoft IPTV, discussed the prospects with BBC News Online. “Compression technology was not efficient enough, the net was not good enough,” but an “IPTV ecosystem” has started to take shape over the past year and “2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in South America, and other parts of Asia, it will expand.”

With TV programmes being transmitted via the same channels as web data there will be more scope for interactivity, limitless storage and tailoring of schedule content to viewers’ needs. It will potentially let operators target programmes to smaller, niche or localised audiences.

Seven major telecom companies have already taken up Microsoft’s IPTV Edition software, including US company SBC, and smaller companies Myrio and C-Cor have started to provide similar services of their own. IPTV is also being looked at as a potential distributor for companies who have unique types of content that they cannot cost effectively offer through cable and satellite operators - History Channel archives being the example cited.

It seems likely that, after a long period of false starts and speculation, IPTV could soon become the phenomenon the telecom companies have hoped for.

An adapter has been developed that helps people with hand tremors control a computer mouse. The device uses “steady cam” technology found in camcorders to filter out shaking hand movements, reports BBC Online.

“Using a computer mouse is well known for being extremely hard for people with tremors, so we’re delighted to hear that a technology has been developed to address this problem,” said Karen Walsh, from the UK National Tremor Foundation.

IBM researcher Jim Levine developed the prototype for the Assistive Mouse Adapter (AMA) after seeing his uncle, who has Parkinson’s disease, struggle with mouse control.

“My uncle had a pretty bad tremor in his early 80s. One time he tried to use the computer in my house and he simply couldn’t do it. He simply couldn’t use the mouse,” said Levine.

About three million Britons have some sort of hand tremor condition. Although people over 40 years old are more commonly affected, conditions like Essential Tremor (ET) are genetic and can hit all ages. Parkinson’s disease is the leading cause of tremors.

As the population ages, the number of elderly computer users will increase. For the first time last year, the Office of National Statistics reported that more than half of all households in Britain had a home computer. AMA could allow people who begin to suffer from tremors to continue using a computer.

AMA is an adapter box that a PC mouse plugs into. It manipulates data from the mouse before sending it to the computer’s operating system. A knob can control the degree of tremor tuned out depending on the severity of a user’s condition. In addition to steadying erratic movements of the cursor on the screen, AMA is able to recognise erroneous multiple clicking on a mouse button.

IBM said it would partner up with a small UK-based electronics firm, Montrose Secam, to produce the devices, which will cost about £70. Jim Cosgrave, one of Montrose Secam’s directors, said a prototype of the device has transformed his life.

“I’m a pilot and my tremor condition has not limited my ability to fly a plane,” he said. “But using a PC has proven almost impossible simply because everything revolves around using the mouse to accurately manipulate the tiny cursor on the screen.”

Israeli foot soldiers are field testing a wrist-mounted device that receives video images from unmanned aircrafts. Target information that used to be beamed to a control centre is now transmitted direct to military personnel.

As reported on CNN, the video screen is about 3 inches wide and very lightweight; code-named V-Rambo, it’s attached to the wrist by a Velcro strap. The screens display color video that is beamed directly from military drones in real time at 30 frames per second. A larger version of the device has already been introduced in Israeli attack helicopters.

Itzhak Beni, a chief executive with the Elisra Group talked about how the new communications system would “shorten tremendously” the time needed to identify and strike a target. “Before, it was minutes - 10 to 12 minutes. Now it’s a matter of seconds.” Palestinian lawmaker and human rights advocate Hanan Ashrawi called the system “a case of overkill.” The Israeli army declined to comment about the new technology.

Beni also commented that his company is planning to use the technology in the tactical unmanned ground vehicles they are developing with the US Marines, currently code-named “Gladiator.”

Biscuit testers across the UK may soon find themselves out of a job. Staff at the Mcvitie’s laboratory has invented a mannequin that tests the amount of crumbs biscuits produce when eaten.

The motorised Crumb Test Dummy has plastic teeth and is designed to replicate human eating, reports BBC Online. The amount of crumbs produced by a biscuit determines whether it has been cooked to perfection, said a Mcvitie’s spokeswoman.

“Eating lots of biscuits is obviously an enjoyable prospect for most people, but we haven’t yet found a human who can test on this scale,” Mcvitie’s brand manager Liz Ashdown added. “The Crumb Test Dummy has a never-ending appetite and doesn’t need to stop for breath.”

Lewisham council are encouraging residents to report incidents of graffiti and other anti-social behaviour by sending picture evidence via their camera phones. This new service has been developed by the council in parallel with their work with ENCORE the Environment and Community Online Residents E-Services, part of the ODPM’s National Project.

Residents can also use the system to report fly-tipping, abandoned cars and other environmental issues that require council follow-up. The images supplied by the public are catalogued on the council’s LoveLewisham website alongside updates about any resulting clean-ups. If this sceme is successful it will be interesting to see if expands into other London boroughs.

Elderly and vulnerable residents of the South Tyneside area are being offered a text alert service to warn them about rogue traders and doorstep cons. Operated by the council’s Trading Standards team, over 100 vulnerable residents and their carers have already signed up to the scheme. Age Concern has commended the project as it acknowledges the fact that, though a large percentage of elderly people are mobile phone users, their needs are not often catered to via this medium.

To join up all residents need do is text the word ‘doorstep’ to a given number and they will receive regular warnings. Iain Malcolm, Deputy Leader of the Council and Chair of the Customer Services and E-Government Steering Group, said of the pilot scheme: “This is yet another way that we are increasing our services to crack-down on cowboy traders and make South Tyneside a safer place for people to live.”

Recently, the area has suffered a spate of doorstep scams, which have included people posing as social workers. In addition to the text service, residents with internet access can use the council’s website to report such incidents and check if rogue traders are operating in their area, while those without internet access or a mobile can still telephone the council’s contact centre for the relevant information.

Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator MTN will attempt to bring internet services to South Africa in June. The launch of third generation technology (3G) will make internet access available via mobile phones to millions of the world’s poorest people, reports CNN.com. The new service aims to deliver football scores, weather forecasts, video, and music to parts of Africa where nearly half the population has never used a phone.

“This is an opportunity to bring Africa into the information age,” said Karel Pienaar, chief technology officer at MTN.

Plans to bring third generation technology to Africa were nearly put on hold due to the high prices European operators were spending to secure government licences to start 3G services. In the UK alone, Vodafone spent almost £6 billion acquiring its 20-year 3G license. South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa where introducing 3G could make commercial sense.

Approximately 40 per cent of South Africa’s population own mobile phones, compared with an average level of 6 per cent across the rest of the continent. Although sceptics argue that high prices for bulky handsets (more than £200) and poor infrastructure mean it will be a long time before much of Africa is on the web, wireless provides the quickest means of getting there. The fact that few fixed-line operators can afford to roll out telephone lines across the continent’s rough terrain makes wireless connection the best way to deliver access.

“Given the demand for internet access, wireless technologies could provide the solution to Africa’s internet future,” said the International Telecommunication Union.

But should the internet be a top priority for Africa? Experts argue that Africans already use available technology to tackle the continent’s problems; rural HIV/AIDS sufferers in South Africa are currently monitored by SMS, and fishermen in Senegal get tip-offs on which local market is offering the best price for a haul. With the internet, more could be done, including attracting foreign direct investment. With only 1.4 per cent of Africa’s 800 million people on the web, internet access is crucial in helping it catch up with the rest of the world.

While third generation technology may improve the lives of many Africans, widespread use is predicted to be at least 5-10 years away. 3G has been slow to take off in parts of Europe and the United States, and MTN forecasts only 10-15 per cent of Africans will own 3G phones by 2010.

“In the short term it will remain a nice toy for the affluent,” said Arthur Goldstuck, head of the South African technology research company World Wide Worx.

Mobile phone security has taken a page from a James Bond script. A Japanese software company has recently developed a phone containing an anti-theft camera that recognises the face of its owner.

Omron Corportation’s system enables phone owners to save a photograph of themselves on their handset. To activate the phone, owners must take a new photograph of themselves that matches the original, preventing the phone from being used by a thief.

The Metropolitan Police state that half of all street robberies contain the theft of a mobile phone. Given current concerns over identity theft, people who use mobiles for secure transactions could find Omron’s technology useful.

“Mobile devices are carrying increasingly personal information, including address books, schedules and payment information,” said Masato Kawade, senior manager of Omron’s sensing technology laboratory in Kyoto, in Tuesday’s Guardian. “This technology has been designed to protect this information even when the phone is lost or stolen.”

The process works by measuring the distances between key points on the face, such as the eyes, nose, and mouth. The software takes one second to work and only uses 370 Kb of a mobile’s memory. Omron says that in tests the security device worked 99% of the time. However, some experts doubt that mobiles will be able to handle such a complex system.

“If the face is turned through a few degrees compared with their stored face, then the measurements will change,” Alan Robinson, a research scientist at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, told the New Scientist. “Although it is possible to deal with this pose problem, the better solution is to use 3D methods, which will record the surface of the face irrespective of pose.”

Garrett Graff, the editor of FishbowlDC, a blog on the Media Bistro website, became the first online diarist to be granted a pass to a White House press briefing.

Graff spent a week trying to obtain entry before the White House Press Office persuaded Bush’s spokesman Scott McClellan to grant him a day press pass.

Graff filed his first report yesterday from the Brady briefing room, following McCellan’s initial morning briefing, a camera-free session referred to as ‘the gaggle’ where the topics covered included an official visit by the King and Queen and Norway, and Mrs Bush’s trip to Pittsburgh. Graff was also able to attend the main press briefing later in the day where McCellan answered questions on Lebanon and the war on terror.

His report gave a balanced acount of daily media activities in the West Wing, touching on the tedium and the sardonic banter between experienced White House correspondants, as well as the official press activities. Graff wasn’t impressed with the conditions in the press briefing room calling it “dilapidated” and “dreary.”

The White House’s decision to grant him entry recognises the growing influence of online commentators.

New viruses could paralyse mobile phone systems in the UK, experts warn. The Sunday Times reported yesterday that an epidemic of viruses is on the way that threatens businesses and leaves confidential information on handsets accessible to hackers.

Within two years nine million Britons will operate phones that use computer technology, leaving many mobiles susceptible to bugs. Consulting firm Deloitte believes businesses face the highest risk and stand to lose millions of pounds to hacking and viruses.

“A growing dependence on electronic devices means that both consumers and businesses are increasingly vulnerable to attack,” said Tony Cooper, telecoms and technology partner with Deloitte. “It’s no longer a question of if, but when.”

Caliber, the first mobile phone virus, appeared last year. It wears out a phone’s battery by sending non-stop transmissions to nearby handsets via Bluetooth, the technology that allows users to connect to their laptops or communicate with other phones without using wires. As the sophistication of phone viruses increases, it is suspected that hackers will be able to destroy files and inflate telephone bills by forcing users to dial premium rate numbers.

Viruses cause millions of pounds of damage to computer systems every year, and there are now more mobile phones than PCs in the world. Although mobile phone companies Nokia and Virgin Mobile said this weekend they believe there will be no serious virus outbreak in the near future, they are currently putting security measures in place in preparation for a widespread attack.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released survey results indicating that the internet surpassed radio as a source for political news in the United States for the first time last year. The survey by the non-profit research centre explored the impact of the internet on families, communities, civic and political life in the US, showed that, while television remained the dominant medium for most voters, there was a significant increase in those whose main source of political news was the internet.

Twenty-nine percent of US adults used the internet as a means of getting political news in 2004, with eighteen percent saying it was their main source of political news. The survey cited covenience as the main reason people got their political news online. However more than half also said the internet appealed to them as it gave them access to information not available elsewhere.

For those with a broadband connection at home, the internet rivaled newspapers in importance. The survey also showed that supporters of Senator John Kerry were more likely to say the internet helped them settle on a candidate in last year’s election. It will be interesting to see what effect the internet will have on the British general election.

Alan Jackson, secretary of state for work and pensions, is behind a new service that offers online pension advice. Pensions At Work was launched on 1 March 2005 following a recommendation in the Employer Task Force (ETP) report, published in December last year.

The website offers advice and examples of good practice in employer pension provision. Johnson commented: “I am pleased to announce that with the launch of this website we have taken an important step towards ensuring that every employer who wishes to provide their employees with a decent pension scheme has the necessary tools to do so.”

ETF chair Sir Peter Davis says of the service: “By drawing together all existing material on good practice, offering helpful advice and giving support to companies, this website will provide assistance and guidance to employers to help them meet the pensions challenge.”

Hmm, let’s wait and see…

Ling House Medical Centre and Co-operative Group Pharmacy in Keighley, West Yorkshire has become the first pharmacy in the UK to begin using the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions Service. The pharmacy is part of a pilot programme to test technical stability before the scheme is expanded across the UK by the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

At first patients will continue to receive their prescriptions on paper but the information will also be transmitted electronically from their GPs and other prescribers to their pharmacy. In addition the prescriptions will be sent electronically to the Prescription Pricing Authority, the organisation that reimburses community pharmacies for the medication they have supplied to patients.

The NPfIT hopes that as a result of the system pharmacists will need to do a lot less re-keying of data and will have access to better and clearer information. Patients will be able to choose where they collect their prescriptions which will save them time, and the costs of managing the payment for prescriptions will be reduced.

The full service is intended to go live in April, after a review by pharmacists and GP users groups, though pharmacies will be given some time to update their dispensing systems. The NPfIT has come in for some criticism of late but if this scheme is successful it will be beneficial to both patients and pharmacists alike.

People in the UK can now make free phone calls over the net from laptops and handheld computers. According to the BBC, wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype will implement this service at 350 hotspots this week, including major train stations.

To take advantage of this offering, users need a Skype account, available for free download at www.skype.com. They will then be able to make PC-based calls to other Skype users.

Skype is a two-year old company based in Luxembourg. It specialises in software for laptops and mobile devices to make telephone calls over the public internet. Broadreach - founded five years ago - operates public wireless internet hotspots in Great Britain. It is available on Eurostar, Network Rail, and will launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later this year. It also can be found in various hotels and stores across the UK.

Broadreach currently charges £3 per hour for internet access, but its network will be free for consumers making calls with a Skype account.

“We want Skype to be ubiquitous. This is part of our strategy to make Skype available wirelessly,” said Niklas Zennstrom, Skype’s co-founder and chief executive.

Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King said, “Skype’s success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known, and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots.”

A new project has equpped students in Kenyan primary schools with handhelds. The scheme, which has been introduced by EduVision, a non governmental organisation, utilises a low cost computer system to get up-to-date information to students.

The project uses a combination of satellite radios and handheld computers called E-slates as they are cheaper than installing and maintaining a conventional computer network. Though still in the pilot stages, the scheme aims to replace the students’ physical textbooks, which are often dated and in bad condition, with a single integrated system.

Despite being very easy to set up the system is not perfect, the one-way connection means it is presently not possible for students to get feedback via the E-slates.

EduVision already has plans to extend the Linux based system into areas without mains electricity by using solar powered technology. One designer of the system, Maciej Sundra, says that the scheme’s ultimate goal is to level access to knowledge around the world. Even on its present scale the project should vastly improve the educational opportunities of Kenyan students.

Many patients in the United States can now e-mail their doctors with medical questions. According to The New York Times, some healthcare providers and medical groups in the US are beginning to pay doctors who work within this system.

In a bid to improve productivity and cut-down on wasteful costs, healthcare providers are encouraging patients to e-mail their doctors concerning diet, post-surgical care, and other topics. Answering concerns through e-mail will allow doctors to spend more time with patients who need to be seen in person, and it will give patients more flexibility in terms of when they can communicate with their doctor.

Brian Settlemoir, 39, an accountant in Folsom, CA, is amazed at the convenience of this new offering. He used it to inquire about the dosage of a medication he was taking after his cholesterol dropped.

“I’m sitting at work,” Mr. Settlemoir said. “I’ve got e-mail open anyway. It’s much easier than calling and getting voice-mail prompts and sitting on hold. It’s very valuable to me.”

Doctors are also enthusiastic about this new service which they see as being especially helpful to patients with chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma and heart problems.

“Patients love this stuff; I love this stuff; the staff loves this stuff,” said Dr. Barbara Walters, a senior medical director at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. “The intelligence of our patients never ceases to amaze me,” Dr. Walters said. “Patients can describe what’s going on with them, if given the chance and given the time.”

Doctors will be paid between $24 to $30 (£13 to £16) for each online consultation. Blue Cross of California has made the program available to 160,000 of its 6 million health plan members. Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield recently began a trial run with New York doctors at the Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical Centers.

Online consulting can also be used to sort out medical malpractice lawsuits. Unlike telephone conversations, which are undocumented, e-mail correspondences are saved. “Good communications with patients is protective,” said Frank A. Sloan, an economist at Duke University who has studied malpractice suits. “This kind of interaction is helpful.”

The effects of this program are yet to be seen, and conerns regarding its costliness should be called into question. According to the American College of Physicians, this is part of a trend in which doctors charge patients for services that have traditionally been free. These services are not limited to e-mail. The Associated Press reports that doctors now charge for copies of medical records and up to $20 for the forms people need to apply for medical-leave benefits.