2001
Year of the Snake
Islamic calendar 1421-22
Hundreds of new communications satellites in geostationary orbit
Finnish mobile telephone density approaches 100%
Great strides in cure for osteoporosis
Helsinki International GT coverage available to net users in real-time - interactive direction
Hackers find backdoor to InterDict encryption codes
Emfi membrane gains ground in hi-if loudspeaker market
A research team at the Swedish Karolina Institute has made a breakthrough in the treatment of osteoporosis, one of the most common ailments facing the elderly, particularly women. The group have succeeded in increasing human bone formation to such an extent that it will mark a decisive improvement in the quality of life for most osteoporosis sufferers.
Human bone tissue dies and is recreated constantly. Roughly one-tenth of our bone substance is in a continuous state of flux, in which osteoclasts or "bone-destroying cells" wage a battle with osteoblasts that form new bone using calcium. Generally this process is in balance, such that the amount of bone remains constant. However, weakening of the bones through calcium loss, known as osteoporosis, has become a major health issue, particularly among older women. The onset of the disease stems from the continued activity of osteoclasts while their counterparts the osteoblasts no longer function as efficiently as before.
The Stockholm-based research team under Prof. Rolf Sveiby has managed to apply gene technology to construct a hormone compound that revives the osteoblasts and stimulates their activity. The treatment has not only proved effective in medical trials, it is also relatively cheap. The Karolina Institute comments in its press release that the team has involved scientist from all over Scandinavia and from Germany. A spokesman for the Swedish Ministry of Health also observed that the discovery will bring savings in osteoporosis treatment costs of the order of several thousand million Euros in Sweden alone, quite apart from the reductions in human suffering that the treatment can be expected to produce. The Ministry statement goes on to say that while the breakthrough may not qualify the research team for a Nobel Prize, it is certain to receive many other international awards for the work carried out so far.
The Helsinki GT event, run this weekend on the street track in the heart of the Finnish capital, will for the first time be available in real-time to selected Internet users. Using the latest technology, viewers can operate as their own directors from a studio in the home, and will be able to put together a compilation broadcast of the event as they wish.
The Helsinki GT organizer and promoter Robert Lappalainen is delighted with the idea, and feels that it will bring the event some welcome worldwide publicity.
With the introduction of this kind of virtual grandstand, the race meeting's attractiveness as a vehicle for advertising has simply shot up. In the virtual environment it is possible to select trackside advertisements individually according to countries and language areas.
Lappalainen is confident that the race will pull in dozens of millions of web-viewers around the world. At the same time, he does not fear that virtual attendance will reduce the numbers turning up to watch the racing at the track itself.
"There is no way that even the best screen can relay the atmosphere in the grandstands", argues Lappalainen, "I'd say the real competition in virtual viewing will be with television, as what we are offering is more exciting than the traditional TV coverage."
The exercise of "virtualizing" the Helsinki GT meeting, including the free practice and qualifying sessions, naturally requires a vast arsenal of technological solutions. Each car is fitted with several miniature videocams and positioning devices, and the data collected from these is fed into a powerful computer system. This in turn converts the data into simulated images that are transferred into the viewers' computers in the home (or in the workplace!).
The viewer can choose any camera angle he wishes, and can even imagine he is taking part in the race itself.
In practice, the online viewer informs the program of his or her particular interest. On the basis of this input, the software then tailors from the simulation the required camera angle and the image that the camera follows. The picture seen on the computer display resembles a modern high graphics computer game, since it is produced using the same kind of programming.
If the viewer's Internet connection is sufficiently fast, he can also select a real-time camera image from the car of his choice, showing the in-cockpit view that the driver himself would have. He can also lock the program to follow the progress of one car in particular.
The Finnish developer of the software Tietovalta PLC has made detailed virtual models of the track and the cars taking part, and these have been downloaded to eager Net users for pre-race beta-simulations over the past two or three weeks. In order to reduce the dangers of massive overloading of the system on the day itself, PowergenData arranged virtual qualifying events, and already nearly 1 million wannabe Häkkinens and Schumachers have taken part. The winners in the qualifying events are permitted to take part in the Helsinki GT itself - virtually, of course.
PowergenData is naturally waiting to see the outcome of this first experiment, but is already hatching plans to realise cross-country skiing competitions and track and field meets on the same principle. The company believes that the technology it has developed will radically alter the way we follow sporting events, since the individual viewer will no longer be at the mercy of overly talkative TV commentators or directors who always manage to miss the action, but will be able to program their own personal coverage of the competition.
NEW Press Agency - 5.6.2001. Corporate secrets at risk
There is a nervous atmosphere amongst the data executives of small and medium-sized companies today, despite the public holiday. They fear the exposure of company secrets that could be vital to the well-being of their employers. The reason for the concern is the news that a group of hackers has intercepted net messages passing through the InterDict online dictation center, and has succeeding in opening a so-called "backdoor" in the encryption algorithms that allows them to convert the coded messages into unciphered readable or audio form. As yet, the hackers have not been traced or identified.
From the companies' perspective, the most dangerous aspect of the hackers' mischief is that they have handed on the dismantled algorithms to the press and television stations. If the media decide to go public with the information at their disposal, then commercial secrets contained in the minutes of Board meetings and in sensitive internal documents could easily leak into the public domain. Numerous companies have for this reason abruptly terminated their agreements with InterDict, and have reverted to writing up documents and memorandums in the more traditional fashion.
Interdict, one of the great stock market success stories of the last two years, is the world's leading online secretarial agency, using its own sophisticated voice recognition and text processing software package to convert the spoken contents of meetings and dictated documents into text form. The material passes between the company and InterDict in encrypted form, and the process of transcribing the data is fully automated, thus preserving secrecy in transmission and at the InterDict end of the system. InterDict completed development of the software in late 1999.
The service works in practice in such a way that the client company uploads coded meeting material to the InterDict computer, which transcribes the material as an official record. The completed minutes of the meeting are then returned almost instantly - again in encrypted form - to the client company, and the InterDict host computer memory is cleared. The returned document can then be signed by the meeting participants immediately, and then transferred for filing in either the company's own data archives or at InterDict's own secure facility. The same procedure has also been followed for many of the other routine functions previously given over to the old typing pool or performed laboriously by executives themselves. Not surprisingly, InterDict's services were welcomed by smaller businesses, and within the space of 18 months the company has built up a clientele of around 24,000 firms spread across the United States. Plans for the launch of European operations were well under way, but it remains to be seen whether this setback will affect Interdict's future.
InterDict's key selling-point has been absolute confidentiality. Not even the company's own staff have been able to gain access to the sensitive material passing through its computers. Each customer has its own encryption algorithm, and thus far the algorithms have been thought to be uncrackable. A spokeswoman from InterDict claimed yesterday that their encryption systems are still 100% safe, and that the recent scandal has arisen out of leaks occurring within the company itself. An internal inquiry is in progress.
According to FBI and CIA comments, the problem is nevertheless a very serious one, since for example the already massive Internet credit card trade and smart cash cards use basically the same algorithm encryption methods as employed by the InterDict software.
Internet Relay News - 8.11.2001
The Emfi thin film membrane developed by Finnish audio engineer Kari Kirjavainen is cutting a swathe through the hi-fi loudspeaker market. The membrane has already replaced the traditional twin speaker cabinets in many households, and the future looks even brighter.
Thin film membrane loudspeakers are popular with interior designers, since they can be part of the wall surface of a room, rather than taking up floor space like conventional wooden speaker cabinets. Already more than half of the world's leading audio equipment manufacturers have announced plans to start building their speakers using the Emfi membrane.
As well as saving space, the Emfi membrane speaker opens up new worlds for hi-fi sound reproduction. A speaker wall can be divided into several speaker units, allowing the sound source to be similarly divided into multiple component parts. According to audio experts, the traditional stereo or quadraphonic audio recording systems will soon give way to so-called "broad-surface" multi-channel recordings, particularly when the lower register "woofer" reproduction of the new membrane speakers has been somewhat improved. Sound engineers and other professionals in the audio image field are convinced of the potential of the membrane speaker system. "Now at last I have a tool that allows me to make a practically unlimited palate of sound images", says an enthusiastic Alec Console of the Music Department at the Finnish Broadcasting Company, one of the first places to run trials on the new equipment.
According to Console, the revolution in loudspeaker technology is really only a part of the story, and there are amazing new audio applications to be had from the parallel phenomena of membrane microphones. In effect, the walls, floor and ceiling of a studio could all become a single microphone surface, greatly expanding the sound shaping possibilities of recording sessions.
The company which has developed the thin film membrane, Panphonics Ltd, is also engaged on research to apply the technology to television, multivision, and computer display monitors. A number of monitor manufacturers have already expressed interest in the visual applications of thin film technology. The general consensus inside the industry seems to be that within a relatively short time any kind of surface can be covered to create a television or multivision screen or serve as a computer monitor. This will open up new vistas for the already burgeoning virtual reality sector.
Although the Panphonics CEO refused to be drawn on the question, the company's lab is also reportedly developing a laser-driven thin film surface. Researchers claim that this could be the key to the development of moving hologram images. At present, some 70% of the Emfi thin film membrane output goes to sound insulation applications.
At the Cologne AudioVisual Fair last month, there were also persistent rumours that certain large datatech and audiovisual multinationals had already offered the 26-year-old Kari Kirjavainen up to $250 million to get their hands on his thin film patent.
Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena.
Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2