Story of real-life alien hunter with lifetime’s quest

THE thought that we’re not alone has intrigued and perplexed ever since Neanderthal man first raised his eyes skywards and wondered what that big silvery circle thing in the sky was.

Stars, planets and the vast scale of the galaxy, all part of a brainbusting conundrum that has confounded civilisations down the generations, leaving mere human minds to boggle under the concept that, somewhere out there, one of those twinkling little stars is home to someone else.

As for Hollywood movies, they whisk us to imaginary worlds of little green men with light sabres and a disturbing habit of shooting first then asking later to be taken to our leader – in perfect if slightly robotic English – or to curious worlds with multi- coloured moons and purple oceans.

Could any of that possibly, in our wildest dreams, ever be real?

Actually, yes, says Dr Duncan Forgan, straight-faced, deadly serious and not even wearing a replica Star Trek uniform or a giant fancy dress Chewbacca head. It could be true and, indeed, it probably is.

Well, perhaps not the bits about the light sabres and green men. Or the multi-coloured moons and the purple oceans – I made all that up. Besides, that’s the fine detail to be established once and for all sometime later.

Right now it’s enough to know that, on those starry nights when we choose to raise our eyes heavenwards, peering through the haar and the city’s light pollution to ponder the prospect of intelligent life on other planets, there’s probably someone else looking down at us wondering exactly the same thing.

“The idea that we’re alone as biological organisms, well, for me, that’s kind of unlikely,” says Dr Forgan, a sort of Han Solo with a university degree and Edinburgh’s real-life “alien hunter”.

“There are estimated to be 100 billion planets in the galaxy,” he continues, ignoring the references to Space: 1999 and the odd Vulcan salute. “That only one could have even simple biological life seems to be unlikely. If that was the case, then it would be a shattering result.”

Far more likely, he believes, is that alien life forms are really out there. Indeed, according to one raft of research he published after intense study from his lair at the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill, there could be between a mere 361 up to a jaw-dropping 38,000 alien civilisations in our galaxy alone.

And if even one of them has a Death Star, enough unleaded to fuel it plus a dislike of folks who walk upright, watch mind-numbing reality television shows, tweet about what they had for breakfast and overindulge in McDonalds, then we’ve had it.

Of course, Dr Forgan has heard all those smarty-pants jibes before – about ET and Klingons on the starboard bow, death rays, phasers, teleporting and Captain Kirk’s acting ability. Still just 27 years old, he learned a while ago that, when he goes to a party and someone asks what he does for a living, it’s probably less hassle to simply respond, “I’m a PhD research fellow in an academic position”, than to admit, “Well, as a matter of fact, I hunt for aliens”.

And yet that’s pretty much a large element of what he does. Even if the proper term for it all is that he “carries out theoretical calculations for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”, he’s basically the chap peering skywards, armed with an astonishing array of scientific data to help deduce where life forms may be, and what their home might be like.

Of course, if you want aliens, the best place to find them is on the silver screen, and now Dr Forgan has ventured there too. Not a cameo appearance in Avatar, but in a short film made by Edinburgh College of Art students aimed at explaining his “out of this world” research, with the hope of inspiring us all to become amateur alien hunters.

Are You Ready for the Machine-to-Machine Revolution?

As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “an ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.” It’s a fitting statement to describe today’s hyper-competitive world, where sensing and responding to changing trends in real time – aka the “sentient” enterprise – dictates whether a business survives and thrives. And now that the smart phone revolution has placed the power of the web at one’s fingertips, we have a better understanding of how the machine-to-machine (M2M) revolution impacts the power of the sentient enterprise.

Imagine a refrigerated cabinet or vending machine able to communicate its state, announcing if it is powered on, at the right temperature, well stocked, with the right product mix, at the right location, how shoppers interact with it, if it is due for routine maintenance and so on.

Now imagine millions of such machines worldwide, adding up to a sizeable business for a company.  Imagine each machine offering shoppers the ability to pay for the product in multiple smart ways through other devices (smart phones, smart cards, touch screen, etc). Imagine the enterprise being able to remotely and dynamically tune the machine with advertising, pricing, promotions, bundling, language and currency.  Imagine the machine tailoring an offer to a shopper that it recognizes as a loyal customer (if the shopper allows it).

The ability to glean real time shopper insight, optimize retail locations, make the supply chain efficient and effective and to generate a high return on assets seems like a marketing and operations dream. This smart asset scenario is well within reach of M2M.

The other side of this scenario involves a mobile asset such as a reefer (a refrigerated container) on a vessel in the ocean, on a railcar, or on a trailer on the road.  Tracking a mobile asset like a reefer across its lifecycle as its changes multiple hands and ensures that it maintains its state (and the state of its contents) is extremely valuable to the entire value chain.  This ensures timely supply, proactive notification and planning and faster processing of claims.  Configuring a container to ensure it remains connected via satellite and terrestrial networks means it can provide real time intelligence, in a cost effective way.

The power of a connected car or vehicle is obvious, since in-vehicle services for drivers have been around for some time.  Connecting these “connected” cars and trucks to enterprises that wish to push a range of employee services like smart parking, green incentives, flexible insurance, field service requests, emergency notifications enders the corporation with the fleet smart and sentient.  The benefits to the corporation come in multiple forms.

The power of the mobile web is nowhere more obvious than in emerging economies where significant populations have been empowered by mobile technology, enabling them to leapfrog the wired stage of growth entirely.  It also enables vast numbers of micro businesses to join the business network of a large enterprise and be included financially as well.  Low cost devices can provide a range of simple services (order management, contacts, service tracking, payments, micro-banking, etc.) and the connection to the enterprise leads to enormous savings in supply efficiency and rapid business growth as the enterprise becomes suddenly and acutely aware of the collective needs for products across millions and millions of small businesses.  A number of large corporations are waking up to this reality.

States Aim to Launch More Mobile Apps

Robert Meza, project lead for California’s mobile strategy, heads a team that’s working to make the state portal a destination for on-the-go taxpayers — and their efforts are generating results. An average of nearly 2,000 people access Ca.gov from handheld devices daily, and iPhone and Android traffic constitutes 95 percent of it.

Many state and local jurisdictions are already on top of things, according to a February 2012 survey of 100 members of GovTech Exchange, an online community of senior-level IT pros from state and local government. The survey found that 38 percent of respondents planned to launch new mobile offerings within 12 months. (Another 23 percent said they weren’t sure.) Of those planning new deployments, 55 percent said they will use responsive design techniques that allow a single source of content to be viewed by multiple device types and operating systems. Roughly half said they’ll create the apps using in-house developers, while the other half planned to work with outside developers.

Use of responsive design is on the upswing in state government, according to Nolan Jones, vice president of eGovernment innovation at NIC. “It’s growing in popularity,” he said. “Basically, the vision behind that is [that] the end user shouldn’t worry about how they’re accessing information.”

That’s the approach being taken in California. Instead of using platform-specific native apps that users download from digital stores like iTunes, the California Technology Agency (CTA) is building no-frills mobile websites that adapt to whatever operating system or device a user has, no downloads necessary. 

Though some California agencies have native apps, they’re a rarity, Meza said, adding that the state’s focus on responsive design saves time and money. “Some of the federal programs and other states that launched an iPhone app are under tremendous pressure now, ‘Where’s my Android app? Where’s my Windows phone app?’” Meza said. “We’re never going to be iPhone or Android fanboys.”

California is in good company, according to a 2011 assessment of state portals conducted by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government. Twenty-eight states had mobile-optimized versions of their government portals, the assessment found. But 31 also had native apps for specific platforms, suggesting that despite the drawback to platform-specific apps, both solutions have value.

The free Official Delaware State Parks Guide, available for Apple iOS and Android, is a mobile tour guide in the Pocket Ranger series. Users browse state parks by region, activity or type of environment, and the app provides the locations and hours of operation for each one. The pro version is a $3.99 in-app purchase with enhanced GPS features. Users cache maps to their device and use 3G or Wi-Fi service to view interactive GPS maps and leave markers, called waypoints, on maps to track their movements. Users also can sync their device with friends’ or relatives’ devices to create a network where people track one another, which is handy if someone is in trouble.

Because the state has a revenue-sharing arrangement with ParksByNature, both will profit from in-app purchases. Delaware only has used Pocket Ranger since fall 2011, however, so the state has not yet seen substantial rewards. According to Chris Polo, chief of creative services for Delaware State Parks, there were about 800 downloads as of winter 2011 — not bad for one of the smallest states in the country, she said.

Development on the Delaware State Parks Guide began in summer 2011 after ParksByNature approached Delaware for permission to use state data. “The state paid absolutely nothing. It was all done by ParksByNature,” Polo said. App purchases generate extra money for a government, easing the burden on taxpayers. And if an app’s popular enough, the revenue could help save a park from closure.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), a division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), featured a staggering 50 apps on its website as of March 2012. They comprise Web apps like MBTAway, which uses a mobile device’s GPS or Wi-Fi to provide a list of nearby bus stops, and native apps like Where’s My MBTA Rail? for Apple iOS, which uses GPS to offer real-time tracking of commuter rail lines.

And none of them was created by the state. MassDOT provides open data to developers, whether they’re companies or regular citizens. The licensing agreement allows anyone to use real-time and static traffic data to build apps for consumers. Available data sets include CSV, XML and JavaScript Object Notation files as well as Google’s GTFS-realtime specification.

The state saves money and manpower by leaving the development up to citizens and companies. “I think it’s always important for a government in a time of tight budgets,” said Josh Robin, MBTA’s director of innovation and special projects. “We need to look for the private sector to be involved in the solution, and this is an area where we have that opportunity.”

The state takes a hands-off approach to give developers freedom. Consequently many of the MBTA’s apps duplicate the same services, but not all are created equal. Robin doesn’t find the plethora of apps problematic because the market will decide which gains traction.

California’s strategy is similar. In February 2012, the CTA launched version 3.0 of the state’s free mobile Web template, which lets developers use state data to create mobile Web apps in ASP, NET and PHP. Thirty-five state departments already used earlier versions of the template, and their apps are offered on Ca.gov’s mobile site today.

Zimmerman being tracked by sensitive GPS device

herever George Zimmerman went after he was released on bond from a Florida jail, a sensitive GPS device will pinpoint his location for authorities and alert them if he drifts even a few feet away from where he is allowed.

Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, went into hiding Monday as he awaits trial. He must pay an $8-a-day fee to use the device, which is generally used to track people charged in domestic violence cases.

Local bail bondsmen whose clients have worn the same device used to pinpoint Zimmerman said it is highly sensitive and can send messages to authorities in real-time. Zimmerman had to put up the customary 10 percent of his $150,000 bond to leave jail.

Seminole County Sheriff's officials are offering few details on how Zimmerman will be specifically monitored, other than to say the device he is wearing has the same 24/7 capabilities it uses to track accused domestic violence offenders. Zimmerman may be residing outside of Florida for safety reasons.

The monitoring program has been in use since 2003 in Seminole and provides "real-time monitoring of an offender's movements and is capable of monitoring anywhere in the U.S.," according to a sheriff's office news release. In 2009, the agency said using the devices saved $950,000 by keeping people out of jail.

"It does help us out as far as keeping track of people, there's no doubt about it," said David Engel, who has been running a bail bonds business with his wife in Sanford since 1992. "It does not come off. It's locked on their leg. If it ever came off it would send a signal. They're not very strong, but it can't just fall off."

Engel isn't involved with Zimmerman's case, but said his experience with clients who have used them has been relatively seamless because the devices are so hands-off.

The device is much like a cellphone, with a small box, receiver and battery charger, fixed to his ankle with a thin strap.

Computer software that is synched to the device enables "inclusionary zones" to establish where a person can go. It also can report whether the user is being compliant with release conditions like curfews. Zimmerman has been asked to observe a curfew between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The tracking devices are most often used to make sure suspects in domestic violence cases don't come near alleged victims, Engel said.

It will likely be inconvenient for Zimmerman, however: The tracker must be worn all the time, even while bathing.

Mena Trombino, manager at MacDonald Bail Bonds, said people who have worn the devices after posting bail have rarely complained.

"The only time we ever had anybody complain was when one guy had to wear it to work," she said.

Engel said the technology is so sensitive that the monitoring computer has been alerted by the wearer unknowingly drifting a few feet into a restricted area while driving to the grocery store, for example.

It's because of that that people generally don't try to circumvent the system, though it has happened.

"They can get cut and we do have people cut them," Engel said. "(Authorities) call us and let us know. So it's better for us when they have them on."

Why Is a Patent Troll in Luxembourg Suing U.S. Public Transit Agencies?

Dowell Baker, a law firm specializing in patent litigation in Lafayette, Indiana, finds companies to target in a couple different ways. The firm’s client, ArrivalStar, holds 34 U.S. patents, all related to the idea of tracking a vehicle in motion and then alerting people, through some communications device, of when it may arrive or whether it’s running late. As you might imagine, many entities – airlines, school buses, freight-tracking services, package-delivery companies – do something quite similar to this. And Dowell Baker believes they’re all infringing on these patents.

The firm scours for potential infringers on the Internet. Sometimes, companies that have already been sued by ArrivalStar – and now license its patents – will tip off the firm to its competitors. And then there are the really easy targets: public transit agencies. They’re quite public about the cell phone apps and notifications that you can sign up for, as a rider, to keep tabs on buses and trains. And so Dowell Baker signs up for them, too.

“We had to get a separate phone account,” says partner Anthony Dowell, “because no one wanted to get all these notifications on their phone.”

This is a strange story. And this detail probably conveys that best: There is a dedicated cell phone sitting in a law office in Indiana pinging at all hours of the day with alerts about bus delays and approaching trains in cities across the country.

The case is particularly odd given that ArrivalStar sells no product or service. It isn’t really competing with any of these companies, certainly not the transit agencies. When the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority texts its riders about a waylaid train, that service doesn’t cut into ArrivalStar’s profits. But the company, while it makes little else, controls these patents.

Some of them date back to the mid-1990s, when an inventor named Martin Kelly Jones initially filed them. Today, a company called Melvino Technologies Limited, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, owns all of his patents. And ArrivalStar, registered in Luxembourg, has the exclusive rights to license them.

Together, Melvino and ArrivalStar have sued at least 10 public transit agencies and threatened legal action against at least eight others. Noticing the pattern, tech and transit advocates have begun to flag ArrivalStar as a “patent troll,” a company that exists solely to sue supposed patent infringers for financial gain. Most perplexing to the many people involved is this question: How does anyone own the rights to the obvious idea of alerting people when their train, or bus, or plane might pull in?

“It’s a very old conflict in the U.S. patent system,” Dowell says. “The Wright brothers never manufactured an airplane, but they filed for and obtained the first patent and engaged in litigation for years about it.”

ArrivalStar’s critics frame this a little differently.

“It’s kind of like a hostage situation,” says Julie Samuels, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Because settling it is always going to be cheaper than litigating. When you start suing cash-strapped local governments, they don’t have the resources to fight back.”

Fighting a suit like this can run into the millions of dollars. So far, every transit agency ArrivalStar has sued has settled, as have more than a hundred private companies. No one has ever taken one of these cases all the way to trial, where a judge might begin to sort out exactly what the broad language in these patents truly means.

“It’s a mess,” Samuels says. “Not to sound glib, but you’re talking about taxpayer dollars when these cities have no money to start with. And that’s not what we want our cities focused on now – or ever. But right now, it seems especially egregious.”

Drive-in field shows reel revival

As a theater owner, Rod Saunders routinely sees dozens of ho-hum films, but recently he saw one that really made him tear up -- We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.

"I could relate," Mr. Saunders said with a chuckle while recalling the 2011 film about a man who knows nothing about running a zoo but buys one anyway.

Were anyone to make a film called We Opened a Drive-In, Mr. Saunders, and his wife, Donna, would be perfect for the lead roles.

The Saunders family of Liberty Center began their sixth season Friday as owners of the Field of Dreams Drive-In company, and while their unusual business venture hasn't paid off financially yet, they've managed to improve and expand it annually to where they can envision profits a few years from now.

"With any new business you don't start to expect making money right off the bat. We knew it was going to take money and that we'd have to invest back into it," said Mrs. Saunders, who handles much of the administrative and technical work associated with the business.

"We never expected to make money for the first five years. We expected to put money into the business and grow it, and that's what we've done," Mrs. Saunders said.

In fact, the Saunderses estimate they have invested between $400,000 and $500,000 in their business since opening their Liberty Center Field of Dreams Drive-In -- conveniently located in the backyard of their 4.5-acre property on Henry County Road 6 in Washington Township just south of Swanton -- in the summer of 2007.

"Every year we were adding something -- new equipment, new screens, we grew the concessions," Mrs. Saunders said.

The first year, they showed second-run films on a 48-by-20-foot screen. But they quickly learned the realities of attracting customers: People want to see something new.

Improved concessions was their next lesson. Food sales are the key to profitability once the movie studios take their huge cut of the gate admissions.

In 2010 the couple added a second 42-by-18-foot screen after learning another hard lesson of the drive-in business: By contract, theater owners must show a first-run film for three to four weeks, but business for a film drops considerably after the first weekend.

On a film's second weekend, their 175-vehicle big screen area was usually half-empty. So their second smaller screen provided a site to fulfill their contract obligations while utilizing a smaller area .

They also added a series of games, putting golf, and sand volleyball courts for customers who arrive early.

Last year the Saunderses made their biggest move yet, buying a run-down drive-in in Tiffin that was about to close.

They spent $50,000 on renovations and renamed it the Field of Dreams Tiffin Drive-In. In midseason they added a second 42-by-18-foot screen there to complement its existing 88-by-40-foot screen.

With seasonal maintenance and several blockbuster movies slated for this year, such as The Avengers, Men in Black III, and The Dark Knight Rises, the Saunders family could see their first profit this year if the films deliver and good weather prevails.

"We are close to making a profit and we are definitely seeing the writing on the wall, especially with our growth projection," Mrs. Saunders said.

"We are looking for this to be a really good year."

But while no longer neophytes, the couple say they still have a lot to learn about owning a drive-in.

"I would say we're maybe 80 percent there. We certainly know a lot now. But when we meet with other owners in this industry, we kind of shake the bushes a lot," Mrs. Saunders said.

"At conventions we ask questions -- a lot. Like, 'Why do you do that? We do it this way, but why do you do it that way?' The truth is, we don't know any better."

Review board warned that mentally ill man accused of murder was a risk

A review board began granting a man accused of murdering a gay activist this week conditional leaves from a psychiatric hospital in Halifax two months ago, even though the board considered the mentally ill man a "significant risk" to public safety.

But a legal expert in the mental health field says the warning in the disposition order from the Nova Scotia Review Board didn't mean Andre Denny was considered dangerous.

Denny was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the beating death of 49-year-old Raymond Taavel. The accused, diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teenager, is undergoing a 30-day psychiatric assessment.

Outside a court appearance for his client on Wednesday, defence lawyer Pavel Boubnov questioned the decision to temporarily release Denny from the East Coast Forensic Hospital on Monday night, saying his client is prone to violence when he is drinking and off his medication.

As he was being led into court, Denny, 32, shouted at reporters: "Drunken fight."

"Self-defence," he said. "What can I say?"

During a February hearing, the seven-member review board granted conditional leave for Denny, which included a one-hour pass on Monday night that started at 7:30 p.m. Police have said they began looking for Denny when he failed to return to the hospital.

The role of the board, which included two psychiatrists and four lawyers in February, is to decide on what level of community access should be granted to patients in the East Coast Forensic Hospital.

The hospital treats offenders from an adjacent provincial jail and patients who have been found unfit to stand trial, as well as others found not criminally responsible for their actions.

Despite the safety warning, law professor Archie Kaiser of Dalhousie University in Halifax says the term "significant risk" is a specific legal term that is easily misunderstood.

The term is used when the board wants to retain control over an individual as they are integrated back into society, he said. Without the designation, the law would have required the board to set Denny free with no conditions.

"The decision of the board says he is a significant threat because otherwise they would have to wash their hands of him," said Kaiser.

"When you see that phrase, it makes you wary about this decision. (But) the use of that terminology is necessary in the circumstances in order to retain jurisdiction over the accused."

A senior health official said Denny's profile at the forensic hospital wasn't all that different from other patients there.

"The board sees all of the patients here," said Dr. Scott Theriault, clinical director of the Department of Psychiatry at Capital Health.

"And all of the patients here, having been found not criminally responsible ... all have a mental illness and some proportion have substance abuse issues, and a good proportion ... lack insight into the mental illness."

In Denny's case, he was detained at the secure hospital in January after a court ruled he was not criminally responsible on a charge of assault causing bodily harm. The verdict means the accused is incapable of appreciating the nature of their actions or knowing that they were wrong.

The order says Denny was accused of drinking vodka and beating a woman who laughed at him for suggesting "the devil is in the basement" at his home in Membertou, N.S., in June 2011.

"He admitted to striking the victim in the face with an open hand," the disposition order says.

When he was admitted to the hospital in September, it says Denny was "agitated, demanding, argumentative, intrusive, loud disorganized and paranoid." The document notes that Denny is dependent on alcohol, marijuana, opiates and others substances.

With the adjustment of his medication, however, his condition improved and he was granted supervised outings in early February.

Still, the document says Denny continued to struggle.

One doctor at the facility noted that while Denny was aware of his diagnosis he was unable to distinguish reality from his delusions and did not connect his "bizarre experiences" with his illness.

"He also has very poor insight into the effects of substance use on his mental health and on the safety of others around him while he is using drugs and alcohol," the disposition order says.

At the hearing at the hospital on Feb. 20, one of the hospital's doctors warned that he was still unstable.

"Even though he has been here for a long time, he remains unwell and psychotic," the document says. "His behaviour can be quite intimidating at times. ... As recently as a few days ago, he was really delusional. He has poor insight into the adverse effects of drugs and alcohol."

Kaiser, who has a cross appointment at Dalhousie's psychiatry department, said these observations are not surprising, considering Denny's mental illness.

"It doesn't mean ... he would have been detained with no liberty and no prospects for rehabilitation," he said. "Yes, his thoughts may be disorganized. Yes, he may have some delusional thought. But that does not necessarily mean he would be a substantial risk to public safety."

Kaiser also pointed out that the disposition order makes it clear that Denny showed no signs of aggression prior to the hearing in February, and he was free of illicit drugs when subjected to random urine testing.

As well, the assault offence that led to Denny's detention is considered a "mid-level" offence, Kaiser added.

The report itself goes on to say that at least one doctor at the hospital concluded that Denny was expected to respond to drug treatment.

Dabble launching 'social graffiti' mobile app

There's a little battle forming up in a new mobile app segment: the graffiti app. The idea with these apps, of which Catarina Fake's Pinwheel is one, is that when you go to a location, you mark that you've been there and then maybe leave a note or a photo. Later, when your friends (or maybe not your friends) show up at the location or nearby it, they can see what you said and add their own comments.

The highest concept of these new companies is Wallit, which makes an augmented reality tagging app. You hold your phone up to a wall at a location and you can read what others have written on it, or drop your own content. It's cute, but a little too involved. Maybe when Google Glasses comes out it'll be a thing.

And then there's Dabble, which launches on Wednesday at the Demo conference. This app has an almost Path-quality mobile app that makes it fun and fast to use. Dabble is also the only check-in app I've seen that is kind of a dictator about the data you have to put in to create a tag. In Dabble, you have to enter a location, a photo, and a note. At least it makes short work of it.

I'm in the beta of Dabble and I can see co-founder Santosh Jayaram's vision in the app, Jayaram told me he wants Dabble to capture the "bursts of activity" around people converging at a location. He says that Twitter is part of the way there, but it's not a good system for seeing what people have said previously about a place you're visiting. He's right about that.

With Dabble, content is designed to be persistent. Jayaram says with it you need "never feel like a stranger," when you visit a new place, because you'll be able to see what friends (or friends of friends) said when they were there before you. "It's the persistent Twitter for places."

And it's not Foursquare, he says. It's not about checking in to find people who are there now. It's about the deeper, longer-term connection. And it's definitely not a stalker app like Highlight. While you can see where your friends have been, it's not set up to tell you where they are. Jayaram says that this philosophy is one thing that makes the app palatable for women.

Dabble is indeed very good at showing you locations near you where your friends have been. If you're sitting at a coffee shop and want to know which of the nearby restaurants your friends like, this app will tell you in a very intuitive interface, and let you quickly page through photos and comments.

Assuming, of course, that people actually use it. And that's the real vulnerability of all these micro-review, check-in, or tagging apps, from Foursquare to the departed Oink. Dabble does borrow some smart thinking from Instagram here: It can post to Facebook easily (as with Instagram, it's easier to create a photo post in this app than in Facebook itself), and there are even a few photo filters you can pop on to images.

Jayaram also says that since the data model on Dabble is persistent, the network works with a smaller number of contributors than you need on a system designed for real-time, as-it-happens networking, like Twitter, Foursquare, or Highlight. He has a point, but even so, even this good app has to thread the needle between other mobile apps calling for the user's attention when he or she lands at a location: Fourquare to check on friends, Twitter to blast out a short quip about what the guy in line just said, Facebook to advertise to your friends how cool your life is, etc.

I want this app to succeed because the social content on it, at least what I've seen so far, is genuinely good and useful, and also because it's fun to use. But it feels a bit more like an Oink than an Instagram.

Real-time TOC tightens effluent control

A new continuous Total Organic Carbon (TOC) monitor has increased the capability of a food manufacturer to refine and improve its wastewater treatment process. As a result the plant is better able to quickly respond to changes in the influent.

The Greencore Foods site is operated on a continuous improvement basis with its own dedicated wastewater treatment plant to monitor and control effluent quality and minimise costly discharge fees. Its effluent can contain an array of inorganic salts and organic components which enter the waste stream in part from the intense wash down of processing tanks and lines during clean in place procedures for product changeover. Overload of organics on the effluent treatment plant will adversely affect the efficiency of the treatment process. If the waste is not treated to the required standard, the site would be unable to achieve the river discharge parameters set by the Environment Agency.

The effluent treatment plant at the facility is managed by a specialist team from Veolia Water Industrial Outsourcing. Raw feed water entering the facility, is analysed for TOC to control the strength of the feed transferred to the site effluent treatment plant.

Environment manager at Greencore, David Murtagh, takes up the story: “In the past samples were manually collected from the site drains pit and transported to the laboratory at a second location. Given the geographical distance between sites this led to significant waste, both in terms of time and resources. We had a small team in the laboratory who performed a number of analyses on the delivered samples, which was labour intensive and delayed results. Even state of the art laboratory techniques still took too long for pragmatic purposes, preventing prompt feedback on the process. It provided us with no direct information to control the effluent plant or provide an early warning of process issues. An alternative needed to be sought.

“A further key driver was the impending tightening of the consent to discharge to river by the Environment Agency. We needed more frequent, detailed, prompt, accurate and reliable influent TOC data to help manage the effluent treatment plant more efficiently and provide feedback on the process which is the source of the TOC. We were wary of on-line TOC instruments due to poor experiences in the past; while they worked well on cleaner, particulate-free effluent samples, the high solids, fats, oils and greases, and variable TOC loads coming from raw influent was a major issue for delicate fine capillary tubing and valves, which typically caused instrument seizure.”

Traditional methods for analysis of TOC/COD/BOD were developed as laboratory systems based on UV exposure, wet chemistry or more aggressive digestion by catalysed combustion. While these provide a good basis for spot sampling within the laboratory where sample pre-treatment is controllable, the systems do not often translate well in a real process environment.

Raw effluent presents a series of challenges. With UV based systems, high salt loads can cause scaling of the UV light column creating problems or organic recovery. In high temperature combustion systems, salt loads as low as 0.5% can inhibit the persulphate digestion mechanism and deteriorate the lifetime of the catalyst, demanding excessive maintenance by replacement of the column. Sample volume is commonly restricted to less than 10ul and sample pre-filtering is necessary to avoid particulate blockage of tubing and multi-port valves such that particle size is restricted to <200um. In a process environment, clogging of tubes with crystallised salts and particulates can demand instrument re-calibration every 2-3 days.

Navy Will Give Nearsighted Minehunter Robotic Glasses

The Navy is building a fleet of mine-hunting ships that investigators say aren’t all that hot at finding mines. So in the coming years, those ships are going to get drone supplements to dive deep below the sea to spot the underwater weapons. Think of ‘em as pairs of robotic glasses.

This is a scale model of the Navy’s newest drone sub, called the Knifefish. Manufactured by General Dynamics, the Navy unveiled it for the first time on Monday at its annual Sea Air Space convention just outside Washington, D.C.

The Knifefish — named after a real fish that emits an electric field — will be a 19-foot robot with a 21-inch diameter that launches from a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the new Navy ship built to fight close to shore. The robot is basically a solution to a chief LCS vulnerability discovered by the Pentagon’s top weapons tester: although one of its missions is hunting mines, its chief mine-spotting systems are “deficient” for exactly that task.

Enter the Knifefish. Starting in roughly 2015, according to General Dynamics, each LCS will be able to launch two Knifefish modules, with the primary task of finding mines buried in the sea floor. It’s an autonomous robot: sailors aboard an LCS will program the Knifefish’s navigation systems with instructions on where to swim ahead of launching it. It can swim for 16 hours at a time.

But the chief asset of the Knifefish’s autonomy isn’t navigation, it’s analysis. It uses a set of low-frequency wideband frequencies to spot a mine that gives off a resonance “very near” that of the particular mine it’s hunting, says Capt. Dwayne Ashton, the Navy’s program manager for unmanned maritime systems. That “allows you to fingerprint the object being looked at,” instead of having a human sailor spending hours discovering and cataloging the types of mines he or she encounters — something Ashton calls a “significant game-changer.”

The Knifefish won’t neutralize mines that it finds, though — it just relays data back to the mothership about the mines’ location. That, at least, may take some of the pressure off the LCS’ other mine-spotting systems, the AN/AQS-20A Sonar Mine Detecting Set and the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System, neither of which have impressed Pentagon testers.

But the Knifefish won’t transmit that data in real time. It’ll store up to 12 terabytes of data collected by its acoustic sensor package. Data recovery will have to occur after the Knifefish swims back up to its LCS parent. Which might be a problem, since the LCS can’t survive a blast from any mines it doesn’t detect.

“We’re talking about a large amount of data, terabytes of data,” Ashton explains, adding that the Navy doesn’t believe it needs real-time data reporting right now, although it might reevaluate after the first Knifefish missions. The robots should arrive in the fleet not long after the first of two LCSes are permanently stationed in Singapore.

The Knifefish is also a step toward diversifying the Navy’s robotic portfolio. Successive Navy chiefs have been keen to build underwater robots that can swim across entire oceans, but the propulsion and fuel systems necessary aren’t technologically mature yet. The Knifefish is decidedly not a long-range robot sub, although General Dynamics and the Navy won’t say specifically how fast it can swim or how far it’s expected to patrol.

Traffic cops on roads during dark hours

These are Delhi’s extended witching hours. Between 11pm and 7am, speed demons, high on alcohol or adrenaline, rule the Capital’s mean streets and spill blood almost daily. At least 200 people have died on these roads during the first three months of this year during those dark hours. The toll
crossed 900 in 2011.

Last week, two lives were lost to cars running over 100 km/hour. On April 10, a police constable was mowed down by a speeding Mercedes. Three nights later, a 23-year-old management student crashed into a road divider.

Late in the night, Delhi’s broad avenues also become test tracks for high-speed super cars. There are at least 8,000 such cars registered in the city. Some of them boast a top speed of 400 km/hour and can do 0-100 km/hour in three seconds.

Unfortunately, Delhi’s corridors of death are under nobody’s watch during those deadly night hours. The traffic cops go home. Signals are put on blinker mode. Speed interceptors become useless metal boxes because of the dark.

Of course, traffic cops are out there in full strength to prosecute errant drivers. They have utilised 10 mobile speed interceptors on city’s accident-prone corridors and brought down the number of fatal accidents. But that is only during daytime when Delhi’s seven million vehicles leave little space for dangerous driving.

On an average, 800 speeding tickets are issued by Delhi’s traffic cops daily. Out of these, 650 are for over-speeding, that is, if a vehicle breaks the stipulated speed limit of 60-70km/hour, depending on the location. Only 150 persons are caught for dangerous driving over 90 km/hour.

Top cops say that they cannot afford night patrols because of staff crunch. The entire traffic police force, all 5,770 of them, works on day shifts, managing traffic and issuing tickets for various violations. When there are special drives against drunk driving, some stay on roads till 1am. On most days, cops are home by 10 in the night.

Surely, a section of traffic cops can be earmarked for night vigils when killers at wheel run amok on empty roads. Even the ones kept on reserve at traffic circle offices at night can be utilised for patrolling and surprise checks on the lines of drives against drunken driving.

Technology can substitute the boots on the ground. But even here, the so-called modernisation drives have been in a limbo. The police has been talking about their dream project — an IT-based Intelligent Traffic System — with a state-of-the-art signaling system, a variable messaging system to display real-time traffic situation on road, CCTV coverage of roads and traffic intersections and cameras that can detect signal, speeding and lane violations separately, and functions round the clock. But it has remained a dream for the last four years.

In these four years, planning, high-level meetings, feasibility studies and several rounds of bidding have escalated the cost of the project three folds. Mumbai and Bangalore have already taken the lead and their projects are in the final stages of implementation. Delhi’s officials are still conducting field trips.

Of course, the traffic police are promising to install the much-touted speed cameras at 70 locations within two months. These cameras, cops claim, can record vehicles for speed and photograph car number plates. While the Capital waits for the cops to deliver on yet another promise, stay indoors or hang by a prayer if you step out during those witching hours.

Increased Information Transparency is Needed to Fight Air Pollution in China

One of the first things visitors to Beijing notice is the smog, which on bad days obscures buildings, forces people to stay indoors and even grounds planes at Beijing’s Capital Airport. Recently Zhong Nanshan, President of the China Medical Association, called air pollution China’s greatest health threat. To reduce the health costs of air pollution, China’s government must give its citizens more reliable and practical updates on air quality.

According to the World Health Organization, outdoor and indoor air pollution cause up to 300,000 and 550,000 deaths respectively each year in China, not to mention numerous cases of avoidable illness and days lost from work. A March report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that exposure to the particles that make up smog could cause 3.6 million deaths a year globally by 2050, most of these in China and India. Air pollution is expected to overtake water pollution and poor sanitation as the leading environmental cause of premature mortality.

In 2008, Beijing went to heroic lengths to clear its skies for the Summer Olympic Games, but this only showed how frightening the situation has become. In one grim report, the Beijing Health Bureau said in December 2011 that lung cancer incidence in Beijing has increased by 60% over the last 10 years, even though smoking prevalence among men has held steady. Many blame Beijing’s notoriously bad air pollution, an idea supported by epidemiological modeling. A 2008 study suggested that China could face up to 18 million lung cancer deaths by 2030, with 75% of these deaths attributable to the combined effects of smoking and air pollution from solid fuel use.

Despite these warnings, Chinese authorities have been slow to address the health risks of air pollution. Basic health information remains a sensitive issue in China, where epidemics are sometimes considered state secrets.

Debates about the severity of Chinese air pollution tend to focus on PM2.5 particles, or fine particulate matter from dust, exhaust and the burning of solid fuels. Because of their small size, these particles penetrate deeply into the lungs. The so-called “three Cs”–cars, construction and coal–together account for much of the PM2.5 shrouding Chinese cities. Researchers have associated long-term exposure to high concentrations of PM2.5 with lung cancer and chronic respiratory conditions. As many visitors to Beijing discover, even short-term exposure can aggravate asthma and respiratory infections.

Chinese citizens need to know what the PM2.5 levels are on any given day. This allows them to make fundamental health choices, such as whether to allow children to play outside.

But until recently, the Chinese government only tracked larger PM10 particles, which pose less risk to respiratory health. On March 1, 2012, the Chinese State Council ordered 27 provincial capitals and other major cities to begin tracking PM2.5 concentrations, with plans to expand this policy to an additional 113 cities by 2013.

Although an important step forward, the new monitoring standards do not go far enough. It remains unclear how information on PM2.5 will be made publicly available. The quality of these new data also raises questions. Beijing residents can download a smartphone application that compares air quality indexes and PM2.5 readings taken by the US Embassy against those from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). The US Embassy measurements are frequently twice as high as MEP readings, which often boast of healthy “blue sky” days when even a glance out the window suggests the opposite.

Santa Clara Location Keeps Global Tech Leader Close to Partners and Customers

If you were asked to name the technology company with the most impact on your daily life, you might answer Google, Intel, Microsoft or another consumer technology company. You probably wouldn’t answer, ST Microelectronics (STM). Yet there are probably few moments of your waking life that you don’t have a device with STM technology close at hand.

A global company, STM has its Silicon Valley presence in Santa Clara. "It’s important to have people in Silicon Valley," says Santa Clara-based Paul Bromley, STM Director of Strategy. "Our office is north of 101. It’s a perfect location central for all of our customers and for visiting all Silicon Valley companies."

From the smartphone that you consult for your calendar and today’s headlines, to the GPS in your car that gets you places on time, to the set-top box on your TV set that lets you watch Dancing With the Stars on your schedule, STM systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) perform the magic that is so much of modern life; advancing the state-of-the-art for more intelligent and, at the same time, more power efficient chips that are directly responsible for smaller, lighter, smarter, and more secure devices.

Headquartered in Switzerland, the $10.4 billion company has been in the business of chip design, power controls, and set-top box design for more than 30 years. The company reaches into so many different markets because its technology breadth enables STM to develop all the system components, explains Bromley. "We do that in many markets."

Among STM’s notable advances are rotation and orientation technologies that keep your smartphone’s screen always pointing the right way. "The largest problem for mobile devices is screen orientation," says Bromley.

If you’ve ever tried to use the positioning system on your phone to find somebody inside a mall, you’ll appreciate one of STM’s newest offerings. Last month the company debuted technology that significantly increases indoor positioning accuracy to within feet - an order of magnitude better than can be achieved using Wi-Fi alone. STM’s indoor positioning system will not only help you find your friends, it will be a valuable help for emergency services.

STM is also a leader in consumer electronics and entertainment. Its video chips play a critical role in mobile video. If you’re catching up on back episodes of the Daily Show on your smartphone while waiting on line, it’s pretty likely it’s thanks to an STM chip in that smartphone.

So what’s on the horizon for the future? A new generation of medical devices that are less intrusive and more capable, says Bromley. “This year you’re going to see the ability to have sensors for health and fitness like pedometers. Imagine: tracking distance, time, and heart rate using a simple device like a wrist band.”

Grand Blanc Township security company promises to reduce false alarm calls to 911

Grand Blanc Township's Solucient Security Systems is adding jobs by verifying actual emergencies among a high number of false alarms.

Last year alone, police in the city of Flint responded to more than 11,000 calls triggered by security systems. More than 90 percent of those calls were false alarms, according to Steven Todd, Administrator of Flint's 911 center. He says the man-hour costs for those false alarms translated into approximately $500,000 for the city in one year .

"If there were a way to verify break-ins when an alarm goes off, it would definitely help us," said Todd. "And it would step up the opportunity for immediate response whenever possible."

The Grand Blanc Township-based Solucient Security Systems, which rebranded under its new name last month, is now operating a system that allows for that verification.

"The EyeQ system is all about verification, " said Mike Wanstreet, Solucient president. "It's a traditional motion detector, but it has a camera embedded in it. As soon as an alarm is tripped, you get a view of what tripped it. The system sends a short video clip to Solucient's central monitoring station. "

In Solucient's Grand Blanc Township headquarters, an employee monitoring the tripped alarm is able to view the location of that alarm in real time and identify if a person has tripped the alarm.

During one actual incident (video below), a motion alarm triggered a visual display in an Oakland County home. The Solucient dispatcher sitting in Grand Blanc Township identified a male walking through the kitchen. He notified police and then notified the homeowner.

The homeowner was able to verify that a construction worker was at his home that day. The Solucient employee called police and canceled the report.

In another recent Chicago incident, the system helped identify a pair of copper thieves in the act of stealing wiring. The immediate visual report resulted in police responding to the scene immediately and apprehending the suspects.

Wanstreet stresses the system, which provides a grainy, digitized, black-and-white moving image, is not used for identification, but rather verification. Unlike other security cameras, he said, it provides real-time verification that a crime is under way.

Given national figures that suggest that 94-98 percent of all alarm activations are false, he says, the visual verification system would significantly reduce those false notifications to police.

Mike Buckel, vice president of operations at Solucient, estimates the system could cut the false reports by at least a half.

Solucient officials say the new EyeQ technology came as a natural response to law enforcers tightening regulations on costly false alarm calls.

"Many communities have fines attached if they have to respond to a false alarm," said Wanstreet.

"In Detroit they now have a 'verified response' ordinance, " said Buckel. "That means if you have an alarm go off and you call the central police station, they won't accept the call. They have a speech that they read that says they only accept verified alarms. So companies are either sending someone to the building to check, or they use technology."

In Flint, the 911 administrator concedes there is no enforcement of ordinances on false alarms.

"I believe the emergency manager is now looking closely at fees," said Todd. "It has been a sources of frustration here."

Both Todd and Solucient officials agree visual verification will add a level of protection during actual break-ins.

"Right now, when an alarm call comes in, it is placed at the bottom of the priority list," said Buckel. "Many communities put it so far down, they never get to it in a lot of cases. A verified response is going to move up to the top because if you can tell them you see somebody, the hope is they'll get there faster."

"Ultimately, it will mean better protection for the homeowner and business," said Wanstreet. "If they have a system that's been 'falsing' all the time, they lose confidence in it. And when a real event happens, they may not make the right decision and choose not to have the police sent."

Buckle estimates the visual EyeQ systems could double the costs of a standard motion alarm. At the same time, he says, it substantially increases protection for the customer.

Solucient serves 3,500 customers in a coverage area from Bay City to Detroit.

The company, which had previously operated under the name Stanley Alarms, consolidated offices from Flint and Farmington Hills and created new corporate headquarters in a 14,000-square-foot office building off Fenton Road in Grand Blanc Township this winter.

Buckel sees the consolidation as an economic boost for the area. He says the company was able to create working space for 50 people in a Grand Blanc Township building that had sat vacant since it was built 14 years ago.

GPS Motorcycle Theft Recovery Device

Inilex, a leading provider of aftermarket telemetry solutions for vehicles, is extending its state-of-the-art vehicle theft recovery solution to the booming powersports market. The company today released SkyLINK PowerSport, an advanced vehicle recovery system that uses a combination of GPS, wireless and satellite technologies to track and recover stolen motorcycles, ATVs, watercraft, scooters, snowmobiles and other motorsport vehicles in real time.

SkyLINK PowerSport is a compact device that is discretely installed by a dealer on nearly any motorsport vehicle. The durable unit is water resistant, vibration resistant and dustproof to withstand even the toughest riding or storage conditions. Also, since it draws a negligible 4 microamps of power, it will not drain the battery.

As soon as a vehicle is reported stolen, SkyLINK’s 24/7 agents use cutting-edge GPS and cellular technologies to track it and provide its exact location to the police department. SkyLINK PowerSport works with all law enforcement agencies and, because it tracks powersports in real-time, the theft is reported to police as a high-priority crime. As a result, most SkyLINK-equipped vehicles are recovered within 24 hours, and many within minutes.

“Powersport vehicles have two strikes against them when it comes to theft – they’re easier to steal than cars because they can be placed in a truck bed, and they’re more difficult to recover because they can be easily hidden and their parts can be quickly altered,” said Michael Maledon, CEO of Inilex. “SkyLINK PowerSport tackles both of these issues by tracking its location whether it’s running or not, and ensuring the theft is reported as a crime in progress, triggering police to take immediate action.”

To help thwart theft, SkyLINK PowerSport automatically sets a Quick Fence early-theft detection perimeter around powersport vehicles when the ignition is shut off. If it moves without the owner’s knowledge, they are immediately notified by an email or text alert. The Quick Fence is disabled when the ignition is turned on. Additionally, SkyLINK Powersport offers an online dashboard called SkyLINK PROTECT that promotes safety by enabling owners to track their powersport vehicle’s location, speed and battery levels when others are using it. Using SkyLINK PROTECT, vehicle owners can set geographic and speed thresholds and receive text or email alerts when either is exceeded.

Dealers can also take advantage of SkyLINK PowerSport to track vehicles that are being test driven or used by employees, as well as to locate vehicles stolen from their lots. They can keep their inventory in check and account for every vehicle’s location at all times. Dealers using the SkyLINK monitoring service may also secure better terms from their bank lenders and insurance carriers because of the inventory management function.

SkyLINK PowerSport is now available through motorcycle, motorsports and car dealerships across the country at the time of vehicle purchase, and is good for the lifetime of the vehicle. The first year of the SkyLINK PROTECT subscription service is free of charge and it can be renewed for a low cost following that.

Indoor Positioning Takes Shape

The adoption of technology is a bit mysterious. Few predicted the meteoric rise of the latest craze Pinterest and yet more than 10 years ago, we lumbered over to the internet and warily began shopping online. Then we dove into our mobiles and our heads haven’t come up since. We all left the real world, the physical world and went digital.

The issue is that we humans, still live in the physical world. Retailers got left behind in the gold rush of location because they weren’t online and didn’t think a mobile device mattered to their bottom line.

Online retailers flocked to online and now today, J.P. Morgan predicts that global e-commerce revenue will reach $963 billion by 2013. And in 2011, online retail commerce in the U.S. alone grew 13.2 percent to $187 billion. The report also noted that even though e-commerce spending is growing, the pace at which retail is moving online is less rapid than the online advertising space.  And here is the kicker, growth in mobile commerce will negatively effect brick and mortar stores.

The battle for online is conversion -  turning that lookie loo into a shopper that buys something. eCommerce is lousy with technology tools and web analytics that e-tailers can use to track, monitor and get you to click that purchase button.

On the flip side of that, in the physical space of bricks and mortar retail, people are still walking around malls and retail spaces with their mobile phones glued to their hands, leaving “fingerprints” of where they are going, creating patterns of behavior – a virtual data boom and no one is tracking it. In other words, there are no tools, no web analytics, no turn key solutions that are applied to the physical space in order to get that person from dwell time into that store to make a purchase.

Sure, malls and retail spaces have been counting visitors for the past two decades or more but that counting is basic and no one is keeping up with repeat visitors, where they go and what they do when they get there.

“There is still a location gold rush in getting down to store and aisle level that can power the future of advertising,” said Frank Schuil, Founder and CEO of Qubulus, a new indoor positioning company emphasizing web analytics. “Malls and retailers have had basic counters for years but they were not collecting any mobility patterns from those counters. If you can collect that movement inside the physical space, which is in fact data, you can make better decisions on how to reach your customers and convert their dwell time to purchase time. Retailers need a turn key solution to capture the movements of shoppers and that’s indoor positioning.”

Qubulus focuses on creating web analytics for the retail space from the fingerprints of mobile devices inside a physical space. Here is a video that shows the movement of shoppers in a mall. With Qubulus, this movement and positioning of shoppers can be captured and analyzed so the retailer can have better insight into where shoppers are and how to pull them into the stores they pass or will pass.

Many tend to look at indoor positioning as a novelty akin to some Orwellian plot to know our every move. But that isn’t the case, in fact, in the past several decades, our movements have increasingly monitored. And, with passive tracking inside of your beloved iPhone or Android phone, you leave a fairly accurate fingerprint of your movements  – all those photos of food, checking in and out of places, becoming the mayor leaves a mark.  Patterns of behavior. They use that online, but not in the physical world of retail.

Train tracking system on trial to check mishaps

According to a Railway Board official, the GPS device which will cost about Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh each would be fitted in about 100 trains on a trial basis. The greatest advantage of the device would be prevention of any collision or mishaps on tracks as it would give details about train movement to the nearest railway control room, he said, adding the railways intends to implement it successfully by 2013 end across the country.

Under the new system, passengers can easily know exact location of trains as the CRIS is working to integrate the GPS application with Google maps. Besides, ISRO's INSAT-3C satellite would also provide assistance in locating train position, a Board official said, adding success of the GPS-based system could also help the railways in running high speed trains.

According to sources, the railways had earlier introduced the 'real train information system' ( RTIS) in the first phase. It was based on the satellite imaging for rail navigation. However, it proved that information being transmitted under this system about train movement was not correct, sources said.

Thus, the railways has decided to launch the new system to fulfill the needs of passengers across the country. "Much would depend on the success and efficacy of the new device which is being taken up under a pilot project of the railways," a Board official said, adding the new system is completely based on ultra high frequency (UHF) communication system.

According to sources, the Indian Army, has of late, shifted to this device to keep a close vigil on the Navy warship and Coast Guard vessels in the country to get accurate information about movement of ships in the sea. Besides, the new system has been adopted in other wings of the Army to assist Navy's submarines, torpedoes, ground-based vehicles, ships and aircraft under any emergency, sources said.

According to East Central Railway (ECR) CPRO Neeraj Ambastha, the new technology would prove to be a boon for the railways during foggy weather condition. The Delhi-Patna-Howrah mainline route is the most vulnerable during winter as visibility becomes zero due to dense fog. Besides, passengers would get the exact information about train movement, particularly long-distance mail and express trains, during foggy weather condition, he said.

Attend Mobile Application Offers Time Tracking Solutions

Attend, one of the fastest growing service providers of time tracking software, is making its mark in the remote access solutions market. The company’s innovative mobile application allows users to punch in and out from anywhere at anytime through its cloud-based time tracking system. This concept has become a very popular choice with construction and manufacturing companies who have employees working at off-site locations and jobsites.

As part of uAttend’s advanced employee management system, the mobile application offers convenience and ease when it comes to recording employees’ time. Workers employed in service, maintenance, manufacturing, and construction companies are now able to clock in and out with either a tablet or smart phone from geo-location hot spots designated by their employers. The punch data is recorded in real time with the company logo displayed on the log in screen.

“Our mobile application is a great way for employees to log their time at work sites that don’t have access to a physical time clock,” said Scott Berry, VP of Engineering for uAttend. “The mobile application transmits GPS coordinates to the cloud-based uAttend system which allows customers to enforce geo location rules on where their employees can punch in or out from. In other words, they can’t clock in from their couch or coffee shop - they have to be within a certain range of the jobsite. Our mobile feature is convenient for companies whose employees perform on-site care or maintenance, or work at multiple jobsites.”

Manufacturing companies such as Gerken Environmental have benefited greatly from uAttend’s mobile time clock application. With offices in both Springfield and Kansas City, Missouri, Gerken Environmental provides onsite environmental services such as asbestos abatement, lead paint removal, mold remediation and demolition.

"We incorporated the uAttend time tracking system into our digital pads,” said Greg Gerken, President of Gerken Environmental Enterprises, Inc. “uAttend has allowed us to time in multiple crews - working in multiple states - while monitoring the times and location of the pad relative to the project site, all from our office. uAttend’s mobile application has streamlined every aspect of our time collection process."

Through its diverse range of employee time and attendance products, including swipe card time clocks and advanced biometric time and attendance solutions, uAttend has become a major player in the employee management market. Tech savvy features like mobile applications for smart phones and tablets have strengthened the company’s position as the market leader in time management solutions.

“Our main focus is to provide affordable and reliable time tracking solutions for small and large businesses,” Berry said. “As a cloud-based, software as a service (SaaS) solutions provider, we need to play on a higher level and offer innovative solutions to stay competitive. We do this by featuring the latest technological advancements for time and attendance, and offering as many conveniences as possible for both employers and employees.”

In addition to the accessibility it offers through its mobile application, uAttend also offers cost-effective time clock software and hardware for biometric time and attendance at almost half the price of any major brand in the market.