photo courtesy SpeakDolphin  

With some estimating Apple has sold over 2 million iPads, there is no disputing that the device is currently the hottest gadget on the planet. If researchers with SpeakDolphin are successful in their quest to build a language interface allowing cross species communication, Apple may have an entirely new user base. Currently the project is in its infancy, but the researchers hope that by using touch screen technology they will be able to build a system that will allow dolphins to communicate fully with humans. While they are still evaluating other touchscreen devices to use in their program, researchers have begun to introduce the iPad to the dolphins at their Puerto Aventuras facility. To acclimate the creatures to the touch pad, the SpeakDolphin team show a real object to the dolphin and then ask it to touch photos of the same object on the screen. According to dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz, “This is an easy task for a dolphin, but it is a necessary building block towards our goal of a complete language interface between humans and dolphins.”

Dolphin Uses iPad To Communicate (PDF Link) [via BoingBoing]

photo by Wammes Waggel  

Dr Mark Gasson of the University of Reading in the UK says that he is the first human being to be infected by a computer virus. Fortunately for the rest of us, the infection was voluntary and is not catching (at least for humans). Dr. Gasson had an RFID tag, like those used in access control systems or to identify pets, implanted into his hand. Prior to the insertion, the chip was contaminated with a computer virus that targets the access control systems that read the chip. While harmless to its willing host, the virus was able to successfully infect the readers that Dr. Gasson tested. Had other chips been read by the system, they would have also been infected by the virus which would then have been passed on to other reader that scan the newly infected chip. While this was only a proof of concept, it is easy to see the threat posed by this sort of attack in a world where RFID chips are being used in credit cards, passports, our pets and even our own bodies.

Imagine, if you will, the havoc that could be cause by a single criminal using an infected credit card to inject a virus into a cash register that sends him all the credit cards put through the machine and infects any RFID cards used at it with the same virus so it could be spread to other terminals. The losses from an attack of this nature could be staggering. Scarier still is the fact that the criminal need not infect the first terminal himself. Using readily available, inexpensive technology, an attacker could build a device to infect any RFID chip that came within range. A simple stroll through a busy airport could easily start a world wide crime spree. If implanted chips that carry medical or other personal information become common place, as many predict they will, mass identity theft could become as easy as a trip to the mall if solutions are not found to the major threat uncovered by Dr. Gasson.

First human ‘infected with computer virus’ [via UFO Evolution]

According to Drive.com.au, two new flower species have been developed by Toyota with the aim of reducing harmful emissions at its Toyota City, Japan factory where it assembles the popular Prius hybrid. Derived from the cherry sage, one of the new species absorbs harmful nitrogen oxides from the air. The other, based on the gardenia, releases water vapor into the air that lowers the surface temperature around the assembly plant, reducing the facility’s cooling needs. These exciting new plants were developed as part of an ongoing program to reduce the environmental impact of Prius production that has already seen emissions at the plant cut by 55%. They will join other green technologies already in place at the factory such as solar power, photocatalytic paint that removes harmful gasses from the air, and especially slow growing grass that only has to be cut once a year as Toyota strives to make the Prius one of the most environmentally friendly cars on the market.

Car maker develops its own flower species [via Gizmodo]