FUTURE POLICE BODY CAMSWILL BE LIVESTREAM, FACIALRECOGNITION CAPABLE

As more police forces adopt body cameras as a
way to prevent abuse of power and lawsuits, one
company says they'll be adding new technologies in
the future to make the cameras even more valuable
in the field.
Axon is one of the leading providers of body cams
to police forces. They say that they'll be rolling out
models with livestreaming

SUPER-RIPPED ROBOT MIMICSHUMAN MUSCLE

Have you been mesmerized and horrified by
technology yet today?
Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology
created this nightmare-fuel to move less like a robot
and more "creature-ish"--which, yeah, success. As
the skeleton itself says, "My legs have almost the
same number of muscles as human." It brags about
walking in place using OpenSim patterns and the
help of an auxiliary instrument.
"I am trying something new every day," it says,
taking a bite of what looks like a Mac n' Cheetos
and kicking a basketball, two totally

The alarm on Mitsubishi's Outlander hybrid car can be turned off via security bugs in its on-board wi-fi, researchers have found.

The loophole could mean thieves who exploit the
bugs gain time to break into and steal a vehicle.
The vulnerability can also be used to fiddle with
some of the car's settings and drain its battery.
Mitsubishi recommended that users turn off the wi-
fi while it investigates the issues with the system.
Helping thieves
Security expert Ken Munro said the investigation
started when he was waiting to collect his children
from school and noticed an unusual wi-fi access
point pop up on a list on his smartphone.
He realised it was on a nearby Mitsubishi Outlander
that belonged to a friend who then showed him the
associated app and how it could be used to control
some aspects of the vehicle.
"I got playing with it and soon realised it was
vulnerable so I stopped," he told the BBC.
Mr Munro then bought an Outlander and set about
investigating how the car's owner communicates
with their vehicle via the app.
Many other car makers use a web-based service
that supports apps for connected cars so owners
can lock them remotely or otherwise control them.
Typically, commands sent to a car pass through
these servers before being sent to the car over the
mobile network.
By contrast, Mitsubishi has decided to only let apps
talk to cars via the onboard wi-fi. Unfortunately,
said Mr Munro, there were serious shortcomings
with the way the wi-fi has been set up.
To begin with, said Mr Munro, the format for the
name of the access point on the car is very distinct.
This has led to the location of many Mitsubishi
hybrids being logged on websites that gather the
names of access points.
"Some were spotted while driving and others when
parked at their owner's house," wrote Mr Munro in
a blog outlining his findings. "A thief or hacker can
therefore easily locate a car that is of interest to
them."
Short-term fix
Although Mr Munro owned the vehicle, he and his
colleagues at Pen Test Partners security firm
carried out their investigation as if they had no
special access to it. This involved using well-known
techniques that let the researchers interpose
themselves between car and owner and watch data
as it flowed between the two.
The team used this access to replay commands
sent to an Outlander allowing them to flash the
lights, tweak its charging settings and drain the
battery.
Mr Munro said he was "shocked" to find out that he
could also turn off the car alarm via this replay
attack.
A thief who is sure the alarm could not go off would
have plenty of time to use other techniques to
unlock a car and gain entry, he said.
A history of car hacking
The Mitsubishi Outlander is the latest in a series of
cars that have been found wanting when it comes to
security.
Chrysler's 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the Tesla Model S
and the Nissan Leaf have all been shown to be
vulnerable to hack attacks of different degrees of
severity.
The most startling was the attack staged on the
Jeep which allowed the researchers to take control
of the vehicle remotely. The discovery led to 1.4
million vehicles being recalled for a software
update.
Security researchers fear that the more cars get
connected to phones and the web, the more holes
will be found.
But car makers are always playing catch-up when
it comes to security as it takes far longer to develop
a vehicle than it does to find, expose and share the
flaws in their onboard computer systems.
"Once unlocked, there is potential for many more
attacks," he said. "The on-board diagnostics port is
accessible once the door is unlocked."
Access to the diagnostics port could allow thieves
to connect customised hardware that would let them
start the car, suggested Mr Munro.
A demonstration of the problems with the on-board
wi-fi was given to Mitsubishi in the UK on 3 June
where the bugs were shown to still work on the
latest version of the app.
Mr Munro said he had been impressed by the
cooperation he had received from Mitsubishi in
exploring the bugs and seeking ways to fix them.
In a statement, Mitsubishi said: "This hacking is a
first for us as no other has been reported anywhere
else in the world."
It said it "took the matter seriously" and was keen
to get Mr Munro talking to its engineers in Japan to
understand what he found and how it could be
remedied.
It added that although the bugs were "obviously
disturbing" the hack only affected the car's app and
would give an attacker limited access to the
vehicle's systems.
"It should be noted that without the remote control
device, the car cannot be started and driven away,"
it said.
While Mitsubishi investigated it recommended that
owners deactivate their onboard wi-fi via the
"cancel VIN Registration" option on the app or by
using the remote app cancellation procedure.
A longer-term fix would require some action from
Mitsubishi, said Mr Munro.
"New firmware should be deployed urgently to fix
this problem properly, so the mobile app can still be
used," he said.

Innovation

The Bios Incube is an incubator that monitors and
cultivates trees from human ashes.
Credit: Bios Urn
Instead of keeping a departed loved one's ashes in
an urn over the fireplace, why not breathe new life
into them, in the form of a tree that can sit in your
living room or outside on your porch? A new gadget
helps you nurture life from ashes, and regardless of
how green your thumbs are, it offers a way to keep
loved ones close after they die.
The Bios Incube, created by the company Bios Urn,
is an incubator that monitors and cultivates trees
from human ashes in people's homes. The
company says the invention allows people to return
the deceased to life through nature, creating a living
reminder of that person.
"When someone dies, they physically die, but the
people who are around the deceased person still
remember," said Roger Moliné, co-founder of Bios
Urn. [Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal with the Dead]
The Bios Incube is a sleek, white plant pot that
measures 2.5 feet (76 centimeters) tall and about 1
foot (33 cm) in diameter. The Bios Incube works
with the Bios Urn, a biodegradable urn, and an
accompanying mobile application. Although the Bios
Urn has been available for more than a year, the
Bios Incube is a new product designed for people
who want to keep their trees close instead of
planting them in a forest, Moliné told Live Science.
The Bios Urn is a relatively small cylindrical
package with the seed and soil sitting on top of the
ashes. The entire Bios Urn sits in the upper half of
the Bios Incube and is supported from the bottom
and around by soil. The Bios Urn is made of paper,
carbon and cellulose . Once it decomposes, the
ashes mix with the soil and roots of the tree, Moliné
said.
The outer circumference of the Bios Incube,
separated from the soil by a barrier, is a water tank
that holds up to 3 gallons (11.4 liters) of water.
There is a water pump on the bottom of the Bios
Incube and a sensor and sprinkler at the top. Water
enters through a slot toward the rim of the Bios
Incube, according to the company.
The sensor and sprinkler sit on top of the soil. The
sensor monitors soil moisture , to make sure the
tree gets the right amount of water; soil
conductivity, to make sure the tree has enough
fertilizer; and soil temperature, to make sure the
soil maintains a consistent temperature, Moliné
said. The sensor also monitors environmental
conditions, such as sunlight exposure, temperature
and humidity, he added.
The sensor is preprogramed to know what type of
tree it is monitoring — for instance, whether it's a
pine or maple. This means the device knows the
exact moment the tree needs to be watered, Moliné
said. Over- and under-watering are typically the
main issues that affect tree growth, Moliné said, so
the Bios Incube combines collected data from its
sensors to determine when to water the tree. When
the device detects dryness, the water pump
automatically works to hydrate the soil. The Bios
Incube's storage capacity of 3 gallons of water lasts
20 days on average, according to the company.
The sensor wirelessly transmits all its collected
data through Wi-Fi to an application that can be
accessed on a smartphone. The sensor can also
use the internet to retrieve weather data to
determine whether the plant should or should not be
left outside, Moliné said, or whether a plant should
be moved from one room to another.
The tree can stay in its pot or be planted in a forest,
Moliné said. "If we keep a tree in a flower pot, the
tree doesn't grow indefinitely," he said. If the tree is
removed from the Bios Incubator and planted in the
forest, the Bios Incube can be reused to plant
another tree, Moliné said, even if the seed and soil
don't come from the Bios Urn. The Bios Incube
uses an ordinary soil mixture of coco peat, made
from coconut husks, and vermiculite, a mineral
used to retain water, the company said.
Bios Urn has received positive feedback from its
users and the company maintains close
relationships with its customers, Moliné said. The
Bios Incube ran a Kickstarter campaign that raised
more than $83,000, about $15,000 over their goal of
$68,000, to market the Bios Incube. The Bios
Incube is expected to ship out to early backers of
the crowdfunding campaign in November, with the
rest of the shipments estimated for March 2017.
Original article on Live Science.