Robots test their own world wide web

14 January 2014 Last updated at 07:38 ET

A world wide web for robots to learn from each other and share information is being shown off for the first time.

Scientists behind RoboEarth will put it through its paces at Eindhoven University in a mocked-up hospital room.

Four robots will use the system to complete a series of tasks, including serving drinks to patients.

It is the culmination of a four-year project, funded by the European Union.

The eventual aim is that both robots and humans will be able to upload information to the cloud-based database, which would act as a kind of common brain for machines.

Common brain

The system has been developed by research scientists from Philips and five European universities including Eindhoven.

"At its core RoboEarth is a world wide web for robots: a giant network and database repository where robots can share information and learn from each other," said Rene van de Molengraft, the RoboEarth project leader.

The four robots selected to test the system in a public demonstration will "work collaboratively" to help patients, he told the BBC.

One robot will upload a map of the room so that others can find their way around it, others will attempt to serve drinks to patients.

"The problem right now is that robots are often developed specifically for one task," he said.

"Everyday changes that happen all the time in our environment make all the programmed actions unusable."

The aim of the system is to create a kind of ever-changing common brain for robots.

"A task like opening a box of pills can be shared on RoboEarth, so other robots can also do it without having to be programmed for that specific type of box," he added.

Home robots

The cloud-based system will also mean that some of the robot's computing or thinking tasks can be offloaded, meaning that a robot wouldn't need so much onboard computing or battery power.

Robot assistants are likely to be available in homes within 10 years, experts believe.

It is already possible to buy robot vacuum cleaners, robots that wash the windows and robot lawnmowers.

More humanoid robots, able to assist disabled or elderly people, are now being developed.

Author James Barrat, who has written extensively about the dangers of robots gaining their own intelligence, thinks there need to be safeguards.

"In the short term, RoboEarth adds security by building in a single point of failure for all participating robots," he said.

"In the longer term, watch out when any of the nodes can evolve or otherwise improve their own software. The consequences of sharing that capability with the central 'mind' should be explored before it happens."

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Net neutrality threatened by court

15 January 2014 Last updated at 07:58 ET

A US federal appeals court has rejected rules intended to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from prioritising certain types of content.

Net neutrality is the principle that ISPs should not block web traffic for customers who pay less to give faster speeds to those who pay more.

The US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) adopted the rules in 2010.

They were challenged by ISP Verizon, which claimed the FCC was overstepping its legal authority. The court agreed.

Supporters of net neutrality said the ruling was a major threat to how people use the internet.

'Free speech'

The rules were designed to ensure that small or start-up organisations had as much chance of reaching an online audience as a large, established company.

But broadband providers argue that some traffic-heavy sites - for example, YouTube or Netflix - put a strain on their infrastructure.

They say they should be able to charge such content providers so that users who pay more can get faster access to those sites than other customers.

As a consequence, companies who did not pay would find that access to their services could be slower for customers.

Verizon had said in September 2013 that if it were not for net neutrality rules they would be looking at different pricing models.

In a statement released after the ruling Verizon said that the court's decision would not affect customers' ability to access and use the internet as they do now.

"The court's decision will allow more room for innovation, and consumers will have more choices to determine for themselves how they access and experience the internet," it said.

The boss of BitTorrent - a system for sharing large files using peer-to-peer technology - warned that the court's decision would be a major threat to innovation, free speech and "the internet as we know it."

"For the ISPs, it's a momentous decision. This ruling will consolidate their powerful role as arbiters of culture and speech.

"And we can expect this consolidation to escalate now that big content and big networks have been given an unambiguous green light.

"For everyone else, permission to play - the ability to even compete - will come at a cost," said chief executive Eric Klinker

The FCC said it would consider appealing.

Chairman Tom Wheeler said: "We will consider all available options, including those for appeal, to ensure that these networks on which the internet depends continue to provide a free and open platform for innovation and expressions."

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Kanye West sues online currency

Kanye West has filed a lawsuit in the US to stop production of Coinye West, saying they unjustly cash in on his fame.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Manhattan, seeks to stop companies and unidentified people from exchanging the digital currency.

It is also asking for damages for hurting the rapper's reputation.

However, its makers appear to have backed down from a court case after a message was posted on Twitter.

"#BLAMEKANYE Coinye devs have dispersed. New ownership, better things coming," the @CoinyeCoins tweet said.

One of the websites linked with Coinye also posted a message on its homepage reading "Coinye is dead. You win, Kanye".

West's lawsuit says the creators of the digital coins "brazenly admit" they used his name and likeness to associate their new currency with the rapper.

Its creators used a cartoon image of a coin featuring the musician in large sunglasses.

The lawsuit also claims the people behind the currency boasted it couldn't be stopped whether it "looks like a dollar, a dog or a cartoon picture of a rapper".

Coinye, also known as crypto-currency, is similar to Bitcoin, a paperless currency people can use like cash anywhere in the world.

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Google to buy Nest Labs for $3.2bn

13 January 2014 Last updated at 17:59 ET

Google has announced plans to buy thermostat maker Nest Labs for $3.2bn (£2bn), continuing a string of recent acquisitions.

Google said the cash deal was expected to be completed in the next few months.

California-based Nest Labs was founded by two former Apple executives.

It produces a thermostat capable of learning user behaviour and working out whether a building is occupied or not, using temperature, humidity, activity and light sensors.

The firm will continue to be run by chief executive Tony Fadell and maintain its own distinct identity, Google said in a statement.

"Nest's founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team that we are excited to welcome into the Google family," said Google chief executive Larry Page.

iPod 'father'

Mr Fadell was head of Apple's music division until he left the firm in 2008.

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The BBC's David Grossman: "This confirms that Google is no longer just a search engine company"

He is known as the "father of the iPod" for his work on the first 18 generations of Apple's music player and was also involved in the hardware design of the original iPhone.

Mr Fadell told the BBC that he first came into contact with Google in 2011 through a "chance meeting" with the firm's co-founder, Sergey Brin.

He said he showed Mr Brin an early version of the Nest thermostat. He liked it and many Google staff members later installed it in their homes.

"They've always been keen on what we were doing, because they thought we had a crazy idea and they love crazy ideas," Mr Fadell said.

Google's purchase of Nest Labs follows its acquisition of military robot-maker Boston Dynamics last month and of human-gesture recognition start-up Flutter in October.

The search giant did not release any details of those deals.

The biggest deal in Google's history to date was its acquisition of mobile phone firm Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn in August 2011.

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Smartphone wallet backed by banks

14 January 2014 Last updated at 20:01 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Five UK lenders are to add a mobile payment facility called Zapp to their smartphone and tablet apps.

It will allow their customers to pay for goods or services in shops or online without the need for cash or a credit card.

The firm behind the tech - Vocalink - suggests it is more secure than alternatives since a user's bank details are not shared.

But other mobile wallet products have had mixed fortunes in the UK.

Continue reading the main story

The fact that leading banks have committed themselves to Zapp means that it is likely to be a serious contender in the race to manage our cyber-wallets.

Those same banks could transfer their favours to rival systems, though, depending on which ones shoppers decide are most convenient and safe.

The banks themselves are working on a service customers can use to pay friends or small traders using just their mobile phone numbers.

Zapp looks like it might be most useful for online shopping, as a competitor for PayPal.

And it will try to make inroads into the "tap or wave" market, where people can pay by holding a card or device close to the terminal in the shop.

The terminals are a potential limiting factor in this revolution.

Shops and banks have to be persuaded that it is worth changing them, to be able to handle the new methods of paying.

Telefonica announced last week that it was shutting down its O2 Wallet service just 18 months after it launched. The firm had required members to transfer funds into its app before using it.

The firm said it now wanted to find "better ways" to make mobile payments.

Barclays Bank continues to offer Pingit - an app that allows users to link their bank accounts to their mobile numbers in order to transfer funds to each other and a selection of retailers.

PayPal also offers an app that allows consumers to make and receive digital payments, but requires them to provide it with their bank or credit card details. Orange's Quick Tap and Moneto are other examples of phone-based payment systems.

One analyst suggested that the fact Zapp would be integrated into existing banking apps - meaning users would only need to accept the relevant terms and conditions to start using it - should give the service an advantage.

"We carried out a survey of 15,000 consumers across 15 markets including the UK and one of the questions we asked was, 'Who would you trust most to handle mobile payments?'" said Eden Zoller from the telecoms consultancy Ovum.

"Most said banks and financial companies. So, it's pretty smart for a payment service provider to align itself very closely to these organisation and integrate itself into their existing apps."

Digital receipts

HSBC, First Direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank are the first lenders to announce they will adopt Zapp ahead of its launch, which is planned for the autumn.

Consumers will be able to use it in a variety of ways:

• If making a purchase online via smart device, selecting Zapp at checkout will launch their banking app which will then contain details of the transaction
• If shopping via a PC, clicking on Zapp's icon will send a notification to their smart device, which, when selected, will launch the banking app and give it the necessary data
• Bills received by post can be paid by using the smart device's camera to scan a QR barcode printed in the paperwork that will provide details of the charge to the app
• If shopping in a store the app will either receive a payment request by tapping the phone on an NFC (near field communication) terminal, by scanning a QR code from a screen or by typing in a six-digit code provided by the till operator

In each case, to complete the payment the smart device owner will need only to tap a button in the banking app.

"We will be the only payment method where at the point of sale the customer can see the real-time balance of their accounts," Zapp's chief executive Peter Keenan told the BBC.

"This allows them to say, 'I've got this much money in my account, shall I go ahead and buy this product or not?'

"And because they are using a smartphone, it allows them to keep a record of all their spending and purchases in one device."

He added that the firm's range of partners should reassure retailers weighing up the cost of installing the necessary equipment.

In addition to the banks, Vocalink has also struck deals with several leading payment processors used by British stores. These firms will pay Vocalink a fee each time Zapp is used.

But Ms Zoller said the company needed to convince other banks and the wider public of the service's merits if it was to fulfil its potential.

"Digital wallets can be quite a difficult proposition for consumers to get their head around," she said.

"What we've seen in other cases is that consumers may look at and even try them, but they have not been convinced they provide real additional value or convenience beyond contactless cards or even cash."

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Facebook to share data with Yandex

15 January 2014 Last updated at 00:35 ET

Facebook has agreed a deal to share public data from its users with Yandex - Russia's largest search engine.

The deal will give Yandex full access to public data from users in Russia, Turkey and CIS countries including Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The data includes users' posts and comments on them. Profiles or posts set to "private" will not be searchable.

The move is expected to help Yandex improve search results and boost traffic on Facebook in Russia.

"In the near future, Yandex's search results will display not only Facebook users' posts but also others' comments on them," Yandex said in a statement.

"Users can find out what those on the social network are saying about the current headline news events, for example, or the latest movies."

'Better representation'

Continue reading the main story

We see one of our key tasks as being the creation of social search services"

End Quote Yandex

Facebook, the world's biggest social networking site, trails domestic players in the Russian market.

The firm has been making a push to boost its presence in emerging markets as it looks to sustain the high level of user growth amid growing competition.

Yandex, which is the leading search engine in Russia, said that it would take into consideration the popularity of things on Facebook while ranking search results.

It said that getting full access to the social network's public data meant that "Facebook will be better represented in Yandex's search results".

"We see one of our key tasks as being the creation of social search services, using content from all the popular social networks in equal measure.

"This would allow a user to find an old friend without having to register on every single social network one after another," it added.

Yandex did not disclose the value of the deal, but various reports indicated that it did not involve any cash.

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NSA could 'spy on offline computers'

15 January 2014 Last updated at 06:47 ET

The US National Security Agency (NSA) used secret technology to spy on computers that were not even connected to the internet, it has been reported.

Citing documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New York Times said 100,000 machines were fitted with small devices that emitted radio waves.

Targets included the Chinese and Russian military as well as drug cartels, the newspaper claimed.

On Friday, the US President is expected to address concerns over NSA activity.

Quoting sources "briefed" on Barack Obama's plans, the Times reported that restrictions on the scope of collecting bulk telephone data will feature, and that a person will be appointed to represent the views of the public in secret intelligence meetings.

Furthermore, tighter controls on foreign surveillance will be implemented - an attempt, the paper suggests, to dampen the political fall-out from revelations the US had obtained data from the communication tools of world leaders without their knowledge.

Offline access

This latest leak details how the NSA accessed targets by inserting tiny circuit boards or USB cards into computers and using radio waves to transmit data without the need for the machine to be connected to a wider network.

It is a significant revelation in that it undermines what was seen to be one of the simplest but most effective methods of making a system secure: isolating it from the internet.

While the technology involved is not new, its apparent implementation by US security services was previously unknown.

In a statement made to the New York Times, an NSA spokeswoman said none of the targets were in the US, adding: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against - valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements.''

"We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of - or give intelligence we collect to - US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."

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Man jailed for concealing password

15 January 2014 Last updated at 07:35 ET

A man has been jailed for refusing to give police the password to a memory stick that they could not crack.

Syed Hussain, 22, from Luton, was convicted of failing to provide police with the password to the stick seized in a counter-terrorism operation.

He was already in jail for being part of a cell that considered attacking a Territorial Army base in the town.

He said he had forgotten the password until a fraud probe was launched. The judge jailed him for four more months.

Sending Hussain back to prison, Old Bailey judge Richard Marks said the defendant's deliberate failure and refusal to comply with a police notice to provide the password was a very serious matter because it had potentially hampered investigations.

Hussain and three other men were jailed in 2012 after admitting discussing attacking the town's TA headquarters by placing a homemade bomb on to a remote controlled toy car.

When Hussain was arrested in April 2012, police seized a USB memory stick from his home - but they discovered the information on the device was protected by sophisticated encryption technology.

Hussain told detectives that he could not remember the password because he was suffering from stress - which meant they could not access its contents.

Police called in experts from GCHQ, the government's secret eavesdropping and communications agency, but even they were unable to crack the device.

Police and prosecutors gave Hussain a deadline of last January to reveal the password - but his lawyers maintained that he had forgotten it.

Eleven months later police told Hussein's lawyers they had launched a fresh investigation into alleged credit card fraud by Hussain - and within days he revealed the memory stick's password was "$ur4ht4ub4h8", a play on words relating to a chapter of the Koran.

Police accessed the memory stick and found it contained information relating to the ongoing inquiry into alleged fraud - but nothing relating to terrorism or national security.

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Sex offence web addresses screened

15 January 2014 Last updated at 09:22 ET

All new web addresses registered in the UK will be screened for terms that signal or encourage serious sexual offences.

Nominet, the organisation that oversees all the UK's web addresses, said all domain names will be checked within 48 hours of registration.

If an address is found to contain a prohibited term it will be suspended or de-registered.

Existing web addresses will also come under the new rules.

Nominet took this course of action after the publication of a policy review by former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald.

'Criminal acts'

In his report he recommended that the company implemented post-registration screening specifically for domain names that "signal sex-crime content".

Nominet has not published the list of prohibited terms.

However, Lord Macdonald said Nominet should limit their screening to sex-crime terms only, as there was a better chance of these being identified than other, more general, forms of criminality.

He also said the firm should have "no role in policing questions of taste or offensiveness on the internet".

Eleanor Bradley, chief operating officer at Nominet told the BBC that the registration service was not trying to censor the internet.

Legitimate names protected

"This is not about domain names that offend, or about swear words, it is about criminal acts relating to sexual offences," she said.

Once a domain name is registered it will be examined by a computer algorithm looking for terms relating to sex crimes.

Any address that is flagged as containing one of the prohibited words or phrases will then be checked by a human. This is to ensure that legitimate domain names are not suspended unnecessarily.

An example of a legitimate website, that might be flagged by the algorithm, is one set up to help victims of rape. Or where a flagged word is contained within another word.

Any domain name containing a sex crime term that does not appear to have a legitimate use would be reported to the police.

Nominet's register of web addresses has over 10.5 million entries. It said it expects only a handful of the 150,000-200,000 new registrations each month to be flagged under the new process.

The company will explain how it intends to implement the new policy in early March and will also update its terms and conditions to specifically cover these changes to the registration process.

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Plastic surgery app game taken down

By Amelia Butterly
Newsbeat reporter

Apple and Google have removed games from their app stores in which users performed cosmetic surgery.

Plastic Surgery for Barbie is no longer available on the App Store and Google Play has taken down its version, known only as Plastic Surgery.

The free game, which was labelled as suitable for children aged nine and over, involved making incisions with a scalpel and performing liposuction.

The description on Google described the overweight girl in the game as "ugly".

After performing a variety of procedures on the girl, she is revealed as a much thinner version of her former self and users can compare her body before and after the surgery.

Plastic Surgery for Barbara is still available to download on the App Store

Although Apple has removed Plastic Surgery for Barbie, a game called Plastic Surgery for Barbara is still available on the App Store.

The graphics and premise are almost identical, although the app still available is listed as being suitable for people aged 12 and over.

In a statement, former British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps) president Nigel Mercer described the Plastic Surgery for Barbie app as "sexist and disturbing".

He said: "This app blatantly and shamelessly uses child-friendly brand names [such as Barbie] to target young, vulnerable children and exposes them to sexist and disturbing rhetoric as the 'game' critiques the body of a cartoon character who does not conform to an unrealistic beauty standard.

"Even more shockingly, the app then encourages children to utilise surgery - going so far as to include images of syringes, scalpels and liposuction cannulas - to 'fix' the patient, who is described as an 'unfortunate girl'.

"That Apple or Google could condone this disgraceful app as a game suitable for children is no less than sickening.

"This app should not be available because it is not 'socially responsible'."

Mattel, which produces the children's doll and owns the Barbie brand, had already distanced itself from the app.

A statement from the company said: "The Barbie name was recently featured in an application that was not sanctioned by Mattel.

"This app has since been removed from iTunes. At Mattel, we take our commitment to children seriously and work hard to ensure there are no unauthorized uses of our brands that may be unsafe or inappropriate for children."

Google confirmed that it had taken down Plastic Surgery for Barbie.

A spokesman for the company said: "We don't comment on individual apps, but will remove apps that breach our guidelines."

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