tECH talkINSIDE

Changing Social Media

Innovative Solutions

How to start cODE

Smartwatches

wHAT IS hEARTBLEED?

hOMES OF THE FUTURE

HOVERBOARDS

ARE REAL

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nexus 6iPhonekiller FLAGSHIP

4.15

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Teens in Tech

Engineer Coder Thinker

Contents

Bioshock infiniteBy John Abreu

In our World

Into the NexusBy John Abreu

HeartBleedBy Lambert Song

Smart HomesBy Luca Koval

HoverboardsBy Andrew Gill

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7

9

12

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By our teens

Wearable SensorsBy Kenneth Shinozuka

Web DevelopmentBy Cavan Klinsky

Rethinking Social MediaBy Trisha Prabhu

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Ballistic CaptureBy Jeffrey Weiner

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HOVERPage 16

SmartwatchesBy Timothy Hoang18

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Tech Talk

Page 18

staffEditor in Chief

Jeffrey WeinerLambert Song

Amit Chowdhury

Managing Editor

Stephen Phillips

Director of Graphic DESIGN

John Abreu

Letter from the editor

Hello Readers,

Thank you for picking up a copy of our publication! Tech Talk is Horace Mann’s publication focusing on technology and its applications in science and computing. Our goal is to engender a passion for science and technology through a clear and precise writing style as well as a streamlined design. We also seek to highlight student achieve-ments in the our local community in our Teens in Tech segment. We hope to make information accessible and understandable to our readers.

This issue of Tech Talk focuses on new discoveries, student accomplishments, and futuristic technology with the potential to revolutionize daily life. By featuring topics that are exciting and related to our own lives, Tech Talk aims to display the relevance of innovative discoveries to our world.

Looking ahead, we are redesigning Tech Talk’s website where we will frequently up-load articles. We hope that students at Horace Mann turn to Tech Talk and our affiliated club HM Tech to aid in STEM-related activities, events, and projects.

Innovation is a fundamental part of our everyday lives, and I hope Tech Talk helps you enjoy the beauty of discoveries being made.

Jeffrey Weinereditor IN chIEFclass of 2016

Faculty Advisor

Jason Torres< www.tecmundo.com.br>

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April 2015

“

review

bioshock Infinite

BioShock Infinite truly set the standard for storytelling in video games in 2013 with its

amazing story and addictive game-play. The carefully crafted story fea-tures compelling characters that you really care about and a sense of mys-tery that leaves the player wanting to continue for the sake of uncovering the secrets of the game. The game-play blends a surprisingly helpful

hardcore first-person shooter (FPS) fanatic.

BioShock Infinite tells the tale of Booker Dewitt, an older man look-ing for a clean slate. He is deeply troubled by his past, and especially his time in the military, when he was considered a hero for his extreme use of violence. His violent mannerisms continued when he finished his ser-vice and became an employee of the

him with retrieving a girl, Elizabeth, from a city in the sky, Columbia, in exchange for their wiping away his debt. Primarily taking place in 1912, the story follows Booker and Eliza-beth’s relationship as it evolves from a sense of antipathy between the two to an inseparable bond as they strug-gle to leave Columbia. Throughout the story there are themes of rac-ism, religion, and the flawed Amer-ican Dream. These themes manifest throughout the game with antago-nists like The Prophet (main antag-onist and founder of Colombia) and the Patriot (machine gun-wielding enemy with the likeness of George Washington), characters like these seemingly make fun of the founding fathers and the supposed “equality” Americans strive for. The steampunk

companion with new ways to tra-verse the environment, making the combat sequences seem vast in scale. Basically, it is very easy to fall in love with this game whether you are new to the BioShock franchise or a

National Detective Agency. Booker’s reputation led him to become a pri-vate detective; however, by this point in his life, Booker was in an immense amount of debt. He finds redemp-tion in the Lutece Twins, who task

It is very easy to fall in love with this game

“

by john abreu

< www.wallpaperswide.com>

4

Tech Talk

style of Columbia is less gloomy than previous BioShock games, with a much warmer palette and sunshine, a luxury absent from the other entries in the franchise. The streets are filled with life, except during combat when the civilians flee, and the game poses many choices throughout the story; an example being whether to save an interracial couple or doom them to the racism of Colombian society. However, the choices you make do not affect the story or the outcome of

or picking out hostiles from afar, and most players will not find themselves trying weapons outside of their com-fort zone more than once. The game makes up for this lack of weapons interest with vigors, Infinite’s version of powers or magic, which are the equivalent of the plasmids found in BioShock 1 and Bioshock 2. Most of these vigors have two or more abili-ties, generally a projectile and a trap mode. There is a wide array of vig-ors, ranging from the standard fire

simply carbon copies of one another and others simply are not as effective in combat.

There are two major elements that set BioShock Infinite apart from other FPS games: the Sky Hook and your companion Elizabeth. The Sky Hook is a magnetic latch that acts as a mode of transport (on the Sky Lines) and as a weapon. These Sky Lines can most easily be described as aerial train tracks that are found all throughout the environment and can be used to

“one of the most incredible uses of fantasy graphics in gaming at the time of release”

<playstation.com>

the game. However, this should not dissuade players from purchasing the game, because the sole conclusion the developers included is one of the best in all of video game history.

The game boasts a diverse set of weapons, with at least two of the stan-dard FPS weapon types. (rifle, shot-gun, pistol, etc.) You can only carry two weapons at a time, so you may find yourself sticking with the same one or two weapons throughout the whole game because there is no real reason to change your weapon if you have found one that suits your needs. Each weapon fits certain play styles, whether you like charging into battle

and water vigors to the interesting Murder of Crows, which sends out a flurry of menacing crows, and Buck-ing Bronco, which gives you the abil-ity to lift and catapult enemies, vigors. Vigors mix up the gameplay, setting BioShock Infinite apart from the competition because most games in the FPS genre only feature weapons like guns or knives. You are allowed to have all of the vigors and equip whichever pair you would like, but it is the same story as with the weap-ons in the sense that there is not a compelling reason to swap out vigors when you have found two that match your playing style, since many are

traverse Colombia or quickly move around in tense combat situations. The traveling function of the Sky Hook makes combat sequences more interesting because you can jump and escape to other areas, but they feel very limited as a mode of transport because they are usually just result in a loop around the same few por-tions of the world. The Sky Hook also acts as the primary melee weapon and can be enhanced with pieces of gear found throughout the game. The other game-changing feature is Eliz-abeth, a girl with the ability to cre-ate “tears” to other dimensions and she is the key to Booker’s quest for

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April 2015

redemption. She gives you ammo, health, or salts (which replenish vig-ors) whenever you need them and can also open tears, which are por-tals to other dimensions. Tears can be used to create cover, ammo, and even non-player characters (NPCs) that fight for you in combat. Con-trary to the norm with companions in video games, I never found that

Elizabeth got in my way or slowed me down during the game. In fact, BioShock Infinite would be a much worse game without Elizabeth: as she is not only the main supporting char-acter, but also Irrational Studios has brilliantly incorporated her into the story and created a need for her in order to complete the game.

In terms of graphics, the game does not aim for hyper-realistic visu-als since it prefers to go for a steam-punk, cartoony style, but besides that the visual experience is amazing. This excellence is due to how com-plete the environments feels, because of the inclusion of NPC’s and a vast city, and one of the most incredible uses of fantasy graphics in gaming

at the time of release. Often times, games that intentionally employ unrealistic graphics fall short visu-ally as they do not enforce a consis-tent art style throughout the visual experience. On the other hand, Bio-Shock Infinite excellently employs these graphics, creating an immer-sive experience in the fantasy world of Colombia. I played the PlayStation

3 version of BioShock Infinite so the graphics were a bit underwhelming compared to its PC counterpart, but nonetheless, they were breathtak-ing for a console title. I never found myself seeing blurry or pixelated tex-tures and all of the effects (such as lens flares, reflections, etc.) were well incorporated.

The sound design and music for the game is also incredible: every noise and orchestration seemed to be built just for each scene. Another highlight of the sound design is the voice acting. Troy Baker, one of the most prominent voice actors in recent years with roles including Joel from The Last of Us and The Joker from Arkham Origins, voices the

lead role of Booker and his gritty yet youthful voice brings life to the protagonist. Courtnee Draper, a lesser-known actress new to voice acting, voices Elizabeth and does a phenomenal job, giving the charac-ter a sort of life and emotion other titles lack. The rest of the voice-act-ing cast was also outstanding, but the real show-stealers were Troy Baker

and Courtnee Draper.In conclusion, BioShock Infinite

was definitely one of the best games of 2013, although its weapon variety was uninspiring and the graphics were not exactly realistic. The game poses an amazing storyline with bet-ter-than-average gameplay and a few game-defining mechanics such as the Sky Hook and your companion Eliz-abeth. The game does not have much replay value due to its linear sto-ryline and lack of multiplayer, but the gameplay that it does have is great. BioShock Infinite is a must-buy for everyone from the casual gamer to the hardcore FPS fan.

Gameplay

Graphics

Sound Design

Story

Replay Value

9.5

8

9

10

7

8.7

< www.wallpapersofflowers.com>

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Tech Talk

In early October 2014, Google debuted a tablet and smartphone optimized for its upcoming version of Android, called

5.0 Lollipop. The announcement of new devices is a fairly regular trend with new Android releases; Google has been doing so since Android version 1. These two new devices are known as the Nexus 9 and Nex-us 6, with the numbers representing the diagonal display size of each device. Both devices will run pure Android 5.0 Lollipop, with none of the bloatware or skins that phone manufacturers often include to dif-ferentiate their devices from other smart-phones. The extra software ultimately ends up slowing down these devices and is often incomplete (Samsung’s Touchwiz, HTC’s Sense, etc.)

The Nexus 9 is the newest tablet in the Nexus line, designed by HTC and equipped with an 8.9” display. This tablet has a high-resolution display, equivalent to that of the iPad Air 2, at 2048x1536 pixels. It is 7.95mm thin, just 1.85mm shy of the iPad Air 2’s 6.1mm depth; however, it weighs 425g, which is very light compared to other tablets on the market. The Nexus 9 features dual front-facing speakers, a feature that has become standard among HTC devic-es. With 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM and the new Nvidia Tegra K1 processor, this will undoubtedly be one of the zippiest tablets on the market. The Nexus 9 retails at $399 for the 16GB model, which is actually quite cheap given the blazing-fast hardware of this device.

Into the Nexusx

6inch display1440x250 Amoled

13Megapixel BACK4k video, 2MP front

4Core cpu3gb ram, up to 64gb storage

14Days standby3220 MAH BATTERY

by John AbreuNe

xu

s

<extremetech.com>

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April 2015

power to last the category-average 6 to 7 hours. This phone also has dual front-facing speakers, albeit designed by Motorola, and sports a Snapdragon 805 accompanied by 3GB of RAM. This makes the Nexus 6 one of the most power-ful phones on the market, at least on paper. The Nexus 6 features a fairly high-resolution 13-megapix-el camera; however, this does not mean that this device takes decent pictures. As previous Nexus devic-

es have shown us with their subpar image quality, image processing is just as important as the resolution of your pictures. Hopefully, Google will take the Nexus 6 as an oppor-tunity to improve their unsatisfac-tory image processing. The Nexus 6 is undeniably a blown up Moto X, but this does not detract from the fact that, thanks to its curved back, the Nexus 6 is very comfort-able to hold in the hand, despite its large footprint. The Nexus 6’s clos-est competitor in terms of sheer size is the iPhone 6 Plus, and it will be interesting to see how the two devices compare side by side: which of the two is easier to use with a single hand? How do they compare in terms of performance? Has Google finally made a cam-era that can stack up against other smartphones on the market?

Both devices are already out on the market, with high expectations and labels like “iPad Killer” and “iPhone Killer.” The Nexus 6 deliv-ers a premium package, retailing at $649 for the 32GB model, a de-parture from the budget prices of previous Nexus devices. Notably, this will be the first Nexus device to be sold at carriers rather than just the Google Play store. The Nexus 9 will also come in a 4G model (as opposed to Wi-Fi only), adopting the trend in premium tablets that Apple first displayed with the iPad 2. Both the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 are affordable yet maintain a pre-mium feel, which may be just what Android needs to maintain its lead in popularity over iOS.

9inch display1536x2048 ips LEd

8Megapixel BACK1080p video, 1.6MP front

2Core cpu2gb ram, up to 32gb storage

30Days standy6700 MAH BATTERY

The Nexus 6 is Google’s latest smartphone and also the compa-ny’s largest, with a 5.9” Quad HD AMOLED display and a 10.6mm depth. The display is also a gor-geous 1440x2560, which could potentially cause issues given that a display of that resolution would tax the battery substantial-ly. Nonetheless, Google packed a 3220 mAh battery into the Nexus 6, meaning that the display will be supplied with more than enough

Ne

xu

s 9

<pcadvisor.co.uk>

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Tech Talk

heartbleedheartbleedYou’ve seen the head-

lines and that ominous cartoonish picture of a

heart pasted all over the Inter-net. You’ve read about this thing called “Heartbleed” that has been sending the IT world, and even the largest of technology companies into a sudden crisis mode. But what is Heartbleed anyway? What does Heartbleed even mean for me?

What is Heartbleed?It was Monday, April 7th, 2014.

A seemingly normal day was soon about to give way to a terribly nasty wakeup call. By the afternoon, IT professionals were notified about

a serious vulnerability found in something known as OpenSSL, and within minutes, tech compa-nies and the Internet succumbed to a flurry of panicked activity. Goo-gle researcher Neel Mentha, along with a security company called Codenomicon, discovered and reported the bug independently to the OpenSSL team. Dubbed “Heartbleed,” this bug quickly rose

to become one of most notori-ous, large-scale bugs discovered recently, living up to its rather dramatic, grim name.

At its very heart, Heart-bleed is simply a bug, or a flaw, in certain versions of a program called OpenSSL. OpenSSL is a command line tool that is used for various cryptography func-tions of OpenSSL’s cryptography library. This program provides and handles the security of websites, mainly encrypting and protecting sensitive data, such as passwords, to keep this data from being accessed by outsiders and hackers. So data,

such as passwords and PIN num-bers, submitted over the Inter-net are protected from hackers by OpenSSL. OpenSSL is highly pop-ular and has become the standard encryption tool for over two-thirds of all websites. However, despite its mass popularity and signifi-cance to the Internet, OpenSSL is not backed or developed by a large tech corporation. Rather, OpenSSL

is an open source project (any coder or programmer can contrib-ute to it) started in 1998 and is cur-rently being worked on by a team of eleven people.

The Heartbleed bug is a flaw in the code of one of the features provided by OpenSSL, a function known as a “heartbeat.” The heart-beat function is designed to keep connections between a server (the system that responds to requests made by the client) and a client (software that accesses a server such as web browsers) alive even while no data is being transmitted between the two so that this con-

nection can be used later. Under normal conditions in a heartbeat, a client will send a certain amount of data (up to 64 kilobytes of ran-domly chosen data) to the server and the server will send that exact same data back. However, due to a coding error, the server doesn’t check if the data sent by the client is actually how much the client says it is. For example if a client sends

by Lambert Song

The heartbleed bug is a flaw in the code of

one of the features provided by openssl

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April 2015

the server only 1 kilobyte (kB) of data but tells the server it sent 64 kB of data, the server will send back 64 kB of data. But so what? Why does returning more data to the client make this bug so serious? Well, the answer to that lies in where the extra data is coming from. Not only is the original 1 kB of data being sent back, but the server will continue to send data back to the client from the next 64 kB of memory stored on the server. Depending on where the initial data the client sent is stored, the server could send back usernames, pass-words, useless information, HTML webpages, credit card numbers, and other things. Most importantly, the server might send the client the server’s private key, the information that the server uses to encrypt and decrypt sensi-tive data. By knowing the private key, a per-son is capable of decrypting the protected data on the server. This would allow outsiders to obtain other people’s sensitive data that have been sent to the server; for example, someone could obtain credit card numbers by exploiting a shopping site affected by Heartbleed. Gener-ally speaking, repetition of this attack will yield a different part of the server’s data each time.

The actual error in OpenSSL’s code that caused the Heartbleed bug is a relatively sim-ple one. On December 2011, while Robin Seggelmann was fixing some bugs and add-ing new features to OpenSSL, he accidentally introduced the Heartbleed bug by forgetting to validate a single variable that stored a length (so the server never checks how much data was actually sent by the client). The error was

subsequently not noticed in a review of the code and so the error wound up in the main release code to become known as the Heart-bleed bug.

The Heartbleed bug has already been patched by the OpenSSL team and the fix has been released in OpenSSL version 1.0.1g (the affected versions were ver-sions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f ) or newer. These new versions add in a validation for the variable storing the length through a bounds check. Many websites have already updated to this patched version, and those who didn’t proba-bly have already patched the bug themselves. How-ever, simply fixing this bug may no longer be enough to ensure the security of these servers.

What effect has Heartbleed had?

Besides the fact that Heart-bleed allowed anyone to access strictly private data stored on servers, the Heartbleed bug has some lasting implications. The Heartbleed bug essentially could have rendered encryption moot. Even when the affected servers may be

10

Tech Talk

patched and fixed, the security and privacy of sessions over a website may still be com-promised. Since the attacks are completely anonymous, as the attack occurs before the

webpage is actually served and thus the IP address of the

client isn’t logged, there is currently no way to find out if a server has actually been attacked. So for all we know, someone may have already obtained

the keys for decryption and thus the encryption

is no longer protecting the data; a third party might be

decrypting all the data that you send. Owners of servers will

have to be forced to assume that their keys are no longer effective. The

only way to fix that is by generating new keys and certificates while revoking the old ones by contacting something called a Cer-tificate Authority, the entity that issues digi-tal certificates. This process is time consuming because many people are rushing to do so at the same time. In the meantime, servers might be left vulnerable to other attacks.

The massive popularity of OpenSSL (over 66% of sites use it) made many web-sites vulnerable to Heartbleed. A number of major websites that have been confirmed to be vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug include Yahoo, Dropbox, Box, SoundCloud, GitHub,

Minecraft, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, Netflix, as well as a number of Google services. All of these sites listed here have already patched this vulnerability and now recommend that users change their passwords to be safe. On the mobile side, only Google’s Android Jelly Bean (4.1.1) had been affected by Heartbleed. Goo-gle has already released an update to fix this. As Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon all do not use OpenSSL, these companies’ services remained unaffected by Heartbleed.

Bloomberg News has also recently reported that the NSA already knew about the Heartbleed vulnerability and had been actively exploiting it for two years now to gather private data. Report-edly, the NSA has been keeping the bug secret in order to continue using it for national security purposes. After initially declining to comment, the NSA denies any allegations that it ever knew about Heartbleed prior to its reveal.

Heartbleed gave the Internet quite the rude awakening, demonstrating the massive repercus-sions a single bug can have. Luckily the bug was patched relatively quickly upon its announce-ment, but even still, there are steps needed to ensure the security of affected servers. On the bright side, Heartbleed has provided an extra reason and opportunity for companies and pro-grammers to further tighten security on their servers, but at quite the cost. Heartbleed has taught the entire IT world and Internet users many things to remember as the Internet con-tinues to mature and develop into the future.

“Even when the affected servers may be patched and fixed, the security and privacy of sessions over a website may still be compromiised”

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April 2015

Ballistic Capture

mars

A new approach to travel to Mars offers flexibility and cost savings. Developed by mathematicians

Edward Belbruno and Francesco Topputo, this novel and less expensive way to get to Mars relies on the motion of Mars itself. Instead of analyzing when Mars will be at a certain lo-cation in its orbit and shooting a spacecraft to precisely meet it, Belbruno and Topputo pro-pose sending a spacecraft into a Mars-like orbit ahead of Mars and allowing the planet to reach the spacecraft. This new method is referred to as ballistic capture, as Mars gravitationally

By Jeffrey Weiner

draws in the spacecraft to its orbit. The tradi-tional method known as the Hohmann transfer involves propelling a spacecraft toward Mars at full speed and then braking the spacecraft once it is close enough to slow down and enter Mars’ orbit. While the Hohmann method works re-liably, it is costly and can only be performed at specific optimal times.

The ballistic capture strategy greatly cuts down on fuel costs. Because it does not require retrorockets to slow down the spacecraft, travel to Mars via ballistic capture uses less fuel and becomes less bulky. Additionally, there is no

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Tech Talk

<waitbutwhy.com>

The Ballistic Capture method can send off a spacecraft at any time

“

“need to wait for a launch window or particular time when Mars and the Earth are nearest to each other. If an ideal opportunity to launch via the Hohmann transfer is missed, then often a two year waiting period ensues for the next launch time. The ballistic capture method can send off a spacecraft at any time to travel slowly ahead of Mars.

Belbruno first suggested the concept of ballistic travel when he worked at Jet Propul-sion Laboratories. It was successfully utilized in 1991 to get the Hiten spacecraft to the Moon. Ballistic capture was also used in the SMART-1 lunar mission in 2004 and NASA’s GRAIL lunar mission in 2011. Belbruno thought that ballistic capture would not work because of the

long travel distance to Mars and the planet’s high orbital velocity about the sun, but together with Topputo they have calculated a feasible approach.

A negative aspect to the ballistic capture approach is that the trip to Mars would take longer, possibly as much as several months. It would not be ideal for human travel. However, because lighter spacecraft can be send more frequently, these new missions can be effective in data gathering and carrying supplies and equipment for future human use. NASA is con-sidering using the ballistic capture method to Mars in the 2020s. We are at the brink of a new age in space exploration.

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April 2015

When you hear “smart home,” you might be thinking, “Like in the Iron Man movies, right? Too bad my home can’t be like that.” I am here to clear up that

misconception.First of all, you might not know what a smart home is. A

smart home is a home that has been integrated with some sort of intelligent system. This means that it can talk to you and you can talk to it. For example, a door lock in a smart home might send an alert to your phone if your house is broken into. You could also remotely lock your door from a device like your phone. Other smart appliances in a smart home might include security cameras, thermostats, lights bulbs that can be turned on remotely, light switches, and electrical socket-like devices. These devices have a slot that your lamp or other appliance plugs into. Once the appliance has been plugged into the device, the device plugs into the wall.

Now that you know what a smart home is, we can talk about how real-istic it is: very. There are many dif-ferent companies and products that provide easy-to-set-up smart home appliances. Generally, appliances start at $49.99, but some are cheaper, such as a Wi-Fi socket made by Bayit Home Automation that is being sold for $39.99 on Amazon. Some appli-ances come even cheaper on web-sites such as eBay, which is selling five wireless remote control sockets

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August Smart Lock

By Luca KovalTH

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TONY

STA

RK<design-milk.com>

<techhive.com>

14

Tech Talk

for only $26.85, a great buy, espe-cially when compared with the prices on Amazon. However, with sites like eBay, be careful that the appliances are in good condition and that you are not getting ripped off. Some appliances, like the Bel-kin light switch, are sold at various Apple stores.

Some appliances work differ-ently than others, or require more setup, or come with extra features, such as an app for your phone. Some of the oldest smart home appliances are the x10 appliances, an industry standard. The x10 stan-dard is versatile in the sense that it includes many different types of appliances, including remote con-

trols, and in that you can program them to do whatever you want. The downside is that programming x10 appliances requires more effort than, say, a Philips Hue Light Bulb,

which you simply screw into a light fixture. The programming language that x10 appliances use is called Heyu. Heyu uses a computer inter-face called CM11A (it can also use CM17A) to send and receive signals from the x10 appliances and con-trollers. Certain programs, such as AppleScript Editor on Macs, can integrate Heyu into its programs, thus allowing the devices connected to the x10 appliances and the Apple computer to communicate.

This computer-and-device communication allows for some-thing more like the Iron Man mov-ies: JARVIS. For those of you who do not know what JARVIS is, it is a computer program that can speak

with Tony Stark and do all sorts of tasks for him. Although this soft-ware is in a movie, it is possible. I myself have been developing a sys-tem similar to JARVIS on my lap-

top. I can speak to him, ask him to give me stock reports, tell me the weather, tell me how many unread emails I have, etc. You do not even have to make any soft-ware. There are software pro-grams out there already that allow you to control your computer using your voice: MAKO, Jarvis, and Links, the last of which is made by MVC and is free. Inte-grate this with automated devices throughout your house and you have achieved an early version of Tony Stark’s house.

Some people, however, are not willing to go through all this work. If you are one of those people, there is still hope for you. There are dozens of appliances that, as described above, only require you to screw in a light bulb and follow a simple set of instructions to set up a wireless

bridge. Some appliances, like the Philips Light Bulb, are built for an app that allows you to control the appliances remotely. This function-ality is nice if you are coming home and want to have the lights on to welcome you when you walk in. This principle does not just apply to light bulbs. Other appliances, even air conditioners, can be set up so you can activate them remotely.

Some appliances, like the Roost small battery, are even simpler. The Roost battery is Wi-Fi enabled and turns any smoke detector with a 9-volt battery into a smart smoke detector. All you have to do is swap out the old batteries with the Roost batteries. If that is still too

much work for you, there is the Leeo smart night light, which func-tions as a night light and as a device which sends you an alert when your old carbon monoxide or smoke detector goes off.

So next time you hear “smart home,” don’t think impossible. In fact, use it as a reminder to begin your journey to your own smart home.

Nest Thermostat

<bits.blogs.nytimes.com>15

April 2015

Future OF Transportation:

What levitates and looks like a skateboard with-out wheels? HOVER-

BOARDS!!!! That’s right, it has been a long-time fantasy of the human race to have hoverboards and Hendo has finally done it. Hen-do’s founders Greg and Jill Hen-derson have created a hoverboard that is sleekly designed and glides seamlessly.

Hendo made the hoverboard by using opposing magnetic forces between the floor and hoverboard, which seems pretty simple. How-ever, it is harder than expected because of the principal known as Earnshaw’s Theorem, which states that charges (magnets) cannot be maintained in a stable stationary equilibrium configuration based solely on the electrostatic inter-action of the charges. Due to this

annoying tendency, Hendo had to come up with a method to stabilize the magnets. They invented Mag-netic Field Architecture to over-come the issue. Magnetic Field Architecture directs the energy that comes about under the property known as Lenz’s law, which is how an induced electromotive force will always give rise to a current whose magnetic field opposes the origi-nal change in magnetic flux. The focusing of the opposing forces allows the hoverboard to levitate and keep still.

The hoverboard is equipped with four engines, batteries, and a safety switch. The four engines keep the hoverboard afloat and the batteries power the engines and magnets. Some health hazards are apparent in the use of hoverboards due to the lack of friction, which

may lead to unwanted collisions. In order to guard against this, there is a safety switch at the bottom that turns off the hoverboard, which would stop it in case of an imped-ing collision. The hoverboard cur-rently only works on non-ferrous metal surfaces like copper and alu-minum, and floats one inch above the metal sheet. These metals are used because the hoverboard needs something to repel its magnets and these are the most practical options. Of course, this system has its limita-tions: you will not be able to hover-board anywhere but on these spe-cial surfaces.

Currently, no hoverboards are available because Hendo has sold its initial stock of 10 (for $10,000 each). Hendo has set up

hoverboards

How does it work?

Design

Price and availability

16

Tech Talk

a Kickstarter page on which you can back its research in the hover-board field, including the creation of a more practical hoverboard that will not need the copper surface in order to float. In efforts to raise money for the research, they are offering several products, like the Whitebox Developer Kit, a Hover-board replica, and the Betaboard. The Whitebox Developer Kit is a device that uses the same tech-nology as the hoverboard, but it is modeled after a box instead of a skateboard; it has the capabil-ity to hold up to five pounds. An upgraded version of the Whitebox called the The Whitebox+ can be controlled through an app, available for both Android and iOS devices. The Whitebox Developer Kit starts at $299 and The Whitebox+ starts at $799. The Hoverboard replica is a full-sized hoverboard without the engines and starts at $449. Hendo

is also selling a line of mini-hov-erboards they call the Betaboard. Betaboards float on top of a mag-netic platform, but use a different technology than what is used for the regular hoverboard. Neverthe-less, the Betaboard is a fun desktop toy. The price of the Betaboard set, which includes the Betaboard itself and the platform, starts at $149.

Hendo plans to use the hover technology for warehouses, trans-portation, and building founda-tions. In warehouses they plan to use the levitation power of the hover technology to easily move large objects. For transportation, Hendo would apply the hover tech-nology to trains. Due to the lack of friction, less energy would have to be used to keep the vehicle in

motion. Another use of the hover technology is in the foundations of buildings where, if an earthquake were to occur, the hover engines would levitate the building and pre-vent it from being damaged. Hope-fully, people will be able to use hov-erboards in the future as a method of recreation and transportation.

hoverboardsBy Andy Gill

Application inthe world

Tony Hawk approves!

<digitaltrends.com>

17

April 2015

Apple Watch

Samsung Gear SVS

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Starts at $350

curved display

360 x 480 Amoled

COMES IN BLACK AND WHITE

Phone not required

By Timothy hoang

The Apple Watch, often unof-ficially called the iWatch, was unveiled on Septem-

ber 9, 2014, marking Apple’s long-awaited entrance into the develop-ing smartwatch sector. Meant to be compatible with the iPhone 6 and iOS 8 operating system, the Apple Watch is capable of adapting to anyone’s personal needs. As Apple software continues to improve, the Apple Watch will most certainly fol-low, adapting with the times.

Apple’s primary focus, both for the Apple Watch and in general, is convenience, and thus it has gone to extensive measures to maximize ease of use. Apple’s newest piece of technology has revolutionized con-venience through a variety of fea-tures, ranging from simply telling the time to keeping in touch with friends while in a hurry. Imagine the essential features of a phone, including customization, messag-ing, and apps, and then compress

them into a wrist-sized device: you have the Apple Watch. Among some of the watch’s features are the ability to connect with friends via messages and calls that can be initialized with a simple phrase or press of a button. Speaking of but-tons, Apple has implemented an interesting new hardware compo-nent to their smartwatch: the digital crown. This small yet useful feature will allow the user to easily zoom in and out within applications; it also

<sammobile.com>

18

Tech Talk

serves as the home button. But nowadays what’s a watch

without a workout feature? Apple has answered the call with an app that personalizes workout regi-ments to your nutritional needs and personal goals. This is not the only application available on the Apple Watch; a variety of other apps with useful functions are condensed into a screen that can accompany you wherever you go. Not only can you customize the interface of the watch, but you can also customize it cosmetically. Apple allows you to choose the material and styling of the watch’s strap, among other things. The device even serves as an electronic wallet, employing Apple Pay to provide a convenient, secure payment system that can be accessed with a lift of the wrist. What is there not to love about the Apple Watch? Be sure to look out for it in the spring of 2015.

Samsung’s latest addition to their line of smartwatches is the Galaxy Gear S, released on

November 7 of 2014. The com-pany’s long history in the smart-watch market goes back to when it released its first model in 1999. Since then it has only continued to improve the software, upgrading

Apple, customization was not a top priority for Samsung, and as such the Gear S has noticeably fewer customizable options. Watchband, watch material, and other aesthetic features are dictated by Samsung.

aP

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Watch

Starts at $350

pRESSURE sENSITIVE

available in 2 sizes

COMES IN 3 editions(Each with colors)

Requires iPhone

Apple’s primary focus, both for the aPPLE WATCH AND IN GENERAL, IS

coNVENIENCEthe utility and visual appeal of the watch. Samsung’s take on the new smartwatch is similar to Apple’s, but simpler in that it has fewer apps and customizable options. The battery capacity of the Gear S, a key spec-ification in a device designed to be used constantly, is around 300 mAh, equivalent to approximately two days of consistent usage.

Among some of the features of the much-anticipated Gear S is the ability to talk, message, and use apps while on the go without hav-ing to take out your phone. Unlike

Nevertheless, the Gear S has many of the same capabilities as the Apple Watch, including convenient com-munication with friends and fam-ily that can be activated either via voice control or touch. The Gear S is not Samsung’s only attempt at building a smartwatch. Other ver-sions have already been released and have been available to the pub-lic for a little over a year. Samsung’s experience in this specific field of technology surpasses that of Apple, but there is no doubt that both will work towards revolutionizing

19

April 2015

smartwatches as they are known today.

When placed side-by-side and compared on the basis of specs, fea-tures, and ease of use, it is a close struggle between these two cor-porate giants and their respective products. Samsung’s experience in the smartwatch industry will cer-tainly give it some leverage over its rival, Apple, which has only recently revealed its first such device. From the get-go we can definitely see that the Gear S has the upper hand when it comes to user-friendliness on the go. The Apple Watch runs an operating system termed Watch OS while the Gear S runs Tizen, Sam-sung’s own smartwatch software. While Watch OS is a slightly piece of software with more features, it requires the user to almost always have his or her phone handy in order to access the majority of the apps featured on the watch. On the

other hand, the Gear S can operate at almost 100% functionality with-out a Samsung Galaxy phone, estab-lishing the watch as independent of a smartphone of any kind. How-ever, both the Gear S and the Apple Watch are only compatible with certain phones; the Apple Watch is only compatible with the iPhone 5 or later, while the Gear S functions with the newer versions of the Gal-axy S and Note smartphones

Always a fan of “the big-ger, the better,” Samsung has kept up with the trend by boasting a 2 inch display, while Apple’s mea-sures to about 1.53 inch, consider-ably smaller than its counterpart. A core variable, if not the most important, that consumers looking for a device consider is the price. However, Samsung and Apple are on even ground, with the prices ranging from around $350 to $400. However, upgraded versions of the

Apple Watch, with custom features and such, will cost more than the base prices. When compared to one another, the Samsung Gear S and the Apple Watch are close compet-itors, with no clearly decisive vic-tor. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses that their respective companies will continue to work on over the coming years. It will surely be a close race, as it always has been, but all we can do is wait until both models are available for a more realistic view on where these two revolutionary watches stand relative to each other.

Sport WATCH EDITION

20

Tech Talk

tech

TeensTeensTeensTeensTeensTeensTeensTeensIn

Teens

tech

21

April 2015

Wearable Sensors

“There are

5.2 millionAlzheimer’s patients in the u.s., more than

65% of whom wander”

by kenneth Shinozuka

Growing up in a family with three living gen-erations, I have always

been very close to my grandfather. When I was four years old, my grandfather and I were walking in a park in Japan when he suddenly got lost. It was one of the scariest moments I ever experienced, and it was also the first incident that pointed to the fact that my grandfa-ther had Alzheimer’s disease.

Over the years, his condition has gotten worse, and his wander-ing in particular caused numerous accidents and tremendous stress to my family. About two years ago, his wandering out of bed at night

became much more frequent, and my aunt, his primary caregiver, struggled to stay awake at night to keep an eye on him and even then often failed to catch his leaving the bed. I became concerned about my aunt’s wellbeing as well as my grand-father’s safety. I searched extensively for but could not find a solution to my family’s problems.

Later, I found out that the strug-gles faced by my family were just a snapshot of a much larger socie-tal burden. There are 5.2 million

Alzheimer’s patients in the U.S., more than 65% of whom wander. Caring for them cost the nation $220 billion in 2013 alone, a num-ber that is expected to multiply five times by the year 2050.

This overwhelming societal challenge, coupled with my concern for my family’s struggles, motivated me to find a solution. But how?

One night, I was looking after my grandfather as I saw him step-ping out of the bed. The moment his foot landed on the floor, a light bulb flashed in my head. I thought: Why don’t I put a pressure sensor on the heel of his foot? Once he steps onto the floor, the sensor would

Bathroom.” Motion sensors would be installed in the tiles of bathroom floors to detect the falls of elderly patients and alert caregivers wire-lessly at their wristwatches. Since I had not even graduated from kin-dergarten at the time, I did not have the tools to translate my idea into reality. Nonetheless, my conceptu-alization of the device implanted in me a strong passion for building sensor systems to help our aging population. I felt that with proper guidance and the right resources, I could successfully employ sensors to improve the quality of life of the elderly.

My seemingly simple idea later

wirelessly send an audible alert to my aunt’s smartphone, waking her up. That way, she could sleep much better at night.

My desire to create a sen-sor-based system perhaps stemmed from my lifelong interest in tech-nology. It started when I was six years old: an elderly family friend fell down in the bathroom and suf-fered severe injuries when nobody was home to rescue him. I became concerned about my own grandpar-ents and decided to create a “Smart

proved to be very challenging for me to realize. When I laid out my plan, I found out that I faced three main challenges: creating a sensor, designing a circuit, and coding a smartphone app that would alert the caregiver.

First, I had to create a sensor that was thin and flexible enough not to affect the comfort of walking. After extensive research and testing of multiple materials such as rubber, which I realized was too thick to be worn snugly on the bottom of the

22

Tech Talk

Wearable Sensors

Kenneth Working on his SafeWander

foot, I decided to print a film sensor with pressure-sensitive, conductive ink. Once pressure is applied, the conductivity between the ink par-ticles increases. Therefore, I could design a circuit that would measure pressure by measuring electrical resistance.

Next, I had to design a wearable, wireless circuit. However, wireless signal transmission consumes lots of power and requires heavy, bulky batteries. Fortunately, I found out about the cutting-edge Bluetooth low energy technology, which con-sumes very little power and can be driven by a coin-sized battery.

I also had to code a smartphone

known cases of his wandering (there is no way that I can know for sure that the sensor sent an alert to my aunt’s smartphone every time that my grandfather wandered out of bed). Encouraged by these results, I decided to form my own start-up, SensaRx, to commercialize my tech-nology, which I named SafeWander, and deliver it to those in need.

Over the summer, I beta tested my device at several residential care facilities, and I am incorporating the feedback to further improve the technology into a marketable product.

Through the beta test, I learned that the usage of Bluetooth low

to enable better service and analyt-ics using big data. For example, the system could collect data about the time and frequency of a patient’s wandering and examine correlations with the patient’s daily activities and diet.

That’s just the beginning. With wearable technology, we can pave the way for a healthier life in which self-monitoring will enable early diagnosis and prevention of dis-eases. For example, researchers at Google are developing a contact lens that can monitor levels of tear glucose and alert diabetic patients when they need to self-administer insulin.

app that would transform the care-giver’s smartphone into a remote monitor. For this, I had to expand upon my knowledge of Java and XCode, and also had to learn a lot about how to code for Bluetooth low energy devices.

Integrating these components, I was able to create two prototypes: a sensor sock and a re-attachable sen-sor assembly. I have tested the pro-totypes on my grandfather for over ten months now, and they have had a 100% success rate in detecting the

energy in my circuit limited the sig-nal transmission range. Therefore, I am working on another solution that uses WiFi to transmit longer-range signals between the sensor and the caregiver’s smartphone. A WiFi sig-nal can generally be detected from anywhere in the home, and its strength is typically independent of the number of walls between the caregiver’s room and the patient’s bed.

I am also hoping to incorpo-rate cloud software into my system

I will never forget the time when my device first caught my grandfa-ther’s wandering out of bed at night. At that moment, I was struck by the power of technology to change lives. My research has inspired me to unlock the mysteries of the brain and find treatments for those who are suffering from mental condi-tions. I may not be able to cure my grandfather of Alzheimer’s disease, but I hope that I can prevent future generations from suffering from this tragic illness.

23

April 2015

by cavan klinsky

I vividly remember the day in sixth grade, where, while watching music videos on YouTube, I began to won-

der how a website worked. What followed was a flurry of googling, copying and past-ing, and confusion until after two hours I finally made one small black word appear on a blank white page. To many, this would have been an insignificant novelty, but not to me. To me, this was the parting of the Red Sea, a new path leading to a land of seem-ingly unlimited potential. As hours turned into days, I added more and more things to that blank white page until it was no longer blank, but covered in colors, pictures, and videos.

This was the start of my relationship with web development. I continued to make web-sites for anyone who wanted one. In eighth

Web Development

Cavan’s Website

grade, I got my first paying job building a website for an antiques dealer. Having no idea how to handle the business end, I dove into a world filled with invoices, deadlines, and demanding clients. After the first job, I was hooked. What could be more fun than getting paid for doing something I would have done for free? After this point, I real-ized I had to look more legitimate in order to continue getting work. To accomplish this, I created CJK Web Design, an outward-facing presence for all my web development work. I got a logo, bought a domain name, and cre-ated a website, which did not mention that the owner was fourteen years old.

In the following years, I have continued my freelance web development and, through each project, gained more knowledge and experience. Each project starts in a similar

24

Tech Talk

Development

Cavan and Gevva

way but quickly diverges. The first step is to understand a client’s needs and requests and form a practical technical plan around them. This plan contains choices about the struc-ture, programming languages, and features of the site. Once the client and I come to an agreement, I get to work. I program and host the site while constantly keeping the client updated and tracking my work hours. Once I finish building the first version, I proceed to show it to the client, who then requests revisions. After the revision process is com-pleted, I move the site to the client’s server and get paid. I am motivated to do web design by a variety of factors: first, coding is cathartic after a long day of school, and it is fun to solve the problems that websites pose; second, getting paid is nice; third, web devel-opment allows me to carve out a piece of the

world for myself and provide value for the client. The websites I create can be accessed anywhere in the world and provide a service for the client and the website’s users.

My favorite story is the job I completed for a reddit user who needed someone to bugfix and set up a web application. The project perfectly matched my skillset and I accepted the job without a second thought. To my chagrin, I opened up the files to find the entire site was in Portuguese. The lan-guage barrier made fixing the website diffi-cult, seeing as though I could not understand any of the error messages, but thankfully, through a mix of Google Translate, perse-verance, and trial and error, I was able to fix the bugs and complete the project.

25

April 2015

Trisha Prabhu is a 14-year-old stu-dent at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. From a young

age, she has been fascinated with the inner workings of the brain. In 2013, Trisha heard about a young girl’s suicide due to bullying on the Internet and set out to find a long-term solution to cyberbullying.

Her research led her to create the product Rethink, which won her a spot as a Google Sci-ence Fair 2014 Global Finalist. Rethink gives adolescents who are trying to post an offensive message on social media a second chance to consider their decision. Her product idea also won first prize at the PowerPitch Competition at 1871, Chicago’s technology and entrepre-neurial hub. Rethink has been covered in Busi-ness Insider, The International Business Times,

The Huffington Post, and several other media outlets. She currently holds a Provisional Patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for Rethink.

Prior to her Rethink project, Trisha researched the brain’s role in the cognitive dis-traction that causes distracted driving. She won a Gold Medal Award from the Illinois Junior Academy of Science for her work. She is an advocate of STEM in education and believes that technology is the future. She has spoken at education and technology conferences in the Chicago area.

Aside from her love of science and tech-nology, Trisha is a published author of four books. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago also named her Chicago’s Financial Literacy Ambassador.

RethiinkingSo ial mediaby Trisha prabhu

About the author

26

Tech Talk

In the fall of 2013, I came home from school to read the story

of a young girl named Rebecca Sedwick. She was 11 years old and lived in Florida. Over the last few years, she had been extensively cyberbullied by classmates. After contacting administrators and switching schools, the cyberbullying per-sisted. Rebecca jumped off of her town’s water tower to her

always had thick skin. I have received offensive messages online about my wardrobe and other aspects of my life, but I have always brushed them off and moved on. But after reading about how cyberbul-lying had so terribly affected Rebecca, I decided that enough was enough. Statistics show that a large number of adoles-cents in the United States alone have been cyberbullied, and

Many popular social media sites today offer a STOP, BLOCK, TELL solution to try to stop cyberbullying. But why, I wondered, were we placing the burden on the victim to block the cyberbullying, after the damage was done? Many other sites recommend imme-diately alerting a parent or guardian about the cyberbully-ing – but nine out of ten times, adolescents do not tell anyone

Current Solutions aimed at stopping cyberbullying are short-term and ineffective

that they are being cyberbullied and suffer in silence.

I truly could not believe that adolescents could be so cruel on social media. What was the root cause of this problem? What was the sci-ence behind this awful behav-ior? Why do kids cyberbully? Research shows that adoles-cents’ brains are like a car with no brakes. There is an area of the brain called the prefron-tal cortex that controls deci-sion-making. It is not fully developed until the early-to-mid twenties, which is why we often see adolescents making

“

“<ucrtoday.ucr.edu>

that many of them show signs of suicidal tendencies. As I researched more, I was stunned – one quarter of the people in the world are adolescents. That’s about 1.8 billion teens. Cyberbullying victims suffer silently from low self-esteem and depression. They drop out of school and suffer from sui-cidal tendencies. Some of the recent studies show that the negative effects of cyberbully-ing last decades after the offen-sive messages were first posted.

Current solutions aimed at stopping cyberbullying are short-term and ineffective.

death. I was shocked, heartbro-ken, and angry when I learned of the news of this young girl’s suicide. How could a girl younger than myself be pushed to take her own life? How could this have happened? I did not even want to imagine what her life must have been like during the last few weeks before her suicide, and what her fam-ily was going through now. I knew immediately I had to do something to stop this hurting from ever happening again – I started a passionate quest to help stop cyberbullying.

From a young age, I have 27

April 2015

quirky, rash choices. Research has already linked this behavior to early drug and substance abuse, deci-sions that students can later regret, but no one had ever drawn a cor-relation between this research and social media abuse. But what if that correlation actually existed? I won-dered – what if adolescents were given a chance to reconsider their decision to post an offensive mes-sage on social media – would they change their minds and decide not to post that message?

I decided to use my science and technology skills to come up with a way to test this idea, and created

two software systems, Baseline and Rethink. The Baseline System would present test subjects with a series of hurtful messages and mea-sure the adolescents’ willingness to post them on social media. The Rethink Software System would also measure the test subject’s will-ingness, but if they agreed to post anything hurtful, it would alert them, saying, “Hold on – that mes-sage that you are about to send, that may be hurtful to others. Are you sure you want to post it?” After a total of 1500 well-controlled and fair trials, I was faced with some stunning results. An incredible 93%

of the time, when adolescents were posed with a Rethink alert, they changed their mind, and decided not to post the offensive message! Overall willingness dropped from an initial 71.4% to 4.6%. That was a huge success.

I could not believe it – but this could be the long-term, effec-tive method to stop cyberbullying at the source, before the damage was done! More than ever, I felt like Rebecca, Tyler Clementi, and so many others around the world that had ended their lives because of cyberbullying had finally got-ten the justice they deserved.

This could be the long-term, effective method to stop cyberbullying at the source, before the damage was done!“ “

<youtube.com>

28

Tech Talk

Cyberbullying is a silent pandemic that has already affected so many in this social media revolution. It has been an amazing journey to come one step closer to conquer-ing cyberbullying.

I am working tirelessly on mak-ing this a reality so that Rethink works with any social media site (old, new, and ones to come) on both web and mobile platforms. I am hoping to get Rethink up and running in the next few months. My high school is already work-ing on adopting Rethink as their new anti-cyberbullying slogan. It is

amazing to know I have been able to give back to my community.

Whenever I receive an email saying, “Trisha, thank you so much. I feel safer for my kids to be going on social media now that I know Rethink is going to be imple-mented,” it really brings joy to my heart. Recently, someone asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I remember smil-ing and saying, “If I have made this world a better place in the next 10 years, then I think I’m on the right track.” For now, stopping cyber-bullying is my goal for making the

world a better place – and Rethink has brought me even closer to that reality.

Trisha Speaking about her project at TED X TEEN

She went on to be a finalist in the 2014 Google science fair

Rethink

29

April 2015

isn’tonly

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futureis in our hands and these teens are

<Changing/><the/><world/>one line of code at a time_

Innovation

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If you would like to write for tech talk

Email: jeffrey_weiner@horacemann.orgStephen_Phillips@Horacemann.orgjohn_abreu@horacemann.org

THANK YOU FOR READING

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