22 Computer

N E W S B R I E F S

P u b l i s h e d b y t h e I E E E C o m p u t e r S o c i e t y

There are also space, number, symbol,enter, and shift keys. FrogPad re-searchers also considered other lan-guages’ character frequencies whendesigning the keyboard.

In deciding on the keyboard’s layout,explained CEO Linda Marroquin,researchers incorporated aspects ofDvorak theory, an alternative to theprinciples behind the traditionalQWERTY keyboard (named after thefirst six keys from the left in the toprow of letters), and took into accountthe ways people naturally use theirhands.

For example, she noted, FrogPad

places 86 percent of the alphabet underthe middle three fingers. Vowels areplaced under the index finger.

A switch modifies the keys to givethem additional characters and func-tions, including those of the 10-num-ber keypad used on calculators andphones.

FrogPad uses a proprietary algo-rithm to understand commands pro-duced by pressing multiple keys at thesame time or sequentially, Marroquinnoted. Also, each key can produce onecharacter on the downstroke andanother on the release. These tech-niques let FrogPad produce many sym-bols with just 15 character keys.

To help users keep track of theirwork, each key’s color changes towhite, green, or yellow depending onwhich of its available characters it rep-resents at the time.

Marroquin claims the FrogPad’sdesign requires less learning time thanQWERTY keyboards. She said studieswith college students indicate newusers require an average of 10 hours tolearn to input 40 words per minute,compared to the 56 hours needed withQWERTY keyboards.

FrogPad can be connected for usewith PCs, Macs, smart phones, orPDAs, either wirelessly via Bluetoothor via a Universal Serial Bus cable,depending on the product. The key-board is currently in beta testing forthe mobile devices.

Currently, Marroquin said, the key-board is primarily used as an assistivetechnology for people with disabilities.However, the company says it isactively pursuing other uses. �

Acompany has developed akeyboard designed to be usedwith one hand. The FrogPadthus could help mobile work-ers who don’t always have

both hands free or disabled peoplewho have the use of only one hand.

The 20-key FrogPad, which mea-sures 3.5 × 5.5 inches, was invented by translator Kenzo Tsubai, whocofounded FrogPad Inc. and overseesits R&D.

The FrogPad has 15 full-size keys—F, A, R, W, P, O, E, H, T, D, U, I, N, S,and Y—that the company claims cover86 percent of the English language.

One-Handed KeyboardHelps Mobile andDisabled Workers

FrogPad Inc. has developed a keyboard of the same name that can be used with onehand. The keyboard—designed for use with desktop computers, cell phones, or PDAs—could help mobile workers who don’t always have both hands free or disabled people who have the use of only one hand. FrogPad works with various techniques to give its 20 keys all of the functionality of a traditional keyboard and even that of a 10-key phoneor calculator.

February 2005 23

Disposable Cell Phone Cover Turns into a Sunflower

A Bermuda-based company has developed a clip-on cell phone cover that willgrow a sunflower when thrown out. This biodegradable cover could ease someof the burden on landfills that cell phones and their accessories create whenthrown away and taken to landfills, said Peter Morris, project manager forPvaxx Research & Development.

Pvaxx has been working with Motorola to develop a nontoxic polyvinyl-alco-hol plastic polymer that bacteria will consume and that thus biodegrades whendiscarded into soil. Polymers are typically resistant to bacteria and thus notbiodegradable, noted Morris.

Researchers at the UK’s University of Warwick figured out how to embed asunflower seed in the cover. Morris explained about Pvaxx’s covers, “When theydecompose, they produce ammonia, then nitrates, then nitrites. This is plantfood.” The nitrites serve as fertilizer for the embedded sunflower seed.

According to Morris, the polymer material, which could be rigid or flexibledepending on the application, could be used for various types of electronics andother products.

Pvaxx is licensing its technology to select manufacturers—including Motorola—which plan to begin releasing products using the new material this year.

Pvaxx Research & Development, working with the UK’s University of Warwick, hasdeveloped a biodegradable clip-on cell phone cover with a sunflower seed embeddedinside. When users throw away the cover, it biodegrades and produces nitrites,which feed the seed and turn it into a sunflower. Biodegradable covers could elimi-nate some mobile-phone-related waste.

T he US Congress has raised thequota for the controversial H-1Bvisas, which domestic companies

use to hire foreign technology work-ers, by 20,000. The additional visasare only for foreign employees with USgraduate degrees.

The Congress granted this one-yearincrease to the H-1B quota after lobbying by technology companies.Companies received all of the original65,000 visas allotted for 2005 shortlyafter 1 October 2004, the first day of the current federal fiscal year. Thequota was filled so quickly becausecompanies could apply for the visas upto six months in advance.

Chris Bentley, spokesperson for the US Citizenship and ImmigrationServices Bureau, part of the Depart-ment of Homeland Security, said hisagency will begin reviewing requests forthe 20,000 new visas on 8 March.

The US grants H-1B visas to skilledforeign workers, many in the com-puter-technology field. Under the pro-gram, employers must pay foreignworkers the prevailing wage for theirjobs and show that qualified domesticworkers aren’t available.

To remain competitive in the globalmarketplace, proponents say, US com-panies need H-1B visas to hire the mostskilled workers wherever they hailfrom, especially when there aren’tenough native-born workers and uni-versity graduates with math, science,and engineering skills.

“Failure to do so would hamper ourlong-term competitiveness and ulti-mately cost the country jobs,” arguedJeff Lande, senior vice president of theInformation Technology Associationof America (ITAA), a trade group forUS IT companies. He said the H-1Bprogram doesn’t threaten US workersbecause visa holders represent a verysmall percentage of all domestic ITemployees.

One of the chief lobbying groups forthe recent H-1B quota increase was

Compete America, a coalition thatincludes the ITAA and companies suchas Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Motor-ola, and Texas Instruments.

H-1B opponents say some compa-nies favor the visas because they want

to use them to hire foreign workers forlower long-term salaries than theywould have to pay equally qualified USworkers, said George McClure, aretired engineer and former chair of theIEEE-USA’s Career and Workforce

US Increases Quota for Controversial Visas

24 Computer

N e w s B r i e f s

Engineers Begin Addressing “Talking Spam”

E ngineers with Qovia, an Internettelephony management company,have demonstrated the feasibility

of sending “talking spam” to thou-sands of phones and have developedan application designed to eliminatethe threat. Experts say spam overInternet telephony, also called SPIT,could become a problem as Internettelephony becomes more popular.

To see if the threat was possible,explained Choon Shim, Qovia’s chieftechnology officer and vice presidentof engineering, he challenged aresearch engineer to initiate a SPITattack using a laptop. “In two hours,”Shim said, “he took down a call serverand filled up its voice mail server. Thisis dangerous.”

The use of IP networks—whichspammers already know how toexploit—and Internet telephony makeit easy and inexpensive to send voicemessages directly to many handsets viaunsolicited bulk calls or directly tovoice mailboxes via unsolicited voicemails.

Most Internet telephony systemswork with software phones, whichspammers can hack into and use forsending out SPIT. Spammers can alsodevelop SPIT transmission code thatappears on the network to be anauthorized phone. They use the codeto send large volumes of unsolicitedmail to Internet phones.

Qovia engineers wrote softwarethat, in simulations, sent up to 2,000SPIT messages per minute. For the

demonstration, Shim said, a spitbotwas used to harvest destinationaddresses. “It was easy because theseare normally kept in an unprotectedstorage location in a call server,” heexplained. Engineers then wrote ascript using a simple Java TelephonyApplication Programming Interface(JTAPI) to generate calls.

The researchers subsequently devel-oped a prototype application thatcould keep Internet telephony userssafe from SPIT.

Blocking SPIT requires more thanreading message content or a subjectline, as is the case with programs thatstop unsolicited e-mail. Qovia’s appli-cation identifies SPIT in various ways.For example, it recognizes when asource is sending out many transmis-sions of a fixed length—indicating thetype of prerecorded messages usuallyfound in Internet telephony spam. Italso flags multiple messages sent outmore quickly than a human couldtransmit them—indicating the machine-generated calling frequently used withSPIT.

Using TAPI or JTAPI as an interfaceto control calls, Qovia’s applicationblocks or filters 95 percent of SPIT,explained Shim, who declined to pro-vide further details. Qovia plans toincorporate the new technology into itsInternet telephony security softwarelater this year.

Victor Kouznetsov, senior vice pres-ident for mobile solutions at securityvendor McAfee, said experts haven’t

identified any real-world SPIT casesyet.

This is primarily because there aren’tenough Internet telephony users tomake SPIT attacks worthwhile, ex-plained senior analyst Joe Laszlo withJupiter Research, a market-analysisfirm. However, Internet telephonyusage is increasing rapidly. By the endof 2004, half a million US householdsused the technology, according toLaszlo. By 2009, Jupiter expects about12 million US users.

Unlike some other cyberthreats,such as viruses and worms, spam is dri-ven by economic incentives, Shim said.It is a cheap and effective marketingtool, he explained. The industry shouldbe careful about SPIT because sevenyears ago, he noted, some Internet ande-mail experts thought e-mail spamwas a dubious threat that would nevermaterialize. �

Policy Committee. The IEEE-USA,which represents the career and publicpolicy interests of the IEEE’s US mem-bers, has been a leading H-1B critic.McClure said US technology compa-nies’ hiring of foreign workers also dis-courages US students from pursuingengineering degrees.

During the technology-economyboom of the 1990s, the computer in-

dustry lobbied for higher H-1B quotas.Congress passed the American Com-petitiveness in the 21st Century Act,which increased the visa cap to195,000 for fiscal years 2001 through2003. However, the quota returned to65,000 for fiscal year 2004. Some busi-nesses said they would cope with lowerH-1B caps by outsourcing work toother countries.

Lande said the 20,000 additional H-1B visas will help US companies andthereby save engineering jobs in thelong run.

McClure, on the other hand, said,“We object to the graduate-studentexemption. It’s an end run through theback door to get around the quota.The exemption disproportionatelyharms American engineers.” �

Editor: Lee Garber, Computer; l.garber@computer.org

News Briefs written by Linda DaileyPaulson, a freelance technology writerbased in Ventura, California. Contacther at ldpaulson@yahoo.com.