SECRETS OF USB: Do you keep all your secrets on a USB stick? The Crypteks USB drive uses 256 bit AES hardware encryption to help keep it safe, but more than that it adds a combination lock sleeve to keep it extra safe. Without the correct combination from more than 14 million possibilities the USB stick can't be removed from the sleeve. Spies and politicians take note. Crypteks have more.
SECRETS OF PAPER: On TV investigators may quickly reassemble shredded papers for the vital clues they need, but in real life it's not that simple. US agency DARPA set it as a challenge with a $50,000 prize to find the messages in a pile of shredded paper. The winning team used a visual recognition program they created to help a user find and place the right pieces. After 33 days of work the team was successful in sorting the 10,000 pieces of paper. Better keep those secrets on a double-encrypted USB stick! Wired has details.
LED SECRETS: We always seem to want things faster, cheaper and using less energy. A special ultrafast nanoscale LED from Stanford University can transmit data on a computer chip at 10 billion bits per second. This LED operates at room temperature and like a laser, it emits light at only a single wavelength. The LED is made of quantum dots of the light-emitting material indium arsenide. Tiny holes etched in a semiconductor around the quantum dots act as a mirror to focus the light. The team claim the system is 2,000 times more energy efficient than best devices in use today. The laser that isn't a laser? Stanford University.
PLANE SECRETS: Stealth aircraft like to hide, so they're often painted in black or other dark colours. At the University of Michigan scientists are working with carbon nanotubes that absorb absorb a broad spectrum of light almost perfectly. If carbon nanotubes are grown with spaces between them they don't scatter light, meaning that radar signals, for example, don't bounce back. This finding could lead to a paint containing the nanotubes. That paint could then cover stealth aircraft with an invisibility cloak. A completely invisible plane could be a danger on the airfield though — they'd have to leave the lights on all the time to be able to find it. Technology Review has more.
NO SECRETS: German and Japanese scientists have teamed up to create Mask-bot: a human-like face for a robot. They use a projector to beam the 3D image of a human face onto the back of a plastic mask, while a computer controls the voice and facial expressions. The prototype manages to look a lot like a real talking person. Mask-bot displays realistic 3D heads on a transparent plastic mask, unlike other similar devices that simply project a face onto the front of the mask. The system works in daylight, thanks to a strong projector and a coat of luminous paint. A computer algorithm matches specific expressions to phonemes, and applies appropriate expressions for emotional nuances. The researchers think this could be useful in creating a companion robot for older people. At least it would have an off switch. Science Daily.