University of California - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• For future wearables, the network could be you

  UC San Diego researchers have developed a magnetic-field network to link wearable devices through the user's body.

• Robot apocalypse unlikely, but researchers need to understand AI risks

  Recent concerns from tech luminaries about a robot apocalypse may be overblown, but artificial intelligence researchers need to start thinking about security measures as they build ever more intelligent machines, according to a group of AI experts.

• Wi-Fi signals can do rough head counts

  We're all walking around in a soup of Wi-Fi signals, but researchers say they can be put to another use -- counting people.

• The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, May 20

  Six from China charged in US IP theft... ARM teams with Unicef on wearables... Microsoft previewing new Office for Android apps... and more tech news.

• Three Japanese win physics Nobel for invention of blue LED

  Three Japanese who succeeded in inventing efficient blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) where many companies had failed have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

• Could drones get X-ray vision through Wi-Fi?

  Researchers have developed mobile robots that can use Wi-Fi signals to effectively "see through" walls. It's raising the possibility of flying drones using the technology to see inside buildings.

• University researchers develop glasses-free display

  Fumbling around for your near-vision glasses to read the tablet screen? University researchers may have come up with a way to alleviate that problem.

• Flashy, storage-happy supercomputers due in 2015

  Supercomputing speed is typically boosted by adding more processors, but two new systems funded by the National Science Foundation due to go live next January will take an unconventional approach to speed up calculations and data analysis.

• The surprise power hog for mobile storage: software

  Flash storage can be a big power consumer in mobile devices, but it's not the flash that sucks up all that energy, it's the software that goes with it, according to researchers from the University of California at San Diego and Microsoft.

• Bitcoin offers privacy -- as long as you don't cash out or spend it

  On the surface, Bitcoin seems to be a great way to hide cash. Actually, it's a terrible way to launder money.

• NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope continues mission

  NASA's space hunter, the Kepler Space Telescope, has wrapped up its prime mission and is moving into an extended four-year plan to continue searching for other worlds.

• Move over flash: Here comes phase-change memory

  University of California, San Diego researchers next week plan to demonstrate a solid state storage device that uses phase-change memory to blow away traditional hard drives and even newer flash drives.

• Web sites are stealing browser histories

  Certain Web sites probe visiting browsers for data that can be used to help criminals craft phishing attacks that compromise the accounts of online banking customers, researchers have found.