Tag Archives: UniversityOfTexas

University of Texas students send yacht off-course with GPS exploit (video)

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DNP University of Texas' yacht hack illustrates GPS signal vulnerability video

Students from the University of Texas gave us another reason not to mess with the Lone Star state: they'll hack your yacht. In cooperation with a luxury boat's owners, the Longhorns manipulated their $80 million vessel's nav system, covertly guiding it off-course -- all without the crew ever suspecting foul play. By transmitting spoofed global positioning system signals toward the craft, the students tricked its drivers into correcting a non-existent, three-degree course deviation, thus leading them off track. With their work done, the Texans believe this shows exactly how easy it is to exploit civil-band GPS signals. College kids may have conned the helm this time, but it isn't too far-fetched to think pirates could do the same. Our timbers are shivering just thinking about it.

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Source: The Houston Chronicle

University of Michigan activates antimatter ‘gun,’ cartoon supervillians twirl moustaches anew

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Scientists create tabletop antimatter 'gun,' cartoon supervillians twirl mustaches anew
At the University of Michigan, an international team of physicists has begun experimenting with its tabletop-sized super laser, modding it into an antimatter "gun." It's not quite a black hole-firing pistol, but we're slightly terrified nonetheless. Up until now, machines capable of creating positrons -- coupled with electrons, they comprise the energy similar to what's emitted by black holes and pulsars -- have needed to be as large as they are expensive. Creating these antimatter beams on a small scale will hopefully give astrophysicists greater insight into the "enigmatic features" of gamma ray bursts that are "virtually impossible to address by relying on direct observations," according to a paper published at arXiv. While the blasts only last fractions of a second each, the researchers report each firing produces a particle-density output level comparable to the accelerator at CERN. Just like that, the Longhorns/Wolverines super-laser arms-race begins again.

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Via: Gizmodo, PhysOrg

Source: arXiv

University of Texas gaming academy to be led by execs behind Deus Ex, Warcraft

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University of Texas gaming academy to be led by game execs behind Deus Ex, Warcraft

Whatever value you see in game development schools, it's clear that few of them tout gaming industry veterans who can lead by example. The University of Texas' upcoming Denius-Sams Gaming Academy could solve this discrepancy by tapping two executives whose work many of us know by heart. Both legendary designer Warren Spector and Blizzard COO Paul Sams will guide (and sometimes teach) year-long post-baccalaureate certificate programs at the Academy that focus on creative leadership and game company management -- yes, that means instruction from gurus behind the Deus Ex and Warcraft franchises, among other classics. The programs will also emphasize that all-important ability to finish a game, rather than mastering skills in isolation. The first students join the Academy's ranks in fall 2014, although they'll need to be exceptional to stand a chance of getting in -- just 20 spots will be open in the first year.

[Image credits: Nightscream, Wikipedia; Rob Fahey, Flickr]

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Source: University of Texas at Austin

Samsung explores touchless tablet interaction with brainwave technology

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Samsung explores touchless tablet interaction with brainwave technology

Try and wrap this one around your noggin. Samsung is currently working with researchers at the University of Texas on a project involving EEG caps that harnesses the power of one's mind to control tablets and smartphones, and if that weren't enough, the company's actually hoping to take it mainstream. Now, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's be clear: in its current stage, the system is cumbersome and aimed at those with disabilities, but Samsung's already proven that it's interested in alternative input methods, and this could certainly be the logical conclusion.

As is, participants are asked to wear EEG caps that measure the electrical activity along their scalp. Then, they're able to make selections by focusing on an icon that flashes at a distinct frequency from others, which the system recognizes as a unique electrical pattern. Overall, the accuracy of the system is in the ballpark of 80 to 95 percent, and users are able to make selections on average of every five seconds. In order to make the system more approachable, the researchers hope to develop EEG hats that are more convenient and less intrusive -- in other words, ones that people can wear throughout the day. We can't promise this type of futuristic tech will come anytime soon, but for a closer peek, hit up the source link for a peek at Samsung's next wild idea.

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Via: BGR

Source: MIT Technology Review

Lynx A 3D point-and-shoot camera/tablet does motion capture and 3D modeling, we go hands-on

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Lynx A 3D pointandshoot cameratablet does motion capture and 3D modeling, we go handson

Earlier this year, a group of enterprising students from the University of Texas unveiled the Lynx A 3D camera and asked for money to fund its construction on Kickstarter. Since then, they've soared past their funding goal of $50,000, and are getting ready to ship out their first set of cameras. Today at DEMO Mobile SF, we finally got to see a prototype unit for ourselves and watch it scan someone's head in real-time. For the uninitiated, the Lynx A is billed as a point-and-shoot 3D camera that uses Kinect-esque hardware to obtain depth mapping and imaging info from your surroundings. Using GPU computing power and some custom code, it turns that data into 3D scene and object models or motion capture, and it displays the finished models on its 14-inch screen a minute or two after it's finished recording -- all for $1,799.

The Lynx A we witnessed working in person today was a prototype unit, so fit and finish were far from being retail ready, as wide gaps and exposed screws abounded. Lynx assured us that the units going out to its backers will not only have a more polished appearance, but also be six times more accurate and 30 percent smaller due to newer hardware components. Despite the prototype's rough appearance, the modeling process went off without a hitch. It was able to scan 2/3 of a human head in about a minute and within a couple minutes more it was displaying a 3D model ready to be manipulated and printed out by a Replicator or a Form 1. Don't believe us? See for yourself in the video after the break.

Gallery: Lynx A 3D camera/tablet hands-on

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Alt-week 8.18.12: Graphene sponges, zero-g athletics and tweets in space

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Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Alt-week 8.18.12: Graphene sponges, zero-g athletics and tweets in space

We see a lot of crazy stories here at Engadget, especially when we spend our week poking around in dark and scary corners of the internet specifically in search of them, just so you don't have to. We consider it a service almost. One that we're delighted to provide, we must add. When else would we be able to share such delights as an astronaut triathlete, soft, color-changing robots and a recent response to a thirty-year-old alien broadcast? Exactly. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 8.18.12: Graphene sponges, zero-g athletics and tweets in space

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Alt-week 8.18.12: Graphene sponges, zero-g athletics and tweets in space originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UT Dallas researchers seek to imbue your smartphone with X-ray superpowers

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UT Dallas researchers hope to imbue your smartphone with X-ray superpowers

If anybody ever told you that the future would be awesome, they were right. A new bit of research has emerged from the University of Texas at Dallas, which describes equipment that may allow people to see through walls -- and if that weren't wild enough, creators of the specialized CMOS imaging hardware believe the same technology could be integrated into our mobile phones. To pull off the feat, the scientists tapped into a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that exists between microwave and infrared known as the terahertz range. Due to privacy concerns, the equipment is being designed to operate at a distance of no more than four inches, but its creator hypothesizes that the technology will still be useful for finding studs in walls, verifying documents and detecting counterfeit currency. In other words, this brand of x-ray vision isn't exactly on par with Superman's abilities, but it's bound to work better than mail order spectacles from Newark.

UT Dallas researchers seek to imbue your smartphone with X-ray superpowers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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