Chameleon PR

After all the years spent developing technology to make our lives easier, a computer hacker has proved that these advancements may just be putting us at danger…

According to a recent report on the BBC, Hacker Samy Kamkar has found a way to discover a person’s location – right down to a few metres – and all it takes is for an unsuspecting computer user to be tricked into visiting a bogus website.

So how does it work? In short, the attack uses the bogus website to gain a key identification number from your router and then interrogates a Google database created when Google carried out surveys for the street view service to find your exact location.

The report goes into a lot more detail on the process, but what becomes apparent is that there is a loop hole that could endanger computer users to targeted attacks. The fact that databases like Google streetview’s Mac-to-Location database can be used in these attacks just underlines how much responsibility companies that collect such data have to safeguard it correctly.

The news has come in the same week that personal details of 100m facebook users have been collected and published on the net by a security consultant. In a statement to BBC News, facebook said that the information in the list was already freely available online.

With the amount of personal information we have online, be it for shopping accounts or social networking websites, it is the duty now of the online companies to make sure security is tightened up and bogus websites eradicated. Otherwise the number of people willing to shop, network or even search online will start to fall.

Forty years ago, computer gaming consisted of a dark screen, two rectangles, a square ball, and a seemingly impossible struggle to achieve victory. Since then, computer graphics have evolved at a phenomenal rate, becoming more sophisticated and photo-like with each passing year. And it seems the next phase of this evolution is here in the form of augmented reality (AR)- a technology that allows computer generated graphics to be superimposed into reality.

Research carried out at the MIT Media Lab  last year led to the development of the ‘SixthSense’ device, that binds together basic items such as a camera, a small projector and a Smartphone to essentially turn any surface into an interactive screen.  If, for example, the user picks up a can of fizzy drink, the ‘SixthSense’ device can project onto the can information regarding the product’s price, ingredients competitor prices and even reviews.

iPhone 3GS users will be no stranger to AR technology. And the popular ‘Nearest Tube’ app uses AR technology to provide information on local tube stations in London. It uses real-time video and GPS to show the user directions to the nearest tube station, how far away it is, and what underground lines run through it.

While devices that use AR technology are currently handheld, eventually displays will look like a regular pair of glasses, with information being fed directly into the user’s line of vision. Imagine finding out historical information about a building by simply walking down the high street and looking at it. With image recognition software, AR could allow us to point our device at a person in the street and instantly access information from their Facebook or Twitter profile pages. The possibilities are endless.

While it will be some time before the ‘SixthSense’ or ‘AR Information Glasses’ will be available to purchase, companies have already begun to introduce the technology into their systems. The makeup company L’Oreal has teamed up with Boots to introduce EZFace – a “virtual mirror’ which shows how products would look on the user. The British firm C-InStore has used the technology to develop the ‘Magic Mirror’, where you can select outfits on a screen and then see a still image of yourself in your desired clothes. It can even tell you what size to buy! We recently blogged on another example of Tissot working with Holition to create an interactive experience at London’s selfridges.

The future for AR technology is well and truly bright. While possible integration with facial recognition technology may raise security concerns for some, the benefits AR can bring are overwhelming. AR technology could well change the face of the consumer experience, especially in the shopping space, forever.

It is impossible to spend much time in tech PR without visiting Slough. After a decade or two of working for a London based technology PR agency, you know Paddington, Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Langley, Slough, Burnham, Taplow, Maidenhead, Twyford and Reading train stations like the back of your hand.

Training it up and down the UK’s M4 corridor (not quite such as sexy a moniker as “Silicon Valley”), you can’t help but get attached to places. Slough train station holds special affection, especially the platform 5; the one back to London. It’s not just the platform cafe that makes the platform vending machine seem like a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, it’s Station Jim.

Slough, a place so bad that it didn’t even quite top a survey of the UK’s most crap towns, has on its train station platform back to London a dead dog. A dead dog, stuffed in a glass box. That’s entertainment in Slough.

There’s a plaque that recalls Jim’s life, in a very Slough type way. Highlights include:

“The first trick taught him was to get over the stairs of the footbridge.”

“He started his duties as Canine Collector for the Great Western Railway Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund when he was about four months old but, because he was in bad health, he was only actually collecting about two years or so.”

“Yet he managed to place about £40 to the account of the Fund.”

“He only once had a piece of gold put in his box — a half sovereign.”

“There were only about five pieces of silver.”

“The majority of the coins he collected were pennies and halfpennies.”

“After a time he was taught to bark whenever he received a coin.”

“His railway journeys were few in number.”

“On one occasion he went to Leamington; that was his longest ride.”

Now perhaps it’s the Slough of Despond that the station inflicts on its commuters, but it seems that Station Jim was a dog that collected very little money during just two years of working, the majority of which was in small denominations, and he once went on a train to Leamington. Some of his main achievements included walking across a footbridge and barking which, for a dog, is not really a USP.

The final paragraph of Station Jim’s entry in Wikipedia reads:

The story of the Slough “Station Jim” is mentioned in the historical background feature accompanying the BBC movie Station Jim (2001). Although the movie involves an orphanage, the movie dog and storyline are not based on the true story, and the movie is not set in Slough.

So, Station Jim isn’t even the Station Jim in Station Jim. The orphanage made it in, put the eponymous dog didn’t. And nor did Slough.

Slough.