Google Rolls Out Eddystone Beacon Security Feature
Google this week announced a data security function, called Ephemeral IDs (EID), for Eddystone, the open-source Bluetooth beacon platform it released last year. Until now, the Eddystone platform supported three different formats: Eddystone-UID, whereby a beacon transmits a unique static ID number; Eddystone-URL, which causes a beacon to transmit a URL; and Eddystone-TLM, which enables a beacon to transmit its status. Eddystone-EID was developed in order to provide a means for developers to control who can make use of the beacon signal, for applications in which users need to exchange information securely and privately via the Bluetooth connection between their smartphone and an Eddystone-formatted beacon.
The Ephemeral ID is an eight-byte beacon identifier that changes periodically and is set, along with the key required to access it, when the beacon is provisioned. Applications must use a resolution service, such as Proximity Beacon API, to resolve the key and connect to a beacon provisioned with an Ephemeral ID. Currently, 15 beacon manufacturers, including, Blesh, Gimbal, BlueCats, Bluvision, Sensoro, Radius Networks, Signal360 and Swirl, support the Ephemeral ID function.
Researchers Develop Sound-Based Diet-Tracking System
What does a cookie sound like when it’s being chewed? That is an odd question, but its answer may be part of a new approach to therapy designed to help individuals who suffer from nutrition-related diseases, eating disorders or diabetes. A group of researchers and engineers from Northeastern University, in Shenyanh, China, have developed a prototype for a system they call AutoDietary. The solution—consisting of a sensitive microphone worn on a user’s neck, near the jaw—collects vibrations from the skin’s surface and converts them to acoustic signals. These are transmitted, via Bluetooth, to a smartphone app that compares the sound to a database comprising sound signatures made by chewing and swallowing various foods.
The app aggregates the results to determine caloric intake and, based on the user’s condition, makes suggestions regarding how he or she could improve eating habits or nutrition balance. According to an IEEE Explore article by the researchers, AutoDietary’s algorithm accurately determines food type 84.9 percent of the time. The researchers also report that most of the 53 participants in a survey reported that the microphone is comfortable to wear. If commercialized, the technology would offer a means of tracking food intake without relying on a user’s memory or reporting accuracy.
Bluetooth SIG Offering Developer Training
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which develops interoperability standards and certifications for Bluetooth technology, has announced the 2016 dates for Blue University LIVE, its global series of full-day training sessions for developers new to Bluetooth technology. The events are designed to help developers build and connect Bluetooth-enabled products. The coursework includes instruction on coding, designing mobile applications, meeting SIG product qualification requirements and product marketing. The session dates and locations are as follows: May 5 in Shenzhen, China; May 24 in San Jose, Calif.; June 9 in Berlin, Germany; Sept. 22 in Austin, Texas; Sept. 27 in Seoul, South Korea; Sept. 29 in Tokyo, Japan; and Oct. 4 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Interested developers can register here.
PLAT.ONE Offering Fast Track to IoT-Enablement
PLAT.ONE, an enterprise and industrial Internet of Things application platform provider, has released a new accelerator service for companies interested in producing IoT-connected products. Called PRODUCT.ONE, it enables manufacturers and authorized partners to provision, manage, collect and analyze data from connected products for home and commercial use. According to PLAT.ONE, the platform can be used to connect millions of products. Its role-based security model restricts access to the cloud-hosted platform to authorized users. Those interested should contact PLAT.ONE for pricing and other details.
EU Parliament Signs New Data-Protection Regulations
On Apr. 14, the European Parliament approved the General Data Protection Regulation, an update to the EU’s 1995 digital data-protection laws. The new regulation, on which the European Union Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers reached an agreement late last year, will go into effect this summer, but member states have until 2018 to comply.
The regulation is designed to make it easier for EU consumers to gain control over how service providers manage the personal data that consumers share with them. It allows consumers to request that their data be expunged from a company’s records (known as “the right to be forgotten”), and that personal data be transferred from one provider to another. The regulation requires that providers alert consumers within 72 hours if databases containing their personal data have been hacked by outside parties. Under the new rules, personal data does not just include one’s name or e-mail address, but also digital elements, such as cookies and the Internet Protocol address of devices used to connect to the Internet.
Any organization that does business in, or with, the EU will be required to comply with the new regulation, and non-compliance will result in severe penalties. Minor breaches could result in fines of up to 2 percent of an organization’s global revenue, or €10 million ($11.3 million), whichever is higher. The EU could levy fees of up to 4 percent of global revenues, or €20 million ($22.6 million), whichever is higher, for egregious violations.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington, D.C.-based technology policy think tank, issued a strongly worded response to the ruling, warning that it would take the digital economy “two giant steps backward.” Under the new rules, ITIF president Robert D. Atkinson said, “Large, medium-sized, and small businesses, entrepreneurs, civil society groups, and government all will have an unduly hard time using data to start new ventures, expand well-established ones, or enrich European citizens’ lives by discovering solutions to challenges in health care, education, or the environment.”