Google Skybox for Good: Access Satellite Images Freely

There is great news for all the non-profit institutions out there. Now you can access all the images you need via Skybox. The company has been recently purchased by Google in August for 500 million$. It uses the satellite SkySat-I and a technology called the Skynode, which allows companies to improve their performance through high fidelity imaging and analytical data. Skynode is comprised of a 2.4 metre satellite communications antennae, packed in the premier applications which allow an user to access relevant images in as little as 20 minutes. It comes with a flexible access plan.

Advantages of Skybox-

• It allows access to those images that a business company requires- trucks, ships, cars, etc. It also displays the grid of ports, pipelines as per the requirement of the client. 
• It provides real-time video streaming for global movements in 90 seconds videos at a rate of 30 frames per second for clarity.
• It provides algorithms that help to solve business problems that may arise at any moment. 

Google has recently announced its Skybox for good programme that allows the use of skybox imaging for non-profit causes. Since skybox provides real-time images of the earth, it has immense possibilities for helping humans. Through the use of crystal clear pictures and analytical data, non-profit institutions can tell their story with better facts and data. It allows them to reach more people and to spread awareness.

How the Skybox for good program is helping people all over-

• The program has already started tracking the melting of the Helheim glacier in Greenland which allows environmentalists to track the effects of climate change.
• Google has partnered with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Signal Program to trace the development of the displaced people of Sudan by their Internally Displaced Persons program. 
• The images have also been used to view the beaches that have been cleared of landmines in Sri Lanka. The program has successfully taken some images of the Nagarkovil Village in the northern portion of Sri Lanka. HALO trust had verified that this area was free of landmines. Skybox imaging has helped to prove the rehabilitation of people by showing the presence of 84 houses and 40 acres of cultivated agricultural land.
• Skybox has also made the tracking of elephants and other wildlife movements to determine the condition of endangered animals and study breeding patterns of animals in the wild. This can be helpful in the understanding of animal behaviour on a better level.
• Sky Truth and Appalachian Voices are monitoring the rate of deforestation on the mountain tops for expansion of mines. The images available show the shocking truth about the devastating effects of this deforestation on the local community and wildlife of the Appalachians.

This program is available for anyone who attributes Google and does not profit from such images in any manner. Non-governmental institutions can also request for images pertaining to their areas of interest. This initiative from Google will definitely be a milestone in helping NGO’s and other institutions by allowing them to freely access satellite images.

Researchers Identified Sophisticated Chinese Cyber Espionage Team

Collaboration between various security firms has thwarted one of the biggest and most sophisticated cyber espionage crew called the Axiom which is thought to be linked to China. This Axiom Threat Actor Group mostly targeted NGO and pro-democratic along with other individuals who are perceived as potential threat to China.

The Axiom Group

The group mostly targets pro-democratic NGOs in Asia along with industrial espionage by targeting organizations with influential energy policy and environmental policies. Also on the list is IT giants, chip makers, telecom companies and infrastructure providers.

The group mostly used phishing attack and malwares to get the job done. The typical attack seems more like a state-sponsored attack yet again. Their prime is the Hikit tool linked to an attack referred to as Deputy-dog attack, which famously used an IE zero day bug to attack Asian firms mostly.

The group seems to work relatively quietly and is thought to be more heavily funded than say APT1 crew (Shanghai based and PLA affiliated). According to Novetta, the group is active for 6 years, is highly disciplined and is well-resourced. The suspect that Chinese government is related is most certainly true.

The Collaboration and Solution

The attacks performed did not go unnoticed however and sooner rather than later, security firms started collaborating to bring it down. The coalition among the partner is led by Novetta along with Bit9, Cisco, F-Secure, ThreatTrack Security, iSIGHT Partners, Microsoft, FireEye, Tenable, ThreatConnect, Volexity and other unnamed partners. Via Microsoft’s coordinated malware removal campaign, the coalition took its first public action called operation SMN.

Over 43k machines with Axiom tool installations have been removed from machines. Among them 180 were clear examples of Hikit – the last stage persistent and data exfiltration tool that is the peak of the Axiom victim’s lifecycle. This was perhaps the first of its kind from security firms to fight off potentially deadly state-sponsored threats to the whole world.

The Diplomacy 

China has clearly denied any involvement in Axiom. According to Chinese Embassy spokesman, such events and allegations judging from the past are fictitious and China has itself been on the wrong end of cyber espionage according to revelations by Snowden.

With 2 weeks to go before President Barrack Obama gives Beijing a visit, cyber security will be a high priority agenda to discuss. Washington has previously tried hard enough to pressurize China over issues of possible state-sponsored cyber warfare against the US but has failed to sustain it after the Snowden revelations.

Novetta however hopes that the example set by the coalition will be followed in future to fight cyber terrorism. However, it will be very stupid to think that Axiom is gone for good. The operation was more of a remediation than knock-out blow and chances are that Axiom will be back soon though with probably different tools and strategies this time around.

The group has amassed lots of technical data regarding the threat and its workings which will help in future in fighting against such groups.

Google Exploring A Way to Search Bodies for Cancer, Heart Disease

US based tech giant Google Inc is exploring with the help of advanced technologies at its disposal to search inside the human body for the early signs of life threatening diseases such as the cancer and heart disease.

Google is working on developing a technology that combines the disease detecting with the use of nanoparticles, which would be sent into the patient’s bloodstream through a swallowed pill an it would emit its finding to a wrist worn sensor.

Google Plunges Into Human Biology With Dynamic Technology

Google is aiming to diagnose cancers, impending heart attacks, stokes as well as other deadly diseases before they could become fatal and beyond treatment. Google is working on the idea of identifying the slight changes in the human biochemistry, which could act as an early warning system. This ambitious work is at its nuptial stage.

It should be noted that the early diagnosis of deadly disease is the key to treating disease in the modern healthcare. Many cancers such as pancreatic could only be detected after they had become untreatable or fatal. There is also a marked differed between the healthy and cancerous tissues. Google ambition is to constantly monitor the blood for extracting and identifying the unique traces of cancer. In turn, this would allow the early diagnosis before any physical symptoms could even appear.

Google X: A Health Research Unit

Google has assembled a Life Sciences team at the special project Google X Lab which are experimenting with the nanoparticles. These nanoparticles would be transmitted in the human bloodstream to hunt for the signs of the medical trouble there report its finding to the sensors, which would be worn by the people. This project is conducted by the Google’s research unit known as Google X, which is dedicated to investigating potentially revolutionary innovations.

This project is also seen as the Google’s latest shift into the medical sector. Earlier it has worked on creating glucose measuring contact lenses for diabetic patients. It has also acquired a start-up, which has developed an innovative spoon to counteract the tremors caused by the Parkinson’s disease.

The Use Of Nanoparticles 

Nanoparticles are expected to have a unique magnetic quality, which would allow them to drawn to the worn devices and counted as well using a non-invasive detection method such as light or radio waves. Google is ultimately going to create a wristband, which could take these readings from the nanoparticles via the light and radio waves, one or more times within 24 hours.

Google even asserts that if its innovative technology gets successful then it could help physicians in detecting the diseases before their deadly onset in the human body.

Google is even planning to license its technology to the companies who are interested in using it specifically for the medically approved diagnostics.

Google had bought stakes in an anti-ageing research company Calico in order to address health and ageing problems by harnessing the advanced technologies.

Lollipop in Nvidia's Shield Tablet

The much awaited Lollipop

Finally, it is here! The latest version of the Android series as Lollipop. And with its release, all the leading companies are getting their sleeves rolled to get this version for their respective mobile phones and tablets as well. Likewise, Nvidia has also declared that their Shield tablet will also be soon updated to this latest Lollipop version.

Nvidia's official declaration

The declare was officially made public is one of the Twitter feeds. The officials in this feed had promised of bringing “Android 5.0 Lollipop and more.” Nevertheless, the official declaration of the upgradation is indeed a good one, thus showing that Nvidia does not at all want to lag behind. Yet the release time-frame hasn't been said. As expected by many speculations, this upgrade will be done about the end of this year.

The official declare says “Android 5.0 Lollipop and more.” The OS upgradation definitely gets included. However “and more” still makes other stay in vague expectations. Many people have been expecting that this “and more” can mean the inclusion of a software with a gaming centric form.

Other includes exciting features

Apart from this upgrade, the tablet also includes many other exciting features as well. The Nvidia tablet includes a 32-bit chip set of Nvidia Tegra K1. It also includes a massive 2 GB RAM. The latest Nexus 9 includes the Denver version of 64 bit. However, this 32-bit form is actually faster than many other chips that you can find presently in the market. The tablet also includes an impressive 8-inch display. In addition, it allows the device to run a resolution that comes in HD form with a range of pixels that include a combination of 1920 by 1080. Apart from these, the tablet also includes a 16GB or even a 32GB expandable storage space.

This tablet is available at two kinds of prices. The tablet coming in the Wi Fi only mode with a 16GB, is priced at a $299. On the other hand, the tablet, which has a 32GB mode with an LTE, is priced at $399. These features along with many more simply make the availability of this tablet a much awaited and an exciting one.

Lollipop suffices a lot

If these features are not enough to compel you to grab one of these tablets, the added Android Lollipop version will be enough to get one for yourself. Android Lollipop itself includes a whole lot of exciting features like improvised lock screen, notifications and many more. Both the release of Lollipop and the Nvidia tablet are all set to fulfil the expectations of the passionate Android lovers from all over the world.

Nvidia, undoubtedly does a good job in declaring the official release of their upgraded OS. Of course other issues like the speed and quality depends on its future use. Whether it will be better than Nexus or will it be faster than HTC is all really vague. But that doesn't make the enthusiastic waiting a slower one. The only solution is to grab one and get pampered in it.

Supersonic Laser-Propelled Rockets

Laser Ablation – Efficiency& Thrust of Regular Gas Blasting Rockets

A novel way has been discovered in using laser ablation to provide additional acceleration which can be done by using it to increase the efficiency and thrust of regular gas blasting rockets. A team of Russian scientists lead by Yuri Rezunkov at the Institute of Optoelectronic Instrument engineering have proposed a novel idea to accelerate a spaceship while it is in flight, firing a ground based laser up on its backside.

The concept of the new technique utilises a plasma flow which is caused by laser ablation that tends to increase the exhaust efficiency of a traditional rocket propulsion system, which would theoretically accelerate an aircraft beyond March 10. Scientists as well as scientist fiction writer had dreamt of aircrafts that would be propelled by beams of light instead of the conventional fuels and an advanced method of improving the thrust generated by laser propulsion systems will now bring them towards the vision of their dream.

A process known as laser ablation which is a high powered focused laser beam would strike the surface of an object in space burning off the surface material thereby producing a plume of charged plasma particles which will enable the thrust, a process which has been considered as a means to potentially blast space debris out of the earth orbit.

Laser At Remote Location Instead of Spacecraft

Inthis case, it will be seen as a means to provide additional thrust for spaceship without the need of having to carry primary energy supply on board the ship, i.e. the ship does not have to carry enough extra surface metal to burn off in the process of ablation.

Presently, the maximum speed limit is restricted by the amount of solid or liquid fuel which is carried and achieving higher speeds would mean more fuel to be burned, which needs to be carried by the craft that could cause inconvenience together with added space.

These loads can be reduced now with the use of laser, one that is located at a remote location instead of `on the spacecraft’, which could be used to provide the additional propulsive force. Various systems have been recommended which could produce such laser propulsion, one which would involve the process known as laser ablation wherein the pulsed laser beam tends to strike a surface, heats it up and burns of the material creating what is called a plasma plume.

Plasma Plume – Exhaust Generating the Extra Thrust

A column of charged particles then flow off the surface and the out flowing of that plasma plume essentially is the exhaust that generates the extra thrust needed to propel the spacecraft. The effectiveness is limited of the current laser propulsion, by factors which include the instability of supersonic gases when they flow through the gas nozzle and as the production of shock waves which choke the inlet of the nozzle thereby reducing thrust.

These effects could be reduced with the use of laser ablation plasma plume which is redirected with the potential of enabling flow close to the interior walls of the nozzle. Together with the ablation jet and supersonic gas flow through the nozzle, a significant improvement in the overall thrust can be found generated by the nozzle.