Registering Mobile Phones to Cut Crime, Kenya

Kenya has announced plans to register all mobile phone numbers in an attempt to diminish crime. From now on users will have to supply proof of address and identity documents before they can get a phone number, while any numbers unregistered by the end of July will be disconnected. Many individuals support this new law [...]

Ambient Power Sources

The suggestion of harvesting energy, electricity, has been lingering for over a century —ever since Nikola Tesla drew up plans to transmit electricity from large towers around the globe without using any connective infrastructure— and still, today, it still may strike us as as a bit of a stretch. However, it’s clear that as each [...]

Health Risks and Mobile Phones

This past month, one of the largest studies to date revealed little conclusive link between cell phone usage and brain cancer, adding to the general ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding mobile phone usage and one’s health. The study organized by the World Health Organization, involved several thousand people from 13 countries who’d been diagnosed with a [...]

Apple Heart Monitor

Quake Catcher Network

In the wake of the unlucky string of earthquakes around the world, I thought it would be appropriate to write about the Quake-Catcher Network (QCN). QCN is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers.

All City Art

Semaphore Mobile recently developed a new application, All City Art, essentially a handheld mobile guide to global street art. Addictive and accessible, the application is ripe for graffiti enthusiasts and the average voyeur alike. Easily tag and upload street art spots you find and discover new ones you haven’t seen yet. And, connect the dots.

Parklets: Reclaiming dead urban space

The City of San Francisco, California is in the process of implementing an innovative program called Pavement to Parks. In several locations across the City, Planners have teamed up with local neighborhood groups and advocacy organizations to turn unused or under-used urban space into “green spaces”.

The art of taxation, Mexico

Here’s an interesting tidbit to start your week with…In Mexico, visual artists can pay their taxes with art works. According to USA Today “That’s the deal Mexico has offered to artists since 1957, quietly amassing a modern art collection that would make most museum curators swoon. As the 2009 tax deadline approaches, tax collectors are [...]

Common Sense Air Sensors

Berkeley, California–Researchers at Intel Research and UC Berkeley have been experimenting with mobile air sensors in California in an effort to map air quality in the bay area. We’ve written about similar efforts before, namely the effort to map air quality with Sensaris sensors in Copenhagen (check out the live feed on the Copenahagen Layer [...]

Mobile Phones as Sensors for Enhancing Lifestyles

I thought this video (despite being long) provided a fairly thoughtful look at potential use for the data our mobile phones are collecting. If you stick with it, it’s worth it.

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