A Hacker Found GPS Data in the Audio of This Police Chase Video

As reported by Gismodo: It's incredibly noisy in the cockpit of a helicopter, and you'd assume the sounds you hear in any YouTube police chase video were just the deafening whine of the chopper's engine. But as one hacker discovered, that monotonous drone can actually hide some useful data, like the helicopter's GPS coordinates.

Watching cockpit footage of a police helicopter chase in Kansas City, Oona Räisänen noticed some odd interference in the audio. She assumed it was just being caused by the aircraft's engine, but after isolating and filtering the audio she discovered it was actually a digital signal.

And it wasn't just some random digital signal, either. It turns out the equipment used to transmit the live video feed to the ground also passes along the helicopter's GPS coordinates. And in a manner that anyone with access to the footage—like say the millions of people using YouTube every minute—and a little know-how can actually decode that data.

So does this pose any kind of security threat? Not necessarily. The route a police helicopter takes during a pursuit isn't exactly a secret. Anyone on the ground can monitor its course, and this 'hack' was done well after the chase was over. It might encourage law enforcement agencies to strip the audio before a video like this is released to the public. But this hack is more of a "how interesting" discovery than anything.

GPS IIFs Back on Launch Manifest

As reported by Inside GNSS: The fifth GPS Block IIF satellites is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral on February 20 after concerns regarding a 2012 launch anomaly led the Air Force to scrub a planned launch last fall. A Delta IV M+ will carry the spacecraft into orbit.
 
Additional GPS IIF launches this year are tentatively set for May (Delta IV M+) and July (Atlas V rocket). The last GPS launch (GPS IIF-4) took place on May 13, 2013.
 
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin has reported the successful powering on of the second GPS Block III satellite payload at its Denver-area processing facility. On December 19, engineers turned on power to the bus and network communications equipment payload of the GPS II Space Vehicle 2 (SV-02).
 
The production milestone demonstrates the satellite's mechanical integration, validates its interfaces, and leads the way for electrical and integrated hardware-software testing, according to Lockheed Martin.
 
The company is currently under contract for production of the first six GPS III satellites (SV 01-06), with the first four funded under the original contract and the fifth and sixth recent fully funded by an exercised Air Force option on December 13. Lockheed Martin had previously received advanced procurement funding for long-lead components for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth satellites (SV 05-08.
 
GPS III SV-01 is now in the integration and test flow leading to delivery "flight-ready" to the Air Force.

Use of GPS Technology Cuts Costs For Fleets

As reported by Fleet Owner: A broad survey of 508 fleet operations across the U.S. regarding their use of mobile resource management (MRM) systems finds that, of those using such technology, a significant majority are not only satisfied with the service they’re receiving but that they are recouping their investment via a wide array of savings such as improved fuel economy, reductions in vehicle idle time, etc.  

“Fleets using MRM systems are finding very high value in them and have a very high satisfaction rate with them; basically a 4.1 one on a 5 point scale,” Clem Driscoll, president of consulting and marketing research firm C.J. Driscoll & Associates, explained to Fleet Owner. “That very high satisfaction rate is but one indicator that the market for MRM technology in fleet operations will stay very strong.”

Driscoll said his firm’s telephone study – officially titled the 2013-14 Survey of Fleet Operator Interest in MRM Systems and Services – included TL and LTL carriers, private delivery fleets, construction-related fleets, and others, focusing on operator interest, use, and satisfaction with GPS [global positioning system] fleet management, driver behavior management, and GPS-equipped handset/portable solutions for managing mobile workers.

He added that out of the fleet operators participating in the survey, 42% operate Class 6-8 trucks and one-third of the total sample were comprised of TL/LTL carriers, private trucking fleets or local common carriers.

While only 36% of those fleets polled said they used a GPS-based system, the firm found that 79% of them were either satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their service, with 67% reporting that they recouped their investment in such technology.

Driscoll noted that such recoupment occurred by generating savings across a broad array of fleet operating metrics. For example, one private food delivery fleet operating 120 trucks achieved $167,600 per year in fuel and mileage savings plus $127,400 in driver time savings.

In other examples, a Connecticut-based regional water company operating 300 vehicles said it saved $64,000 in fuel costs a year by being able to control excess idling via is MRM system, while a county government fleet in Michigan noted MRM technology allowed it to gain $300 per day of “more production” per vehicle in its 80-unit operation.

“The interesting thing is that such numbers were being given right off the top of their heads as this was a real-time telephone survey; they didn’t have time to consult reports,” Driscoll stressed. “It costs money to install such technology but they know at the end of the day they are saving more money through it. That’s why this is such a strong indicator that demand for MRM systems will only keep growing.”

Driscoll’s survey uncovered other interesting aspects of MRM use patterns as well among the fleets participating in its survey:

• Some 58% of the fleets participating in its poll operate 50 or fewer vehicles, with the midpoint fleet size on its survey pool 35 vehicles
• In terms of route structure, 39% use dynamic routing based on real-time data, while 38% stick to pre-scheduled routes and 12% use fixed routes
• The basic communication device relied upon by the truck drivers in the fleets surveyed is the cell phone (67%), with 45% using smartphones and 18% using tablets or laptops
• The top benefit of GPS-based MRM systems cited by those using them is vehicle location (54%) with 37% citing driver performance and safety monitoring, 24% noting reduce idle time and fuel consumption, 18% route optimization, and 9% maintenance and repairs
• Some 68% do not integrate their MRM technology with back-office systems

The survey also noted that 31% of those fleets using a GPS-based fleet management system said they received an insurance discount for doing so – a finding that surprised Driscoll.

“I’m really surprised at the number of fleets that reported getting an insurance discount; we didn’t realize it was that common,” he said. “But we think the growing number of insurance providers that offer MRM packages of their own and that have used the data gained from them to monitor fleet safety, accident rates, etc., is beginning to influence their discount decisions.”

Agency Completes HOS Field Study, Concludes Current Provisions Yield Safer, Better Rested Drivers

As reported by CCJ Digital: In its long-awaited field study on the current hours-of-service rule, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has concluded that the two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. period requirements of the 34-hour restart provisions of the rule cause truck operators to drive safer and be better rested.

The results of the study were released Jan. 30. It was conducted by the Sleep Performance Research Center in Washington State University in Spokane, Wash., and Pulsar Informatics in Philadelphia, Pa.

Researchers studied 106 drivers, ages 24-69, who were studied in two duty cycles and during the 34-hour restarts on each side.

Drivers who did not include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods reported “greater sleepiness, especially towards the end of their duty periods,” than when following the provisions of the current HOS rule, the study says. They also deviated from their lane more often and “exhibited more lapses of attention, especially at night,” the study says.

Also, drivers who didn’t include the two nighttime periods in their restart got most of their sleep during the day, the study says, and spent more time driving and more time driving at night, and most of their on-duty time came at night.

“This new study confirms the science we used to make the hours-of-service rule more effective at preventing crashes that involve sleepy or drowsy truck drivers,” said FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro. “For the small percentage of truckers that average up to 70 hours of work a week, two nights of rest is better for their safety and the safety of everyone on the road.”

The study presents different results than research and surveys done by both the American Trucking Associations’ American Transportation Research Institute and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. Both groups released studies in the fall concluding that, in addition to carriers and drivers losing productivity and revenue due to the rules, drivers were less rested on the whole under the current rule than before. Click here to see CCJ coverage of ATRI’s study, and click here to see coverage of OOIDA’s.

Another study done by the University of Tennessee, findings of which were released this month, found similar conclusions: Drivers are generally more fatigued under the current provisions than under the prior hours rule.

The completion of FMCSA’s study has been a point of contention between FMCSA and members of the House responsible for oversight of the agency. The report was supposed to be completed, per the current MAP-21 highway funding law, by Sept. 30, 2013.

Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) chastised the agency more than once for missing the deadline. He and other representatives also took a stern tone in November with Ferro in a House hearing held to determine the impacts of the hours-of-service rules over the fact the study had not yet been completed.

Hanna also is the sponsor of a bill in the House that would, if passed, overturn the hours-of-service rule until Congress could further study FMCSA’s methodology in creating it. The Senate has also introduced a version of the bill.

Of 106 drivers studied in FMCSA’s study, 44 were local drivers, 26 regional and 36 over-the-road, who drove 414,937 miles during the study, while researchers gathered a combined 1,260 days of data.

The drivers wore wrist activity monitors to record sleep and wake periods and used smartphones to take psychomotor vigilance tests, log fatigue and sleepiness and to log sleep, wake and caffeine intake.

Also, trucks in the study were equipped with data acquisition systems that recorded distance traveled, speed, acceleration, lateral lane position, steering wheel angle, headway distance, fuel use and other parameters.

All trucks in the study were equipped with electronic logging devices (ELDs), and information from those was downloaded from carriers.

The tests were conducted between January 2013 and July 2013.

Click here to see the results of the study. 

Telematics For Tennis Rackets Can Provide For Virtual Coaching

As reported by EuroSport: Many sporting gadgets come and go with barely a flicker of attention, but there is now a tool that could transform tennis forever.  

An exaggeration? Only time will tell, but the number of top companies involved surely gives an indication as to its genuine potential.

Sony have unveiled a tennis sensor - a little gadget that is attachable to the base of a tennis racket - and Babolat have released their 'Play Pure Drive' effort with one already embedded into the grip.

To put the device in its simplest terms, it is like having a virtual 'tennis coach' to assess your every shot, sensing where the ball strikes the racket and the quality of the contact.

It counts forehands and backhands, serves and smashes and provides stats in the form of tennis data that can be analysed, stored and compared.

The sensor can gather data such as ball speed, accuracy, angle, etc and will pair the info with devices such as Bluetooth, phones, computers and USB connections.

More than simply a coaching aid, the sensor would allow even the top players to quickly and effectively assess their own shots and learn from specific errors during a match.

Would this go right the way to the top elite level? That all depends on how it is received within the tennis world, but the potential is there for it to improve broadcasting tools in addition to personal analysis.

Babolat's latest venture into the field of personal sporting analytics has been put through the International Tennis Federation's official approval process and could well impact the professional game if it is viewed as beneficial to everyone involved.

Babolat's Play Pure Drive (Babolat)

Put simply, if the ITF approve the sensors then they could be used in Grand Slams. Given that the technology already exists on the market, the top players would provide companies the exposure and publicity they desire.

Gael Moureaux, tennis racquets products manager at Babolat, has said: "We integrated sensors inside the handle of the racquet, but it does not change the specification.

"And these sensors will analyse your tennis game, so your swing - your motion - and all this information will be collected by the racquet.

"During the development process of the racquet, we did a lot of lab tests with a lot of players around the world to make sure the data is accurate and to have the right data for the player."

What does this mean for your average amateur tennis lover? The Babolat Play Pure Drive is already out on the market, while Sony's Smart Tennis Sensor will be priced at around £106 when it moves from Japan, where it is currently available.

According to Sony who announced the sensor’s availability in Japan, the sensor will be compatible with around six Yonex EZone and VCore tennis rackets, but additional racket compatibility will be available before long.

Sensor-connected racquets are already with us and who is to say that this will not end up becoming the accepted next phase of the tennis equipment revolution.

We've come quite a way from wooden racquets with tiny heads. This crazy-looking new gadget could yet transform the sport as we know it.

Android App Warns When You’re Being Tracked

As reported by Technology Review: A new app notifies people when an Android smartphone app is tracking their location, something not previously possible without modifying the operating system on a device, a practice known as “rooting.”

The new technology comes amid new revelations that the National Security Agency seeks to gather personal data from smartphone apps (see “How App Developers Leave the Door Open to NSA Surveillance”). But it may also help ordinary people better grasp the extent to which apps collect and share their personal information. Even games and dictionary apps routinely track location, as collected from a phone’s GPS or global positioning system sensors.

Existing Android interfaces do include a tiny icon showing when location information is being accessed, but few people notice or understand what it means, according to a field study done as part of a new research project led by Janne Lindqvist, an assistant professor at Rutgers University. Lindqvist’s group created an app that puts a prominent banner across the top of the app saying, for example, “Your location is accessed by Dictionary.” The app is being readied for Google Play, the Android app store, within two months.

Lindqvist says Android phone users who used a prototype of his app were shocked to discover how frequently they were being tracked. “People were really surprised that some apps were accessing their location, or how often some apps were accessing their location,” he says.

According to one Pew Research survey, almost 20 percent of smartphone owners surveyed have tried to disconnect location information from their apps, and 70 percent wanted to know more about the location data collected by their smartphone.

The goal of the project, Lindqvist says, is to goad Google and app companies into providing more prominent disclosures, collecting less personal information, and allowing users to select which data they will allow the app to see. A research paper describing the app and the user study can be found here. It was recently accepted for an upcoming computer security conference.

In many cases, location information is used by advertisers to provide targeted ads. But information gained by apps often gets passed around widely to advertising companies (see “Mobile-Ad Firms Seek New Ways to Track You” and “Get Ready for Ads That Follow You from One Device to the Next”).

Google, which maintains the Android platform, has engineered it to block an app from gaining information about other apps. So Lindqvist’s team used an indirect method using a function within Android’s location application programming interface (API) that signals when any app requests location information. “People have previously done this with platform-level changes—meaning you would need to ‘root’ the phone,” says Lindqvist. “But nobody has used an app to do this.”

Google has flip-flopped on how much control it gives users over the information apps can access. In Android version 4.3, available since July of last year, users gained the ability to individually disable and enable apps’ “permissions” one by one, but then Google reversed course in December 2013, removing the feature in an update numbered 4.4.2, according to this finding from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The new app and study from Lindqvist’s team could help push Google back toward giving users more control. “Because we know how ubiquitous NSA surveillance is, this is one tool to make people aware,” he says.

The work adds to similar investigative work about Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS. Last year different academic researchers found that Apple wasn’t doing a good job stopping apps from harvesting the unique ID numbers of a device (see “Study Shows Many Apps Defy Apple’s Privacy Advice”). Those researchers released their own app, called ProtectMyPrivacy, that detects what data other apps on an iPhone try to access, notifies the owner, and makes a recommendation about what to do. However, that app requires users to first “jailbreak” or modify Apple’s operating system. Still, unlike Android, Apple allows users to individually control which categories of information an app can access.

“Telling people more about their privacy prominently and in an easy-to-understand manner, especially the location, is important,” says Yuvraj Agarwal, who led that research at the University of California, San Diego, and has since moved on to Carnegie Mellon University. Ultimately, though, Agarwal believes users must be able to take action on an app’s specific permissions. “If my choice is to delete Angry Birds or not, that’s not really a choice,” he says.

A 96-Antenna System Tests the Next Generation of Wireless

As reported by MIT Technology Review: Even as the world’s carriers build out the latest wireless infrastructure, known as 4G LTE, a new apparatus bristling with 96 antennas taking shape at a Rice University lab in Texas could help define the next generation of wireless technology.

The Rice rig, known as Argos, represents the largest such array yet built and will serve as a test bed for a concept known as “Massive MIMO.”

MIMO, or “multiple-input, multiple-output,” is a wireless networking technique aimed at transferring data more efficiently by having several antennas work together to exploit a natural phenomenon that occurs when signals are reflected en route to a receiver. The phenomenon, known as multipath, can cause interference, but MIMO alters the timing of data transmissions in order to increase throughput using the reflected signals.

MIMO is already used for 4G LTE and in the latest version of Wi-Fi, called 802.11ac; but it typically involves only a handful of transmitting and receiving antennas. Massive MIMO extends this approach by using scores or even hundreds of antennas. It increases capacity further by effectively focusing signals on individual users, allowing numerous signals to be sent over the same frequency at once. Indeed, an earlier version of Argos, with 64 antennas, demonstrated that network capacity could be boosted by more than a factor of 10.

“If you have more antennas, you can serve more users,” says Lin Zhong, associate professor of computer science at Rice and the project’s co-leader. And the architecture allows it to easily scale to hundreds or even thousands of antennas, he says.

Massive MIMO requires more processing power because base stations direct radio signals more narrowly to the phones intended to receive them. This, in turn, requires extra computation to pull off. The point of the Argos test bed is to see how much benefit can be obtained in the real world. Processors distributed throughout the setup allow it to test different network configurations, including how it would work alongside other emerging classes of base stations, known as small cells, serving small areas.

“Massive MIMO is an intellectually interesting project,” says Jeff Reed, director of the wireless research center at Virginia Tech. “You want to know: how scalable is MIMO? How many antennas can you benefit from? These projects are attempting to address that.”

An alternative, or perhaps complementary, approach to an eventual 5G standard would use extremely high frequencies, around 28 gigahertz. Wavelengths at this frequency are around two orders of magnitude smaller than the frequencies that carry cellular communications today, allowing more antennas to be packed into the same space, such as within a smartphone. But since 28 gigahertz signals are easily blocked by buildings, and even foliage and rain, they’ve long been seen as unusable except in special line-of-sight applications.

But Samsung and New York University have collaborated to solve this, also by using multi-antenna arrays. They send the same signal over 64 antennas, dividing it up to speed up throughput, and dynamically changing which antennas are used and the direction the signal is sent to get around environmental blockages (see “What 5G Will Be: Crazy Fast Wireless Tested in New York City”).

Meantime, some experiments have been geared toward pushing existing 4G LTE technology further. The technology can, in theory, deliver 75 megabits per second, though it is lower in real-world situations. But some research suggests it can go faster by stitching together streams of data from several wireless channels (see “LTE Advanced Is Poised to Turbocharge Smartphone Data”).

Emerging research done on Argos and in other wireless labs will help to define a new 5G phone standard. Whatever the specifics, it’s likely to include more sharing of spectrum, more small transmitters, new protocols, and new network designs. “To introduce an entirely new wireless technology is a huge task,” Marzetta says.