BlackBerry may soon capture your eye -- and identity

by Michelle Maltais

Bringing back a bit of the sexiness of gadgets more suited to Ethan Hunt, James Bond or Captain "kicking it old-school" Kirk, Research in Motion is making your BlackBerry an "eye-device," with information from your iris stored inside.

In partnership with Iris ID and HID Global, RIM has announced that it's supporting the use of a biometric template from Iris ID.

This means you could flash your Blackberry instead of an employee ID card to open doors at work. Embedded iCLASS technology would serve as a digital credential and allow NFC-enabled BlackBerry 7 smartphones to transmit your identity when held up to an iCAM7000 iris camera.

NFC, by the way, means near field communications, which enables devices to have contactless transactions or exchange data just by being in proximity of each other. In some ways, what BlackBerry 7 devices will be able to do is akin to paying for your latte with your smartphone, except it's your identity -- not money -- that's being transmitted when scanned.
In essence, it can take the place of a physical ID card.

"NFC enables smartphones to become even smarter mobile computing platforms, and this is another great example that demonstrates the potential that NFC on mobile devices brings to the physical access control space.”

This technology is often mistakenly called  "iris-scanning," but there's no scanning involved in iris recognition. Instead, it's a bit like pattern-capturing in some of today's camcorders.

Here's what happens, according to the Iris ID site: A person is positioned about three inches to 14 inches from the iris camera, and a digital video is taken of her iris. Then, still images are captured from the video using a frame grabber, and an algorithm analyzes patterns in the iris that are visible between the pupil and white of the eye and converts them into a 512-byte digital template. That's what's stored in a database and transferred at areas where you have access privileges.

And, in about two seconds, you're identified -- no PINs, passwords or access cards. And with this, no eyes needed, just your all-knowing BlackBerry.

Every iris, like snowflakes, is unique. In fact, your left and right iris are different from each other.
"It's probably fair to say that one iris template contains more data than is collected in creating templates for a finger, a face and a hand combined," according to the Iris ID site. And the iris offers a fairly stable data set. Voices change, hands and fingers grow, but, "barring trauma and certain ophthalmologic surgery, the patterns in the iris are constant from age 1 to death."

I don't know about you, but I inadvertently leave my BlackBerry far too often to feel comfortable knowing my eye print is in there. And, frankly, it's a lot easier to steal your BlackBerry than it is to take your eyes. (Think of all the trouble and pain it could have saved John Anderton in his ocular transformation to "Mr. Yakimoto" in "Minority Report.")

But the companies say not to worry about security. The digital credential, where the biometric information is loaded, resides in a secure area of the BlackBerry, Debra Spitler, vice president of mobile access solutions for HID Global, said in an email. If the device is lost or stolen, the information can be wiped, or de-provisioned -- the way a physical access card is when it's misplaced. 
HID Global expects that its embedded digital-credentialing technology will be available for the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 and BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360 smartphones later this year.

Mysterious Geologic Structure Seen from Space

A huge, copper-toned formation in West Africa dominates a mesmerizing photo taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers snapped this hypnotic image of the so-called Richat structure in Mauritania, as the space station flew over the Sahara Desert on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa.

Erosion of the various rock layers created the ring-like features that make up the sprawling structure, but the origin of the Richat structure remains somewhat mysterious, geologists have said.

The photo shows Kuipers' unique vantage point from the orbiting complex, which flies approximately 240 miles (386 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth. The image was taken on March 7 using a Nikon D2Xs camera, officials at the European Space Agency said in a statement.

During their months-long stints aboard the International Space Station, astronauts often perform Earth observations for science and public outreach.

Throughout their mission, many spaceflyers maintain active social media presences, such as on Twitter or Google+, to share stunning views from space with members of the public.

Space agencies also use photos taken by astronauts to engage students and space enthusiasts in geography, planetary science and human spaceflight.

There are currently six people living and working on the space station: Kuipers, Americans Dan Burbank and Don Pettit, and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and Oleg Kononenko. Burbank is commander of the station's Expedition 30 mission.

Kuipers launched to the space station in December 2011. He is almost midway through his six-month stay at the orbiting outpost. Kuipers, Kononenko and Pettit are slated to return to Earth on July 1.

Editor's Note: This story was updated to reflect that the Richat structure in Mauritania is not a lava crater.

Meet the primate prodigy: Natasha the chimp genius stuns scientists with her human-like levels of intelligence

By Simon Tomlinson

It is widely thought that social intelligence is what really sets humans apart from primates.
But scientists may just have to rethink that view after being introduced to Natasha the 'chimp genius'.
She has astounded researchers with her ability to manipulate situations and communicate with others in her species in a way they have never seen before

At feeding time, the 22-year-old primate has learnt to clap her hands loudly in the hope of gaining attention and extracting more food from her caretakers.

She has also developed a reputation for her playful antics.

One trick she enjoyed pulling off was beckoning visitors towards her and then dousing them with water at the Ugandan Wildlife Sanctuary on Ngamba Island, where she used to live.

Her remarkable behaviour has been analysed by a team from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, which has, for the first time, been able to show that some chimps intuitively understand social situations far better than others.

The researchers studied the abilities of three groups of captive apes, from tool use to social learning and communication, according to The Sunday Times.

Another prodigy: Chimpanzee Ayumu has shown remarkable levels of numerical memory at
the Primate Research Institute that many humans would struggle with

After applying psychometric testing to all the results, Natasha's scores went off the scale.
The findings were revealed in January and will soon be published in a scientific journal.

Jill Pruetz, a biological anthropologist at Iowa State University, told the Sunday Times: 'I am very excited to see this research.

'People who work with apes know that individual differences are evident, but I don't think there has been a systematic examination of this before.

'It will change the way we consider the intelligence of individual chimps in captivity and in the wild.'
Natasha is latest primate prodigy to display human-like levels of intelligence that rival fictional portrayals such as those in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Fellow chimp Ayumu was shown to perform numerical memory tests at the primate research facility in Kyoto, Japan, that many of us would find difficult.

Gas could hit $8 on Iran showdown, experts say

By Tim Mullaney, USA TODAY

Gas prices could double if Iran acts to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil-tanker traffic near the beginning of next year, cutting global economic growth by more than 25%, a leading energy-consulting firm says.

Iran lacks the military might to close the strait for long, but it may be able to disrupt global oil supplies for up to three months by laying mines in the 6-mile-wide shipping passage that the U.S. and its allies would have to find and remove, analysts at IHS Global Insight said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday. About 17 million barrels of oil a day pass through the strait, or nearly 20% of the global market.

Brent crude oil prices could briefly hit $240 a barrel in the first quarter of 2013, said Sara Johnson, senior research director for Global Economics at IHS. Brent, the benchmark European oil, which IHS uses as a proxy for global prices, closed at $123.07 in London Thursday. In the U.S., West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude oil, closed at $105.35 a barrel.

Prices could stay as high as $160 in the second quarter before reverting to somewhere around $120, she said. The firm forecast that such an oil shock could bring back gas lines in much of the world, and shave global economic growth next year to 2.6% from a current forecast of 3.6%.

"If it did hit $240, you're looking at about a doubling of where gas prices are now," said Jim Burkhard, managing director of the global oil group at IHS CERA, the firm's energy-research arm. "And the U.S. is at $4."

Closing the strait probably wouldn't be in Iran's best interests, but its leadership often fails to act in ways that Westerners consider rational, said Farid Abolfathi, senior director of the IHS Risk Center. The firm's analysis assumes the strait would be closed at the start of 2013, as Iran reacts to pressure to stop development work on nuclear weapons.

Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait, said on state media Tuesday that Iran had assured its neighbor it would not close the strait, despite its public threats to do so.

IHS' energy-related forecasts attract attention because of the reputation of Daniel Yergin, chairman of the IHS CERA division, formerly known as Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Yergin's books include the best-seller The Quest, about the evolution of energy markets since the end of the Cold War, and 1993's The Prize, a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the oil industry.

The firm's outlook is gloomier than some economists' assumptions. In an interview earlier this month, Moody's Analytics chief capital markets economist John Lonski said U.S. gasoline prices would reach $4.75 a gallon if Iran closed the strait.

The impact would be so large because global oil supplies are so tight, said Burkhard. The world has only 1.8 million to 2.5 million barrels a day of unused production capacity, down from 6.2 million in 2009.

Tight inventories magnify the impact of any interruption in crude from nations around the strait, he said. Much Iranian crude has already been taken off world markets because of international sanctions.

If gas prices doubled, consumers could spend an extra $145 a month for gasoline, said Nigel Griffiths, chief economist at IHS Automotive.

U.S.: Water may cause wars in coming decades

(AP) WASHINGTON - Drought, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the coming decades, as developing countries scramble to meet demand from exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate change, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report released Thursday.

An assessment reflecting the joint judgment of federal intelligence agencies says the risk of water issues causing wars in the next 10 years is minimal even as they create tensions within and between states and threaten to disrupt national and global food markets. But beyond 2022, it says the use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become more likely, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The report is based on a classified National Intelligence Estimate on water security, which was requested by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and completed last fall. It says floods, scarce and poor quality water, combined with poverty, social tension, poor leadership and weak governments will contribute to instability that could lead the failure of numerous states.

Those elements "will likely increase the risk of instability and state failure, exacerbate regional tensions, and distract countries from working with the United States on important policy objectives," said the report, which was released at a State Department event commemorating World Water Day.

Clinton, who unveiled a new U.S. Water Partnership that aims to share American water management expertise with the rest of the world, called the findings "sobering."

"These threats are real and they do raise serious security concerns," she said.

The report noted that countries have in the past tried to resolve water issues through negotiation but said that could change as water shortages become more severe.

"We judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives, also will become more likely beyond 10 years," it said.

The report predicts that upstream nations - more powerful than their downstream neighbors due to geography - will limit access to water for political reasons and that countries will regulate internal supplies to suppress separatist movements and dissident populations.

At the same time, terrorists and rogue states may target or threaten to target water-related infrastructure like dams and reservoirs more frequently. Even if attacks do not occur or are only partially successful, the report said "the fear of massive floods or loss of water resources would alarm the public and cause governments to take costly measures to protect the water infrastructure."

The unclassified summary of the intelligence estimate does not identify the specific countries most at risk. But it notes that the study focused on several specific rivers and water basins. Those included the Nile in Egypt, Sudan and nations further south, the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq and the greater Middle East, the Mekong in China and Southeast Asia, the Jordan that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the Indus and the Brahmaputra in India and South Asia as well as the Amu Darya in Central Asia.